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monstervet t1_ixd4i0j wrote

There’s a regrettable line towards the end of Ishmael where he writes that society ultimately holds people accountable, and even Donald Trump would go to jail for committing crimes. Oh, what I would give to be the naive and optimistic youth reading Ishmael for the first time.

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Frequent-Cold-3108 t1_ixfy9hx wrote

Here is the section you’re referring to—as you can see he’s not talking about a literal prison in Trump’s case:

“There is one significant difference between the inmates of your criminal prisons and the inmates of your cultural prison: The former understand that the distribution of wealth and power inside the prison has nothing to do with justice.”

I blinked at him for a while, then asked him to explain.

“In your cultural prison, which inmates wield the power?”

“Ah,” I said. “The male inmates. Especially the white male inmates.”

“Yes, that’s right. But you understand that these white male inmates are indeed inmates and not wardens. For all their power and privilege—for all that they lord it over everyone else in the prison—not one of them has a key that will unlock the gate.”

“Yes, that’s true. Donald Trump can do a lot of things I can’t, but he can no more get out of the prison than I can. But what does this have to do with justice?”

“Justice demands that people other than white males have power in the prison.”

“Yes, I see. But what are you saying? That this isn’t true?”

“True? Of course it’s true that males—and, as you say, especially white males—have called the shots inside the prison for thousands of years, perhaps even from the beginning. Of course it’s true that this is unjust. And of course it’s true that power and wealth within the prison should be equitably redistributed. But it should be noted that what is crucial to your survival as a race is not the redistribution of power and wealth within the prison but rather the destruction of the prison itself.”

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monstervet t1_ixfzkwo wrote

Yes, thanks for looking that up. I re-read that back in 2019 and I definitely read that as a literal prison.

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