Building Blocks

“The strength of a building lies in its foundation.” – Danny J. Stevens.

I. The Start
At the beginning of this semester, my Writing 101 professor Dr. Churchill asked my class our thoughts on writing templates. Were they helpful in providing structure and clarity, or were they suffocating and limiting creativity? If you asked me this question 4 months ago, I would tell you templates make writing feel too rigid and formulaic. For a creative like me, formats and templates were my worst enemies. With so many ideas that I wanted to express, I wanted to write freely, unbound by the templates that washed away my personality when writing. But as this semester ends, I’ve completely changed my tune about them. While templates and formats can produce the same robotic formulaic writing, they are the foundation of writing. Rather than limit me, templates have aided in polishing my wordy hard-to-follow writing into something well-organized and articulated. They have become the guides acting as blueprints to my foundations only strengthening my writing.

II. Sketching
“Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.” – Austin Kleon (Kleon 14)

Looking back at my first essay in this course, I was shocked to see how confusing it was. There was so much paper-ese and filler that I lost what connected to my argument. My thesis was strong but was too broad which allowed for too many ideas to come into conversation without actually connecting. It was like trying to make out a rough sketch of a drawing. There was potential, but too much unnecessary content. I remember when I wrote the essay I used the most basic format of them all: introduction, strong thesis, three body paragraphs, conclusion. Although I read the assigned readings of Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, I wasn’t applying it. At the time, I didn’t think it was necessary. I’m no perfect writer, but I didn’t see the appeal or reason to use the templates. I didn’t want to lose my voice in the rigid structures. I had all the quality ideas but weak structure and format. Once the second essay came along, I knew something needed to change. So I looked to Kleon.

Dr. Churchill introduced us to Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative. The book encourages artists alike to embrace influence, learn from others, and find their unique voice through the process of borrowing and transforming ideas. If you like something that someone else is doing, take it, learn from it, and use it. I had been applying this principle to all my other creative spaces, so why not writing as well? For this, I need references, inspiration, and something to latch onto that I like and want to incorporate. That’s when I read Nasia Anam’s The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration.

III. The Blueprint
For our second essay, we read Nasia Anam’s The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration as one of our sources. Her writing had voice and color, yet was still academically structured. It was engaging while still well-structured and had a strong argument. Most academic writing to me was often dull and robotic I assumed it was because that was how all academic papers had to be. Anam taught me otherwise. So I did as Kleon advised, I stole and learned from Anam’s writing. For my second essay I incorporated her sectioned headers, personal voice through strong language, and always circling back to my argument. It made my body paragraphs more clear, organized, and relevant to my argument. Her usage of personal pronouns and voice “The texts I examine here” (Anam 657) or “Secondly, I argue that perhaps even more powerfully, “ (656) made me realize I can still hold my voice, even in an academic setting. Anam became my blueprint, my new foundation for how I wanted to write. Moreover, this was not the end of me using writers as my guide.

IV. The Building
For our third essay’s readings and sources, we came into conversation with, James Forman Jr.’s Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow. Even before we got the prompt for essay 3, I was very fond of the way Forman had crafted his argument. The road map he provided made it crystal clear where and what he was going to discuss in his paper. Then he also had a strong perspective as to why he understands the counterargument to his point but why it only makes his argument stronger. I could barely find any faults in his writing, though that might be because I liked it so much. So I followed Kleon’s words, stole and learned from Forman’s writing, and even used him as my main support for my argument. Using what I learned from Anam, Forman, and the other smaller templates helped me craft my third essay, which I believe was my strongest yet.

V. Onwards
Although I cannot name any specific formats presented in Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing besides the basic They Say/I Say that I used, the lessons they wanted to convey reached me in the end. Templates are helpful. I probably unconsciously used many templates in the book without realizing it. Just like any basic lesson, templates are flexible. I may have not used the ones presented in They Say/I Say, but I used the template Kleon introduced using other authors such as Anam and Forman as my guides. I used formats. I used templates. Guess what? I liked it, they only helped to grow my creativity, not limit it. The more I learned how to write, the more I could write. Now the biggest hurdle is word count, but all I need to do is find a blueprint and learn from it.

Citations:
Anam, Nasia. “The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, Sept. 2018, muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/711837/pdf.
Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow.” New York University Law Review, vol. 87, no. 1, April 2012, p. 21-69. HeinOnlineThesis Statement
Kleon, Austin. “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative.” New York, Workman Pub. Co., 2012.

Google Doc Link:

WRI 101 Essays

Thank you to Dr.Chill for your unrivaled amount of support this semester. Thank you for an eduactional semester and 4 months of growth. You were motivational and inspiration. Thank you.

-VVB

To Be Or Not To Be: Mass Incarceration and The New Jim Crow

Introduction:

“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Kahlil Gibran.

The old Jim Crow laws were a set of institutions set in place to limit the rights and freedoms of Black Americans after slavery ended in the states. Racial-based segregation, black voter disenfranchisement, and restrictions on Black Americans’ economic and geographic mobility (Althoff and Reichardt 2280) plagued America for almost 100 years. Jim Crow’s reign of terror persisted until the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, which outlawed racial discrimination. Some believe that a New Jim Crow has risen in the form of mass incarceration. This can be seen in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), where Michelle Alexander discusses how the seemingly racially neutral criminal justice policies unfairly target black communities. The parallels between the modern criminal justice system and the racial system of segregation of the past highlight how both systems work to marginalize and control a significant portion of the black population.

I do agree that mass incarceration and its so-called “racially neutral” policies are perpetuating racial hierarchy. The way the system unfairly targets black communities and the damage it has caused is obvious and present today. My friends, many of whom are people of color, and I often make jokes about this tension. When we hear sirens, we jokingly run or hide, but in this humor still lies the truth; if stopped, one wrong move, whether we are innocent or guilty, could mean our incarceration. James Forman Jr. states, the “analogy effectively draws attention to the plight of black men whose opportunities in life have been permanently diminished by the loss of citizenship rights and the stigma they suffer as convicted offenders.” However, Forman and I agree that the analogy has its limits, mainly being that, unlike the old Jim Crow, mass incarceration affects a broader spectrum than just Black Americans. The New Jim Crow analogy neglects other marginalized groups besides Black Americans, such as the Hispanic and Latino communities.

Thus, I will primarily critique Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). Due to the persuasive language she uses supported by strong statistics and evidence, it’s hard to challenge the analogy. While making the point that mass incarceration especially affects Black Americans, she tends to use terms, statistics, and recounts that also include the Latino and Hispanic communities. This use of vague language provides grounds that the analogy of the New Jim Crow is not a good fit for the system of mass incarceration because it affects more groups than just Black Americans, unlike the old Jim Crow.

Its A Range:

Michelle Alexander primarily disagrees that the criminal justice system is colorblind, processing people regardless of race. Nonetheless, as the US has become the world’s largest jailer; black men have been imprisoned at 6.5 times the rate of white men (Forman 22). Alexander adds that “[one] in three young African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue” (11). In addition, in some cities, more than half of all young adult black men are currently under correctional control whether that be in prison or jail, on probation or parole (11). Once they are labeled as felons, African Americans are faced with legalized discrimination including employment, housing, education, and voting rights.

Furthermore, Alexander presents that the War on Drugs, which was originally meant to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse, disproportionately targeted communities of color and incarcerated them. The media campaigns for the War on Drugs were saturated with images of black “crack whores,” “crack dealers,” and “crack babies” (6), reinforcing negative racial stereotypes of those in impoverished inner-city areas. These factors reinforce why the New Jim Crow analogy is so convincing. Yet, what makes the analogy lose its grounding is that much of the evidence and statistics include other marginalized minority groups.

