decolonization, prison abolition, and intersectional theory~
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Neocolonial Critiques of Settler Colonial Theory: Commentary on "Decolonization is not a metaphor"
So this blog post will be a critique piece (part 1) of the essay “Decolonization is not a metaphor” which is basically an essay that centers the lens of settler colonial theory (there are different theories/frameworks and I will quickly define them in the paragraph following this one) and I have nothing AGAINST settler colonial theory or post-colonial theory at all and I can actually get down with much of what they point out and discuss, but as someone that has been taught neo-colonial theory, I still think that there are some things I would like to pull apart, discuss, and critique (also I don’t want to seem like I am attacking anyone, that is not the purpose of this blogpost). I am also just giving my personal informed opinions on this topic, especially as it relates to the prison industrial complex and the topic of decolonization from a more neo-colonial perspective.
What is settler colonial theory and what other theories are out there?
Settler colonialism - specific form of colonialism whereby an imperial power seizes Native territory, eliminates the people by force, and resettles the land with foreign, invading population. (Red Nation definition)
Post colonialism - the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. (Wikipedia)
Neo-colonialism - a variant of colonialism which does not rely on physical force. Rather, it uses cultural and market influences to create resistances against decolonization and enforce integration into a core imperialist economy (globalization); the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies. (The Red Nation; Oxford Languages)
I would like to think that neo-colonialism is a theory/framework that really pulls apart how our society is currently structured, especially as it relates to capitalism. As the devastating consequences of market influences continue to destroy the land, I would like to think that these things aren’t just a concern for indigenous folks themselves, but basically everyone at this point, especially considering the whole climate change situation. But let us continue on with some of the critiques I have/some thoughts I’ve been having.
“Who is and is not a settler?” and is that as relevant as we think it is anymore?
I just want to point out that although white settlers are problematic (I’m talking Jeff Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc.) I also think that who is/isn’t a settler can become irrelevant up to a point and in certain situations. Non-settlers are very capable of upholding settler identity because of their social positionality in any given imperial nation (i.e. defense of privilege/property, access to resources and/or education, etc.). In “Decolonization is not a metaphor”, Tuck and Yang state
“The other forms of colonialism that is attended by postcolonial theories and theories of coloniality is internal colonialism, the biopolitical and geopolitical management of people, land, flora, fauna, and fauna within the ‘domestic’ borders of the imperial nation. This involves the use of particularized modes of control - prisons, ghettos, minoritizing, schooling, policing - to ensure the ascendancy of a nation and it’s white elite*.... Strategies of postcolonialism, such as segregation, divestment, surveillance, and criminalization, are both structural and interpersonal… Within settler colonialism, the most important concern is land…. Settler colonialism is a structure, not an event…
*in using terms ‘white’ and ‘whiteness’, we are acknowledging that whiteness extends beyond phenotype ”
Although I don’t disagree that whiteness extends beyond phenotype, I do disagree with this idea that some Indigenous folks, that are very much at least mixed race or multiracial, get to completely distance themselves from “whiteness” solely based on this consensus that whiteness goes beyond phenotype, especially since there are a lot of Indigenous folks that look basically white. It is very clearly both phenotype and positionality within the hierarchy of capitalism. This is something that is very apparent to me because of the prison industrial complex (which is in fact a structure that is part of the colonial state and is dependent on complex networks, capitalism, and racism). I think that there are a lot of indigenous folks that don’t want to realize that they do in fact benefit from whiteness and colonial nationhood because of phenotype, but I also think that there are folks that don’t want to admit that they also benefit from colonial nationhood because of their class. A lot of this has to do with some folks' relationship with policing; having any type of white privilege, whether that be phenotype or class, has it’s benefits because you suffer a lot less from the structures imposed by colonialism, like the prison industrial complex (especially in the context of the United States). So, let’s talk about what whiteness actually is and how Indigenous, Black, and other POC end up participating in this problematic system unconsciously.
Defining whiteness, white passing, and white privilege
Racial passing - occurs when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or perceived ("passes") as a member of another. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a person of color or of multiracial ancestry who assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination. (Wikipedia)*
*note~ since this is a Wikipedia source, I will link to the article where it’s sourced from and the sources from there, which are: [a] [b] [c] [d]*
-- successfully white passing individuals may have access to economic security, safety, and the avoidance of stigma
There are white passing folks (which is term used for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian folx) that may not look fully “Anglo-Saxon white” but still have white privilege(s) and participate and reinforce colonial systems from their “perceived proximity to whiteness”, regardless of racial presentation, appearance, and/or identity. This is not to say that white passing folks don’t experience racism or oppression to a certain extent, but they do however experience less of it. Because of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian folks that take up space in the middle and even upper class, they benefit from white privilege because of their social conditions and some folks that are not middle class still have white privilege because of being mixed or multi-racial, since these are all benefits that come from settler colonial nationhood.
In regards to how this relates to Indigenous folks and the prison industrial complex, this article talks about how
“For many multiracial adults, their experiences are similar to those who identify themselves as single races. For example, 40 percent of mixed-race adults with a black background said they have been unfairly stopped by the police because of their racial background. However, only 6 percent of biracial white and Asian adults and 15 percent of white and American Indian adults said they have had this experience.”
and the study that this article talks about I will link here.
However, I also would like to point out that it isn’t just race that drives the prison industrial complex, class also plays a role in this system, and if you so happen to not be low-income or on the poverty line this gives you a perceived proximity to whiteness, regardless if whether you actually look racially Black, brown, Indigenous, or Asian. According to this study,
“Privilege is inherent within any construction of whiteness”
and that
“whiteness can be defined as a set of practices that function to protect and maintain privilege, while others define whiteness simply as the experience of privilege”.
