On Property: Policing, Prisons, and the Call for Abolition

(Paperback)

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The next instalment in a new series of short nonfiction books modeled after 18th century political pamphletscompare with Penguin's Great Idea series, but instead of reprints, these are original essays, 20,000 to 35,000 words, by contemporary writers and thinkers about contemporary issues.

The SS21 titles respond specifically to the 2020 George Floyd protests and subsequent public discourse re: BLM

On Property considers the relationship between policing and private property, arguing that law enforcement is the direct outcome of privately held assets and thus inextricable from a capitalist society: as long as people hold property, they will depend on police to protect it.

Walcott is the Director of Women and Gender Studies Institute and an Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education both at University of Toronto. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality.

Written with a thoughtful tone and divided into three primary sections, this slim volume packs a punch without leaving readers fatigued. Walcotts main argument is that abolition is not possible without the elimination of our societys idea of property as we know it. He thoroughly explains how he came to this conclusion, taking readers on a historical field trip through slavery, policing, and uprisings around the world Our only hope That which was made can be unmade, and that which was learned can be unlearned.Mary Wahlmeier Bracciano, The Raven Bookstore (Lawrence, KS)

Reviews

Praise for On Property

Masterful. A powerful tract Rinaldo Walcotts gift is that he makes what seems preposterous to most seem like common sense: abolish property as a completion of abolishing slavery as a means to solving the savagery of modern policing. A mad idea Perhaps, but I found it hard to argue with his logic. As the Rastafari would say: bun Babylon!Globe and Mail

A clear-eyed assessment of the links between property, policing, and the subjugation of Black people ... Walcotts analysis of the ways in which white supremacy is baked into the legal systems of Canada and the U.S. is stimulating. Progressives will embrace this well-conceived call for change.Publishers Weekly

"[A]n eye-opening sequence of ideas in coolly passionate prose."Mark Abley, The Walrus

Running a brief but far-reaching and punchy 96 pages, On Property has an absolute certainty of purpose: calling for the abolition of private property ownership ... [If] statements such as the problem of property is resolved through its removal or calls to abolish everything can make some people quake, when Walcotts pamphlet argues for the human ability to reconsider and rebuild societal structures, the stances come across as sensible and, better yet, doable.Toronto Star

"Rinaldo Walcott locates his contribution to the Field Notes series on current issues, On Property, in the present political moment, while using historical references and events to argue for the abolition of police and property ... Walcott concludes his case by asking for a new ethics of care and economy that does not keep feeding into the incarceration system, a system rigged to continue Black suffering ... It is a question we must ask ourselves after reflecting on the ways in which we, too, are complicit."Quill & Quire

Urgent, far-reaching and with a profound generosity of care, the wisdom in On Property is absolute. We cannot afford to ignore or defer its teachings. Now is the time for us-collectively-to take up the challenge in this undeniable gift of a book.Canisia Lubrin, author of The Dyzgraphxst and Voodoo Hypothesis

Provocative and persuasive. Rinaldo Walcotts insightful unmasking of the historic baggage associated with private property challenges us to face up to what might be the source of our most pressing social problems.Cecil Foster, author of They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada

"Rinaldo Walcott is one of the most renowned and dynamic articulators of the Black radical tradition. His writings are essential for anyone seeking deeper engagement with the social and political movements urgently afoot today."David Chariandy, author of Brother and I've Been Meaning to Tell You

Praise for Rinaldo Walcott

Essential reading. From its first paragraphs Rinaldo Walcott's The Long Emancipation shifts the axis of thought about Black freedom. The astonishing and devastating idea at the center of this book lays out the condition of Black being in the Americas as existing, still, in a state of juridical unfreedom. Once that idea's recalibrating weight and urgency strike you, you must think again where analysis and theory begin. You must begin again.Dionne Brand, poet, novelist, essayist

In The Long Emancipation Rinaldo Walcott has opened up whole new avenues for thinking about the causes and conditions, the global logics of unfreedom that continue to haunt and imperil Black lives. This rich collection of provocations challenges us to consider the terms and possibilities of living beyond the death zones and extractive economies of capitalism; it invites us to see and feel the audacious eruptions of a blackness exceeding these limitsmoving and struggling toward freedom.Deborah E. McDowell, University of Virginia

Each chapter of BlackLife carefully weaves together analyses of history, philosophy, policy, art, and activism to create a fuller picture of Black Canadian existence.Briarpatch Magazine

Black Life: Post-BLM and the Struggle For Freedom is a short volume, but one of the most important intellectual interventions to emerge in Canada in recent years. It ought to be required reading in Canadian Studies and other social science and arts courses at both secondary and post-secondary levels across the country. Above all, it ought to be taken seriously by thoseespecially white Canadianswith the ability to apply its insights in public policy and private lives alike.Rhea Rollmann at PopMatters

Author Bio

Rinaldo Walcott is a Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality.