To Whom It May Concern: Epistolary political philosophies and the production of racial counterpublic knowledge in the United States

Abstract

This article explores the philosophical underpinnings and implications of the idea of the public in the US state processes of knowledge production and control. In it we take up questions of public and counterpublic political philosophical knowledge production and mediation in relation to an expanding state. Specifically, we examine the political philosophies of racialized counterpublics since the 1960s, considering the particular knowledge production genre of the political prison letter. We suggest that the philosophical principles of the dominant public in the US have a proclivity to merge with state mechanisms of domination and to thwart counterpublics and their modes of political knowledge production.

Keywords:

• public sphere
• state of exception
• race
• education
• political prisoners
• incarceration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. By ‘racialized’ we mean to indicate people whose social, political identities were and are understood by them and by others to be organized around political activism of multiple kinds in resistance to White supremacy and repression.

2. What may primarily remain is what Squires describes as ‘satellite public spheres … formed by collectives that do not desire regular discourse or interdependency with other publics’ (p. 463). Importantly, these satellite publics ‘aim to maintain a solid group identity and build independent institutions’ (p. 463), educational institutions key among those. However, even those satellite spheres, as Squires points out, cannot function altogether free of interaction with the state or publics. Therefore, their existence and capacity to engage education and knowledge production are determined in part by the organization of the state and any public or counterpublics. As we argue below, in a state of exception (Agamben, 2005), the potential independence of any sphere is questionable.

3. While it is not within the purview of this article to examine the gendered features of political incarceration in the US, we do want to draw attention to the specific ways in which female political prisoners have been targeted for isolation and sexual assault. Perhaps the most well-known case is that of Alejandrina Torres—a leader in the Chicago Puerto Rican community and elsewhere, sentenced for sedition—who was incarcerated in an experimental, female high-security unit within a federal prison. There she, along with other women, was subjected to sexual assault and extreme behavior modification practices (Day, 2009; Reuben & Norman, 1987). The specificities of female political incarceration deserve rigorous analysis.

4. COINTELPRO was the FBI’s COunter INTELligence PROgram during the 1950s–1970s that undertook a series of covert, often illegal, surveillance, and disruption operations of US domestic political organizations including, but not limited to: Civil Rights groups; the BPP; the American Indian Movement; anti-Vietnam War movement organizations; and, women’s movement members and organizations.