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Begin New Search Topic Racism Political Geography North America

11. Pipelines and Protests: Legacies of Struggle and Resistance in the Fight Against Environmental Racism in Canada

Author:
Ingrid Waldron
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Canada was founded on enslavement and dispossession. This is most ex- emplified by its assimilationist ideologies and policies, by the displacement, subjugation, and oppression of Indigenous and Black peoples and cultures, and by the expropriation of Indigenous lands. The colonial theft of land and accumulation of capital have been foundational to Canada’s wealth. New op- portunities for Europeans to access resources prompted colonization in North America, which was followed by the creation of a global economy that came to be dominated by Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and Britain. To access lands in the Americas, Europeans negotiated treaties, dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their lands, waged war to extinguish Indigenous populations, and eliminated or disrupted Indigenous landholding traditions.1 The unique ways in which Black and Indigenous people have been racialized and implicated in white set- tler nations and by capitalist expansion reveal the antithetical roles both groups have played in the formation of settler colonial societies. For example, while the reproduction of Black slaves in the United States was perceived as positive since it increased slave owners’ wealth, the growth of Indigenous populations was seen to jeopardize the accumulation of profit by slave owners because it made access to land more difficult.2
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Protests, Pipeline, and Racism
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

12. Truth, Reconciliation, and Redress for Racial Injustice in the United States: Insights from Experiences of Commissions Around the World

Author:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
The United States has never collectively confronted its history of colonialism, slavery, and racism in an effort to reform the systems that perpetuate harms to Black communities and other marginalized and oppressed groups, or to redress these wrongs. However, events over the past few years—including local, national, and global protests in response to the murders of members of Black communities—have amplified calls for meaningful action to reckon with the past and forge a more just and equitable future for the country. While the United States is not emerging from armed conflict or authoritarian rule, as may be the case for many countries that have undertaken a transitional justice process, it can learn from the experiences of these countries to confront its legacy of human rights violations. This report from ICTJ and the International Arbitration Group-Racial Justice Initiatives, a coalition of practitioners from multiple law firms, examines the experiences of official truth commissions from around the world to identify relevant considerations for US stakeholders at the local, state, and national levels. Truth seeking is integral to the investigation of past wrongs. It can help create a shared narrative about the past, determine factors that led to violations, and articulate proposals for further justice measures and broader transformation. All transitional justice processes should be formulated with direct input from members of the affected communities and take into account their experiences and concerns. In the United States, this means scrutinizing the causes and consequences of historical and structural injustices and assessing the need for systemic reform. The report therefore looks in particular to truth commissions that have dealt with a long history of injustices, racism, discrimination, and inequality. In addition, most existing truth-seeking initiatives in the United States have been at the state, city, or county level, a trend that is likely to continue in the near future. While this report draws primarily from the experiences of national commissions, these experiences are relevant for ongoing and future efforts in the United States at both subnational and national levels. In the United States, racial injustice is both historical and current as well as systemic and felt by individuals in their everyday lives. It is therefore crucial that truth-seeking efforts provide guidance on material and symbolic reparations and institutional and structural reforms, including those to law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Experience from other countries has demonstrated the vital role that civil society as well as victims and others affected by past violations can play. It also shows that wider society must be committed to the process. Truth seeking can help push open the window of opportunity for transformative change in the United States.
Topic:
Reform, Criminal Justice, Institutions, Reparations, Racism, and Truth and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

13. Mass Incarceration Retards Racial Integration

Author:
Peter Temin
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
President Nixon replaced President Johnson’s War on Poverty with his War on Drugs in 1971. This new drug war was expanded by President Reagan and others to create mass incarceration. The United States currently has a higher percentage of its citizens incarcerated than any other industrial country. Although Blacks are only 13 percent of the population, they are 40 percent of the incarcerated. The literatures on the causes and effects of mass incarceration are largely distinct, and I combine them to show the effects of mass incarceration on racial integration. Racial prejudice produced mass incarceration, and mass incarceration now retards racial integration.
Topic:
Education, War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Integration, and Racism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