When writing, though using synonyms for words to decrease repetition is important, the context is very influential to the argument. Alexander often uses “people of color” as a synonym for Black Americans. While Black Americans do fall under the term people of color, so do Hispanics, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and many more. The same applies to Alexander’s usage of “black and brown people,” which brown can also refer to South Asian Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Latino Americans. Although brown skin can refer to Black Americans physically, the term does not exclusively describe this group. Besides the choice of wording, Alexander uses evidence that includes Latino or Hispanic people in tandem with Black Americans. Although the rates of incarceration for Latinos and Hispanics are lower than those of Black Americans, they are still affected by the system of mass incarceration. Even so, Alexander stated that “ninety percent of those admitted to prison for drug offenses in many states were Black or Latino” (73). Including Latinos in her statistics, makes mass incarceration not solely a Black targeted issue, thus not Jim Crow. When talking about the War on Drugs, Alexander uses a story from Village Voice that recounts how “[dozens] of black and Latino victims” were affected when describing how “police [ransacked] their homes, [handcuffed] children and grandparents, [put] guns to their heads, and [were] verbally (and often physically) abusive” (Alexander 224). By using this story that includes Latinos, those affected by the War on Drugs expand beyond Black communities.

The War on Drugs reinforced images of criminality and drug abuse in the Black community. Just as Black Americans have become victims reinforced by stereotypes, Hispanics and Latinos also have the same stains on their communities. In American media, Hispanic and Latino people were regularly portrayed in television roles as criminals and drug dealers. The only things covered were crime, immigration, and drugs rather than achievements (36 Dong), similar to how the War on Drugs media portrayed Black Americans. What doesn’t help is that many of the drugs that were being smuggled to the United States came from Latin America (Alexander 7), adding to the image of drug dealers. Latinos and Hispanics within the US also reside in low-income areas alongside Black people. This is shown in a New York statistic used by Alexander in which, “70 percent of the city’s poor black and Latino residents live in high-poverty neighborhoods” (244). They are also framed negatively by the War on Drugs.

James Forman Jr. reveals that Hispanic and Latino prisoners receive little attention together in the discussion of mass incarceration. However, they make up 20% of American prisoners and one in six Hispanic males are expected to go to prison in their lifetime (Forman 60-61). They are often overlooked by those who support the New Jim Crow analogy. Although Alexander did mention Latinos and Hispanics, whether directly or indirectly, she did not truly address them as she did with the Black community. Although they were not explicitly the target of Jim Crow, “during the Jim Crow years, Hispanics in many jurisdictions were subject to forms of exclusion, segregation, and disenfranchisement not unlike those inflicted on African Americans” (Forman 60). Some examples I found that were present in Forman’s footnotes were Hernandez v. Texas, (1954), which recognizes Mexican Americans as an independent racial group entitled to Fourteenth Amendment protections, and Mendez v. Westminister Sch. Dist.,(C.D. Cal. 1946), 8 years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and struck down segregation of Mexican and Mexican American students in California. Hispanic and Latino people also were affected by poll taxes and literacy tests; therefore, they also overcame voting challenges as well. This narrative doesn’t end at Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans either, numerous minority groups have faced similar struggles and have been affected by mass incarceration in different ways even if not on the same scale. At the same time, when thinking about the broader implications of Jim Crow, only Black communities seem to come into conversation.

Verdict:

“The idea that the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration and therefore hampers our ability to challenge it effectively.” (Forman 25)

The problem of the so-called color-blind criminal justice system is not something we can turn a blind eye to. The damage it causes is clear and something needs to be done to fix this system that so disproportionately criminalizes and incarcerates minorities. Alexander was not wrong to stress the need for this institution to be reformed and focused on, however, it needs to be reformed as a whole and not just focus on one group or community. If we want to stop more systems and institutions being riddled with racial bias and injustice we need to acknowledge all the pieces. Although “African Americans are incarcerated in numbers grossly disproportionate to their percentage of the overall population, the fact remains that 60% of prisoners are not African American” (Forman 61). If these other groups are not in conversation, they are less likely to see a campaign against it as speaking to and for them. Meaning mass incarceration’s harm will continue. This is why the analogy of the New Jim Crow fails to be the right one for the institution of Mass Incarceration.

If the system is supposedly colorblind, then we cannot be colorblind to those who are being affected and must speak up for all voices. We cannot be colorblind to those who are being affected and must speak up for all voices.

Sources:

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New Press, The, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy048.nclive.org/lib/davidson/detail.action?docID=5651869.
Althoff, Lukas, and Hugo Reichardt. “Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress after Slavery*.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 22 July 2024, academic.oup.com/qje/article/139/4/2279/7718111.
Dong, Qingwen. “The Impact of Television Viewing on Young Adults’ Stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans.” Academia.Edu, 13 Aug. 2016, www.academia.edu/27755934/The_impact_of_television_viewing_on_young_adults_stereotypes_towards_Hispanic_Americans.
Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow.” New York University Law Review, vol. 87, no. 1, April 2012, p. 21-69. HeinOnlineThesis Statement
“Hernandez v. Texas.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us475. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

Comments:

Note: I did not have my draft posted in time, therefore my drafting group members were not able to comment on time. I asked them afterwards based on availability.

Alston:
I really like your use of meta commentary, outlining your argument for the reader and adding concessions to your statements. Your use of personal experience adds passion behind the argument, as well as character to your writing. I LOVE how you cite a court case and compare it to a previous court case to make your argument. Great job!
When you first quote James Forman Jr. and Dong add a bit more background such as from which document the quotes from. Also maybe fact check me on this, but for the quotes you only need use the authors last name in the citation the first time you quote the author if you add Alexander states, “”. In your fourth paragraph under “It’s A Range”, you have a lot of good statistics and quotes but it feels like more quotes than your own ideas. I think you go one to explain the quotes later but I would add more of your own ideas after quotes specifically in that paragraph.

Special thanks to both my drafting group and Melz for allowing me to run ideas through them before my essay fully came together. It was extremely beneficial and helped me so much.

-Pledge VVB

For Essay 3, I want to know, how are other groups, specifically Hispanics/Latinos, being affected by mass incineration. The answer to this question will help me ground why I believe the New Jim Crow analogy is not a good fit for the institution. I will be looking at Michelle Alexander’s loose usage of terms such as black and brown, people of color, and brief mentions of the Latino community as evidence that mass incineration is not only a “black problem” but a problem to all marginalized ground (and to some extent white people though I won’t be discussing that). Why are they omitted from the conversation?
Michelle Alexander is who I am mainly critiquing, and James Forman Jr. is who I am primarily using to back me up. Forman is the main scholar who has addressed the question I want to be answered. He addressed the Latino/Hispanic community and how not talking about them affects the analogy of the New Jim Crow. He uses statistics and draws parallels to Black American struggles that showcase the institution of mass incarceration affects all minorities and to some extent white people. I will need resources that showcase evidence that supports the parallels between black and Latino/Hispanic people in the context of how they are affected by mass incarceration. I would need cases that showcase how Latinos’ and Hispanics’ images have been affected by mass incarceration and the War on Drugs concerning drugs and crime.

Sources:
Althoff, Lukas, and Hugo Reichardt. “Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress after Slavery*.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 22 July 2024, academic.oup.com/qje/article/139/4/2279/7718111.
Dong, Qingwen. “The Impact of Television Viewing on Young Adults’ Stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans.” Academia.Edu, 13 Aug. 2016, www.academia.edu/27755934/The_impact_of_television_viewing_on_young_adults_stereotypes_towards_Hispanic_Americans.
Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow.” New York University Law Review, vol. 87, no. 1, April 2012, p. 21-69. HeinOnlineThesis Statement
“Hernandez v. Texas.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us475. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

-Pledge VVB

Notes: Need Title, Also 180 words over count need to cut down.

