ABSTRACT
In “The Brutal Stories That Connect Us,” Josh Fernandez explores the student/teacher relationship in the setting of a college writing class at Mule Creek State Prison. In this essay, Fernandez poses the question: “What happens when an anti-racist activist and organizer begins teaching a College Writing class in a room that includes white supremacists?” The answer is found through Fernandez's relationship with his student, “Jeremy,” a heavily tattooed Nazi Low Rider gang member whose racist history is blasted permanently in ink for all to see in the form of SS bolts, swastikas, and other white supremacist gang symbols. Fernandez, whose own anti-racist history is blasted permanently in ink for all to see—most noticeably, the three arrows pointed southwest, tattooed prominently on his neck—learns that the student/teacher relationship can be a transformational dynamic that cuts through even the most extreme ideological barriers and allows participants to reflect deeply upon their own lives, struggles, and contributions to the world. The chapter shows the prison writing classroom as the ultimate act of connection, forgiveness, humanity, humor, and rebellion against the carceral state.
