Gilmore: Racism, Capitalism, Mass Incarceration, and Social Restructuring
In her essay “Globalisation and US prison growth: from military Keynesianism to post-Keynesian militarism”, Ruth Gilmore tackles the complexities of the united states prison system. Specifically, Gilmore addresses why the prison population continues to increase even as crime decreases. She proposes that it is a purposeful, and radical, restructuring of society. When I originally read ‘radical restructuring’, my eye read it as ‘racial restructuring’, which is not far from the truth. For as Gilmore points outs, seventy per cent of those arrested are white, yet seventy per cent of those incarcerated are persons of color (174). To understand why this is happening, Gilmore turns to economic theory, focusing on the concept of ‘surplus’ and ‘crises’, in California.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, Gilmore carefully explains how a surplus leads to a crisis. In this particular case, a surplus of labor, in the form of those willing to work but unable to find jobs, and land, in the form of unused agricultural land, lead to an economic crisis. This crisis, coupled with the social crises caused by inequality, lead to a government response that was a highly inhumane political, rather than economic response – higher incarceration rates. But how to justify the high incarceration rates? To find the answer to the question posed, Gilmore brings us back to 1968.
1968 was a tumultuous year and may be considered the apex of the social movements of the 60s. One movement in particular Gilmore points to is the Black Power movement, positioned as an alternative to assimilation given white America’s refusal to substantially address racial discrimination and inequality. Alongside the rise of the Black Power movement, Gilmore also examines the rise of urban riots (whereas prior to the 1960s riots had historically been instigated by either whites or police). The radicalization of black and brown Americans lead to fear amongst white America. The answer to both the radicalization of the marginalized and the crisis caused by the surplus of labor and land, lead to the rapid expansion of the prison system.
As we have seen throughout the semester, capitalism and globalism are often the cause of human rights violations. And if not the cause, then either a propelling force or a way to hide true motivations. Although not mentioned in Gilmore’s essay, it is worth noting that in most states, you lose your right to vote if convicted of a felony (a California bill went into effect this year granting the right to vote to felons once they were no longer serving their prison term). The purposeful incarceration and disenfranchisement of people of color serves many purposes for those in power and as Gilmore states in her conclusion, it is time for us to fight mass incarceration and racism before it is too late.