Hence why the term was made for Black folks in the middle class along with other POC. This article talks about how socioeconomic status plays a huge role in a lot of Black folks overrepresentation in the criminal justice system, according to Nathaniel Lewis who conducted a study at the People’s Policy Project. Lewis claims that economic oppression matters first. Lewis found that
“ ‘Though for all but one of the seven models the effect of being in the middle rather than bottom class level was stronger than the effect of being white rather than black.’ In other words, middle-class and rich people were equally as likely to have served more than a year in prison regardless of race, but a poor black person was more likely than a poor white person to do so.”
So I would just like to point out that having money does give you white privilege, especially when it comes to being imprisoned by the colonial state.
Regardless of all of this, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian folks still disproportionately consist of jail populations.
I just want to point out that touching on nuance, especially as it relates to the prison industrial complex and colonialism, is extremely important and should not be ignored or dismissed. I think that instead of trying to police who is white/settler and who isn’t is quite frankly not helpful. I personally think that oppression has a lot to do with race and capitalism together and it is not one or the other.
Since this blog post turned out to be very long, I will be doing my criticisms in parts so this will inevitably have ~to be continued~.
Transformative Justice versus Restorative Justice, what are the differences?
In this blogpost, I will be unpacking some differences between the practices of transformative justice and restorative justice. I will mostly be discussing how these practices differ on a community level since that is where most of the contrasts lie in regards to how these two practices of prison abolition differ, especially in regards to how they appear within community or movement spaces. I will also be discussing a tiny bit about how I think transformative justice as a practice intersects with decolonization. I also just want to make a disclaimer about how these are just my informed opinions based on some of the books/resources I've been reading, but they're just opinions nonetheless.
What is Transformative and Restorative Justice?
transformative justice: a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm, and abuse; seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction. ("Transformative Justice: A Brief Description" by Mia Mingus"). I'll link an aesthetically pleasing resource on TJ here.
restorative justice: a system of criminal justice which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large (Oxford Languages); focuses on the harm done to people when a crime is committed rather than looking at what laws or rules have been broken as in a traditional criminal justice system. Those who have been harmed and those who have done harm are at the center of this process (facingforward.ie).
I think it's important to point out that the process of accountability itself between the two is very very similar, I would say that TJ takes things a little bit further because of the fact that it requires harm reduction, which can be approached a number of different ways depending on the harm itself, but I will highlight the similarities between the two accountability processes in the given text below.
What questions do we ask and seek to answer when practicing RJ?
Questions for RJ:
- Who was harmed?
- What was the harm?
- How can the harm be repaired?
- Who is responsible and accountable?
- How can he/she/they repair the harm?
What questions do we ask and seek to answer when practicing TJ?
Questions for TJ:
- How can we respond to violence in ways that not only address the current incident of violence (or harm), but also help to transform the conditions that allowed for it to happen? (addressing the harm + harm reduction)
- What kinds of community infrastructure do we need to create
to support more safety, transparency, sustainability, care, and connection? (e.g. networks of safe houses, abundance of community members that are skilled in intervention, etc.)
- What skills do we need to be able to prevent, respond to, heal from, and take accountability for harmful, violent, and abusive behaviors? (harm reduction + accountability)
- What are some of the harmful ways that we treat each other that help set the stage for violence and abuse?
- What do survivors and people that have caused harm need?
One of the main differences in regards to the accountability processes between RJ and TJ is that TJ is more intentional about harm reduction and asks questions about how community members can participate in that, there is a more community-oriented response in addressing harm more so than RJ does. I do think that RJ and TJ can be executed very similarly depending on the given instance of harm and the results of an accountability process. But for example, TJ does look very different in community spaces where survivors have experienced sexual assault, which I will point to in bullet points. I also would like to point out that TJ really focuses on empathy for the person that has caused harm as well.
RJ and it's differences from TJ
addresses interpersonal harm but does not make a point to ask why the harm occurred in the first place.
does not require analysis/criticism of oppressive infrastructures currently affecting communities.
does not make a back-up plan for if and when restoration or repair is not possible.
less emphasis on a strategy for safety.
does not embody a wide array of strategies for survivors of harm on a wider community level.
does not require the use of safe spaces for survivors of harm.
consists of creating and facilitating safe spaces, resulting in environments where harm does not exist.
makes a point in addressing and/or dismantling colonial infrastructure that fail to address harm.
requires careful coordination between organizers and community members to create networks or pods of safety for survivors if or when transformation (or an accountability process) isn't possible (this can occur and be executed in community and movement spaces, but mostly can be utilized with people in close relation to another like family members, close friends, etc).
requires communication about the harm done at the community level (usually between organizers and community members in close relation to one another)
TJ is a practice that seeks to create empathy not only for the survivor but also the person that has caused harm as well; seeks to address the root cause of harm to create less harm to create less harm within communities, rather than just solely repairing the harm, but also by analyzing why the harm occurred in the first place.
TJ makes a point to ensure consequences for the person that has caused harm and does not want to be accountable through communal consequences rather than carceral ones (community accountability; the loss of relationships in community, etc).
addresses interpersonal harm but does not make a point to get why the harm occurred in the first place.
does not require analysis or criticism of currently oppressive infrastructure affecting communities.
does not make an extra plan where repair or restoration is not possible.
less emphasis on a strategy for safety at a wider community level.
