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This Is an Illogical Statement: Dangerous Trends in Anti-Prison ActivismAuthor(s): Camille E.S.A. AceyReviewed work(s):

Source: Social Justice, Vol. 27, No. 3 (81), Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex(Fall 2000), pp. 206-211Published by: Social Justice/Global OptionsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29767243 .

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This Is an Illogical Statement:Dangerous Trends inAnti-Prison Activism1Camille E.S.A. Acey

RECENTLY, AMOVEMENT CALLED "SCHOOLS NOT JAILS" HAS DOMINATED MUCH OFthe popular discourse surrounding the alarming rise of incarceratedpeoples inAmerica. Iwould like todiscuss, ingeneral terms,some of theproblems that thismovement poses to radical anti-prisonwork. I am speaking

generally in thehope thatmy critique can find some currencywith otherswho aredealingwith theproblematic of the mbedded liberal ideological apparatus,whichholds that theveryviolence that onstitutes social institutions smerely a curableexcess.

IntroductionInstitutionsare created and maintained by hegemonyHegemony is created and maintained by violenceHegemony is violenceInstitutionsare violenceSchool isan institutionInstitutionsare created and maintained by hegemonyHegemony is created and maintained by violenceHegemony is violenceSchool is violenceTime isan institutionInstitutionsare created and maintained by hegemonyHegemony iscreated and maintained by violenceHegemony is violenceTime is violenceJail isan institutionInstitutionsare created and maintained by hegemony

Camille E.S.A. Acey is radical black feminist student, activist, and educator. She iscurrently a fourthyear student at U.C. Berkeley (e-mail: camil@uclink4.berkeley.edu; Web site: http://www.geocities.com/camillesname/); her lifeplan is tokeep on struggling, learning, and thinking.Hercurrent academic interests include genocide, afrofuturism, and cyberculture. She wishes to extend herdeepest gratitude toDylan Rodriguez and Jared Sexton for all theirhelp.

206 Social Justice Vol. 27, No. 3 (2000)

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Dangerous Trends inAnti-PrisonActivism 207Hegemony is created and maintained by violenceHegemony is violenceJail is violenceSchool uses timeJail uses timeInstitutions use institutionsInstitutionsare created and maintained by hegemonyHegemony is created and maintained by violenceHegemony is violenceViolence uses violenceSchools not jailsInstitutionsnot institutionsThis isan illogical statement.In themid-1990s, "Schools Not Jails" (SNJ) (and othervariations thereof, uchas "JobsNot Jails")was circulating inCalifornia as a popular rallyingcryforanti

prisonmovements, butmore recently ithas grown into itsownmovement. As abridge between emerging youth activism and anti-prison advocacy, this ideologyseeks inpart todraw crucial linksbetween theunderfunding of schools and theever-burgeoning prison-industrial complex. It isnot at thispolitical location thatI seek tocritique thismovement. As one of the studentswho was politicized in theeraofProposition 209,21 soon found thattherewas no space formy radical critiqueof government institutionswhen "Schools Not Jails"ballooned intoamovement.

Meetings were closed and businesslike, and thefocus shiftedfromprogressivepolitical education to effective campaign management. This movement did notexplicitly tie itself to a historyof social justicemovements in theUnited States;rather, it seemed for thismovement that timebegan with Proposition 187 andwould go on as long as therewere propositions to oppose.3 Most recently, the"Schools Not Jails" sloganwas used in thefailed campaign against California'sProposition 21.With stipulations such as the legalization ofwiretapping on thosethepolice deem "gang members" and increasing penalties for "gang-affiliated"crimes, Proposition 21 set into law the practices that the legal system (inconjunction with theFBI and other federal agencies) has used against activists foryears.One would thinkthatwith seasoned activists at the head of theorganizing,the level of political education around this issue would have been superb.However, thiswas not the ase. Taking the ead from the"youth" organizers, a newnaivete permeated theorganizing. SNJ grew inpopularitybecause of itssimplicityand straightforwardness it sclear, catchy, and itfitsneatlyon a bumper stickeror a tee shirt. or thisreason, SNJ is also dangerous. This and other such slogansindicate a revolt against what science fiction author and literarycritic, SamuelDelany, has referredtoas the"problem of 'complex rhetoric.'"4This revolt, in thename of popularizing a limited leftistagenda, iswaged at the expense of the

