Killing African Americans: Police and Vigilante Violence as a Racial Control Mechanism

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Killing African Americans examines the pervasive, disproportionate, and persistent police and vigilante killings of African Americans in the United States as a racial control mechanism that sustains the racial control system of systemic racism. Noel A. Cazenave’s well-researched and conceptualized historical sociological study is one of the first books to focus exclusively on those killings and to treat them as political violence. Few issues have received as much conventional and social media attention in the United States over the past few years or have, for decades now, sparked so many protests and so often strained race relations to a near breaking point. Because of both its timely and its enduring relevance, Killing African Americans can reach a large audience composed not only of students and scholars, but also of Movement for Black Lives activists, politicians, public policy analysts, concerned police officers and other criminal justice professionals, and anyone else eager to better understand this American nightmare and its solutions from a progressive and informed African American perspective. Review Noel Cazenave’s book provides a disturbing but enlightening and insightful analysis of racial repression in 21st century America. The book is well grounded in academic literature and the history of racial violence, but without losing focus on the current era in which media and political leaders, including the president of the United States, contribute to a racist culture that infects our criminal justice system and other institutions. This culture dehumanizes and criminalizes young black males and enables, encourages, and normalizes both vigilante and police violence. Killing African Americans is a must read for anyone interested in understanding this persistent problem of state-sanctioned police violence. Carter A. Wilson, Ph.D., Professor and Department Head of Political Science and Public Administration, Northern Michigan University About the Author Noel A. Cazenave is Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut (UConn). He is also on the faculty of the Urban and Community Studies program of UConn’s Hartford campus and is a faculty affiliate with UConn's Africana Studies Institute and its American Studies Program. His recent and current work is in the areas of: racism theory, U.S. poverty policy, political sociology, urban sociology, criminal justice, and the sociology of emotions. In addition to numerous journal articles, book chapters, and other publications, Professor Cazenave co-authored Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card against America’s Poor, which won five book awards, and has since then published Impossible Democracy: The Unlikely Success of the War on Poverty Community Action Programs, The Urban Racial State: Managing Race Relations in American Cities, and Conceptualizing Racism: Breaking the Chains of Racially Accommodative Language. His current book project is tentatively titled The Courage to Be Kind. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 1. The Police and Vigilante Killings of African Americans in the Twenty-First Century Killing African Americans: Past, Present, and Future From Outrageous to Routine Timothy Thomas (2001): Racial Tensions Explode in Cincinnati Back to the Future: America’s Legacy of Police Killings and Racial Unrest Trayvon Martin (February 2012): American Vigilantism and the New Emmett Till Jordan Davis (November 2012) and Renisha McBride (November 2013): Two More Vigilante Killings, But with Different Endings Eric Garner (July 2014): “I Can’t Breathe” Video Goes Viral Michael Brown (August 2014): “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” and the Crystallization of the Black Lives Matter Movement Laquan McDonald (October 2014) and “Video Games”: Shot Sixteen Times as He Walked Away Tamir Rice (November 2014): Two Seconds and a Child is Killed Walter Scott (April 4, 2015): Videotaped Being Shot Eight Times as He Ran Away Freddie Gray (April 19, 2015): “A Rough Ride,” a Severed Spine, and a Violent Rebellion The State’s Complicity in Keeping the Killings Statistically Invisible and the Role of Technology in Amplifying their Terror What These Case Examples Don’t and Do Tell Us An Invitation to Take a Closer Look A Preview of the Chapters to Come Notes 2. Making Sense of the Killings: Theoretical Insights, Conceptual Framework, and My Racial Control Argument Theoretical Insights from What We Already Know Social Oppression Theories Class-Centered Theories of Oppression Social Dominance Theory Race Relations, Systemic Racism, and Racial State Theories Race Relations Theory Systemic Racism Theory Racial State Theories Interaction Theories Athens’ Radical Interactionist Theory The Sociology of Emotions Hypermasculinity Police and Vigilante Attitudes and Culture Conceptual Framework, Propositions, and My Racial Control Argument Conceptual Framework Key Propositions Racial Control Argument The Racial Control Mechanism Concept Notes 3. Violence-Centered Racial Control Systems and Mechanisms in U.S. History More about Violence-Centered Racial Control Systems and Mechanisms Violence-Centered Racial Control Systems and Mechanisms in Historical Perspective Slavery (1654–1865) Peonage (1865–1940s) Jim Crow (1877–1964) Vigilantism and Lynching (1877–1955) The Death Penalty (1877–Present) Mass Incarceration (1968–Present) Conclusion: Lessons Learned Notes 4. Police and Vigilante Killings of African Americans as a Racial Control Mechanism More on Racial Control A Quick Review of My Racial Control Conceptual Framework A Closer Look at Racial Control-Related Theories The Racial Control Context of Police Killings: Targeting African Americans for Harassment and Brutality The Larger Social Context Police Misconduct: Racial Profiling, Harassment, Brutality, and Killings The Racial Control Functions of the Police and Vigilante Violence against African Americans Economic Functions Social Status Functions Political Functions Conclusion Notes 5. Viewing the Killings Through an Economic Lens: Hypercapitalism and the Growth of the American Police State Neoliberalism: Basic Assumptions, Goals, and Justifications Trumpism: The White Backlash of 2016 The Racial Biography of Donald J. Trump Trump’s Racist Message Pays Off Celebrating Making America White Again President Elect Trump Welcomes Aboard His Motley Crew with Lots of Their Own Racial Baggage Neoliberalism Remixed with Trumpism Can Trumpism and Neoliberalism Get Along? Neoliberalism’s Impact on the American Criminal Justice System Neoliberalism and Police and Vigilante Violence in New York City The Rise of Neoliberalism, the Persistence of Racial Oppression, and the Emerging Specter of Genocide The Growth of the Police State and State-Sanctioned Vigilantism during the Trump Era of American Race Relations The Re-Emergence of the Racially Repressive Federal Racial State The Growth of the Police State under the Trump Presidency More Police Killings and Less Concern The Case of Jordan Edwards A Warning to the Emerging “White Underclass”: They Are Coming for You Next Where Does It Go from Here? Conclusion Notes 6. Ground Zero: The Vicious Cycle of Fatal Dominative Encounters Group-Level Factors Racial Bias Hypermasculinity Negative Emotions The Fatal Dominative Encounter Setting the Stage Role Claiming (The Contact) Role Rejection (The Rebellion) Role Sparring (The Struggle) Role Enforcement (The Use of Force) Role Determination (The Killing) The Outcome of Police and Vigilante Killings as a Violence-Centered Racial Control Mechanism Conclusion Notes 7. Making Black Lives Matter: Lessons Learned and Unfinished Business Understanding African American Insurgency Theoretical Insights Movements for Black Lives The Deep Historical Roots of the African American Struggle to Make Their Lives Matter African American Challenges to Racial Control Systems African American Challenges to Violence-Centered Racial Control Mechanisms Meeting Violence with Violence: Race Riots and Urban Rebellions The More Immediate Origins of #Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives Movement Organization, Strategies, and Tactics Organization Strategies and Tactics Movement Demands, Successes, and Challenges Demands Successes Task Force Recommendations, Campaign Promises, and State and Local Level Reforms Challenges The Necropolitics of Making All Lives Matter Political Solutions: Big and Small Making Things Better Forcing Fundamental Change Conclusion Lessons Learned and Unfinished Business So, Where Do We Go from Here? Notes Index About the Author