TJ as an important practice of intellectual decolonization
decolonization: Decolonization once viewed as the formal process of handing over the instruments of government, is now recognized as a long-term process involving the bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic and psychological divesting of colonial power. (ictinc.ca)
TJ and abolitionist organizing is an important practice of intellectual decolonization (some may argue that decolonization and prison abolition do not intersect, but I would have to disagree with that, which is why I started this blog) because TJ requires for us to critically engage with how different systems of oppression (that we all know are rooted in imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and ableism, etc) and how these systems are affecting communities at a grassroots level.
(Beyond Survival, published by AK Press)
TJ allows for us to engage with how and why certain cultural or systemic influences are affecting our relationships with one another and resulting in harm within our respective communities. It also allows for for us to tap into a collective re-imagination of the world and embrace new systems that are rooted in our autonomy and require the building of anti-colonial structures that center around our healing rather than our oppression by creating actual safety that is not dependent on the state. And as a result, "undoes" colonialism (to a certain extent) by slowly replacing these systems with sustainable communal systems of safety.
(Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication by Meenadachi)
There are also some TJ practitioners that are deepening the practice of TJ by addressing complex forms of colonialism (neocolonialism I would argue) that may appear in the practice itself. For example, in Meenadchi's workbook Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication, they talk about how the workbook was created as a result of critiques of non-violent communication (which is an important aspect of a TJ process). Meenadchi states that "Critiques of NVC [non-violent communication] are that it is a liberal form of language-policing, that it denies and ignores invisible systems of power [white supremacy, ableism, patriarchy, etc.] and privilege, and that it seeks to homogenize and reduce the flavors of communication... I have often found this to be the case in white liberal spaces that center white liberal politics... This workbook is designed for those who recognize safety in centering queer, Black indigenous wisdom and recognizing ad deconstructing invisible forms of oppression." Meenadchi's analysis of NVC points to the complexity of colonial cultural influences on certain aspects of the practice of TJ itself and how it is important to recognize the flaws of NVC by making a commitment to not only dismantle the carceral state by creating anti-colonial structures of safety, but also by addressing invisible and cultural forms of oppression that are present due to colonization. Which I would consider to be a form of intellectual violence that critically engages with complex forms of colonization that are present in culture today due to neocolonialism.
Neocolonialism and Indigenous Communities in the Americas
Through the lens of neocolonialism, it is important to point out that this form of colonialism is mostly dependent on cultural forces and ideas in order to maintain the power and influence of white settlers (or even non-white settlers that have access to a lot of power, money, and influence; corporate capitalists, basically).
neocolonialism: a variant of colonialism which does not rely on physical force. Rather, it uses cultural and market influences to create resistances against decolonization and enforce integration into a core imperialist economy (globalization); the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies. (The Red Nation, Oxford Languages) [for a more expansive definition of neocolonialism and it's characteristics, please check out my other blog post here]
I would say that some of the largest of neocolonial influences are the systems and/or institutions that embrace capitalism (specifically racial capitalism), resource exploitation, labor exploitation (that happen as a result of racial capitalism), and the persisting influence of the Christian religion via religious institutions (like the Catholic Church and other religious schools). Neocolonialism intersects quite literally with the structure of the prison industrial complex (but I will talk about that a bit at the end of this blog post and write a whole blog post dedicated to those specific intersections). It is also important to note that neocolonialism argues that the systems of the colonial era are internalized in our bodies. In order for these systems to continue to function, these institutions must work to internalize these cultural forces/ideas (like basically low key brain-washing to be honest) that affect our self-concept, the relationship with our bodies, and our access to resources.
Capitalism, labor exploitation, and parallels today from the "Colonial" era
There is a connection between how labor exploitation plays out today and the exploitative history of slavery during the colonial era, a lot of it is apparent in various industries (like the fashion/textile industry, prison labor, etc.) But in this blog post I'm going to mostly talk about the exploitative labor practices of the Hollywood/film industry and how they exploit indigenous communities through labor and the use of their land. I will also be talking about the capitalization of other natural resources such as water, which is a huge problem indigenous communities are facing today.
An example of the exploitative labor practices in the film industry can be found through the analysis of the film Even the Rain. In Fabrizio Cilento's article "Even the Rain: A Confluence of Cinematic and Historical Temporalities, Cilento breaks down how the film "takes a metacinematic approach to the the story of a Mexican film crew in Bolivia shooting an historic drama on Christopher Columbus's conquest. With the water riots as a background, Bollaín uses different cinematic styles to establish disturbing parallels between old European imperialism, the recent waves of corporate exploitation,... and the exploitation of Bolivian actors for the benefit of the global film industry.... Bollaín warns that these productions can fall into a colonialist dynamic by reproducing the imbalances between the 'visible' countries in the global film market, and 'invisible' countries whose native actors and visually appealing locations are exploited...." It is important to note how the persistence of capitalism and the exploitation of resources (whether that be land or labor) continue to work against decolonization and creates similar power imbalances between indigenous communities and corporate capitalists that allude to the colonial era. This is also a prime example of how there is a continued rift between the indigenous people's relationship to the land, especially through the limited access to water.
(Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz)
So, I would like to make the point that capitalism and corporate interests play a huge role in working against decolonization. We do not live in a "Postcolonial" world, but rather, a neocolonial world that continues to exploit indigenous communities for their (quite frankly already limited) resources. Today, many Native Americans/Indigenous people have trouble accessing water like the First Nations in Canada, the indigenous tribes in the United States, and indigenous communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (whom are 10 to 25 percent less likely to have access to piped water than the region’s Non-Indigenous populations according to this page/report).
