THE HOUSE THAT ] RACE BUILT Original Essays by Toni Morrison, Angela Y. Davis, Comel West, and Others ] ‘on Black Americans and Politics I i in America Today Edited and with an Introduction by Wahneema Lubiano | a / Vintage Books a A Division of Random House, Inc. New York 4197RACE AND CRIMINALIZATION Black Americans and the Punishment Industry Angela ¥. Davis [omerernnaaman racial barriers in high economic and political realms are apparently shattered with predictable regularity, race itself becomes an increasingly proseribed subject. In the dominant political discourse i is no longer acknowledged as a pervasive structural phenomenon, requiting the continuation of such strategies as affirmative action, but rather is represented primarily asa complex of prejudicial ati- tudes, which carry equal weight across all racial boundaries. Black leader- ship is thus often discredited and the identification of race as a public, pliical ie tel calle intw yuetion dough che invocation of til application ofthe epithet “black racist” to, such figures as Louis Farrakhan and Khalid Abdul Muhammad, Public debates about the role ofthe sate that once focused very sharply and openty on issues of “race” and racism are now expected to unfold in the absence of any direct acknowledgment of the persistence—and indeed further entrenchment-—of racially struc tured power relationships. Because race is ostrecized from some. ofthe most impassioned political debates ofthis period, their racilized charac- ter becomes increasingly difficult to identify, especially by those who are ‘unable—or do not want—to decipher the encoded language. This means that hidden racist arguments can be mobilized readily actoss racial bound- sel altel aligmnens Political positions once easily defined as conservative, liberal, and Woaietimes even radical therefore have a ten- dency to lote their distinctiveness in the face of the seductions of this ‘camouflaged racism. President. Clinton chose the date of the Million Man March, con- vened by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, to isue a call 264 Race asd Criminaliation 265 <- for a “national conversation on race,” borrowing ironically the exact words of Lani Guinier (whose nomination for assistant actomey general in charge of civil rights he had previously withdrawn because her writings fo- eased too sharply on issues of race). Guinier’ ideas had been so easly dis missed becauie of the prevailing ideological equation of che “end of racism” with the removal of all allusions to race. If conservative postions argue that race consciousness itself impedes the process of solving the problem of race—Le., achieving race blindness—then Clinton's speech indicated an attempt to reconcile the two, positing ace consciousness at ‘a means of moving toward race blindness. “There are too many today, ‘white and black, on che left and ehe right, on the street comers and radio waves, who see to sow division for theirown purpose. To them I say: ‘No more. We must be one.”” ‘While Clinton did acknowledge “the awful history and seubbom per- siscence of racism,” his remarks foregrounded those reasons for the “racial divide” that “are rooted in the fact that we still haven't learned to talk frankly, to listen carefully and to work together across racial lines.” Race, ‘he insisted it not about goverment, but abut the hears of people. Of couse, it would be ubsurd ‘which reclern Fnfect in depane-muliple was the national perche, However, te rleation of race to matters ofthe heart tends co render ic increasingly ficult to iden tify the deep structural entrenchment of contet “When the seuctural character of fockm about crime and the rising population of incarcerated peopl, the racial imbalance in jails and prisons is treated as contingency at best as a prod uce ofthe “culture of poverty,” and at wort as proof ofan assumed black ‘monopoly on criminality. The high proportion of black people in the ‘riminal justice system is thus normalized and neither the state nor the ‘reneral public is requited to talk about and act on the meaning of chat racial imbelance. Thus Republican and Democratic elected officials alike have successfully called for laws mandating life sentences for three-time “cima? witos having aoe for che racial implications of oe off ying on the alle : " te ih axe s we surepatily ‘constructed is let danas ex plotted, and abused, while the structural persistence of racism—albeit in pe266 ‘THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT Race and Criminalzaton | changed forms—in socal and economic institutions and in the national seemingly ace-newral way ae deemed feushiicaly exchangeable with, caltare as whole, is adamantly denied. © che crimes they have or