Writer: Ama Antwi-Saki (Sociology and Human Rights)
Beckett’s ‘Banished’ is a must read on inequality and injustice in America - the introduction alone introduces to readers on three people and how banishment laws have worked to stigmatise and unjustly promote ‘guilty until proven innocent’. Throughout, Beckett enlighten’s readers on the various ways law makers manipulate the system to legitimise racial stereotyping and removing ‘undesirables’ from society through unjust banishment and arrest.
The three initial concepts explored in this book are guilt by association, people in the wrong place at the wrong time are automatically assumed guilty without the proper steps of investigation taken to prove their innocence. Secondly, racial discrimination and prejudice also factors in, those of ethnic minorities such as African, Latin and Native Americans received a presumption of guilt in conjunction to being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They also seemed to be ignored when explaining their innocence. The final observation was, that poorer neighbourhoods were strategically targeted as places of high crime, however it made police more unreasonable to unwilling to empathise with innocent civilians who were caught in these places at the wrong time, the guilt of association coupled with their race and socio-economic background all worked against them.
This book is a fascinating look into the legality of banishment in America and a recommendation to our readers at INCEO. The book is dense, and uses more complex language and isn’t as leisurely a read as our other recommendations, but really allows readers to understand the complex policing and banishment systems in place in the United States.
Beckett, K., (2010), Banished : The New Social Control In Urban America, Oxford University Press, Oxford, https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzI5NDg2NV9fQU41?sid=63b39f70-ced6-492f-8fbe-a6264ae9faee%40redis&vid=0&format=EB&lpid=lp_23&rid=0 , Accessed: 24 Feb 2022