Abolition in the Clutch: Shifting through the Gears with Anthropology

Abstract

Abolition is not a metaphor, and it is essential that our notion of “abolition” not get defanged and deracinated within the self-evident boundaries of a discipline or even the academy. Amidst the tangle of complicity that is anthropology, there are also parts of the disciplinary toolkit that are useful for worldmaking: listening deeply, bearing witness, challenging the inevitability of the state, and building deep transnational and cross-diasporic relation. In particular as surveillance, policing, and imprisonment become globalized as techniques of repression, anthropology can help disrupt US-centrism while cultivating thicker solidarities. In this essay, I draw on Chela Sandoval's theory of differential political consciousness to roughly sketch five interlocking ideology-praxes – five gears of abolition that at times are complementary, and at times contradictory. Within each gear, I lift up organizers and scholars whose work is shaping the theory and practice of abolition. Following the lead of activists, artists and movement builders, I invite academics to bring abolition home by contributing to ongoing campaigns happening on their campuses and in their neighborhoods.