Dissertation Abstract
This research examines the life conditions of African Descendants of American Slavery (ADAS) in the U.S. and posits that the State (U.S. government) has and continues to commit the act of genocide against the group. The genocide paradigm is often dominated by time-intense direct violence enacted with explicitly declared intent (e.g., Holocaust, Rwanda, etc.) (Wakeham, 2021). I argue that the case of U.S. genocide against ADAS is indicative of genocide by attrition, a slow process of annihilation that reflects the unfolding phenomenon of the mass killing of a protected group rather than the immediate unleashing of violent death. The posited case reflects a spatial dimension (ADAS ghettoes) whereby the conditions function in parallel with extermination and internment camps as the locales where the harshest discharge of genocidal acts occur. Urban planning has been utilized as a very effective and instrumental spatial tool and practice to execute the acts of genocide and continues to be complicit in the act. This instrumental case study of the U.S. theorizes genocide at all three levels (i.e., macro, meso, and micro), utilizing a universally accepted tool, the United Nations’ Framework for Atrocity Crimes, to evidence the presence of the phenomenon. Finally, this research concludes with preliminary recommendations for a new progressive urban planning framework to advance spatial reconciliation.
Why a Logic Model?
How should the reader interpret the multitude of moving pieces and how they work together?
To simplify and illustrate the logic of this overall writing, the researcher has created a visual programmatic logic model. This method is befitting because “the logic model stipulates and operationalizes a complex chain of occurrences or events over an extended period of time, trying to show how a complex activity takes place” (Yin, 2018, p.186). The logic model technique consists of three types of approaches: individual-level logic model, program-level logical model, and organizational-level logic model (Yin, 2018). This work regards the State as an organization with institutions and defined functions, genocide is conceptualized as a program with components that are executed by the State. Thus, the program logic model is selected to illustrate the programmatic function of the State’s agenda. A logic model template and the dissertation proposal illustrate the complexity and proposed programmatic outline of genocide by attrition in the U.S.
/ IMPACTS
Dissertation Logic Model
CONTEXTUAL CONDITIONS
Nation State: Democractic capitalist
SITUATION ADAS Spatial-related Disparities
Needs and Assets
Symptoms vs. Problems
Stakeholder Engagement
• Exposure rate to hazard chemicals and higher rate of associated chronic or terminal illnesses (e.g., lead poisioning, asthma etc.)
• Lower quality public education (lower spending per pupil due to federal funding system)
• Lower quality or absence of public facilities (e.g., parks, libraries, etc.)
• Lower valuation of housing
• Lower net worth and access to upward social and economic mobility
• Lower life expectancy rate
• Higher rate and concentration of social determinants of health
• Higher rate of unemployment (e.g., spatial mismatch or economic poles)
• Impediment to integration (defended neighborhoods and policing)
= ADAS ghettoes as internment and extermination camps
ADAS Disparities
• Harsher sentencing and rate of imprisonment
• Exclusion (direct or indirect) from fully participating in democracy (e.g., voting suppression or elected)
• Higher rate of underemployment
• Lower occupancy rate of corporate, government, and institutional leadership posts (e.g., executive, senior, mid-level)
Settler-colonial state and history of ethnic cleansing (indigenous population)
PRIORITIES Mission
Mission Vision Values
Mandates
Resources
Dynamics
Collaborators
Competitors
Intended Outcomes
Race-based chattel slavery
ECONOMIC SPHERE, BASE
• Elite seek to extract capital from proletariat via relations of exploitation reinforced by the State (non-discursive)
Ideology Consciousness
IDEAS + VALUES, SUPERSTRUCTURE
• White superiority, race, whiteness, and racism
• Nationalism
• Materialism
• Miltarism
• Individualism
Collaborators
• State
• Non-governmental capitalist
• Whites (to varying degree and motivation: proletariart, middle class, upper, and elite)
Intended Outcomes
• Elite seek to hoard and extract capital via proletariat’s labor (working class)
• Tiered exploitation and intensity by race
• Create & sustain discordance in class relations (via race and white superiority) to prevent class union, resulting in a revolt against the capitalist system
• Genocide by attrition (“means to an end”) against ADAS to maximize extraction & impeded class union
Dissertation Logic Model
CONTEXTUAL CONDITIONS
INPUTS
What We Invest
Staff
Volunteers Time
Money
Research Base
Materials
Equipment
Technology
Partners
Nation State: Democractic capitalist
Discursive Realm of Superstructure
• Interaction between Symbolic reproduction & reification = Ideological State apparatus (ISA)
• Social institutions (reinforcement of ideology) = Repressive State apparatus (RSA)
• Propaganda of macro ideological consciousness is normalized and crystalized among whites
• Dehumanization process via media and other institutions
Dissertation Logic Model
CONTEXTUAL CONDITIONS
Nation
OUTCOMES
What the ShortTerm Results Are
Decision-making
Aspirations
Motivations
What the MediumTerm Results Are
What the Ultimate Impact(s) Is Social
Long-Term
Settler-colonial state and history of ethnic cleansing (indigenous population)
Race-based chattel slavery
Short-Term
• Racialization of space crystalized
• ADAS ghettoes are conceptualized and their features (e.g., tolerance for exposure to pollutants)
Medium-Term
• Legislating and authorizing genocide
• Policies (e.g., prison industrial complex, FHA, etc.)
• Urban planning is integral–and commonly deployed (e.g., zoning)–to the discharge of acts against ADAS and to the protection of white “spaces” (defended neighborhoods)
Long-Term
ADAS Camps
• Slow death, polluted, bodies policed, lower life expectancy, etc.
Dissertation Logic Model
Nation State: Democractic capitalist CONTEXTUAL CONDITIONS
ASSUMPTIONS
Whites are aware of the social, economic, and environmental conditions of ADAS. This statement does not infer they understand the causal mechanism or intricacies of systemic oppression.
Whites are aware of white privilege and gains (e.g., capital) associated with whiteness and white superiority.
Whites make the choice to not fully commit to class unity because they are insulated from the harshest blow of capitalism and are allowed to gainfully participate in capital accumulation. 1 5 3 2 6 4
Whites understand the ramifications of exclusion of any group, which should, regardless of denial, allow compassion and understanding of the ADAS condition.
The State serves, supports, and protects the interest of racial capitalism in the U.S.
Spatiality (e.g., location in relation to housing valuation, real estate, education funding system, community resource investments, etc.) is integral to capitalism.