Abstracts
Abstract
This article undertakes a critical examination of prevailing discourses circulated by public authorities and the media during the weeks and months following three instances of Black women and girls being strip-searched by police in Canada: Audrey Smith in Toronto in 1993, three unnamed Black girls in Halifax in 1995, and Stacy Bonds in Ottawa in 2008. By focusing on three primary discourses of disavowal evident in both media accounts and legal records of these cases, this article sheds light on how collusion among the Canadian state, the criminal justice system, and the media culminate in narratives that re-install the national myth of Canada as a benevolent nation. Ultimately, the paper argues that the violence of the strip-search is naturalized through the disavowal of gendered anti-Black violence and liberal discourses of reform are upheld.
Keywords:
- anti-Black racism,
- disavowal,
- gender,
- police violence,
- strip-search,
- state violence
Résumé
Cet article procède à un examen critique des discours dominants véhiculés par les autorités publiques et les médias au cours des semaines et des mois qui ont suivi trois cas où la police a fouillé à nu des femmes et de jeunes filles noires au Canada : Audrey Smith à Toronto en 1993, trois jeunes filles noires non nommées à Halifax en 1995 et Stacy Bonds à Ottawa en 2008. En se penchant sur les trois principaux discours de désaveu que l’on retrouve aussi bien dans les médias que dans les archives juridiques de ces affaires, cet article montre comment la collusion entre l’État canadien, le système de justice pénale et les médias mène à des discours qui rétablissent le mythe national selon lequel le Canada est une nation bienveillante. Enfin, l’article soutient que le désaveu de la violence sexiste à l’égard des Noires naturalise la violence de la fouille à nu et que les discours libéraux de réforme sont maintenus.
Mots-clés :
- racisme envers les Noirs,
- désaveu,
- genre,
- violence policière,
- fouille à nu,
- violence de l’État
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Appendices
Biographical note
Dr. Stephanie Latty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University. She holds a PhD from the University of Toronto in the Collaborative Women and Gender Studies Program in the Department of Social Justice Education. Stephanie’s areas of research include Black feminisms, critical race theory, anti-Blackness, carcerality, gendered violence, and abolition. Her current research examines the media and legal discourses surrounding Black women and girls who have experienced strip-searching and other forms of state violence in Canada. Stephanie’s research has been published in Somatechnics, Lateral, the Critical Ethnic Studies Journal (with Megan Scribe, Alena Peters and Anthony Morgan), and The Lauryn Hill Reader (with Sefanit Habtom and Eve Tuck).
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