same birthday we also both build
algorithms he built an algorithm that
captured all matter and reduced it down
to its basic elements and then he
categorized and organized those elements
in a way that made them perceptible
understandable knowable and useful to us
I will algorithms to capture white
hetero patriarchal power I build
algorithms to capture power as its race
class and gender
I build algorithms to capture racism
sexism classism and all ways in which
those things are intertwined at mesh and
intersectional so when I see power I’m
talking about the way in which white
hetero matriarchal power takes its
desires fantasies and agendas and
materializes those things out in the
real world using the vehicles of racism
sexism and classism so you may say well
why why do you want to build an
algorithm to capture power well as a
former federal prosecutor and now as a
law school professor and also as a legal
scholar I believe you can capture try
and correct power you can capture it you
can arrest it it can reduce it down to
its basic elements with numerous moves
and functions and then you can subject
all of those things to remember scrutiny
interrogation investigation and an
actual tribe all in an effort to
redistribute power and to get as much
closer to where ideals involving
equality fully human flourishing and
justice so you may ask well how do you
plan to go about building this algorithm
to capture power well the answer to the
question how is actually a story or a
parable more specifically the parable of
the woman caught in adultery this
particular story
encapsulate the basic ways that
racism sexism and classism operate but
the story also gives us some
possibilities for liberation so the
story begins with Jesus Christ the rabbi
and the teacher out in the world
teaching and as the rabbi’s teaching a
group of status because of Jairus ease
come up to him and say hey rabbi we
caught this woman in the middle of
adultery and under Mosaic law we must
stoned her to death so let’s unpack a
little bit of that the Sadducees and the
Pharisees are the leaders of one
religion they embody my and religion
through metaphors reliabilism
I need you to hold on to that because
that’s going to become terribly
important in just a moment it’s also
important that the body they bring to
the rabbi in order to oppose the death
penalty judgment and sentencing is a
vulnerable body they bring up a woman’s
body it’s equally important that they
caught this woman in the middle of it
sultry in the midst of adultery not in
the beginning of adultery or an
introduction to adultery or those replan
or the afterglow of adultery the results
of adultery they hire in the mist of
adultery now you may say why is that
important to plan she’s harping on that
well one of the reasons that I teach is
that I really do believe that education
is one of the last forms of
socio-economic mobility that with a
little guidance knowledge and wisdom you
can write your horizon but no matter how
hard you try no matter how hard you try
no matter how much you work at it and
put your backbone into it you just can’t
commit adultery all by yourself and you
don’t believe me to go
and definitely go home and do that done
from that here in the auditorium with
the camera but you’ll find that you
cannot commit adultery alone
that it inherently requires at least one
other person and we know that they hired
in the middle of adultery so there was
another person there and yet the
Sadducees and Pharisees only suffered to
bring the vulnerable body to the red
light for purposes of sensitive judgment
let’s go back to the story so we got a
rabbi out in the world teaching the
Sadducees and Pharisees come up and say
hey time they oppose the death penalty
woman caught in adultery time to throw
some rocks all under Mosaic law
well the rabbi turns to the Sadducees
and Pharisees and says well let those of
you without sin cast the first stone in
other words you know participate the
death penalty said you see a judgment
but you have to have clean hands the
Sadducees and Pharisees give this some
fun and then they begin to leave
starting with the oldest first the rabbi
turns to the woman and says well where
are your accusers
hasn’t anyone condemned you and she says
no and he says well neither do I go
forth it said no war so this particular
parable continues the basic ways in
which racism sexism and classism operate
but it also gives us a keys the
liberation I’m going to focus in on
three basic moves of power as they’re
contained in this parable they’re
actually a lot more moves but the
technically gave me 18 minutes so you’ll
have to invite me back and where you
type addresses this parable but for now
the top three hints of power of the
station deliberately confusing things
performance at number three the gays
obfuscation so who says empower is
tolerable only on the condition that it
masks a substantial part of itself in
success is proportional to an ability to
hide its only mechanisms in other words
there were different racism sexism and
classism
to be effective they had to render
themselves invisible imperceptible
natural when Jimin just the week things
are inevitable and furthermore righteous
and good and none of his powers success
predicated on its ability to hide it’s
also proportionate to its ability to
hide
so if power can hide really well they
can do a whole lot and then if it can’t
find solo its effectiveness is greatly
diminish now one of the ways in which
power arranges itself invisible and
legitimate at the same time is it
hijacks the function of law and religion
in order to do its dirty work in order
to exact its agenda and when power
colluded with one religion the effect
becomes totalizing it becomes an
omnipresent ubiquitous everywhere so
let’s bring an example to prove the
point this is the classic case of Dred
Scott decided in 1857
it’s the slavery case and in this case a
majority of the Supreme Court justices
held that anyone of African descent was
not a citizen so the majority occupied
dominated and controlled afield the
citizenry and then relegated the bodies
of anyone of African descent outside the
boundary his citizenship the protections
and rights and entitlement it didn’t
matter if you were free it didn’t matter
if you were a slave male/female you were
outside the boundaries of citizenship
and if you’re here and you don’t enjoy
the protections of citizenship you’re
