The lessons I learned from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The Florida detention center, “Alligator Alcatraz,” may close, but what can you learn from its short but impactful run?

First, the name echoes old Southern American racist tropes and adapts them for a modern audience. Second, its casually playful name is a blueprint for other detention centers popping up across the United States. But what does this all add up to?

In this episode, Brittany, freelance journalist Asher Elbein, and Miami Herald race and identity reporter Raisa Habersham unpack the racist trope of alligators in Florida and how the joke-ified name of the facility dehumanizes its inmates.

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