Chapter 1 begins with a description of the drive to the courthouse from the city center, which requires passing through poor, BIPOC neighborhoods. The courthouse has two entrances, one for the largely white personnel and another for the public (mostly people of color). Firm racialized boundaries operate within the building. These include physical boundaries, such as the bulletproof glass separating defendants from the rest of the court, and conceptual or symbolic boundaries created by armed sheriffs who used the threat of violence to keep visitors in line.

The hostile court environment not only reinforces the “us” versus “them” dynamic, but also conditions behavior in the court. Unable to ask prosecutors and public defenders questions, visitors share information with each other, but even their whispers are met with aggression. Laughter, jokes, and other inappropriate behavior by court professionals further emphasize the “us” and “them” divide. These antics occur, Gonzalez Van Cleve claims, both front-stage and backstage, that is, both in full view of visitors and in less public spaces, where social actors generally let their guard down. As Gonzalez Van Cleve notes, the racialization of the court fuels informal behavior in even the parts of the court that demanded decorum. The informality contrasts with the enforced silence of members of the public, further stressing the racial divide.