White Racial Power in Today's Hyper-Militarized World

Zenni Duong
ASA 2 A03
Blog 5

"Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence" by Hamamoto

Our country is hyper-militarized and that is indisputable. As Hamamoto argues, civilian society is exposed to America's brand of military culture through returning veterans, but this is not the only way. Gradually, the state is normalizing killings, murders, and weapons. If you take a look in high schools, it is not out of the ordinary to see JROTC (Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps.) recruiting high school students. Bombs and weaponized aerospace technology is becoming more and more normal in our culture, but no one is wondering why.

The need to critically think about the power that is normalizing weapon/military culture is ever crucial. Race has a lot to do with power, and if our society is embracing guns and militarized/corporatized institutions... minorities are faced with a lot of danger. This can be demonstrated by Hamamoto's examples of Asian fetishism and police misconduct in gruesome murder cases.

My question is: In what ways is the "corporation" working hand in hand with the "military"? I am thinking of incidences of school protests where the police is called in.