Introduction:

“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Kahlil Gibran.

The old Jim Crow laws were a set of institutions set in place to limit the rights and freedoms of Black Americans after slavery ended in the states. Racial-based segregation, black voter disenfranchisement, and restrictions on Black Americans’ economic and geographic mobility (Althoff and Reichardt 2280) plagued America for almost 100 years. Jim Crow’s reign of terror persisted until the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, which outlawed racial discrimination. Some believe that a New Jim Crow has risen in the form of mass incarceration. This can be seen in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), where Michelle Alexander discusses how the seemingly race-neutral criminal justice policies unfairly target black communities. The parallels between the modern criminal justice system and the racial system of segregation of the past highlight how both systems work to marginalize and control a significant portion of the black population.

I do agree that mass incarceration and its so-called “racially-neutral” policies are perpetuating racial hierarchy. The way the system unfairly targets black communities and the damage it has caused to the image of the community is obvious. The stain of the image and the tense relationship with authorities are still present today. My friends and I often make jokes about this tension. When we hear sirens we jokingly yell, run, or hide, or we freeze in place going through the motions of being pulled over. In this humor still lies the truth, one wrong move and we could be next whether we are innocent or guilty.

James Forman Jr. states, the “analogy effectively draws attention to the plight of black men whose opportunities in life have been permanently diminished by the loss of citizenship rights and the stigma they suffer as convicted offenders.” However, Forman and I agree that the analogy has its limits. The main limitation of the New Jim Crow analogy is that unlike the Jim Crow of old, mass incarceration affects a broader spectrum of people, not only Black Americans. The problem with the New Jim Crow is it neglects other marginalized groups besides Black Americans who are affected by mass incarceration, such as the Hispanic and Latino communities. After all, my friends who I joke around with are not all Black, and neither are their families or the other people in the communities they belong to.

Thus, I will primarily be critiquing Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010) due to how persuasive her argument on the New Jim Crow is. In the book, Alexander focuses on how the mass incarceration system affects Black people, especially Black men. However, she tends to use terms such as Black and Brown, people of color or POC, and statistics and recounts that include the Latino and Hispanic communities. This use of vague language provides grounds that the analogy of the New Jim Crow is not a good fit for the system of mass incarceration because it affects many groups, not just Black Americans like the Jim Crow of old.

Its A Range:

Michelle Alexander primarily disagrees that the criminal justice system is colorblind. The system supposedly processes people regardless of race. However, as the US has become the world’s largest jailer, black men have been imprisoned at 6.5 times the rate of white men (Forman 22). Alexander adds that “[one] in three young African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue” (Alexander 11). In addition, in some cities, more than half of all young adult black men are currently under correctional control whether that be in prison or jail, on probation or parole (Alexander 11). Once they are labeled as felons, African Americans are faced with legalized discrimination in their lives including employment, housing, education, and voting rights.

Furthermore, the War on Drugs, which was originally meant to combat drug trafficking and drug abuse, disproportionately targeted communities of color and incarcerated them. The media campaigns for the War on Drugs were saturated with images of black “crack whores,” “crack dealers,” and “crack babies” (Alexander 6). These images reinforced negative racial stereotypes of those in impoverished inner-city areas, maintaining a racial hierarchy by making these communities seem inferior.

All of these factors help to reinforce why the New Jim Crow analogy is so powerful and fitting. The shocking proportion of Black Americans affected in comparison to their white counterparts and the parallels of the old Jim Crow are ever-present. However, what makes the analogy lose its grounding is that much of the evidence and statistics go hand in hand with other marginalized minority groups, for Alexander it’s the Hispanic and Latino communities. When writing, using synonyms for words to be less repetitive is important, the context and meaning of these words can also be very influential to the argument. Alexander often uses people of color as a synonym for Black Americans or African Americans. While Black Americans do fall under the people of color term, so do Hispanics, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and many more. The term is not exclusively used for African Americans. The same applies to Alexander’s usage of “black and brown people” which can also refer to South Asian Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Latino Americans. Although brown skin can refer to Black Americans physically, they are not the only group the term applies to.

Besides the choice of words, Alexander uses many pieces of evidence, statistics, and recounts that include Latino or Hispanic people in tandem with Black people. Although when it comes to the rates and numbers of incarcerated in comparison to Black Americans, Latinos are still affected by the system of mass incarceration. Even so, Alexander stated that “ninety percent of those admitted to prison for drug offenses in many states were Black or Latino” (Alexander 73). When talking about the War on Drugs, Alexander uses a story from Village Voice that recounts how, “[dozens] of black and Latino victims” were affected when describing how “police ransacking their homes, handcuffing children and grandparents, putting guns to their heads, and being verbally (and often physically) abusive. In many cases, victims had received no follow-up from the NYPD, even to fix busted doors or other physical damage” (Alexander 224). Then when referring to how those affected by mass incarceration end up in high-poverty neighborhoods, Alexander used a study from New York that found that “70 percent of the city’s poor black and Latino residents live in high-poverty neighborhoods, whereas 70 percent of the city’s poor whites live in non-poverty neighborhoods.” This statistic also revealed that nearly seven out of eight people living in high-poverty urban areas are members of a minority group nationwide. Once again showcasing how the effects of mass incarceration are not limited to African Americans.

Just as Black Americans have become victims reinforced by stereotypes due to the War on Drugs and images of criminality, Hispanics and Latinos also have the same stains on their communities. In American media, Hispanic and Latino people were regularly portrayed in television roles as criminals and drug dealers. The only things covered were crime, immigration, and drugs rather than achievements (Dong 36). What does not help is that many of the drugs that were being smuggled to America came from Latin America, adding to the image of drug dealers and makers. Latinos and Hispanics also reside in low-income areas as shown in the New York statistics mentioned prior, they also are victims of the War on Drugs’ targeting.

James Forman Jr. reveals that Hispanic and Latino prisoners receive little attention together in the discussion of mass incarceration, although they make up 20% of American prisoners and one in six Hispanic males were expected to go to prison in their lifetime (Forman 60-61). They are often overlooked by those who support the New Jim Crow analogy. Although Alexander did mention Latinos and Hispanics, whether directly or indirectly, she did not truly address them as she did with the Black community. Although they were not explicitly the target of Jim Crow, “during the Jim Crow years, Hispanics in many jurisdictions were subject to forms of exclusion, segregation, and disenfranchisement not unlike those inflicted on African Americans” (Forman 60). Some examples I found and that were present in Forman’s footnotes were Hernandez v. Texas, (1954), which recognizes Mexican Americans as an independent racial group entitled to Fourteenth Amendment protections, Mendez v. Westminister Sch. Dist.,(C.D. Cal. 1946), 8 years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and struck down segregation of Mexican and Mexican-American students in California. Hispanic and Latino people also were affected by poll taxes and literacy tests, therefore they also overcame voting challenges as well. This narrative doesn’t end at Latinos, Hispanics, and African Americans either, numerous minority groups have faced similar struggles and have been affected by mass incarceration in different ways even if not on the same scale.

