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?

I’ve learned many things about the history of colonization and how many South American countries still suffer from its affects today. My country (Brazil) has a system of government that does not care for the poor and the majority of the poor are people of color. The systems in place are not different from before slavery was abolished. It’s systematic for those born in a lower class to have little to no (if any) chance of bettering themselves.

It reminds me of this popular notice of the early days (after slavery was abolished) that indicated how one could cleanse their bloodline. If people of color married and reproduced with white people and their children only married and reproduced with white people, they could save their bloodline and make generations of white people.

This also reminds me a lot about Booker T. Washington who claimed black people should not reach out for education but instead jobs. Only through money can people of color gain respect. A majority of the rich are white, this is because the same grants, loans, etc are not accessible to people of color.

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 absolutely agree. The criminal justice system is very flippant and in favor of white people. Unarmed young black people were being murdered in cold blood as if they were dangerous criminals.

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

There are many institutions in place, many structures in the government that prevent liberation. It is not because the system is broken but instead because the system was made that way. People of color and people themselves can not fully be free because there is a lacking in education, government, and criminal justice system.

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?

She demonstrates how capital causes inequality and how racism institutionalized it. Capitalism was founded on European enslavement and has only recently evolved and adapted to a new society. So, if we remove “whiteness,” there will be no room for capitalism, and racism will have nothing to thrive on. I agree with her thoughts because, in a previous lesson, I stated that capitalism is modern-day slavery. The ones who always benefit financially are usually white males, while everyone else faces a glass ceiling. White people must gain from racism in order for it to exist.

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?

According to Gilmore, criminals are produced through the criminal justice and prison systems. According to Gilmore, “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated.” feel that the jail system breeds new criminals by being biased and selecting people depending on the “crimes” they commit, such as drug use, which is a minor offense in my opinion. In addition, the criminal system breeds new criminals based on racial prejudice and how people live. Criminals must pay a large sum of money, which is taxed, in order to be bailed out of jail. The tax step will then be one of the prison system creation steps to create new criminals who will have to pay to be bailed out of jail.

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

Liberation struggle is the effort required to liberate the people into believing that it is acceptable to fight back against wrongs committed by higher-ups such as government officials or those who simply believe they are above you for whatever reason. A liberation movement is an organization or political movement that leads a revolt, or a non-violent social movement, against a colonial power or a national government, and is often pursuing independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperialist worldview.

POL 100 – D.B 14.1

1. I think the connection between “whiteness” and racism is that white people and black people are obviously not equal. Everyone knows that white people have more privilege than black, and this leads to what Gilmore was pointing out, Gilmore is arguing that to protect the idea of equality, white people need to treat black people like they should be treated. So, in order for racial capitalism to stop, white people should treat black people like they have rights like them. 

2. Gilmore points out that criminals are really being formed by the criminal justice and prison systems. Gilmore states “the category of ‘criminal person’ can be perpetuated.” I believe that the prison system creates new criminals by being biased and choosing based on the “crimes” people do such as drugs for example which is a minor crime in my opinion. Also, the criminal system is creating new criminals based on racial bias and how people live. In order for criminals to be bailed out of jail, they must pay a large amount of money which requires tax. The tax step will then be one of the prison system creation to create new criminals where they will have to pay in order to be bailed out of jail. 

3. In the last part of Prof. In Gilmore’s video, I understand that the liberation struggle is mentioned and explained when Prof. Gilmore stated that “we have to be attentive to the many different kinds of factors institutions, places, and processes through which people come to consciousness through fermenting liberation struggle.” By what I believe Prof. Gilmore was arguing about, I’m assuming that she is specifying that when there is a different kinds of places in the world, especially in Africa, people come to consciousness through picking freedom struggle. 

1. The connection between “whiteness” and racism is that whites are credited with creating racism. But as Ruth Gilmore said its not racism that the whites created it was capitalism which prospers off of racism.
2. The prison system creates new “criminals” by creating and adding new ways to become a criminal. The prison system continues to extend individuals prison sentences and enlarges the list of behaviors that make someone a criminal. I do agree with her view, especially with knowing that a lot of these prison through out America are privately owned. I also agree with her stance that prisons are used to enclosed surplus workers. This takes the burden off the people in charge in regards to what to do with all these excess individuals.
3. I understand what Prof Gilmore calls Liberation struggle as the needs and struggles of certain communities that come under attack for expressing who they are. These communities are struggling to be liberated under certain regimes and their way of life is being threatened.

