Dangerous Spaces

An eye-opening unapologetic explanation of what racial profiling is in modern-day America: systematic targeting of communities and placing of suspicion on populations on the basis of not only ethnicity but also certain places that are linked to the social identity of that group 21st-century postcivil rights era America race has become complex and intersectional. It is no longer simply a matter of colorblack versus whitecontends author D. Marvin Jones but equally a matter of space or geographies of fear which he defines as spaces in which different groups are particularly vulnerable to stereotyping by law enforcement: blacks in the urban ghetto Mexicans at the functional equivalent of the border Arabs at the airport. Dangerous Spaces: Beyond the Racial Profile demonstrates how society has constructed a set of threat narratives in which certain widespread problemsimmigration drugs gangs and terrorism for examplehave been racialized and explains the historical and social origins of these racializing threat narratives. The book identifies how these narratives have led directly to relentless profiling that results in arrest deportation massive surveillance or even death for members of suspect populations. Readers will come to understand how the problem of profiling is not merely a problem of institutional bias and individual decision making but also a deeply rooted cultural issue stemming from the processes of meaning-making and identity construction.