Chris Robé

The Underground Railroad Criterion Collection How could such a bitter thing become a means of pleasure? Everything on Valentine [farm] was the opposite. Work needn’t be suffering; it could unite folks. A bright child like Chester might thrive and prosper, as Molly and her friends did. A mother raise her daughter with love and kindness. A beautiful soul like Chester could be anything he wanted here, all of them could be: own a spread, be a schoolteacher, fight for colored rights.

Image credit: Abolishing Surveillance: Digital Media Activism and State Repression by Chris Robé (PM Press, 2023) Sunset Park is a little more than half a square mile, located on the south-west side of Brooklyn and is most readily accessible by the D train from lower Manhattan. In the 1980s and 1990s it was consumed by the crack epidemic like many working-class communities of color in the city at the time. Gang activity was rife.

St. Paul, Minnesota, police received $50 million from the federal government to spend on security for the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) there. By summer of 2007, local law enforcement had already begun to surveil protest groups in response to the appearance of the RNC Welcoming Committee website. The Welcoming Committee consisted of a group of mostly white, middle- to upper-class college-aged participants.