Verdict:

“The idea that the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration and therefore hampers our ability to challenge it effectively.” (Forman 25)

The problem that is the so-called color-blind criminal justice system is not something to pass up. The evidence and damage it causes are clear and something needs to be done to fix this system that so disproportionately criminalizes and incarcerates minorities. Alexander was not wrong to stress the need for this institution to be reformed and focused on, however, it needs to be reformed as a whole and not just focus on one group or community. If we want to stop more systems and institutions being riddled with racial bias and injustice we need to acknowledge all the pieces. Although “African Americans are incarcerated in numbers grossly disproportionate to their percentage of the overall population, the fact remains that 60% of prisoners are not African American” (Forman 61). If these other groups are not in conversation, they are less likely to see a campaign against it as speaking to and for them. Meaning mass incarceration’s harm will continue. This is why the analogy of the New Jim Crow does have leverage and grounding but fails to be the right one for the institution of Mass Incarceration.

If they are so-called colorblind, then we cannot be colorblind to those who are being affected and stand up for all voices.

Sources:

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New Press, The, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy048.nclive.org/lib/davidson/detail.action?docID=5651869.
Althoff, Lukas, and Hugo Reichardt. “Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress after Slavery*.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 22 July 2024, academic.oup.com/qje/article/139/4/2279/7718111.
Dong, Qingwen. “The Impact of Television Viewing on Young Adults’ Stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans.” Academia.Edu, 13 Aug. 2016, www.academia.edu/27755934/The_impact_of_television_viewing_on_young_adults_stereotypes_towards_Hispanic_Americans.
Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow.” New York University Law Review, vol. 87, no. 1, April 2012, p. 21-69. HeinOnlineThesis Statement
“Hernandez v. Texas.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us475. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

Comments:

Note: I did not have my draft posted in time, therefore my drafting group members were not able to comment on time. I asked them afterwards based on availability.

Alston:
I really like your use of meta commentary, outlining your argument for the reader and adding concessions to your statements. Your use of personal experience adds passion behind the argument, as well as character to your writing. I LOVE how you cite a court case and compare it to a previous court case to make your argument. Great job!
When you first quote James Forman Jr. and Dong add a bit more background such as from which document the quotes from. Also maybe fact check me on this, but for the quotes you only need use the authors last name in the citation the first time you quote the author if you add Alexander states, “”. In your fourth paragraph under “It’s A Range”, you have a lot of good statistics and quotes but it feels like more quotes than your own ideas. I think you go one to explain the quotes later but I would add more of your own ideas after quotes specifically in that paragraph.

-Pledge VVB

Essential Outline:
-Use a story similar to the Jarvious Cotton story, but a Latino/Hispanic equivalent
-Use historical Context of the fact that it took Hispanics and other races just as long as to be able to vote in America. And incarceration has the same effect on them.

History:
-Although not as old, it still is rooted in American history
-1848 – Winning of Mexican-American War. Those still living in now American land gained “citizenship” and the country gained a considerable Mexican American population.
-Also had mob violence and lynching
-Stealing jobs accusations (Great Depression), same sentiment even now (Now theyre stealing “Black Jobs”). Led to forced Deporations 20’s-30’s
-Segreated as well even though the laws didnt explicitly say Latios
– In 1945, along with four other families, they filed a class action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts. Their goal: Ensure that all children could attend California schools regardless of race.

• Argued, Mexican American students didn’t speak English and were thus not entitled to attend English-speaking schools. Added they never gave students proficiency tests. “Mexicans are inferior in personal hygiene, ability and in their economic outlook,” said one official.
  -Langauge barrier/discrimination
  -On February 18, 1946 ended segragations for mexican americans in the era, caused chain reaction (May 17, 1954 was B.V.BE, though on a larger scale)

-The argument of “who has it worse.”
-Something about them being glossed over, just as black people were.
-Voting Rights?
-How the War on Drugs affected Latino Communities as well
-Image Tainting

-If Mass Incarceration is the New Jim Crow for Black people, then Deportation, Naturalization, and Mass Incarceration are the New Jim Crow for Hispanic people

-If we wanna solve problems we need to talk about the mass problem, we wish to be equal and colorblind, but even when we talk about color how come some colors are missing?
-Alexander keeps using poc/people of color, brown, and Latinos in statistics and writing. Then why mention them if only to skip over them.

Page Examples/Notes:
Page 6 Alexander
A few years after the drug war was declared, crack began to spread rapidly in the porr black neighborhoods of Los Angeles and later emerged in cities across the country.
The media campaign was an extraordinary success. Almost overnight, the media was saturated with images of black “crack whores,” “crack dealers,” and “crack babies” – images that seemed to confirm the woeest negative steristypes about impoverished inner-city residents.

Page 254 Alexander
Very well that Latinos, Asian Americans, and Whites also commit drug crimes. We, as a nation, seem comfotable with 90 percent of the people arrested and convieted of drug offenses in some states being African American, bit if the figure were 100 percent, the veil of color blindness would be lost.

The fact that quality data on Hispanics in the prison systems is often lacking may be partly to blame for this omission.159 But it is important to remember that during the Jim Crow years, Hispanics in many jurisdictions were subject to forms of exclusion, segregation, and disenfranchisement not unlike those inflicted on African Americans.160 And given what we do know about current Hispanic incarceration rates, it is clear that Hispanic prisoners deserve the attention of all who write about the prison system. The Hispanic prison population climbed steadily during the 1990s, to the point where one in six Hispanic males born today can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. 161 The available data suggest that Hispanic incarceration rates are almost double the rates for whites, and many observers believe that these data undercount the true rate at which Hispanics go to prison.162 Most Hispanic prisoners, like most blacks and whites, are serving time for violent offenses, and about 20% are in prison for drug offenses.163
Thus, the data on white and Hispanic prisoners reminds us that while African Americans are incarcerated in numbers grossly disproportionate to their percentage of the overall population, the fact remains that 60% of prisoners are not African American. As I will argue in the conclusion, anyone analyzing mass incarceration must keep that 60% squarely in mind.
Pg 60 Forman

-Look at the Hispanic struggle during Jim Crow and the similar labeling done to them as Black people. Look at the voting history, even now. Deportation would be their “Jim Crow.”

I. Citation:

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. The New Press, 2011.

II. Thesis:

Alexander’s Thesis:

We have not ended racial caste in America; we have simply redesigned it (Alexander 2).

This book argues that mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should fully commit themselves to dismantling the new racial caste system. Mass incarceration—not attacks on affirmative action or lax civil rights enforcement—is the most damaging manifestation of the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement (Alexander 11).

My Words: Michelle Alexander argues that the system of mass incarceration and the criminal justice system has replaced the Old Jim Crow as the “New Jim Crow.” Mass incarceration is the current (new) most harmful system in currently in place against the Civil Rights Movement. Systems like Jim Crow haven’d ended or disappeared, just redeigned with a fresh coat of paint.

III. Analysis:

-Introduction:

Michelle Alexander starts her book by recounting a generational restriction of the most basic freedom that democracy promises. Jarvious Cotton’s great-great-grandfather was a Slave. His great-grandfather was beaten dead by the KKK for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting due to KKK intimidation. Then, his father was unable to vote due to poll taxes and literacy tests. Finally, Jarvious Cotton also had his right to vote taken away due to being labeled a felon and is now on parole. 

Alexander seems to be preventing the “New Jim Crow” with this “New Grandfather Clause” idea sorta. Originally if your grandfather could not vote, neither could you. With the system of mass incarceration, the cycle continues.

This is how Alexander’s first thesis ties in; “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have simply redesigned it (Alexander 2).” Nothing has truely ended or become void, it was simply been designed and rebranded.

