Kevin “Rashid” Johnson is a radical incarcerated writer, artist, and activist born in Richmond, Virginia in 1971, who advocates forcefully against prison labor and systemic injustices. After a 1990 murder conviction which he contests as wrongful, he has spent years in solitary confinement while organizing resistance from behind bars. As a founding member of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party and later the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party, he links prison reform to revolutionary struggle. Through books, articles, and organizing, including prison strikes, he frames incarceration as a site of political contestation and demands radical abolition.
The Best Possible World: Are We There Yet? (2025)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Are we there yet?
No, not yet
Bet we are somewhere
Though not where
We aim to get
And where is that?
It’s a place where
We won’t be preyed on
Anymore
Lie on anymore
Where we’ll receive
An even score
Not being trod on
Like mats on the floor
Where we won’t
Be slaves again
Where we won’t be
Preyed on again
Where enemies
Won’t pretend
To be our friend
Where those who
Call us brother and sister
Mean it from the heart
Where we all
Will be respected as
Inherently smart
Where love is real
Where people won’t
Pretend they feel
What they really don’t
That they intend to do
What they really won’t
Where deception
Isn’t seen by those in power
As a moral gain
Where people don’t feel pleasure
In causing others pain
It’s a whole other world
Where it’s safe to let wander
Little boys and girls
Where goods and services
Are freely given
Where we all share
The highest standard of living
It sounds utopian I know
Maybe even unreal
A land where no one
Will invade violate or steal
Where individuals are held
To a group standard
Where mutual integrity love and respect
Are collectively demanded
And if betrayed
The group will be the one
To whom amends will be made
This sort of world
We’ve known before
But in smaller societies
Communal to the core
They can be replicated
On a larger scale
But it will take a global struggle
That cannot fail
To dethrone the greedy
Those who have the running or things
Cast them from their thrones
Give the working people the reins
Where society is purged
Of the urges of graft and greed
Where each gives
According to ability
To each according to their needs
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I demand crime abolition. Does that count?
I would demand prison abolition too if I was incarcerated.