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The Politics and Trauma of Race

Colin A. Palmer

in Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence

This chapter illustrates how Cheddi Jagan had lost the election the previous December and how the politics of race had played the principal role in the voting. Writing in the World Marxism Review in ... More

This chapter illustrates how Cheddi Jagan had lost the election the previous December and how the politics of race had played the principal role in the voting. Writing in the World Marxism Review in October 1965, Jagan admitted there was a “tendency of anti-African racism” in the People's Progressive Party that he led. This racism, he said, had emerged “almost as a reflex action” to “the racist anti-Indian putsches engineered since 1962 by the People's National Congress and the Imperialists.” The PPP was “forthrightly combating racism in the party since it realized that racism is not only reactionary, but a device of the imperialists to divide the working class and thus maintain colonial rule and exploitation.” His party's “first objective” was “the achievement of national unity and racial harmony.”Less

“Overrun with Free Negroes” The Politics of Wartime Emancipation and Migration in the Upper Midwest

Leslie A. Schwalm

in Emancipation's Diaspora: Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest

This chapter discusses how a regional as well as a national public politics of race emerged from white Midwesterners' response to the consequences of emancipation. Many Midwesterners viewed ... More

This chapter discusses how a regional as well as a national public politics of race emerged from white Midwesterners' response to the consequences of emancipation. Many Midwesterners viewed emancipating and aiding former slaves who intended to stay in the South as a humanitarian issue. But when former slaves made their way north, emancipation became an increasingly critical and vigorously debated matter of public policy. Revealing a deep-seated belief in the benefits and necessity of a racially stratified society, many whites assumed that any black gains in the region would diminish their own status and citizenship.Less

Conclusion

Tim S. R. Boyd

in Georgia Democrats, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Shaping of the New South

The book concludes with an overview of political developments in Georgia and the South from the 1970s to the 1990s. The continuity with the party divisions that were established after the 1960s civil ... More

The book concludes with an overview of political developments in Georgia and the South from the 1970s to the 1990s. The continuity with the party divisions that were established after the 1960s civil rights laws is demonstrated. Colorblind rhetoric remained the most effective way of dealing with the politics of race in the South. The conclusion ends with a discussion of contemporary Democratic Party weakness in the South.Less

American Exceptionalism in Crime, Punishment, and Disadvantage: Race, Federalization, and Politicization in the Perspective of Local Autonomy

Nicola Lacey and David Soskice

in American Exceptionalism in Crime and Punishment

This chapter sets a particular thesis focused on the institutional structure of the American political system within the context of a broader literature in the comparative political economy of crime ... More

This chapter sets a particular thesis focused on the institutional structure of the American political system within the context of a broader literature in the comparative political economy of crime and punishment. It then considers three possible objections to this analysis. The first argues that increasing American exceptionalism in the postwar period is to be explained primarily in terms of a distinctive history and politics of race. The next is the argument that this exceptionalism is to be attributed primarily to national policy driven by the federal government. The final argument is that American exceptionalism is driven by the interests of political elites who are relatively disconnected from the interests of their electors. Each of these objections, the chapter suggests, can be met.Less

Introduction

in Race and Antiracism in Black British and British Asian Literature

This book explores the politics of race and antiracism in contemporary Britain by offering a critical analysis of ten novels written since the mid-1990s by black British and British Asian authors, ... More

This book explores the politics of race and antiracism in contemporary Britain by offering a critical analysis of ten novels written since the mid-1990s by black British and British Asian authors, namely, Monica Ali, Nadeem Aslam, Fred D'Aguiar, Ferdinand Dennis, Hanif Kureishi, Gautam Malkani, Caryl Phillips, Mike Phillips, Zadie Smith, and Meera Syal. It considers the idea of Africa as a lost homeland for diasporic black Britons and the attempts to reestablish links with the continent. The book also examines the place of Islam within British racial politics by discussing three novels: Kureishi's The Black Album (1995), Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), and Ali's Brick Lane (2003). Moreover, it looks at the moral value assigned to the very idea of ethnicity.Less

Speaking for Nature

Ruth Barton

in The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science

Various controversies in the early 1860s – over Darwin’s Origin, heretical publications by clergymen, and the science and politics of race – drew Lubbock and Spottiswoode into joint action with ... More

Various controversies in the early 1860s – over Darwin’s Origin, heretical publications by clergymen, and the science and politics of race – drew Lubbock and Spottiswoode into joint action with Hooker, Huxley, and Busk. Huxley, Busk and Lubbock set new directions in their research, focusing on the gaps between apes and humans and between “savage” and “civilised” humans. They took over the Natural History Review, which carried this new research. Lubbock, Spottiswoode and Hooker sought to rouse scientific men to defend free enquiry in theology. In an effort to keep anthropology free from association with extreme racist politics, Lubbock, Huxley, and Busk became active in the Ethnological Society of London. In 1864, as controversy over the relationship between scientific enquiry and theological orthodoxy intensified, Spencer drew his scientific friends into alliance with liberal thinkers in politics and Church to contribute science articles to the weekly Reader and make it an organ of “liberal opinion.” At the same time as this common cause brought naturalists, physical scientists and Spencer together, the households of the Busks and the Lubbocks became the social centers for the growing network. From the common friendships and common causes the X Club was formed in November 1864.Less

Willa Cather and W. E. B. Du Bois Go to the Opera

Dana Seitler

in Reading Sideways: The Queer Politics of Art in Modern American Fiction

This chapter explores the politics of allusion in Willa Cather and W. E. B. Du Bois’s fiction, specifically their use of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin.