will allegedly commit. The teal impact of impris- (Crime is thus one OF the masquetades behind which “race,” with allies ‘onment on their lives never need be examined. The inevitable parc menacing ideological complexity, mobilizes old public feats and creatés played by the punishment industry in the reproduction of crime never new ones. The current anticrime debate takes place within areifed math- ||" need be discussed. The dangerous and indeed fatcstc wend toward pro- ematical realm—a strategy reminiscent of Malthus’ notion of the geo- | gressively greater numbers of hidden, incarcerated human populations is metrical inctease in population and the arithmetical increase in food |. itselfrendered invisible. All that matters i the elimination of erime—~and soutces thus the inevitability of poverty and the means of suppressing it ‘you get rid of crime by getting rid of people who, according to the pre- war, disease, famine, and natural disasters. Asa matter of fact, the perisi- sailing racial common sense, ae the most likely people to whom criminal ing neo-Malthusian approach to population control, which, instead of ‘acts will be aeibuted. Never mind that if this strategy is seriously and seeking to solve those pressing social problems that result tn real pain and consistently pursued, the majority of young black men and a fast-growing suffering in people's lives, calls for the elimination of those suffering ‘proportion of young black women will spend a good portion of their lives. lives—finds strong resonances in the public discussion about expurgat- behind walls and bars in order to serve as 2 reminder that the state is ag- ing the “nation” of crime. These discussions include arguments deployed by gressively confronting its enemy those who are leading the call for more prisons and employ statisties in [°° While I do not want to locate a' response to these arguments on the the same fetshistic end misleading way as Malthus did more than two same level of mathematical abstraction and fetishism I have been prob- centuries ago. Take for example James Wooten's comments in the Heritage lematizing, ic is helpful, { chink, to consider how many people are Foundation State Backgrounder: presently incarcerated or whose lives are subject tothe direct surveillance ofthe criminal justice system. There are alreuly approninnately 1 sllion If the 55% of the estimated 800,000 current state and federal pris- people in state and federal prisons in the United States, not counting the ners who are violent offenders were subject to serving 85% of 500,000 in city and county jails or the 600,000 on parole or the 3 milion their sentence, and assuming that those violent offenders would people on probation or the 60,000 young people in juvenile facilities. hhave committed 10 violent crimes a year while on the street, then ‘Which is to say that there are presently over 5.1 million people either in- the number of crimes prevented each year by tiuth in sentencing ‘carcerated, on parole, or on probation. Many of those presently on proba- ‘would be 4,000,000. That would be over 2/3 ofthe 6,000,000 vi- tion or parole would be behind bars under the recently olent crimes reported.? : t ‘passed crime bill. According to encing Project, eykn before the y passage of che crime bill, black people wers-7.8-times More likely to be im- In Reader's Digest, Senior Editor Eygene H. Methvin writes: “> prisoned than whites’ The Sentencing Projects mos recent report®indi- ‘cates that 32.2 percent of young black men and 12.3 percent of young If we again double the present federal and state prison popu Latino men between the ages of twenty and cwenty-nine are either in ‘tion—to somewhere between 1 million and 1.5 million and leave prison, in jail, or on probation or parole. This is in comparison with 6. 7 ‘our city and county jail population at the present 400,000, we will percent of young white men. A total of 827,440 young African-American break the back of America 30 yar crime wave? tales are under the supervision ofthe criminal justice system, at ost of $6 billion per year. A major strength of the 1995 report, as compared to its ‘The real human being+—a vastly disproportionate number of whom are predecessor, sits acknowledgment alized impact ofthe crim black and Latinofa men and womer—designated by these numbers in justice system fralio gender: lernember |/ 6 THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT “of Afican-American women drawn into the system should not relieve us (ofthe responsibility of understanding the encounter of gender and race in est and incarceration practices. Moreover, the increases in women's contact with the criminal justice sysiem have been even more dramatic that chote