REMARKS the Newsletter for the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2 0 2 0 | S U M M E R I S S U E REMARKS The Newsletter for the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities This issue brings you: FROM THE CHAIR BY WENDY ROTH LETTER FROM THE CHAIR - 1 "SYSTEMIC ANTI-BLACK RACISM MUST BE DISMANTLED" - 3 SOCIOLOGISTS WEIGH IN ON THE RECENT MOVEMENT - 5 THE NATIVE PEOPLE ETHNOCIDE IN BRAZIL - 6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN - 8 US NATIONALISM AND COVID - 12 NEW PUBLICATIONS - 13 ANNOUNCEMENTS - 18 #SOCAF - 19 SECTION AWARDS - 20 ASA SCHEDULE - 21 Dear SREM Members, MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORS - 22 Here we are in summer, most of us with our lives still upended by Covid-19 and wondering or just beginning to learn what our fall terms might be like. In the midst of all this uncertainty, could this be an opportunity for meaningful social change? Protests and social activism against anti-Black racism are continuing and public opinion is changing. According to the Washington Post, more White Americans are recognizing that racism is a significant part of Blacks Americans’ lived experience, and two-thirds of Americans say they support Black Lives Matter. In this election year, the work of SREM and its members could not be more important! Along these lines, the SREM Council has written a statement, “Systemic Anti-Black Racism Must Be Dismantled: Statement by the American Sociological Association Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities.” This was published in the section’s journal, Sociology of Race & Ethnicity, and is reprinted below. Important things are happening at Sociology of Race & Ethnicity. First, after its launch in 2014, the journal has received its first rankings from the InCites Journal Citations Reports – and what rankings they are! SRE is ranked ahead of Social Science Research, Social Forces, and Ethnic & Racial Studies. It ranks 44th out of 150 sociology journals and 4th out of 20 ethnic studies journals. I’d like to thank the editorial team that has done such incredible work to make the section’s journal – the newest of all ASA journals – such a great success: co-editors David Brunsma and David Embrick, as well as Kevin Zevallos, Maggie Nanney, Amy Ernstes, Whitney Hayes, and Kaitlyne Motl. You have all done a tremendous job! From the Chair (Continued from p. 1) Second, as our journal co-editors’ term draws toward its end, the SREM Publications Committee has been hard at work to solicit and review proposals for a new editorial team. They received one application package, which has reviewed and approved by both the Publications Committee and the SREM Council. We are working with ASA and will soon have more details for you and will be asking you to vote on the new editorial team as well. We have been working to turn our planned SREM sessions for the ASA meeting into virtual engagement sessions. One session had to be canceled, but the others will go ahead virtually -- some as live sessions and others pre-recorded for you to watch asynchronously. The details appear below in this newsletter. Weblinks to the sessions will be available through the ASA program to those who’ve registered (it’s free). The SREM Business Meeting will be held live on Monday, August 10, at 2:30-3:10pm PDT/5:30-6:10pm EDT. I hope all of you will attend. Not only will we present the SREM awards then, we will also discuss proposed changes to the SREM Bylaws and sessions for next year’s annual meeting. We will not be holding a virtual reception. But we have decided to make use of the money we save from this year’s in-person reception being canceled. Half of those funds will be donated to the ASA Minority Fellows Program. The other half will be used as travel grants for student members of our section to attend future ASA meetings. Summer is a time of transitions for SREM. Verna Keith will become the new SREM Chair after the annual meeting, and Nicolas Vargas will become Chair-Elect. Congratulations, Verna and Nicolas! I want to recognize and sincerely thank the members who will be rotating off the SREM Council: Catherine Lee and Sarah Mayorga-Gallo as well as our student representative, Hadi Khoshneviss. I also want to recognize those who will be continuing their work with SREM. Onoso Imoagene is our Secretary-Treasurer and will continue in that position for 2 more years. San Juanita Garcia, Victor E. Ray, Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, and Cassi Pittman Claytor are current Council members who will be continuing. You have all done a lot of work for the section this year – thank you! And soon they will be joined by our newly elected members of Council: Celeste Curington and Anthony Peguero as well as our new student representative, Jalia Joseph. I’m very grateful to the SREM Publications Committee, which has done a tremendous job this year under the leadership of its Chair, W. Carson