For more in depth discussion about the water and land crises indigenous communities are currently facing. All My Relations podcast, which is a podcast run by Matika Wilbur (a visual storyteller/photographer from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington) and Adrienne Keene (a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and blogger that discusses cultural appropriation and stereotypes of Native peoples in fashion, film, music, and other forms of pop culture, and a faculty member in American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University.), have done an episode about this topic named Healing The Land IS Healing Ourselves in which they discuss with Kim Smith (a Diné woman, community organizer, citizen scientist, activist, water protector, entrepreneur, and writer) about indigenous' communities relationship with the land, how it relates to the current environmental and water crisis, and the relationship it has with healing our bodies, in which Smith discusses that "violence on the land is violence on our bodies".
The Catholic Church, colonialism, sexuality, and it's influence today
When we're talking about colonialism in the Americas and the remnants of the colonial era today, the conquest of indigenous sexuality/eroticism via the Catholic Church and the repression of indigenous sexuality has played a huge part in colonialism and is still an issue today that perpetuates the erasure of indigenous identity.
In Sylvia Marcos's article "Indigenous Eroticism and Colonial Morality in Mexico: The Confession Manuals of New Spain" Marcos explains that "....By condemning indigenous erotic practices and imposing unprecedented restraints on them, the missionaries altered the roots of ancient Mexican perceptions of the body and the cosmos...." Marcos further unpacks this through probes of confession manuals from the colonial era "....The confession manuals of Molina, Baptista, Serra, and others seem to indicate the missionaries' uneasiness over the diversity of sexual pleasures enjoyed by the souls in their charge. The priests had to repeatedly describe their limited idea of sexuality so that the vital Indians could understand that what for them was often a link with the gods was, in their new religion, always a sin, fault, or aberration.... The morality of negation and abstinence propagated by the missionaries became one more weapon used in the violent process of violent acculturation...." It's important to point out that the repression of the sexual pleasures of indigenous peoples has contributed to the erasure of indigenous identity, especially since they considered it as a means of connecting to their gods. This was used as a weapon to conquer indigenous people's bodies through shame and disconnection from their bodies and spiritual practices.
This is still an issue that persists today, this article by the Washington Post, talks about how transgender Native Americans experienced disproportionately higher rates of rejection by immediate family. It also talks about the state-sponsored Christian schools that have affected indigenous for generations in the United States. So, basically the expansion of Christianity/Catholicism culturally and institutionally and the repression of indigenous sexuality has contributed to the erasure of indigenous identity. And indigenous people that fall outside of the gender binary experience stigma still to this day, which perpetuates colonialism.
To further build upon this point and how to begin explaining the intersection of this with prison abolition and the experience of being Black and/or BIPOC in an imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal society, Estelle Ellison, a Black Trans disabled writer and transformative justice practitioner, in their essay "Gender, Time, and Other Methods of Policing the Body", Ellison unpacks the intersections between exploitative racial capitalism and how it connects to gender, time, and sexuality, and also explains how it is connected to being policed through our bodies by stating that "By design, each of us is expected to participate in gendering other people's bodies...." and that "....of all the possible ways that a person may live their life at any given moment, the infinite combinations of features, experiences, aspirations, and expressions; gender attempts to reduce our possible identities by half. But half of infinity is still infinity..." Ellison also talks about how time has been colonized (via capitalism through wage labor) and is "made possible by overlapping systems of white supremacy, anti-blackness, patriarchy, ableism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, exploitation, and countless other forms of oppression..."
Ellison's analysis of the intersecting systems of neocolonialism explains how these systems are internalized in our bodies and how it is connected to exploitation (whether that be from our bodies some other form under these systems) and that we are being policed through our bodies due to societal, cultural, or institutional pressures, such as the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex, or I would argue through religious beliefs.
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What is the prison industrial complex? And how has the PIC impacted popular culture?
prison industrial complex (PIC) : the exploitation of prison labor by private corporations is one aspect among an array of relationships, government, correctional communities, and media; the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems. (criticalresistance.org)
"For private business, prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers' compensation.... Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, and make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria's Secret, all at a fraction of the cost of 'free labor'"
- Linda Evans & Eve Goldberg
The PIC exists as a means of labor exploitation of BIPOC and a reform for slavery
It is important to point out the alarming increase in prison populations in the past 30 to 40 years and the incarceration rate of BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color). This explosion of the number of prisons has allowed for many corporations with transnational corporate interests to extract wealth from BIPOC bodies within these prison populations for almost little to no cost.
Angela Davis in her book Are Prisons Obsolete? points to the fact that "many corporations with global markets now rely on prisons as an important source of profit..." and that "the notion of the prison industrial complex also insists of the racialization of prison populations.... [and] is not an incidental feature...." and also that the "critiques of the prison industrial complex undertaken by abolitionist activists and scholars are very much linked to critiques of the global persistence of racism...."
It is also important to note how the Tough on Crime movement and the resulting policies of this movement align with the expansion of the PIC and the movement's connection to the increasing incarceration rates of BIPOC and the exploding prison populations as a result of that. Here is a simple infographic/comic about the movement and the "race to incarcerate" BIPOC.
Another aspect to keep in mind is that Black men (that consist of a large portion of prison populations even though they are a small percentage of the population) who commit the same crimes as white men receive federal sentences that are, on average, 20% longer [source].