of men. ‘The 78% increase in criminal justice control rates for black, ‘women was more than double the increase for black men and for white women, and more than nine times the increase for white ‘men. ... Although research on women of color in the criminal justice system i limited, existing data and research suggest that ic isthe combination of race and sex effects that is atthe root ofthe trends which appear in our data. For example, while the number ‘of blacks and Hispanics in prison is growing at an alarming rate, the rate of increase for women is even greater. Between 1980 and 1982 the female prison population increased 276%, compared to 163% for men. Unlike men of color, women of color thus belong to two groups that ae experiencing particular dramatic growth in their contact with the criminal justice system.’ Ithas been estiniated that by the year 2000 the number of people im- prisoned will surpass 4 million, a grossly disproportionate number of whom will be black people, and that the cost will be over $40 billion a year? a figure that is reminiscent of the way thé military budget de- ‘voured—and continues to devour—the country's resources, This out-of- control punishment industry is an extremely effective eriminalization industry, for the racial imbalance in incarcerated populations is not rec- ognized as evidence of structural racism, but rather is invoked as a conse- ‘quence of the assumed criminality of black people. In other words, the ‘timinalization process works so well precisely because of the hidlen logic of racism. Racist logic is deeply entrenched in the nation’s material and poyehic structures. It is something with which we all are very familiar. The logic, in fact, can persist, even when directallusions to “race” are removed. Even those communities that are most this racist 3 larly when open allusiois to Race and Criminalization 269 race are not necessary. Thus, in the absence of broad, radical grassroots WOFERents ir-poorblack communities so devastated by new forms of le youth-perpetrated violence, the ideological options are extremely sparse. Often there are no other ways to express collective rage and despair but to demand that police sweep the community clean of crack and Uzis, and of the people who use and sell drugs and wield weapons. Ironically, Carol Moseley-Braun, the first black woman senator in our nation's history, was an enthusiastic sponsor of the Senate Anticrime Bill, whose passage in November 1993 paved the way for the August 25, 1994, passage of che bill by the House. Or perhaps there is little irony here. It may be precisely because there is a Carol Moseiey-Braun in the Senate and a Clarence |: Thomas in the Supreme Court—and concomitant class differentiations and other factors responsible for far more heterogeneity in black commu- nities than at any other time in this country's history—that implicit con- ): sent to antiblack racist logic (not to speak of racism toward other groups) becomes far more widespread among black people. Wahneema Lubiano’s explorations of the complexities of state domination as it operates within and through the subjectivities of those who are the targets of this domi- nation facilitates an understanding of this dilemma.? Borrowing the title of Corel West's recent work, race matters. More- cover, it matters in ways that are far mote threatening and simultaneously less discernible than those to which we have grown accustomed, Race ‘matters inform, more than ever; the ideological and material structures of US. society. And, as the eurentcliscourses on crime, welfate and imimi- ‘gration reveal, race, gender, and class matter enormously in the continu- ing elaboration of public policy and its impact on the rea] lives of human beings. ‘And how does race matter? joao nent of racism, The ideological reproduction of @ Tack pec whether economically or sexually grounded, is rapidly gravitating toward and being grounded in a fear of crime, A question to be raised in this con- text is whether and how the increasing fear of crime—this ideologically ‘vinibte and more Vinlent- Perhaps ane Way fo approach an answer to this question I to consider how this fear of crime efectvely summons blackTHE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT people to imagine bl eas the enemy. How many black people FReaea conference ‘have successilly extricated ourselves from the ‘deological power ofthe figure of the young black male as criminal—or at least seriously confronted it? The lack of a significant black presence in the rather feeble opposition to the “three strikes, you're out” bill, which fhave been proposed andlor passed in forty states already, evidences the disarming effect ofthis ideology. “California is