Invisible Weapons : infiltrating resistance and defeating movements / Marcus Board Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Board, Marcus, Jr., author.

Series:

Oxford Academic

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Radicalism.

Neoliberalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2022

Summary:

This book explains how grassroots communities are infiltrated and politically co-opted in ways that render their resistance harmless. It reveals contemporary practices of domination, as power-holding elites-from elected officials to welfare bureaucrats-are teaching oppressed people to internalize their grievances and silence their needs. In the end, politics becomes a space where advocating for social justice makes less and less sense to people. The book therefore explains the politics of radical inaction through disempowerment, dissonance, and disengagement. It considers multiple sites of resistance to police violence, including the police killing of Akai Gurley, Freddie Gray, and Korryn Gaines in particular. It also considers the mass protest associated with the wider Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). The book argues that anti-radicalism is an embedded feature of neoliberalism, that the widespread adoption of neoliberal politics has reinforced ongoing racial and gender oppressions, and that these same oppressed communities are being infiltrated in order to minimize their commitments to radical political resistance. Covering multiple sites and methods-from in-depth interviews on the resistance politics of Black welfare recipients in Chicago, to nationally representative survey data on hard-work beliefs in politics and the labor force, and case study analyses of police violence in Baltimore and New York-the book shows how political domination today is about ensnaring minds, constraining imaginations, and upending resistance. With the creation of the invisible weapons framework, future research can better explain sites of political disengagement and the connection to the erosion of whatever remains of democracy in the United States.

Contents:

Contents: Acknowledgments - Part I.The Problem Is Anti-Radicalism - Introduction:Power, Politics, and Domination - 1. A Radical View of Evolving Oppression and Resistance - Part II.Infiltrating Resistance: Theory and Data Analyses - 2. Coercively Infiltrating Political Resistance - 3. Targeting Marginalized Group Politics: Silencing and Co-optation - 4. State Coercion Diminishing Radical Autonomy - Part III.Defeating Movements in Baltimore and Beyond - 5. The Baltimore Uprising - 6. The Gaines Dilemma: Intersectional Critiques - Conclusion:Into a Radical Future - Appendix A:Political Activity and Self-Determination Survey - Appendix B:Data Analyses - Appendix C:Interview Guide - Notes - Bibliography - Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780197605257

0197605257

9780197605264

0197605265

9780197605240

0197605249

OCLC:

1315644641