By Clive W. Kinlock

These thoughts came to me upon reflection of this White fellow inmate’s  essay, and I am recalling my own experience in the beautiful state of Montana.  I want readers to know that as a Black man born in Jamaica, West Indies, I have been royally subjected to racial discrimination. There are many God-fearing White people whom I’ve met, with hearts of gold and who were sensitive to the issues of being human, that I have personally experienced kindness, love and compassion from.  Such people I embrace and welcome in my life experiences.  The problem for me comes with those who refuse to see me as a human being first, and Black later; or dare judge me because of skin color at all.

From the first weeks and months after coming to Montana, it was real obvious to me that being Black was going to be a huge problem.  I was not considered for a good paying job as a welder and as a last resort had to settle for work at a car dealership in order to take care of my family.  Even with that job I had to work much harder than my White counterparts to keep my job. My  co-worker’s performance was often unproductive and unacceptable to supervisors, so it became the norm that work was left in my work area to complete, which I did it gracefully.

My skin color came to haunt me at other times while walking down the street.  White people would cross over to the other side just to avoid me.  It was strange to see people lock their car doors when I pulled up beside them in a store parking lot. Being targeted by police after moving to Great Falls was the most frustrating.  They would follow me home while driving back from work, or an event.  I would be approached while sitting in a public park by undercover police who would check my ID and ask me personal questions, then walk away with the attitude that I must be some sort of high profile criminal.  The issue of being a Black man in the United States of America was never sincerely embraced by the White majority.

The most disturbing and stressful thing for me was being disrespected by a bartender who used the N-word with me.  It made me feel less than human and stimulated me to act out on impulsive emotions because of being discriminated against for such a superficial reason.  Society at the time, caused me to resent being a Black man in America, and I found myself resenting my parents for bringing me to the USA.

It was no surprise to me after entering the Criminal Justice system that being a Black man from Jamaica would be the underlying factor in my prison sentence.   From the start the justice system had quickly outfitted me with their most incompetent public defenders, or the ones with the most ambition to move ahead in the system, to ensure that this Black man did not get an opportunity to receive the full benefits of the constitution and laws of the State of Montana.  As a Black man, I am not protected by the due process of the courts, nor entitled to any ‘rights’.

Judge McKittrick‘s racist views made him incompetent and unable to render decisions with objectivity, which is imperative for a person in that position.  He sentenced me according to the truth he decided upon, not the truth demonstrated by forensic evidence that rendered the victim’s most damning statement, false.  My Black skin gave McKittrick the ammunition he wanted to inflate my sentence to the longest he could manipulate.  His dehumanizing and hateful comments about how he viewed my worth as a human being while in his court were beneath his jurisdiction and belong only to God.

For these 21 years of my incarceration, all my efforts to hold the court and my public defenders accountable have fallen on deaf ears, so far.  However, through it all my confidence in God and my growing faith have prevailed against every effort the system has made to redefine me according to their measure of a man – White man that is!  The system as a whole turns a blind eye to every incident of racism and discounts all claims of such, or just blatantly ignores them, as my experience repeatedly has been.
During these years in prison, racism has been an active and ongoing part of the experiences Black people endure under the Montana sky.  Black inmates are targeted for strip searches while doing the very same harmless activities as White inmates.  We might be listening to music together in the yard and suddenly we are told to submit to a strip search while no one else has to.  While worshipping during a chapel service, I have been the only one told to step into the restroom to be stripped searched.

Black jokes, being referred to by the N-word, and enduring various forms of harassment when refusing to ‘rat’ out my peers, are common experiences that made me so much harder to deal with during my first years in prison.  Later on, being targeted along with my wife because we are a bi-racial couple caused many stressful times when staff attempted to suspend our visits on trumped up claims of violating prison policy.   One or both of us were systematically harassed at nearly every visit, which we were careful to document and report, resulting in my transfer to a regional prison after 20 years at MSP.

Prison is a very isolating and lonely place, and so much more so from the perspective of a Black immigrant from another country.  Medical treatment is denied for chronic yet preventable problems because I am to be deported and Montana does not want to waste any of its money on a person who is not a citizen.  This is the reason I’ve been given for being denied treatment on my knees that several doctors have recommended.  Most recently, an appointment with a specialist that was recommended by the doctor at CCA, was cancelled by MSP/DOC.  This denial of my medical need for my knees has been consistent over the last 12 years, resulting in increasing debilitation.

As for my views on racism, in my heart I do not see a person’s skin color as an underlying factor in how I relate to them.  I am more of an attitude kind of person, meaning, it is a person’s behavior that determines how I relate to them.  I believe that every human being has the right to reject anyone including Black people, but that they will ultimately have to answer to God who made us all in His image.