one of the states that has pased the “three strikes, you're Bue" bill. Immediately after the passage of that bill, Governor Pete Wilson. Foeqan to argue fora *rwo strikes, youre out” bill. Thre, he sid i t00 many, Soon we will heat calls or “one ark, you're out.” Following this Thematical egresion, we can imagine that at some point the hard- vcore anticrime advocates will be arguing that to stop the crime wave, we ve wait until even one crime is commited. Their slogan will be: “Get hem before the first strike!” And because certain populations have al- ready been criminalized, there will be those who say, “We know who the veal eriminals are—let's get them before they have a chance to det out a? h 1) so "The fear of crime has attained a status that bears a sinister similarity | sothe feat of communism as it came to restructure social perceptions dur- ing the ifes and snes The gure ofthe “criminal” —the racials fe nN aoe the erminal--has come Co represent the most menacing enemy of é “American society.” Viwally anything is acceptable—torture, brtality, © vase expenditures of public fands—s long as iis done i the name of i ) publi safety. Racin has always found an easy route frgm its embedded- ess in socal structures to the psyches of collectives and individuals pre- Teely because it mobilizes deep fears. While explicit, old-style racism may te increasingly socially unacceptable—precisely as a result of antiracst movements over the lst forty years—this does not mean that U-S. soci- try hasbeen purged of racism in fac, racism is more deeply embedded in sccioeeonomic structures, andthe vast populations of incarcerated people of color is dramatic evidence of the way racism systematically structures tions. Athe same time, this structural racism is rarely ree- ism.” What we have come to recognize as open, explicit ognized as begun to be replaced by a secluded, camouftaged raclam has in many ways Race and Criminlization am kkind of racism, whose influence on people's daily lives is as pervasive and systematic as the explicit forms of racism associated with the era of the seruggle for civil rights. “The ideological space for the proliferations of this ractalized fear of exe a tro open by the emafrmacons in nee pltes 2 created by the fll of the European socialist countries, Communism is longer the quintessential enemy against which the Aation Tmagines its)“ identity. This space is now ideological constructions of crimé, drags, immigration, and welfare, Of course, the enemy within is Far more dangerous than the ene! Tangerous than the enemy without, and a black enemy within is the most dangerous 2f all. eee ye ta ct shih? wee aerate dejo ries simultaneous production and concealment of racism. The abstract char- ‘acter of the pubiic perception of prisons militates against an engagement SENOS ote pr drawn in such disproportionate numbers. This isthe ideological work that the prison performs—it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engag- ing wth the problems of ate capital, of ranmaclonal capalivn. The naturalization of black people as criminals thus also erects ideological bar- riers to an undzrstanding of the connections between late-twentieth- nay Sacral el ‘The vast expansion of the power of capitalist corporations over the lives of people of color and poot people in general has been accompanied by a waning anticapitalist consciousness. As capital moves with ease ‘actoss national borders, legitimized by recent trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT, corporations are allowed to close shop in the United ‘States and transfer manufacturing operations to nations providing cheap labor pools. In fleeing organized labor in the U.S. to avoid paying higher wages and benefits, they leave entire communities in shambles, consign- ing huge numbers of people to joblessnes, leaving them prey to the drug ‘trade, destroying the econdmic base of these communities, thus affecting the education system, social welfare—and turing the people who live in those communities into perfect candidates for prison. At the same time, they create an economic demand for prisons, which stimulates the econ-m ‘THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT ‘omy, providing jobs in the corctional industry for people who often ‘come from the very populations that are criminalized by this process. I is a horrifying and sel-reproducing cycle Ironically, prisons themselves are becoming a source of cheap labor shat atracts corporate capitalism—as yet on a relatively small scale—in a vay that parallels the attscton unorganized labor in Third World coun tries exerts, A statement by Michael Lamar Powell, a prisoner in Cap- shay, Alnbatna, dramatically reveals this new development: {cannot go on strike, nor eaa L unionize: Lam not covered by workers compensation ofthe Fair Labor Standards Act. Lagree to work late-night and weekend shifes. [do just what I am old, no 1 matter what its. Lam hited and fied at will, and I am not even * paid minimum wage: | eam one dollar a month. I cannot even ice grievances or complaints, except atthe risk of incurring ar- pitrary discipline or some covert retaliation. "You nesd not worry about NAFTA and your jobs going to Mexieo and other Third World countries I will have atleast five percent of your jos by the end of this decade. FF am called prison labor. 