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208 ACEYmargins. Thus, Iwish to speakfrom themargins and discuss how attempts at"mainstreaming" a leftistpolitical agenda problematize and often censure theproject, precluding the development of a radical counter-hegemonic politicallanguage.5The slogan "education not incarceration" grew out of the link betweenuniversity student anti-Proposition 209 activism and grass-roots high schoolstudentactivism.6 In themid- to late 1990s, a number of studentwalkouts andprotests were led throughout the state of California. The main emphasis ofuniversity studentswas on increasing access to theuniversityforpoor,workingclass communities of color and promotingmore relevant curricula.High schoolstudents from those communities voiced concerns over insufficienteducationalresources, declining economic opportunity, and the growing criminalization oftheirgeneration.Often,many of theorganizations came togethertodevelop morecomprehensive, radical critiques of these issues and strategies for politicaleducation. Though it is oftenbelieved thatSNJ is a variation on "education notincarceration," Iwould argue that that it is a corruption.During workshops ormeetings with high school students,theywould oftenexpress theirextremelyvalidbelief thatthepurpose ofhigh schoolwas to"getyou ready togo toprison."UndertheSNJ regime, this staunchly anti-school critique, from those incarcerated insome of thecountry'smost egregious juniorhighs andhigh schools,was censored.Soon college students and graduates were employed (and developed theirownorganizations) toeffectivelyhandpick andmanage youth organizers. They gavethemcrisp, clean sound bites todeliver to themedia and policed anynihilistswhomight feel theurge toyell "Fuck school!" during an SNJ rally.However, armedwith inaccuracies and a slogan that on't quit, the"Schools Not Jails"movementembodied the oldest form of anti-intellectual nihilism thewillingness anddetermination tobe intensely ignorant.The liberal ideology behind SNJmay have beenmore fitting or welfare state.With continual corporate downsizing andmassive global economic restructuring,a sizable and ballooning population has emerged whose bodies capitalism hasdiscarded, and who (because of theiryouth, race, gender, imprisonment, andunemployability) often fall outside the scope of even the broadest Marxistanalysis. Further, in collaboration with massive policing efforts, orporations andsupranationalorganizations have succeeded inclosing down our streets ndpublicspaces.While theanti-welfarewarfare state shifts tsresources tobuilding globalcommunication, our immediate communities have been ignored; infact, theterm"community" has nearly faded fromdaily discourse as a signifier for specificgeographic locales. Urbanist Paul Virilio (1999: 41) describes thedanger of thisnew sentiment towardpersonal social interaction:

iftomorrowwe love only our distant neighborwithout being consciousof hating our neighbors because they're present, because they smell,

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Dangerous Trends inAnti-PrisonActivism 209because they're noisy, theybotherme and theysummonme, unlikemydistant neighborwho I can zap.. .so if tomorrowwe startpreferringourdistant neighbor at the expense of our neighbor, thenwe would bedestroying the city....

This idea has helped to change attitudes toward social responsibility and tofacilitate a staunchly anti-"handout" mentality. Hope inquick-fix liberal-demo?craticprograms isquickly decaying among thepoor. As anti-prison activists,wemust struggle tounderstand thisperiod as a time of crisis,because only ina timeof crisis do we begin todeconstruct our relationshipwith language and time.

Time and CrisisInhis appropriately named essay, "TIME," San Quentin inmateEddy Zhengsaid: "After Iwas sent toprison todo a life sentence, itforcedme to think abouttime...." Iwould even suggest that institutionsrequire thatyou not only thinkabout, but also do time.That iswhy ifyou go into almost anyprison in theworldand talk to any inmate,you will find that theywere probably notwhere timedictated they should have been at theevent of their crime.They were probably