So, the PIC consists of a huge network of corporations, government institutions (e.g. courts of law), and also mass media for the purpose of imprisoning and exploiting the labor of BIPOC. It is also important to examine how prisoners and the criminal justice system in general are depicted in popular entertainment media (which I will elaborate more on in the following section) and how it has affected people's general perception of prisons, prisoners, the criminal justice system, and the idea of justice itself.
Popular media and it's role in the PIC
"....the prison is considered an inevitable and permanent feature of our social lives... In most circles prison abolition is simply unthinkable and implausible... This is a measure of how difficult it is to envision a social order that does not rely on the threat of sequestering people in dreadful places designed to separate them from their communities and families. The prison is considered so 'natural' that it is extremely hard to imagine life without it...."
- Dr. Angela Davis
As a result of popular media, a lot of people unfortunately base their assumptions and opinions about the criminal justice system on entertaining cop and prisoner shows like Law & Order: SVU and Orange is the New Black which as a result has caused people to have extremely misinformed opinions and perceptions about the prison system and even prisoners themselves. Prisoners are often depicted as "monsters" and as inherently violent individuals that deserve to be behind prison walls in order to keep the general population safe, but this perspective has been heavily criticized and is pretty far from actuality.
Dawn K. Cecil in Prison Life and Popular Culture: From The Big House to Orange is the New Black explains that "In the modern era, people often turn to the media and popular culture to feed their curiosity about this institution [prison]". Cecil also explains how people become "armchair criminologists" and get all their information via mass media, but the reality is that most of these people do not have firsthand experience with the criminal justice system, and those that do have a tendency not to rely on mass media for information about it. But even so, the prison as an institution is really far removed from the lives of most people and access to the actual workings of the prison system behind the walls is limited since access to them is strictly controlled. Cecil also states that "Prisons have become ingrained in both society and popular culture" and because of the constant flow of prison imagery via US media culture, Cecil points out that "despite the fact that the great US drop in crime rate started in the mid-1990s, many people remain under the misconception that crime is worse than ever before. And reliance on violence as a form of entertainment is partially responsible for this misunderstanding that contributes to fear and feeds punitive attitudes...."
So, because of prison imagery and a lack of accurate information about the prison system itself, many people have incorrect perceptions about crime and the criminal justice system. Popular media feeds the fear of the general public, resulting in a dependence on punitive measures that are reinforced by TV shows that illustrate our punitive justice system as an effective means of serving justice, even though there are clearly racial disparities within the criminal justice system.
There are more criticisms that expand on these depictions of prisons in popular entertainment media and how prisoners themselves are characterized in crime/prisoner TV shows. Through these negative portrayals of prisoners as being extremely violent, dangerous, of a minority background, and deserving of being imprisoned in the media, many people have negative perceptions about why prisoners are there in the first place and are largely unaware that most prisoners are not in prison because they were inherently violent people.
One example of this criticism is David Wilson's and Sean O'Sullivan's analysis of the TV show Oz in their book Images of Incarceration: Representations of Prison in Film and Television Drama. Wilson and O'Sullivan point out that "The inmates of Oz have invariably been convicted of serious violent crimes. Yet we know that the majority of offenders in US prisons, and the main area of prison growth, is relatively minor offenders, convicted of non-violent crimes." They also point out that "Oz would seem to be continuing the media fascination with the maximum security prison" and that "it is possible that it could contribute to the public's misperception of prisons and prisoners, confirming this belief that prison is confined to necessary protection against dangerous, violent offenders...."
These characterizations of minorities/BIPOC continue to distract from the reality of the prison system is benefitting corporations through the labor exploitation of low-income minorities/BIPOC that are usually there unjustly and for minor offenses like drug possession. It also distracts from the fact that prisons affect the mental health of prisoners, whom likely already have mental health issues to begin with. It is very sad considering the fact that most prisoners are there for non-violent criminal offenses. So they basically they come out worse than they did prior to entering the prison institution, especially since there is a lack of access to proper health care when one is within the prison institution.
Conclusion
The PIC is basically a system based on labor exploitation and racist ideas about low-income minorities and BIPOC. This system as it exists today is largely a result of our government institutions working large corporations. Here is one of my older blog posts that briefly talks about how politics and our government have played a role in the expansion of the PIC and cites some resources on abolitionist strategies and practices if you're interested.
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Leftist politics, prison abolitionist politics, and some distinctions we really need to talk about
Hey folks, and thanks for coming back to my blog if you’re reading this! So the topic for this blog post is basically going to be pointing out some important contrasts between leftist politics and prison abolitionist politics. I am especially going to be roasting the radical left so just be ready for that.
Anyways, the way I am going to unpack this is through criticizing the way that “revolutionary” leftists criticize the actions of one of my favorite politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom is a young Latina representing the Bronx in the House of Representatives. I will be referring to this article first specifically and point out some things, and then we will get right to it. I would also like to note, that I am going to be keeping my commentary specific to the context of the United States, so please keep that in mind.
So, in regards to criticizing the actions of politicians through the lens of prison abolitionist politics, it is important to point out that the people/communities within the United States that support prison abolition do not support any type of politician that embraces the prison industrial complex for any reason at all. In the article that I linked above, it talks about how AOC and Bernie Sanders “supported” a coup in Venezuela. Well, I’ll have you know that the incumbent president at the time (Maduro) essentially embraced the prison industrial complex and arrested people that were criticizing him. Which is a big no no for prison abolitionist politics/principles. Maduro is essentially being a neofascist in doing that, so is it really a coup if Maduro is behaving that way? To prison abolitionists, it really doesn’t matter if he is left or not, the fact that he did that is enough for us to remain neutral on what was happening in Venezuela in that moment in time. The prison system is still capitalistic, and on top of that dehumanizing as fuck. So no, we don’t care about him, literally at all. His actions are not revolutionary.
