White Privilege and White Disadvantage
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A Legal Analysis
Maya Hertig Randall Catherine Imbeck Professor Doctoral research Faculty of Law fellow University of Geneva Faculty of Law University of Geneva The IHRA working definition of antisemitism: a legal analysis 6 November 2020 Legal opinion provided at the request of the Service for Combating Racism at the Federal Department of Home Affairs This legal analysis expresses the personal opinions of the authors and does not reflect the position of any other person or organisation. Mandate and context ............................................................................................................................................ 2 I. Executive summary ........................................................................................................................................... 3 II. Analysis of the working definition .................................................................................................................. 6 A. Introductory remarks .......................................................................................................................... 6 B. Structure of the broad definition ............................................................................................................ 7 C Core definition ..................................................................................................................................... 8 D. Examples ........................................................................................................................................... -
Systemic Classism, Systemic Racism: Are Social and Racial Justice Achievable in the United States?
Systemic Classism, Systemic Racism: Are Social and Racial Justice Achievable in the United States? THOMAS KLEVEN† I. INTRODUCTION The thesis of this article is that the United States is systemically a highly classist and racist society, that classism and racism are interrelated and overlapping phenomena, and that the achievement of a non- classist/non-racist society requires a mass movement of working-class people of all ethnicities for social and racial justice for all. By systemic classism/racism I mean that the political and economic institutions of the society are structured and operate to systematically disadvantage working-class people in general, and ethnic minorities in particular, and to systematically advantage a relatively small and largely white upper elite class, and a rather substantial and predominantly white upper middle class. By systemic advantage/disadvantage I mean that the opportunities to succeed in life are unequally distributed along class and racial lines, and that society’s institutions produce and perpetuate this class/race hierarchy. The discussion of race focuses primarily on African Americans and Hispanics, both of whom have been systematically disadvantaged on account of ethnicity.1 As the society’s largest disadvantaged minorities, † Professor of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University. I would like to thank my colleagues who attended and made helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article presented at a Faculty Quodlibet at the law school in November, 2007. I would especially like to thank Asmara Tekle-Johnson for suggestions on how better to organize the article, and Jon Levy for pointing out errors in and suggesting sources for the historical parts of the article. -
Perspectives of White UCT Students on Social Transformation Initiatives
Perspectives of white UCT students on Social Transformation Initiatives Zenzile Molo Student Number: MLXZEN001 University of Cape Town Supervisor: Dr Wahbie Long Co-Supervisor: Dr Taryn van Niekerk Word Count: Abstract: 175 Main body:8181 Abstract In a post-apartheid South Africa, scholars across all disciplines have contributed to the study of transformation, race and ‘rainbowism’. Although a substantial amount of this literature features the voices of the marginalised majority, there are only a handful of studies that are focused on privileged white South Africans. This research begins to address this gap, by investigating the understanding and constructs of social transformation initiatives amongst white undergraduate students at the University of Cape Town. Three focus groups, each consisting of six participants, were conducted. A thematic analysis demonstrates that white students understand transformation as accessibility, equality and opportunity for other racial groups to climb the ladder and be equivalent to whites. Furthermore, while some students understand challenges to white privilege as critical to social and racial transformation initiatives, others employ strategies to resist ideas that counter white privilege. The paper concludes by arguing that this tension provides an opportunity for further exploration around constructions of transformation initiatives amongst young white South Africans. Keywords: accessibility; equality; opportunities; privileges; justice; transformation; education; language; apartheid; land; FeesMustFall Introduction In 2015, young black South African students stood in solidarity against injustices, inequalities and colonial images of the past calling for transformation, such as the #RhodesMustFall movement (Chaudhuri, 2016) which led to the #FeeMustFall campaign (Raju, 2017). These black students sound a call for a free decolonised education and a call to dismantle the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. -
Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow
RACIAL CRITIQUES OF MASS INCARCERATION: BEYOND THE NEW JIM CROW JAMES FORMAN, JR.* In the last decade, a number of scholars have called the American criminal justice system a new form of Jim Crow. These writers have effectively drawn attention to the injustices created by a facially race-neutral system that severely ostracizes offenders and stigmatizes young, poor black men as criminals. I argue that despite these important contributions, the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration. The analogy presents an incomplete account of mass incarceration’s historical origins, fails to consider black attitudes toward crime and punishment, ignores violent crimes while focusing almost exclusively on drug crimes, obscures class distinctions within the African American community, and overlooks the effects of mass incarceration on other racial groups. Finally, the Jim Crow analogy diminishes our collective memory of the Old Jim Crow’s particular harms. INTRODUCTION In the five decades since African Americans won their civil rights, hundreds of thousands have lost their liberty. Blacks now make up a larger portion of the prison population than they did at the time of Brown v. Board of Education, and their lifetime risk of incarceration has doubled. As the United States has become the world’s largest jailerand its prison population has exploded, black men have been particularly affected. Today, black men are imprisoned at 6.5 times the rate of white men. While scholars have long analyzed the connection between race and America’s criminal justice system, an emerging group of scholars and advocates has highlighted the issue with a provocative claim: They argue that our growing penal system, with its black tinge, constitutes nothing less than a new form of Jim Crow. -
