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Racialized Solidarity, Minority Group Rights, and Public Memory

Juliet Hooker

in Race and the Politics of Solidarity

This chapter argues that taking racialized solidarity into account in theories of multiculturalism requires that existing normative justifications of minority group rights be reframed in order to ... More

This chapter argues that taking racialized solidarity into account in theories of multiculturalism requires that existing normative justifications of minority group rights be reframed in order to make whiteness visible. This entails focusing arguments for such rights on the need to reverse past and continuing disadvantages suffered by subordinated groups as a result of either cultural difference and/or racial hierarchy, thereby reintegrating the two branches of the multiculturalism literature. This would bring questions of collective injustice to the forefront of debates about minority group rights, which are one of the few instances where the content of the political community's public memory is challenged and the differences between the ethical-political perspectives of dominant and subordinated groups are confronted. Through such processes of contestation the ethical-political perspectives of dominant groups might be transformed, thereby leading to the development of greater political will to achieve racial justice.Less

The Jungle Revisited? Racial Realism in the Low-Skilled Sector

John D. Skrentny

in After Civil Rights: Racial Realism in the New American Workplace

This chapter focuses on low-skilled employment. It shows that employers have a racial hierarchy of preference and that they rely on word-of-mouth hiring to attract Latino and Asian workers with the ... More

This chapter focuses on low-skilled employment. It shows that employers have a racial hierarchy of preference and that they rely on word-of-mouth hiring to attract Latino and Asian workers with the racial and/or immigrant abilities they prize. The chapter gives special attention to meatpacking, a sector that has been racially remade in the past few decades. It then explores the ways Title VII of the Civil Rights Act should prevent this kind of hiring and shows how judges have created new opportunities for employers to use word-of-mouth hiring to build and maintain their Latino and Asian workforces without running afoul of the law. This chapter also shows how two other laws, the Immigration Reform and Control Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, would seem to prohibit immigrant realism but have nonetheless failed.Less

The Counterrevolutionary Moment: Preserving Racial Hierarchy in the League of Nations

Adom Getachew

in Worldmaking after Empire

This chapter examines the institutionalization of empire as unequal integration in the League of Nations. Recasting the Wilsonian moment as a counterrevolutionary episode, it argues that Woodrow ... More

This chapter examines the institutionalization of empire as unequal integration in the League of Nations. Recasting the Wilsonian moment as a counterrevolutionary episode, it argues that Woodrow Wilson and Jan Smuts excised the revolutionary implications of the Bolshevik right to self-determination and repurposed the principle to preserve racial hierarchy in the new international organization. In this appropriation, Wilson and Smuts effectively remade self-determination as a racially differentiated principle, which was fully compatible with imperial rule. The chapter charts the implications of their account of self-determination by examining Ethiopia's and Liberia's membership in the international organization. It argues that rather than protecting their sovereign equality, the inclusion of Ethiopia and Liberia created the conditions of their domination through a burdened and racialized membership where obligations were onerous and rights limited.Less

Classification before Counting: The Statistical Races

Kenneth Prewitt

in What Is "Your" Race?: The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans

This chapter begins with framing America's history of measuring races, and how the government decides what those races are. The significance of measuring races lies in how law and policy are not ... More

This chapter begins with framing America's history of measuring races, and how the government decides what those races are. The significance of measuring races lies in how law and policy are not about an abstraction called race, but are about races as they are made intelligible. A German doctor in 1776 divided the human species into five races. Today, nearly two and a half centuries later, these are the same five races into which the U.S. Census divides the American population, making America the only country in the world firmly wedded to an eighteenth-century racial taxonomy. Embedded in this science were theories of a racial hierarchy: there were not just different races but superior and inferior races.Less

Darwinian Liberalism

Carol A. Horton

in Race and the Making of American Liberalism

This chapter examines the highly influential position of Darwinian liberalism, which argued in favor of a minimalist conception of black citizenship rights. This position, however, was coupled with ... More

