Social Death

"Both within and beyond the borders of the United States, indigent and indigenous populations of color are literally made into criminals. This ensures that the poorest people will remain legally vulnerable and hyperexploitable because, as criminals, they are denied not only rights but also compassion" (118). Lisa Marie Cacho's analysis of the criminalization which causes social death views issues of race, class, gender, and immigration through the aforementioned dehumanizing lens. She discusses how immigration laws, issues of the legality of citizenship, and the post-9/11 society have exacerbated this criminalization. I was particularly compelled by her explanation of how the aftermath of 9/11 stirred fears of Arab immigrants and perpetuated Islamophobia to the point where even the visual perception of illegality was used as a basis of criminalization. Media entities and government administration only encouraged these warped perceptions.

News sources in particular bear much of the blame for criminalization. Cacho's introduction, in which she described the media presentation of the Katrina aftermath, reminded me strongly of the events of Ferguson, particularly in regard to the alleged "looting" of supplies. Media sources sought in both cases to present the desperation for food and medical supplies as less of a need, and solely as an unrestrained act of recalcitrance. In the case of Ferguson events, individuals affected by tear gas sought supplies from stores to aid in relief, while media presented these as break-ins and robbery. Cacho's framework for analyzing the Katrina events can be applied to almost any racialized disaster and aftermath.

Cacho's arguments throughout the text examine how the systems of law and it's intersections with race, class, and gender inherently privilege whiteness. We see white criminals as having individualized motives and backgrounds, whereas people of color are viewed as inherently violent simply based on group categorization. Violence is never seen as a "white issue". This same logic applies to cases such as missing persons, where white individuals, particularly young, attractive women, are given priority in media, group searches, and efforts. All of this works towards the dehumanization of people of color, implying that their lives are simply not worthy of saving. Additionally, Cacho writes that, "Because being an 'illegal alien' is essentially a de facto status crime, undocumented immigrants’ 'illegal' status renders their law-abiding actions irrelevant. At best, 'illegal' status complicates representing undocumented immigrants as moral, ethical, and 'deserving'" (117). This system of discrimination exists in the same vein as the criminalization of persons of color, implying that those belonging to such groups should be viewed as a volatile collective.