Race and Racism

Issues related to racism are still pervasive in global society; and Blackness has dominated identity politics in the South African political and public debates since the downfall of apartheid. Recently, there have been questions on whether skin colour can be used as a generalised indication of being previously disadvantaged with some arguing that skin colour cannot be used as a condition for empowerment. They argue that socio-economic conditions must rather be used as the criteria for empowerment. This contribution draws on the notions of Liminality (Turner) and Third Space (Bhabha) to investigate how the lives of three black intellectuals – Steve Biko, Tambudzo Marechera, Vuyani Vellem – resembled the ‘liminal threshold’ as they underwent ‘initiation’ on black identity. The authors conclude that despite the many years of ‘chanting down Babylon’, black people still have to contend with white supremacy in the same way that Tambudzo Marechera, Steve Biko and more recently, Vuyani Vell...

A book review of Ann Morning and Marcello Maneri’s An Ugly Word: Rethinking
Race in Italy and the United States, which assesses their intervention into the
difficult but developing field in comparative international sociology of race
and ethnicity. They advance a model that would replace reference to “race” or
“ethnicity” with a more encompassing notion of “descent-based difference”.
The review suggests their empirical evidence for the ongoing effects of the Du
Boisian “colour line” and its origins in Eurocentric racial theories, runs counter
to their analytical model, which tends to sanction a proliferation of the term
“racialization” beyond the clear historical narrative of racial capitalism.

On October 17, 2009, seventy-six Tamil refugees arrived off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. This study examines how the Canadian newsprint media portrayed this event and in which policy context this coverage occurred. We analyze articles published between October 2009 and January 2010 from the Vancouver Sun, the Toronto Star, and the National Post. A discourse analysis addresses issues of framing, representation, and identity to understand how the Tamil refugee migration was represented in media debate. Our results show that there was an overall negative representation of the Tamil refugees as the press emphasized issues of criminality and terrorism, and constructed the refugees as risk. The discussion established security—rather than human rights—as a focal point and portrayed the immigration system as both “failing” and “abused” by “bogus claimants.” This security-oriented framework provided a discursive background for the refugee reform Bill C-11 to be ushered through Pa...

This article explores an alter-native (that is, to use native insights to alter existing knowledge and modes, and to alter native insights if they tend to serve the interests of colonizers/outsiders rather than the colonized/locals) way of reading the Bible based on the Tongan notion of tālanga, and from the perspective of a Tongan tu'a (commoner). The intention is to contribute in a small way to the ongoing attempt by indigenous scholars to promote a shift from the restrictive tendency of Western scholarship into a more open mode; from one that is dictated by disciplinary questions to another that is shaped by practical questions; from approaches that serve academia to ones that serve the community in which real people live. The term tālanga is herein defined as a way of being and a way of speaking, and thus theorized as a way of reading. Its key elements serve as analytical lenses for a mode of interpretation that aims to be critical and liberating at once.

Las estrategias didácticas son herramientas que permiten a los docentes llegar con el conocimiento a sus estudiantes y que estos a su vez puedan interiorizarlos para luego puedan ser aplicados en la resolución de problemas. La investigación tuvo como objetivo diseñar una estrategia didáctica para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las matemáticas en los estudiantes de Educación General Básica. Mediante un estudio descriptivo de enfoque mixto, se vincularon datos cualitativos y cuantitativos, obtenidos en el proceso investigativo, a través del método de investigación empírico basado en una prueba de conocimientos y la entrevista aplicados a la muestra tomada de manera intencional a 30 estudiantes de 7mo año y a 1 docente. Los resultados indicaron que los estudiantes tienen dificultades en la resolución de ejercicios de división y de ellos se derivan vacíos en los contenidos para los cuales este sirve de base; se aprecia utilización de métodos tradicionalista, utilización de poco o ningún re...

