Alvaro Bedoya Profile picture
Sep 9, 2020 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
1/ I'm often asked for readings on the #ColorofSurveillance -- how race, religion, class, immigration, and sexuality intersect with surveillance.

Here's a public and free syllabus you can use in your classrooms, or for your own reading.

docs.google.com/document/d/1Rt…
2/ What will you notice?

For most module, I try to cite first-person accounts on the lived impact of surveillance. For the slavery module, for example, we open with Frederick Douglass' first autobiography.

(Also, you can't teach Foucault in 2020 and not read @wewatchwatchers.) Image
3/ I also try to use poetry. Why? Mooostly because I love poetry. But also, a well-chosen poem or song or Dr. Seuss excerpt may help frame the material better than a scholar writing for an academic audience.

Hence, Claudia Rankine and @Danez_Smif opening the next module. Image
4/ I cite accounts of resistance; we can't reify surveillance targets as victims. For modern surveillance of Muslims, we read the Raza complaint on NYPD's efforts to map Muslim communities (and read how the military mapped NYC Jewish communities 80 years ago for similar reasons). Image
5/ Disclaimer: This is 1 semester. I had to omit closely related fields covered in other courses. So, no algorithmic bias/fairness or mass incarceration or surveillance in policing. I had to leave other fields out simply for lack of space. Also, I'm me. I have blind spots.
6/ This syllabus reflects years of research with folks like @LawProfButler, @harrisonsethdc, @gabriellexgem, and countless brilliant RAs like @jefftgary and Sara Wolovick.

It was inspired by the activism of folks at @mediajustice, @freepress, and so many others.
7/ I'm eager to learn what else should be in there, or approaches that others have. Particularly on surveillance & sexuality/gender. I am weaker there than I am on the other areas.

Thanks for reading - I hope folks find it helpful.

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More from @alvarombedoya

Feb 26, 2021
For years, people knew that ICE could search the addresses of the customers of 80 gas, water, electric, phone, and cable companies.

But no one has known how ICE gets that data, or the companies who are sharing it.

Our new technologist, @NinaLWang, seems to have figured it out.
People get gas, water, and electricity in their home because they need heat, water, and lights to survive. ICE takes advantage of those basic needs to find and deport people.
ICE gets this data from Thomson Reuters.

They get it from Equifax.

Equifax gets it from the National Consumer Telecom Utilities Exchange.

Question is, is NCTUE data going to ICE?

If so 171 million people have been sold out to ICE. And they have no idea.

(Image: NCTUE)
Read 11 tweets
Nov 22, 2020
The first time I heard the word Latinx I was like “wait, what did you call me? Yeah, no, whatever that is I am not that.”

But then they explained it to me. And I came around. So, here’s a few thoughts why I use it myself and for the people I feel a part of.
I call myself Latinx for the same reason I *don’t* call my wife "Mrs. Alvaro M. Bedoya”: women and non-binary people exist and deserve the same respect I do.

Also, I don't want to call people of Latin American descent a term that erases most people of Latin American descent.
“It doesn’t respect the rules of the Spanish language.”

I’d take this seriously if I wasn’t called Al-VAH-ro daily, if we didn’t cross the border to “MeCKSico,” or if there was literally more than one (1) show on TV where supposed Spanish-speakers actually spoke Spanish.
Read 16 tweets
Oct 29, 2020
1/ Miles Taylor is no resistance hero. He was an active facilitator of the separations of thousands of boys and girls from their parents who is now whitewashing his own reputation.
nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/…
2/ Miles Taylor propagated the myth that the moms and dads arriving at the border were not in fact parents.

Don't take my word for it. Here's the stories he solicited for Secretary Nielsen to use for this, and a link to his email soliciting them. documentcloud.org/documents/6881…
3/ When the full horror of family separations began to emerge, Miles Taylor did not denounce them. Instead, he sent Kirstjen Nielsen talking points to argue that the administration was actually *protecting* children.

Don't take my word for it. Here's the email.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 29, 2020
1/ Thanks to the reporting of @Haleaziz, @aflores, @SalHernandez, @RMac18 and @jacobsoboroff, we know that Miles Taylor’s claims to have been uninvolved in DHS family separations is fiction. buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/hameda…
2/ Here in April 2018 is Miles Taylor asking Katie Waldman (now Miller) for cases to help Secretary Nielsen propagate the fiction that the families showing up at the border were actually fake.
3/ Here’s her reply. Note the language around “family units” and “Honduran male adults.”
Read 7 tweets
Sep 28, 2020
1/ If you are thinking about investing in @PalantirTech, then here are some people who you should be aware of.

#DefundPalantir #NoTechForICE
2/ A 7-year-old boy fled Honduras after his dad was murdered and his mom left him. His uncle took him in.

ICE agents came to their home claiming that they were checking on the boy.

With the boy watching, the agents arrested the uncle and then put him in removal proceedings.
3/ A gang breaks into the home of two brothers in El Salvador and assaults them. They flee to the U.S. to be with their mom.

They give CBP officers their mom's name and address.

Then ICE agents show up at her house, arrest her, and deport her to El Salvador.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
The Feldman op-ed reminds me of a warning I give my law students.

I start by admitting that I hated law school. If the student is struggling, I’ll add that I once told a friend that if I ever try to teach law school, “please shoot me in the head.” There was an extra word there.
I tell them that I hated law school because it rewards, hand over fist, a very specific kind of intelligence: The ability to answer, on-the-fly and on-the-spot, to an abstract hypothetical that’s divorced from reality — without reference to notes or the ability to reflect.
This isn’t just cold-calling or Socratic method. It is also exams. The highest compliment you can pay someone in law schools is “Oh my God, they are so smart” — with the “smart” referring to that intelligence.
Read 10 tweets

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