1. Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

The connection between whiteness and racism is racism is being judged based on your race . while on the other hand whiteness is a way to describe a race one will say. The white majority is those who had the most power where the darker your skin color was the less power or say you would have.

2. Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view? 

I agree with what Gilmore is saying. How jails are created and maintained on the inside gives an individual into a flight or fight state of mind. Being that they are in jail they cannot take “Flight” into consideration leaves them with no other choice but to fight their way through their jail time.

3. Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?

Liberation struggle is the needs of people. Some people who are struggling together may come together and try to find a better outcome. Struggling together is better than struggling alone.

1. The America history has always been one where white people always had the power and benefitted off the black race. The belief that the white people are superior to other races, especially the black race and therefore should dominate or rule the society is the foundation of the United States. The white had the money/means of production, so they were in control. They had the means to buy people who would work for them, and in return bring them more money; that is capitalism today. White supremacy has always maintained the sanctity of Whiteness and that White people should possess greater access to resources and power than members of other groups Racism is the manifestation of white supremacy in America.

2.  According to Gilmore, the category of the criminal person can be perpetuated by creating laws that target a specific group of people, new categories of behaviors that qualify for incarceration are created apart from those behaviors that are considered qualify for incarceration, and individuals going back to same environment after they’ve completed their sentence.

I do agree with her view because new laws or rules are being created or labelled criminal, and this increases the number of people incarcerated and considered criminal. For example, in the case of cannabis, several laws or more laws have been passed that creates new categories of behavior that qualify for incarceration ( the passage of 1970 Controlled Substance Act, which made any use of marijuana even for medical reasons illegal).

3. Liberation struggle is specific to the needs and struggles of people in a particular region. These people all share the same struggle and he affects all of them. Then people then come together and struggle together in order to liberate themselves from these negative situations that are facing their community.

1.Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

The connection between whiteness and racism is that racism came about due the difference in color of skin with any other color that was not white. The term whiteness is used to describe a set of people who are in considered to be in charge. For example, when “Whites” owned the “Blacks” in slavery.

2.Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view?

I agree with Gilmore in that the criminal justice and prison system creates new criminals due to the way they are treated in jail. The way the jails are run. How inmates struggle to live and fight in the jails daily causing them to have perhaps a more psychological reaction to their environment. Causing more hate in them. And Anger. It can even be viewed from a different perspective in a hateful bad person who did a harmful crime gets imprisoned and the justice system fails us and this criminal is set free to walk the streets without a care in the world or repercussion because our justice system freed an evil man. The Parole offices and police officers are underpaid and are not doing their job correctly and this person is using this to their advantage and is free to commit another crime.

3.Describe how you understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?

I understand the liberation struggle as a world-wide liberation. A world-wide liberation that is needed across country due to negligence and environmental living factors of certain parts of the world. Not just including black people but every race that is struggling and in need of help and justice.

1. Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

what she says is that “capitalism requires inequality, and racism enshrines it.” In other words, capitalism requires inequality to take place, and racism was the method used to “enshrine” or preserve capitalism as standard practice. If it weren’t for racialization during this era capitalism would not have had a racial component, but since it did, capitalism is a racial issue. Whether or not oppression was the result of capitalism or if capitalism was the result of oppression is a chicken and egg type question, but the larger point that we can extrapolate is that racism and capitalism are intertwined historically. Gilmore states that these issues are still systematically oppressing black people. She says the version of capitalism we’ve inherited continues “to depend on racial practice and racial hierarchy, no matter what.” The reason whiteness is connected to this is geographical. Europe took over the world. This is why North is at the top of a map rather than the bottom even though our planet has no relationship to up and down as it hurtles through space. Gilmore is not saying white people are inherently evil. She is saying capitalism/racism, which IS inherently evil, is also inherently white. Due to the nepotistic nature of wealth, the history of capitalism will always have a connection to modern problems relating to contemporary capitalism. Because of how much race permeates this issue, it shares the connection.

2.Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view?

