Formerly titled #AbolishThePolice, this critical Black studies course explores the specific relationship between aesthetics, race, and policing in the U.S. from a philosophical perspective. We will enlist Black political and feminist theories and social and political philosophies to critically examine and think through issues of civil disobedience, criminalization, incarceration, police militarization, predictive policing, surveillance, and domestic security.
As numerous experts have shown, the U.S. has the highest rate of police violence and misconduct in the world in addition to the highest rate of incarceration. Scholars have shown that Black, brown, and indigenous people are disproportionate police targets. And because police violence and gendered violence are intrinsically connected, Black trans and gender nonconforming people, and Black people with disabilities and mental health issues, routinely experience surveillance, arrest, incarceration, and sexual assault at the hands of law enforcement at significantly higher rates than any other racial demographic. While current mainstream conversations ask how can we reform the police to lessen harm against marginalized communities, I suggest we begin elsewhere. To understand the root causes of policing, I propose we begin with a deceptively simple question: What is policing?
We will thus engage philosophically with questions that emerge from these issues and from the various materials we examine.
- Teacher: Claudia Garcia-Rojas