Alexander uses her personal experience in the industry and field to build her persuasiveness and ethos on the matter. She recounts how she did not believe in the comparison that the “Drug War is the New Jim Crow.” She got a new job soon after as the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU in Northern California. Orginally, Alexander believed mass incarceration and the criminal justice system were just another system with racial bias problems. Once she left the ACLU, she discovered it was a beast of its own. The poster wasn’t random theory. We walk through her journey in building the connections and drawing the conclusion. It allows us to understand how Alexander reached the conclusion she did. How the argument became persuasive and why she must persuade us.

Then introducing the counterargument and doubts about this new racial caste system that exists in “contemporary” US.

Central to Alexander’s argument is the discussion of the Drug War. Adding in this history was to show that the government can choose the extent to which it punishes people. Alexander spoke of how even if it was supposed to be for the people it still gave a negative image to the community. With new images of “crack whores,” “crack dealers,” “crack babies,” (Alexander 6) and the CIA never denying claims, the theories presented about the true nature of the War on Drugs seemed to have some traction.

Alexander then compares the legal system to slavery and provides many statistics about incarceration. By using other countries as a scale in comparison to the US really puts into perspective how the US fails to address the injustice in the justice system and how much of a problme.

“Between 1960 and 1990, for example, official crime rates in Finland, Germany, and the United States were close to identical. Yet the U.S. incarceration rate quadrupled” (Alexander 7) and “One in three young African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue” (Alexander 9). Both of these are evidence Alexander uses to further this point.

war on drugs history (using only part of history for a whole)

“What is key to America’s understanding of class is the persistant belif—despite all evidnce to the contrary—that anyone, with the proper discipline and drive, can move from a lower class to a higher class We recognize that mobility may be difficult, but the key to our collective self-image is the assumption that mobility is always possible, so failure to move up reflects on one’s character. By extension, the failure of a race or ethnic group to move up reflects very poorly on the group as a whole.” (Alexander 16)

This part of the text also puts into perspective how the system works in America. Eveyone has an equal chance, but if you fail to move up even with “equal” chance there clearly must be something wrong.

Alexander then introduces her thesis statement about what her book hopes to achieve.

“What this book is intended to do […] is to stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (19). will be.

Finally Alexander goes into what each chapter will dive into.

Chapter 1: briefly reviews the history of racialized social control and the US. How did we get here?

Chapter 2: The structure of mass incarceration, with focus on War on Drugs.

Chapter 3: The role of race in the US criminal justice system.

Chapter 4: How the caste system operates once people are released from prison.

Chapter 5: The many parallels between mass incarceration and Jim Crow.

Chapter 6: Reflects what acknowledging the presence of the New Jim Crow means for the future of civil rights advocacy

One thing we noted in class was how it only seems like Alexander cherry picks information rather than using the whole picture. Jarvious Cotton was incarcerated for murder, not just some petty crime, falsly convicted, or framed. Even when describing the War on Drugs, she doesn’t speak about the War on Poverty that preceded it, or why the criminal justice system isn’t on the rader for African American leaders.

-Chapter 5:

Uses Obama’s speak on missing father’s and this search for where black men have gone to set up the conversation of mass incarceration and the War of Drugs. Because no one had said anything regarding them in the conversation.

“The unfortunate reality we must face is that racism manifests itself not only in individual attitudes and stereotypes, but also in the basic structure of society.” (Alexander 184)

Alexander borrows from thoersit Iris Marion Young, who describes structural racism like a birdcage. Alexander does take into note that it may be difficult to understand structural racism, so she borrows the metaphor of a birdcage to help make structural racism more explicit for readers.

For the rest of Chapter 5, Alexander goes into the different headings and sections she puts into play. How it works speaks on how mass incarceration works to trap African Americans, Nothing New is a reminder that there is nothing new under the sun just renamed and remade, Mapping the Parallels talks on all the parallels between the New and Old Jim Crow, the limits of the analogy speaks on where the analogy don’t allign, and Fork in the road talks about how there countines to be a fork in the road with the issue at hand.

IV. Three Rhetorical Strategies:

1. Using a strong story as an opening that connects to the idea/argument presented.

Ex: Jarvious Cotton’s story (even if it was sort of falsly used)

2. Well seperated sections and good identification markers.

3. Personal shift on the argument. Why you didnt agree and why you do now, what convinced you.

-Pledge VVB

I. Citation:

Hinton, Elizabeth. From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America. Harvard University Press, 2016.

II. Thesis:

Hinton’s Thesis: “Waged over the past half- century, since it emerged from within the War on Poverty and alongside it, this long War on Crime has today positioned law enforcement agencies, criminal justice institutions, and jails as the primary public programs in many low- income communities across the United States.”

(Hinton 4)

“The long mobilization of the War on Crime was not a return to an old racial caste system in a new guise— a “New Jim Crow.” Rather, the effort to control and contain troublesome groups with patrol, surveillance, and penal strategies produced a new and historically distinct phenomenon in the post–civil rights era: the criminalization of urban social programs. In the two decades preceding Reagan’s War on Drugs, this phenomenon laid the groundwork for the continued rise of mass incarceration and its deep racial injustices into the twenty-first century”

(Hinton 25-26)

My Words: Due to the long established federal policies that began with the War on Poverty, the War on Crime was not the beginning of the problem of mass incarceration. These policies created a new system rather than emulating an old racial caste (Jim Crow). They used incarceration and law inforcement to “address” social issues within the impoverished and marginalized communities. The War on Poverty is what lead into the the War on Crime.

III. Analysis:

(Had trouble digesting and really solidifying information to make analysis)

Hinton opens with the condensed historical context on where the “War in Drugs” began. She dicusses presidents and how it was their systems and policies that made these changes.

She also noted mainly that “positioned law enforcement agencies, criminal justice institutions, and jails as the primary public programs in many low- income communities.” Which really puts into perspective where this has effected.

Hinton often goes back into the history that she condensed in the introduction. Returning back into it each chapter.

Notes:

-uses statistics

-talking about the black leaders and people who support the doubling down on crime.

-Seems to be inbetweenish of Forman and Alexander in a way. Because they seem to keep bouncing between the two and they seem to still have a voice at the same time?

IV. Three Rhetorical Strategies:

1. The historical perspective is a bit of a new one. Most people aim for historical logos or historical pathos but I feel as though this one is almost all historical in comparison to Alexander and Forman. There isnt a super strong lean, it almost feel neutral.

2. The historical framing and use of President’s to understand the timeline of events. It makes it easier to follow along rather than just throwing dates and times around in one section/aspect.

Ex:

“Since President Lyndon Johnson fi rst called for a “War on Crime” somefifty years ago…” (Hinton 1)

“With a robust national law enforcement program under way at both the state and local levels, Jimmy Car ter moved to dissolve the federal LEAA and place crime control mea sures at the center of the national government’s broader urban policy, framing his punitive policies as security precautions, rather than crime control measures. “

(Hinton 4)

3. The usage of photos as a “break” in the content. It still adds to the narrative but also offers a additive feature.

(Hinton 18)

-Pledge VVB

I. Citation:

Forman, James Jr. “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow.” New York University Law Review, vol. 87, no. 1, April 2012, p. 21-69. HeinOnlineThesis Statement

II. Thesis:

Forman’s Thesis: This Article argues that despite these important contributions, the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration. The analogy presents an incomplete account of mass incarceration’s historical origins, fails to consider black attitudes toward crime and punishment, ignores violent crimes while focusing almost exclusively on drug crimes, obscures class distinctions within the African American community, and overlooks the effects of mass incarceration on other racial groups. Finally, the Jim Crow analogy diminishes our collective memory of the Old Jim Crow’s particular harms (Forman 21).

My Words: Forman contends that although the comparsion of the New Jim Crow and mass incarceration has served well to highlight the injustices of the seemingly neutral system that has in reality harshly “ostracizes offenders and [stigmatized] young, poor black men as criminals,” (Forman 21) the comparsion is not completely accurate and causes a distortion. Although it has some leverage, it lacks the nuances and details, leaving out the attituide of black peope towards crime and punishment, ignores violent crimes, the focus almost exclusively on drug crimes, and class distinctions within the African American community, and overlooks the effects of mass incarceration on other racial groups (Forman 21). This analogy also distorts the particular harm that was caused by the Old Jim Crow.

III. Analysis:

Forman begins by explaining the Jim Crow comparison some scholars have made between the problem of mass incarceration and Jim Crow, now titling it the New Jim Crow. He then provides a roadmap of how his article will go giving topics for what he will cover: historical context, birth of mass incarceration, obscuring black support for punitive crime policy, ignorning violence, obscuing class, overlooking race.

Forman also reinforces his Ethos in this topic and the community in which he is writing about where he write:

“Before I turn to the argument itself, I would like to address a question that arose when I began presenting versions of this Article to readers familiar with my own opposition to our nation’s overly punitive criminal justice system. As an academic, I have written extensively about the toll that mass incarceration has taken on the African American community, and especially on young people in that community. I am also a former public defender who co-founded a school that educates young people who have been involved with the juvenile
justice system.” (Forman 24)

This then allowed Forman to set up two questions: “Don’t you agree with much of what the New Jim Crow writers have to say?” and “Why are you critiquing a point of view that is so closely aligned with your own?” (Forman 24). He then goes to answer them immediately, helping to resolidify his place in the argument and what he is trying to say.

Forman then follows the roadmap he set up in the beginning. Carefully covering and going back to each part, helping the article flow and tie in to itself.

I. He provides a brief history of the “New Jim Crow.” He describes how “a number of
writers began using the term to describe contemporary practices in the
late 1990s” (Forman 25). Forman than describes how the term even gained traction and supports using Michelle Alexander’s account to support this, mainly how she changed her view due to the War on Drugs. Which he then says is only one quater of the problem.

II. Forman covers the value of the analogy. Even admitting that ” those most familiar with our criminal justice system may fail to recognize how comprehensively we banish those who are convicted of crimes. I confess that I did not see the scope of the problem myself, even during my six years as a public defender” (Forman 28). But he then doubles down that his “objection to the Jim Crow analogy is based on what it obscures” (Forman 34). This is mainly because the analogy only focuses on what aspects most resemble Jim Crow in mass
incarceration. He states that “the analogy generates an incomplete account of mass incarceration-one in which most prisoners are drug offenders, violent crime and its victims merit only passing mention, and white prisoners are largely invisible” (Forman 34)

The rest of his article focusus on exactly the points he talks about.

III. talks about the birth of mass incarceration and what gets obscured to fit the “New Jim Crow” analogy.

IV. How black people supporting strict policies on crime and what gets obscured. Forman talks about how black people are now actors in determining the policies that sustain mass incarceration.

V, VI, and VII all talk about aspects that are obscured and overlooked in order to fit the New Jim Crow analogy: violent crimes beinf overlooked, obscuring class, overlooking race. The three sections all speak to how mass incarceration has been remolded to fit this New Jim Crow anaolgy, which ties in VII where he speaks of the diminishing of the history of the Old Jim Crow.

IV. Three Rhetorical Strategies:

1. The usage of parts (The Roadmap). Forman not only used them to separate/organize his argument but used them in his writing as well.

Example: Part I tracks the analogy’s history, documenting its increasing prominence in the scholarly literature on race and crime. Part II explores the analogy’s usefulness, pointing out that it is extraordinarily compelling in some respects.

(Forman 22)

But, as I argue in Parts III through VIII, the Jim Crow analogy also obscures much that matters. Part III shows how the Jim Crow analogy, by highlighting the role of politicians seeking to exploit racial fears while minimizing other social factors, oversimplifies the origins of mass incarceration. Part IV demonstrates that the analogy has too little to say about black attitudes toward crime and punishment, masking the nature and extent of black support for punitive crime policy. Part V explains how the analogy’s myopic focus on the War on Drugs diverts us from discussing violent crime-a troubling oversight given that violence destroys so many lives in low-income black communities and that violent offenders make up a plurality of the prison population. Part VI argues that the Jim Crow analogy obscures the fact that mass incarceration’s impact has been almost exclusively concentrated among the most disadvantaged African Americans. Part VII argues that the analogy draws our attention away from the harms that mass incarceration inflicts on other racial groups, including whites and Hispanics. Part VIII argues that the analogy diminishes our understanding of the particular harms associated with the Old Jim Crow.

(Forman 23)

2. Useage of questions in a strong way

Example:

“questions: 1) “Don’t you agree with much of what the New Jim Crow writers have to say?” and 2) “Why are you critiquing a point of view that is so closely aligned with your own?” I hope to clarify this Article’s broader goals by providing brief answers to those questions here.” (Forman 24)

“Don’t you agree with much of what the New Jim Crow writers have to say? In a word, yes. The New Jim Crow writers have drawn attention to a profound social crisis, and I applaud them for that. Low-income and undereducated African Americans are currently incarcerated at unprecedented levels. The damage is felt not just by those who are locked up, but by their children, families, neighbors, and the nation as a whole.” (Forman 24)

“Why are you critiquing a point of view that is so closely aligned with your own? Although the New Jim Crow writers and I agree more often than we disagree, the disagreements matter. I believe that the Jim Crow analogy neglects some important truths and must be criticized in the service of truth. I also believe that we who seek to counter mass incarceration will be hobbled in our efforts if we misunderstand its causes and consequences in the ways that the Jim Crow analogy invites us to do.” (Forman 24)

3. There are just strong tie-ins. Everything comes back together even though there is a lot of content in the article. It never feels like too much; it all flows together and comes back together.

-Pledge VVB

The Architecture of Mass Migration: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

Past, Present, Future : Exit West‘s Journey With History

Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West (2017) garnered attention for its approach to the migration narrative. As Nasia Anam identified, in the past, works in this genre were riddled with narratives of fear and destruction due to the “migrant crisis.” Anam specifically praises Hamid for walking away from the narrative built by Western and European nativism, xenophobia, and fear-mongering (Anam 674). Rather, the novel takes a new approach by being in the perspective of migrants themselves (Anam 672). However, voices such as Yogita Goyal argue that Exit West “[renders] banal what must remain historical” (Goyal 241) because Hamid, “naturalizes the fact of migration in a way that evacuates the specific historical experience that generates it” (Goyal 241). While Goyal argues that Exit West lacks the historical context of the migration story, I contend that Hamid engages with contemporary historical concerns and a long history of othering migrants in the main plot and the side vignettes.

I.The Apocalypse

One part from Exit West caught my attention, “international broadcasters had acknowledged the doors existed, and indeed were being discussed by world leaders as a major global crisis” (Hamid 88). This line reinforced the historical fearmongering that Nasia Anam characterized past migrant literature with. Anam calls upon Jane Jacobs’ notes regarding 1980s Britain which began replacing its narrative with a more nativist one, “ rendering postcolonial migrants “both ‘outsiders,’ but also [as]‘an enemy within” (Hamid 662). This fear of being dominated by migrants, is what is scarring these world leaders just as it scared the Europeans and Westerners, creating images of dystopia and panic of a “crisis.” This “major global crisis,” is a migrant crisis. These nations fear this “apocalyptic” influx of migrants that the doors allow.

