Marlon Peterson's attitude towards prisoners
In the TED Talk “Am I not human? A call for criminal justice reform”, Marlon Peterson suggests that American society tends to view convicts and prisoners like garbage: “Heroes rarely look like me. In fact, I’m what garbage looks like” (l. 2). Also: “…the churning work of bestowing underserved kindness upon those who we can relegate as garbage…” (ll. 61-62). He suggests that politicians like Donald Trump and their supporters are more biased against immigrants committing crimes: “We were the ‘bad immigrants’, or the ‘anchor babies’ that Trump and millions of Americans easily malign. I was discarded, like waste material” (ll. 20-22)
Similarly, Peterson suggests that many people in the US judge criminals differently, according to the type of crime they commit: “I often question and wonder why – why is it that so many believe that only those who have been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses merit empathy and recognized humanity? Criminal justice reform is human justice. Am I not human?” (...