The thing that radical leftists need to realize (for folks that identify as radical left and are serious about police/prison abolition) is that prison abolitionist politics are not exactly the same as leftist politics, they do in fact intersect frequently within the spectrum of leftist politics (socialism, communism, anarchism, etc.) but they are not one and the same. The reason for this is because of the fact that prison abolitionists are mainly concerned with dismantling the prison system itself, that is the MAIN focus. And in order to do that, we must be open minded and not take hard stances on our political views, especially because prison abolition is a long term goal. This instagram post on @blackabolitionist’s profile explains how prison abolitionists are looking for “abolishing reforms” and views criminal justice reforms (ex. restoring the right to vote) as ways to move towards the abolition of prisons, which contradicts the stances that “change won’t come from the system” and that “all reforms are racist”.
I would also like to point out that taking hard stances on leftist views is not helpful because this white colonizer government studies your political ideologies and “went to the books to read about how policies would affect black and brown folks” with reforms that appear to benefit low-income black and brown folks in an immediate sense, but ultimately strengthen the prison industrial complex. So, you’re lack of participation (not voting on reforms because you’re “anti-system” lmao) and educating yourself on the specific policies and reforms (that do not necessarily lean right or left per se and are nuanced in nature) has strengthened the PIC because all the folks that are left to vote are racist white folks that have little to no idea about how these policies are going to actually affect people in the long run and on top of that the government suppresses the vote. Hence why so many racist reforms have passed and made the PIC powerful as fuck. Fortunately for those that desire to educate themselves, there is a book called The End of Policing by Alex Vitale that is not only a deeply researched book, but also extremely accessible to read if you’re not an avid academic reader (free pdf here), where he fully unpacks the reforms made to the prison system that have made the PIC so powerful, the impacts that they have had on people, and alternative policies that move away from the prison system all together.
I also would like to point out to people on the radical left that hold the views of restorative justice (which has been criticized and has it’s limits) as a practice of abolition, that their views actually differ from some of the community art spaces within the United States that are active in not only as abolition as a practice, but are also some of the activists on the political front working towards the agenda of prison abolition through community organizing and the use of a transformative justice approach and community accountability rather than a restorative justice approach (these are also some of the folks building formal discourse on what TJ is and how it can aid towards the agenda of abolition, especially for survivors of sexual abuse/assault) [resources on TJ v. RJ: (1/2)]. And as someone that has had the privilege of being apart of an amazing community that uses transformative justice and community accountability as a practice for abolition and has friends that are prison abolitionist activists, it is very apparent to me how TJ and community accountability is playing out in the realm of politics with AOC, what is really shocking to me is that she appears to be running in the same circles/networks (it is surprising but also not surprising since she used to be a bartender in the Bronx hmmm, it appears that she is working with prison abolitionist activists, especially the formerly incarcerated and it appears that our community circles are quite close even though we are West Coast).
Anyways, an example that is very apparent to me is when both leftists and conservatives questioned why AOC distanced herself from Bernie Sanders after Joe Rogan gave him an endorsement. But honestly, as someone that is relatively up to date with pop culture, lives in the United States, and knows who Joe Rogan is (and if you don’t, he is a comedian) and for those of you who do know who JR is, then you probably know that he runs a podcast where he has openly expressed his cop apologist views . So it appears that she distanced herself from him because of that, which honestly makes a lot of sense when you view it in those terms, it’s very apparent to me that she is likely apart of a prison abolitionist community that is holding her accountable, not the justice democrats.
Leftists, AOC is not a communist, anarchist, or a socialist. She is a PRISON ABOLITIONIST first and foremost, whose politics intersects with some of yours, but is primarily relying on strategy, community accountability, and direct feedback as a way to move closer towards the objective of prison abolition. And no, she is not going to be perfect, which is why we need shared analysis and realistic expectations. It is actually very encouraging that someone like AOC is in office right now (along with the rest of the squad), and it is extremely obvious to activists on the frontlines that she will not save us. What we need is more people like her to go into office in huge numbers, which requires community organizing. And guess what, the prison industrial complex is powerful as fuck here in the United States (it’s insane, people are genuinely afraid to come against this system and it’s very understandable), and the reason why that is has a lot to do with politics and the complex network between corporate interests and our bureaucracy. Some leftist folks have unrealistic expectations that are actually extremely unhelpful. Especially since some of these folks read at an academic level, have class privilege, and express their views without educating themselves first. And as someone who has been personally affected by the PIC at a very young age (and no I am not going to elaborate on it), it is very frustrating.
Okay, so to end this blogpost I am going to leave you all to ponder the revolutionary act of direct feedback, transformative justice practices, and how necessary it is in community spaces, abolition, and building decolonial futures.
And if any of you are interested in TJ practices a couple of books are: Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories From the Transformative Justice Movement and Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication.
Let’s talk about Black studies/identity in the United States!
Okay, so I really want to talk about Black identity within the context of the United States first because there is a lot of talk of how everyone’s oppression intersects with the experience of Blackness in the United States and that Black liberation means all of our liberation and I would very much agree with that notion, simply because Black people have been experiencing the brunt of racism, exploitation, and white supremacy ever since colonialism became a thing.