II. Horror, Trauma, Catastrophe

While Exit West avoids the spectacular, it is not devoid of horror, trauma, and catastrophe. Violence is in the pages of the novel, in every chapter, big or small. Goyal remarks, “Hamid, rather than foreground horror, trauma, or catastrophe, turns to metaphor to emphasize the ordinariness of the fact that most of the world is on the move” (Goyal 244). Yet, Hamid does detail horrific, traumatic, and catastrophic events that occur during the political revolution and wartime in the protagonist’s homeland.

In the first page of the novel we are greeted with the setting, “a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war” (Hamid 3). As the story progresses, the city Saeed and Nadia call home deteriorates. Helicopters filled the sky, the militants’ power grew after a successful assault on the city’s stock exchange, more territories began to fall to the militants, then a curfew was imposed. As the city descends into chaos, Saeed’s mother believes she saw a former student of hers. If it was him, once quick-witted and shy, he was no longer the same boy. Now he was “firing with much determination and focus a machine gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck” (Hamid 68). Buildings deteriorated and became abandoned, rationing of supplies became normal, and panic entered. One does not need to know who these adversaries are or whether their country is a democracy, a dictatorship, or a failing state (Goyal 246) to understand that the city’s security is compromised. The people begin hoping to escape through the magic doors “that could take [them] elsewhere, often to places far away, far removed from [their] death trap of a country” (Hamid 79). Moments such as Saeed’s mother abruptly dying due to a stray bullet (Hamid 74-75), “the public and private executions that now took place almost continuously” (Hamid 86), “bodies hanging from streetlamps and billboards like a form of festive seasonal decoration” (Hamid 86), and Saeed’s father realizing that young men were playing football with a severed head of a goat (Hamid 87) are all violent moments contained in the book.

Now I ask, how are any of these portrayals of brutal war-torn violence banal, ordinary, or lacking context? Goyal discounts these instances by claiming that Hamid uses metaphor to emphasize the ordinariness of most of the world being on the move rather than foreground the horror, trauma, or catastrophe crucial to the migrant narrative (Goyal 244). However, these incidents in the novel give insight into the events that occur during revolutions of wartime, the cause of movement, of migration. Yes, Hamid invokes a sense of universalism, but simply because violence is not at the forefront does not mean he completely disregards it.

III. Planted Vines

In the first chapter, we are introduced to one of the vignettes Hamid uses in Exit West. These stories offer an extra layering of historical context within the migrant narrative. This story addresses the association of dark skin with danger and crime. “[Far] away in Australia a pale-skinned woman [sleeps] alone in the Sydney neighborhood of Surry Hills” (Hamid 7). Then in the dark closet of the woman, a man emerges. “He too was dark, with dark skin and dark, woolly hair.” In my Writing 101 class, we discussed how before finishing the passage, the assumption was that the dark-skinned man was to hurt the pale-skinned woman. My professor, Dr.Churchill, warned about this predetermined view that we must distance ourselves from. This view is rooted in the same past migrant literature Anam spoke of. Anam discussed how European and Western Christianity felt threatened by “Islam in either its Arab, Ottoman, or North African and Spanish form” (Anam 657). Those related to Islam often have darker skin tones, just like the dark-skinned man. As Anam quotes, these nations have a “fear of being overtaken by Islamic hegemony paired with the fear of being colonized by former colonial subjects” (Anam 656). Rather than an aggressor, the man is also a victim, only looking for a means of escape. The man “[choosing] the window” (Hamid 9), escapes the woman’s abode just as he chose a door to escape.

IV. Continued Through Time

An old woman has “lived in the same house her entire life. Her parents [bringing] her to this house when she was born” (Hamid 207). This is non-specific information, with the reader only knowing that the family started in this house in Palo Alto. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t know much about the woman’s background until we read about her granddaughter: “what she would have looked like if she had been born in China” (Hamid 208). The vignette portrays the immigrant experience in a different country, generation after generation growing and adapting. Yet, Goyal criticizes the line “We are all migrants through time” (Hamid 209) in the vignette for universalizing the migrant experience (Goyal 251). However, I believe the line alludes to generational migration rather than standing solely as a metaphor. Through the movements and migrations of our ancestors, migration never truly ends. With each new generation, a new chapter is added. Though we may not understand the horrors of migration firsthand, we understand the perils those before us and currenty have experienced. Just as the old woman and her family who have migrated through time in the vignette, hoping to build towards a better future for generations to come.

As we say, history repeats itself. To build an argument or provide a take on something you must understand where the argument comes from otherwise, it loses its place in the narrative as Goyal argues. However, Goyal’s argument that Exit West is romanticized for “[evacuating] the specific historical experience that generates it, rendering banal what must remain historical” (Goyal 241) loses its place as Hamid’s work does engage with the crucial historical experience needed to solidify its place. Through its main plot and side vignettes, Exit West not only interacts with contemporary historical concerns and the long history of othering migrants, but provides context that remains present as well. Rather than history repeats itself, history is not just a cycle, but a continuous growth and progression. A migration through time.

Sources:

Anam, Nasia. “The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, Sept. 2018, muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/711837/pdf.

Goyal, Yogita. “‘We Are All Migrants’: The Refugee Novel and the Claims of Universalism.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020, muse.jhu.edu/article/758170.

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West: A Novel. Penguin, 2017.

Comments:

Alina:

some thoughts while reading your intro:

-what is the difference between “what’s to come” and the “dystopian aftermath”
the “so peaceful” is totally right, but before introducing the word “peaceful” you don’t state -who thinks it’s peaceful (reader could guess from context, but if you used a word that implies peacefulness somewhere before that then it would be a little easier for the reader)

-Love love love the idea of the thesis statement!!!

Alina:

-Hey Vee! Your essay does a great job of providing evidence from the book. Your evidence is well-chosen, and you explain the plot and how parts of the plot relate to your own argument in enough detail so that the reader understands, but you also don’t bore the reader with overly long and detailed explanations or irrelevant details. If I could point out one thing that you could still improve on in your essay, it would be transitions and metacommentary. I think the intro and the first body paragraph already flow well, but, as a reader, I got lost in the long body paragraphs. The transition “trying to understand the full context, a predetermined thought that he was there to harm had formed. Another example that’s a little more abstract with the definition is…” for example could have a better flow if you connected the second example to the first in a way that answers WHY you now want to introduce us to this other example that is” a little more abstract with the definition”. Is there a way for you to take the reader by their hand and walk them through your brilliant ideas with a little more guidance? One more thing to think about: You are currently 300+ words over the word count, so you might have to think about choosing the most powerful evidence from the book. Keep up the good work! Reading your essay was really fun and your ideas are so refreshing!

Eva:

-Hi Veee! I loved reading your essay, such a good thesis! You provide good examples from the text, but maybe you could provide a more detailed analysis of these examples, that would enhance your argument (you could also use it in your quotation sandwiches!). Then also, you could when discussing the characters introduced through the magic doors, consider exploring how their experiences specifically relate to broader themes of migration and identity? You have long paragraphs that contain a lot of information to support your claim which is good, but you are also over the word count! So, try to either cut some information or summarize it more.
Great work!!

Thank you to Dr.Chill and Melz for also working with me and for thier wonderful insight.

