SID# 914019640
ASA 002 / A03
Empire of Death
Both readings for this week were very eye opening and intriguing, but today I'd like to focus on Darrell Y. Hamamoto's "Empire of Death and the Plague of Civil Violence" in Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire. He delves into different types of murder and violence that transcend "historical epoch, geography, and culture," including serial murder, mass murder, sniper culture, and race murder. There is emphasis on the effect of violent war culture, as Hamamoto constantly alludes to the Vietnam War in the mid 1900s and ties that into how sexual and brutal predators often prey on Asian women as a means to feed their fantasies and/or to release their traumatic experiences and stress.
My reaction to this piece was one of shock and discomfort, since I thought our readings would mainly be focused on academia. The impact of this topic hit me hard in the gut, but the discomfort I feel is only further proof that the "empire of death" and civil violence must be discussed and understood more, as well as recognized for its effects on disadvantaged women, and people of color. I am currently taking an upper division class called "Psychology and Law," and while we studied the topic of serial murder, it was no surprise that Theodore "Red" Robert Bundy's case came up. However, I was shocked to read about the significant numbers of "seemingly sensible women" that called author Ann Rule to cry about Bundy's execution out of the devotion and love for him.
On the topic of racial murder, I took interest in the sentence, "Like genocide, mass murder and serial killing are highly 'racialized' expressions of violent behavior.'" I appreciate the recognition of race being in the topic of conversation, as it is often swept under the rug or diminished, since many people cannot see the relation between one's race and the victim or perpetrator of violent crimes. The hatred of Asians and Native Americans discussed reminded me of research I once did for a paper in my Women's and Gender Studies class last quarter—while men and women are both affected by violent crime, women suffer the most consequences. Even historically, the mass rape and murder of Native American women by colonizers took place so that they could not reproduce, while the rape of African American slave women was used to produce more children as a labor force that would inherit their mother's slave title.
The section of marriage material also reminded me of research I had done for my Women's and Gender Studies class. We discussed topics regarding coverture, and how a woman would become a feme covert—female property deprived of rights—of her husband. The government and law saw no reason for the woman to have rights, if her husband would be there to protect her; however, there was never a law that protected her from him. Marital rape and abuse are even larger issues in communities of color, because women of color feel a need to protect their families against authorities that may harm them more than help them. At the end of these readings, I was, admittedly, left feeling empty, and a little angry that people—and women—of color always suffer the most severe consequences by actions of European/white men, and are barely even recognized for it.
Attached is an infographic that I referenced briefly in my Women's and Gender Studies paper.
Question: A lot of Dr. Hamamoto's piece focused on the historical context of sexual and violent crime, but what are some of the effects they took on modern day society?
Works Cited:
Infographic of the day: The incarceration of domestic abuse survivors. (2015). Feministing. Retrieved from http://feministing.com/2015/01/29/infographic-of-the-day-the-incarceration-of-domestic-abuse-survivors/
Hamamoto, D. Y. (2003). Empire of death and the plague of civil violence. In Boggs, C. (Ed.), Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire (pp. 272-296). New York, New York: Routledge.
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