On Film and Political Education
By Film bridges gaps that emerge when working primarily with theoretical text. Reading helps us develop a shared language, shared frameworks, […]
Issue 1 The Nutmeg Socialist Volume 1
Resisting the Seduction of Racial Liberalism: Abolitionist Lessons in Naomi Murakawa’s The First Civil Right
Robert Choflet’s “Resisting the Seduction of Racial Liberalism” argues than Naomi Murakawa’s The First Civil Right is a crucial resource for understanding contemporary immigration enforcement as an elaboration of postwar liberal racial politics. He shows how mid-century Democrats conditioned contemporary state violence by framing civil rights interventions in “law and order” terms, laying groundwork for mass incarceration and militarized borders while claiming race-neutrality.