Dangerous Spaces: Beyond the Racial Profile

by D. Marvin Jones

Overview

An eye-opening, unapologetic explanation of what "racial profiling" is in modern-day America: systematic targeting of communities and placing of suspicion on populations, on the basis of not only ethnicity but also certain places that are linked to the social identity of that group.

In 21st-century, post–civil rights era America, "race" has become complex and intersectional. It is no longer simply a matter of color—black versus white—contends author D. Marvin Jones, but equally a matter of space or "geographies of fear," which he defines as spaces in which different groups are particularly vulnerable to stereotyping by law enforcement: blacks in the urban ghetto, Mexicans at the functional equivalent of the border, Arabs at the airport.

Dangerous Spaces: Beyond the Racial Profile demonstrates how society has constructed a set of threat narratives in which certain widespread problems—immigration, drugs, gangs, and terrorism, for example—have been racialized and explains the historical and social origins of these racializing threat narratives. The book identifies how these narratives have led directly to relentless profiling that results in arrest, deportation, massive surveillance, or even death for members of suspect populations. Readers will come to understand how the problem of profiling is not merely a problem of institutional bias and individual decision making, but also a deeply rooted cultural issue stemming from the processes of meaning-making and identity construction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440838255
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/24/2016
Series:	Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	244
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

D. Marvin Jones is professor of law at the University of Miami, where he has taught constitutional law and criminal procedure for more than 20 years.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Preface ix

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Urban Nightmares: The Social Construction of the Inner City 17

Chapter 2 New Slaves: Walking While Black, Shopping While Black, Working While Black, and Learning While Black in Urban America 37

Chapter 3 From Stop-and-Frisk to a State of Siege: A Play in Three Acts 57

Chapter 4 Between the World and Unarmed Black Men: The Killings on Our Streets and the Circle of History 79

Chapter 5 "Alien" Nation: The Social Construction of the Latin Threat 101

Chapter 6 Landscapes of Suspicion: Race, Citizenship, and Hidden Borders 119

Chapter 7 "An Enemy Within": The FBI, COINTELPRO, and the Browning of Islam 137

Chapter 8 Drawing a Line in the Sand: Citizens, Anti-Citizens, and the War on Terror 147

Conclusion 165

Notes 175

Bibliography 211

Index 235

What People are Saying About This

Kenneth B. Nunn

"In Dangerous Spaces Professor Jones weaves together history and narrative, law, and social theory to expose the raw wound on democracy that racial profiling has become. Jones explores how thirty years after the drug war and over a decade after 9/11 we have created geographies of fear for blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims as well. We have militarized and racialized the policing of the urban ghetto. Meanwhile the border has ceased to be a physical place but a cultural and religious location. Jones shows how race and place are dangerously intertwined."

Professor Jonathan Simon

"One of our most acute observers of race and the war on crime in urban America turns his insight to the new frontiers of fear and social control in an America still at war with itself."

Michael Higginbotham

"In Dangerous Spaces Professor Jones takes the reader on an eye-opening journey into today's front lines of the criminal justice system convincingly demonstrating how the combination of race and place are intricately intertwined in law enforcement's use of racial profiling practices. No longer just about color, Professor Jones argues for blacks in the inner city, for Hispanics at the border, and for Muslims any place in the public sphere where national security concerns arise, that this new form of profiling compromises American democracy by making entire communities of color suspect. Insightful, provocative, and timely, Dangerous Spaces is a must-read for those concerned about justice and equality in 'post-racial' America."

Kevin Brown

"Dangerous Spaces is a rich, contextual exposition of the problem of racial profiling. Professor Jones sheds new light on the old problem of the operation of racial profiling by linking it with the places where it primarily happens. It is not just that someone is black, but they are black in the inner city where the sale of illegal drugs and violent crime occurs. It is not that someone is Muslim, but they are Muslim in airports where an act of terrorism occurs. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking an accurate understanding of how racial profiling truly functions."

Thomas A. Messerau

“Trial lawyers need to read this book. As always, Professor Donald Jones brings originality, daunting perspective, and a wise, careful touch to the perennial topic of race. For years, I have turned to Professor Jones. In my effort to understand and present racial sensitivities and issues in my courtroom presentations. I read and re-read his works constantly. Without his assistance, I could never have been so successful in humanizing minority clients whom the criminal justice system routinely devalues and objectifies."

Editorial Reviews

This thoughtful and timely book adds to the reasonable discussion of race and exclusion in the world today. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” —Choice

From the Publisher