Analysis Of Locking Up Our Own By James Forman

Ethnographies present the accumulation of an anthropologist’s research with a basis from real data from real people. Methodologies become core concepts to how the research is conducted, whether via long term observational field work, interviews with the anthropologist’s informants, or most often, a blend of such techniques. However, the positionality of the researcher greatly influences ethnography, as it allows a variety of ways for how the research can be conducted, as well how it may be presented. To demonstrate how positionality effects ethnography, I will examine James Forman’s Locking Up Our Own, Lawrence Ralph’s Renegade Dreams and Michael Taussig’s Law in a Lawless Land. James Forman hints at his stance on the positionality he chose

To further explain my point, I mean outsider in the sense that Forman spends a good deal identifying with the black community, as he himself is not only black, but he is the son of two Civil Rights Movement members. In this way, he is able to position himself between the struggling black Americans he encounters through his employment as a public defender, but also his role as a person of relative authority and working member of the system which is responsible for imprisoning them. Through this role, he also presents the readers with a great deal of historical analysis, which displays the development of the criminal justice system to where it is today, through various laws and movements, such as the tough on crime movement. Forman’s positionality shows the struggle of even himself within the system, as he often can’t help other black Americans from being consumed by mass incarceration and the unfortunate futures for the individuals with arrest records. With his positionality inside of the system as a public defender, and through the historical analysis he provides in the book, he does however, position himself to display methods for readers as to how they can help restructure, or at the least take steps to modify the faulty criminal justice system responsible for the mass incarceration of black

The field notes position the reader right alongside Ralph, which provide a unique sense of positionality between the reader and Ralph. In the first field note, Ralph mentions how the passing of Mrs. Dickerson made him “want to understand the relationship between grandmothers, and their grandchildren in the gang.” (Ralph 20). This guides the reader through Ralph’s anthropological research from a very raw perspective. The positionality helps place both Ralph and the reader closer to the process of field work, as well as the subjects Ralph encounters during such work. This also allows Ralph to show how the descriptions and data of his research are traced through his own interpretations based on his positionality of the gang to create his