With the transition from the power of the sovereign to the power of discipline, many more people are able to take up power. No longer do we see a single all-powerful figure ruling over an undifferentiated mass. Instead, a series of micro level social relationships begin to be arranged around power, with power as the fluid currency of its members.
Although Foucault’s assertions are useful for thinking about the world, ultimately we must understand his scenarios as ideal typifications of social reality. We must understand that power structures are not part of an egalitarian form of social life. Power is something that some use, while others are at its mercy. Although we are not at the mercy of an all-powerful sovereign, access to power still tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few.
We may consider racial profiling as a phenomena, which endows some with power while simultaneously detracting from the capacity of others to hold power. The white cop becomes a figure with great power, while the black prisoner is stripped of his capacity to hold power. Although race exists as a social variable, rather than a biological classification, it has great weight for determining who has access to power and who is denied access.
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