Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past

Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past PDF Author: David Cunningham
Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781071856819
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This volume brings together a broad range of disciplinary approaches - including contributions from demographers, economists, epidemiologists, historians, molecular and biological anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists - to advance the science of "legacies" research. The contributions assembled here take a broader view of the ways in which we conceptualize and measure racial violence and the possibilites for effective intervention by bringing quantitative and qualitative insights to bear on salient patterns of historical violence, the contemporary outcomes they are posited to impact, and the intervening mechanisms through which they operate.

Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past

Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past PDF Author: David Cunningham
Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781071856819
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
This volume brings together a broad range of disciplinary approaches - including contributions from demographers, economists, epidemiologists, historians, molecular and biological anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists - to advance the science of "legacies" research. The contributions assembled here take a broader view of the ways in which we conceptualize and measure racial violence and the possibilites for effective intervention by bringing quantitative and qualitative insights to bear on salient patterns of historical violence, the contemporary outcomes they are posited to impact, and the intervening mechanisms through which they operate.

Legacies of Lynching

Legacies of Lynching PDF Author: Jonathan Markovitz
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816639953
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Between 1880 and 1930, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States. Beyond the horrific violence inflicted on these individuals, lynching terrorized whole communities and became a defining characteristic of Southern race relations in the Jim Crow era. As spectacle, lynching was intended to serve as a symbol of white supremacy. Yet, Jonathan Markovitz notes, the act's symbolic power has endured long after the practice of lynching has largely faded away.Legacies of Lynching examines the evolution of lynching as a symbol of racial hatred and a metaphor for race relations in popular culture, art, literature, and political speech. Markovitz credits the efforts of the antilynching movement with helping to ensure that lynching would be understood not as a method of punishment for black rapists but as a terrorist practice that provided stark evidence of the brutality of Southern racism and as America's most vivid symbol of racial oppression. Cinematic representations of lynching, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing, he contends, further transform the ways that American audiences remember and understand lynching, as have disturbing recent cases in which alleged or actual acts of racial violence reconfigured stereotypes of black criminality. Markovitz further reveals how lynching imagery has been politicized in contemporary society with the example of Clarence Thomas, who condemned the Senate's investigation into allegations of sexual harassment during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings as a "high-tech lynching."Even today, as revealed by the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, and the national soul-searching it precipitated, lynching continues to pervade America's collective memory. Markovitz concludes with an analysis of debates about a recent exhibition of photographs of lynchings, suggesting again how lynching as metaphor remains always in the background of our national discussions of race and racial relations.Jonathan Markovitz is a lecturer in sociology at the University of California, San Diego.

The Fallacies of Racism

The Fallacies of Racism PDF Author: Jennifer Patrice Sims
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509553495
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Everyone has an opinion on racism. The vast majority of people would vehemently deny that they or those close to them are “racist,” yet many of the most common understandings of racism are highly problematic. “If you mean no harm, then it can’t be racist.” Yes, it can. “There are anti-discrimination laws now, so racism no longer occurs.” Incorrect. “Some of my best friends are Black, so I can’t be racist.” Not true. In this sharp, open-minded, and witty book, sociologist Jennifer Patrice Sims succinctly addresses these problematic perceptions of racism as fallacies. Building on existing academic theories and drawing on her own cross-national research, two decades of teaching, and analyses of contemporary issues, she delves into the most common and insidious fallacies about racism. In revealing them to be rooted in what scholars call an “epistemology of ignorance,” she shows how these perceptions justify and uphold white supremacy (inadvertently or otherwise). Accessibly written and full of concrete examples, this book will be of great value to anyone who wants to understand the common misunderstandings about racism that frustrate contemporary politics, classrooms, workplaces, and dinner tables.

Jim Crow's Legacy

Jim Crow's Legacy PDF Author: Ruth Thompson-Miller
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442230282
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Jim Crow’s Legacy shows the lasting impact of segregation on the lives of African Americans who lived through it, as well as its impact on future generations. The book draws on interviews with elderly African American southerners whose stories poignantly show the devastation of racism not only in the past, but also in the present. The book introduces readers to the realities of the Jim Crow era for African Americans—from life at home to work opportunities to the broader social context in America. However, the book moves beyond merely setting the scene into the powerful memories of elderly African Americans who lived through Jim Crow. Their voices tell the complex stories of their everyday lives—from caring for white children to the racially-motivated murder of a loved one. Their stories show the pernicious impact of racism on both the past and the present. The authors use the phrase segregation stress syndrome to describe the long-term impact on physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as the unshakable influence of racism across years and generations. Jim Crow’s Legacy takes readers on an unparalleled journey into the bitter realities of America’s racial past and shows racism’s unmistakable influence today.

