Ironically, it seems that the most vocally aggressive and belligerent occupants of solitary, the ones quick to threaten others, quick to "demand respect," the ones always yelling the annoyingly familiar refrain, "You wouldn't say that to me in population!" NONE of those types are participating in the hunger strike. None of them are really serious about getting out of RH/solitary. It's easy to identify them for what they are; they like it in solitary, where they can bump and roar and pretend to be a tough guy, a bad ass, a gangsta, a thug, a killer...while safe behind a locked steel door where there are no consequences for these words or actions, and they never have to back up their belligerent proclamations and insults. But they are a small percentage. A handful on each wing.

    So, what of the other non-participants? Why are they so complacent? So defeated? So submissive? At first glance, it is near incomprehensible. This is more than merely being "institutionalized." How do they not see it? And even when it is explained and exposed to them, they simply shrug and continue as before? The answer is that they have become obedient, broken slaves in the slave culture of TDCJ. That is not an exaggeration or over-dramatization. The culture within TDCJ is the product of post-Civil War 19th century.

    Culture, at its core, are the things that a group of people, a society, chooses to incentivize or disincentivize. Whether it is the predominant overarching American culture, or the countless sub-cultures within it. In the closed, isolated, aberrant "society" that is TDCJ, there are significant elements that can be traced back to the moral depravity of slavery and its tumultuous immediate aftermath.

    Most Americans naively believe that "slavery" ended after the Civil War. In fact, while the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery, it makes the exception to allow it as punishment for a crime. This loophole allowed former slaves, their descendants, and the poor and uneducated of all races, to be arrested for minor crimes (often falsely), then slapped with excessive sentences (something Texas still takes perverse pride in continuing) or heavy fines they were unable to pay, and then imprisoned until they worked the debt off through labor on privately owned plantations (Like the Imperial Sugar Plantation) and farms or in prisons converted to work farms, where they were paid nearly nothing as wages, effectively enslaving them in perpetuity as "convicts" unable to earn enough to pay off their debts and fines. This system was known as "convict labor leasing." It continues today, especially in the South, and more specifically in Texas, where prisoners, often under excessive sentences disproportionate to their offense, are forced to labor in fields, farms, and factories without even the nominal wages of a few pennies an hour that most state and federal prisons provide. Texas prisoners are paid nothing, while Texas Correctional Industries rakes in millions of dollars per year for the State of Texas. This blatant conflict of interest provides TDCJ with a vested interest in maintaining high incarceration rates and low parole-approval rates. And to resist meaningful reforms.

    A prime example of the lingering slave culture that I find particularly repulsive is the ubiquitous, subservient practice of calling correctional officers "boss." As in, "Yes Boss!" Yessir, Boss!" please, Boss?" "Hey, Bossman! "Bossman." "BOSSMAN!"  All day, every day. It is incessant. If you've ever seen Cool Hand Luke, the way the guards are called "boss" is not creative license. ("I'm shakin in the bush, boss! I'm shakin the bush!").

    This is a remnant of slavery and its aftermath. The slave-driver who supervised the master's slaves in the fields was "boss." After the "end" of slavery and the transition to convict labor leasing, although there were no mor e"masters" there were still slave-driving "bosses" on the plantations and prison farms worked by convict labor. Calling TDCJ officers "boss" is one of those cultural traditions that get passed along, generation to generation, until people adopt the habit without even knowing why or what it means. Some ignorantly assume it is just an innocuous show of respect. Respect? Really? There is a reason this term is perpetuated and encouraged by staff.

    Words matter. Words are powerful. Words can be an expression of thought, or a method to influence the thoughts of others. From day one, upon entry to TDCJ, prisoners are influenced and encouraged to call guards "boss," "Bossman," "Bosslady." Thus begins the insidious mental subjugation, the indoctrination that the guards are better than you, they are a "boss," "The Boss," and you will obey because you are a slave, and to reinforce this you will be worked like a slave with no pay, in awful conditions, with the minimal of life's necessities. They will control everything, make you dependent upon them for everything, including your physical safety (Even if you fight in self-defense, you are punished. If you ask what they expect you to do, they tell you that you should have run away and asked the staff for help. In prison? Yep.) 

