Constructing Deportable Subjectivity: Antiforeignness, Antiradicalism, and Antiblackness during the McCarthyist Structure of Feeling

Political Detentions, Political Deportations: Repressive Immigration Enforcement in Times of Trump

“…James was based on his political activities and especially his publishing record. Charisse Burden-Stelly (2017: 350) has called his immigration case “the quintessential example of the conjuncture of antiforeignness, antiradicalism, and antiblackness, and its usage by the U.S. government to expel racialized dissidents from the nation’s border.” James was an independent Marxist who published books on world revolutions (James, 2017), and in particular the protagonism of Black proletarian revolt within revolutionary struggles (James, 1963, 2012). Prosecutors from the Department to Justice offered his books as evidence in James’ immigration hearing.…”

“…Prosecutors from the Department to Justice offered his books as evidence in James’ immigration hearing. Although he staunchly opposed the Soviet Union, his radical internationalism that challenged white supremacy and capitalist hegemony were enough “to produce violent foreclosure from the state and citizenship” (Burden-Stelly, 2017: 346; see also Keith, 2013).…”

“…This repression follows a longer history of struggle and contestation over racialization, containment, and the suppression of political rebels and radicals in the United States (cf. Berger, 2014; Buff, 2008; Burden-Stelly, 2017; Davies, 2001).…”

Marxism, U.S. Democracy, and Lenin’s Commune Against Capitalism

“…After dismissing Occupy Wall Street, Jameson turns to contemplate the judicial system and the healthcare system as potential sites of dual power. In doing so, he fails to note the judicial system's function in harming Black and Brown people through police killings, racist profiling, over-policing, and mass incarceration, e.g., its well-known historical role in assassinating, imprisoning, and decimating the Black Panther Party, linking state repression of organizations that deploy radical critiques of capitalism with those that militantly confronted systemic white supremacy (Burden-Stelly 2017). When he underlines the healthcare system as a latent site of dual power, he remarks presciently, "it may not be impossible to imagine crisis situations in which physicians are able to wield social power of considerable significance, in a kind of epidemiological dual structure" (Jameson 2016, 17).…”