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Scammer’s Yard: The Crime of Black Repair in Jamaica
Tells the story of Jamaican “scammers” who use crime to gain autonomy, opportunity, and repair
There is romance in stealing from the rich to give to the poor, but how does that change when those perceived rich are elderly white North Americans and the poor are young Black Jamaicans? In this innovative ethnography, Jovan Scott Lewis tells the story of Omar, Junior, and Dwayne. Young and poor, they strive to make a living in Montego Bay, where call centers and tourism are the two main industries in the struggling economy. Their experience of grinding poverty and drastically limited opportunity leads them to conclude that scamming is the best means of gaining wealth and advancement. Otherwise, they are doomed to live in “sufferation”—an inescapable poverty that breeds misery, frustration, and vexation. In the Jamaican lottery scam run by these men, targets are told they have qualified for a large loan or award if they pay taxes or transfer fees. When the fees are paid, the award never arrives, netting the scammers tens of thousands of U.S. dollars. Through interviews, historical sources, song lyrics, and court testimonies, Lewis examines how these scammers justify their deceit, discovering an ethical narrative that reformulates ideas of crime and transgression and their relationship to race, justice, and debt. Scammer’s Yard describes how these young men, seeking to overcome inequality and achieve autonomy, come to view crime as a form of liberation. Their logic raises unsettling questions about a world economy that relegates postcolonial populations to deprivation even while expecting them to follow the rules of capitalism that exacerbate their dispossession. In this groundbreaking account, Lewis asks whether true reparation for the legacy of colonialism is to be found only through radical—even criminal—means.
There is romance in stealing from the rich to give to the poor, but how does that change when those perceived rich are elderly white North Americans and the poor are young Black Jamaicans? In this innovative ethnography, Jovan Scott Lewis tells the story of Omar, Junior, and Dwayne. Young and poor, they strive to make a living in Montego Bay, where call centers and tourism are the two main industries in the struggling economy. Their experience of grinding poverty and drastically limited opportunity leads them to conclude that scamming is the best means of gaining wealth and advancement. Otherwise, they are doomed to live in “sufferation”—an inescapable poverty that breeds misery, frustration, and vexation. In the Jamaican lottery scam run by these men, targets are told they have qualified for a large loan or award if they pay taxes or transfer fees. When the fees are paid, the award never arrives, netting the scammers tens of thousands of U.S. dollars. Through interviews, historical sources, song lyrics, and court testimonies, Lewis examines how these scammers justify their deceit, discovering an ethical narrative that reformulates ideas of crime and transgression and their relationship to race, justice, and debt. Scammer’s Yard describes how these young men, seeking to overcome inequality and achieve autonomy, come to view crime as a form of liberation. Their logic raises unsettling questions about a world economy that relegates postcolonial populations to deprivation even while expecting them to follow the rules of capitalism that exacerbate their dispossession. In this groundbreaking account, Lewis asks whether true reparation for the legacy of colonialism is to be found only through radical—even criminal—means.
- GenresAcademic
245 pages, Paperback
Published October 27, 2020
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 18, 2021
I thought this was an excellent ethnography. I enjoyed the focus on three people (Omar, Junior, and Dwayne); methodologically this reminds me of monographs that focus on the circulation of a single thing to discuss broader structures.
In the introduction, Lewis notes "For them, it was long and cunningly observed that criminality was how money was actually made in Jamaica. Especially the kind of money that set up one's family for generations" (9). This line reminded me of Frantz Fanon in Wretched of the Earth when he writes, "the colonist had always shown the path they should follow to liberation...the colonial regime owes its legitimacy to force and at no time does it ever endeavor to cover up this nature of things" (42).
Yes, crime and scamming are present, but the crime is that Omar, Junior, and Dwayne were forced into scamming to make a living. The crime is the way that the national and comprador bourgeoisie in Jamaica sold them into neocolonialism.
The scam that Omar, Junior, and Dwayne engaged in was a financial scheme where they would get a list of names, call and inform them that they won a lottery prize but before receiving from Western Union, they had to pay the taxes and customs. It was largely the elderly in America who fell for it and Lewis and his interlocutors positioned this scam as a form of reparations.
Central to Lewis' argument is that the decision to engage in the scam was a result of structural factors from the failure of postcolonial nationalism from Independence in 1962 to the disciplining of structural adjustments.
However, I do want to push back against this 'scaffolding of time' that Lewis builds. He writes, "Just as the generation before them had sought freedom based on the scaffolding of their time, that of state-based nationalism, this generation of young Jamaican men chose to glean their own independence by criminal means" (15) Here, is an implicit-if-not-explicit argument that liberation through an independent nation-state is a feature of the past and that for Omar, Dwayne, and Junior, their time leads toward criminal means. However, there are movements for national liberation still being waged (the Philippines, Nepal. West Papau, Palestine, etc.) and lumpen/criminal syndicates were present among the previous generation. This is not to say that national liberation occurs in a vacuum but rather that it is not a function of a scaffolding of time or teleological.
The first chapter dealing with structural adjustments was great. The chapter on reparations I found lacking. But this is because of my own position on reparations. I don't see the need to justify their 'scam' in terms of reparations because I don't think the blood money from imperialists for their crimes repairs anything. This is the strategy used from Cape town to Harlem to Palestine. If anyone is interested in exploring this further, Rashid Johnson, a political prisoner and minister of defense of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party has written extensively on this topic.
[http://rashidmod.com/?p=370](http://r...
In the introduction, Lewis notes "For them, it was long and cunningly observed that criminality was how money was actually made in Jamaica. Especially the kind of money that set up one's family for generations" (9). This line reminded me of Frantz Fanon in Wretched of the Earth when he writes, "the colonist had always shown the path they should follow to liberation...the colonial regime owes its legitimacy to force and at no time does it ever endeavor to cover up this nature of things" (42).
Yes, crime and scamming are present, but the crime is that Omar, Junior, and Dwayne were forced into scamming to make a living. The crime is the way that the national and comprador bourgeoisie in Jamaica sold them into neocolonialism.
The scam that Omar, Junior, and Dwayne engaged in was a financial scheme where they would get a list of names, call and inform them that they won a lottery prize but before receiving from Western Union, they had to pay the taxes and customs. It was largely the elderly in America who fell for it and Lewis and his interlocutors positioned this scam as a form of reparations.
Central to Lewis' argument is that the decision to engage in the scam was a result of structural factors from the failure of postcolonial nationalism from Independence in 1962 to the disciplining of structural adjustments.
However, I do want to push back against this 'scaffolding of time' that Lewis builds. He writes, "Just as the generation before them had sought freedom based on the scaffolding of their time, that of state-based nationalism, this generation of young Jamaican men chose to glean their own independence by criminal means" (15) Here, is an implicit-if-not-explicit argument that liberation through an independent nation-state is a feature of the past and that for Omar, Dwayne, and Junior, their time leads toward criminal means. However, there are movements for national liberation still being waged (the Philippines, Nepal. West Papau, Palestine, etc.) and lumpen/criminal syndicates were present among the previous generation. This is not to say that national liberation occurs in a vacuum but rather that it is not a function of a scaffolding of time or teleological.
The first chapter dealing with structural adjustments was great. The chapter on reparations I found lacking. But this is because of my own position on reparations. I don't see the need to justify their 'scam' in terms of reparations because I don't think the blood money from imperialists for their crimes repairs anything. This is the strategy used from Cape town to Harlem to Palestine. If anyone is interested in exploring this further, Rashid Johnson, a political prisoner and minister of defense of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party has written extensively on this topic.
[http://rashidmod.com/?p=370](http://r...
Displaying 1 of 1 review