ABSTRACT
Drawing on work from Juliet Hooker, Demetra Kasimis, and Melissa Wright, this chapter suggests that myths of disposability cast inherently marginalized persons as always-already outside of the law. Their chief value is as heroes who sacrifice their labor, their time, and their lives, far beyond the calculus of merit implied in calls for “earned citizenship,” only to be denied innocence, jailed, or deported in the end. Their heroic and yet taken-for-granted contributions to the polity enable unfulfilled promises of inclusion to remain intact as the marginalized subjects are cast as symbolic protagonists doomed to failure. In contrast, calls for earned citizenship ignore the deeper issue that Arendt and Agamben have called attention to: the collapse of the Rights of Man with that of citizen such that the loss or denial of citizenship also means the loss of one’s humanity. The use of these myths provides a depoliticized narrative of subordination that leaves untouched views of citizenship as virtuous, merited, or otherwise earned. These myths further help us to blur boundaries between seemingly separate spheres, ignoring how criminal status is produced through contemporary power structures.
