Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 295P - S-Policing, Protest & Politics

Over the last five years, a powerful social movement has emerged, affirming to the country--and the world--that Black Lives Matter. Sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman and Zimmerman's subsequent acquittal, as well as myriad police killings of other black men, women, and children, including Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, and Freddie Gray, this movement contests police violence and other policing that makes black communities unsafe while challenging the imputation of race to crime. Police violence against black people, and the interrelated criminalization of black communities have history that precedes the formation of the United States. There is a similarly long and important history of activism and social movements against police violence and criminalization. Today, black people are disproportionately subject to police surveillance and violence, arrest, and incarceration. So, too, are other people of color, and queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people of all races but especially those of color. This course will examine the history of policing and criminalization of black, queer, and trans people and communities and related anti-racist, feminist, and queer/trans activism. In so doing, we will interrogate how policing and understandings of criminality -- or the view that certain people or groups are inherently dangerous or criminal -- in the U.S. have been deeply shaped by understandings of race, gender, and sexuality.