#hst110

Incarceration is not the answer to systematic problems.

There’s dynamite in every city of America.

It’s not hard to find. It’s in the neighborhoods people lock their car doors when driving through. It’s in the schools with no budget for arts programs or healthy school lunches. Find a batch in public housing. Find more outside on the streets.

Social dynamite, a term penned by Steven Spitzer in his book, “Towards a Marxian Theory of Deviance,” is defined as a group of people who have fallen through the cracks of the social system. This group is dissatisfied, rebellious and potentially violent. Youth living in dense urban centers make up this social dynamite. These youths, along with their families and friends, all go day to day living on the edge of a whirlpool of circumstance. One wrong move, and anyone can fall into a cycle of crime that, due to decades of government policies, make it near impossible to escape.

In 1965, the national poverty rate was around nineteen percent. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson started the War on Poverty, aiming “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it, and above all, prevent it.” This $1 billion-dollar program saw poverty as an individual problem, so programs focused on job corps and work experience.

Spoiler alert: poverty still exists. But the reasons why were much more complicated than the programs addressed. Two other wars against abstract entities, like the War on Crime, which was also by Johnson, and the War on Drugs by Nixon, also play a part in keeping low-income youth in a cycle. The War on Crime increased law enforcement. The War on Drugs responded to the 1980’s crack epidemic with incarceration instead of hospitalization.

Drug users should be treated as patients, not prisoners. In early versions of drug policies, drug users are not arrested, but are given treatment, which was effective in making sure that those patients do not fall back into the cycle. Drug users without such treatment are often arrested after their release and come back to prison due to their addiction. When convicts are released, they are denied housing, educational programs and employment and have trouble getting reintegrated into society.

Campaigns such as Ban the Box are seeking to get rid of questions regarding criminal history on job and housing applications. This encourages former convicts to apply to jobs without worrying about discrimination. Employers who implement this are told to ask about former felonies later in the job application process so that the previously incarcerated have a chance. States like Hawaii, California and Colorado have already changed their hiring practices and banned the box. 

Encouraging more states to make the change involves the participation of housing and employment agencies, council people and state representatives who understand that punishment should not extend beyond jail and into the lives of former convicts and their families. 

Unfortunately, this is a sentiment of many Americans. 

Picture a world where a person could pack a full-size bottle of shampoo in their carry-on and bring it with them onto a plane. In this world, airport lines take four minutes instead 40. Muslim people do not worry about being ‘randomly selected’ before every flight.

That world was before 2001.

The 9/11 attacks left the home of the brave reeling from shock, and rightfully so. Onlookers were traumatized. Newscasters watching the event unfold live tried to figure out if the smoke was from a fire, a freak plane accident, or even a repeat of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. 9/11 earned its place as the most horrific attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.  

New York city rose from the ashes, but under the stories of courage and endurance was an undercurrent of fear and anger. Hate crimes against people from the Middle East and South Asia increased. Rais Bhuiyan, a Bengali Muslim immigrant working in a gas station, was shot in the face by a white supremacist seeking revenge for the attacks.

The 9/11 attacks were a catalyst for the creation of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to detain, deport, utilize wire-tapping and conduct searches without a warrant. The fact that the Patriot Act was passed with the support of both parties shows how powerful 9/11 was not only in the destruction of ground zero but also the destruction of American citizens’ trust for outsiders. Lawmakers were willing to relinquish the freedoms and privacy of American citizens for the sake of terrorism protection, even if the systems created for that very purpose were ineffective overall. Even the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, has attracted controversy due to the invasive screening procedures created to prevent plane hijacking. These are the same invasive screening procedures that, according to tests run by Homeland Security Red Teams, don’t actually prevent passengers from smuggling bombs and other dangerous paraphernalia onto planes.

After 9/11, over a thousand people were detained, much of them from Arabian, Muslim and South Asian countries. The National Entry-Exit Registration System (NEERS) was an “extreme vetting” system former president George W. Bush implemented after the 9/11 attacks. Although the Obama administration attempted to dismantle NEERS due to its discriminatory nature, it is possible that the Trump administration might resurrect the system.

Today’s rise of legislation, much of which tread the fine line between being vigilant and being downright unconstitutional, harks back to the beginning of the millennia. When the Trump administration ordered a travel ban on those from Muslim-majority countries, people who had been living peacefully in America for years found themselves criminalized based on their faith and country of origin. 

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Caption, “Signar ou femme de coleur du Sénégal.” In René Claude Geoffroy de Villeneuve, L’Afrique, ou histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: le Sénégal (Paris, 1814), vol. 1, facing p. 69. (Copy in Special Collections, University of Virginia Library) as shown on http://www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. (Click image for details)

via Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas:

“Caption, “Signar ou femme de coleur du Sénégal”; woman shown in elaborate dress, house in background. Villeneuve writes that women of color and free black women assume the Portuguese title of “signare” or “niara”; they live voluntarily with European men in a sort of marriage and view themselves as the legitimate spouses of these men, remaining faithful, and giving the father’s name to the children who result from this union. He provides a detailed description of their clothing, adding that gold earrings, necklaces, and bracelets form part of their ensemble (vol. 1, pp. 68-69). Villeneuve lived in the Senegal region for about two years in the mid-to-late 1780s. The engravings in his book, he writes, were made from drawings that were mostly done on the spot during his African residence (vol. 1, pp. v-vi). The same illustration appears in color in the English translation of Villeneuve; see Frederic Shoberl (ed.), Africa; containing a description of the manners and customs, with some historical particulars of the Moors of the Zahara … (London, 1821), vol. 2, facing p. 31.”

