In his article, Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence, Hamamoto makes a very interesting connection between the United State's Military-Industrial complex and the rise of serial killing. I agree with certain things he says. In my opinion, the "perpetual state of war" that the US is in churns out a lot of people with skills specific to war and also normalizes violence as part of the everyday culture. Furthermore, I think the the dominance of the US military across the world and the view of people of other nations as either villains or people in need of saving creates an unhealthy power dynamic between white people and people of color in the United States. They are the "good guys" and are entitle to power, even over other people. The amount racial, gender, and homosexuality targeting of serial killers in his article was shocking to me. It only reinforced the idea that the lives of minority groups are viewed as less significant compared to that of a white male. And whenever a minority group breaks out of the norm set aside for them, them seem to be targeted the most. Similar to many of the mass shootings recently, Hamamoto mentions that the violent actions of white males get written off as mental illness or the lack of resources to assimilate back to civilian life. However, the violent actions of minority people demonize them or are seen to speak for the character of all people of that color.
Q: What can we do as students, to challenge the normalization of violence?
Video of Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex Speech
References:
Hamamoto, D.Y. (2003). Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.
RobUniv (2006, Aug 4). Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
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