France’s recent election prompted pundits to puzzle over the curious bulk of support Marine LePen received from the radicalized white youth vote. In the same vein and nation, HuffPo wrote on the cause of the radicalization of French Muslim youths, and of course, blamed the society around them.

What HuffPo did not mention is that youth radicalization is a function of prison culture leaking out into broader culture.

American society, with its large prison population and large non-white population, is ground zero for this phenomenon. TeenVogue, now rebooted as a political propaganda outlet, also pushed the meme of radicalized young white men as a terror threat. The FBI has a program to prevent youth radicalization. No one wants to ask why some whites are hardening on their views of other groups, feeling marginalized and frustrated, or tuning out progressive propaganda. Progressives have set up an environment akin to an open air prison with corresponding demographics that leads to heightened tribalism and racial awareness.

In 1965, Baby Boomers in school and on television would hear of egalitarianism in the backdrop of a 90% white country that sequestered the only sizable minority bloc it had in the old Confederacy or major cities. These Boomers lived in a virtually all white country, meaning they could accept the idea of affirmative action to ameliorate disparate outcomes without personal consequence. This acceptance has now lessened with the rising tide of immigration, the decline of the white population, and a generation of observing the results of affirmative action.

One could argue that the rise of the concept of white privilege and other newer academic jargon, aside from being directly funded by foundations, is a response to the idea of reverse racism and observations that nurture is not the reason for unequal outcomes. In 2006, Michigan banned affirmative action as a factor in college admissions, which the Supreme Court upheld. This reaction and growing sentiment makes sense when one looks at the issue from a prison context.

America’s judicial and penal system needs a massive reform, but not in the manner progressives imagine. That is the subject for another series of essays, but the present situation of prison culture gives some insight into how young millennials or Generation Z are reacting to an increasingly diverse landscape. In small state prisons or county jails, it’s still possible to avoid joining a race gang, but not in larger states or federal prisons. There is a gang for each race, and if you want protection, you join it. Even if you do not join the specific gang, you will associate with your tribe. It is the most basic and primal of identifiers. The nuance of SWPL and NASCAR whites disappears behind bars. Fashion and vocabulary have leaked out from prison.

Consider the nation millennials or Generation Z are growing up in, compared to the world of the Boomers. Press headlines are the guide. The press trumpets how half of public school students are non-white. Millennials are the least white generation ever in America. American youths now speak more languages than ever. The number of Americans born in another country is at its highest in generations. This is their world. Suddenly the trait of being white goes from a given in a 90% nation to a distinct marker of group in a 50% white generation.

The central point here is that there is an importance in neutral design and neutral authority.

Schools are a perfect example of an inversion of this idea, and it’s a key reason why the youth is hardening and radicalizing. The relationship between bullying and race and the odd way that schools enforce zero tolerance are all tied together to feed this. Identification by race becomes a constant idea, if there is always an Other to continuously remind you of that trait.

Tie in the fact that schools have an odd anarcho-tyranny of their own of letting wildings occur with little to no consequences for black students, while little six-year-olds receive suspensions for chewing pop tarts into the shape of a gun. Why support a system that marks you out and tilts the scales against you? Why listen to its messaging when the reality after the presentation is the opposite? Trayvon Martin was found with stolen goods in his backpack, yet no one in the school reported it to the police.

One could argue this is just another element of prison life spreading to broader society. Black culture has long had to deal with the ill effects of prison culture, due to high incarceration rates, but odd quirks of prison life can be found in broader society. MMA fighting has left professional boxing in the dust for a following, and MMA fighting is like organized prison fights compared to the sweet science of boxing. Twenty years ago, Chris Rock could joke about the odd act of anilingus revealed in prison documentaries as exotic and weird. It is now part of the mainstream for sexual acts discussed in public. Humiliation and domination have risen in importance in the bedroom outside of prison.

Prison culture moves beyond racial sensitivity and tribalism. The average American is aware of the militarization of the police. This is a bipartisan issue libertarians were actually ahead of the curve on, even if they did not consider the causes. The LAPD had to fall back in the early ’90s riots due to being outgunned by gangs. Police aggression with no knock raids, shooting dogs and asset forfeiture has everyone fearing the badge.

This would not be complete without acknowledging the overzealous prosecutors of America. Send a picture of your kid in the bathtub to family members, and you may be arrested for distributing child pornography. People think twice now about sharing photos because of the law. The paranoia or anxiety at any misstep is a milder version of the daily stress of prison life.

Older white Americans worried about the heightened racial awareness of their children and pundits decrying the young flocking to ethnonationalist parties, movements, websites or even jokes, share this same blindness.

They fail to see that the idea that building a perfectly policed sandbox forgets to account for the children placed in it. They fail to see they have recreated the prison set up in countless other realms. An open office with empowered HR units and harassment lawsuits is Bentham’s panopticon. Schools with zero tolerance but a heavy dose of anarcho-tyranny are corporate gulags in training. One hour inclusion seminars do not change the minefield that is daily interaction in the American melting pot.

It is no longer 1955, and the kids are noticing.