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White Supremacy in the Movement
Against the Prison-Industrial Complex

Liz Appel

HITE SUPREMACY IS DEFINED AS A “HISTORICALLY BASED, INSTITUTIONALLY
perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents,
nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the

European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of

‘wealth, power, and privilege” (Martinas, n.d.). It is deeply embedded and en-

trenched in the foundation and social institutions of the United States. I wish to

explore the role and various manifestations of white supremacy in leftist politics,

specifically in the emergent movement against the prison-industrial complex. I

posit that white supremacy is (re)produced and perpetuated by most white, self-

proclaimed activists who fight different aspects of the prison-industrial complex.

‘Through various forms of paternalism, reformist politics, romanticizing struggle

and violence, exotification and exceptionalism, and neocolonial divide-and-

‘conquer tactics, whites propagate their privilege and power in their organizing and

activism. [ use the terms “we” and “white activists” almost interchangeably, for

this article is primarily directed to an audience of white progressives, a group of
which I consider myself a member.

‘The crux of my argument is not that white supremacy is an inevitable evil that
is the undoing of any social movement. Instead, I attempt to critique white
progressives whose actions, though well intentioned, are laden with manifesta-
tions of white supremacy and challenge them to embrace a more radical politics,
fone that makes anti-racism a central tenet in any analysis and subsequent action
againsta white-supremacist state. We cannot begin to fashion a creative blueprint
for a struggle that attempts to actualize a world free of domination without
fundamentally understanding the ways in which our various actions, as white
individuals and organizations, perpetuate the hierarchies and oppressions against
which we wage our battle. Proceeding without fundamentally questioning the
forms of oppression that are reproduced in our “activist” work ultimately relieves
the state of the need to take an active role against our efforts, That is, we will have
already fulfilled the prophecy of white supremacy and ensured the failure of true



‘Laz Ares graduated from Brown University witha degree in Ethnic Studies in 2001, Shehas worked
‘with various abolitionist organizations such as Critical Resistance andthe Prison Activist Resource
Center and most recently has been involved with a day labor organizing projet in Oakland.

Social Justice Vol. 30, No. 2 (2003)
82 Apps.

freedom. We must not deny or make light of its power to destroy movements for
justice. Therefore, we must be consistent, disciplined, and cognizant of ourselves,
which means being unafraid to check the reproduction of privilege on the part of
fellow whites. In this fast-track, fascistic police state, in which racist sentiments
of nativism and xenophobia are becoming as American as apple pie, there is an
ever-present need for white activists to dedicate themselves to an anti-r
struggle. They must reframe and interrogate their roles within the larger move-
ment. Before we can begin to transcend the barriers of race, we must understand
the deeply rooted nature of white supremacy and the various forms of oppression
faced by different peoples of color.

‘The movement against the prison-industrial complex is multifaceted in its
efforts to dismantle and combat different evils. Thus, hundreds of organizations
throughout the nation are working on issues such as the death penalty, detention
‘of immigrants, police brutality, health care within prisons, policing of youth, and
the militarization of public schools. This work is necessary to build a mass
‘movement that seeks to destroy the prison-industrial complex, and ultimately the
state and its founding principles (capitalism, white supremacy, and male su-
premacy), but we must critique the methods and politics of many white liberal
individuals and organizations involved in this work.

‘The international movement around political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is a
perfect example in terms of its ability to highlight the various manifestations of
white supremacy. A large percentage of Abu-Jamal’s supporters were galvanized
by the conflicting “facts” used to convict him of murdering Philadelphia police
officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Morally opposed to the death penalty, many
people have worked tirelessly to poke further holes in the prosecution’ shoddy
case. Death penalty work is inherently reformist and reaffirms and legitimizes the
role ofthe state; whereas the decades of caging an individual might be unjust and
unfortunate, putting someone to death is altogether wrong. Under this logic, the
‘more than two million souls facing humiliation, violence, and torture behind bars
at least have been spared from capital punishment. In December 2001, the state
removed Abu-Jamal from death row in a strategic move. How will the state's
action affect the movement for his freedom? Will removing the threat of capital
punishment stunt its growth and longevity? Will the anti-death-penalty contingent
retract from the struggle since their main goal has been attained? Atevery junction,
the state will trump reformist movements against the prison-industrial complex,
‘given the government's preemptive actions to counter and maintain divisions in
the work of activists.

