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 lies in how racial categories were constructed to facilitate capitalist exploitation. Capitalism originated not with the oppression of Black people from Africa, but through systems of inequality in Europe that kept certain populations impoverished. The concept of “whiteness” emerged as a social category that determined who would have access to resources, opportunities, and freedom.

Gilmore’s statement suggests that racism is fundamental to how capitalism functions – it’s not an unfortunate byproduct but a structural necessity. Capitalism requires hierarchies and unequal distribution of resources to maintain profit, and racial categories provide a framework for justifying who deserves what. “Whiteness” became the marker of who belonged to the privileged class that could fully participate in economic and political systems.

This system ultimately oppresses all working-class people, though in different ways and to different degrees. While racial hierarchies create particularly severe conditions for people of color, the system’s primary purpose is maintaining power for the owning class. Recognizing this helps us understand that dismantling racism isn’t just about changing attitudes but transforming the economic structures that require inequality to function.

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?

Yes, Gilmore demonstrates how the prison system creates “criminals” through several interconnected mechanisms:

First, through targeted criminalization – certain behaviors are selectively criminalized in ways that disproportionately affect specific communities. For example, crack cocaine (more common in low-income Black communities) carried dramatically harsher sentences than powder cocaine (more common in affluent white communities) for decades.

Second, through geographic targeting – prisons are built in specific locations and policing resources are concentrated in certain neighborhoods, typically those with majority Black and brown populations. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where more arrests occur in these areas simply because that’s where enforcement is focused.

Third, through the prison pipeline – once someone is labeled a “criminal” through incarceration, they face systematic barriers to reintegration. Limited access to employment, housing, education, and voting rights pushes formerly incarcerated people toward survival crimes, creating a cycle of recidivism.

Fourth, through resource allocation – governments invest heavily in prisons and policing while underfunding schools, mental health services, affordable housing, and social programs in the same communities targeted by the criminal justice system. This creates conditions where criminalized behaviors become more likely.

The prison system also extracts value through prison labor, effectively creating a source of exploitable workers who have no labor protections. This economic incentive helps perpetuate the system of mass incarceration.

I agree with Gilmore’s analysis. The criminal justice system doesn’t simply respond to crime; it actively shapes who is considered criminal and creates conditions that make criminal behavior more likely for targeted populations.

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

Liberation struggle, as Gilmore describes it, is a comprehensive approach to dismantling systems of oppression that goes beyond reform to envision fundamentally different social arrangements. It encompasses several key elements:

First, liberation struggle is abolitionist in nature – it seeks not to improve prisons or policing but to create conditions where these systems become unnecessary by addressing root causes of harm.

Second, it’s place-based and community-centered – focusing on saving homes, neighborhoods, and communities from displacement, environmental racism, and state violence. This means organizing at the local level while understanding connections to global systems.

Third, liberation struggle involves decriminalization efforts – working to remove criminal penalties for behaviors that are criminalized primarily as a means of social control rather than public safety.

Liberation struggle recognizes the interconnection between racial capitalism and criminalization. It understands that fighting against mass incarceration means simultaneously fighting against the economic systems that require inequality and racial hierarchy to function.

Most importantly, liberation struggle requires dedication to the difficult, sustained work of organizing against deeply entrenched systems. As Gilmore emphasizes, this isn’t easy work, but it’s necessary to confront the ways racism maintains capitalism and how both systems together perpetuate injustice. Liberation isn’t simply about ending specific harmful practices but about creating new systems based on care, mutual aid, and collective wellbeing.

 What’s the connection between “whiteness” and racism, do you think?

1. The connection between whiteness and racism, I believe, is due to the ongoing racial practices that are created or held by a majority of white individuals. Capitalism, for example, which is built by white people, was built around the idea of inequality, and racism is a key way to maintain it. This is due to capitalism being built on racial hierarchies.
   
   According to Gilmore, how does that happen, how does the prison system create new “criminals“? Do you agree with her view?
   
2. According to Gilmore, the prison system creates new prisoners by concentrating surpluses. She states the local elites use the state to maintain a continuous flow of individuals categorized as criminals. Either by creating more prisoners or deepening how long they are kept in prison. The prison system maintains a steady stream of individuals who are criminalized, which in the end impacts communities, creating more criminals. As an example of this, she states that in the early 1980s, California started to build prison after prison rather than build universities, factories, museums etc. I agree with her view on this, as the prison system, even in this current age, has yet to provide any proper rehabilitation of criminals. Prison systems in the U.S. continue to focus on keeping prisoners as criminals rather than rehabilitating them into citizens. There are places such as Sweden which see a decline in re-offenders due to their push for rehabilitation over punishments.
   
   Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”?
   
3. My understanding of what prof. Gilmore calls the “liberation struggle” an effort by groups in local communities to create justice and freedom for marginalized communities to end systemic oppression.

1. Whiteness  became a norm in terminology, it was a social norm for them. Whites owned a lot of things and that’s how they got by. That’s how they were better by owning slaves and better wages, these problems that existed in the country then.
2. I would say, the prison system that Gilmore is referring to was the beginning of how petty crimes created long imprisonment. It was such a topic on the news especially how the legalization of weed became legal. Most crime happened to be towards African americans. But it was society that also aimed toward that community if one believes that.
3. She was saying that we should value the lives of everyone over profits toward a certain class. It’s a struggle because it’s a hard thing to overcome since all of this is rooted and its always brought up so it can never really be a clean slate.

1. I think the connection is that capitalism is founded on inequality and racism enshrines it. It started racial without what people imagined race to mean which is being black. And it continues to be racial without what people imagine they’re not raised to be, which is being white. It is the rooted sentiment of a sense of superiority and inferiority that “whiteness” brings to the upbringing of those who don’t have it and those who do. This inequality ideology only causes a state of thinking based on what we are expected to act on without being told to. Enforced without actual physical force by the higher ups in authority of the population. 

2. There has to be a solution to surplus labor. When the state could have built anything else such as factories, parks or public venues. However prisons concentrate surpluses on a loop. There has to be a steady stream of criminals of those eligible to be categorized as criminals. They have to keep coming in which that group has to get bigger or deeper overtime. The prison sentences have to be longer, the list of behaviors, the conus crime have to increase. And when people get caught up in the system, for them to get out of it is to say to go back home if they can go home and be in a community and be of it is part of the perpetuation of the category of a criminal. The criminals are the basis of the prison industrial complex.            

3. I understand liberation struggle as the needs and struggles of people where they are and where there are many dimensions/circumstances to it. Which can also be referred to as place-based struggle in this context. The liberation struggle is fought by the people with resources against the higher ups in authority who look to diminish and take away what people have and matters most to them. So people organize themselves and at the same time discover potential connections to their local vulnerability that makes them a target in the capitalist world. It takes a cohesive approach of a unified body of people to address their issues.

1. Ruth Gilmore contends that capitalism in the United States and elsewhere has always been racial capitalism and an economic system that profits from and perpetuates racial inequality. When she argues capitalism will cease to be racial capitalism “when all the white people disappear from the story,” she is not advocating for actual extinction, but rather underlining how “Whiteness” is socially constructed as a position of authority and normalcy. Racism is ingrained in the legal and economic structures that were historically created to favor white people and disadvantage others. “Whiteness” continues to play a key role in racism as long as this system perpetuates those advantages.
2. Gilmore states that the jail system classifies and characterizes certain people as fundamentally criminal, based on social, ethic, and economic qualities rather than their acts. For example, communities of color and the poor are more heavily policed, have harsher sentences, and are more likely to be incarcerated, which often the behavior that wealthier or white people do not face. Over time, institutional targeting creates a narrative that these communities are “naturally criminal, “justifying continued surveillance and punishment even when crime figures do not support that idea. Do I concur with her? Her analysis is supported by numerous academics, activists, and data. It emphasized how systemic inequality is ingrained in the legal system and how it might serve more as a tool for social control than for enforcing the law.
3. In the closing segment of her film, Glimore refers to “Liberation struggles,” which refers to communal attempts to domlish oppressive system such as the jail system such as the jail system, copitalism, and state violence. The liberation stuggles is about more then just rescuing prisoners from prison; it about altering society so that everyone has acces to education, housing , healthcare, and dignity. Communties untie for systemic change rather then piecemeal reform in this long term , comprehensive battle for 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?

Ruth Gilmore says all capitalism is Racial capitalism. It not a thing but more of a relationship between capitalism and race. Looking at history and how capitalism developed through the western unionization. There was an understanding that those who own means of production knew that they’re different from the people they would exploit for labor. This created racial practice and a racial hierarchy. Which creates a systematic problem because now “capitalism requires inequalities and racism enshrines it.” When Ruth Gilmore say the only way to get rid of racial capitalism is when all whiteness disappears, she means when we stop seeing white as the set standard.

• 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? 

The prison system creates new criminals by essentially increasing sentences and allowing loosely worded definitions of crime. In doing this the criminal justice system is able to target marginalized groups. I agree with her views, just like Myeesha said the school to prison pipeline. I work in special education and something I hear frequently is “Special education the pipeline to prison” I actually did an advocacy project about it because unfortunately it does stand true.  

