Golash-Boza, Tanya

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Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Societies Without BordersVolume 7 | Issue 3 Article 62012Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His StoryTanya Golash-BozaUniversity of California—MercedFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swbPart of the Human Rights Law Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences CommonsThis Expression is brought to you for free and open access by the Cross Disciplinary Publications at Case Western Reserve University School of LawScholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Societies Without Borders by an authorized administrator of Case Western ReserveUniversity School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationGolash-Boza, Tanya. 2012. "Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His Story." Societies Without Borders 7 (3): 373-375.Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol7/iss3/6T. Golash-Boza/Societies Without Borders 7:3 (2012) 373-375 ~373~ © Sociologists Without Borders/Sociólogos Sin Fronteras, 2012 Expressions Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His              Story  Tanya Golash-Boza University of California—Merced  Received June 2012; Accepted August 2012 ______________________________________________________  Samuel arrived in the United States when he was 14 years old – in 1974. When he was 19, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer. He believes he was wrongfully convicted. He spent 26 years in prison and was deported to Jamaica – his country of birth.   I was charged for attempted murder.  This is some of the things I hate to talk about. … It’s just an unfortunate situation, you nuh.  I’m to be blamed of some of it because  the company or whatever. …  I might have caused certain things. … I spent 26 years … half of my life was gone. …  When everyone is locked up they always say “oh I didn’t do it”.  You nuh, it’s a common joke.  But … for a person who actually is there  and haven’t done anything  it’s not no joking matter. …. Probably I don’t explain myself properly  just to let someone really understand. … it’s just painful for me. …  Well I’ll talk about it.  But you nuh …. I just say it’s like, here we go again. …. 1Golash-Boza: Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His StoryPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2012T. Golash-Boza/Societies Without Borders 7:3 (2012) 373-375 ~374~ I was charged with attempted murder. …. The people that I was hanging out with is friends, you nuh....  the night when I got arrested  I was in a stolen car  which I didn’t know. …  And we got we got stopped.  And that’s where when I got arrested.  And after, then, that’s how I know I was charged with attempted mur-der. …  They found a weapon. … No prints were found.  They say that we don’t take fingerprints from a weapon.  Samuel, Kingston, Jamaica, June 2009  According to US law, deportation is not punishment – it is an                        administrative procedure where the right to be in the United States is revoked. For Samuel, deportation is punishment. He points out that he missed his grandmother’s funeral because he was in prison. Now, when his parents pass, he will not be able to attend their funerals               because he has been deported. Samuel had a child before he went to prison, a child that has grown up without a father. Samuel’s parents, both US citizens, have lost their son, first to prison, now to Jamaica. His siblings have lost a brother. And, Samuel, homeless in Jamaica, has lost nearly everything.  Tanya Golash-Boza is Associate Professor of Sociology at the                University of California, Merced. She is the author of three books: 1) Due Process Denied (2012), which describes how and why non-citizens in the United States have been detained and deported for minor crimes, without regard for constitutional limits on                         disproportionate punishment; 2) Immigration Nation (2012), which              provides a critical analysis of the impact that U.S. immigration policy has on human rights; and 3) Yo Soy Negro: Blackness in Peru (2011), the first book in English to address what it means to be black in          Peru. She has also published articles on deportations, racial identity, 2Societies Without Borders, Vol. 7, Iss. 3 [2012], Art. 6https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol7/iss3/6T. Golash-Boza/Societies Without Borders 7:3 (2012) 373-375 ~375~ © Sociologists Without Borders/Sociólogos Sin Fronteras, 2012 and human rights. Her innovative scholarship was awarded the                      Distinguished Early Career Award from the Racial and Ethnic                     Minorities Studies Section of the American Sociological Association in 2010. You can follow her on twitter at @tanyagolashboza and                   subscribe to her blogs: http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/ and http://www.stopdeportationsnow.blogspot.com/.  3Golash-Boza: Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His StoryPublished by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, 2012

Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His Story

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Ethnopoetics: A Jamaican Deportee Tells His Story

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