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Inequality In A "Postracial" Era: Race, Immigration, And Criminalization Of Low Wage Labor, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Over the past four decades, increasingly punitive and enforcement-oriented U.S. immigration policies have been legitimized by a rhetoric of criminality that stigmatizes Latino immigrant workers and intensifies their exploitation. Simultaneously, there has been a sevenfold increase in the prison population in the United States, in which African Americans are eight times more likely to be jailed than Whites (Western 2006, p. 3). In this paper, I draw on scholarship in history and sociology, as well as my own anthropological research, to develop the argument that criminal justice policies and immigration policies together disempower low-wage U.S. labor and maintain categorical racial …

The Punishment/El Castigo: Undocumented Latinos And U.S. Immigration Processing, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

2012 Public Anthropology Year In Review: Actually, Rick, Florida Could Use A Few More Anthropologists, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Here I highlight anthropology that engaged socially relevant issues and pushed the boundaries of public discussions in 2012. In “Debating KONY 2012,” I examine debates surrounding the viral video and anthropologists’ role in illuminating the complexities of globalized conflicts, neocolonialist ideologies, and relationships among people of the world. In “Anthropologists Are the 99%!” I consider the role of anthropologists in the Occupy Movement, both as protest participants and as mediators who have shaped the movement’s impression on the public. With “UndocuAn- thropology,” I highlight how anthropologists have built bridges between immigrant and native-born communities, influenced immigration policy, and advocated for …

Inequality In A "Postracial" Era: Race, Immigration, And Criminalization Of Low Wage Labor, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

Over the past four decades, increasingly punitive and enforcement-oriented U.S. immigration policies have been legitimized by a rhetoric of criminality that stigmatizes Latino immigrant workers and intensifies their exploitation. Simultaneously, there has been a sevenfold increase in the prison population in the United States, in which African Americans are eight times more likely to be jailed than Whites (Western 2006, p. 3). In this paper, I draw on scholarship in history and sociology, as well as my own anthropological research, to develop the argument that criminal justice policies and immigration policies together disempower low-wage U.S. labor and maintain categorical racial …