This chapter examines the highly influential position of Darwinian liberalism, which argued in favor of a minimalist conception of black citizenship rights. This position, however, was coupled with an insistence that equal rights could not and should not be expected to produce “social equality” between the races. In the context of a free-market order, Darwinian liberals claimed, the innate superiority of the white race ensured that it would forever dominate the black. The fact that this insistence on racial hierarchy was linked to a commitment to a minimal standard of black rights made it a politically moderate position in the context of the 1870s. By the turn of the century, however, this commitment had largely eroded, as Darwinian liberals forged an even more exclusive conception of white supremacy in reaction to the labor and agrarian movements of the 1880s–90s. In the context of late 19th-century America, providing the most minimal rights to African Americans remained controversial, even when accompanied by assurances of eternal white domination and racial hierarchy.Less

Inequality and White Supremacy

Carol A. Horton

in Race and the Making of American Liberalism

The successive collapses of the Knights of Labor and Populism during the 1880s–90s officially ended producer republicanism in the United States. In particular, the presidential election of 1896 ... More

The successive collapses of the Knights of Labor and Populism during the 1880s–90s officially ended producer republicanism in the United States. In particular, the presidential election of 1896 supported the development of three institutional arrangements that played a primary role in creating a more unequal society and a more constricted political universe: the dominance of the highly conservative American Federation of Labor within the labor movement, the establishment of Jim Crow segregation and the “solid South”, and the contraction of the popular bases of electoral politics. Through these primary mechanisms, the scope and aspirations of American liberalism were dramatically contracted. Although the ensuing Progressive Era would achieve some important reforms, this triumph of Darwinian liberalism reinforced the cultural and political dominance of a newly differentiated form of racial hierarchy, a broad endorsement of social and economic inequality, and a narrow and exclusionary conception of citizenship.Less

Conclusion

Joseph Cheah

in Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation

This chapter recapitulates the central role that the ideology of white supremacy has played in the two different ways by which Euro-Americans and Burmese ethnic Buddhists have appropriated and ... More

This chapter recapitulates the central role that the ideology of white supremacy has played in the two different ways by which Euro-Americans and Burmese ethnic Buddhists have appropriated and adapted Buddhist religious practices to the American context. In the former, white supremacist logic has manifested itself in the existence of a racial hierarchy in American Buddhism, and in the heavily racialized dimensions of the claims made by many white Buddhists and sympathizers. In the latter, white supremacy has been resisted through the agency of Burmese immigrant Buddhists in the adaptation of their religion to the American context.Less

Race in the action film

Lisa Purse

in Contemporary Action Cinema

This chapter argues that the contemporary action film evidences the persistence of traditional racial hierarchies and racial stereotypes, with the ethnicity of the action hero still frequently ... More

This chapter argues that the contemporary action film evidences the persistence of traditional racial hierarchies and racial stereotypes, with the ethnicity of the action hero still frequently ‘defaulting’ to Anglo-American while non-white and non-Anglo characters remain on the sidelines, only permitted to be active and heroic in the context of a larger group. The chapter then investigates the representational negotiations that take place when a nonwhite person takes on the role of action hero, using I, Robot and Avatar to analyse how notions of otherness become redirected, before considering how whiteness operates as a structuring concept in the action movie's representational hierarchy, both as a dominant category and as a locus of fear, using xXx as an example.Less

The Dilemma of Racial Identity

Kathleen M. German

in Promises of Citizenship: Film Recruitment of African Americans in World War II

This chapter explores the historical problems of understanding and dividing society along racial lines. In some ways, World War II was a race war as both Allies and Axis enforced forms of racial ... More

This chapter explores the historical problems of understanding and dividing society along racial lines. In some ways, World War II was a race war as both Allies and Axis enforced forms of racial segregation and purity. This chapter traces the roots of race in Christianity beginning with the Great Chain of Being, then explores federal definitions of race, and finally explains the implications of social and legal separation of races in the Jim Crow segregation persistent through World War II.Less

“Ghost(s) in the House!”: Black Subjectivity and Howard Sackler’s The Great White Hope

Carol Bunch Davis

in Prefiguring Postblackness: Cultural Memory, Drama, and the African American Freedom Struggle of the 1960s

This chapter examines the interplay of cultural memory and black subjectivity in Howard Sackler's 1967 play, The Great White Hope, by considering Rashid Johnson's 2006 photograph, Self Portrait ... More

