Reflections on the Present Conjuncture

This essay reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the months since Donald Trump’s electoral defeat, connecting these to the author’s book, The Punishment Monopoly: Tales of My Ancestors, Dispossession, and the Building of the United States. It argues that an understanding of the present conjuncture depends on centering the long history of dispossession and the punishment that enables it, and on the theft of land and labor on which U.S. sovereignty continues to depend. That foundation is, in the present conjuncture, being challenged by invigorated movements for racial and social justice and defended by equally invigorated fascistic defense of white supremacy and racialized capitalism. The author sees this clash and current ills not as a unique moment, but as a continuation of the arc of U.S. history, an arc that becomes visible if the history we tell emphasizes the foundation of racialized capitalism and its ongoing state-enforced theft, dispossession, and punishment.