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Book review: The Ethics of Total Confinement: A Critique of Madness, Citizenship, and Social Justice

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/1362480612437926
Published date01 August 2012
Date01 August 2012
AuthorDavid Polizzi
Subject MatterBook reviews
TCR450377.indd 374
Theoretical Criminology 16(3)
argues, denies the existence of African Americans in the inner city who are hard working,
resist oppression, and do not fit the prevailing stereotypes. Covington examines how these
images have served political conservatives in their efforts to limit the availability of social
programs such as welfare.
In the final chapter of the book (‘Comforting fictions’), the author examines the ‘color
blind racism’ which causes blacks and whites to ‘talk past each other’. The author asserts
the tendency of whites to focus on individual acts of racism and the tendency of blacks to
perceive racism as institutionalized. She uses the films Crash and Monster’s Ball to illustrate
how white racist characters are redeemed in popular Hollywood movies by sacrificing the
integrity and the credibility of the black characters. This book ends rather abruptly with a
chapter summary titled ‘Black women, white audiences’. A brief concluding chapter pulling
together the arguments made in both sections of the book would have been useful. However,
by the end of the book, Covington has adequately presented her arguments.
This book will be of interest to general readers as well as social scientists. Covington’s
discussion of the social construction of race provides a useful review and synthesis of the
literature on this topic. The strength of the book is her detailed analysis of the roles of
academia, Hollywood, and politicians in creating and perpetuating myths about African
Americans and crime. The book is provocative enough to generate lively classroom discus-
sions about race and cultural misinformation.
Reference
Manatu N (2003) African American Women and Sexuality in the Cinema. Jefferson, NC: McFarland
& Company.
Bruce A. Arrigo, Heather Y. Bersot and Brian G. Sellers, The Ethics of Total Confinement:
A Critique of Madness, Citizenship, and Social Justice, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
2011; 320 pp.: 978019537221, U$75 (hbk)
Reviewed by: David...

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