Re "Pussy Riot"

If only people would talk about the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, or Black American prisoners, or Muslims in US’s Communication Management Units, even half as much as Pussy Riot. There’s the assumption that because someone is a ‘political prisoner’ (if they happen to be Arab or Black or Muslim they’re called a terrorist or illegal, not a political prisoner) who talks about rejecting religion and the state/writes songs about it, they’re more worthy of attention than a Muslim woman or man who is in prison because she/he was racially profiled. The men and women whose letters I get at Barrios Unidos from prison don’t get the same support from activists because they stole something or were 'violent' or did drugs or happened to be ‘illegal’ or Black or poor, you know they didn’t dress up in bright tights and talk about feminism, they’re actual ‘criminals,' not 'political prisoners.' They’re in for life because of three strikes or are getting deported to Mexico after having lived in the US for most of their life—maybe it’s not as romantic a story as twentysomething white Russian girls breaking into song and getting sentenced for possibly two years, but these are much graver injustices and forms of oppression and racism happening all the time and people aren't concerned. Also, if women in hijab came in and started chanting, “Free Palestine! Stop drones on Pakistan!” in the Russian Orthodox church, I think most people wouldn’t care/people would say that they were terrorists or oppressed women or some other nonsense, and I don't hear anybody talking about how Muslims are systemically mistreated in Russia's, U.S.'s, etc prisons.