A Lingual Politic: Power and Resistance in Sacred, Secular, and Subaltern Narratives in an Age of Mass Incarceration

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/decohori.2.0163
• Pages: 163-201
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Author: Nikia Smith Robert

ISSN 2422-6343

horizontes!

decoloniales

Número 2!

Año 2016

Resumen

Este artículo sostiene que la convergencia de lenguaje y poder se

multiplica en los estratos sociales y, en una era de encarcelamiento

punitivo masivo, ejerce violencia sobre los cuerpos subalternos. Exploro

las jerarquías sociales racializadas en los textos sagrados judeo-cristianos

y su relación con aquellos textos seculares que marcan los cuerpos

subalternos para el castigo. Sostengo que las economías escriturales

hegemónicas perpetúan la violencia discursiva que es evidente en el uso

imperial de jurisprudencia sobre los cuerpos latinos destinados al

depósito en industriales complejos carcelarios. A manera de respuesta, las

proclamas de protesta se convierten en voz de vencedores que, como

autores de narrativas subalternas de resistencia, nombran en primera

persona, superan el silencio y reescriben historias.

Palabras claves: Textos sagrados, Textos jurídicos, Disciplinamiento

social, Subalternidad, Racismo, Narrativa de resistencia.

Resumo

Este artigo sustenta que a convergência de linguagem e poder se

multiplica nas camadas sociais e, numa época de encarceramento punitivo

maciço, exer ce violênci a sobre os corpos subalternos. Exploro a s

hierarquias sociais raciais nos textos sagrados judaico -cristãos e sua

relação com aqueles textos seculares que marcam os corpos subalternos

para o castigo. Sustento que as economias escriturais hegemônicas

perpetuam a violência discursiva que é evidente no uso autoritário de

juris prudê ncia sobre pessoas lati nas destin adas ao d epósi to e m

complexos industriais prisionais. Em resposta, proclamações de protesto

tornam-se a voz de vencedores que, como autores de narrativas

subalternas de resistência, superam o silêncio e reescrevem histórias.

Palavras-chave: Textos sagrados, Textos jurídicos, Disciplinamento

social, Subalternidade, Racismo, Narrativa de resistência.

Horizontes Decoloniales 2 (2016): pp. 163-201

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A Lingual Politic

Power and Resistance in Sacred,

Secular, and Subaltern Narratives!

in an Age of Mass Incarceration

Nikia Smith Robert

Claremont School of Theology

ISSN 2422-6343

horizontes!

decoloniales

Número 2!

Año 2016

Nikia Smith Robert ! A Lingual Politic

Abstract

This article submits that the confluence of language and power proliferate

social strata and exacts violence on subaltern bodies in a punitive age of

mass incarceration. I explore racialized social hierarchies in Judeo-

Christian sacred texts and its relationship to secular texts that mark

subaltern bodies for punishment. I argue that hegemonic scriptural

economies perpetuate discursive violence that is evident in the imperial

use of jurisprudence to warehouse latina/o bodies in a prison industrial

complex. In response, proclamations of protest become the voice of

victors to self-name, overcome silence and rewrite histories as authors of

subaltern narratives of resistance.

Keywords: Sacred texts, Legal texts, Social regulation, Subalternity,

Racism, Narrative of resistance, Punishment, Mass Incarceration.

About Nikia Smith Robert

PhD student in the Religion, Ethics and Society program at Claremont

School of Theology, in California, U.S. She completed her Master of

Divinity at Union Theological Seminary, in New York, U.S. Robert is an

ordained Itinerant Elder in African Methodism and serves a local

congregation. Her areas of research involve the intersectionality of race,

gender, class, religion, and punishment. Her research focuses the

framings of religious interpretations of punitive philosophies and public

policy to explore the lived realities of poor black women in an age of mass

incarceration. Robert self-identifies as an activist, theologian, and ethicist

committed to social justice. She lives in California with her husband and

two children.

Cita recomendada de este artículo!

Nikia Smith Robert (2016). «A Lingual Politic: Power and Resistance in

Sacred, Secular, and Subaltern Narratives in an Age of Mass

Incarceration». Horizontes Decoloniales 2: pp. 163–201. [Revista digital].

Disponible en: [consultado

el dd de mm de aaaa].

Este obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons!

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ISSN 2422-6343

horizontes!

decoloniales

Número 2!

Año 2016

Nikia Smith Robert ! A Lingual Politic

Introduction

Language is mundane. Yet, it is also extraordinary. Written

texts and verbal orations are sportively spawn into spaces of

hegemony while slothfully scripted into the margins of

alterity. I recall sitting as the only African-American woman

in a doctoral seminar at a prestigious seminary. Oddly, in a

world religions course that studied methods of respecting

particularities, I did not always feel affirmed in my particular

lingual encounters. To raise my hand and speak often

disrupted covert power dynamics. The classroom symbolized

hegemonic space represented by a white male professor. In

posing arguments or raising questions, my analyses were

rarely taken at face value. Rather, they were often rephrased,

paraphrased, or followed by inquiries for clarification. In

other words, it was rarely what I said that took precedence

over what I seemingly meant to say. In this instance, the

occupation of dominant space authorized white privilege and

institutional power to interpret and impose meaning that

devalued voice from locations of alterity. I understood this

phenomenological encounter as a lingual politic signifying

the mundanity of language and the extraordinary dynamics of

power as an expression of social hierarchy.

In Language and Symbolic Power, twentieth-century French

sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu (1991) ascertained, «Every

linguistic interaction, however, personal and insignificant it

may seem, bears the traces of the social structure that it both

expresses and helps to reproduce» (2, emphasis mine).

Bourdieu’s critique encompasses a relationship between

linguistic interactions and social s tructures. What is

particularly resonant about this statement is Bourdieu’s

emphasis on « eve ry» linguistic int eraction. T his all-

encompassing qualifier, «every,» suggests that a personal and

insignificant linguistic interaction, such as raising a question

in class, is not limited to an abyss of nothingness but

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