[On October 22, 2019 Professor Patricai Nguyen (Asian American Studies, Northwestern) presented a talk on Critical Race Theory as part of the Modern and Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Aida Guhlincozzi (Geography and GIScience)] Critical Race Theory and Reparations Come Together in Chicago Written by Aida Guhlincozzi (Geography and GIScience) The MCT Critical race lecture was delivered by Dr. Patricia Nguyen, a Visiting Professor at Northwestern University, where she also earned her PhD in Performance Studies. A Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans, she has widely published on her performance work examining “critical refugee studies, political economy, forced migration, oral histories, inherited trauma, torture, and nation-building in the United States and Vietnam.” In her critical artistic work, she has recently employed Critical Race Theory in her contribution and examination of a real form of reparations. In this case, these are reparations in the face of what occurred throughout the 1970s – 1990s. In this time, Chicago police officer Jon Burge tortured numerous black and Latinx men, women, and children, in order to elicit information for police investigations. He used a variety of torture methods, including electric shocks. Dr. Nguyen began this work when she and her collaborator, architectural designer John Lee, were chosen to design a memorial for the survivors. The survivors of this torture eventually went on to pursue Burge in court, and reparations from the City of Chicago. As part of these reparations, a group of artists and activists worked with the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial and the survivors of Burge’s torture ring to create a memorial. The memorial that Dr. Nguyen and her collaborator, John Lee, designed was titled “Breathe, Form, and Freedom” with the intent of centering community voices to review histories of state violence. Speaking on this memorial at the Unit for Criticism event, Dr. Nguyen related Critical Race Theory and its themes of centering people of color and a “push for more structural analysis between the law and white supremacy.” She discussed how this intersection drove some of the artistic design of the memorial. More importantly, were the goals of honoring the existence of the survivors through a community space and memorial stating that they are “still here.” Unfortunately, the effects of the police state are also still here. In this context Dr. Nguyen asks: “What do reparations look like for survivors of police torture?” She uses Critical Race Theory, as it seeks to “understand how a regime of white supremacy and its subordination of people of color have been created and maintained in America and in particular, to examine how the relationship between that social structure and professed ideals such as the rule of law and equal protection”. The memorial serves as an intervention in response to the police state. This intervention allows the community to take space back in places where the state has caused pain, marking the history and ongoing fight to change the system. The memorial embodies the ideals of “breathe, form, and freedom.” The main components include:

• Names of survivors – including etches for those who are unknown
• Timeline – the timeline of torture, a political project, framing how something is remembered and what is remembered
• Community space – a space for people to gather that could be contemplative and educational and meditative
• Manifestos – a collective creative writing project for survivors to write visions for the future and to transform the forced confessions – the first and last words that visitors see when entering and leaving the memorial

The memorial is shaped in the form of a spiral, to lead visitors as they enter the space, starting with the timeline and survivor names, leading them to the manifestos and community space. One detail of the form is contrasting ribbed and smooth concrete that Dr. Nguyen noted is “meant to be unfinished to speak to continued struggle and endurance.” This sharing of space of the voices and ongoing struggle allows for breath to be “enlivened.” Form is embodied through the curved structure. This curved structure prevents a “relegating of the past as an object of observance.” Again, through the spiral shape, the names of survivors are immediately viewable, along with the timeline of the reparations movement. Part of this memorial is the opportunity for visitors and survivors to “imagine together.” The third element, freedom is meant to speak to the continued struggle for more life in the face of systemic violence. The space is an opportunity for workshops to be held, and for visitors to be held accountable to the questions the memorial’s display of history forces us to ask. Dr. Nguyen’s work also explores the transnational implications of this horrific pattern of police abuse. Jon Burge was in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, where it is suggested that he learned his torture methods. Dr. Nguyen asks how Critical Race Theory would be applicable in a transnational context. She says, “How CRT, as it’s written, can be very limited, through its focus on U.S. law and thus the proposed interventions.” The U.S. imperialist war helped construct a Vietnam War military officer who then employed the same torture techniques to extend that imperialism back at home against Black men – U.S. citizens – in the United States. Where does Critical Race Theory stand in this confluence? Addressing this, Dr. Nguyen notes that in many ways, the law is necessary, but never enough. The law is a tool, but not “capacious enough to create justice.” As a result of the survivors’ fight for justice, the City of Chicago not only is expected to provide a $5.5 million fund for financial reparations, but a number of educational opportunities. This includes a history lesson in all Chicago Public Schools curriculum. Coupled with this history lesson, the memorial which Dr. Nguyen described as a “womb that holds a history of Chicago,” truly states that the survivors are “still here” – and that they can move forward with the next generation to prevent this type of systematic torture and abuse from happening again. However, it must be noted that the memorial also embodies another aspect of where CRT may fall short – the memorial does not yet exist as the group works to secure funding, an appropriate location, the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial is still awaiting a response from the mayor. Dr. Nguyen states that “the fight for reparations doesn’t end with the passing of a law…” which seems to be where Critical Race Theory would naturally see an endpoint. But Dr. Nguyen also quoted Mari J. Matsuda, stating that “[reparations] is the formal recognition of historical wrong, continuing injury and commitment to redress.” In this way, CRT ideals are extended through the memorial as one key piece of ensuring formal recognition, and hopefully, true reparations. [caption id="attachment_2026" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Image from WTTW Arts and Entertainment article on memorial (Patricia Nguyen and John Lee rendering)[/caption]