Refusing the Spectacle

We should oppose the proposed broadcast, demand a full and independent investigation of Pike’s failed execution, and press for an end to capital punishment. Accountability also requires investment in victims’ families and violence prevention.

The racial justice question reaches beyond whether one execution follows an approved procedure. It asks whether we will continue to authorize an institution with a documented history of racially unequal punishment—and whether we will allow government to make its violence an event for public consumption.

The United States has a documented history of making public killing an instrument of white racial power. Broadcasting an execution would place government behind another spectacle of human death. We should confront what that spectacle teaches the public about power, punishment, and whose humanity can be discarded.

We should oppose the broadcast and the death penalty itself. Racial justice requires confronting unequal punishment, supporting people harmed by violence, and limiting the government’s power to kill.