tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post9055318439673784537..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: Big BLACK ConvictsDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-39997282838454376352011-05-24T20:52:31.037-07:002011-05-24T20:52:31.037-07:00Because you are a mind reader and/or our collectiv...Because you are a mind reader and/or our collective consciousness is all in sync?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-55948946544837567242011-05-24T17:42:18.043-07:002011-05-24T17:42:18.043-07:00I'm not sure what you mean? I think that in ge...I'm not sure what you mean? I think that in general, the psychic image that comes to mind when told of "big, tattooed prisoners pumping iron" is of a scary Black man. Context can obviate that to some degree, but particularly when your goal <i>is</i> to conjure up a fearsome image (as Scalia's was), one has to be aware of what mental brushes will paint the canvass.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-48820011281066203352011-05-24T16:30:15.415-07:002011-05-24T16:30:15.415-07:00Do you apply that assumption about the "colle...Do you apply that assumption about the "collective national consciousness" to anyone's reference to prisoners' pumping iron, or just conservatives' references?<br /><br />"Might viewers looking at images of huge tattooed men crowded into small spaces not react with terror that these men are about to be released back into their communities?" -- <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2295331/" rel="nofollow">Not Justice Scalia, but the person who first alerted me to that Scalia quote.</a>PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-41756608485328992832011-05-24T13:02:05.184-07:002011-05-24T13:02:05.184-07:00Actually, my understanding is that California pris...Actually, my understanding is that California prisons <a href="http://www.theagitator.com/2011/05/24/scalia-and-the-rippling-muscles-of-california-prisoners-ctd/" rel="nofollow">no longer include weights</a>.<br /><br />Now, obviously, there are scary White people in prison too. But the image of the convict pumping iron and bulging muscles historically involves someone rather swarthy. It's about appealing to certain images in the collective national conscious -- I think these is a classic case of known "cultural meaning" as per Charles Lawrence's <i>The Id, the Ego, and Equal Protection</i> article.<br /><br />I don't like the TV boondocks as much as the strip, alas.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-83594790414095627852011-05-24T12:46:53.649-07:002011-05-24T12:46:53.649-07:00While I agree that this passage from Scalia is pre...While I agree that this passage from Scalia is pretty telling about the man, I don't quite see the racial element. As the Court is well-aware from its prior case on racial segregation in the state's prisons, California's got a Benetton ad of a prison population: black, white, Latino, Asian, and they've all got their own gangs for "protection" that exacerbate racial tensions among the groups. And yes, a lot of those guys are pumping up like an Abercrombie model. Honestly, I didn't get any racial implication from that passage. The most recent thought I've had about scary people in American prisons was when someone told me he had to drop "Dead Men, Inc." as a screenplay title because he'd discovered it was the name of a *white* supremacist prison gang. <br /><br />Speakers' past statements can infuse future ones with a racial undertone; once Reagan referred to a "strapping young buck," anything he'd ever say about welfare would be shaded by his false assumption that it was mostly used by POC. However, I don't know of Scalia's ever saying anything about those muscle-bound guys who were always kicking sand in his face (or whatever bizarre node of his psyche inspired that sentence) being black.<br /><br />I'd forgotten or not seen The Boondocks strip you mention, but you know they're running episodes on Adult Swim, right? Also, the strip you mention sounds a lot like Dave Chappelle's "Mad Real World" sketch.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-9351085461785938192011-05-23T22:53:12.822-07:002011-05-23T22:53:12.822-07:00Your point about violations of the Constitution me...Your point about violations of the Constitution <i>meaning</i> something is so important, and so often overlooked by the Court. Like the rationale for <i>Monell</i> liability and one of the state sovereign immunity rationales: "It'll bankrupt the city/state!" Yeah, that's how the entire tort system functions... Or the 4th Amendment exclusionary rule, where the Court is always worried "but we'll lose good evidence if we penalize cops for violations!"<br /><br />It's so utterly frustrating.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17986536672148560528noreply@blogger.com