How to do the right thing: Carceral infrastructures, criminal knowledges, and the moral debt of mestizaje

How to Do the Right Thing: Carceral Infrastructures, Criminal Knowledge, and the Moral Debt of Mestizaje, proposes the concept of the moral debt of mestizaje to explain the justification of suffering and punishment that occurs under the violences of racial capitalism. The moral debt of mestizaje, I argue, is a form of carcerality that justifies punishment and suffering outside the confines of a prison. This dissertation theorizes the moral debt through the integration of mestizaje in racial capitalism to understand how racial formation in Mexico assigns worth and value to normative subjects. The push for normativity emphasizes the distinction between worthy subjects that deserve security versus those that deserve punishment. It is an ideological cage of the state that justifies suffering and condemns certain populations to death.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Garcia, Brenda Gisela

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rosas, Gilberto
• Moodie, Ellen
• Cacho, Lisa M
• Manalansan, Martin

• Debt
• Mestizaje
• Normativity
• Lawfulness

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Brenda Gisela Garcia

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125808

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125808