vulnerable you’re vulnerable to sexual
exploitation as well as physical
exploitation so if you assume in an
African descent and someone violated you
sexually or physically or exploited your
labor you couldn’t go to the police for
help and you could go to the courts to
vindicate your rights because you didn’t
have any access to the courts and you
didn’t have any rights and the religion
kicks then it says well God says you
want
the slave and God says a slavery’s
country and God says that slavery is
done for you because slavery will save
you from your criminal people
treacherous self and there again when
powerful losses were law and religion
the effect becomes totalizing it becomes
ubiquitous omnipresent everywhere it
becomes part of history and psychology
philosophy other examples undocumented
workers if you’re an undocumented person
and you’re here a so inviolate you
physically or sexually you can’t go to
the police or the courts without calling
into questioning your own status and as
a result you’re vulnerable
so another move of obfuscation in the
Confederacy of power and this I all the
functional equivalent of dangling a
shiny ball in front of your face and
stealing your wallet and that’s your
power says one thing and does another
and then when you measure when power
says against what it does you get this
huge discrepancy so the Sadducees and
Pharisees come up and say we’re here to
enforce Mosaic law we’re here to enforce
morals and ethics a sexual perversity a
sexual transgression has occurred we’re
here to fix that and the question
becomes is that really what the
Sadducees and Pharisees are there to –
well the answer to that question is no
and how do we know that because remember
when we went through that little
exercise and establish that mechanical
commit adultery alone that it inherently
requires at least another person and and
we know that this woman was kind of a
middle of adultery so there was at least
one other person there and yet they only
softened to grieve the vulnerable body
of a woman to the rabbi for purposes of
sentencing and judgment because what
they’re really interested in doing is
tithing and performing on that
vulnerable by controlling dominating and
subjugating that body now you’re really
real religious scholars out there and
you biblical scholars will say you know
what this is the problem with legal
scholars turbulent
say Little Miss a law school professor
you want to know that in the days of
biblical antiquity
o women committed adultery oh they were
going to be charged with adultery only
women could be charged with adultery
guilty of adultery because it’s a woman
only crime which is why the fantasies of
the Pharisees over brought the woman
but you see that would be my exact point
you see how power high jests the
function of law and religion in order to
do its dirty work in order to exact its
agenda which is really playing and
performing on a vulnerable body and
under the auspices of one religion
typically it renders itself legitimate
and invisible at the same time say that
would be my exact point I under examples
of power saying one thing and doing
another and in this country we’ve had
war on drugs we reach the societal
consensus that we’re going to declare a
war on drugs and yet when you look at
the demographics of people who’ve been
incarcerated as a result of the war on
drugs they’re disproportionately people
of color leaving a lot of people to
argue that in fact we didn’t have a war
on drugs
we haven’t wore an honorable lights of
color and then stuff some still argue as
well that we’ve used the criminal
justice system to define crimes and ways
we’ll return to those honorable bodies
it’s a property yet another example of
power saying one thing and do another
and in this in this particular case is
maybe a little closer and this is our
houses of worship
sometimes you may hear escaping
criticism leveled against homosexuals
that homosexuals are going to pause the
end of the early the green apocalypse
the end of days how the sexuals are
directly responsible for all natural
disasters hurricanes tornadoes
earthquakes how homosexuals are the
greatest sexual perversion and travesty
and history now the question becomes is
that
criticism really interested in sexual
diversity and sexual violence
perhaps not because of a really
interested in sexual violence it would
turn all of that energy and iron and
anger on all of that sexual violence
that occurs under the ruse of our homes
and in our intimate spaces which is
where a lot of sexual violence occurs
and that in fact that kind of scathing
criticism is really interested in
playing and performing on a normal body
which gets us to our next room power
performance and the finally a law school
professor suggests that racism is a
compulsion that performs as pleasure
that racism sexism and classism are all
perform are all compulsions that perform
as player that we do ourselves a
tremendous disservice when we
oversimplify racism sexism and classism
and one of the ways of which we
oversimplify power is when we reduce it
down to hatred or animus only that in
fact these things are far more complex
than fact that in fact these things
embed themselves inside our minds they
saturate every layer of our brain even
that layer of fantasy because what the
Sadducees and Pharisees really want the
rabbi to do is to join with them in a
fraternity and to engage in a figurative
game rape of this woman that serves the
same function as a lynching than the
stunning game rapes and lichens
are all performances and what they
perform is who’s powerful and who’s
who’s deserving of pain and his
deserving of pleasure who’s good and
who’s evil who’s deserving of life and
whose deserving of death who’s deserving
of being judged and who gets to do the
judging which brings us to our third
unit of power the gaze so implicit bias
research teaches us
that the moment we see a black or brown
body we immediately associate that body
with dangerous and suspiciousness and
the need to be controlled and we do it
instantaneously automatically we do it
so quickly because we’re getting victim
about it it does not require some sort
of deliberate conscious connotation and
then when we see a white body we
immediately associate that body with
goodness innocence and righteousness and
again it happens instantaneously it
happens so quickly that these
associations actually become lodged and