14. The Color of Justice: Transitional Justice and the Legacy of Slavery and Racism in the United States

Author:
Virginie Ladisch and Anna Myriam Roccatello
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
This briefing paper makes the case for applying transitional justice approaches to dismantle systemic racism in the United States. The need to connect the dots between past and present abuses and affirm the humanity and dignity of Black people are central to all efforts to acknowledge victims and the violations they suffered, challenge the dominant historical narrative, repair harms, and reform broken systems. While the truth of the United States’ legacy of slavery and racism and its connections to present-day injustices are well documented in scholarly materials, they have not been acknowledged by the government or adequately integrated into the country’s collective narrative. Overcoming the dehumanization associated with persistent racial and socioeconomic subjugation requires a conscious and explicit government effort to denounce it and inform all citizens about how it occurred throughout US history. This includes acknowledgment and reparations. Reforms are also desperately needed in the criminal justice system, voting, housing, education, and health care. Drawing on comparative examples, this briefing argues that any meaningful changes to laws and policies or institutional reforms must be grounded in a recognition and understanding of the society’s past atrocities and its connection to present-day injustices, grievances, and violence. The United States finds itself in a moment of reckoning, as protests and public demands crack open the door to broader discussions on how to unravel the country’s legacies of slavery and white supremacy and reform institutions such the police and the criminal justice system. It should look to and learn from other countries that have undertaken efforts to address systemic human rights violations, provide reparations, and advance reforms. It is now time for the United States to apply transitional justice approaches domestically to at last reckon with its legacy of slavery and racism and build a more just future for the country and all its citizens.
Topic:
Human Rights, Reform, Slavery, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, Memory, Institutions, Racism, and Truth and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

15. George Floyd’s Murder: A Human Rights Analysis of the Racial Discrimination in the United States

Author:
Farnaz Raees Kazemi
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Review of Human Rights
Institution:
Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
Abstract:
George Floyd’s murder by the police in Minneapolis provoked widespread political agitation across the country. It once again highlighted the problematic racial dimension of policing and eggregious violation of human rights commitments on the part of the government. In this article we explore how the human rights law and racism in the United States interact with each other? We employ qualitative research based on descriptive-analytical method and divide the article in four parts: a brief introduction, ahistorical background of racism, a conceptual comprehension of racial discrimination and a brief survey of the international human rights instruments against racism, and the onground situation of racial discrimination in the country. We conclude that the process of negotiation between human rights law and racism in the United States is far from settled yet.
Topic:
Human Rights, Minorities, Discrimination, Protests, Police, Racism, and George Floyd
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

16. Slanted media does not increase police killings

Author:
Charles Crabtree and Michael Poyker
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
To what extent do slanted media influence police perceptions and thereby their use of violent forces? We know that media bias affects many aspects of American life, such as perceptions of facts and views of politicians and policies. In this paper, we show that there is little evidence that slanted media influences police violence. To assess this relationship, we employ instrument variable estimation using the quasirandom positioning of FNC in the cable lineup as a source of exogenous variation in viewership. The evidence shows that increased exposure to FNC does not lead to more frequent police killings of Black people or people of other races. Our results suggest that slanted media coverage of crimes does not necessarily lead to fatal racial discrimination by police officers.
Topic:
Media, Discrimination, Police, Racism, and Bias
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

