The Conversation: The forgotten racial history of Alligator Alcatraz

Remember the now-closed Alligator Alcatraz in Florida? Mark V. Burrow, Jr. for The Conversation (The forgotten racial history of Alligator Alcatraz) reminds us that, while

"Alligator Alcatraz is closed, but much about it remains unresolved. There are lawsuits over detainees’ treatment, environmental claims over damage to protected wetlands and uncertainty about the future of the airstrip it was built on.

One aspect of the South Florida facility has drawn far less attention, though: the name itself, and the long history of associating alligators with racist ideas about people of color."

Professor Burrow goes on to explain that, by the end of the 1800,

"the racial slur `alligator bait' [had emerged]. The phrase fused long-standing claims that alligators preferred Black flesh with newer stories of Black children being used to attract the reptiles. It soon became a fixture of American popular culture, appearing regularly in newspapers, editorial cartoons, postcards, photographs, songs and motion pictures.

. . . .

The architects of Alligator Alcatraz may not have consciously sought to invoke the history of `alligator bait' stereotypes. Yet historical symbols often outlive the contexts in which they were created, and the American alligator bears the imprint of a long racial history."

Alligator Alcatraz drew upon a symbol shaped by generations of racial exclusion and dehumanization. In transforming migrant detention into political theater, the now-closed facility revealed a troubling disregard for symbolism and history. It also betrayed the cruelty and indignity that spectacle-based approaches to immigration enforcement inflict on human beings.

The tents may be gone, but the racist historical echoe