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Nation of Nations: Immigrant History as American History
Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected
Winner of the 2013 John Hope Franklin Book Prize presented by the American Studies Association
A necessary read that demonstrates the ways in which certain people are devalued without attention to social contexts
Social Death tackles one of the core paradoxes of social justice struggles and scholarship―that the battle to end oppression shares the moral grammar that structures exploitation and sanctions state violence. Lisa Marie Cacho forcefully argues that the demands for personhood for those who, in the eyes of society, have little value, depend on capitalist and heteropatriarchal measures of worth.
With poignant case studies, Cacho illustrates that our very understanding of personhood is premised upon the unchallenged devaluation of criminalized populations of color. Hence, the reliance of rights-based politics on notions of who is and is not a deserving member of society inadvertently replicates the logic that creates and normalizes states of social and literal death. Her understanding of inalienable rights and personhood provides us the much-needed comparative analytical and ethical tools to understand the racialized and nationalized tensions between racial groups. Driven by a radical, relentless critique, Social Death challenges us to imagine a heretofore “unthinkable” politics and ethics that do not rest on neoliberal arguments about worth, but rather emerge from the insurgent experiences of those negated persons who do not live by the norms that determine the productive, patriotic, law abiding, and family-oriented subject.
A necessary read that demonstrates the ways in which certain people are devalued without attention to social contexts
Social Death tackles one of the core paradoxes of social justice struggles and scholarship―that the battle to end oppression shares the moral grammar that structures exploitation and sanctions state violence. Lisa Marie Cacho forcefully argues that the demands for personhood for those who, in the eyes of society, have little value, depend on capitalist and heteropatriarchal measures of worth.
With poignant case studies, Cacho illustrates that our very understanding of personhood is premised upon the unchallenged devaluation of criminalized populations of color. Hence, the reliance of rights-based politics on notions of who is and is not a deserving member of society inadvertently replicates the logic that creates and normalizes states of social and literal death. Her understanding of inalienable rights and personhood provides us the much-needed comparative analytical and ethical tools to understand the racialized and nationalized tensions between racial groups. Driven by a radical, relentless critique, Social Death challenges us to imagine a heretofore “unthinkable” politics and ethics that do not rest on neoliberal arguments about worth, but rather emerge from the insurgent experiences of those negated persons who do not live by the norms that determine the productive, patriotic, law abiding, and family-oriented subject.
236 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 13, 2020
This is a fascinating book, though a bit difficult to read, as it is written in a textbook-stlye.
But it has some very interesting points to make about what it means to have rights, and how those rights are defined and given, as well as taken away from certain groups of people. Informed by race-, and power relations the result is the status of rightlesness, and disempowerment of certain groups of people, mostly non-white, and black people respectively.
Not an easy read both in terms of topic, as well as style, but very much worth the effort.
For the most part it focuses on the USA, and its relation to Latino, and black minorities, but it also presents a larger, international context. Some of the arguments presented can very well be applied to current day events, for example the refugee-crisis and the subsequent anti-imigration stance of many Western countries. Weather you live in a country that is a source of migration, or in one that is a target of it this book could be a useful guide in analyzing the rhetoric, and reasoning used by those in power to talk about citizens-rights and the imigration question.
But it has some very interesting points to make about what it means to have rights, and how those rights are defined and given, as well as taken away from certain groups of people. Informed by race-, and power relations the result is the status of rightlesness, and disempowerment of certain groups of people, mostly non-white, and black people respectively.
Not an easy read both in terms of topic, as well as style, but very much worth the effort.
For the most part it focuses on the USA, and its relation to Latino, and black minorities, but it also presents a larger, international context. Some of the arguments presented can very well be applied to current day events, for example the refugee-crisis and the subsequent anti-imigration stance of many Western countries. Weather you live in a country that is a source of migration, or in one that is a target of it this book could be a useful guide in analyzing the rhetoric, and reasoning used by those in power to talk about citizens-rights and the imigration question.
November 27, 2021
The argument of Social Death is centrally concerned with the notion of personhood as used in legal rights discourse in the United States context. More specifically, American professor Lisa Marie Cacho claims that, in demanding legal recognition as persons with inalienable rights, groups with few rights (or who are not recognized as having much human value) are, paradoxically, required to make such demands in terms and parameters that sanction the very exploitation and state violence that has left them without personhood in the first place. These limitations and parameters are racialized and criminalized along contours that this book attempts to elucidate using a variety of case studies, primarily focusing on the legal criminalizing and devaluation of Latinx, Black, and undocumented immigrant communities. This neoliberal (as in, promotion of individualism, free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending, especially on social services) understanding of personhood, as Cacho contends, is premised on some identities and populations always being criminalized and rightless, outside of the protection of law but the focus (as threats) nonetheless.
I was really engaged with this reading. Cacho effectively operates and navigates the complicated intersections and interactions of white supremacy, criminality, race, immigration status, et cetera to set the stage by which race attributes value to some and not to others (often by linking race to collective concepts, i.e. criminality, that are implicitly undeserving of value). She produces profound insights while also introducing thought-provoking questions about the battle for social justice being fought on oppressive terms. The case studies (particularly the comparative racialization of undocumented immigrant and Black communities) and Cacho's analysis of them were the strongest parts from an educational perspective. I couldn't always keep up with Cacho's train of thought or some of the scholars she cited, but reading other reviews and summaries of the text (along with a re-read someday) have come a long way in retaining what Cacho is communicating.
Along that same line, this book was a difficult read. The prose is academically-inclined and is likely intended for an academic audience. I was rather flummoxed by the introduction, but I got more comfortable as it went along; the case studies do flesh out the points that Cacho is making and building toward. To be honest, I'm not entirely confident in my synopsis either, so please accept it with a grain of salt; I hope to have represented Cacho's work fairly and accurately. It's tempting to just label the text inaccessible; it's not a critique I would reject, but, more than the academic style, the argument is simply complex and difficult to articulate. I'm not sure I can put the same argument in terms any clearer than Cacho has.
I was really engaged with this reading. Cacho effectively operates and navigates the complicated intersections and interactions of white supremacy, criminality, race, immigration status, et cetera to set the stage by which race attributes value to some and not to others (often by linking race to collective concepts, i.e. criminality, that are implicitly undeserving of value). She produces profound insights while also introducing thought-provoking questions about the battle for social justice being fought on oppressive terms. The case studies (particularly the comparative racialization of undocumented immigrant and Black communities) and Cacho's analysis of them were the strongest parts from an educational perspective. I couldn't always keep up with Cacho's train of thought or some of the scholars she cited, but reading other reviews and summaries of the text (along with a re-read someday) have come a long way in retaining what Cacho is communicating.
Along that same line, this book was a difficult read. The prose is academically-inclined and is likely intended for an academic audience. I was rather flummoxed by the introduction, but I got more comfortable as it went along; the case studies do flesh out the points that Cacho is making and building toward. To be honest, I'm not entirely confident in my synopsis either, so please accept it with a grain of salt; I hope to have represented Cacho's work fairly and accurately. It's tempting to just label the text inaccessible; it's not a critique I would reject, but, more than the academic style, the argument is simply complex and difficult to articulate. I'm not sure I can put the same argument in terms any clearer than Cacho has.
March 25, 2021
Cacho looks at social death and racial righteousness amongst SE Asian, Latinx, Muslim, and Black communities.
April 14, 2024
The only monograph to ever make me cry. Must-read, for everyone.
July 30, 2013
Far and away one of the best books I have read this year.
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February 28, 2014323.173 C119 2012
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews