Policing Black Bodies

How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change

Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith

From Trayvon Martin to Freddie Gray, the stories of police violence against Black people are too often in the news. In Policing Black Bodies Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith make a compelling case that the policing of Black bodies goes far beyond these individual stories of brutality. They connect the regulation of African American people in many settings, including the public education system and the criminal justice system, into a powerful narrative about the myriad ways Black bodies are policed.

Policing Black Bodies goes beyond chronicling isolated incidents of injustice to look at the broader systems of inequality in our society—how they’re structured, how they harm Black people, and how we can work for positive change. The book discusses the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the prison boom, the unique ways Black women and trans people are treated, wrongful convictions and the challenges of exoneration, and more. Each chapter of the book opens with a true story, explains the history and current state of the issue, and looks toward how we can work for change. The book calls attention to the ways class, race, and gender contribute to injustice, as well as the perils of colorblind racism—that by pretending not to see race we actually strengthen, rather than dismantle, racist social structures. Policing Black Bodies is a powerful call to acknowledge injustice and work for change.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 284 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4422-7695-6 • Hardback • December 2017 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4422-7696-3 • eBook • December 2017 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies, Social Science / Criminology, Social Science / Sociology / General, Social Science / Minority Studies, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Social Science / Penology

Policing Black Bodies

How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change

Hardback

eBook

Summary

From Trayvon Martin to Freddie Gray, the stories of police violence against Black people are too often in the news. In Policing Black Bodies Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith make a compelling case that the policing of Black bodies goes far beyond these individual stories of brutality. They connect the regulation of African American people in many settings, including the public education system and the criminal justice system, into a powerful narrative about the myriad ways Black bodies are policed.

Policing Black Bodies goes beyond chronicling isolated incidents of injustice to look at the broader systems of inequality in our society—how they’re structured, how they harm Black people, and how we can work for positive change. The book discusses the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the prison boom, the unique ways Black women and trans people are treated, wrongful convictions and the challenges of exoneration, and more. Each chapter of the book opens with a true story, explains the history and current state of the issue, and looks toward how we can work for change. The book calls attention to the ways class, race, and gender contribute to injustice, as well as the perils of colorblind racism—that by pretending not to see race we actually strengthen, rather than dismantle, racist social structures. Policing Black Bodies is a powerful call to acknowledge injustice and work for change.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 284 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4422-7695-6 • Hardback • December 2017 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4422-7696-3 • eBook • December 2017 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies, Social Science / Criminology, Social Science / Sociology / General, Social Science / Minority Studies, Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations, Social Science / Penology

Author

Angela J. Hattery is professor and director of women and gender studies at George Mason University. Her books include Intimate Partner Violence.

Earl Smith is emeritus professor at Wake Forest University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Race, Sport, and the American Dream.

Together they are the authors of African American Families Today: Myths and Realities.

Table of Contents

1 Setting the Stage
2 Urban Riots and Protest, or a Logical Response to Policing Black Bodies
3 Mass Incarceration
4 School-to-Prison Pipeline
5 The Prison-Industrial Complex: The New Plantation Economy
6 Policing Black Women’s Bodies
7 Policing Trans Bodies
8 Police Killings of Unarmed Black Men
9 The Ultimate Failure: Exoneration
10 Intersectionality, Color-Blind Racism, and a Call to Action
Appendix A: High-Profile Police Shootings of Black Men and the Outcomes
Appendix B: Resources

Reviews

Intended to provoke controversial and uncomfortable discussion, Hattery and Smith's book focuses on what they expose as America's deeply rooted culture, history and ideology of deliberately violating black bodies in the name of policing. In ten chapters, they concentrate not simply on exonerated police killings of unarmed black men but also on mass incarceration in what they report as a new plantation economy with a pipeline running from schoolrooms to prison cells in a prison-industrial complex. Their concerns reach the indignities and insults blacks suffer daily not only at the hands of law enforcement and the criminal justice system but in every aspect of life amid the fiction of colorblind racism. Well documented, passionately argued, and engagingly written, this powerful analysis of systematic racism describes how society supports white, male, patriarchal, heterosexual privilege while oppressing marginalized peoples. Verdict: An essential work that advances an acute awareness of our responsibility to make society equitable for all.
— Library Journal, Starred Review

Finally we have a theoretically sophisticated, comprehensive book that examines the myriad ways in which Black bodies are surveilled in America. Policing Black Bodies considers mass incarceration, prison industries, the school to prison pipeline, the policing of both women’s and trans bodies, and the police killings of Blacks as part of continuum structured by systemic racism. Hattery and Smith cap this marvelous book with a provocative chapter discussing policy options. This is a book I will definitely assign to my students.
— Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University; author of Racism Without Racists

Policing Black Bodies presents a critical, deep dive into one of the most salient issues of our times. Hattery and Smith tie together theory, practice, and outcomes to both humanize the problems and inspire all readers to face these issues head on while finding ways to work to improve—and hopefully one day rectify—the web of consequences tied to social control, race/ethnicity, and public policy within the criminal justice system. It is a must read for every citizen, scholar, and student in the United States.
— Danielle S. Rudes, Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence, George Mason University

A provocative explication of an outrageous situation. Hattery and Smith dissect the system of racism that runs like a red thread through centuries of harsh US punishment practices. In tough, engaging prose, they guide readers through the hidden histories and contemporary impact of urban riots, school inequality, private prisons, police killings, and exoneration procedures, with each link in the chain building a stronger case for their contention that these institutions largely serve and function to police Black bodies.
— Chris Uggen, Regents Professor and Martindale Chair in Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota

Features

Offers an accessible overview of critical issues regarding race and the justice system

Explores challenging issues such as mass incarceration, police brutality, and the school to prison pipeline

Chapters address women and transgender people in the justice system—topics often overlooked when exploring race and justice

Includes powerful stories that bring issues to life, as well as research showing the breadth and depth of issues

Resources

FOR PROFESSORS
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Instructor's Manual. For each chapter, this valuable resource provides a variety of tools such as lecture outlines, student learning objectives, discussion questions, and other resources to simplify classroom preparation.
Lecture Notes. The Lecture Notes provide the tables and figures from the text.