ABSTRACT Arab American Racialization and Its Effect
ABSTRACT Arab American Racialization and its Effect oniAmerican Islamophobiaa in the United States Catherine Haseman Director: Dr. Lisa Lacy, Ph.D. Over the past few years, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric and discrimination has surged. Prejudice against Arabs and Muslims has moved from the fringes of American society to the mainstream. The American Islamophobic discourse is so deeply rooted in U.S. history, culture, and society that we often misunderstand its origins as well as its manifestations. This paper proposes a critical dialogue about how to understand one contested concept (Islamophobia) by using another contested one (racialization). This paper seeks to understand if--and if so, to what extent--racialization is central to understanding America’s pernicious brand of Islamophobia. In addition to reviewing the historical connection between racialization and Islamophobia, this paper analyzes the results of a survey of Texans’ views of Islam and Muslims. The survey results are used to understand how racialized conceptions of Arab Muslims correspond with Islamophobic tropes. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: ____________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Lacy, Department of History APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: __________________________________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Corey, Director DATE: _________________________________ ARAB AMERICAN RACIALIZATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON AMERICAN ISLAMOPHOBIA A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program -
Discussion Guide for Educators
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS Guide by Valeria Brown, MEd Beacon Press | beacon.org/whitefragility WHY SHOULD EDUCATORS READ WHITE FRAGILITY? White Fragility is a must-read for all educators because racial disparities in access and opportunity continue to be an urgent issue in our schools. An educator’s belief system can and does significantly impact how they approach teaching and learning.1 Therefore, in a school system in which the teaching population remains primarily white and the student population continues to become more racially diverse, it is necessary for ed- ucators to develop the skills to engage in conversations about bias, race, and racism—especially their own.2 Additionally, despite an educator’s best efforts, it is impossible to shield students from the hate-based violence they are exposed to on a national level. A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, found that the rhetoric used by Donald Trump and his supporters, before and during the presidential campaign, had a significant impact on school climate.3 Teachers reported an increase in verbal harassment of students, the use of slurs and derogatory language, and instances involving swastikas, Nazi salutes, and Confederate flags. Eight in ten teachers reported heightened anxiety from students in marginalized groups, including immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, and LGBTQ youth. Each month, Teaching Tolerance, a project of SPLC, tracks and publishes hate incidents at US schools. The latest report, from November 2018, found that there were 59 reported incidents in classrooms, at school events, and on social media.4 Regrettably, stu- dents are living with hate in their midst at school, too, and it is imperative that educators take action. -
White by Law---Haney Lopez (Abridged Version)
White by Law The Legal Construction of Race Revised and Updated 10th Anniversary Edition Ian Haney Lόpez NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London (2006) 1│White Lines In its first words on the subject of citizenship, Congress in 1790 restricted naturalization to “white persons.” Though the requirements for naturalization changed frequently thereafter, this racial prerequisite to citizenship endured for over a century and a half, remaining in force until 1952. From the earliest years of this country until just a generation ago, being a “white person” was a condition for acquiring citizenship. Whether one was “white” however, was often no easy question. As immigration reached record highs at the turn of this century, countless people found themselves arguing their racial identity in order to naturalize. From 1907, when the federal government began collecting data on naturalization, until 1920, over one million people gained citizenship under the racially restrictive naturalization laws. Many more sought to naturalize and were rejected. Naturalization rarely involved formal court proceedings and therefore usually generated few if any written records beyond the simple decision. However, a number of cases construing the “white person” prerequisite reached the highest state and federal judicial circles, and two were argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1920s. These cases produced illuminating published decisions that document the efforts of would-be citizens from around the world to establish their Whiteness at law. Applicants from Hawaii, China, Japan, Burma, and the Philippines, as well as all mixed- race applicants, failed in their arguments. Conversely, courts ruled that applicants from Mexico and Armenia were “white,” but vacillated over the Whiteness of petitioners from Syria, India, and Arabia. -
And the Hamitic Hypothesis
religions Article Ancient Egyptians in Black and White: ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ and the Hamitic Hypothesis Justin Michael Reed Department of Biblical Studies, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY 40205, USA; [email protected] Abstract: In this essay, I consider how the racial politics of Ridley Scott’s whitewashing of ancient Egypt in Exodus: Gods and Kings intersects with the Hamitic Hypothesis, a racial theory that asserts Black people’s inherent inferiority to other races and that civilization is the unique possession of the White race. First, I outline the historical development of the Hamitic Hypothesis. Then, I highlight instances in which some of the most respected White intellectuals from the late-seventeenth through the mid-twentieth century deploy the hypothesis in assertions that the ancient Egyptians were a race of dark-skinned Caucasians. By focusing on this detail, I demonstrate that prominent White scholars’ arguments in favor of their racial kinship with ancient Egyptians were frequently burdened with the insecure admission that these ancient Egyptian Caucasians sometimes resembled Negroes in certain respects—most frequently noted being skin color. In the concluding section of this essay, I use Scott’s film to point out that the success of the Hamitic Hypothesis in its racial discourse has transformed a racial perception of the ancient Egyptian from a dark-skinned Caucasian into a White person with appearance akin to Northern European White people. Keywords: Ham; Hamite; Egyptian; Caucasian; race; Genesis 9; Ridley Scott; Charles Copher; Samuel George Morton; James Henry Breasted Citation: Reed, Justin Michael. 2021. Ancient Egyptians in Black and White: ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ and Religions the Hamitic Hypothesis. -