So, the reason why it is specifically called Black/Africana studies is because although they are descendants of the peoples of Africa, they are quite disconnected from the indigenous and cultural identity of Africa today. This is largely due to violent erasure from colonialism/slavery etc. The United States has done a very good job at basically completely erasing that, some people whom are Black literally even say to just call them Black and not African-American because they simply cannot personally identify with Africa culturally at all, to the point where it even feels wrong, which really needs to be validated to be honest, it makes sense and I do think that there is a SPECIFIC identity that is Blackness in the United States and I also think that everyone can relate to the experience of Blackness to a certain extent.
However, I do think that Blackness at it’s ROOTS is indigenous (but I’m going to unpack that later, at some point lol). But there is a lot things about the identity of Blackness that are just beginning to be explored by scholars, academics, and intellectuals in recent discourse, and it’s pretty interesting honestly.
So to begin, when we think of the experience of Blackness and Black identity we already come up with some ideas of what that is characterized as. It is a lot of times associated with being loud, angry, violent, and always resisting white supremacy, but this is largely a narrative that is taught from the perspective of white colonizers in U.S. history classrooms. There has been recent criticism of this view of Blackness, real Black history begs the question of narrating its own history from the human perspective, that just so happens to be Black also. It is important to understand Black history as a history that is raw and sincere, and that understanding Black history as human individuals fighting for not just freedom, but also the right to choose love, vulnerability, and humanity on their own terms outside of an oppressive political and social system.
One example of this concept was in Treva B. Lindsey & Jessica Marie Johnson’s “Searching for Climax: Black Erotic Lives in Slavery and Freedom”, Lindsey and Johnson examine and comment on “The Harriet Tubman Sextape” and the controversy it caused when it was put on YouTube. They delve into how the video is a good framework to explore and question the erotic lives of enslaved black women, and how the public reacted to a more sexual depiction of Tubman. “Tubman’s position as a sacred historical figure limits our ability to think about her as an erotic subject with desires and intimate needs situated in the profane… sexual exchanges among slave owners and enslaved blacks blurred boundaries among consent, power, pleasure, desire, coercion, and violence obscures the real possibility that sex could function as a tool of resistance as well as a vehicle for affirming humanity. Although we do not know if Tubman ever exchanged sex for freedom while enslaved or during her escape and rescue missions from slavery, what roles did sex, intimacy, and desire play in how she sustained and affirmed her humanity? What roles can contemporary cultural narratives play in examining sex, intimacy, and desire in her life and during slavery?” Lindsey and Johnson point out how intimacy and sexual desires of enslaved black women is completely un-explored, and in fact a bit taboo. It is important to understand that sex and intimacy are a huge part of maintaining our humanity and acknowledge that Tubman, along with other women as well, may have had ways to express their humanity erotically even in the midst of oppression and sexual violence. This article relates to Django Unchained’s plotline, which illustrates how enslaved Blacks did not just want to actively resist just to be against an unjust social/political system, but that in the midst of oppression enslaved people embraced their humanity through love, intimacy, sex, and desire. This is shown through Django’s love for his wife and how he wanted freedom so that he could be with her. He did not just ultimately want freedom, but wanted the freedom to love his wife and be free to be together.
This idea interweaves itself into another important facet of Black history and concepts of blackness or black identity, which is the idea that Blackness is not just defined by loud violent resistance to white supremacy. It is important to note that Black subjectivity is commonly characterized as a reaction to racism and a representation of political progress, which does not say anything about the humanity or interior lives of black individuals themselves outside of a social or political system. Kevin Everod Quashie in his book The Sovereignty of Quiet explains how this can be limiting in exploring and delving into black culture. “This is the politics of representation, where black subjectivity exists for its social and political meaningfulness rather than as a marker of the human individuality of the person who is black. As an identity, blackness is always supposed to tell us something about race or racism, or about America, or violence and struggle and triumph or poverty and hopefulness. The determination to see Blackness only through a social public lens, as if there were no inner life, is racist—it comes from the language of racial superiority and is a practice intended to dehumanize black people.” Quashie explains how the exploration of the interiority or inner life of black people is necessary to embrace the humanity of black culture and individuals who are black. An example of this concept was shown in O.J.: Made in America, the documentary explores how O.J. as a young student and football star at USC was “seduced” by white culture. The documentary points to how O.J. had a white interiority that cut himself from the Civil Rights movement during a pivotal moment in Black history and resistance, which shows the ‘ugly’ or ‘messy’ side of how interiority of individuals plays a huge role in their humanity, which cannot be solidly defined in black and white. This article connects to the last one because it stresses that there is a lot to explore in Black humanity that can add to our understanding of Black identity.
These articles had me ponder a lot about how limiting it can be to only be defined by political progress. I think it would be awesome to see Blackness or Black identity illustrated in raw sincere humanity. It must be very difficult to always have to meet this invisible expectation of having to be strong as if there was no humanity or inner lives in the lives of Black individuals. It makes me think that everything I know about Black culture needs to come from the perspective of seeing Black individuals as humans with desires and moments of vulnerability. In this current social justice context that we’re going though right now, this is why it is important for Black joy to manifest in Black lives as not only as a form to combat white supremacy but also violent colonial erasure and since everyone’s oppression intersects with Blackness, I would argue this for any people that have experienced violent erasure as well.
sources
Lindsey, Treva B. and Johnson, Jessica Marie. “Searching for Climax: Black Erotic Lives in Slavery and Freedom”. Meridians, Vol. 12, No. 2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/meridians.12.2.169 Quashie, Kevin Everod. Introduction.
