"Monster"
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Content
- "With each new generation of Crip and Blood bangers comes a more complex system, which is now reaching institutional proportions." paragraph (p 79/near end of chap 4)
- “Prison loomed in my future like wisdom teeth: if you lived long enough you got them.” (p 163/chap 6-The Juvenile Tank)
- "every jail I have ever been in seems designed to be recidivistic, as opposed to rehabilitative" What is the purpose of prison? Ideally? in actuality? (p 164/chap 6-The Juvenile Tank )
- “From here on in, if we must die anyway, we will die fighting back and we will not die alone. We intend to see that our racist oppressors also get a taste of death.” (quoting Malcolm X) (p 215/chap 7-Muhammad Abdullah)
- contemplating and rejecting religious faith "My interest here was drawn by the militancy of Malcolm X and Muhammad, not by the spirituality of Islam." Does Shakur really turn his life around, or does he trade in one gang for a bigger one, one war for another? (pp 226-7/chap 7-Muhammad Abdullah)
- human vs mankind - people of color vs kind of man (mutants) - inventive etymology (pp 256-7/chap 8-Tamu)
Context
Sanyika Shakur
- formerly “Monster” Kody Scott, former member of Crips
- educated in prison, joined Republic of New Afrika movement
- on prison: "To be New Afrikan is to recognize that you are a member of a distinct culture, that you are a citizen of a nation unto itself in the belly of the beast."
- on why he was sent back: "A guy who was supposed to be about something was physically disciplined for transgressions in the area, and he defected to the Amerikan Security Forces instead of correcting his behavior. " (http://sfbayview.com/2012/monster-kody-an-interview-wit-author-sanyika-shakur/)
- An Interview with Sanyika Shakur (http://youtu.be/ptc4VcCABlc)
- Released August 2012 (http://4strugglemag.org/2013/02/16/a-video-interview-with-sanyika-shakur%E2%80%8F/)
- Google+ page (https://plus.google.com/107225266973353763477/posts)
Crips
- Crips - Dept. of Justice info (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Information_on_the_Crips_street_gang.pdf)
- FBI file (http://vault.fbi.gov/Bloods%20and%20Crips%20Gang%20/Bloods%20and%20Crips%20Gangs%20Part%201%20of%201/view) Interesting that most of the file comes from new magazines.
- Stanley Tookie Williams on the Crips: “we started out — at least my intent was to, in a sense, address all of the so-called neighboring gangs in the area and to put, in a sense — I thought I can cleanse the neighborhood of all these, you know, marauding gangs. But I was totally wrong. And eventually, we morphed into the monster we were addressing.” http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/30/a_conversation_with_death_row_prisoner
- started for protection and security - a solution - became the problem
Republic of New Afrika
- Provisional Government Republic of New Afrika (http://pg-rna.com/Welcome.html)
- black nationalist movement from 60s - wants secession & reparations
- Current mayor of Jackson MS, Chokwe Lumumba, is a former vice president of RNA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokwe_Lumumba)
- “overstand” (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Overstand)
word appears to come from Rastafarians
1980s
- recession, inflation - tough economic times
- crack cocaine becomes a major issue in mid 80s - Shakur says gangs didn't control much drug traffic in his day. DoJ says "In the early 1980s Crips sets began distributing crack cocaine in Los Angeles." (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Information_on_the_Crips_street_gang.pdf)
Vietnam war
- Vietnam is a theme throughout book. From the Vietnamese standpoint, it was a war against colonial oppression, a freedom struggle
- US pulled out 1973, war ended 1975, reunification in 1976. Kody joined Crips in 1975.
Connections
- Foucault talked about how crime narratives shifted from dying confessions to accounts of investigations - the public "was robbed of its old pride in its crimes." Does that shift hold true with Monster? He recognizes that gang activity is self destructive, yet he embraces a militant revolutionary stance.
- How does Shakur’s vision of the race struggle compare to the visions put forth by Nat Turner and Charles Manson?
- How does his redemptive experience in prison compare to the experiences in the colonial crime narratives?