Abstract
This chapter is concerned with the rise in exclusionary practices, racism, and xenophobia in twenty-first century United States (US) surveillance. In particular, this chapter seeks to understand how surveillance technologies, especially drone surveillance within US boundaries, seek to control communities of colour manifest in society and are sanctioned or commissioned by the US government as part of an evolving regime of white supremacy within a structurally racist government apparatus. Typically, drone surveillance enables federal agencies such as the CIA to monitor suspected terrorist activities in targeted countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Now, drone surveillance is breaking new ground. Local law enforcement entities use the same technology on US soil to detect and monitor citizen-led protests. The chapter explores how surveillance and race advance the theories of violence and subjugation in American life.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: Perseus.
American Attitudes Toward Arabs and Muslims. (29 July 2014). Washington, DC: Arab American Institute, p. 9.
America’s Surveillance State. (2014). Documentary. UK: Global Vision.
Anon. (1968). Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books.
Berger, M. (1968). Equality by Statute: The Revolution in Civil Rights. Garden City: Doubleday.
Bonilla-Silva, E., Moon-Kie, J., and Vargas, J.H.C. (2011). State of White Supremacy: Racism, Governance, and the United States. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Brown, A., Parrish, W., and Speri, A. (27 October 2017). “The Battle of Treaty Camp: Law Enforcement Descended on Standing Rock a Year Ago and Changed the DAPL Fight Forever.” The Intercept.
Crump, C., and Stanley, J. (December 2011). Protecting Privacy from Aerial Surveillance: Recommendations for Government Use of Drone Aircraft. American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved from www.aclu.org/files/assets/protectingprivacyfromaerialsurveillance.pdf.
Cyril, M.A. (30 March 2015). “Black America’s State of Surveillance.” The Progressive.
Desmond, M., and Emirbayer, M. (2015). The Racial Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Driver, J. (2015). “Kantian Complicity.” In: Johnson, and R.N., Timmons, M. (Eds.), Reason, Value, and Respect: Kantian Themes from the Philosophy of Thomas E. Hill, Jr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 3.
Feagin, J.R. (2013). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. New York: Routledge.
Fields, B., and Fields, K.E. (2014). Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. Brooklyn: Verso.
Glaude, E.S., Jr. (2016). Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. New York: Broadway Books.
Haslanger, S. (2014). “Oppressions: Racial and Other.” In: Levine, M.P., and Pataki, T. (Eds.), Racism in Mind. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 97–123.
Kutz, C. (2007). Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age. Oxford: Cambridge University Press.
Mills, C. (1999). “The Racial Polity.” In: Bobbitt, S.E., and Campbell, S. (Eds.), Racism and Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 13–31.
Oliver, M.L., and Shapiro, T.M. (1995). Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge.
Omi, M., and Winant, H. (1986). Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
Risen, T. (9 July 2014). Racial Profiling Reported in NSA, FBI Surveillance. US News & World Report. Retrieved from www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/07/09/racial-profiling-reported-in-nsa-fbi-surveillance.
Salazar, A. (19 August 2014). Police Flying Drone Over Ferguson? Infowars. Retrieved from www.infowars.com/police-flying-drones-over-ferguson/.
Shepardson, D. (21 March 2017). US Commercial Drone Use to Expand Tenfold by 2021. Reuters. Retrieved from www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drones-idUSKBN16S2NM.
Staff. (19 June 2013). FBI Says Drones Used to Monitor People in US: Domestic Surveillance Rarely Happens and the Necessary Guidelines Are Being Explored, Agency’s Head Tells Senators. Al Jazeera. Retrieved from www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/20136191854968801.html.
State of Surveillance. (2014). Film Directed by A. Pike, Center for Investigative Reporting, Emeryville, CA.
Ward, G.K. (2012). The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ryan, M.K. (2018). “Government Surveillance: Racism and Civic Virtue in the United States”. In: Flynn, S., Mackay, A. (eds) Surveillance, Race, Culture . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77938-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77938-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77937-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77938-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)