Source: Midterm Study Guide, Weeks 4–5 | University of California, Berkeley
Tags: white fantasy, carceral state, mass elimination, settler colonialism, Dawes Act, boarding schools, Kill the Indian Save the Man, racial innocence, slavery, fugitive slave, Reconstruction, Du Bois, ethnic studies, 21AC
Weeks 4 and 5 cover the relationship between "white fantasy" and the carceral state, mass incarceration as mass elimination through settler colonialism, the Dawes Act and Indian boarding schools, the construction of racial innocence in children, and the concept of the slave as socially dead. Reconstruction is examined as both a possibility and a "splendid failure."
White Fantasy
The belief that people of colour are more likely to commit crimes, or that imprisonment helps people. Underpinning claim: you cannot have a capitalist state without a state of racial repression; that is how profit and exploitation are created.
Mass Elimination
The argument (from Hernandez) that mass incarceration functions as mass elimination. You cannot simply kill people of colour, so you lock them up and take away their liberty. Incarceration is elimination.
Dawes Act
A government programme that forcibly removed Native Americans from their families and required them to be "American." Native identities were stripped and cultures attacked. Gender is implicated: the act restructured family and land ownership along Euro-American patriarchal lines.
"Kill the Indian to Save the Man"
The ideology behind Indian boarding schools. Destroy "Indian" culture to produce a person structured according to white standards of culture and morality. Education was the primary tool for dictating what was "right" and "wrong."
Racial Innocence (in Children)
The idea that children of colour are "innocent" because they are not yet fully "cultural" as people of colour. This framing pushes the notion of "fixing" children and making them more "white."
The Slave
Someone who is not free to be themselves. "The apogee of the community, the point at which commodity becomes flesh."
Fugitive Slave / Right to Kill
"In order to exercise the sovereign right to kill, the state had first to create a person entirely stripped of all rights, a person outside the reach of civil law, criminal law, even slave statute." The outlaw and the fugitive slave legitimated state violence.
"White fantasy" and the carceral state
The US is built on white supremacist values
Private organisations profit from incarceration
The core argument: a capitalist state requires a state of racial repression to generate profit and exploitation
Mass incarceration as mass elimination
Hernandez argues that incarceration is elimination
We cannot challenge the carceral state and racial capitalism without grappling with the logic of conquest foundational to settler colonialism
If we strive toward abolition of all walls, cages, and borders, our struggle must also take seriously the destruction of the settler colonial state
The Dawes Act and reservations
Forcible removal of Native Americans from families
Required assimilation into "American" identity
Native identities and cultures were systematically attacked
Gender was central: the act imposed Euro-American structures of family and property
Indian boarding schools and military foundations
Army officer Richard Pratt founded the first Indian American boarding school, based on a programme developed in an Indian prison
Parallels between boarding schools and prisons:
Forced attendance by law
Not allowed to leave
Windowless, small spaces
No outside contact
Punishment for disobeying rules
Authority figures dictate right and wrong
Government-issued curriculum
Metal detectors
State, military-industrial complex, and environmental destruction
The military destroys homes of Native American peoples and uproots communities
The political relationship of the state to Native Americans is inseparable from the military-industrial complex and environmental destruction
"Kill the Indian to save the man"
Education was used to destroy "Indian" culture and replace it with white cultural norms
Education becomes a tool for defining morality and correctness on white terms
Racial innocence in children
Children of colour are framed as "innocent" because they are not yet fully formed as people of colour
This pushes the notion that the goal is to "fix" children and make them more "white"
What is the slave?
Someone who is not free to be themselves
"The apogee of the community, the point at which commodity becomes flesh"
Defined by social death, dishonour, and natal alienation
The fugitive slave and the "right to kill"
The state created a person entirely stripped of all rights in order to exercise the sovereign right to kill
This person was placed outside the reach of civil law, criminal law, and even slave statute
The outlaw and fugitive slave legitimated police violence
Reconstruction and the "possibility" of America
Reconstruction allows us to think about possibility: things can be fixed, people can get better
It demonstrates that today is not inevitable
Du Bois called it a "splendid failure" because nothing truly changed at the level of attitudes; people simply found new ways to oppress people of colour
Freedom dreams
Black Americans freed themselves, and that knowledge planted seeds that would blossom again and again
These "freedom dreams" of Reconstruction are present in today's movements for social justice
⚠️ Hernandez's argument that "incarceration is elimination" directly links mass incarceration to settler colonialism. Be prepared to explain this connection.
⚠️ The parallels between Indian boarding schools and prisons are a likely exam topic. The shared features (forced attendance, no outside contact, punishment, government curriculum) are the key evidence.
⚠️ "Kill the Indian to save the man" is not just a slogan. Be ready to discuss how education functioned as the tool for cultural destruction.
⚠️ Du Bois's "splendid failure" framing of Reconstruction is likely to appear. The answer rests on the gap between legal change and unchanged attitudes.
⚠️ The definition of the slave (social death, dishonour, natal alienation) connects to the fugitive slave's role in legitimating state violence. These ideas link together.
⚠️ Racial innocence in children is a nuanced concept. The argument is that framing children of colour as "innocent" implies they need to be "fixed" toward whiteness.
Q: How does Hernandez connect mass incarceration to settler colonialism?
A: Hernandez argues that incarceration is a form of elimination. Because you cannot simply kill people of colour, you lock them up and remove their liberty. Challenging the carceral state and racial capitalism requires grappling with the logic of conquest foundational to settler colonialism. Abolition of walls, cages, and borders demands the destruction of the settler colonial state.
Q: What are the parallels between Indian boarding schools and prisons?
A: Both involve forced attendance/confinement, no ability to leave, restricted contact with the outside world, punishment for breaking rules, government-issued rules and curriculum, small and confined spaces, and authority figures who dictate what is right and wrong.
Q: What does "Kill the Indian to save the man" mean?
A: It refers to the ideology behind Indian boarding schools, where the goal was to destroy Native cultures and replace them with white cultural norms. Education was the primary tool, used to define morality and correct behaviour on Euro-American terms.
Q: Why does Du Bois call Reconstruction a "splendid failure"?
A: Because despite formal legal changes, underlying attitudes did not shift. People found new methods of oppression, leaving the core promise of Reconstruction unfulfilled. The failure was splendid because the attempt itself demonstrated possibility.
Q: How does the concept of the fugitive slave relate to state violence?
A: The state created a person stripped of all rights, placed outside civil law, criminal law, and slave statute. This "outlaw" status legitimated the sovereign right to kill, providing the legal and ideological foundation for police violence.
Q: How is innocence in children racially constructed?
A: Children of colour are considered "innocent" because they are not yet fully "cultural" as people of colour. This framing implies the goal is to "fix" them and make them more white, treating non-whiteness as something to be corrected.
white fantasy, carceral state, mass elimination, Hernandez, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, Dawes Act, Indian boarding schools, Richard Pratt, Kill the Indian Save the Man, assimilation, cultural destruction, racial innocence, childhood, slave, social death, natal alienation, fugitive slave, right to kill, sovereign violence, Reconstruction, Du Bois, splendid failure, freedom dreams, possibility of America