1. Note: I’m not sure if this was meant to say “will not stop being racial capitalism,” but I will assume that it was, given that in the video Prof. Gilmore says “it will continue to be racial without… white people.” 

The connection between whiteness and racism is due to the fact that white people are the only group, in our society, that is not oppressed based on race. This has not always been true, for example, in the treatment of Italians in past centuries. However, they were oppressed because they were not considered white. White people are the oppressors, as long as they hold on to their racial privilege in society. 

2. According to Prof. Gilmore, the prison system creates criminals through a few ways. One is the increased lengthening of sentences. The other is the expansion of what actions count as crimes. Additionally, the stigmas and difficulties that ex-prisoners face upon “re-entry,” as they are often forever labeled as criminals. I agree with her to some extent. I also think that a way of keeping a steady stream of prisoners is by over-policing poor communities and not giving them sufficient aid, creating desperation, or education.

3. Liberation struggle is the process of gaining, or attempting to gain, liberation. Professor Gilmore says that the people of Amadore are gaining “consciousness through fomenting liberation struggle” in their “pop-up universities”. By learning about the history of liberation struggle, they are gaining consciousness. 

1.) Ruth Gilmore mentions the concept of “racial capitalism” quite vividly to highlight how racism is the sole reason behind why capitalism is the way it is. Capitalism only favors a certain racial minority, more specifically white individuals. If one were to look back at history, they would notice that whites own the “means of production.” They have the money to own and run major businesses and corporations. Their profit is made from the labor of their employees exploited in many ways. Despite such, whites never seem to lose because while their profit grows, they continue to have people aid in their profits. The people who find themselves being exploited are from different races; mostly black. They find themselves taken advantage of by their employer but cannot argue back because they need the job, the money to aid in their survival. Thus, whites continue to remain on top and the concept of racism remains present in the aspect of working or capitalism. I believe if other racial minorities were given the chance that white individuals have, the concept of “racial capitalism” would be less apparent. Capitalism requires inequality and racism counts on the same aspect, put together and it creates a certain race to dominate this kind of scene.  

2.) According to Gilmore, the prison system creates new “criminals” because the “elites” use their power to get what they want. Individuals who were already labeled as “criminals,” get targeted and they want this group to grow or expand. They want to overturn the sentences and be longer, have the list of behaviors that are deemed illegal to expand so more violations can occur, and have individuals who get out the system-reenter. If these people of power or elites were to keep having criminals enter the system, they would keep thriving off them because of profiting from entering the jails and prison departments. I agree with her view on this matter because individuals who gain the title of a “criminal” should serve their time and return to society or find a means of rehabilitation to prevent further offending. Everything about the prison system is to make more money while acting as if they serve their purpose of punishment.  

3.) In the last segment of Professor Gilmore’s video, she talks about the concept of “liberation struggle.” She defines it as “specific to the needs and the struggles of people where they are and that where has many many dimensions.” To my understanding, Gilmore was trying to explain that depending on where you live or visit, you will see distinct kinds of people but that have struggles because of where they live. For example, a woman who lives in a country within the Middle East would struggle to have equal rights; such as education. In America, women are free to attend school despite their gender. Although the topic is the same, there is an enormous difference in opportunity.  

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?

Ruth Gilmore said that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism when all the white people disappear from the story because the white people are the capitalists who are exploiting the black people as the working class. The owning class is composed mostly of white people, and white people are racist, therefore they manage their business as racists. The white initiate the racism, therefore all entities are benefit from it including the Capitalists. Per Gilmore there is a comparison between slavery and race, race and unfreedom and unfreedom with labor. It has always been like that since the colonialism time, where colonialists fought hard to keep slaves in slavery in order to keep the exploitation. Therefore, as long as there is inequality between white and black people. As long as white people still think they are superior to black, there will always be an exploitation of the black community by the capitalism.

