Earlier this week, Lauryn Hill reported to federal prison to begin serving a three month sentence for failing to pay $1 million in taxes. After her time is up, Hill will spend another three months confined to her home with an electronic monitor. The weird thing about this is that Hill actually paid her tax bill in full before she was sentenced. Apparently this was too little, too late for the court.
I mean, sure. All Lauryn Hill has done for us is create and produce one of the most everlasting hip hop albums of all time--no, no certainly not a productive member of society at all. Into the slammer with her! Oh, and she's got small children who depend on her? JAIL. The last thing we want from a wanton criminal like Lauryn Hill is for her to be running around crafting beautiful music that uplifts us all while still forcing us to confront the injustices of the world.
(And while we're on the subject, what are we even doing sending Wesley Snipes to jail? Did the judge think Snipes was actually Blade from Blade??)
No, but seriously, why the hell is Lauryn Hill in jail? This is especially ridiculous considering noted tax evaders Nicolas Cage and Stephen Baldwin are free to roam the streets. Nicolas Cage, a giant, man-sized wig, owed the IRS $6 million in taxes. But Cage served 0 days in jail after selling some Superman garbage to pay the debt. He also sold one of his castles, but it's okay guys, he totally has a BACK UP CASTLE so don't worry.
Stephen Baldwin, that guy who everyone laughs at just because he's there, also found himself in a spot of trouble for failing to pay his taxes. Like Cage, Baldwin served no time in jail. Which is great, because I fucking hate it when people mess with my lesser-Baldwins! Who will blue steel/duck lip all over Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice if That One Guy Baldwin goes to jail?! Well, he won't--dude didn't even get sentenced to probation. Baldwin has a year to pay off his debt, and his record will be wiped clean upon completion of the terms of his plea deal.
So let's recap. The guy who started an extreme sports Christian ministry is free to keep sponsoring 720 McTwists for Jesus but the woman who changed the game for women in hip hop has to endure six months of confinement even though he's paid her debt. What's going on here?
Hill herself compared her predicament to slavery--many people dismissed this as an over-dramatic reading of the situation. (People Magazine called it a "rant.") But is Hill wrong? More black men are in prison today than were enslaved in 1850. Mass incarceration isn't a joke. It's real, and it's often racially motivated. Even Kanye is talking about mass incarceration and how private companies profit from oppression. Maybe we shouldn't just dismiss Hill's very real concerns about how her imprisonment interacts with her race. Doing so denies that there's a larger conversation we need to be having about the failures of our criminal justice system.
Probably no one should have to go to jail for failing to pay taxes. That's stupid. But it's especially absurd that there's no a legitimate reason why Lauryn Hill is incarcerated while similarly situated white men are given a pass. (Quite frankly, we should have jailed Nicolas Cage on the basis of The Wicker Man alone.) Let's not laugh this off. Let's examine what's going on here. And then let's get Lauryn Hill the hell out of jail because I need some new music.
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