REMY MA SPEAKS ON THE EFFECTS INCARCERATION HAS ON BLACK WOMEN

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Remy Ma, who is a rapper and is also formerly incarcerated, has recently spoken out about the burdens Black women face after being incarcerated.

“You try to fill out … a job application. You try to for housing. You try to do anything simple as voting you can’t do because of something that you did. So it’s never really like you paid your debt to society. You’re constantly paying for it over and over. … The system is designed for you to fail.”

While the common narrative of mass incarceration is usually focused on Black men,

the number of women is rising exponentially. For instance, “the number of women going to jail has outpaced men by more than 50 percent. For black women, the numbers are even more alarming, as the imprisonment rate of black women is more than twice that of white women.”

On top of this, a report from the Equal Rights Center has found that Black women who have a criminal background have a tougher time finding housing than their white counterparts.

When we discuss mass incarceration, it is important that Black women are not left out of the conversation.

Via Blavity