‘The anti-death-penalty movement prides itself on seeking “truth” to fight for
the freedom of prisoners unjustly accused of crimes. However, the anti-death-
penalty movement uses state terms such as innocence and guilt, thereby legitimat-
ing the government's definition of crime (individual activity) and its understand-
ing of who constitutes criminals (people of color and poor people). The state's






White Supremacy in the Movement Against the Prison-Industrial Complex 83

responsibility for propagating violence and visiting terror upon various poor
‘communities of color within and beyond U.S. borders is thus absolved. What if
Mumia Abu-Jamal had shot and killed Daniel Faulkner? Would his caging be
justified ort least founded? Either way, we continue to focus on the individual act
and effectively negate the state’s role in establishing the conditions necessary for
crime to exist. In an essay on political prisoners, Angela Davis (1998: 45)
approaches the state's definition of crime and the criminal with an understanding
that acts of survival are necessary in an unequal capitalist society. She states, “the
occurrence of crime is inevitable in a society in which wealth is unequally
distributed, as one of the constant reminders that society's productive forces are
being channeled in the wrong direction.” White activists in particular must
embrace a much more radical politics, one that understands the hegemonic effect
of using state language and frameworks. Their work and analysis must reflect their
understanding of state-sponsored terror and violence and not reiterate white
supremacist politics.

tis equally important to expose in the movement around Mumia’s case the
‘great exceptionalism that occurs. From the onset, white supremacy based its
existence on the sub-humanization and subsequent oppression of peoples of
color. Can super-humanization also be a form of white supremacy? Mumia
‘himself has taken strong stances against his superhero status, trying instead to
focus attention on the plight of those suffering in Pennsylvania prisons or to shed
light on various forms of oppression throughout the world. His autobiographical
Live from Death Row is not plea for his own salvation, but rather a political act
defiance of the state's attempt to silence his revolutionary voice. A tool for
political education, it seeks to understand the multifaceted nature of state
violence. How many people know of Mumia’ political ideology or have read bit
works? Similarly, the rock star status of abolitionist and former political prisoner
Angela Davis has served to neutralize her radical messages. Most people are
‘unaware that her onetime co-defendant, Ruchell Magee, remains incarcerated to
this day. Recently freed political prisoner Geronimo ji Jaga (2001: 72) has
discussed this phenomenon:







1 did not join a movement to sign autographs. I did not join a movement
for fortune or fame. I joined a movement to win.... But I have to explain
to you that we are under collective discipline not to promote ourselves.

‘We cannot promote individuals, we can only promote the revolution, the
struggle. When you confront the level of commitment of someone like
Ruchell Magee, or Hugo Pinell, Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Dr.
Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck, Susan Rosenberg, and on and on and
on,...understand that we don’t care if you say free this person, free that
person, or put our names on posters. We didn’t join the movement for
that. We understood that we were making a sacrific...that we might go
84 APPEL

toprison, that we might get killed, that we might end up exiled —because
we knew the nature of our enemy.

Exceptionalism falls in line with the state's individualistic polities, diverting
attention away from sites of collective struggle. Thus, Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Angela Davis arguably serve a performative function for most white activists who
iconize their heroes, completely unaware that they have effectively diffused any
galvanizing potential ofthe political education and revolutionary analyses oftheir
idols. Joy James (1999: 122) critically analyzes the trend toward the racialized
iconization of Angela Davis:

Progressive icons are significant because they function to popularize
Political movements and struggles. However, this popularization partly
reflects selective political memory and representations skewed toward
elite leadership and symbolism. Selective memory, masked by an un-
critical valorization of icons...deflects attention from revolutionary poli-
tics and rank-and-file leadership.

