Normal life: administrative violence, critical trans politics and the limits of law

In his book Normal life: administrative violence, critical trans politics and the limits of law, Dean Spade argues that the laws that have been created to insure and protect the rights of certain groups such as women of color, immigrants, lesbians and transsexuals. However, he insists that these laws to a certain extent encourage the differences and distinctions they are trying to correct. Likewise, it proposes that a system that produces laws that include everyone excludes certain groups, especially because we continue to treat these groups as exceptions to the rule or as am  abnormality and we have a parallel system. On the one hand, there are laws where "normal" people are concentrated, and in a parallel system that is not efficient, "the needs" of the other groups are met instead of normalizing their role and functions within society. We create laws for them, but not spaces.

However, I find it interesting that there is no oppression but "subjection" in order to explain how this control system influences our lives and transforms or tries to hide certain situations such as racism and this system produces another type of discrimination and racism. At the same time, the book focuses on how that power works and how to understand these power dynamics can create a transformation resistance.

Another example, a point that I found interesting and can connect with my research is the issue of how different types of racism are projected within society and that these rules / laws are overlapping. For example, when making distinctions between the natives and the blacks, the nuns decided who should be evangelized because of the skin color of these men and women as well as those who had soul or were worthy to receive the favor of God, and take habits. These differences and division due to their social class and skin color created new laws for natives in Chile and Latin America.

Spade, Dean. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. , 2018. Internet resource.