entrenched inside our minds they become
architectural structures anchor and
inside our brain they become a frame
through which we see the world they
become a filter through which we see
evidence they become the judgment that
we cast before we see the body of proof
and these things these associations are
so fixated on our minds then they affect
the way we see things socially we see a
black or brown lighting engagement
actually innocent conduct we create
narratives of dangerousness
suspiciousness pathology criminality and
Treasury and then we see white bodies
actually engaged initiative may have and
criminality we create narratives of
innocence because you see what nobody
goes through the story gives in handy
and how much you learn child like can it
be then for a child to go to the store
and get some candy but without money
goes to the store to get some candy the
narrative that gets created is one of
dangerousness suspiciousness that needs
to be controlled and the need to be put
down because you see this body is never
entitled to innocence and never entitled
to childhood and yet with this body
freely admits that it’s engage in a
sexually predatory behavior as sexual
violence we create areas of innocence
it’s just one room time boys will be
boys men will be men this is natural and
real or it’s kind of good because it’s
so manly right so some other examples of
the eggs of Pahlavi
jeiza before valve ization battered
women bad let me to come forward than
they say I’ve been battered and
immediately we start asking well did you
fight back why did you stay why did you
go right because we keep that gaze of
pathology fixated on that vulnerable
body we engage of all of that victim
blaming and we know from Foucault that
power operates at the level of
distraction because when we stay fixated
on that honorable body
we never get around to asking the
accused why do you hit women rape
victims wait that does come forward they
say I’ve been violated and immediately
we started asking questions like you
know isn’t that shirt too tight and
isn’t that skirt too short and why were
you out there and why are you out there
so wait why are you drinking and why did
you pass out of the trunk and then when
you wait so long to bring these
accusations because they are again we
keep profit izing and pathologizing that
vulnerable body and then we never get
around to accuse but part of the beauty
of the woman kind of adultery is that
the rabbi takes that pathological aise
off of the vulnerable body of that woman
and shines among the sources of power
the Santa sees of the Pharisees because
when the rabbi Alice when those of you
without sin cast the first stone the
rabbi also initiates the very first
phase of a cycle of liberation and this
is a call room for all of us when we
critically reflect on our thoughts where
we interrogate our minds candidly and we
ask we’re late or racism sexism and
classism have invented themselves since
I our minds and make no mistake about it
if you’re talking about implicit bias
whether it’s race class sex or gender
doesn’t matter we’re not just talking
about thoughts these thoughts lead to
actions where we plan perform on
vulnerable bodies from microaggressions
to macro aggressions so we must be a
suspect about our actions as we are
about our thought
and then the parable everybody has
agency so the oppressor the Sadducees of
the Pharisees
happy agency to critically reflect upon
their thoughts and actions and if those
things are not clean if they don’t
measure up against full human
flourishing they had the agency to
refrain from imposing the death penalty
to refrain from imposing any kind of
adverse action that’s tainted by power
and then within a parable there’s a
redistribution of power there’s a
redistribution of agency that creates a
much more endemic retired space that
gives us much closer to our ideals fully
human flourishing and then full human
flourishing becomes the standard by
which we measure our thoughts our
actions our ability to find an agency
and our efforts to redistribute power so
there’s absolutely nothing new about
state violence and police power playing
and performing on vulnerable bodies
there is absolutely nothing new about
state violence of policing our claim on
honorable bodies of color because see
power and police say violence and police
power have played on vulnerable bodies
of color in this country since the
beginning of this country say violence
and police power have been playing and
performing on honorable with bodies
since the days of biblical antiquity and
we don’t need to look any further than a
living heart the don’t sure it’s at that
point but what is new is all of the
agency that technology issue technology
gives you the ages have your cell phones
where you can record and document and
bear witness of these killings but then
technology gives you more you can upload
these images on your social media spaces
Facebook your blogosphere and when you
do you can begin to draw similarities
and symmetries between these cases and
then you begin to realize that we’re not
just dealing with aberrant conduct at
the south or the north or the east or
the west that if that were originally
with
something that is systemic something
that is an epidemic if not Panta the
technology gives us more because of our
on our blog aspheres
we can engage in a national discourse a
new narrative and political activism
where we take that pathological gaze off
the lives of these people and we shine
them on the sources of power
like for example law enforcement and the
law and we can begin to ask questions
and problematize like for example we can
ask how the grand jury process was so
manipulated as to sanitize the
legitimize the doesn’t to be a rice
Michael Brown and Eric garner just to
name a few but then we go further
because technology also gives us the
ability to engage in that national
discourse that new narrative where we
can recognize the humanity of these
people so in closing I’m going to end
pretty much where we began because you
see in this picture kind of looks like a
periodic table you see we can take power
and we can distill it down to its basic
elements moves to the new person
functions and we can subject those
things to scrutiny interrogation
investigation all in an effort to
redistribute power and a way that gets
us much closer to our ideals evolve it
full human flourishing much like the woman hot and adult