Learning from Ferguson Welfare, Criminal Justice, and the Political Science of Race and Class

Excerpt: In this chapter, we encourage our colleagues to expand this field of view. Toward that end, we explore several underlying sources of the disconnect between our subfield’s mainstream and the political lives of RCS (race–class subjugated) communities. We focus on the state’s welfare and criminal justice systems—not only because they stand at the center of our own work as political scientists, but also because the institutions and agents of these systems play pivotal roles in the operations of state power, governance, citizenship, and politics in RCS communities.