Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Racial Profiling, Security, And Human Rights, Faye V. Harrison Mar 2013

Racial Profiling, Security, And Human Rights, Faye V. Harrison

Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations: Lectures and Events

Neighborhood Watch coordinator George Zimmerman’s February 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, 17-year old African American in a gated community in Sanford, Florida has raised serious questions concerning racial profiling. Although a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ample evidence attests to racial profiling’s pervasiveness as a law enforcement tactic in contexts of street-level crime, counterterrorism, and immigration control. Since September 11, 2001, the longstanding problem of racial profiling has both deepened and expanded in terms of the populations targeted. Incentives to profile have been built into laws and policies that sacrifice civil liberties and …


“I Am Trayvon Martin”: Visual Culture, Trauma, And The Incarceration Crisis, Amy Abugo Ongiri Mar 2013

“I Am Trayvon Martin”: Visual Culture, Trauma, And The Incarceration Crisis, Amy Abugo Ongiri

Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations: Lectures and Events

Political scientist Cathy Cohen has characterized the post-Reagan era African American community as caught in “a period of contradictions and advanced marginalization.” Cohen notes that while African American participation in electoral politics has grown exponentially since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans are increasingly marginalized economically as well as socially. One of the major factors in social marginalization is what African American Studies scholar Richard Iton has characterized as “hyperincarceration.” This presentation will explore the apparently contradictory conditions in the U.S. that created the possibility of both Trayvon Martin’s murder and the triumph of Black …


Racism In A Black White Binary: On The Reaction To Trayvon Martin’S Death, Peter Westmoreland Mar 2013

Racism In A Black White Binary: On The Reaction To Trayvon Martin’S Death, Peter Westmoreland

Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations: Lectures and Events

Some philosophers have contended that racism necessarily involves a binary structure. In the United States, the binary is coded in terms of Blacks and Whites and functions in part in this way: it describes violence as racist only if committed by whites against blacks and prescribes that all such violence is potentially racist. This concept operated during the immediate aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death in both allegations of racism without strong evidence and assertions against George Zimmerman’s being white that were intended to protect him. While perhaps no racism was involved in Martin’s death, we do well to remember that …