"supposed" tobe atworkor in school or inbed, catching some sleep before itwastime to get up and go back to school or work or the unemployment office.Somehow, their "crime" indicated that theywere resisting some clock orwere

being wholly ignorantof it. In "TIME," Eddy also says: "Time took on awholenewmeaning when Iwas locked up at the ge of sixteen.When Iwas on thestreetI didn't really care about time. Iwas free todo what I chose todo and go whereIwanted togo. There weren't any setguidelines or routines. I didn't feel a senseof time."We need to thinkcritically about the implications of this differencebetween institutional and streettime forradical prisonwork beyond thewalls.Examining the relationship between popular anti-prison rhetoric and theexpressed realities of prison lifereveals a huge divergence inpolitical locations.Activists often speak about the "state" without specifically definingwhat theymean by it.Similarly, they thinkabout the "state" and by extension "statepower" interms f locality (ofteneven pointing tospecific buildings). At everymoment that ower iswielded, it s established, exercised, and reasserted throughthe invocation of ideological institutions. hese institutionssubsequently help toviolentlyenclose space?whether through he ctof landgrabbingorghettoization.Therefore,when formulatinga radical understanding of, and opposition to, statepower, it is necessary forus to locate and deconstruct the iterative space fromwhich power flows, recognizing and continually addressing the fact that space(and, by extension, spatialmetaphor) is in constant flux.A metaphor for the liberal-democratic ideal is the idea of aworking bodya healthy body with all theorgans functioningproperly. Some popular anti-prisondiscourse is similar to the complaint of a sick patient: particular institutionsare

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210 ACEYsaying,"this institution or thisorgan) is in theway of society (ormy body) beingfully functional. I need another one." In particular, education isproposed as anorgan that an be transplantedintothe sick" society so as tosomehow make itwellagain. This is unproven; more oftenwe find that new institutions installedalongside theold ones do damage more quickly and efficiently.However, thismethod of activism continues tobe employed because of themyth of time thetimethat heals all wounds" and the time that will tell."Time is theskin that oldsall these faultyorgans in.Hope relies on time; however, the trickof time is thatwhile you arewaiting foryour hope, thecurrentsocial order isreproducing itself.Indeveloping our critique,whatwe need toreveal isnotonly thefaultsof thebody,but also thatthebody is itselfthefault;modern societycannot be saved.As radicalanti-prisonactivists,our aim therefore hould be tomake people realize this?that(stickingwith themetaphor) we must induce a sustained attack inthebody,wheretheonly time is emergency time,where theonly time isnow.

Sometimes we are blessed with being able tochoose the timeand thearena and themanner ofour revolution, butmore usually wemust do battle wherever we are standing.? Audre Lourde

NOTES1. A version of this essay was presented at ICOPA IX (NinthMeeting of the InternationalConference on Penal Abolition): New Questions, New Answers, onMay 12,2000, in oronto, Canada.2. Proposition 209 was theCalifornia proposition that effectively ended the application ofaffirmative action policy inuniversity admissions and state hiring practices.3. Proposition 187 was an "anti-immigrant" proposition that, among other things, bannedcertain government agency spending on "illegal immigrants" and their children.4. In an interview with Kenneth James, Delany (1994) goes on to say: "Our country values'common' sense and 'simple' language. It's part of ourwhole democratic notion?part of a necessaryvision of democratic workings. What thismeans, however, is that to speak orwrite a complex rhetoricis to speak against theAmerican grain, as itwere? to speak outside theAmerican tradition.This isone reason difficult discourse initially raises our suspicions and distrust."5. For an excellent discussion of "mainstreaming" a leftistpolitical agenda, see Joy James'

(1999) discussion of radicalizing feminism in Chapter 4, "Radicalizing Feminisms from 'TheMovement' Era."6. In themid- and late 1990s, a number of student walkouts and protests were led throughoutthe state of California.

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Dangerous Trends inAnti-Prison Activism 211REFERENCES

Delany, Samuel1994James, Joy1999Smith, Neil1993Virilio, Paul1999

Silent Interviews. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.Shadowboxing: Representations ofBlack Feminist Politics. New York: St.Martin's Press."Contours of a Spatialized Politics: Homeless Vehicles and theProduction ofGeographical Scale." Social Text 33: 55-81.Politics of theVery Worst. New York: Semiotext(e).