University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations December 2012 Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The Stories of African American Men in the Wisconsin Prison System Julia Marie Kirchner University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Kirchner, Julia Marie, "Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The tS ories of African American Men in the Wisconsin Prison System" (2012). Theses and Dissertations. Paper 200. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEVER PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN UNLESS YOU PRAY: THE STORIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN IN THE WISCONSIN PRISON SYSTEM by Julia Kirchner A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee December 2012 ABSTRACT NEVER PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN UNLESS YOU PRAY: THE STORIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN IN THE WISCONSIN PRISON SYSTEM By Julia Kirchner The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, December 2012 Under the Supervision of Professor J. Patrick Gray Prior research on offender narratives has not examined culture as a factor in how prisoners explain their crimes. This qualitative ethnographic research project explores the self- constructions of African American male prisoners using both participant observation with active gang members on the street and discourse analysis of over 300 letters written by incarcerated men. Focusing primarily on six prisoner consultants, this study investigates the claims that offenders make about themselves in reference to their identity. These convicted felons justify their crimes as rational under the circumstances prevalent in segregated inner cities. In reference to economic crimes such as drug dealing and armed robbery, they claim that acquired illegal money makes them feel like independent adults who can take care of themselves, as well as support their friends and family members. The money increases their respect from other men and their popularity with women. In addition, the men claim that they are following the principles of their unique subcultural moral codes which focus on masculine constructions of respect and honor. As well as their public presentations of powerful masculine selves, the ii offenders also claim to acquire significant aspects of their identity through (attempted) close relationships with female partners, although these bonds are frequently fragile and confusing. The men also struggle to maintain cherished bonds with their natal families and their own young children during their incarcerations. On the street and while imprisoned, the men suffer from substantial emotional losses which include both the breakdown of trust and alienation in relationships with women, as well as frequent elimination of close relationships with male friends and family members due to their violent deaths. African American male offenders exhibit complex multiple selves which are inconsistent and context-dependent, but which are also significantly interdependent with those around them. iii © Copyright by Julia Marie Kirchner, 2012 All Rights Reserved iv For my children, Samuel and Charlotte, and my sister, Darlene v TABLE OF CONTENTS Part One – BACKGROUND Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW: CULTURE, CRIME, and the SELF Self and Story………………………………………………………………… page 4 Deviance, Villains, and Offenders………………………………….. page 6 Independent or Interdependent Selves?........................... page 13 What is a Self?.................................................................... page 18 The Offender and His Communities……………………………….. page 27 “Western Culture” versus Street Culture……………………….. page 32 Chapter 2 RESEARCH and METHODS Research Questions and Methodology…………………………… page 53 My Social Location…………………………………………………………. page 68 Introduction to the Consultants…………………………………….. page 71 Part Two – PRISONERS’ STORIES Chapter 3 MONEY and the CRIMINAL SELF Introduction……………………………………………………………………. Page 77 Offenders Claim to be Rational………………………………………. Page 82 Offenders Claim to be Intelligent and Competent…………… page 92 Offenders Claim to be Mature and Independent…………….. page 101 Offenders Claim to be Popular………………………………………… page 105 Offenders Claim to be Responsible…………………………………. Page 110 Chapter 4 HONOR and the REPUTABLE SELF Introduction……………………………………………………………………. Page 115 Offenders Claim to be Proud………………………………………….. page 115 Offenders Claim to be Honest and Trustworthy……………… page 121 Offenders Claim to be Principled……………………………………. page 133 Offenders Claim to be Respectful and Worthy of Respect.. page 138 vi Chapter 5 ATTACHMENT and the VULNERABLE SELF Introduction: Offenders and Their Communities…………….. page 162 Offenders Claim to be Devoted to Family…………………………. Page 173 Offenders Claim to be Confused by Mating Games with No Rules page 185 Offenders Claim to be (or want to become) Conscientious Fathers page 226 Offenders Claim to be Lonely and Abandoned……………………… page 238 Offenders Claim to be Bereaved and Desensitized to Death… page 251 Chapter 6 CONCLUSIONS How Offenders View Their Own Stories…………………………………. page 257 Suggestions for Further Research…………………………………………… page 259 Multiple Concluding Perspectives…………………………………………… page 261 Offender Narrative through the Lens of Unrealized Models……. page 263 Offender Narrative through the Lens of Agency………………………. page 267 Offender Narrative through the Lens of Morality……………………. page 276 Street and Fieldwork Ethics …………………………………………………….. page 283 Offenders and the Culture of Honor …… …………………………………. page 289 Offender Narrative and the American Dream………………………….. page 297 References ………………………………………………………………………………. page 305 Appendix – IRB Approval Letter …………………………………………….. page 314 Curriculum Vitae …………………………………………………………………….. page 316 vii ACKOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people: My sister, Darlene Kirchner-Farrey, who believed in me, (and who proofread some of my text). My advisor, J. Patrick Gray, and the other members of my doctoral committee: Fred Anapol, Alan Aycock, Marcus Britton, and Thomas Malaby. JoAnne Graham who led the wonderful Dissertators and Thesis Writers Support Group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Norris Health Center. Thomas R. Haack, the former Teacher Supervisor at Ethan Allen School, Wisconsin Department of Corrections. I especially want to thank and acknowledge the six men whose stories formed the heart of this dissertation: Plato, Geppetto, Capo, Man O’ War, Doctor See, and Fanatic. Their candor, wisdom, and friendship has meant a great deal to me, far beyond giving me information for this project. I wish them sagacity and good fortune in the future. Special thanks to Lafayette, whose knowledge and insight was invaluable. I could not have written this without you. viii ix 1 An attractive young mother, holding the hand of her eight-year-old daughter, walks from the crowded gallery seating to the prosecutor’s table. She sits beside the prosecutor and her child climbs on her lap. The lawyer tells the judge that he has been asked to read the child’s victim-impact statement. The little girl had been asked how it made her feel that her daddy got shot. “Bad.” She had been asked to draw a picture to show how she felt before her father’s death. The prosecutor says, “This looks like a rainbow.” How did she feel after he got shot? “This looks like a volcano.” Just a few feet away, the defendant is sitting shackled in a wheelchair behind the defense table. He has plead “no contest” to First Degree Reckless Homicide for shooting another African American drug dealer while trying to rob him. Both the prosecution and the defense have concurred that the death was probably not intentional, but an impetuous act of folly committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs; an unplanned shot intended to frighten or wound, but not to kill. The defendant is Capo, a man I have known for more than five years. His back is rounded forward and he is hanging his head so that his forehead is about 8 inches above the wooden table. He has chosen to speak to the court during this sentencing hearing. He begins by saying, ”Where I come from, this is what we have to do to survive.” He says that he is sorry and that he knows that the victim’s family and his own family are suffering because of what happened. Then he says, “But I ain’t no killer. I ain’t no murderer or whatever. I’m not like that.” Capo knows that he pulled the trigger the night the other man was killed. But he does not believe that the person who took the life of another human being was his real self. 2 BACKGROUND 3 Chapter One Literature Review: Culture, Crime, and the Self 4 Self and Story …we know that narrative in all its forms is a dialectic between what was expected and what came to pass. For there to be a story, something unforeseen must happen. Story is enormously sensitive to whatever challenges our conception of the canonical. It is an instrument not so much of solving problems as for finding them. The plot depicted marks the story’s type as much as the resolution. We more often tell stories to forewarn than to instruct. And because of this, stories are culture’s coin and currency. For culture is, figuratively,