Competing Masculinities

Abstract

This chapter provides a rhetorical analysis of Live From Death Row (1995), Death Blossoms (1997), and All Things Censored (2000), three of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s essay compilations since July 2, 1982, when he was convicted of the first-degree murder of Officer Danny Faulkner and sentenced to death by Judge Alberto Sabo. All three books were published from death row at SCI/Greene Correctional Facility, where Abu-Jamal remained until 2011. This chapter examines how Abu-Jamal’s use of the Black Power vernacular marshals the testimony of black intellectuals and his skills as a professional journalist to build his ethos as a Black Power leader, despite the use of the term “cop killer” to circumscribe his penetrating observations about mass incarceration. Where Rap Brown’s interventions into the Black Power vernacular often center on his aggressive rhetorical style (the bad badman), Abu-Jamal’s use of the vernacular centers much more on journalistic observation (the moral badman) as he finds new ways to express the economic and political disenfranchisement that characterize black life, especially for the imprisoned. In his texts, Abu-Jamal uses anecdotes to discuss the trajectory of police brutality and the tremendous violence and torture endured by men on death row as evidence of the on-going crisis of the prison-industrial complex. Additionally, he situates himself within a history of black leadership by turning to historical black (male) leaders to inspire new members for the work ahead.