The Sovereignty of Quiet, by Quashie, Rutgers University Press, 2012, pp. 1-10.
Django Unchained. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, performances by Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington. The Weinstein Co. 2012.
O.J.: Made in America. Directed by Ezra Edelman. ESPN Films. 2016.
- is a variant of colonialism which does not rely on physical force. Rather, it uses cultural and market influences to create resistances against decolonization and enforce integration into a core imperialist economy (globalization). [Red Nation definition]
- the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.
some features are:
a core-peripheral economic relation that in essence is a continuation of the economic relation imposed by conquest and force during the colonial era; rule by large and concentrated transnational corporations, transnational banks, and international financial agencies, which control the economic and financial institutions of the neocolony; rule through a figurehead bourgeoisie that inserts itself into the structures of economic penetration and exploitation, conforming to the interests of international capital and benefitting itself at the expense of the majority of people in the nation; social control by the military of the neocolonial state, with necessary training and arms coming from the United States or other core states; ideological penetration to justify the existing political-economic system; and the use of military force directly by the United States and/or other core states when popular resistance provokes political and social instability. When it functions, the neocolonial system gives the appearance of independence to the neocolony, and the function of ideology is to reinforce this image in order to legitimate the world-system.
settler colonialism
- specific form of colonialism whereby an imperial power seizes Native territory, eliminates the people by force, and resettles the land with foreign, invading population. [Red Nation definition]
some features are:
First, settler colonisers “come to stay”: unlike colonial agents such as traders, soldiers, or governors, settler collectives intend to permanently occupy and assert sovereignty over indigenous lands. Second, settler colonial invasion is a structure, not an event: settler colonialism persists in the ongoing elimination of indigenous populations, and the assertion of state sovereignty and juridical control over their lands. Despite notions of post-coloniality, settler colonial societies do not stop being colonial when political allegiance to the founding metropole is severed. Third, settler colonialism seeks its own end: unlike other types of colonialism in which the goal is to maintain colonial structures and imbalances in power between coloniser and colonised, settler colonisation trends towards the ending of colonial difference in the form of a supreme and unchallenged settler state and people. However, this is not a drive to decolonise, but rather an attempt to eliminate the challenges posed to settler sovereignty by indigenous peoples’ claims to land by eliminating indigenous peoples themselves and asserting false narratives and structures of settler belonging.
neoliberalism
- believes that markets are self-sufficient unto themselves, that they do not need regulation, and that they are the best guarantors of human welfare. Everything that promotes the market, i.e., privatization, deregulation, mobility of finance and capital, abandonment of government-provided social welfare, and the reconception of human beings as human capital, needs to be encouraged, while everything that supposedly diminishes the market, i.e., government services, regulation, restrictions on finance and capital, and conceptualization of human beings in transcendent terms, is to be discouraged.
Black/Africana studies
an interdisciplinary subject that examines the state and place of the Black population (includes diaspora). The subject draws in academics from a range of disciplines, including education studies, criminology, literature, health studies, history, sociology and theology.
indigenous theory
a theory of human behaviour or mind that is specific to a context or culture, not imported from other contexts/cultures and purposely designed for the people who live in that context or culture.
sources
“The characteristics of neocolonialism.” globallearning-cuba, 16th Sept. 2013, http://www.globallearning-cuba.com/blog-umlthe-view-from-the-southuml/the-characteristics-of-neocolonialism
Hello to anyone that is reading this and welcome! I guess I should start by talking about the intentions of this blog first and why I decided to start it.
The intention of this blog is to make a space for cathartic release for all of the thoughts I have been having about the current dialogue surrounding prison/police abolition, decolonization, colonialism in all its forms, and holding space for nuance between Black and Indigenous theories surrounding these varying social justice issues that we’re seeing today, especially in regards to some of the information passing through instagram. This is a space where I intend to put Black and Indigenous perspectives side by side without necessarily centering either perspective per se, but to hold space for both as equally and respectfully as possible, since they are both very different perspectives and sometimes contrast each other in ways that I think are important to note, write about, and critique/criticize from a prison abolitionist perspective and a more neocolonial lens. I will also be criticizing identity politics, older indigenous political theory and also leftists to a certain degree lmao.
One reason why I am starting this blog is because I have been noticing a lot of tensions between Black (I will get into specifics why I am using this term specifically) and Indigenous perspectives (and also other POC communities) as I have been researching and seeing info pass through instagram and I just think that not many people are holding space for different perspectives (especially indigenous theory), which I find unfortunate because I think unpacking and talking about nuance is extremely important in regards to abolition and the oppression we’re currently seeing today, or at least that’s the way I have been taught by my ethnic studies professor (yay FJC!! love my school!!). But anyways, also another reason why I have decided to start writing about these things (I feel slightly hesitant to do so but) as someone that has had the privilege of being taught both Black and Indigenous theory and also about the prison industrial complex in school and written essays about these things, I think that it’s important to write about now because I am also noticing that being taught indigenous theory here in the U.S. is very rare (especially from a neocolonial perspective), there is a lot information floating around instagram and some people are having a hard time deciphering good from bad information, which if someone hasn’t been taught it by an expert on the subject, that is completely understandable! Neocolonial lens and Black theory are both damn fascinating to be honest and I still have a lot of the PDF files of these articles on my laptop, so I will be sharing and citing these sources. I also think that neocolonial theory and Black theory can inform each other in ways that can aid in abolition. So yeah, that’s my whole thing here haha.
