Chris Calton on Defunding the police, and what institutionalized racism really means

I speak with history student Chris Calton about everything from the difference between private police and “policing” as we know it, to what “institutionalized racism” really looks like.

Did you know that not only are African Americans disproportionately represented in the prison population, but that the proportion of African Americans in prison has RISEN over time, and is continuing to rise???

Chris offers some powerful insights into why that is, and a vivid picture of how “policing” is a very different thing from one neighborhood to another, how our prison/law/policing system creates a distinct group of second-class citizens, and what the Stanford Prison Experiment has to do with all of this.

If you’re wondering why so many people are calling to defund the police, please listen to this one.

Chris’s article, “What if We Didn’t Have Police at All?” is here, his article “the Tragedy of the Commons in the Courtroom” is here, and you can see more of his writing here.

You can find his (former) podcast, “historical controversies”, is here.

His video “Do We Need the Police?” is here, and his YouTube channel is here.

Some of the books he mentions:

On the Run, by Alice Goffman

Texas Tough, by Robert Perkinson

The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander