Recalling Persky: White Rage and Intimate Publicity After Brock Turner
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: By attending to the successful campaign to recall and unseat Judge Aaron Persky in retaliation for his sentencing decision in the sexual assault trial of Stanford University athlete Brock Turner, we argue that the campaign constituted a White intimate public that directed White rage toward the judge for his perceived betrayals of a White paternal social contract. Because the campaign posited Persky’s willingness to inflict carceral violence upon Turner as the measure of his fidelity to the state’s obligations with regard to sexual violence and equality under the law, it legitimized carceral solutions that disproportionately harm communities of color. Such a centering of carceral solutions betrayed the public’s affective divestment from the needs of marginalized communities.
Source: Journal of Communication Inquiry
Authors: Ashley Noel Mack, Bryan J. McCann
Institution: Louisiana State University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2967814153