-Pledge VVB

In its respective genre, Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 Exit West garnered lots of attention for its new approach on the migration narrative. In the past, many works in this genre were riddled with narratives of fear and destruction due to the “migrant crisis”. Nasia Anam specifically praises Hamid for walking away from this narrative built by Western and European nativism, xenophobia, and fear mongering. Rather, the novel takes a new approach for being in the perspective of migrants themselves. On the other hand, voices such as Yogita Goyal argue that Exit West “[renders] banal what must remain historical.” Rather than expanding on the similar formula of the genre, Goyal argues that it falls short because it emphasizes the normal far too much washing over all the importance in the history. The novel in their opinion is too relatable. I propose this is not the case at all. Rather than completely washing over the history, the novel chooses not to spectacularize it, which also does not make it banal. Within its pages, the novel showcases numerous instances of violence and scenarios that give way to the historical context that Goyal stresses is necessary.

In Exit West we are introduced to these excerpts that divert from the main plot of the two lovers Saeed and Nadia. We are sent to a different location in the world learning of a new set of characters’ interactions and situations. Many of these windows into these moments try to expand on the meaning of what it means to be a migrant. The novel has an element of magic door that has the ability to transport people to other locations in the world in the scenario. In Australia in the first chapter starting on page 7 we are introduced to a wealthy Australian white woman who is vulnerably sleeping and then a dark-skinned man who appears in her closet. At first you may believe that he will rob or harm the vulnerable white woman, but soon learn he was sent through one of these doors and randomly transported. Rather than an aggressor, he himself is also a victim, looking for a method of escape. He is a literal migrant, using one of the magic doors to move from one place to another. This small expert has its own historical context in the undertones, the narrative of darker skin being associated with crime and danger. Instead of trying to understand the full context, a predetermined thought that he was there to harm had formed. Another example that’s a little more abstract with the definition is in chapter 10 starting on page 207. Recounting the life of an old woman who has lived her whole life in the same place. Minus traveling on some accounts, everything around her continued to move and change although she remained in the same place. She was a migrant through time rather than the typical definition. Later we also learn the old woman is of Chinese descent. The old woman inherited the house from her parents. We do not know if her parents are immigrants from China, but we do know they secured the house either of their own hard work or possibly inheritance themselves. She wishes for her children to inherit the house next. This also has its own implications and history. This alludes to the immigrant experience in a different country. The previous generations work hard to provide for the generations to come and as they integrate more, they tend to move away from their foundations, forgetting the meaning behind the things their family members do. Her parents were able to provide a better life for her, and she for her children, and her children with her grandchildren. These two looks into the different breaks for the main story showcase one way Hamid has not abandoned the specific historical experiences that generate migration. Rather than spectacularizing, Hamid makes the context and underlying narratives the undertone rather than explicitly described or emphasized. At first glance these parts may seem random, abstract, out of place, or too banal too general, but they prove a platform for other common migrant struggles and narratives to be weaved within the main story.

Goyal mentions that “Hamid, rather than foreground horror, trauma, or catastrophe, turns to metaphor to emphasize the ordinariness of the fact that most of the world is on the move.” but this is farther from the truth. As stated earlier, Exit West chooses not to emphasize a fully pathos-based story, it avoids the spectacular, but that does not mean it is devoid of the horror, trauma, and catastrophe. The violence is in the pages of the novel, in every chapter, big or small. Throughout the entire main plot, the city Saeed and Nadia call home is deteriorating. As the book progresses, the city becomes increasingly unstable, both physically and the mentally. I believe it was overlooked by Goyal because rather than the main plot line, it is one of the side plots within the main story. In the very first page of the first chapter we are met with the setting, “a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war.” As the novel progresses the city becomes more undone. Helicopters fill the sky, the militants’ confidence and power grew after a successful assault on the city’s stock exchange, more territories began to fall to the militants, then a curfew was imposed. Chapter 4 starts showing the devolution of the stability of the city’s mentality and peace, Saeed’s mother believed she saw a former student of hers firing with a machine gun mounted on the back of a truck. He was quick witted and shy, but if it was him, he was no longer the same boy due to the violence. The city soon began falling neighborhood by neighborhood in quick succession to the militants. Soon buildings began to fall and become abandoned, rationing of supplies became normal, panic soon began to enter. One does not need to know who these adversaries are to know that the city is becoming less safe as they continue their occupation. Whether the country they live in is a democracy, a dictatorship, or a failing state does not matter, the security of the city is being compromised. That is the issue. Moments such as Saeed’s mother abruptly dying due to a stray bullet (pg 74-75), the public and private executions along with the hanging bodies that liter the city (pg 86), and Saeed’s father realizing that young men were playing football with a severed head are all violent moments within the book. One specific part from Exit West caught my attention, the fact that when the magic doors were acknowledged as real, they were being discussed by world leaders as a major global crisis (pg 88). This single sentence reinforces the historical fearmonger narrative that Nasia Anam discusses about past migrant literature. This “major global crisis,” a migrant crisis, is almost interpreted as negative in the line. World leaders are fearful and concerned about these doors that are helping people escape and relocate. To these world leaders, this is an apocalyptic narrative. How is any of this banal, ordinary, or lacking context? Yes, there is the possibility that these things could happen to anybody, but simply because the horror, trauma, and catastrophe is not the most prevalent part of the foreground it is rendered useless to the narrative by Goyal. Simply because the novel does not follow in the traditional “evoke a sense of place by providing detailed descriptions of locations and characters that allow the reader to immerse herself in a recognizable culture” or allowing the instability to be at the forefront does not mean Hamid completely disregards them.

Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Just because someone decides to use a more abstract template, does not mean they have decided to disregard the important. Multiple narratives are woven together within Exit West, and although not the traditional migrant story, the horror, trauma, struggle, history, and journey are not disregarded.

Sources:

Anam, Nasia. “The Migrant as Colonist: Dystopia and Apocalypse in the Literature of Mass Migration.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, Sept. 2018, muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/711837/pdf.

Goyal, Yogita. “‘We Are All Migrants’: The Refugee Novel and the Claims of Universalism.” Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020, muse.jhu.edu/article/758170.

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West: A Novel. Penguin, 2017.

Comments:

Alina:

some thoughts while reading your intro:

-what is the difference between “what’s to come” and the “dystopian aftermath”
the “so peaceful” is totally right, but before introducing the word “peaceful” you don’t state -who thinks it’s peaceful (reader could guess from context, but if you used a word that implies peacefulness somewhere before that then it would be a little easier for the reader)

-Love love love the idea of the thesis statement!!!

Alina:

-Hey Vee! Your essay does a great job of providing evidence from the book. Your evidence is well-chosen, and you explain the plot and how parts of the plot relate to your own argument in enough detail so that the reader understands, but you also don’t bore the reader with overly long and detailed explanations or irrelevant details. If I could point out one thing that you could still improve on in your essay, it would be transitions and metacommentary. I think the intro and the first body paragraph already flow well, but, as a reader, I got lost in the long body paragraphs. The transition “trying to understand the full context, a predetermined thought that he was there to harm had formed. Another example that’s a little more abstract with the definition is…” for example could have a better flow if you connected the second example to the first in a way that answers WHY you now want to introduce us to this other example that is” a little more abstract with the definition”. Is there a way for you to take the reader by their hand and walk them through your brilliant ideas with a little more guidance? One more thing to think about: You are currently 300+ words over the word count, so you might have to think about choosing the most powerful evidence from the book. Keep up the good work! Reading your essay was really fun and your ideas are so refreshing!

Eva:

-Hi Veee! I loved reading your essay, such a good thesis! You provide good examples from the text, but maybe you could provide a more detailed analysis of these examples, that would enhance your argument (you could also use it in your quotation sandwiches!). Then also, you could when discussing the characters introduced through the magic doors, consider exploring how their experiences specifically relate to broader themes of migration and identity? You have long paragraphs that contain a lot of information to support your claim which is good, but you are also over the word count! So, try to either cut some information or summarize it more.
Great work!!

-Pledge VVB