Contempt: Race, Fatherhood, and Punishment in an American City
Date of Award
Fall 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
African American Studies
First Advisor
Anderson, Elijah
Abstract
Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork in New Haven, CT, including work alongside a community-based social services agency––this study explores the social worlds of poor and formerly incarcerated Black men as they navigate the dynamics of fatherhood and the consequences of child support enforcement, and, more broadly, examines the realities of life after prison and the politics of community representation in poor communities. It consists of three self-standing articles. The first situates the literature on urban poverty and the Black family alongside the growth of mass incarceration and the expansion of the carceral state––and identifies the child support enforcement system as a unique and understudied mechanism of punishment that disproportionately targets disadvantaged men, and in particular, Black men and their relationship to fatherhood. The second turns its focus to the Black-led community-based fatherhood program tasked to support these men and evaluates how these frontline service providers navigate and negotiate race and status in the community and in the courtroom where they serve as advocates for men cycling through contempt. The third article centers the survival strategies of disadvantaged men in the courtroom and considers how those most vulnerable to punitive state power–– actively navigate and respond to aggressive enforcement brought on by state child support systems. I find that faced with overwhelming constraints of poverty, and the fear of aggressive enforcement–– namely, the threat of incarceration––disadvantaged men deploy a set of short-term strategies that allow them to “buy time” and successfully avert a potential threat. While these tactics allow poor fathers to manage these consequential interactions, this often comes at the expense of their long-term well-being, creating greater financial hardship, and increasing the likelihood of arrest and (re)incarceration.
Recommended Citation
Andrade, Stephane Daniel, "Contempt: Race, Fatherhood, and Punishment in an American City" (2023). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1108.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1108
