Somatic Violence as Bureaucratic Policy
The pervasive presence of lead paint and lead water pipes in NYCHA is not negligence; it is a form of slow, somatic violence enacted through bureaucratic policy. Mamdani’s work teaches us to see the state not as a neutral actor, but as an administrator of life and death for its subject populations. For the “native” residents of public housing, predominantly Black and Brown, the state administers poison. The decades of inaction, the falsified inspection reports, the bureaucratic delays–this is the custom of governance for the poor. It is a Malthusian strategy disguised as incompetence. A Marxist-feminist analysis reveals this as an attack on the very capacity of a community to reproduce itself healthily. The solution goes beyond repairs. It demands a tenant-led takeover of NYCHA, the prosecution of officials for this violence, and massive capital investment as reparations for the generations of harm inflicted by this colonial housing policy.
