Social Death..

Reading Social Death was like being in a time capsule, helping to make this week’s reading a very reflective experience. In short, my opinions on the content of this book can be conceptualized through the following question. Have you ever watched a film as a child, then as an adult watch that same film and think  to yourself “ Who let me watch this?” Usually this question arises because you have watched something extremely inappropriate or offensive that you overlooked as a child. The subliminals you recognize as an adult can be attributed to life experiences or new information, but in either instance, you are probably not as credulous as you once were.

I now know that some of the legislation I remember hearing so much about, that was supposedly designed to protect me and my family actually wasn’t. For example, the “3 strikes law” in California that later became Proposition 36 wasn’t implemented to protect all communities in the same way. When initially hearing the rhetoric surrounding this legislation it seemed like it made sense to me. Of course that was probably because I lived in the suburbs where police rarely came. If they did, they didn’t stay long. Both of my parents worked for the State of California, and my father worked in corrections, so surely if they agreed with the legislation than it must be legit. Wrong. Before the 3 strikes legislation was revised it was said to have resulted in an imprisonment for African Americans that was 13 times their white counterparts. To know that I resided in such a “progressive” state that would be willing to pass such racist and onerous legislation is preposterous. It literally invokes a visceral reaction to know that the legislation wasn’t revised until 2012, so I can only imagine the many communities of color in California that were affected. Lisa Chaco makes a great point when she states that “Historically, law has criminalized the recreational activities, survival economies, and intimate relationships of people of color so that the status of ‘being of color’ was inseparable from conduct assumed to be ‘criminal’” (40). Discriminatory legislation that mirrored the “3 strikes law” was so specious that it bamboozled Californians into believing that denying marginalized groups personhood would somehow make their lives better. “To be ineligible for personhood is a form of social death; it not only defines who does not matter, it also makes mattering meaningful” (6). What it actually did was work to construct poor minorities as criminals whose only purpose in society is to remain property of the state. The more criminals in the prison system, the more money corporations are making. I am ashamed to say that I too participated in denying certain marginalized groups access to personhood. I didn’t necessarily do so through the polls, but definitely through racial-microagressions. Because of the rhetoric and legislation surrounding immigration legislation I started harboring prejudices toward Hispanics. Why should THEY be allowed access to health insurance if THEY are coming here illegally? Why should OUR tax dollars be used to support THEM? He looks illegal. She looks illegal. Are our gardeners illegal? These were some of my sentiments until I realized years later what I was actually doing. Sure I wasn’t t as bad as the young men who were patrolled for immigrants in the book, but I wasn’t too far off. No, I wouldn’t have ever physically or verbally assaulted anyone I perceived as illegal, but those attitudes I had mirrored the same sentiments as the young men. Thank God for growth.