Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

Massacre In Central Burma: Muslim Students Terrorized And Killed In Meiktila, Richard Sollom, Holly G. Atkinson

Publications and Research

This report details the results of a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) investigation into the March 20 and 21, 2013, attacks on Muslim students, teachers, and residents in the Mingalar Zayyone quarter of Meiktila, a small town in central Burma.

A two-person team, the authors of the report, from PHR conducted 33 interviews about the attacks, which resulted in the deaths of at least 20 children and four teachers. The report details the attacks by the Buddhist mobs, provides evidence that local police officers were complicit in the crimes, and lists policy recommendations for the Burmese government and the international …

From Toxic Tours To Growing The Grassroots: Tensions In Critical Pedagogy And Community Development, Celina Su, Isabelle Jagninski

Publications and Research

Structural inequalities in American public education are inextricably tied to deep-seated patterns of racial and economic segregation. Children in poor neighborhoods are less likely to have the household resources, neighborhood institutions, or school amenities necessary for a good, challenging education. In response, a growing number of organizations have launched initiatives to simultaneously revitalize neighborhoods and improve public education, emphasizing youth participation as an essential component in their efforts. We draw upon ethnographic data from two such organizations to examine their practice of place-based critical pedagogy in community development. We focus on how they engage marginalized, “hard-to-reach” youth via (1) experiential …

"These Illegals": Personhood, Profit, And The Political Economy Of Punishment In Federal-Local Immigration Enforcement Partnerships, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Contemporary popular discourse linking immigration and immigrants to crime has proved extremely difficult to dislodge, despite clear evidence that immigrant labor provides broad and direct economic benefits to a significant proportion of the US population. The criminalizing discourse directed at immigrants may in part be functional, by leading to restrictionist immigration policies and practices and subjecting immigrants to intensified economic exploitation.

This study examines the economic context in which state and local governments adopt restrictionist immigration policies and practices, and implicates the political economy of punishment (Rusche and Kirchheimer, Punishment and social structure. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939) …

Stage As Street: Representation At The Juncture Of The Arts And Justice, E. Gabriel Dattatreyan, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Arts educators working with court-involved youth face a set of complex and imbricated challenges. First, how do we gain the interest of the young people we would have participate in what we imagine are col-laborative and mutually generative projects? Second, how do we mediate representational tensions when the project is not solely therapeutic but has a broader public pedagogical purpose—to disrupt the simplistic and pathologizing discourses of poverty and violence that so often capture young men and women of color in the United States? (Bourgois, 2002; Noguera, 2008). Third, and not least, how do we navigate the institutional settings where …

Alchemy And Inquiry: Reflections On An Inside-Out Research Roundtable, Sarah Allred, Angela Bryant, Simone Weil Davis, Kurt Fowler, Phil Goodman, Jim Nolan, Lori Pompa, Barbara Sherr Roswell, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

In 2008, The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program convened a Research Committee to (1) facilitate a collective, critical, and professional consciousness about social justice, crime, and incarceration through the exploration of the Inside-Out program pedagogy, impact, and effectiveness; (2) develop and encourage proposals for various types of research that focus on The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program; and (3) establish ethical guidelines for inquiry that would meet and exceed the federal human subjects guidelines in research practices. In fall 2012, Research Committee members Sarah Allred, Angela Bryant, Phil Goodman, Kurt Fowler, Jim Nolan, Lori Pompa, and Dan Stageman joined with Simone Davis …

Racial Microaggressions And The Filipino American Experience: Recommendations For Counseling And Development, Kevin L. Nadal, Kara M. Vigilia Escobar, Gail T. Prado, Ejr David, Kristal Haynes

Publications and Research

Racial microaggressions are subtle forms of verbal and behavioral discrimination toward people of color. The current qualitative study explores the experiences of Filipino American participants (N = 12), who described 13 categories of microaggressions, including being treated as an alien in one’s own land or as a 2nd-class citizen, being presumed to have inferior status or intellect, being assumed to uphold Filipino stereotypes, or being mistaken for another identity. Recommendations for counseling and development are discussed.

The Need For Continued Activism In Black Librarianship, Andrew P. Jackson

Publications and Research

Preface to The 21st Century Black Librarian in America

Critical Bifocality And Circuits Of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory And Design, Lois Weis, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Almost 10 years ago, in Working Method (2004), we argued for a critical theory of method for educational studies, which would analyze lives in the context of history, structure, and institutions, across the power lines of privilege and marginalization.

