{"id":12089,"date":"2025-12-14T14:27:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T19:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/?p=12089"},"modified":"2025-12-14T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T19:27:11","slug":"discussion-post-14-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/2025\/12\/14\/discussion-post-14-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion post 14.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The idea of &#8220;whiteness&#8221; and racism, Ruth Gilmore expresses while speaking on capitalism in her video, are defined as tools, technology, or systems of differentiation and oppression developed to protect the social and economic interests of the elite. Capitalism requires inequality to cement itself, and racism guarantees it. By this framework provided by Gilmore, race is not a biological identity, but rather a hierarchy of vulnerability, where, through the creation of unequal groups, there is inevitable exploitation. Thus, we have capitalism\/racial capitalism. &#8220;whiteness&#8221; in this discussion is defined as those who are at the top of this hierarchy and is defaulted as the basic human experience. Gilmore posits that capitalism and racism are not separate systems but are intertwined together competely, with each feeding off one another to establish what we have today.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gilmore&#8217;s idea of criminality being perpetrated by the justice system is an inevitable conclusion. The system creates a cycle of criminality through several social mechanisms: people from economically marginalized communities are targeted, communities that are already impoverished through capitalism, and once a person goes through the system, their access to stable jobs, housing, and education is severely limited, if not destroyed. This then forces those formerly incarcerated into desperation, and they are then more likely to engage in criminal behavior that had gotten them into prison in the first place. The system itself creates its own supply of clients.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the context of Gilmore&#8217;s work on abolition, the concept of liberation struggle is far more comprehensive than simply reforming or even closing prisons. It&#8217;s a fundamental, transformative effort to build a world where the conditions that necessitate prisons and policing do not exist. It involves creating a system that truly addresses areas of vulnerability, such as health care, public education, affordable housing, and especially our justice systems. The struggle is ultimately to fundamentally change a society built on competition to one built on social connection, care, and empathy. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-14-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12092,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions\/12092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}