Along with exceptionalism, tokenism and paternalism take place in many
organizing efforts by white-dominated groups fighting the prison-industrial
complex. Having been criticized for their perpetuation of racism or equipped with
‘an understanding that racism has been a major barrier in the movement for social
justice, many well-intentioned white folks wish to incorporate an anti-racist
approach into their work. Seeking a quick resolve, the problem of racism is often
superficially addressed, however. Focusing on tangible and visible solutions, they
tokenize individual people of color, perhaps by bringing a few nonwhite people
into public spaces and circles of power (as board members, speakers, etc), in an
attempt to demonstrate the “diverse” nature ofthe struggle and those that make up
the fight. This is not to say that every attempt to incorporate people of color is
inherently racist and self-serving. As white activists, we must fight the neocolonial
divide-and-conquer tendencies that run deep for those with power and privilege
‘The state disingenuously places nonwhite faces in public positions, a posture we
cannot reproduce while simultaneously leading the struggle. Addressing white
supremacy through superficial solutions will only widen the racial gap. Does not
the fact that whites are able to select people of color for inclusion in our efforts
reaffirm our power and privilege?

Given our unique position as beneficiaries of the white supremacist state, we
must be cognizant of our ignorance of the oppression faced by people of color and
refuse to act paternalistically toward their struggles or claim them as our own,
Doing so can render these voices, initially intended as weapons that threaten the
state's legitimacy, completely neutral. Thus, in the movement against the prison-
industrial complex, we must ask ourselves: Whose struggle is this? How does the
‘movement we are building fight the various forms of oppression and attempt to
White Supremacy in the Movement Against the Prison-Industrial Complex 85

actualize a world free of domination? This must not be conflated with, or reduced
{o, feeling a sense of entitlement. Rather, we must address who is facing the bulk
of state violence, What is the role of whites when there is an obvious war being
‘waged against various peoples of color?

‘These questions segue into a discussion of the role of whites in popular
struggles for liberation, national and otherwise. The 1960s and 1970s were a
historic moment when anti-colonial battles were being waged throughout the
‘world, Internal colonies within the United States were also resisting the centuries
of racist domination imposed on them by the empire. The growing revolutionary
potential in various communities of color throughout the U.S. posed a serious
threat to the state, To ensure its future, the government created a multi-tiered
assault that employed counterinsurgency warfare to dismantle the offensive.
‘Whites were visibly present and took an active role inthe Civil Rights Movement
and against the Vietnam War, but when the level of government violence began
to increase, they did not receive the brunt of this repression. The main targets of
the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) were groups such as the
Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, which suffered enor-
‘mous casualties, thousands of arrests and subsequent prison sentences on trumped-
up charges, and internal conflicts due to carefully crafted programs of infiltration
and manipulation,

‘Some whites understood their obligation to their comrades in the movement
‘who had stepped up their struggle, putting themselves on the line and engaging in
various actions of armed self-defense. They sought to deflect some of the state's
violent energy away from people of color. These whites were an aberration and were
even criticized by fellow white progressives who disagreed with thei use of force.
‘The issue of violence and armed self-defense in any movement against an imperial
power can occupy hundreds of pages. For the sake of brevity, I wish to discuss how
arguments for pacifism perpetuate the state's white supremacist agenda.

‘Violence and terror are not to be taken lightly in any discussion. First, we must
consider what we understand to be violence, especially as bourgeois white people,
‘who comprised a major contingent in the progressive movements of the 1960s, and
do today as well. We must be stringent in interrogating the hegemonic forms of
media through which we are exposed to violence. In what light is that violence
framed’? What language is used and how are black and brown people normalized
as criminals? The latter is so extensive that, as Joy James (1999: 29) points out,
“punitive torture inthe United States became inscribed on the black body.” Should
‘we not frame as violence the fact that a significant portion of the world’s
population suffers and ultimately dies from treatable communicable diseases due
to lack of potable water and basic nutrition? Are structural adjustment programs
‘and major financial institutions considered criminal for the death and destruction
they perpetrate against Third World nations in the world? Linda Evans and Eve
Goldberg (1998: 15) allude to this worldwide system of structural violence:






86 Appr.

Across the globe, wages are plummeting, indigenous peoples are being
forced off their lands...and more and more people are being forced into
illegal activity for their own survival as traditional culture and social
structures are destroyed.



Has the U.S. government owned up to and begun paying for its crimes,
including black slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, the theft of Mexico,
colonization of Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and the internment of Japanese
Americans? Violence occurs on many levels ina capitalist and imperialist world.
‘Whereas individual acts of violence are not tobe overlooked, we must understand
them within a larger context of systematic hierarchies and interrogate those who
create the conditions in which individual acts of violence occur.

