This paper analyzes the use of statistics within political movements that target carceral in... more This paper analyzes the use of statistics within political movements that target carceral institutions—prisons, detention centers, “terms of engagement,” stop-and-frisk, etc. Using a Foucaultian analysis of biopower, specifically regulatory power, I argue that the uncritical adoption of statistics in the analysis of black death under mass incarceration transforms and strengthens regulatory power against which these statistics are deployed. The use of statistics to remind us of how deeply precarious black life is covers over the individuality that was lost. Further these statistics of black death function as a specter that haunts black life; they make descriptive and normative claims for a future of black existence.
What is at stake here is not the mere reproduction of an apparently totalizing power. Rather, the particular use of statistics by prison abolitionists and other organizers concerned with the spectrum of carceral institutions highlights the precarity of black life in the United States. Through the production and re-production of this statistical data, black life is rendered doubly-precarious. Every 28 hours means that the social and political institutions on which we must depend consistently fail to provide the security for black life. However, every 28 hours also means that black life is represented only in death. Whether or not we remember Freddie Gray’s name or which number Tamir Rice is on the list of black murders, their lives get subsumed into a group statistic that eclipses individual identity.
Decolonising the University, eds. Gurminder K. Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial, Kerem Nişancıoğlu, Aug 2018
On the various elements involved in the task of decolonizing philosophy (focusing on Asian and La... more On the various elements involved in the task of decolonizing philosophy (focusing on Asian and Latin American critiques of Eurocentrism, as well as approaches that center race and gender in the process of philosophizing).
This paper analyzes the use of statistics within political movements that target carceral in... more This paper analyzes the use of statistics within political movements that target carceral institutions—prisons, detention centers, “terms of engagement,” stop-and-frisk, etc. Using a Foucaultian analysis of biopower, specifically regulatory power, I argue that the uncritical adoption of statistics in the analysis of black death under mass incarceration transforms and strengthens regulatory power against which these statistics are deployed. The use of statistics to remind us of how deeply precarious black life is covers over the individuality that was lost. Further these statistics of black death function as a specter that haunts black life; they make descriptive and normative claims for a future of black existence.
What is at stake here is not the mere reproduction of an apparently totalizing power. Rather, the particular use of statistics by prison abolitionists and other organizers concerned with the spectrum of carceral institutions highlights the precarity of black life in the United States. Through the production and re-production of this statistical data, black life is rendered doubly-precarious. Every 28 hours means that the social and political institutions on which we must depend consistently fail to provide the security for black life. However, every 28 hours also means that black life is represented only in death. Whether or not we remember Freddie Gray’s name or which number Tamir Rice is on the list of black murders, their lives get subsumed into a group statistic that eclipses individual identity.
Decolonising the University, eds. Gurminder K. Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial, Kerem Nişancıoğlu, Aug 2018
On the various elements involved in the task of decolonizing philosophy (focusing on Asian and La... more On the various elements involved in the task of decolonizing philosophy (focusing on Asian and Latin American critiques of Eurocentrism, as well as approaches that center race and gender in the process of philosophizing).
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What is at stake here is not the mere reproduction of an apparently totalizing power. Rather, the particular use of statistics by prison abolitionists and other organizers concerned with the spectrum of carceral institutions highlights the precarity of black life in the United States. Through the production and re-production of this statistical data, black life is rendered doubly-precarious. Every 28 hours means that the social and political institutions on which we must depend consistently fail to provide the security for black life. However, every 28 hours also means that black life is represented only in death. Whether or not we remember Freddie Gray’s name or which number Tamir Rice is on the list of black murders, their lives get subsumed into a group statistic that eclipses individual identity.
What is at stake here is not the mere reproduction of an apparently totalizing power. Rather, the particular use of statistics by prison abolitionists and other organizers concerned with the spectrum of carceral institutions highlights the precarity of black life in the United States. Through the production and re-production of this statistical data, black life is rendered doubly-precarious. Every 28 hours means that the social and political institutions on which we must depend consistently fail to provide the security for black life. However, every 28 hours also means that black life is represented only in death. Whether or not we remember Freddie Gray’s name or which number Tamir Rice is on the list of black murders, their lives get subsumed into a group statistic that eclipses individual identity.