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?

Gilmore said that criminal are actually being created by the criminal justice and prison system and the category of criminal person can be perpetuated. What she means by that is that the Federal and State government have some Prison Industrial complex. These prisons are managed by private corporations for money. Therefore, those prisons managers make sure that they influence the congress in passing laws that favor the prison system in incarcerating as much people as possible to make more profit. I think Gilmore means that since black people is considered as inferior to white, they make sure that black people fit the criminal person category they looking for to be perpetuate in the prison system. They pass incarceration laws that target the black community behavior and implement them with law enforcement officers complicity. New criminals are created and increased in the prison from the black and poor community.

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

Liberation struggle means that the people in the black and poor community has to struggle for their freedom. The people living in public housing struggle for their lives. The one that do not enter the prison system yet, meet the profile of the criminal person by being exposed to the behavior labeled as bad behavior by law enforcements. The one that get in the prison system even after being liberated, they tend to go back and forth to prison. In other words, Prof. Gilmore states that poor community needs to fight for their freedom while the white or rich community is free because they were born as white or rich.

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?

In the video she explains capital creates inequality and racism enshrined it. Understanding, capitalism was created based on European slavery and has just evolved and adapted to new society. So if we delete “whiteness” there would be no space for capitalism and racism would not have that to feed on. I do agree with her ideas because on a prior lesson I had explained capitalism is modern day slavery. The ones who always financial benefit are usually white males while everyone else has a glass ceiling about them. In order to racism someone needs to benefit from it which are white people.

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?

Gilmore expressed the needs for surplus and the only way this need can be fulfilled is by having a steady stream of criminals. She explains in order to maintain this stream, grow it and deepen it is by providing longer sentencing, and expanding the list of behaviors that is viewed as criminal. This view is very interesting and i never took the time to think about it but I do agree with it. With the idea of mass incarceration this was how surplus was made for the prison system. Since this was observed and people complained about it the next way to gain is by creating laws and policies that help incarcerated people mainly blacks and browns and the provide them with the max amount of sentencing they can have.

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

My understanding of Liberation struggle is the fight for freedom from the white people and we basically need to lean on one another in order to win this fight.

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? 

In the assigned video we learned that capitalism was racial from the very beginning of its development. The term “racial capitalism” explains that capitalism is based on the exploitation of labor, as well as the social and economic value of those in marginalized communities pertaining to their race. This practice requires inequality and racism. It impossible to remove racism unless you completely reconstruct the idea of capitalism. As Ruth Gilmore states, “capitalism will stop being racial capitalism when white people disappear from the story.”  

This has a great deal to do with the fact that slavery, enforced by Europeans, is one of the chief influences of the creation of the modern world. If we look at the history of those who own production and compare it to those whose labor they exploited, we can recognize this as a racial practice. What is also important to mention is that during the rise of capitalism, white Europeans began to group people based on their race. Therefore, the idea of racial supremacy and hierarchy is built within the system, and we continue to use these methods within capitalism to this day.  

There are several connections between whiteness and racism, particularly in this country. Normalizing whiteness and white racial identity in the United States is the reason those of minority backgrounds may be seen as inferior. Furthermore, America awards countless benefits to white people because we are a part of a white-dominant society. People who identify as white very rarely have to think about their race because it is accepted throughout United States culture. However, those who are not white constantly think about their racial identity because of the systemic racism that exists all over the world.  

Additionally, the majority of white people have political and economic power throughout the country. As a result, white people receive more social and economic advantages than people of minority backgrounds. Moreover, due to the “criminal” stigma placed on people of color, minority groups live in constant fear of the police. There are many documented incidents of unjust shootings in the black and brown community. This is an issue that is not prevalent for white people. It is what has come to be known as “white privilege” which is something people who are white, or white passing, have benefited from due to the color of their skin.  

However, whiteness is not a race at all, but a social construct. The meaning of whiteness has changed throughout history. The notion of race was designed to keep black and white people separate in the work force. It was also a tool used to define their differences to highlight “white superiority.”  Whiteness now includes a variety of cultures that it had not previously. These characteristics connected to whiteness are actually connected to control and privilege which are used to preserve unjust social hierarchy.  