O objetivo de nossa abordagem e investigar o estado securitario dentro do pensamento politico contemporâneo no que diz respeito as suas praticas voltadas para o controle da governamentalidade. Embora inseridos num estado democratico de direito, cotidianamente, a vida dos individuos e confrontada com os meandros da excecao. Em nome de uma pretensa soberania e possivel que as normas estabelecidas sejam suspensas. Trata-se de um paradoxo no qual os individuos acabam sendo incluidos por meio da exclusao. Em linhas gerais, o que esta em evidencia em nosso estudo e a compreensao politica que fundamenta o discurso da seguranca colocando em evidencia a excecao, a problematica da biopolitica e dos direitos humanos

This paper aims to fulfill a double objective: on the one hand, to explain how hate speech works as a mechanism of racialization towards the Roma, resulting in a concrete form of symbolic violence. On the other hand, to analyze the most relevant institutional responses to fight against antigypsyism, looking at the new EU Roma Framework 2020–2030 with a special attention on the recent developments in Spain. The paper discusses the fact that a focus on symbolic violence and more concretely on hate speech would produce considerably differing approaches to Roma inclusion policies. The paper is divided into three sections: the first section will conceptually address the notions of “antigypsyism”, “racial discrimination”, “symbolic violence”, and “hate speech”. The second section will present and contextualize a series of illustrative cases of antigypsyist hate speech in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. The third section will examine the most relevant legislative and policy ...

O presente texto visa analisar a edificação histórico-social do ser negro enquanto um outro na modernidade, cuja condição socioeconômica e simbólica foi mantida, ainda que redesenhada, no âmago das sociedades capitalistas historicamente racializadas. Falamos de uma condição de não-ser, de sujeito-mercadoria desumanizado pela gênese do mundo colonial e o parto duplo do capitalismo e da escravidão racial. Buscamos trabalhar duas hipóteses apresentadas ao longo do escrito: a primeira, voltada para o referido caráter dúplice da experiência negra; a segunda, por sua vez infere que a fabricação dos sujeitos raciais foi e é o meio por onde o não-ser negro é recriado como condição estrutural da dialética capitalista.

In the United States, Catholics make up more than 50 million members of the adult population, or about 1 in 5 Americans. It is unclear whether their religious affiliation shapes Catholics' views on public policy issues, ranging from the legality of abortion to criminal justice practices. Capital punishment is especially salient, given that Pope Francis announced in 2018—as official Catholic Church doctrine—that the death penalty is “inadmissible” under all circumstances. Based on two national surveys, the current project explores Catholics' support for state executions before (2017) and after (2019) the Pope's momentous change in the church's Catechism. At present, little evidence exists that Pope Francis's doctrinal reform has impacted Catholics, a majority of whom—like Americans generally—continue to favor the death penalty for murders. Data from our 2020 MTurk survey shows that only 12.7% of Catholic respondents could correctly identify the Church's positi...

The article discusses the key role played by black activism in the resignification of the history of Africans in Brazil and in the deconstruction of the civilizational and epistemic regime that sustained slavery. It highlights the approach to historical reparation within the black movement’s repertoire of mobilization in the constitutional process and in the political initiatives of transitional justice. Since the Durban Conference, the black movement’s activists formalized a political project of struggle for historical reparation. Developed by the Organizacao para a Libertacao do Povo Negro (OLPN) [Organization for the Liberation of the Black People], this political project demands that the state grant colonial slavery the status of impre- scriptible crime against humanity. The idea of imprescriptibly corresponds not only to a moral purpose, but also to a vision of history that rejects the notion of an irreversible past and transforms time itself into an object of political struggl...

This article traces challenges to Mexicans' legal and racial status by various groups, including federal bureaucrats, nativist organizations, and everyday citizens. Early twentieth-century efforts to make Mexicans ineligible for U.S. citizenship, despite provisions in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, focused on the premise that Mexicans were neither "black" nor "white"; interest groups and politicians both strove instead to categorize Mexicans as "Indian." These efforts intensified after the 1924 Immigration Act and two Supreme Court decisions, Ozawa v. United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), which declared Japanese and Asian Indians ineligible for citizenship because they were not white. Underlying U.S. efforts to resolve Mexican immigration and citizenship issues was the ongoing problem of determining who could be considered white; this concern clashed with positive Mexican understandings of mestizaje.

Many criminal justice practitioners and academics seem to view the law as self executing. They also seem to believe that desired changes naturally follow legal reform. In this paper, we examine practices in one state relative to compliance with the jail removal mandate of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Our analyses suggest that legal reform, standing alone, may more likely result in counterproductive reactions than in those consistent with reform goals. Discussion centers on the need for inducements and resources to motivate and facilitate achievement of JJDPA reforms.