Caption: Signare dame de couleur et negresses de Saint-Louis au bain de mer — Dessin de G. Boulanger d’après Nouveaux. In Tugnot de Lanoye, F. “Voyages et Expéditions au Sénégal et dans les contrées voisines.” Le Tour du monde: nouveau journal des voyages, 1861, 24. Source: Gallica BNF (Cropped)

Caption: Signare et négresse de Saint Louis en toilette –Dessin du G. Boulager d’après aux aquaelle de Nouveaux. In Tugnot de Lanoye, F. “Voyages et Expéditions au Sénégal et dans les contrées voisines.” Le Tour du monde: nouveau journal des voyages, 1861, 18. Source: GallicaBNF (Cropped)

A selection of images from Henri Frey, Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890:

Caption: Signare en négligé (Darondeau). In Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 7 Caption: “Signare quêtant à l’église, d’après Darondeau.” Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 8. Source: Gallica BNF Caption: Signare de Gorée d’après une aquarelle de Darondeaux. Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 194. Source: Gallica BNF [Cropped] Caption: Intèrieur de Signare (Aquarelel inédite de Darondeau). Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 16. Source: Gallica BNF (Cropped) Caption: Négresse de Gorée (M.M). Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 111. Source: Gallica BNF (Cropped) Caption: Un bal de signares (mulatresses) à Saint-Louis (Sénégl), après aux aquelle inédite de Nousveaux, de 1844. Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 11. Source: Gallica BNF Caption: Signares en costume de deuil. Frey, Henri. Côte occidentale d’Afrique: vues, scènes, croquis. C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890, 124. Source: Gallica BNF

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The reading by George Brooks discusses a group of Senegalese called the Signares. The signares were native Africans from Senegal who profited massively from trading with Europeans. In comparison to women in European countries at the time, signares had a relative amount of freedom to own property and earn money. Signares made connections with European men, sometimes through intimate relationships, that allowed them become massively wealthy through trade. Slavery was also used by signares in their own homes and to profit off of through the European slave trade. The trade signares profited off of mostly occurred on the islands of Saint-Louis and Gorée. Eventually, signares made enough money to have considerable influence and own large properties. Due to changes in the ownership of the islands of Saint-Louis and Gorée, many signares were forced to move to mainland Africa, sometimes to areas where powerful women were not accepted.

Spear’s chapter about the change of French legislation related to slavery shows how race ideologies changed in certain populations. The main way Spear tracks the changes of ideologies is by looking at the 1685 Code Noir and 1724 Code Noir and seeing how they are different and how they were enforced in colonies. Generally, the 1685 code only differentiated people by status (free or enslaved) while the 1724 code makes explicit distinctions between races. Spear makes the argument that the change from defining legal subjects by status to using status and race shows how the French metropole started to view race and racial purity as independently important parts of individual’s identity. The way the 1724 code was enforced by the Louisiana colonial administration shows how colonial officials and slaveowners saw race. The 1724 code added strict regulations involving slaves and the priveleges they have, but it also restricted how poorly slaveowners could treat their slaves. However, colonial officials chose to only enforce the code when it regulated slaves, and typically ignored when slaves’ rights were violated. Spear contends that this shows that racial ideologies were becoming more divided in the colonies as well as back in France itself.

The reading on the signares is related to our previous reading and discussion on the maroons. Both groups were free blacks who found ways to exploit the situations Europeans put them in to benefit themselves. Maroons exploited the swamps and slaveowners to make sustainable settlements where they could be free, while signares exploited Europeans and their slave trade to create wealth for themselves. Both of these groups contradict the common narrative in which people of color were vulnerable and helpless and all suffered from slavery.

  This picture shows a modern celebration on the island of Gorée in which women dress in clothing that signares wore. I chose to share this picture because it gives a clearer depiction of how a signare might have looked, and also shows that signares are still remembered by residents of Gorée and Saint-Louis today.

@zdt96 asks “Do you think the 1724 Code Noir was a good idea?”. Obviously, slavery was a horrible institution, and the 1724 Code Noir only worsened the oppression of slavery by legally encoding blackness as slavery. However, from the French Crown’s perspective, it was a necessity. They were worried about the intermixing of races and the abuses slaves faced, so they decided to establish in the Code Noir legal ways to fix both of these problems. Unfortunately, instituting race in the legal code only worsened the situation of slaves and free people of color.

Questions:

How did the existence of signares affect how the Senegalese adapted to slavery?

How does legally ascribing racial division affect race relations?

Class,

Thank you for being a fantastic and enthusiastic group this term. Wow. I couldn't have asked for a better pick of students. It was a pleasure to share one of my favorite cities with you. I learned quite a bit from *you* and appreciate all of your hard work!

You are now members of the NOLA Course Tumblr and part of its community. You are welcome to leave the Tumblr (if you need me to do this for you, let me know). But I encourage you to stay and continue to share material here, building an archive of New Orleans across time and space together.

Safe travels over break. All the best in your future endeavors.

Regards,