THE LESSONS OF SILENCE AND PASSIVITY

 In the annals of recorded history one reads how silence and passivity can have a negative effect on a group or society. In France silence and passivity allowed the ancien regime ( the political and social system prior to the Revolution of 1789) to abuse common people. However, what is to be learned from the ancien regime is that people were taught to cower before authority. By way of contrast the silence and passivity among white Americans and black slaves allowed a system of unspeakable horror to enslave African-Americans for hundreds of years legally and then establish de facto slavery. Let us not fail to remember how silence and passivity played a large part in how Turks commited genocide on Armenians in the eariler part of the 20th century.
Yet the lessons of silence and passivity historically are lost on employees of Department of Children and Families and Connecticut Juvenile training School. I mention this due to the fact of how employees are disproportionally disciplined for offenses and whites are given a pass. Yet, perhaps the onus for these atrocities within the DCF Plantation can be laid at the feet of a squeamish employee base ( whites and blacks)  who remain quiet or look away at injustices. In France before the Revolution of 1789 aristocrats mistreated common people routinely; many aristocrats felt entitled to their excesses. All citizens were cowed in France-then a great uprising happened. At CJTS employees for years were conditioned to accepting management's unfair decisions; like cattle these so called adults take draconian discipline by justifying it "hell, least I have a job." During a five year period at CJTS /DCF the employees began to complain about unfair treatment; management singled out a so called few malcontents ( main one being a CJTS employee named Cornell Lewis) for retribution. These reprisals were meant to convey a message to employees of color especially -get your butts back in the ideological / economic cage we placed you in. At this juncture in spite of a class action lawsuit filed by CJTS employees ( DCF Plantation 5), a hunger strike by Cornell Lewis, protests outside DCF headquarters in Hartford and CJTS facility in Middletown, Connecticut--- silence and passivity are firmly entrenched. The black employees are afraid to even think about challenging ol' master at CJTS. Meanwhile back at the ranch CJTS management have launched a new tactic, trying to project an aura of calm by keeping incidents to a minimum. By the appearance of tranquility at CJTS perhaps a larger society can be deceived.