Opportunity/Threat Spirals In The U.S. Women's Suffrage And German Anti-Immigration Movements, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Many have noted that protesters sometimes expand political opportunities for later protests, but there has been little analysis of how this occurs. The problem can be addressed by analyzing opportunity/threat spirals, which involve positive feedback among: actions by challengers (bold protests and the formation of alliances between challenger groups); opportunity-increasing actions by authorities and elites (elite divisions and support, procedural reforms, substantive concessions, and police inaction); and threat-increasing actions by authorities and elites (new grievance production and excessive repression). Interactions among these eight mechanisms are demonstrated in two cases of social movement growth, the U.S. women's suffrage movement of the …

Between "Voluntary Migrants" And War Refugees: The Health Of The Shan Burmese Migrant Workers In Northern Thailand, Nishant Verma, Celina Su, Coralie Chan, Peter Muennig

Publications and Research

The Shan are a large migrant group from Burma (Myanmar) found within Thailand. While some Shan migrate to escape the civil war within Burma, others migrate for economic opportunity. Despite the size of this population, little is known about their health. Our study highlights the need for expanded access to primary care among this Shan population. Despite the arduous and trying journeys of these Shan migrants, they do not display the level of health sometimes attributed to health selection among immigrant groups.

Italian Militants And Migrants And The Language Of Solidarity In The Early-Twentieth-Century Western Coalfields, Stephen Brier, Ferdinando Fasce

Publications and Research

This article uses the life and experiences of an Italian immigrant and labor militant, Carlo Demolli, to examine a range of issues, including: the intersection of ethnic and national identity and labor militancy and solidarity in the organizing efforts of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) among the ethnically diverse workforce of coal miners in the American West at the turn of the 20th century; the role of a "language of solidarity" as expressed in an Italian language version of the UMW Journal, Il Lavoratore Italiano, in sustaining a militant Italian immigrant workforce in the coal mines; and the …

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’S Decolonizing Ritual De Conocimiento, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work makes up one of the many Chican@ works that contribute another history, a history repressed by the national discourses on both sides of the border. Influenced by antecedents of U.S. Hispanic Literature who superposed “official” history with another history, Chicano activists had already enacted a retrieval of pre-conquest histories to revive their people’s historical consciousness. As Saldívar-Hull states in “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La frontera,” the publication of Borderlands/ La Frontera distinguished itself from the Chicano movement’s as it unveiled the curtain that hid the Aztec goddesses and kept aspects of pre-conquest history …

Contexts Of Exit In The Migration Of Russian Speakers From The Baltic Countries To Ireland, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Recently, Ireland has become a major destination for migrants from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Many of these migrants are members of Russian-speaking minorities leaving a context of restrictive citizenship and language laws and varying degrees of ethnic tension. This paper draws on interviews collected in Ireland to examine the role played by the contexts of exit in decisions to migrate among Russian-speaking minorities from the Baltics. The results suggest that Russian speakers from Estonia migrate because of their experiences as minorities, while those from Latvia and Lithuania migrate to escape low wages and irregular employment. This is so despite equally …

Organizational Life And Political Incorporation Of Two Asian Immigrant Groups: A Case Study, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Civil society is the foundation of a healthy democracy but its immigrant element has received little attention. This paper is a case study of immigrant organizations of highly skilled Asian Indians and Chinese immigrants in a suburban town of Edison, New Jersey. I find that civic participation of Asian Indian immigrants spills over into political incorporation while Chinese immigrant organizations remain margin- alized. I argue that local processes of racialization are central in explaining differences in political incorporation of immigrants. In the local context, the Chinese are seen as successful but conformist model minorities and Asian Indians as invaders and …

Science Fiction And Postmemory Han In Contemporary Korean American Literature, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

In this essay, Seo-Young Chu explores representations of a specifically Korean American type of postmemory that she calls "postmemory han."

Cracking Silent Codes: Critical Race Theory And Education Organizing, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Critical race theory (CRT) has moved beyond legal scholarship to critique the ways in which “colorblind” laws and policies perpetuate existing racial inequalities in education policy. While criticisms of CRT have focused on the pessimism and lack of remedies presented, CRT scholars have begun to address issues of praxis. Specifically, communities of color must challenge the dominant narratives of mainstream institutions with alternative visions of pedagogy and school reform, and community organizing plays an important role in helping communities of color to articulate these alternative counter-narratives. Yet, many in education organizing disagree with CRT's critique of colorblindness. Drawing on five …

Activism And Pedagogies: Feminist Reflections, Patricia Ticineto Clough, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Together our two essays move between scenes of teaching and researching with women and men who are or have been in prison. Having written on ethnography, autoethnography, and participatory research, we both have sought a method that would allow us to abandon superficial identifications, mistaken for deep connection, with those who are or have been incarcerated. While we are conscious of the failures and successes of our attempts, we nonetheless write because what we have learned about the state's support for mass incarceration and the state's retreat from public higher education—particularly for persons of color—more than warrants it. With this …

“Peace Is More Than The End Of Bombing”: The Second Stage Of The Vieques Struggle, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

The nature of colonialism in Puerto Rico has caused most political issues to be viewed within the framework of status politics. In the first stage of the struggle to expel the U.S. Navy from the island (1999–2003), civil society in Puerto Rico united when the issues were reframed with links not to status politics but to human rights and social justice. Viequenses symbolized for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, on the mainland, and in the world at large the costs of military colonialism. In the second stage of the struggle, since the military’s departure, Viequenses have struggled to control the …

Am I An Albanian American, Katherine Gregory

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rewriting The Holocaust Online: A Discourse Analysis Of Holocaust Denial Web Sites, Mark Aaron Polger

Publications and Research

This study is undertaken to learn how Holocaust deniers use Internet websites to attain legitimacy and credibility. I attempt to show that this sort of “historical revision” is actually blanketed anti-Semitism. I examine Holocaust denial as it is viewed by different disciplines. I investigate the main figures of Holocaust denial. As well, I analyze Jewish race theories of the past two hundred years to demonstrate how Jews have been perceived as aliens and as outsiders. The construction of the “Jew as outsider” sets the stage for how Holocaust deniers frame their discourse on their web pages. My research investigates a …

Protest And Reform In Asylum Policy: Citizen Initiatives Versus Asylum Seekers In German Municipalities, 1989-1994, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Anti-Minority Riots In Unified Germany: Cultural Conflicts And Mischanneled Political Participation, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Anti-foreigner riots in eastern Germany in the early 1990s have usually been explained by ethnonationalism or racism, ethnic competition for scarce resources, and opportunistic political elites. If anti-minority riots are analyzed as a distinct phenomenon with a cross-sectional approach, local political processes emerge as more important causes. Cultural conflicts, the channeling of mobilization from nonviolent into violent forms, local political opportunities for success, and mobilization by social movement organizations convert ethnic conflict and violence into riots. A comparison of riot and non-riot localities in eastern Germany supports this argument.

The Politics Of Immigration Control In Britain And Germany: Subnational Politicians And Social Movements, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Political backlash against immigrant minorities and restrictive immigration policies have increased in western Europe. Most explanations of the adoption of restrictions on immigration have focused on ethnic competition for material resources and on national political factors. An alternative theory of political mobilization and restrictive policy changes argues that pressure from subnational politicians and social movement organizations and signals from dramatic anti-immigrant events such as riots lead national elites to infer that public interest in anti-immigration policies is intense enough to justify a break with liberal policies. This theory is tested against four cases in Britain and Germany, where the hypothesized …

Revisiting The Struggle For Integration, Michelle Fine, Bernadette Anand

Publications and Research

The project we describe in this article emerged from thinking about Fridays. While the Monday through Thursday schedule at Renaissance Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey covers the traditional distribution of curriculum, Fridays are dedicated to nine-week cycles of two hour sessions. Each session involves in-depth work focusing on five themes: Aviation, Genetics, Building Bridges, Community Service and this, the Oral History Project. Because the school is thematically organized around core notions of justice, history, social movements and "renaissances" (that is, Italian, Harlem and Montclair), we structured this project around the deeply contested history of desegregation of the Montclair public …

The Politics Of Racial Identity: A Pedagogy Of Invisibility, Stephanie Urso Spina, Robert H. Tai

Publications and Research

A Critical theory informed Review of Blacked Out: Dilemmas of Race, Identity, and Success at Capital High by Signithia Fordham. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996; Unraveling the “Model Minority” Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth by Stacey J. Lee. New York: Teachers College Press, 1996, and Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader by Antonia Darder, Rodolfo D. Torres, and Henry Gutierrez (Eds.). New York: Routledge, 1997.

Three Film Reviews, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Reviews of Advertising Missionaries, directed by Chris Hilton and Gauthier Flauder; Chastie (Paradise), a film by Sergey Dvortsevoy; and Wilbert: Street Kid in Nicaragua, a video by Bent Erik Kroyer.

The Deculturation Of The Brunei Dusun, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Political Participation Of Puerto Rican Women: Mapping A Research Agenda, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

This article reviews the theoretical approaches used to study Hispanic women in politics and highlights their inadequacies for studying the political behavior of low-income Puerto Rican women, who are used as a case in point. It is not an in-depth study but an effort to develop appropriate research questions and to suggest strategies for the systematic collection of data. In general, community groups are the basic arena for the political activity of Puerto Rican women in New York City. Thus, new theoretical approaches are necessary to capture Hispanic women’s modes of influencing public policy.

Dropping Out Of High School: An Inside Look, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

In September, 1984, I began an ethnography of student life in and out of a New York City public high school to figure out why urban students drop out of high school at such extraordinary rates. By December, why urban students stay in high school through graduation struck me as an equally compelling question.