    Thus, the power dynamic is established and subliminally reinforced with every interaction with a guard. Constantly. On one side, the prisoner is conditioned to see himself as less-than, to undermine and crush his self-worth, to crush any will to resist. to serve his "boss," "his master," and to see the "boss" as his benevolent protector. On the other side, the guard is constantly told by the slave that he, the guard, is in charge, he is the authority figure, he's “the man," "The Boss man." He controls your life, your potential freedom (which can be stolen with a false disciplinary), when you eat, sleep, speak, use the bathroom. The slave is conditioned to call the guard a "boss," subconsciously feeding that seed which is buried deep in human nature, the seed that grows to bear poisonous fruitwhen fertilized with unchecked authority over people seen as "the other," as less-than, as trash of society who are helpless to resist. It is that part of human nature which inspired Lord Acton's quote, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is that part of human nature on display with disturbing results in the Stanfor Prison Experiment (see The Lucifer Effect, by Phillip Zimbardo). It explains why TDCJ guards often treat prisoners with such disdain, such arrogant impunity, with sometimes brutal results. It is why they can abuse authority with little or no consequence, and cover for each other's misdeeds. (There's a reason they've embroidered on their uniform caps, "Taking care of our own.") They do not see us as humans worthy of respect and dignity. They are taught not to see that. They see us as societal garbage, dangerous, subhumans. Not equal to them. At that point, it is easy to justify slavery and mistreatment, violating the rights of people you believe shouldn't have any. It's why they have no problem ignoring us when we try to speak to them, or when we need help, or even when calling for medical assistance or other problems. It's why they act annoyed and inconvenienced when we request what we are entitled to have. It's why they have no problem lying to us to make us shut up. And it explains why they have no moral compunction about keeping us caged in tiny solitary confinement cells for decades, even when they admit (as in my case) that their original reason for putting us in ad-seg/RH/solitary is no longer valid, and then smugly use it as an excuse to continue it anyway. It's why they becaome furious if we display the slightest temerity to resist, to take a stand, to refuse an order, or disrupt their lazy routine, or demand to be treated as humans. More than once I've had an enraged officer yell in my face "I'M THE BOSS! YOU DO WHAT I SAY!" "I'M THE BOSS!"

    This is why I adamantly refuse to EVER call a correctional Officer "boss." I refuse to participate or reinforce that dysfunctional power dynamic. They are not the "boss” of anything. If they were, they wouldn't be working here. They are glorified hall monitors and mall cops. They deliver our food and laundry like hotel room service. They sort and deliver our mail like an office-drone intern from the anonymous mundane depths of the mailroom. Occasionally, they are adult babysitters to referee and separate arguing and fighting adults who still act like Juveniles. Their job requires no skill, no special training, minimal education. They are some of the worst compensated public employees in the nation. No, they are most certainly NOT a "boss." They are simply doing a job. Admittedly, it is not always an easy, low stress job. And it is a necessary job for a functioning society. Thus, I will treat them with the same common courtesy and respect that I extend to every other human, no more and no less, sometimes even when it isn't deserved or reciprocated. But I REFUSE to participate in the slave culture charade. I refuse to participate in my own mental degradation. I refuse to perpetuate a lie. Because words matter. Thoughts matter. And Emanual Kant was absolutely correct, "There are many things I believe that I may never speak, but I will never speak that which I do not believe.” And so, I will never call them a "boss," and by extension, call myself a slave. Nor will I adopt the mentality of a slave or act like one: fatalistically resigned to accept whatever degradation or mistreatment the master/bossman arbitrarily chooses to inflict, or becoming dependent upon him for everything.

    And that is the fundamental difference between those of us who are participating in this hunger strike, versus the slaves who won't even try to resist, won't even stand up for themselves when they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. They would rather kneel, grovel, and submissively accept their misery, do nothing but whine about it, and cry "Bossman!" all day to beg for their food, shower, and infrequent solitary recreation. They prefer that miserable existence over enduring a bit of physical discomfort or sacrificing a few meals...while sharing dope stories about how they used to go weeks without food or sleep on drugs. I understand why they are that way, so I am not angry at them. I pity them. And for their sake, I hope the rest of us are successful in our hunger strike to benefit everyone, even those who lack the courage to defy their masters, or set themselves free of their mental prison of TDCJ’s institutionalized slave culture. More than anything, I hope we succeed, to set an example that shows others a way to effect meaningful constructive change, even against the most change-resistant prison system in America, and prove that it can be done.