Hostile environments: historical geographies of Black men in English Victorian prisons.
Topics: Black Geographies
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Keywords: archives, prison geographies, Black geographies
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 60
Authors:
Caroline Bressey, University College London
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Abstract
The over representation of people of colour in prison systems is well-known. In the United States, Angela Davies has observed the history of prisons is understood to be closely intertwined with slavery and racism. In Britain, a review published in 2017 found Black people were 53% more likely to be sent to prison for an indictable offence at the Crown Courts of England and Wales. Yet the extent to which longer histories of racism, enslavement and empire are intertwined in these modern racisms are seldom acknowledged or widely discussed in Britain. This paper draws on my own concerns with publishing research I have undertaken on the lives of Black men found within the archives of the nineteenth century English prison system, and the limitations of methodologies that draw attention to stereotypes of ‘Black men’ and ‘crime’, particularly in visual forms. My concerns around using prison archives have led me to publish little of this research to date; yet these are concerns other outlets do not share. Articles on newly published digitised databases of ‘Victorian criminals’ have provided pages of sensationalist othering in national newspapers; a process that also reinforces the imagined geographies of whiteness of the urban poor in Victorian England. In this paper I consider what methodologies could possibly overcome the concerns I have regarding publishing work on Black men in Victorian prisons, but also how the decision to publish or not to publish may challenge or enable the ‘hostile environment’ Black people face daily under the British state.
Hostile environments: historical geographies of Black men in English Victorian prisons.
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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