What Gilmore is talking about is the prison industrial complex. The first point she makes is that the prison industrial complex only works when prisons are being constantly supplied with new offenders, and this means that incarceration capitalists are encouraged to imprison as many individuals as they can in order to assure state funding. So how do these capitalists encourage this? The answer is that the systematic treatment of black people results in a poverty trap that encourages criminal behavior in order to get ahead. Simultaneously this promotes a distrust for authority which results in more delinquency. More delinquents result in more local fear, which results in the use of more violent policing strategies. By heavily policing black communities more black criminals are caught which creates skewed demographics. These skewed demographics are used to justify even more over-policing. If it weren’t for the expectation/fact that black people are mistreated by society, fewer black people would resort to crime. It’s worth mentioning that poverty traps can affect all low-class people, but the difference between blacks and the rest of us is that they are arrested at a disproportionally higher rate regardless of the offense which results in disproportionally higher incarceration rates. Also, by labeling/assuming ex-cons as criminals, they are apt to repeat their offenses. This is because treating people like criminals and nothing more results in ex-cons viewing themselves as such. This is known as the “cycle of crime.” I agree with Gilmore, especially when she connects the prison industrial complex with chattel slavery. The prison industrial complex is an ugly series of paradoxes.

3. Describe how you understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?

I believe she is referring to the struggle against oppression that many individuals have not opened their eyes to. I think the point that she’s making is a blue pill/red pill argument. She’s saying that we have to be aware of the many processes people go through as they enlighten themselves in the gloom of their own oppression. A “liberation struggle” is a term generally used to describe movements and so what I think Gilmore is saying is that there are many personal triumphs as well as injustices that lead individuals to come to “consciousness,” which she says is done by “fomenting,” or instigating, a liberation struggle/movement.

1. Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

My views are that, history has already reached to see slavery or anything racial to be anyone of color as those less superior. Yet, what is viewed as superior meaning (not slaves) are white people. White people are always viewed as the more dominant ones.

2. Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view? 

As she described, how they obviously started creating more prisons in California but also how they call it “re-entry” when those that have been released from prison try to come back to their community and join society again. I agree with her view, since they don’t make anyone fresh out of prison feel good or easy about rejoining society, instead they make it difficult snd nearly impossible.

3. Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?

She says it’s about life and living together and not in solidarity.

Veronica Gonzalez

POL 100 (0504) – Intro. to American Govt. – Fall 2022

Discussion Board 14.1

QA1. History has always been one where color has been an issue in the sense that those that have always been in power have always been the rich “white” male. Our American system of thinking has always been affected from its early creation as a nation controlled by the rich “white” because it has always been the rich “white” that have had the means (capital, the properties, the money) to purchase not only property but to purchase labor and in its darkest days, the purchase of people. An inheritance is defined as something that is passed along and this is what we as a country and even on a global scale, have experienced. We in the present times, have inherited not only a system of capitalism that creates relationships of interdependency but the caste system that has always been a part of it. When as a whole, we begin to start getting rid of this “white is better mentality” that has come about because of racial capitalism, we as a people can really move forward in the sense that capitalism is for all and by all. Equal opportunities need to be given to all, regardless of skin color, language, and social class. 

QA2. According to Gilmore, the “category of  ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated” by 1) creating laws that on the surface, appear to apply to all persons, but in reality end up targeting and affecting a specific group of people for a specific reason other than what the law was set out to do, 2) when new categories of behaviors that qualify for incarceration are created aside from those that are seen as standard behaviors that already qualify for incarceration, and 3) the experience of the imprisoned individual completing their sentence and going to the same environment i.e., neighborhood, home, influences, that at one point led them to commit a crime, exposes them to the same influences that can lead them to once again commit a crime. I agree with Gilmore in the sense that both the prison and social system that we live in, to a point, does perpetuate the ‘criminal person’ by targeting certain ethnic and social groups in our society not only through laws that are enacted but also through the unequal and unfair ways in which they sentence individuals for these crimes. Also from my perspective, individuals who have completed their time in prison and are then released into society need to have a system set up so that they don’t fall into the way of life that got them imprisoned in the first place.

QA3. From my perspective, “liberation struggle” comes about as a result of the challenges that a people or community are confronted with that can bring a negative impact to them (physically, socially) and how they then struggle to liberate themselves from these negative impacts by first coming together as a people and community, secondly taking the appropriate guided action to then find a solution.