Byrd. Kasey Henricks, Wendy Leo Moore, Saher Selod, Jennifer Mueller, and Louise Seamster served on the committee. Thank you all for your service! Particular thanks to Carson and Kasey who are completing their terms on the committee. After the annual meeting, Jean Beaman and Brenda Gambol will join Publications. There are many others who have served the section this year. I’d particularly like to thank Brenda Gambol and Matt Schneider who have done excellent work in editing and steering this newsletter. Sincere thanks to Jalia Joseph, our social media administrator; Watoii Rabii, our website administrator; and Angela Gonzales, our Public Engagement Liaison. Many thanks to those who served on our awards committees as well. And of course, congratulations to the award recipients (listed in this issue)!I also want to thank all of you for being SREM members. Even though we’re not able to meet in person this year, I value this community and the support it offers tremendously. It has been a great pleasure to work with so many of you this year. And I look forward to seeing you again in person when the world allows that to happen. All the best, Wendy Roth Systemic Anti-Black Racism Must Be Dismantled Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Cassi Pittman Claytor, San Juanita García, Onoso Imoagene, Verna Keith, Hadi Khoshneviss, Catherine Lee, Sarah Mayorga-gallo, Victor E. Ray, and Wendy D. Roth. We are outraged at the police brutality that allows the state-sanctioned murder of Black people in the United States. Time and again we have seen Black lives cut short by the police. In addition to the actions of the police, we have repeatedly seen innocent Black people harassed or killed by their White neighbors simply because they were suspicious, were nervous, or gave in to their collective paranoia. This violence and the systemic anti-Black racism that fuels it must be dismantled. George Floyd’s slow, drawn-out murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, while other officers looked on, is a national disgrace. The fact that his murder was precipitated by a store owner following standard procedure to report counterfeit money, which does not require arrest or physical abuse to get answers about where the counterfeit currency comes from, illustrates that even seemingly innocent “standard procedure” can result in Black people’s deaths. The fact that he survived the coronavirus only to be murdered a month later illustrates the many intersections of vulnerability Black people experience. This disgrace is repeated over and over. Like Eric Garner, Black people are murdered in police custody on suspicion of minor infractions, using tactics that have already been banned. Like Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and Botham Jean, Black people are murdered by police in their homes. Like Tony McDade and Kayla Moore, Black transgender people are murdered, misgendered by police and the media, and even blamed for their own deaths. Like Tamir Rice, they are murdered for appearing to be “adults.” Like Rekia Boyd, they are murdered even when police are “off duty.” And police are not the only ones who view Black lives as expendable. Like Ahmaud Arbery, Black people are murdered by their White neighbors for jogging. Like Trayvon Martin, they are murdered by self-appointed neighborhood watches for simply walking around. Like Renisha McBride, they are murdered for seeking help after a car accident. These patterns continue because anti-Black racism is systemic in the United States, a society whose founding and economic success was based on the institution of Black slavery. Developing a view of Black people as less than human helped justify a system of slavery and the enormous profits made from it. Once slavery formally ended, Black people were excluded from economic opportunity. The wealth passed down over generations within White families and accumulated within institutions, which fuels inequalities that survive to this day, stems largely from these historical wrongs. Sociologists’ critical work has shown how these inequalities continue to disadvantage Black people in areas of education, health, law, and academia. The United States has not confronted this past. We must dismantle the systemic anti-Black racism endemic to the United States. This demands long-term commitment and hard work in many institutions. We call for the following steps: First, we call upon all state and city governments to demilitarize their police departments. Police departments must undergo reviews with community representation, charged with changing allowable tactics, making all practices and incidents visible to public scrutiny, and holding police officers and leadership accountable for violations and any unnecessary use of force. We call for strong legislation that will curtail the power of police unions, making it illegal to withhold body camera footage or prevent cops who kill from being identified.