Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago

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A hard-hitting exploration of how state policy displaces and isolates Black communities and how collective resistance creates spaces for working-class people of color to identify the true cause of conflict as capitalism and white supremacy

Marginalized communities often become understandably preoccupied with a city's structured attempt to deem them disposable, making it difficult to see people experiencing the same suffering as potential comrades in struggle. Enemies are manufactured as the result of continued displacement, hyper-segregation, and dispossession. Under these impossible circumstances people are often quicker to punch each other before they identify the enemy as white supremacy and capitalism, creating a society where conflict is engineered.

uses examples from Chicago's recent history to shed light on the politics of disposability through housing instability, criminalization, and school closures. Looking at all three phenomena together allows readers to see how state policies designate some neighborhoods as unviable, where disinvestment furthers a rationale to contain members of these communities.

calls for a powerful movement against the displacement, disinvestment, and disposability of Chicago's Black population.

Author Bio

David Omotoso Stovallisa professor in the Department of Black Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The author of Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation and the Politics of Interruption, he is involved with youth-centered community organizations in Chicago, New York, and the Bay Area.