Background African immigrants and refugees experience unique mental and physical health care needs that may be a result of pre-migration history and the acculturation process. The purpose of this project was to collaborate with African immigrant and refugee communities to identify health needs of the communities and lay a foundation for future action. Methods Key-informant interviews with five West, East and Central African immigrant and refugee communities included community leaders (n=10) and listening sessions with larger groups of community members totaling approximately 150 participants to identify health care needs. Content analysis was employed to identify themes related to immigrant and refugee health. Results Meetings with community leaders and members were conducted at community venues often immediately following or during a planned event. Six general themes emerged: mental health/trauma; sexual health; nutrition; chronic disease prevention; insurance coverage; and youth e...

Hart: Self in the World is an attempt to take up Edmnd Leach's  challenge in A Runaway World? (1968) to insert ideas into life. Each of us is a biological organism with a historical personality that together makes us unique individuals. But we cannot live outside society, which shapes us in unfathomable ways. The culture of capitalist societies anticipates a conflict between individuals and society. Yet they are inseparable aspects of human nature. Personal connection to world society is currently unthinkable. But unless most of us can identify with it, how will humanity solve problems that we know are global in scope? **** Tresch: Self in the World is a good case of truth in advertising: readers get a lot of views of the world, and a fair bit of Hart’s self. He follows the commandment to “only connect” (E. M. Forster). The book connects prose and passion, inner life and outer life—but also a vast scattering of disciplines and locations. It reflects on using the methods, theories, and ethics of anthropology to connect the immediate and personal with the abstract, global, and world-historical. The author understands deeply the brutal logic of globalized apartheid, for instance, and the role of modern universities as bureaucracies for managing national capitalism. Democracy, autonomy, and egalitarianism are splendid, humane goals—but from the perspective of the subaltern side of the color line, they ring hollow. We need a realistic, grounded view of ways to reach them. This must begin with depictions of life as it is lived, including all the hypocrisy, failure, and exploitation in its current arrangements. **** “He can convey, to any student ready to hear it, that there is an incredible, often horrendous, millennia-old drama going on around you, and it is up to you not only to understand your place in it, but to get into the game and play your hand, to steer it toward a better place.”

Presenta un breve panorama de la salud de los pueblos afrodescendientes de México, su presencia principal en algunas entidades federativas, sus afiliaciones a los servicios de salud, su impacto por la pandemia y concluye una racialización del sistema de salud y de la información segmentada existente, así como de barreras comunicativas por parte de algunos integrantes del sector salud hacia los pueblos afromexicanos.

One of the strongest critiques against Fanon’s work centers on the idea that HE leaves black subjects caught in slavish regard of whites.  Such a depiction of the black subject does not explain Fanon’s own life and his ability to become a formative intellectual.  Such slavish regard of whites, in other words, the idea of an inferiority complex, has been challenged by notable current black philosophers, including Lucius Outlaw.  In autobiographical references within Fanon and Outlaw’s work, the two scholars share similar childhood experiences but draw very different conclusions on the development of an inferiority complex.  I argue that this estrangement in slavish regard of whites occurs when reading Fanon’s work only through a dialectic framework.  A phenomenological reading of Fanon’s work illuminates the ambiguous possibilities of experience.  In a phenomenological reading of experience, admitting inferiority complexes does not necessarily debilitate and trap subjects in perpetuity.

Muslim immigrants are vulnerable to COVID-19. They are not only at risk being infected due to extended households and frontline jobs, but they are also vulnerable to moral panics, stigmatization and corona-racism. When Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen in March 2020 closed down society, she appealed to the samfundssind (civic consciousness) of all citizens in Denmark, as a means to !ght the invisible enemy of the global pandemic. The idea of samfundssind outlined a moral community between those citizens who did their best to follow the instructions of the authorities and those who deliberately ignored them. This article discusses the establishment of “Taskforce COVID-19”, an ad hoc network of Danish-Pakistanis that in 2020– 21 collaborated with municipalities and di"erent health authorities in order to !ght the virus. However, despite their aspiration to be accepted and included in the collective of citizens exhibiting samfundssind their e"orts were questioned and regarded with suspicion.