1.) “America is inherently a “white” country: in character, in structure, in culture. Needless to say, black Americans create lives of their own. Yet as a people, they face boundaries and constrictions set by the white majority. America’s version of apartheid, while lacking overt legal sanction, comes ” (Hacker 1992). The concept of “whiteness” and “white racialized identity” refers to how white people, their traditions, culture, and worldview serve as the benchmark against which all other groups are measured. Comprehending race in America also starts with understanding whiteness. Nonwhite people are viewed as inferior or abnormal due to whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America’s history. Because they can navigate society by feeling normal and being perceived as normal, white people also benefit from this white-dominated culture on a social level. Since whiteness has been accepted in their society, those who identify as white rarely have to consider their racial identity. The term “white dominant culture” refers to how white people and their customs, values, and culture have come to be accepted as the norm in the United States over time. As a result, everyone in America—including people of color—has embraced certain elements of white culture. According to the idea of “white supremacy,” white people are superior to non-whites. This argument is based on the same scientific racism and pseudoscience that have been used throughout history to defend slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and genocide. The idea that white people are racially superior continues to be spread by white nationalist ideas and its adherents. In recent years, overt acts of racism that uphold white supremacy have become more prevalent. These actions have a closer connection to white nationalism. The idea of white nationalism emerged from white supremacy. A focus on nationhood is a significant distinction. Due to emotions of entitlement and racial superiority, white nationalists in the United States support a nation that is exclusively for people of the white race. They also hold the view that the variety of Americans would result in the eradication of whites and white culture, which is why they are associated with white supremacist ideology. 

2.) A crucial aspect of the growth of secular nations, participatory democracy, individual rights, and modern ideas of freedom is the practice of locking individuals in cages for some or all of their life. These contemporary institutions were challenged to create stability from “the accumulation and useful management” of individuals who were on the move in a “community of strangers,” which was most severe when capitalism thrived unchecked. Prisons met the demands of reformers who had largely won the battle against corporal punishment, which is still practiced today in the form of the death penalty and numerous torturous incarceration conditions, as well as depersonalized social control, allowing it to be bureaucratically managed across time and space. Oddly enough, the emergence of prisons coincides with two significant social changes: the rise of civic activism to defend the oppressed and the rise of the word freedom to represent what is desired. Prison’s connection to dispossession has been well investigated. The reason for locking individuals up, which straddles ethics and the law, is based on the idea that certain people should lose their freedom (which we might define in this case as control over one’s body habits, pastimes, relationships, and movement) as a result of specific crimes. Prison is not necessary because there are criminals. No and yes. While it may seem obvious that “crime” and “jail” go hand in hand, the definition of crime is fluid, and the punishment for those found guilty of a crime is not always a prison sentence. Crime is defined as breaking the law in the straightforward words of the secular state. Laws change based on what constitutes stability in a social order and who in a social order needs to be controlled. If jail was intended in its philosophical inception to be a compassionate alternative to beatings, torture, or death, it has now evolved into a permanent component of modern life that is not renowned for its humanity, not even by its advocates and administrators. More than two million individuals are currently jailed in the United States, the bulk of them are black or brown and come mostly from underprivileged neighborhoods. Prisons have not only violated human rights and failed to rehabilitate inmates; it is also unclear if they actually reduce crime or boost public safety. I am torn between Agreeing or Disagreeing her point of view, but instead of directly battling jails and hoping others would join her, her tactic was to look for groups that were already mobilized. Whether it be local community members concerned about a jail’s effects on the water table or environmentalists who may be persuaded that a new prison would harm biodiversity or unfulfilled promises of local jobs. 

3.) We move away from theories of mass imprisonment and racist violence centered on unbroken histories of prejudice or the tedious constraint of neoliberal economics with Abolition Geography. Instead, Gilmore provides a spatial understanding of how modern racial capitalism functions as a “anti-state state” that responds to crises by orchestrating the systematic abandoning of individuals and surroundings judged surplus to needs. Gilmore avoids flat ideas of what freedom requires, who desires liberation, or what is actually to be eliminated. Abolition Geography challenges the association between abolition and merely demarcation by drawing on the teachings of grassroots organization and internationalist imaginaries, and it serves as a timely reminder that freedom is not just a concept but also a physical location. However, mass imprisonment is excellent for the prison-industrial complex’s bottom line. Construction and upkeep of prisons are expensive, and they frequently win lucrative government contracts. Because of this, several segments of the building, service, and security sectors have a financial stake in seeing as many individuals as possible locked up. 

1. Ruth Gilmore says that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism, when all the white people disappear from the story. What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

2. Gilmore makes the point that criminals are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system (she says “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated”). According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view?

3. Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?