They Left Great Marks on Me

They Left Great Marks on Me PDF Author: Kidada E. Williams
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814795366
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Since the end of the Cold War, the idea of human rights has been made into a justification for intervention by the world's leading economic and military powers—above all, the United States—in countries that are vulnerable to their attacks. The criteria for such intervention have become more arbitrary and self-serving, and their form more destructive, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan to Iraq. Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the large parts of the left was often complicit in this ideology of intervention—discovering new “Hitlers” as the need arose, and denouncing antiwar arguments as appeasement on the model of Munich in 1938. Jean Bricmont’s Humanitarian Imperialism is both a historical account of this development and a powerful political and moral critique. It seeks to restore the critique of imperialism to its rightful place in the defense of human rights. It describes the leading role of the United States in initiating military and other interventions, but also on the obvious support given to it by European powers and NATO. It outlines an alternative approach to the question of human rights, based on the genuine recognition of the equal rights of people in poor and wealthy countries. Timely, topical, and rigorously argued, Jean Bricmont’s book establishes a firm basis for resistance to global war with no end in sight.

On the Courthouse Lawn

On the Courthouse Lawn PDF Author: Sherrilyn Ifill
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807009903
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. Over forty years later, Sherrilyn Ifill's On the Courthouse Lawn examines the numerous ways that this racial trauma still resounds across the United States. While the lynchings and their immediate aftermath were devastating, the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for black Americans, are equally pernicious. On the Courthouse Lawn investigates how the lynchings implicated average white citizens, some of whom actively participated in the violence while many others witnessed the lynchings but did nothing to stop them. Ifill observes that this history of complicity has become embedded in the social and cultural fabric of local communities, who either supported, condoned, or ignored the violence. She traces the lingering effects of two lynchings in Maryland to illustrate how ubiquitous this history is and issues a clarion call for American communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy today. Inspired by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as by techniques of restorative justice, Ifill provides concrete ideas to help communities heal, including placing gravestones on the unmarked burial sites of lynching victims, issuing public apologies, establishing mandatory school programs on the local history of lynching, financially compensating those whose family homes or businesses were destroyed in the aftermath of lynching, and creating commemorative public spaces. Because the contemporary effects of racial violence are experienced most intensely in local communities, Ifill argues that reconciliation and reparation efforts must also be locally based in order to bring both black and white Americans together in an efficacious dialogue. A landmark book, On the Courthouse Lawn is a much-needed and urgent road map for communities finally confronting lynching's long shadow by embracing pragmatic reconciliation and reparation efforts.

Destructive Impulses

Destructive Impulses PDF Author: Albert James Williams-Myers
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780819196637
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
White violence in America is a hidden issue in race relations that must be addressed before the racial impasse between black and white can be transcended. This innovative book cites the failure to raise this issue of white violence in the race relations debate as the cause of the omnipresent gap in the search for a resolution to the race problem. Serving also as an historical essay that looks at white violence in America in its overt and secretive forms, this book suggests that allowing history to teach us how to avoid the mistakes of the past will make bridging the racial abyss more probable. Contents: Introduction; In Search of a Theoretical Basis for White Violence Against Blacks: Finding Windows of Opportunity; Crucible of American Violence: Historical Perception; White Violence: The Sealing of a Partnership in a Cultural Community of Whiteness; White Violence: The Leveling Force in Race Relations; Destructively Common: Racial Radicalism and the Era of Separate But Equal; Images: The Ritual of Lynching; Johnny's March Home: A Violent Perception in the Inter-War Years; Destructive Impulses: Circumventing Brown v. Board of Education; Black Violence: A Mirror Image of its Creator; Seeds of Destruction: The White Backlash and an Attack on Affirmative Action; Past, Present, Future: The State of Race Relations; Notes.