‘White activists have a long history of pushing for nonviolent forms of social
change. Within the movement against the prison-industrial complex, as well, 2
distinction is made between those who commit violent and nonviolent crimes.
Given this division, we are to assume that the 80% of women in prison convicted
of nonviolent charges are unjustly incarcerated. According to this logic, the
remaining 20%, although probably facing oppression and abuse, must be punished
for their deeds. Seeking to aid a reformist battle, such notions embrace the white
supremacist rhetoric of the state and are blind to the racist images of violence thus
perpetuated. Such suggestions are often made from a position of comfort and
privilege by those who have never been collective victims of violence. Indeed, our
distance from violence is predicated on the fact that others are oppressed by it. In
a pamphlet published by The Movement, Huey Newton discusses this removal
from oppression among white activists:









‘The white mother country radical is the off-spring ofthe children ofthe
beastthat has plundered the world exploiting al people, concentrating on
the people of color.... The white mother country radical, in resisting the
system, becomes somewhat of an abstract thing because he's not op-
pressed as much as black people are, As a matter of fact his oppression
is somewhat abstract simply because he doesn’t have to live in a reality
of oppression.... The whites are rebels, many of them from the middle
class and as far as any overt oppression this is not the case. So therefore
I call their rejection of the system somewhat of an abstract thing.

‘Therefore, we must support comrades in liberation struggles, whose numbers
are quickly decreasing through various forms of state domination. We must act,
not stand, in solidarity with those who have sacrificed their lives for the self-
determination of their peoples. The struggle for the acknowledgement and
freedom of political prisoners and prisoners of war must be part ofthe fight against
the prison-industrial complex.

Embracing the concept of armed self-defense does not necessarily translate
White Supremacy in the Movement Against the Prison-Industrial Complex 87

into picking up a gun, We must be equally wary of romanticizing violence that
‘oceurs from our distanced position. This can also perpetuate hegemonic images
that pathologize peoples of color, images that were created to produce fear in, and
consequently gain consent from, white people to justify their policing, imprison-
‘ment, and torture. The Black Panther Party did not pose a threat to the government
because of their militant dress nd attitude or because they were shown toting guns.
‘Ultimately, Fred Hampton was murdered because of his extraordinary ability to
organize various once-conflicting Chicago communities against a common en-
emy. Intheir groundbreaking work exposing COINTELPRO, Ward Churchill and
Jim Vander Wall (1990: 135-139) shed light on the FBI’s plot to discredit and
neutralize Fred Hampton as the Chicago leader:



‘Comparable methods were used in Chicago, where BPP leader Fred
Hampton was showing considerable promise in negotiating a working
alliance with a huge black street gang known as the Blackstone Rang-

ers... Tactics were employed to block or “destabilize” emerging alli-
ances between the Chicago BPP and another black gang, the Mau Maus,

as well asthe already politicized Puertorriqueno Young Lords, a white
street gang called the Young Patriots, and even SDS, the white radical
organization

‘We must clearly distinguish between armed self-defense and violence. We
‘understand that the most serious acts of violence perpetrated against communities
of color throughout the world over the last several centuries have been committed,
sanctioned, funded, or supplied training by the U.S. government.

Inthe movement against the prison-industrial complex, various forms of white
supremacy have served to obstruct opportunities for change. As white activists, we
‘must be disciplined in our self-critique, constantly questioning our privilege and
power. Taking an anti-racist stance is not an overnight decision, but rather a
‘Process. Since white supremacy takes on various forms, we must be cognizant of
our language, ideology, and actions in attempts to create a new society. We must
listen to the wisdom of white anti-imperialists who have experience in anti-racist
struggle, urging us against elitist and authoritarian forms of organization. In the
end, the masses must overtake the hierarchical social system. Therefore, creating
an esoteric revolutionary vanguard is counterproductive, self-serving, and lacks
the political humility and sense of collectivity needed to wage and sustain a long-
term battle. Having a purist revolutionary politics and being ever so critical from
a comfortable distance cannot match the threat posed by engaging a politics and
fight with people for liberation and self-determination,
REFERENCES

(Churchill, Ward and Jim Vander Wall
1990) ‘The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against
Dissent inthe United States. Boston: South End Press.
Davis, Angela Y.
1998 “Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation Joy A. James (e.),
Angela Y. Davis Reader. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
[Bvans, Linda and Eve Goldberg

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