Alternative Identities, Emergent Politics

Stephen Selka

in Religion and the Politics of Ethnic Identity in Bahia, Brazil

Much of the discourse on Afro-Brazilian identity is pegged on Candomblé although the religion is not evenly practiced in Afro-Brazilian communities. Debates on syncretism, double belonging, and ... More

Much of the discourse on Afro-Brazilian identity is pegged on Candomblé although the religion is not evenly practiced in Afro-Brazilian communities. Debates on syncretism, double belonging, and anti-syncretism all pinpoint the existing relationship between Candomblé and Catholicism. Furthermore, emphasis on Candomblé shows a rather religious pluralism within African communities. This chapter discusses the political underpinnings that can be found in the relationship between Candomblé and Catholicism. More than just a religious rivalry, the constrained relationship between these two relationships exhibits a politics of race relations and racism. This chapter focuses on the distinctive ways in which evangelicals of African-descent engage religious discourses and practices as they construct their identities and struggle against racism. Through the black progressive evangelicals' emphasis on electoral politics and cultural approaches to mobilization, they have given much contribution to the debate and discourse about existing racism in Brazil. The chapter also discusses the increasingly blurred lines between Christians and the condomblecistas wherein although evangelical Christian communities generally are conservative and eschew the African-derived religion, a significant number of these evangelicals are reaching religious lines as they mobilize and forward a movement against racism.Less

“All 200 million of us are going to make it”: The Rise of OIC

in The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia

This chapter discusses the growth of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) in the 1960s. The OIC developed an innovative approach to job training and also proved adept at negotiating the ... More

This chapter discusses the growth of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) in the 1960s. The OIC developed an innovative approach to job training and also proved adept at negotiating the treacherous politics of race at both the local and national levels. This made the organization a major recipient of federal anti-poverty funds, receiving a total of $14,465,832 in federal grants from 1964 to 1970. The chapter also highlights the success of the OIC in reformulating midcentury liberalism by simultaneously embracing both federal support and an ideology of self-reliance. The development of the OIC showed that the War on Poverty had the greatest positive effect when it focused on concrete dimensions of the problem of jobs and provided direct, categorical funding for pragmatic, community-based programs.Less

Conclusion

James Wolfinger

in Philadelphia Divided: Race and Politics in the City of Brotherly Love

An iconic figure of big-city politics in the 1960s and 1970s was Frank Rizzo, the police chief and mayor who polarized Philadelphia along racial lines and became a symbol of Vietnam-era reactionary ... More

An iconic figure of big-city politics in the 1960s and 1970s was Frank Rizzo, the police chief and mayor who polarized Philadelphia along racial lines and became a symbol of Vietnam-era reactionary politics. Rizzo's strategic use of race to gain political power in Philadelphia can be traced to the earlier Republican politics of the Depression and World War II era. The racial divisions Rizzo exploited had a history dating back to the New Deal years, when the Republican Party helped intensify white racism and used it for political gain. White racism heightened in Philadelphia in the early- to mid-twentieth century due to whites' perception of African Americans as threats in housing and employment. This book has demonstrated the interplay between New Deal liberalism, the roots of modern conservatism, and the politics of race in Philadelphia.Less

Introduction

Robert R. Korstad

in To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America

This book is about the politics of race and poverty in America. It tells the story of the North Carolina Fund, a pioneer effort to improve the lives of the “neglected and forgotten” poor in a nation ... More

This book is about the politics of race and poverty in America. It tells the story of the North Carolina Fund, a pioneer effort to improve the lives of the “neglected and forgotten” poor in a nation that celebrated itself as an affluent society. Governor Terry Sanford created the Fund in 1963, at a time when the United States stood at a crossroads. A decade of civil rights activism had challenged the country to fulfill its promise of equality and opportunity. Not since the Civil War and Reconstruction had reformers raised such fundamental questions about the political and social foundations of the republic. It was, however, by no means clear how Americans would answer. Alabama governor George C. Wallace spoke for one possibility.Less

Afterword with Dr. Gary Orfield

Genevieve Siegel-Hawley

in When the Fences Come Down: Twenty-First-Century Lessons from Metropolitan School Desegregation

The afterword of When the Fences Come Down documents a conversation with one of the nation’s leading experts on school desegregation, Dr. Gary Orfield.