17. Church of Woke: Next American Religion?

Author:
Michael Vlahos
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
What does it mean to be woke? First and foremost, “woke” is a religious signal that you have heard the Good News and Seen the Light. Awakening means both witnessing revealed truth and experiencing spiritual transformation. Today this has taken the form of a collective enunciation: Of a new national church, reformed and transformed, to replace the original American sect, which is wicked and corrupted. In simple, practical terms, the Church of Woke is pledged to the destruction of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. The original national religion—often called American Exceptionalism—and the Church of Woke are locked in a victory-or-death struggle. To understand this, two points are essential. First: America is a religion. American life and politics function in a religious milieu.[1] That should not surprise. In 1967, American sociologist Robert Bellah declared a national “civil religion”[2]—yet “civil religion” is a pleonasm. Greek “politics” and Roman “civil” both refer to the city, the national community of Antiquity. Hence today, in our national city, all citizens are part of an American religious congregation. Second, the full faith conversion of an empire is a transformation. Our distant past records just such a shift. 1700 years ago an entire civilization—the sacred world of the Greco-Roman Mundus[3]—was overthrown and replaced by something new. This transformation was the work of three generations, from 313-380. The first generation converted a Roman emperor who declared tolerance toward Christians. The second marched steadily toward the persecution of “pagans.” In the third generation there was a counter-coup by the apostate emperor Julian. He failed. What followed was the total proscription of all pagans (or Hellénikos). Likewise, the Church of Woke has began its Long March to transform American life in the mid-1960s. Like Christianity, it has burrowed deeply into elite society and the institutions of state power. Now we are locked in a culminating phase. The third generation of Woke—true to Late Roman antecedents—must cast down the Pantheon of American Exceptionalism, of Founders and Heroes, establishing a new divine order that will wash away America’s sins[4] of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. What follows puts Late Antiquity and Today’s world side-by-side. The reason to do this is compelling. Simply, we are facing a potential civilizational discontinuity.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Racism, Heteronormativity, and Patriarchy
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

18. The Two Disruptions Rocking the US

Author:
Naoko Funatsu
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Japan Institute Of International Affairs (JIIA)
Abstract:
The US is currently being rocked by two disruptions: the spread of novel coronavirus infections and the systemic racism deeply rooted in American society. These two disruptions have once again brought into relief the divisions that have long existed at all levels in the US. With society facing such major disturbances, both coronavirus countermeasures and racial discrimination have become politicized, and divisions in the US stemming from the partisan divide as well as President Trump's words and actions have become increasingly serious, amplifying the social turmoil.
Topic:
COVID-19, Polarization, Society, and Racism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

19. Systemic Racism: Why did violent protests erupt in the USA?

Author:
Hussam Ibrahim
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Future for Advanced Research and Studies (FARAS)
Abstract:
Since May 25, the US has witnessed demonstrations in several cities due to killing of an African-American citizen. The escalation of events have led to acts of violence and vandalism, raising several questions around: the background of the protestors, their demands and their motives, and most importantly, whether such protests would in fact lead to a change in the institutional framework under which systemic racism has prevailed within the US.
Topic:
Social Justice, Protests, Police, Racism, Systemic Racism, and Police Brutality
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

20. Arab Media Reactions to U.S. Protests: How Regional Considerations Shape Media Coverage

Author:
Mohamed Abdelaziz and Shaina Katz
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Aglobalized world has meant that international media reactions to a policeman’s brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, and the subsequent protests have been swift and comprehensive. Responses within the Arab media have shifted between attempts to explain to readers sociological fault lines and structural racism in the United States and pointed takes on what these protests might mean for the upcoming election—with the underlying question of what it might mean for the region. From a political perspective, images of protests are also shaped by the Arab governments’ responses to the Arab spring, when pro-democracy protests were crushed in many Arab states. Notably, and in contrast to media responses, there has been a shortage of statements from government officials, with Palestinian officials being the exception. While this silence can in part be attributed to the fact that the current protests in the United States are purely a domestic issue, it is also important to note that numerous state-aligned media outlets have offered characteristic viewpoints of their respective countries, suggesting an interest in indirect messaging on the protests without explicit comment.
Topic:
Social Movement, Public Opinion, Media, News Analysis, Protests, Police, and Racism
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arab Countries, North America, and United States of America