States of Exceptionalism: Race, Violence, and Governance.

Abstract

“States of Exceptionalism: Race, Violence, and Governance,” illuminates the role of racial ideologies in the organization and institutionalization of state power during the first quarter of the twentieth century, and shows the influence of this history on patterns of police and military violence in the present. Covering the lynching era (1880 – 1930), with the conclusion examining current events that have been labelled “modern-day lynchings,” this dissertation reveals the linkages between extralegal and state-sanctioned violence that emerge during times of crisis and emergency, what I call “states of exceptionalism.” Departing from historical and sociological studies that characterize lynching and race riots as lawless mob violence, my research demonstrates that these phenomena have been forms of legalized violence, which flourish under the legal ambiguity created by intersecting discourses of race and crisis. Such violence is simultaneously a product of law and yet detached from the accountability and oversight that law is supposed to provide. Rather than view lynching and race riots as problems of the distant past, I argue that these phenomena survive as legal precedent and shape a range of debates and discourses today – from crime and social unrest to terrorism and war.