[01] Renee Pistone, Instructor, Wilmington University, New Castle, DE, USA.

Global political unrest, systemic racial, gender, and religious violence led Bishop Desmond Tutu “to whisper in God’s ear, for goodness sake, why don’t you make it more obvious that you are in charge?” [13] The purpose of the quote was to inform the world that we need unified help to resist oppression and restore our fragmented community to wholeness. Using the theoretical framework of Ubuntu to demonstrate that we human beings are part of one interconnected community under Ubuntu. Therefore, if one human suffers or experiences injustice and hatred, we all suffer, and we must act together in solidarity. The rationale for this project is to further one criminal justice reform that highlights racial disparities within our criminal justice system that has lost integrity. The ban-the-box campaign is an attempt to provide previously incarcerated men and women with a shot at a new beginning as they re-enter society after serving time in prison.

Ubuntu, Criminal Justice System, Fragmentation

[01] Bearing Witness: A Nation in Chains: A Report of the Rev. Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Justice Commission Hearings on Mass Incarceration (2014). [02] Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO, NAACP, Stand Tall, Letter to Clergy Members dated 8/10/2016. [03] Exod. 4:2 NRSV. [04] Exod. 32:27 NRSV. [05] Gen. 3:9; 4:9 NRSV. [06] Isa. 6:8 NRSV. [07] Johnson, Cedric. Bearing Witness: Race, Religion, and Resilience in the Neoliberal Age. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). [08] King, Martin Luther, Letter from Birmingham Jail, August 1963. [09] NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, retrieved August 11, 2016, naacp.org [10] NAACP Annual Report (2014), retrieved August 1, 2016, naacp.org [11] Ngwa, Kenneth. Lecture, Drew University, Madison, NJ, August 5, 2016. [12] Thompson, Phillip. Place Matters, and So Does Race. (Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2016). [13] Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. (New York: Random House, 1999).