A Rhetorical Analysis of George Jackson's Soledad Brother: a Class Critical and Critical Race Theory Investigation of Prison Resistance
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication 12-17-2015 A Rhetorical Analysis of George Jackson's Soledad Brother: A Class Critical and Critical Race Theory Investigation of Prison Resistance Nick J. Sciullo Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Sciullo, Nick J., "A Rhetorical Analysis of George Jackson's Soledad Brother: A Class Critical and Critical Race Theory Investigation of Prison Resistance." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/67 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF GEORGE JACKSON’S SOLEDAD BROTHER: A CLASS CRITICAL AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY INVESTIGATION OF PRISON RESISTANCE By NICK J. SCIULLO Under the Direction of David Cheshier, PhD ABSTRACT This study offers a rhetorical analysis of George Jackson’s Soledad Brother, informed by class critical and critical race theory. Recent rhetorical studies scholarship has taken up the problem of prisons, mass incarceration, and resultant issues of race, yet without paying attention to the nexus of black radicalism and criticisms of capital. This study views George Lester Jackson as a rhetorician in his own right and argues that his combination of critical race and class critical perspectives is an important move forward in the analysis of mass incarceration. Jackson is able to combine these ideas in a plain-writing style where he employs intimacy, distance, and the strategy of telling it like it is. He does this in epistolary form, calling forth a long tradition of persuasive public letter writing. At this study’s end, ideas of circulation re engaged to show the lines of influence Jackson has and may continue to have. Through rhetorical analysis of Soledad Brother, this study demonstrates the utility of uniting class critical criticism and critical race theory for rhetorical studies, and suggests further avenues of research consistent with this approach. INDEX WORDS: George Jackson, Black Radicalism, Black Power Movement, Rhetoric of Race, Soledad Brother, Mass Incarceration A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF GEORGE JACKSON’S SOLEDAD BROTHER: A CLASS CRITICAL AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY INVESTIGATION OF PRISON RESISTANCE By NICK J. SCIULLO A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2015 Copyright by Nick J. Sciullo 2015 A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF GEORGE JACKSON’S SOLEDAD BROTHER: A CLASS CRITICAL AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY INVESTIGATION OF PRISON RESISTANCE By NICK J. SCIULLO Committee Chair: David Cheshier Committee: Michael Bruner Patricia Davis Alessandra Raengo External Member: Ronald Walter Greene Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2015 iv DEDICATION To George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Culchette, the Soledad Brothers. To Angelo and Janette Sciullo, my grandparents. To Pamela Bridgewater, whose bright smile was only eclipsed by her evocative scholarship. To Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and others who have lost their lives to police violence. To my living family, Rick Sciullo, my father; Dennis and Cyndee Sciullo, my uncle and aunt, and Vincent Sciullo, my cousin. To Dr. Tomasz Tabako, a kindred spirit, who helped greatly with this work in its earliest stages. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The support of my father was and is the most important support I have ever received. His guidance, editing, suggesting, and theorizing makes him a top-notch scholar in his own right. My committee was gracious, supportive, and helpful in improving this dissertation and making me smarter along the way. My colleagues at Georgia State University helped me a great deal to think better about rhetoric, race, activism, and social justice including, but not limited to, Sara Baugh, Emily Koefed, Stephen Heidt, Scott Tuloch, Jason Jarvis, Phil Kostka, Jay Wood, and others. All mistakes in this dissertation are mine and mine alone. Those professors not on my committee, but helpful and supportive, are also greatly appreciated: Dr. Mary Stuckey, Dr. Nathan Atkinson, and Dr. Joe Bellon. My colleagues in the communication and rhetorical studies discipline have also helped me greatly whether through pushing me harder or by offering their friendship, or both, including, but not limited to Dr. Lisa Corrigan, Dr. Anjali Vats, Dr. Kevin D. Kuswa, and Dr. Michael K. Davis. And, lastly, my law colleagues andré douglas pond cummings, a first rate mentor, Atiba Ellis, my brother from another mother, Dr. Donald Tibbs, an excellent scholar of black radicalism, and the late, great Pamela Bridgewater. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ V 1 INTRODUCTION: GEORGE JACKSON IN HIS TIME; SOLEDAD BROTHER IN ITS TIME .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overviewing George Jackson’s Life of Activism .............................................................. 5 1.2 Prison Activism as Rhetorical Project .............................................................................. 10 2 CHAPTER 1: GEORGE JACKSON AS RHETORICIAN .............................................. 17 2.1 Narrative Connections, Narrative Intimacies ................................................................... 19 2.2 The Strategy of Rhetorical Normalization ....................................................................... 26 2.3 The Reliance on Direct Colloquialism ............................................................................. 29 2.4 The Logics of Dissociation .............................................................................................. 33 2.5 Jackson’s Rhetorical Self-Awareness .............................................................................. 36 3 CHAPTER 2: THE RHETORICAL FORM OF THE LETTER .................................... 45 4 CHAPTER 3: INTERSECTIONALITY, EMBODIMENT, AND MATERIALITY ..... 78 4.1 Connecting rhetorical analysis to intersectional concern ................................................. 93 4.2 Black Radicalism scholarship as an antecedent to intersectional analysis....................... 94 4.3 Jackson’s intersectional politics, starting with class consciousness .............................. 104 4.4 The wider circulation of Jackson’s ideas ....................................................................... 127 5 CHAPTER 4: RACE AND CLASS DYNAMICS IN GEORGE JACKSON ................ 146 6 CONCLUSION: NEW DIRECTIONS, ACTIVISM, AND REVOLUTIONARY ESCAPE ......................................................................................................................... 169 WORKS CITED........................................................................................................................ 181 1 1 INTRODUCTION: GEORGE JACKSON IN HIS TIME; SOLEDAD BROTHER IN ITS TIME George Jackson was a powerful writer and advocate for black radicalism, class- consciousness, and political involvement in the 1960s and 1970s. Rhetoricians have written little has been written about him though, and the reasons for that are not immediately clear. It might be easy to write him off as too radical and too violent for his time, but that would not be to do his writings justice. While rhetoricians have engaged the writings of H. Rap Brown, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael, and others; they have not attended to Jackson’s writing. This dissertation addresses that misstep. George Jackson’s early years give scholars insights into his experiences with race and class. As a theorist, Jackson was shaped by his early years in Chicago’s poor neighborhoods, spending time on Throop Street, a neighborhood populated largely by people of color and socio- economic hardship, and his early criminal history in Southern California where he was convicted of minor crimes. As one might expect, growing up in racial and class segregation would have affected Jackson’s thinking about race and class. While this dissertation does not focus on the societal factors that shaped his thinking, instead focusing on the text of Soledad Brother; it is important to understand that Jackson was immersed in race and class struggle from an early age. This study offers a rhetorical analysis of George Jackson’s Soledad Brother, informed by class critical and critical race theory. Recently rhetoricians have taken up the issue of mass incarceration. This work has addressed rhetoricians intervening in prison (Hartnett, 2010a; Hartnett, 2010b; Hartnett, Wood, & McCann, 2011), representations of prisons in media (Yousman, 2009; Kelly, 2012), international prison issues (Corrigan, 2011), and the power of prisoner writing (Novek, 2005). Hartnett, Wood, and McCann (2011) argue that prison writing is “life-affirming,” which is an apt description of prison letter writing’s value (p. 348). They 2 position prison writing and prison activism as communication in action that rewards all participants.