Sonic Jihad: Muslim Hip Hop in the Age of Mass Incarceration
SpearIt, Associate Professor of Law at Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University
February 17, Noon-1:20pm, Fairhaven College Auditorium
This presentation examines the intersection of prisons, Islam, and hip hop culture to understand a unique species of legal criticism. For Muslims in America, hip hop culture has functioned as a megaphone for rhetorical resistance that offers “new terrain” for understanding the law. More specifically, among the troubles that have afflicted the hip hop generation, perhaps none is as traumatic as losing friends, family, and loved ones to the proverbial belly of the beast. As the phrase “down by law” indicates, critique of the law has been etched in hip hop culture from the earliest days, which has invariably involved blasting prisons. The more extreme expressions redefine fantasy fiction through apocalyptic visions of revolution and revenge, with prisons representing an extension of the slave system that first brought African Muslims to America as chattel. This talk focuses on this discursive war and challenges the notion that the most radical voices in Muslim America are to be found in mosques or other Muslim gatherings. Such a position must contend with a sonic jihad in hip hop whose war rhetoric rivals that of any jihadist organization.
”Shackles Beyond the Sentence: How Legal Financial Obligations Create a Permanent Underclass”
February 17, Time and place TBA
This presentation focuses on Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) and argues that such financial penalties against criminal defendants literally make the poor pay for failed criminal justice policy. Reliance on mass imprisonment has created a financial vortex, which sucks away the majority of over $50 billion spent on corrections by the states alone. This penal entrenchment has pushed legislatures to devise ways to make criminals help foot the bill, with LFOs representing a modern iteration of state and local fundraising. Despite these efforts, total fee collections thus far have been modest, and in worst-case scenarios, it is uncertain whether there is any contribution at all to criminal justice budgets due to the unaccounted costs involved in administering LFOs. Despite such gaps in knowledge, states have growingly turned to imposing such penalties against criminal offenders, which must be understood in light of failures in law and policy.
Speaker Name
Date
Speaker Bio
SpearIt is an Associate Professor of Law at Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University, where he teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, and Criminal Procedure. SpearIt has extensive teaching experience and in addition to teaching law, he has taught undergraduate courses as well as taught inmates at San Quentin State Prison. His research concentrates on criminal justice, and most recently his work appears in the Chicago-Kent Law Review, Michigan State University Press, ABC-CLIO, and includes a critique of the book, The Spectacular Few: Prisoner Radicalization and the Evolving Terrorist Threat and other short writings.
SpearIt earned a B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude, from the University of Houston, a master's in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School, a Ph.D. in religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. Currently SpearIt is the Chair for the American Bar Association Subcommittee on Prisoner Education, Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding; Board Member of the Society of American Law Teachers; and Contributing Editor for Jotwell Criminal Law.