Racial ideas which developed in the modern west were forged with reference to a Christian worldview and informed by the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. Up until Darwin’s scientific reframing of the origins debate, European and American race scientists were fundamentally Christian in their orientation. This paper outlines how interpretations of the Hebrew Bible within this Christian Weltanschauung facilitated the development and articulation of racial theories which burgeoned in western intellectual discourse up to and during the 19th century. The book of Genesis was a particular seedbed for identity politics as the origin stories of the Hebrew Bible were plundered in service of articulating a racial hierarchy which justified both the place of Europeans at the pinnacle of divine creation and the denigration, bestialization, and enslavement of Africans as the worst of human filiation. That the racial ethos of the period dictated both the questions exegetes posed and the conclus...

Note by Fazal Rahman

Most commenters on this article on AOL are exuding their fascist-racist anti-Muslim venom. As clearly stated in the article, most of the 1.25 million people on the watchlist are Muslims, who have never committed any crimes and have no connections with terrorism or terrorists. They are the ones who are being terrorized by the US government agencies and the commenters there. American history is full of brutal massive repressions against dissidents, socialists, and communists. These Muslims are none of those. They function within the American capitalist political and economic system. Such systems are also dominant in all the Muslim countries.

Also, as documented by James A. Lucas, US state terrorism has killed 20 to 30 million people in various countries since the Second World War

James A. Lucas. U.S. Regime Has Killed 20-30 Million People Since World      War II.  https://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-regime-has-killed-20-30-million-people-since-world-war-ii/5633111

US high tech military machine slaughtered more than 3 million Vietnamese in the Vietnam War and around 3 million in wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yugoslavia, and Syria.  Countless millions were injured and maimed, were forced to flee to other countries as refugees, and became internally displaced, their means of living and infrastructures also having been destroyed.

Compared to such massive US State Terrorism, Non-State Terrorism, which almost always is a response to state terrorism, during the same period caused incomparably lower deaths, countable in thousands, and other damages.

Overwhelming majorities of Americans and Europeans are ignorant of these facts and do not even want to know them, and, instead, emit self-righteous one-sided harangues only condemning non-state terrorisms, without the slightest understanding of their causal connections to the massive state terrorisms, and omitting the latter totally.

End of note

GENEVA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.N. human rights experts have called for major reforms of the U.S. criminal justice system to combat systemic racism, citing testimonies that jailed Black women had been shackled during childbirth while male inmates were forced to work in "plantation-style" conditions.

In a report published on Thursday, three U.N.-appointed experts said they had found practices in U.S. prisons that amounted to "an affront to human dignity" in visits in April and May.

God, trust and doubt: The women in the concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer or South African War.Many books and articles have been written on the religious concept of the Afrikaner women who suffered in and survived the concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa. It seems as if nothing has been written, though, on their image and understanding of God. This article is an attempt to close the gap in the research. These women’s understanding of God was mainly shaped by the Old Testament. They saw the two Boer republics as the new people of God, elected to exist in freedom, as independent states. To them, God was the God of justice and righteousness, who will defend his chosen people from oppression. The defeat on the battlefield caused a crisis of faith among many women. The war diary of Johanna Brandt (née Van Warmelo) offers useful information about the women’s faith and the shattering of their faith. In the second part of this article, Lutheran...

Migration is topical in many counties, and attitudes towards immigration and ethnic diversity are volatile. In our longitudinal “Diversity Barometer”, we have studied changes in Swedes’ attitudes towards immigration and ethnic diversity in Sweden since 2005, using a postal questionnaire sent to a random sample of the Swedish population aged 18–75. In this article, we analyzed data from 2020 (n = 1035) in comparison with previous Diversity Barometer surveys from 2005 to 2018. The findings showed that Swedes had increased contact with immigrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The majority had good experiences of studying or working with people with foreign background, although those with bad experiences had also increased. Attitudes towards immigration and ethnic diversity were more positive in 2020, thereby stopping a negative trend that started with the refugee influx in 2015. Positive attitudes were more established among women, younger people, those with higher education, ...