1am The New American Worker. “This “new American worker" will be drawn from the ranks of a racialied population whose hisoricalsuperexploitation —fom the era of slavery to the present—has been legitimized by racism. At the sametime, the ex- pansion of convict labor is accompanied in some étates by the'old pare= ‘hernalia of ankle chains that aymbolically links convict labor with save labor At lease three stares Alabama, Florida, and Arizona—have rein- srtuted the chain gang. Moreover, at Michael Powell so iisively re: weal, there is 2 new dimension co the racism inherent in this proces, ‘hich structurally links the superexploitation of prison labor tothe glob- alization of capital. In California, whose prison system isthe largest in the country and one ofthe largest in the world, che pasage of an inmate labor initiative in 1990 has presented businesses seeking cheap labor wth opportunities un- cannily similar to those in Third World countries. As of June 1994, 3 Axof June 19%, Race and Criminalizzion 23 range of companies were employing prison labor in nine California pris- fs Und sm, work now being peeforéd on prison grounds includes computed elephone mesaging, densal apparatus assembly, computer data entry, plastic pets fabrication, clectronic component maniifacturing at the Central California Women's fecility at Chowchilla, security glass manufacturing, swine production, oak furniture manufacturing, and the production of stainless steel tanks and equipment. In a California Corrections Department brochure de signed to fromese the progan tdsted an nnovatve ple private partnership that makes good business sense.""' According to the ‘omer of Tower Communications, whom the brochure eon ‘The operation is cos effective, dependable and trouble fee ‘Tower Communications has succesfully operated a message cen ter utilizing inmates on the grounds ofa California state prison. If You're a business leader planning expansion, considering reloca- tion because of a deficient labor pool, starting a new enterprise, Took into the benefits of using inmate labor. The employer benefits listed by the brochure include federal and state tax incentives; no benefit package (retirement pay, vacation pay, sick leave, medical benefits); long term lease agreements at far below market value costs; discount rates on Workers Compensation; build a consistent, qualified work force: ‘on cal labor pool (no car breakdowns, no babysitting problems); ‘option of hiring job-ready ex-offenders and minimizing cost; be- ‘coming a partner in public safety. ‘There is a major, yet invisible, racial supposition in such claims ebout the profitability of a conviet labor force. The acceptability of the superex ploitation of convict labor is largely based on the historical conjuncture of racism and incarceration practices. The already disproportionately black convict labor force will become increasingly black ifthe racially imbal- anced incarceration practices continue.THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT a4 ‘The complicated yet unacknowledged structural presence of racism in the U.S. punishment industry also includes the fact that the punishment industry which sequesters ever larger sectors of the black population at- tracts vast amounts of capital. Ideologically, as | have argued, the racal- ined fear of crime has begun to succeed the fear of communism. This corresponds to a structural tendency for capital that previously lowed to- ward the military industry to now move toward the punishment industry. e ease with which suggestions are made for prison construction costing in the multibillion of dollars is rerainiscent ofthe military buildup: eco- ‘nomic mobilisation to defeat communism has turned into economic mo- bilisation to defeat crime. The ideological construction of crime is thus “omplemented and bolstered by the material construction of jails and prisons. The more jails and prisons are constructed, the greater the fear of ‘rime, and the greater the fear of crime, the stronger the cry for more jils and prisons, ad infinitum. ‘The law enforcement industry bears