On the Courthouse Lawn

On the Courthouse Lawn PDF Author: Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : Lynching
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. Over forty years later, Sherrilyn Ifill's On the Courthouse Lawn examines the numerous ways that this racial trauma still resounds across the United States. While the lynchings and their immediate aftermath were devastating, the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for black Americans, are equally pernicious. On the Courthouse Lawn investigates how the lynchings implicated average white citizens, some of whom actively participated in the violence, while many others witnessed the lynchings but did nothing to stop them. Ifill observes that this history of complicity has become embedded in the social and cultural fabric of local communities, who either supported, condoned, or ignored the violence. She traces the lingering effects of two lynchings in Maryland to illustrate how ubiquitous this history is and issues a clarion call for American communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy today. Inspired by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as by techniques of restorative justice, Ifill provides concrete ideas to help communities heal, including placing gravestones on the unmarked burial sites of lynching victims, issuing public apologies, establishing mandatory school programs on the local history of lynching, financially compensating those whose family homes or businesses were destroyed in the aftermath of lynching, and creating commemorative public spaces. Because the contemporary effects of racial violence are experienced most intensely in local communities, Ifill argues that reconciliation and reparation efforts must also be locally based in order to bring both black and white Americans together in an efficacious dialogue. A landmark book, On the Courthouse Lawn is a much-needed and urgent road map for communities finally confronting lynching's long shadow by embracing pragmatic reconciliation and reparation efforts. "Professor Ifill has written a sobering and eye-opening book on one of America's darkest secrets. On the Courthouse Lawn offers a compelling examination of lynchings and describes the failure of people and institutions to adequately address one of America's tragedies. Racial amnesia would suggest we forget this history. Professor Ifill assures us that we cannot-and should not-forget it. This is a must read for anyone willing to examine our history carefully and learn from it." -Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice "On the Courthouse Lawn is an elegantly written and persuasively argued case for local communities to confront their history of lynching and racial violence as a means of healing race relations. Explaining how Truth and Reconciliation worked in South Africa, Ifill explores the possibilities and offers concrete advice on how it could be widely employed in the United States. It is certainly worth trying." -Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of History, University of Pennsylvania "In calm, objective but no less moving detail, Sherrilyn Ifill's book provides the stories that illuminate the photographs and postcards of lynchings, the punishment meted out to some 5,000 black people deemed guilty without trial for matters large and small during the first half of the twentieth century. Too late for justice for the victims of lynch law, Professor Ifill urges that an American version of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission could bring long-denied acknowledgment to whites and a measure of consolation to blacks." -Derrick Bell, author of Faces at the Bo

Racial Spectacles

Racial Spectacles PDF Author: Jonathan Markovitz
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 113691126X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Racial Spectacles: Explorations in Media, Race, and Justice examines the crucial role the media has played in circulating and shaping national dialogues about race through representations of crime and racialized violence. Jonathan Markovitz argues that mass media "racial spectacles" often work to shore up racist stereotypes, but that they also provide opportunities to challenge prevalent conceptions of race, and can be seized upon as vehicles for social protest. This book explores a series of mass media spectacles revolving around the news, prime-time television, Hollywood cinema, and the internet that have either relied upon, reconfigured, or helped to construct collective memories of race, crime, and (in)justice. The case studies explored include the Scottsboro interracial rape case of the 1930s, the Kobe Bryant rape case, the Los Angeles Police Department’s "Rampart scandal," the Abu Ghraib photographs, and a series of racist incidents at the University of California. This book will prove to be important not only for courses on race and media, but also for any reader interested in issues of the media's role in social justice.

Resurrecting Slavery

Resurrecting Slavery PDF Author: Crystal Marie Fleming
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 9781439914083
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How can politicians and ordinary citizens face the racial past in a country that frames itself as colorblind? In her timely and provocative book, Resurrecting Slavery, Crystal Fleming shows how people make sense of slavery in a nation where talking about race, colonialism, and slavery remains taboo. Noting how struggles over the meaning of racial history are informed by contemporary politics of race, she asks: What kinds of group identities are at stake today for activists and French people with ties to overseas territories where slavery took place? Fleming investigates the connections and disconnections that are made between racism, slavery, and colonialism in France. She provides historical context and examines how politicians and commemorative activists interpret the racial past and present. Resurrecting Slavery also includes in-depth interviews with French Caribbean migrants outside the commemorative movement to address the everyday racial politics of remembrance. Bringing a critical race perspective to the study of French racism, Fleming’s groundbreaking study provides a more nuanced understanding of race in France along with new ways of thinking about the global dimensions of slavery, anti-blackness, and white supremacy.