Exploring Race and Privilege
Exploring Race and Privilege Exploring Race and Privilege presents materials on culturally responsive supervision from the second of a three‐part series designed for supervisors in teacher education. This series was developed in partnership with Dr. Tanisha Brandon‐ Felder, a consultant in professional development on equity pedagogy. This document contains handouts, planning tools, readings, and other materials to provide field supervisors with a scaffolded experience to improve their ability for culturally responsive supervision. The following materials build on the trust and community developed through the first set of activities The Power of Identity. Exploration of race and concepts such as white privilege will necessitate shared understanding of language and norms for conversation. 1. Understanding the Language of Race and Diversity 2. Ground Rules for Conversation 3. Color Line Instructions 4. Color Line Handout 5. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh Understanding the Language of Race and Diversity Terms we all need to know: PREJUDICE Pre‐judgment, bias DISCRIMINATION Prejudice + action OPPRESSION Discrimination + systemic power. (Systemic advantage based on a particular social identity.) Racism = oppression based race‐ the socially constructed meaning attached to a variety of physical attributes including but not limited to skin and eye color, hair texture, and bone structure of people in the US and elsewhere. racism‐ the conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional, enactment of racial power, grounded in racial prejudice, by an individual or group against another individual or group perceived to have lower racial status. Types of racism: Internalized Racism Lies within individuals. Refers to private beliefs and biases about race and racism. -
ECRI Annual Report 2019
Photos: Shutterstock @ECRI_CoE www.coe.int/ecri Strasbourg, March 2020 Preface ............................................................................5 Main trends ......................................................................7 ECRI's activities in 2019 ................................................ 16 1. Country-by-country approach .............................. 16 2. Work on general themes ..................................... 18 3. Relations with civil society .................................. 18 4. ECRI’s 25th Anniversary High-level Conference . 20 5. Cooperation with equality bodies to combat racism and racial discrimination ............................................ 22 6. Other activities .................................................... 22 7. Communication strategy ..................................... 23 Co-operation with relevant bodies of the Council of Europe and other international organisations ................ 25 Appendix I – Membership of ECRI ................................. 31 Appendix II – Secretariat of ECRI .................................. 39 Appendix III - Meetings held by ECRI in 2019 .............. 41 Appendix IV - List of publications ................................... 43 3 Preface The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a mechanism which was established by the first Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states. The decision to establish ECRI is contained in the Vienna Declaration adopted by the first Summit on 9 October 1993. On -
Welfare in America: Perspectives on White Poverty and Human Rights
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Select or Award-Winning Individual Scholarship and Creative Work 12-10-2019 Welfare in America: Perspectives on White Poverty and Human Rights Erika L Seiber University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_selectug Recommended Citation Seiber, Erika L, "Welfare in America: Perspectives on White Poverty and Human Rights" (2019). Select or Award-Winning Individual Scholarship. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_selectug/11 This Publication is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Select or Award-Winning Individual Scholarship by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Anthropology Publications and Other Works Anthropology 12-10-2019 Welfare in America: Perspectives on White Poverty and Human Rights Erika L Seiber Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_anthpubs Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Welfare in America: Perspectives on White Poverty and Human Rights Erika Seiber The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Fall 2019 1 Introduction I grew up in between several small towns in East Tennessee. My sisters and I, fortunate enough to be raised in a middle-class family, spent most of our time in Clinton and Norris. This was where we went to school, spent time with friends, and went swimming during the summer. -
Race & Ethnicity in Independent Films
Race & Ethnicity in Independent Films: Prevalence of Underrepresented Directors and the Barriers They Face Katherine M. Pieper, Ph.D., Marc Choueiti, & Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D. Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism University of Southern California (working paper) This project was supported in part or in whole by an award from the Research: Art Works program at the National Endowment for the Arts: Grant# 13-3800-7017. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this report and is not responsible for any consequence of its use. 1 Race & Ethnicity in Independent Films: Prevalence of Underrepresented Directors and the Barriers They Face Katherine M. Pieper, Ph.D., Marc Choueiti, & Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D. Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism University of Southern California 3502 Watt Way, Suite 222-223 Los Angeles, CA 90089 @MDSCInitiative Executive Summary The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and experiences of directors from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in film. To this end, the research involved three prongs. First, we examined race/ethnicity of all directors associated with U.S. dramatic and documentary films selected and screened at Sundance Film Festival (SFF) between 2002 and 2013. Using a modified version of U.S. Census categories, a total of 1,068 directors across more than 900 films were categorized into one or more racial/ethnic groups. Second, we assessed how diversity behind the camera was related to on screen diversity.