remarkable parallel to the mili- tary industry (just as there are anti-Communist resonances in the anti crime campaign). This connection between the military industry and the punishment industry is revealed in a Wall Street Joumal article entitled “Making Crime Pay: The Cold War of the '905": Pants ofthe defense establishment are cashing in, too, scenting @ logical new line of busines to help them ofget military cutbacks. Westinghouse Electric Corp., Minnesota Mining and Manufac~ turing Co., GDE Systems (a division of the old General Dynam- ics) and Alliant ‘Techsystems Inc., for instance, ‘fre pushing crime-fighting equipment and have created special divisions to retool their defense technology for Americas streets. ‘According to the article, a conference sponsored by the National Insti- tute of Justice, the research arm of the Justice Department, was organized around the theme “Law Enforcement Technology in the 21st Century.” ‘The secretary of defense was a major presenter at this conference, which explored topics like “the role of the defense industry, particularly for dual use and conversion”: Rece and Crininaizaton 25 Hot topics: defense-industry technology that could lower the level of violence involved in crime fighting. Sandia National Laboratories, for instance, is experimenting with dense foam that can be sprayed at suspects, temporatily blinding and deafen- ing them under breathable bubbles. Stinger Conporation is work- ing on “smart guns.” which will fire only for the owner, and retractable spiked bartier strips co unfurl in front of fleeing vehi- cles. Westinghouse is promoting the “smart car” in which mini- computers could be linked up with big mainframes at the police department, allowing fo speedy booking of prisoner a wells Yo quick exchanges of information.” oe” ae a Again, race provides a silent justification for the os expansion ‘of law enforcement, which, in tum, intensifies racist arrest and incarcera tion practices. This skyrocketing punishment industry, whose growth is silently but powerfully sustained by the persistence of racism, creates an economic demand for more jails and prisons and thus for similarly spical- {ng criminalization practices, which, in tum fuels the fear of crime. Most debates addressing the erisis resulting from overcrowding in prisons and jeils focus on male insticutions. Meanwhile, women’s institu- ans and alps fo women ase roporionatly prolifrtingatan ten more astounding rate than men’s ly an absent factor in the dlocualon shot cre and pnient ee Sean FoF Sve 10 me a place carved out by its absence. Historically, the imprisonment of ‘women has served to criminalize women in @ way that is more compli- cated than isthe case with men. This female ctiminalization process has hhad more to do with the marking of certain groups of women as undo ‘mesticated and hypersexual, as women who refuse to embrace the nuclear family as paradigm. The current libera-conservative discourte around welfare criminalizes black single mothers. who are represented as defi cient, manles, drug-using breeders of children, and as reproducers of an attendant cukute of poverty. The woman who does drugs is criminalized both because she isa drug user and because, as a consequence, she cannot ‘be a good mother. In some states, pregnant women are being imprisoned for using crack because of possible damage to the fetus.16 THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT ‘According to the US. Department of Justice, women are far more likely than men to be imprisoned for a drug conviction. However, if swornen wish o receive treatment for their drug problems often their only cption, if they cannot pay for a drug program, isto be arrested and sen fenced to a drug program via the criminal justice system. Yet when US. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders alluded to the importance of opening discussion on the decriminalization of drugs, the Clinton administration immediately disassociated itself from her remarks. Decriminalization of drugs would greatly reduce the nurmbers of incarcerated women, forthe 278 percent increase in the numbers of black women in state and federal prions (as compared tothe 186 percent increase in the manibers of black nen) can be largely attribured to che phenomenal rise in drug-telated and specifically crack-related imprisonment. According to the Sentencing Project’ 1995 report, the increase amounted to 828 percent" ‘Oficial refusals to even consider decriminalizaion of drugs a a possi- ble strategy that might begin to reverse present incarceration practices farther bolsters the ideological staying power of the prison. In his well known exudy of the history of the prison and its related technologies of