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? 

In the United States there is an ever-growing mass incarceration problem that goes hand in hand with widespread capitalism. According to Gilmore, the prison systems rely on the surplus of criminals. The elites who own those prisons use their skills to achieve this. For a prison to be successful there needs to be a constant flow of people who can be categorized as criminals. Over time that group of people must grow or the people in jail have to remain there for longer periods of time. As a result, what qualifies someone as a criminal gradually has to change, as well as the length of their prison sentences. When they return home, they have the challenging task of learning how to acclimatize themselves to society. It is a challenging mission to accomplish because once you are in the system it is hard to get out. They have to return home, look for a job, and become part of a community, and when they fail, they are sent back to prison. According to Gilmore, this is how the category of “criminal” is perpetuated.  

I agree with Gilmore’s assessment about how the prison system changes the definition of criminal acts to create new criminals. We live in a society where we have the largest percentage of mass incarceration in the world. Although crime rates have not increased, our prison population has expanded dramatically in the past several decades. These increases can be linked to law and policy changes directly attached to the role of race and racism in America. We resort to throwing people in prison, especially those in minority groups, rather than addressing the issues that cause the crimes in the first place. These new laws contribute to the overcrowding of prisons. This is despite the evidence that the surge in incarceration has no correlation to lowering crime rates, nor does it boost public safety. As we learned in the very beginning of the semester, mass incarceration in the United States stems from the response to the “War on Crime” and the “War on Drugs” that started in the 1970s. Nixon and Reagan implemented policies meant to stop drug abuse and take criminals off the streets. However, these laws gave states the money to create more over-populated prisons. It is a problem that has been going on for over 50 years. In order to begin to solve this issue, we need to re-think what constitutes a crime and stop writing laws that directly and negatively affect minority populations.  

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

A liberation struggle is an organized rebellion against a group of oppressors to secure their freedom. This struggle, as stated by Gilmore, is specific to the needs and struggles of the people depending on their location. This struggle is a type of social movement that aims to achieve either territorial independence, the right to political, cultural, and social autonomy, gaining individual rights for specific country, nation, racial, or ethnic group of people. They generally strive to free themselves from dominant organizations of people or distinct types of discrimination.  

Gilmore brings up the people of Amadora, which is a municipality in Portugal. They were living in a community of homes that were self-built and were under threat of losing them because their homes were not up to code. Even though they were promised new homes they wanted to stay in their old ones because it not only supplied them with resources but offered them a community. Upset that they were being targeted, the people of Amadora began to organize themselves to save their entire community. They developed study groups so they could learn about why they were vulnerable in the first place, how their government works, the history of colonialism and racism, and the history of their citizenship in the E.U. These were all used as mini universities in which they educated themselves. There are many varied factors and processes in which people can come to a fair decision through a liberation struggle. It is used to gain solidarity and allows others to become dependent upon their community to solve major economic and social issues.  

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?

Ruth Gilmore states that capitalism will stop being racial capitalism when all white people from the story. Whites have profited and benefit from capitalism are white males. Ruth Gilmore states that “we see that the understanding that those who own the means of production had of their differences from
those whose labor they exploited were understandings that we can recognize today as racial
practice”. Throughout history there has been a racial hierarchy of power and capitalism is a system that includes politics and economics and it owned and controlled by private owners where they make profits. There is no equality in capitalism and racism is a system in which justifies capitalist exploitation. The connection between “whiteness” and racism is that those who benefit from racial capitalism are whites and generationally it will continue to be whites.

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

Criminalization maintains the racial hierarchy and there will always be a stream a criminals that will continue to grow. According to Gilmore this happens due in part to longer sentences and the list of behaviors that count as crimes have to continue to grow as Gilmore states, this is also how the prison system creates new criminals. I do agree with her view as new laws are created and formed it will keep prisons open and constantly growing.

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

As I understand, liberation struggle as Prof. Gilmore states is a rebellion or movement against a power that keeps a group of people destabilized. Liberation struggle is based on the needs and struggles of a specific group who are being oppressed.