This chapter examines the interplay of cultural memory and black subjectivity in Howard Sackler's 1967 play, The Great White Hope, by considering Rashid Johnson's 2006 photograph, Self Portrait Laying on Jack Johnson's Grave. Sackler drew his protagonist, Jack Jefferson, from events in the life of the nation's first African American heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, whose reign from 1908 to 1915 sparked racially motivated violence throughout the United States. The chapter reads The Great White Hope's representation of Jack Jefferson as both a critique of Progressive Era racial common sense and the continuing significance of racial uplift ideology in the then-current moment. It argues that Jefferson offers a mode of black identity that emphasizes interiority as an alternative to the dissemination of appropriate racial representations intended to counter the stereotypical images of African Americans circulating in the public sphere and subverts such representational tactics. Jefferson's signifying engagement with the public sphere endows him with a means of escape from the representational binary imposed upon him as well as refutes the racial hierarchy underwriting uplift ideology.Less

Representation and Racial Hierarchy

Maryann Erigha

in The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry

Representation in a culture industry includes partaking in symbols and images, having presence in numbers and jobs, attaining cultural citizenship by participating in a nation’s cultural narratives, ... More

Representation in a culture industry includes partaking in symbols and images, having presence in numbers and jobs, attaining cultural citizenship by participating in a nation’s cultural narratives, and climbing the hierarchy to occupy top and desired positions. This chapter defines and discusses various levels of representation: symbolic, numeric, civic, and hierarchic. African Americans and racial minorities in cinema have made significant progress in many stages, including winning awards at the Oscars and making gains in employment. This chapter highlights African Americans’ struggle to advance in Hollywood as it relates to penetrating the racial hierarchy. Despite Hollywood’s liberal public face, the film industry’s racial hierarchy takes on a Jim Crow structure that marginalizes, segregates, and stigmatizes racial minorities. The present struggle for representation should focus on dismantling this racial hierarchy.Less

“Allegiance and Protection Are and Must Be Reciprocal”: The Aftermath of War in Mississippi

Jarret Ruminski

in The Limits of Loyalty: Ordinary People in Civil War Mississippi

The conclusion discusses Mississippi’s immediate postwar period from mid- to late 1865. In particular, it focuses on the Christmasrebellion of that year in order to demonstrate how white ... More

The conclusion discusses Mississippi’s immediate postwar period from mid- to late 1865. In particular, it focuses on the Christmasrebellion of that year in order to demonstrate how white Mississippianscontinued their attempts to uphold the racial hierarchy against freed people’scontinued rejection of white dominance. This struggle dominated Mississippi’ssociopolitical landscape through Reconstruction and beyond. Unionforces won the war, but they could not suppress the continued influence ofracial loyalties, which exerted a powerful influence over defeated Confederatesoldiers and Southern civilians.Less

China at Home and Abroad

Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho

in Citizens in Motion: Emigration, Immigration, and Re-migration Across China's Borders

Studying the interface of distinct yet interrelated migration trends through the framework of contemporaneous migration allows us to conceptualize both inter-ethnic and co-ethnic relations in ... More

Studying the interface of distinct yet interrelated migration trends through the framework of contemporaneous migration allows us to conceptualize both inter-ethnic and co-ethnic relations in culturally diverse societies. The Chinese worldview of tianxia informs understanding of the multidirectional migration patterns that reflect and impact China’s domestic management of ethnic diversity and its external relations. This chapter argues that contemporaneous migration further illuminates three dimensions of alterity, namely alterity as phenotypical difference, as the diversification of co-ethnicity, and as spatial recalibration. It interfaces African immigration to China with the re-migration of Chinese diasporic descendants to the ancestral land, and the emigration of ethnic minorities in China. Such an analytical approach reveals how fraternity and alterity operate within and across ethnic categories in transnational contexts.Less

Racial Hierarchies of Desire and the Specter of Sex Tourism

Erica Lorraine Williams

in Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements

This chapter explores the complexities of the racial hierarchies of desire in Salvador by articulating what it calls the specter of sex tourism. It examines the Brazilian ideologies of race that ... More

This chapter explores the complexities of the racial hierarchies of desire in Salvador by articulating what it calls the specter of sex tourism. It examines the Brazilian ideologies of race that shape the sexual economies of tourism by introducing the concepts of racial democracy, whitening, and mestiçagem (racial and cultural mixing). It also considers the racialized erotics of tourism propaganda and the construction of the mulata (a woman of mixed black and white ancestry) as Brazil's national erotic icon. Finally, it discusses the ways in which Bahian women of African descent who are not engaged in sex work are implicated in the sexual economies of tourism because of assumptions about their licentiousness and availability.Less

Making the Mano: The Uncomfortable Visibility of Blackness in Politically Conscious Brazilian Hip-Hop

Jennifer Roth-Gordon

in Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro

Chapter 6 focuses on the intentional and defiant displays of blackness by politically conscious Brazilian rappers and rap fans and the challenges they pose to Brazil’s belief in racial tolerance. By ... More

Chapter 6 focuses on the intentional and defiant displays of blackness by politically conscious Brazilian rappers and rap fans and the challenges they pose to Brazil’s belief in racial tolerance. By the time politically conscious hip hop reached the peak of its popularity in the late 1990s, the nation was on the brink of engaging in a national debate surrounding sweeping legislative changes that would work towards addressing some of the country’s problems with structural racism, particularly through affirmative action quotas in higher education. But these changes would mark a dramatic shift in state policy and national reputation: Rather than continuing to celebrate race mixture and racial tolerance, the Brazilian state would publicly and officially admit to the visibility of blackness and to its racism. As reactions to politically conscious hip hop make apparent, this public recognition of racial difference and the challenges to ideas of racial tolerance provoked strong racial anxiety. This chapter explores rappers’ and rap fans’ embrace of “imported” cultural and linguistic practices that allowed them to wear blackness visibly, and defiantly, on their bodies in order to challenge their assigned place in Brazil’s racial hierarchyLess

The Hustle and Bustle of City Life: The Politics of Public Space and Racial Formation

Cécile Vidal

in Caribbean New Orleans: Empire, Race, and the Making of a Slave Society

This chapter investigates how the ancien régime culture, with which officials and settlers came to French Louisiana and which made them highly sensitive to the issue of maintaining their rank in ... More

This chapter investigates how the ancien régime culture, with which officials and settlers came to French Louisiana and which made them highly sensitive to the issue of maintaining their rank in public, intersected with the process of racialization. As the urban milieu facilitated cross-racial encounters and exchanges of all kinds in public civic and religious ceremonies, drinking houses, and street encounters, most whites quickly became aware of the need to maintain some appearance of social superiority and to display and instill the socio-racial hierarchy by their exclusive and violent behaviour in the public space. Still, people of African descent never ceased to fight against their domination, invisibility, and segregation.Less

Introduction

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard

in Waste of a White Skin

In the age of lynching and American expansionism, the Carnegie Corporation expressed a franchise to govern through the expansion of influence-harvesting. By influence-harvesting, I am referring to ... More

In the age of lynching and American expansionism, the Carnegie Corporation expressed a franchise to govern through the expansion of influence-harvesting. By influence-harvesting, I am referring to the processes by which cultural leadership was exercised and how central organizing practices of scientific management of labor came to be understood as social crises. Such knowledge projects typically obscured the workings of violence. As the Carnegie Corporation was designing black education for “underdeveloped peoples” in the United States and in colonized Africa, this franchise to govern reflected the corporation’s determination to entrench a global “racial development scheme.” This section offers an account of how Afrikaner Nationalism is a variant of white nationalism.Less

Working the Prostitution Economy, 1870–1900

in I've Got to Make My Livin': Black Women's Sex Work in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago

This chapter examines the racial structure of the sex economy in Chicago during the period from 1870 to 1900. It explains that African American prostitutes confronted a racial hierarchy that ... More

This chapter examines the racial structure of the sex economy in Chicago during the period from 1870 to 1900. It explains that African American prostitutes confronted a racial hierarchy that determined where they worked and how much they earned and highlights the racial segregation of the sex workers in the Levee district. It also mentions that African American prostitutes and brothels consistently charged the lowest rates for their sexual services. This chapter also describes who African American sex workers found ways to cross the lines that defined the economy's racial hierarchy.Less