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

I understand liberation struggle to be a form of solidarity and creating a way to make solidarity, meaning creating movements or groups that are organized and prepared to fight these systems of oppression like justice system. Protest, marches, debates are all liberation struggles, they are all happening to make change and create unity within the society they live in?  

1. As Gilmore put it, capitalism is racial because, historically, it has based its exploitation of oppressed groups on racial differences. Whiteness becomes an important construct to perpetuate and legitimate this system. By elevating “whiteness” as the social norm or standard, capitalism fashioned and then attempted to sustain racial hierarchies that benefited white people while others suffered. Therefore, dismantling these racial constructions becomes critical if we are to address systemic inequalities in the world that lie at the core of capitalism.

2. Beyond mere crime and punishment, Gilmore considers the criminal justice system as also operating to create and reproduce the image of the criminal as a permanent identity. It does this in various ways:

• Excessive policing and surveillance of communities of color.
• Disproportionate punishment and incarceration of persons of color.
• Re-entry barriers obstruct former offenders from joining society, leading to high recidivism.

The social stigma and labeling that pursue them for life hamper re-integration. These processes generate what is known as a violence cycle: persons are made “criminals,” thus closing off potential paths for those persons, hence confirming their marginality further. I agree with Gilmore’s scrutiny because it says that systems of structure are responsible for creating and propagating criminal identities, rather than looking into the sources of criminality. 

3. Gilmore, in the closing argument, situates that “liberation struggle” in the mass movement to destroy systems of oppression and to build new structures based on justice and equity. One of the tasks is:

• Overturning and remaking of institutions that reproduce inequality.
• Building solidarity amongst diverse populations to fight for the collective struggle. 
• And building new institutions with an emphasis on the dignity of the human person and ensuring the dignity and well-being of human beings as opposed to profits and punishments. 

Liberation, for her, means building social and economic institutions that ensure all human dignity, shelter, health, education, and work in a truly safe and free environment. It is a community that is committed to the constant transformation of systems of domination to systems of justice and support.

When Gilmore says racial capitalism will end when white people disappear from the story, she’s not being literal, she’s pointing out how whiteness is tied to power. In our system, being white has often meant having more access to resources, safety, and opportunities, while everyone else gets pushed to the side. So whiteness isn’t just about skin color, it’s about who the system is built to protect. Racism works by keeping that setup in place, where whiteness stays centered and everything else is “other.” If that’s how things are structured, racism won’t go away.

Gilmore makes a strong point that the system produces criminals. It targets certain people, mostly poor, Black, and brown communities, and labels them as threats, even before they’ve done anything. Once someone’s in the system, even for something small, it’s really hard to get out. Having a record limits your chances at work, housing, and just living your life. And when all the doors are closed, people end up back in the system, not because they’re “bad,” but because they’re stuck. I do agree with her, it’s not really about keeping people safe, it’s about keeping certain people under control.

Toward the end of the video, Gilmore talks about liberation struggle as something bigger than just fixing parts of the system, it’s about changing the whole thing. She’s saying we need to fight for a world where people have what they need, basic stuff like housing, education, healthcare, and clean environments. A world where safety doesn’t come from police or prisons, but from community and support. It’s not a solo thing, either, it’s something people build together through organizing and resistance.

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 think Ruth is expressing that racism is built off of capitalism which is very true and especially throughout the United States being white gives you an unfair advantage others do not have. She strongly believes that the system won’t change until “whiteness” stops being the center of ones story. The center of the story seems to be racism and whiteness and that how society has become organized. That’s the story, being colored is a “consequence”.

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? Gilomore argument is completely accurate and one I also believe and stand with, she is arguing the justice system labels people particularly people of color and people who do not hav the same financial advantages (less fortunate people or the “poor” are labeled as criminals even for the smallest things. The system understands once labeled it’s hard to navigate through life yet they still continue to hold people bad and set systemic traps for them. She believed that the system is put in place yo do more harm than any good which is absolutely true. The system is set out to leave flames under your feet rathe than to help. And prisons are a set up to create cruel punishment oppose to actually rehabilitating people.

3. Describe how your understand what Prof. Gilmore – in the last part of her video – calls “liberation struggle”? Liberation struggles are people fighting for fairness, actual freedom, and a better society as a unit. The goal isn’t simply to “fix” prison but to change the entirety of the system so everyone can pursue a good life and have a chance at a life without a label on their forehead.