Alleged Gang Members and the Lumpenproletariat

• In Event: 50258 - Contributions to Black Marxism

Abstract

Of those already affected by mass incarceration, can a status marker further penalize individuals? Alleged gang membership is a mechanism and status marker in our structurally racist system to control Black and Brown bodies by creating second-class status and outcomes within the criminal justice and immigration systems for those individuals labeled as gang members. Therefore, in this theoretical paper, I will employ Fanon’s and the Black Panther Party’s adoption of the term lumpenproletariat, those people most outside of capitalism and integral to revolutionary change as a framework for analyzing gang members and their entering into gang databases. Gang databases cannot be fixed and must be abolished for being built on racist and ill-conceived foundations.

Gang Databases present numerous issues within the criminal, civil, and immigration systems that make alleged gang members a truly marginalized lumpenproletariat. People entered into gang databases can also be subjected to gang enhancements, sentencing enhancements for increased punishments and prison time for conviction of a crime when allegedly part of a gang. Moreover, individuals entered into gang databases can also be subjected to gang injunctions, civil injunctions in courts to monitor and prohibit activities by alleged gang members that restrict certain actions including, walking, driving, gathering in public, and more. Alleged gang membership is therefore a mechanism of our structurally racist system to control and harm Black and Brown people, making those entered into such databases part of the lumpenproletariat.

Author

• Nnamdi Manuel Jogwe, New York University