Fool’s Gold and Igniting Fires | Mieka Polanco | TEDxJMU

Fool’s Gold and Igniting Fires | Mieka Polanco | TEDxJMU

Does the American prison system put the right people behind bars? This talk sheds some light on the darkness of the criminal justice system and mass incarceration.

Mieka Brand Polanco is an associate professor of anthropology at James Madison University who believes that the two questions that drive anthropological research are powerful tools for pursuing social justice. The questions, “What does it mean to be human?” and “But why?” compel us to move beyond surface aesthetics and consider one another with compassion and depth. In her own work, Polanco pursues these questions as they relate to race and space in the United States. Her recent work focuses on American prisons, concerning the belief that this oversimplified model does not sufficiently explain who ends up behind bars.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx