DOCSLIB.ORG

Critical Race and Whiteness Studies

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Critical Race and Whiteness Studies www.acrawsa.org.au/ejournal Volume 10, Number 2, 2014 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE OF CRITICAL RACE AND WHITENESS STUDIES Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Review Survey— Monographs, Journals, and Theses, 2005-2014 Elaine Laforteza Macquarie University Lara Palombo Macquarie University Holly Randell-Moon University of Otago The inception of the Critical Race and Whiteness Studies journal in 2005 was a response to the need to critically challenge the ways in which racial privileges formed geopolitical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural ways of being, knowing, and becoming. At its genesis, this journal was named the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association e-journal and has since been renamed to account for the broader transnational scope of the articles and reviews in terms of critical race and whiteness studies (CRWS) scholarship. Through its ten year journey, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies offers critical snapshots of a larger picture composed of the various works that engage with CRWS. This review article aims to provide a bibliography of some of the monographs and books, journal articles and special issues as well as masters and doctoral dissertations that were produced from 2005-2014. Coinciding with the ten year anniversary of the Critical Race and Whiteness Studies journal, this bibliographic survey celebrates and reflects on the past ten years of CRWS scholarship. Keywords: Critical race and whiteness studies, critical race theory, bibliography, survey, books, monographs, journals, dissertations Introduction The purpose of this review article is two-fold. Firstly, the survey aims to illuminate the critical, rigorous, and innovative work that has been developed from the inception of the journal Critical Race and Whiteness Studies in 2005 to ISSN 1838-8310 © Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association 2014 Critical Race and Whiteness Studies 10.2 the present. The review coincides with the ten-year anniversary of the journal’s publication of critical race and whiteness studies (CRWS) scholarship. Secondly, this article offers a summative and representative guide for early and established scholars, community workers, activists, and students for researching texts that concern themselves with critical race and whiteness studies. The review article surveys monographs, edited book collections, journal articles and special issues, as well as masters and doctoral theses produced in the last ten years (2005- 2014) which engage critical race theory and whiteness studies, or in the case of fictional novels, involve topics that deal with race and whiteness. Each bibliographical survey is accompanied by a summary that outlines some of the theoretical, geographical, and disciplinary concentrations and insights made within the field of CRWS. The review article is divided into three sections: monographs and edited book collections, journal articles and special issues, and masters and doctoral theses. Once the CRWS literature was collated in these mediums, the authors used qualitative methods to assess and group the data into common themes based on theoretical and conceptual approach, disciplinary field, subject area, and geographical location. The review is summative and representative. Rather than collate all extant CRWS material into an exhaustive list (which was a daunting task), the authors decided to use the article and its findings as a representative sampling of CRWS scholarship. Undoubtedly, there are gaps in the bibliographic entries owing to the exigencies of the survey’s scope within a journal article format and the expertise of the article’s authors. The survey is problematically limited to European and English-speaking texts as the material was primarily sourced through open access databases. We have also not included blogs, artworks, video-games, or music. However, we encourage our readers to research and actively engage with the aforementioned texts, and perhaps, use our bibliographies as a means to critically engage with them. Despite the survey’s shortcomings, we hope the article’s findings prove productive for readers as a jumping off point for further interdisciplinary research. Monographs and Edited Book Collections Elaine Laforteza Since the establishment of Critical Race and Whiteness Studies there have been many seminal books and monographs published on CRWS theories, practices, and stories. This bibliographical survey lists some of this work from 2005-2014. It is by no means an exhaustive list of books/monographs that concern themselves with critical race theory, whiteness studies, and work that marks out racialised privileges, their effects and consequences. As stipulated in the Introduction to this article, the list is intended as a springboard for readers to undertake further research if they wish. Moreover, this bibliographical survey only includes texts written in English and focuses mainly on settler colonial nation-states and their citizens (both indigenous and migrants). It also does not include chapters within books that pertain to critical race and whiteness studies (CRWS), but does include edited collections that explicate the themes and motivations undergirding CRWS. The terms used in this survey are also problematic. Descriptors such as ‘non-white’ intimate whiteness as the basis from which identity can be catalogued. It is not my intention to replicate this bias, but rather to reflect on this racialised privilege by drawing on the lexicon of 2 Critical Race and Whiteness Studies 10.2 racialised language that forms the vocabulary from which scholars can reflect on whiteness, identity, and representation. Many of the books and monographs surveyed also pertain to my areas of interest. This strategy was not undertaken to reduce the focus of this survey, but rather to make my own subject positionality accountable in the process of this research. My areas of interest include: south-east Asian critical race studies (most particularly, Philippines-Australia relations), south-east Asian ‘beautification’ practices (for example skin-whitening, acquiring English language skills, etc.), and queer Asian-Australian studies. I am particularly interested in how Australian scholarship has investigated the aforementioned topics. This survey incorporates books and monographs that deal with my research interests, but also includes a rich gamut of various research foci that range from essays about Chicana/Xicana consciousness (see Moraga, 2011), British negotiations of racial, linguistic, and ethnic diversity (see Herbert, 2008), institutional pedagogies and the formation of minority voices and disciplines (see Cooks & Simpson, 2007 and Ferguson, 2012), to cybercultures and racialisation (see the section on ‘Cybercultures’), Australian Indigenous histories of resistance and solidarities (see Heiss, 2012; Huggins, 2005; Behrendt 2009; and the ‘Indigenous histories and sovereignties’ section), the ‘war on terror’ (see the ‘Post 9/11 and the “War on terror”’ section), autobiographical accounts of being a racial ‘Other’ within dominant white societies (see Pung, 2008), and more. While all these texts diverge into different socio-political issues, they coalesce in terms of their need to intervene into dominant discourses about race relations, challenge the privileging of whiteness, and their encouragement for readers to not simply take note of these experiences and messages, but to feel and embody the position of racialised (non)belonging. The autobiographical texts and works of fiction, for example, offer a creative ally for the academic texts in terms of ensuring reader interest and motivation to develop their own work in CRWS or to have CRWS inform their own work and perspectives on life. Overall, these texts, as well as the others listed in this bibliographical survey, bear witness to the racialised impositions and repositioning of bodies, whether individual or institutional. In building this summary, I situate the practice of witnessing as a process of speaking back to, and beyond, hegemonic and reductive norms in all socio- cultural and political contexts. This differs from the literature on witnessing that focuses on the forms of testimony presented by survivors of wartime trauma (Agamben, 1999; Langer, 1991; Smith, 2007).1 In his book, Remnants of Auschwitz: The witness and the archive, Agamben questions whether the violences executed in the Holocaust camps can be represented through testimonial evidence. He asserts that the ‘true’ witness to violence is the one who cannot testify. Their silence is witness enough to the unspeakable horrors one has lived through. Agamben goes on to make a distinction between those who survived and those who were killed or traumatised to the point that they are 1 The sections on witnessing in this summary can also be found in my book, Laforteza (2015). 3 Critical Race and Whiteness Studies 10.2 rendered mute by their horrific experiences. He specifies, “the survivors speak in their stead, by proxy, as pseudo-witnesses; they bear witness to the missing testimony” (1999, p. 34). Bearing witness, in this case, signals what is not there and what cannot be vocalised, “The untestifiable, that to which no one has borne witness, has a name … it is der Muselmann” (p. 41). In engaging with Agamben’s work on der Muselmann, Anat Ascher states, “the only testimony they can provide is their silence, the fact that they do not testify. The paradox resides in identifying the Muselmänner, the ones who cannot bear witness,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Simon Fisher Prelims Reading List: History of Sexuality, Gender, and Intimacy, 1860S-Present Supervising Professor: Finn Enke Spring 2014
    Simon Fisher Prelims Reading List: History of Sexuality, Gender, and Intimacy, 1860s-present Supervising Professor: Finn Enke Spring 2014 Historiographic Questions and Commentary Boydston, Jeanne. “Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis.” Gender & History 20, no. 3 (November 2008): 558–583. Bérubé, Allan, John D’Emilio, and Estelle B. Freedman. My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. Garber, Marjorie B. Vested Interests: Cross Dressing & Cultural Anxiety. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. Halperin, David M. How to Do the History of Homosexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Hewitt, Nancy. "Re-rooting American Women's Activism: Global Perspectives on 1848," in Woman's Rights as Human Rights, eds. Patricia Grimshaw et al. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Beyond the Americas: Are Gender and Sexuality Useful Categories of Analysis?” Journal of Women’s History 18, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 11–21. Scott, Joan W. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review 91, no. 5 (December 1986): 1053 – 1075. ———. “The Evidence of Experience.” Critical Inquiry 17, no. 4 (July 1991): 773–797. Scott, Joan W. “Gender: Still a Useful Category of Analysis?” Diogenes 57, no. 1 (February 2010): 7–14. Vicinus, Martha. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. History of Sexuality: Foundational Texts Bullough, Vern, ed. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2002. Chauncey, George. Gay New York Gender, Urban Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.
    [Show full text]
  • Talking Back, Talkin' Up: Voicing Indigenous Feminism
    CHAPTER 1 TALKING BACK, TALKIN’ UP: VOICING INDIGENOUS FEMINISM Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized and the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side a gesture of defian- ce that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible. It is that act of speech, of “talking back,” that is no mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of our movement from object to subject—the liberated voice. bell hooks, Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (9) In her early, ground-breaking writing on Black feminist thought in the United States, bell hooks explains the importance of the concept of “talking back” and the impact it had on her when she was growing up in a family where “woman talk” was rich, poetic and intense but relegated to the kitchens of Black women and directed inwards, to the community of female friends and family, rather than out- wards into the public sphere, as the voices of Black male preachers were (5). “Talk- ing back,” characterized by hooks as “speaking as an equal to an authority figure,” as “daring to disagree” and “having an opinion” (5), is a strategy that many women of ethnic minorities had to learn to use in order to be heard and recognized as subjects capable of expressing their difference in an environment where the em- phasis was more on assimilating difference in the name of the common struggle against patriarchy. A decade later, Indigenous scholar Aileen Moreton-Robinson used a very similar term to describe the act of Australian Aboriginal women’s talking back.
    [Show full text]
  • Vampires in Transition
    VAMPIRES IN TRANSITION Daniel Berjano Rodríguez Utrecht University and Universidad de Granada GEMMA 2016-2018 Supervisor: Adelina Sánchez Espinosa (UGR) Second supervisor: Gianmaria Colpani (UU) July 2018 VAMPIRES IN TRANSITION ABSTRACT In Vampires in Transition, I develop semiotic analyses of two key films of the Spanish transition: Elisa, vida mia (Carlos Saura, 1977) and Arrebato (Ivan Zulueta, 1980). Building off Gilles Deleuze's semiotics (1986, 1989) and Teresa de Lauretis' film theory (1984, 1987) – both drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce (1930-35/1958), I have designed three inter-connected concepts in relation to the vampire figuration: 'vampire-images', 'camera-vampires', and the 'phoenix'. One one hand, these concepts aim to approach the films under study through decolonial and trans-feminist perspectives. On the other hand, they intend to draw meaningful insights on Hispanic film studies in relation to what Donna Haraway calls “informatics of domination” (1991c). Departing from one of the peripheral meanings of the vampire – a male sexual predator, the vampire has been designed as a perverse figuration of structural violence in cybernetic capitalism which could help us understand the relationship between massive addictive habits of digital machines and western patriarchal agendas, as Wendy Huy Kyong Chun studies (2016). Drawing on Teresa de Luretis (1984) and my own trans-faggot experience, vampire-images are designed to give an account of the processes of simulation that work to erase traces of exploitation. They depart from Gilles Deleuze's time-images of modern cinema (1989), which imply irrational cuts caused by particular relinkages of sound and visual data. In addition, as my analysis of Elisa, vida mia attempts to prove, vampire-images involve icons of women as objectified or subordinated to men.
    [Show full text]
  • Amy Mcmunn SLSP2690 Racism, Ethnicity, Migration and Decolonial Studies Module Convenor: Dr Ipek Demir
    Amy McMunn SLSP2690 Racism, Ethnicity, Migration and Decolonial Studies Module Convenor: Dr Ipek Demir If you would like to cite this work, please use: McMunn, Amy (2020) ‘On Brexit’ SLSP2690 Student Paper, University of Leeds. Introduction On June 23rd, 2016, Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union with a narrow majority of 52% (Antonucci et al., 2017). Dominant rhetoric attributes the Leave vote to the left-behind Britons disseminating the idea of Brexit as an expression of the predominantly white angry working class (Antonucci et al., 2017). Disguising Brexit as the economic anxieties of the white economically marginalised is methodological whiteness, disregarding the role of race (Bhambra, 2017a). The lack of recognition of those left-behind voting Remain, crucially ethnic minorities, highlights the necessity to understand Brexit in racial and cultural terms. This essay proceeds to identify the majority of Leave voters as middle-class southerners provoking cross-class analysis considering individual values, looking beyond simply the left-behinds (Antonucci et al., 2017). The overarching drivers behind Brexit stem from society’s transition to progressive cultural views which has fostered multicultural resentment and anti- immigration sentiment amongst those in declining economic positions and nostalgic towards Britain’s imperial past (Antonucci et al., 2017; Namusoke, 2016). Caution should be taken when approaching the adopted mantra that the left-behinds caused Brexit as evidence reveals the vote was a “cross-class allegiance to whiteness,” (Virdee & McGeever, 2018. p.1810) fuelled by misplaced nostalgia and desire for the resurgence of white privilege (Namusoke, 2016). Exploration of why the left-behind view has so much purchase reveals the long-term political reproduction of the colourisation of the globalisation losers as white which must not be so readily accepted.
    [Show full text]
  • Border Controls and Preventative Counter-Terrorism
    Notes Introduction: Value Trouble 1. Joppke suggests that what has been described as the essential values of Britishness are in fact the ‘nationally anonymous’ values of applied political liberalism (2008: 538). 2. A dispositif is according to Nikolas Rose, ‘a family way of thinking and act- ing, involving calculations about probable futures in the present followed by interventions into the present in order to control that potential future’ (in Aradau and van Munster 2008: 25) 3. That is shared in terms of them being the set of what Parekh calls the ‘ operative social values’ (see Chapter 5) that are established through a wide- ranging and national debate in the process of developing a Statement of Values. It should be noted that the only purpose this author considers that this process should be undertaken is when it is for the purposes of underwrit- ing what the Joint Commission on Human Rights calls the UK Bill of Rights and Freedoms (see Chapter 5). 1 Pre-Emptive Securities – Border Controls and Preventative Counter-Terrorism 1. Please see McGhee (2008a and 2008b) for a more direct exploration of the UK’s recent counter-terrorism legislation. 2. According to the House of Lords European Union Committee (2008: 25), Frontex has six statutory tasks to: (1) co-ordinate operational cooperation between member states in the field of management of external borders; (2) assist member states on the training of national border guards, including the establishment of common training standards; (3) carry out risk analyses; (4) follow-up on the development of research relevant for the control and surveillance of external borders; (5) assist member states in circumstances requiring increased technical and operational assistance at external borders; (6) provide member states with the necessary support in organizing joint return operations.
    [Show full text]
  • X. History June 2021
    HISTORY NEW TITLES · Aboriginal Studies Press · Cius Press · Hackett Publishing · Ibex Publishers · Mage Publishers · Monash University Publishing · Nova Science Publishers · Otago University Press · Sussex Academic Press · Sydney University Press · University of Alberta Press · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Gmbh · Viking Society Contents Aboriginal Studies Press 2 Cius Press 3 Hackett Publishing 3 Ibex Publishers 4 Mage Publishers 5 Monash University Publishing 8 Nova Science Publishers 12 Otago University Press 18 Sussex Academic Press 19 Sydney University Press 27 University of Alberta Press 28 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Gmbh 29 Viking Society 29 Gazelle Book Services Ltd /+44(0) 1524 528500 / [email protected] / www.gazellebookservices.co.uk 1 Aboriginal Studies Press Sorry and Beyond Healing the Stolen Generations Brian Butler, John Bond "Brian Butler’s grandmother was taken from her family in 1910. She was 12 years old. Twenty years later her daughter, Brian’s mother, was taken. Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, like Brian Butler’s, have been coping with the trauma of child removal for more than a century. Beyond Sorry describes the growth of the grassroots movement that exposed the truth about Australia’s shameful removal policies and worked towards justice. Born in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the movement was joined by nearly a million non-Indigenous Australians in the 1998 Sorry Day Journey of Healing campaigns which paved the way for the Federal Parliament’s unanimous apology in 2008. Brian Butler and John Bond call on the Australian government and community to take further steps to help complete the journey of healing for Stolen Generations people, bring about real reconciliation and prevent the continuing separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities." About the Author: Brian Butler is from central Australia and, since his teens, has devoted himself to reuniting families separated by the removal policies, and healing the harm caused.
    [Show full text]
  • Ray in Australia, and Received a 'Dear John Letter'
    “ONE TIME AGO”: AN URBAN ABORIGINAL TRIBALOGRAPHY JULIANNE BUTLER DIPLOMA OF ABORIGINAL STUDIES, BACHELOR OF ARTS THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE MARCH, 2009. This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I hereby certify that the work embodied in this Thesis is the result of original research, the greater part of which was completed subsequent to admission to candidature for the degree. Signature: …………………… Date: …….. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 4 List of Figures 6 Introduction: An Urban Aboriginal Tribalography 8 Chapter 1: Methodology 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review 29 Chapter 3: Memories from the Photo box 59 Chapter 4: The 1960’s and the Public Face of Change 99 Chapter 5: The Multigenerational Voices Speak 129 Conclusion 162 Bibliography 166 3 Abstract I identify as Koori and belong to the Worimi and Bundjalung peoples of N.S.W. I grew up in the inner city suburb of Waterloo and spent school holidays at Port Stephens with my Grandparents who informed me of the world, the ways of the ‘Old People’ and our link with them.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic Relations: a Perspective from Critical Rationalism
    Ethnic Relations: A Perspective from Critical Rationalism Preliminary memorandum for the stream plenary debate at the BSA annual conference, April 2012 Michael Banton In its application to the study of race and ethnicity, the philosophy of critical rationalism expounded by Karl Popper has four prime characteristics. Firstly, it sees scholarly activity as a process leading to the growth of objective knowledge. Secondly, it maintains that this activity starts from the recognition of, and the attempt to solve, intellectual problems. Thirdly, it distinguishes two worlds of knowledge with their accompanying conceptual vocabularies. Fourthly, in its methodology critical rationalism is nominalist rather than essentialist. These four characteristics can be considered in turn. Objective knowledge We judge the work of our colleagues and students to decide whether it makes an original contribution to knowledge. That is the academic gold standard. To decide whether a book, article, or dissertation constitutes an original contribution to knowledge requires an assessment of the previously prevailing knowledge. Those who take the decision ask: to what field might this be a contribution? This can be problematical because important new contributions often do not fit easily into prevailing conceptions of fields and of the boundaries between them. These conceptions change, for both internal and external reasons. The internal reasons spring from the desire to make a body of knowledge coherent. The external ones stem from the availability of funds for research, the academic power structure and the social climate. Some contributions to knowledge extend existing understandings. Others subvert them. A research worker may find that existing theories, explanations or research results are in some respect unsatisfactory.
    [Show full text]
  • 5TH EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHIES of SEXUALITIES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS (June 21 Update, This Is Not a Final Version)
    5TH EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHIES OF SEXUALITIES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS (June 21 update, this is not a final version) Title: 5th European Geographies of Sexualities conference proceedings Edited by: Michal Pitoňák Graphics: Lukáš Pitoňák Publisher: Queer Geography, zs. Márova 2806/10 Prague 5 155 00 Prague, Czechia Publication date: will be updated ISBN: will be updated ORGANIZATION Conference organizers: • Queer Geography, z. s. (responsible organizer) • Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development (host institution) Sponsors and supporters: • Gilead Sciences s.r.o. supported this even in form of donation grant • Czech Geographical Society • The Space, Sexualities and Queer Research Group (SSQRG) of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with Institute of British Geographers (IBG) • Primeros Prague a.s. Conference dates: 26-28th September, 2019 Website: https://2019.egsconference.com Emai: [email protected] Members of the local organizing committee: Michal Pitoňák (Queer Geography, Czech geographical society; independent researcher) Jana Kropáčková (Queer Geography) Lukáš Pitoňák (Queer Geography; IT, design; graphics; architecture) Lucie Pospíšilová (Charles University, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Czech geographical society; researcher) Kamila Klingorová (Charles University, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Czech geographical society; researcher) Ondřej Šerý (Masaryk University, Department of Geography; assistant professor) Pavel Doboš
    [Show full text]
  • Studies European Journal of Cultural
    European Journal of Cultural Studies http://ecs.sagepub.com/ New hierarchies of belonging Les Back, Shamser Sinha and with Charlynne Bryan European Journal of Cultural Studies 2012 15: 139 DOI: 10.1177/1367549411432030 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/15/2/139 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for European Journal of Cultural Studies can be found at: Email Alerts: http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://ecs.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/15/2/139.refs.html >> Version of Record - Mar 29, 2012 What is This? Downloaded from ecs.sagepub.com at Universitet I Oslo on October 2, 2012 ECS15210.1177/1367549411432030Back et al.European Journal of Cultural Studies 4320302012 european journal of Article European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(2) 139 –154 New hierarchies © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub. of belonging co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1367549411432030 ecs.sagepub.com Les Back Goldsmiths, University of London, UK Shamser Sinha with Charlynne Bryan University Campus Suffolk, UK Abstract The article discusses the effects that the debate about the ‘crisis of multiculturalism’ is having on the regulation, scrutiny and the surveillance of migrant communities. Through the story of a young migrant it explores the ways that old hierarchies of belonging are taking new forms within the social landscape of contemporary London. This biographical case study is drawn from a larger qualitative study of 30 young adult migrants.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Race Theory and Racialisation in Post-7/7 Racist Britain Mike C
    ‘Shut the f*** up’, ‘you have no rights here’: Critical Race Theory and Racialisation in post-7/7 racist Britain Mike Cole Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, England, UK Alpesh Maisuria University of Wolverhampton, England, UK Abstract The London bombings of 7th July, 2007 (7/7) were a pivotal moment in British society, not only because of the loss of life and injury, but because it was the first time Britain had been attacked by non-white British citizens. This point was underscored by Chancellor Gordon Brown when he stressed that ‘the uncomfortable facts’ have to be faced that the bombers were ‘British citizens, British born, apparently integrated into our communities, who were prepared to maim and kill fellow British citizens’. Here we assess competing explanations for the role of ‘race’ in contemporary society: Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Racialisation. Two central tenets of CRT are critiqued from a Marxist perspective, and the Marxist concept of racialisation is put forward as having most purchase in explaining manifestations of intensified Islamophobia and xenoracism in post 7/7 Britain. Keywords: Critical Race Theory, Racialisation, Imperialism, Terrorism Critique Of Two Tenets Of Critical Race Theory (CRT) CRT is grounded in ‘the uncompromising insistence that “race” should occupy the central position in any legal, educational, or social policy analysis’ (Darder and Torres, 2004, p. 98). Given this centrality, ‘“racial” liberation [is] embraced as not ‘Shut the f*** up’, ‘you have no rights here’ only the primary but as the most significant objective of any emancipatory vision of education in the larger society’ (ibid.) Here we focus on two tenets of CRT: the first is that the concept of white supremacy better expresses oppression in contemporary societies based on ‘race’ than does the concept of racism; and the second tenet is the belief in the pre-eminence of ‘race’ rather than social class.
    [Show full text]
  • The Biripi – a History Since 1827
    14 MANNING VALLEY Valley-was undertaken by William Birrell as a PhD thesis at the University of Newcastle, and completed in 1970. The main body of this work appeared as a book in 1987, The Manning Valley: Landscape and Settlement 1824-1900, published by Jacaranda Press. Greater Taree City Council's commissioned history of the region, The Struggle against Isolation: A History of the Manning Valley by John Ramsland, was also published in 1987. More local history is written than any other single historical genre, and the sheer number of publications written by local people about their localities, schools, churches, farming communities, industries, personalities and so on within the Manning Valley, as well as growing community interest in the conservation of the environment and cultural heritage, should ensure that the flow of local histories will increase.21 THE BIRIPl-A HISTORY SINCE 1827 The story of Australia since 178 8 has been a story of black and white, two civilisations interacting in a great human drama, and yet until recently the Aborigines found no place in our history. Over the last thirty years our knowledge of both pre-European and post-European Aboriginal experience has been transformed.22 There are different interpretations of the origins of human settlement in Australia. Some Aborigines declare their ancestors were here from the beginning; rejecting the view that they came from Asia to the northern parts of the continent about 50,000 years ago as white history. This collision of judgments, observes Ken Inglis, presents a conflict for scholars who are committed to respecting Aboriginal perceptions of the world but also believe that the methods and findings of science comprise a universally valid system of inquiry-not simply a means to set two mythologies against each other.23 Aborigines have a different conception of knowledge to white historians.
    [Show full text]