scholarly journals Racism as a Human Rights Risk: Reconsidering the Corporate ‘Responsibility to Respect’ Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Erika GEORGE
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Black Person ◽  
American Society

Darnella Frazer, a teenage witness to a fatal police encounter, used social media to share her cell phone video footage capturing a white police officer casually kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed Black man named George Floyd for nearly nine minutes. Her video rapidly went viral, sparking civil unrest across the United States (US) and protests around the world.1 Independent experts of the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council came together to issue a joint statement condemning ‘systemic racism’ and ‘state sponsored racial violence’ in the US.2 George Floyd was not the first unarmed Black person to die in police custody under questionable circumstances,3 but his murder motivated many to confront the reality of racism in American society. A broad section of the business community reacted to the civil unrest in the immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd with solidarity statements denouncing racism and pledges to promote racial equality.4 Brands rushed to embrace the previously untouchable #BlackLivesMatter movement in marketing campaigns. Business leaders expressed interested in evaluating how particular policies and practices operate in ways that serve to promote racial discrimination or perpetuate racial inequality.5

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
American Society ◽  
Liberal Political Theory

The persistence of racial inequality in the United States raises deep and complex questions of racial justice. Some observers argue that public policy must be “color-blind,” while others argue that policies that take race into account should be defended on grounds of diversity or integration. This chapter begins to sketch an alternative to both of these, one that supports strong efforts to address racial inequality but that focuses on the conditions necessary for the liberty and equality of all. It argues that while race is a social construction, it remains deeply embedded in American society. A conception of racial justice is needed, one that is grounded on the premises provided by liberal political theory.

Rethinking Racial Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Black Institutions ◽  
American Society ◽  
Racial Lines

American society continues to be characterized by deep racial inequality that is a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. What does justice demand in response? In this book, Andrew Valls argues that justice demands quite a lot—the United States has yet to fully reckon with its racial past, or to confront its ongoing legacies. Valls argues that liberal values and principles have far-reaching implications in the context of the deep injustices along racial lines in American society. In successive chapters, the book takes on such controversial issues as reparations, memorialization, the fate of black institutions and communities, affirmative action, residential segregation, the relation between racial inequality and the criminal justice system, and the intersection of race and public schools. In all of these contexts, Valls argues that liberal values of liberty and equality require profound changes in public policy and institutional arrangements in order to advance the cause of racial equality. Racial inequality will not go away on its own, Valls argues, and past and present injustices create an obligation to address it. But we must rethink some of the fundamental assumptions that shape mainstream approaches to the problem, particularly those that rely on integration as the primary route to racial equality.

scholarly journals Color Crit: Critical Race Theory and the History and Future of Colorism in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Reece
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
American Society

Critical race theory teaches that racism and racial inequality are constants in American society that stand outside of the prejudices of individuals. It argues that structures and institutions are primarily responsible for the maintenance of racial inequality. However, critical race theorists have neglected to formally examine and theorize colorism, a primary offshoot of racial domination. Although studies of colorism have become increasingly common, they lack a unifying theoretical framework, opting to lean on ideas about prejudice and preference to explain the advantages lighter skinned, Black Americans are afforded relative to darker skinned Black Americans. In this study, I deploy a critical race framework to push back against preference as the only, or primary, mechanism facilitating skin tone stratification. Instead, I use historical Census data and regression analysis to explore the historical role of color-based marriage selection on concentrating economic advantage among lighter skinned Black Americans. I then discuss the policy and legal implications of developing a structural view of colorism and skin tone stratification in the United States and the broader implications for how we conceptualize race in this country.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mugambi Jouet
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Vicious Circle ◽  
Global History ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
American Society

Jouet begins his book by describing his work as a human rights lawyer representing poor prisoners in New York at the time of mass incarceration on a scale unprecedented in global history. He goes on to describe how the degeneration of American justice embodies troubling dimensions of American exceptionalism, including acute wealth inequality, systemic racism, anti-intellectualism, Christian fundamentalism, and chronic human rights abuses. While the word “exceptional” can imply greatness or superiority, American exceptionalism historically referred to how America is “exceptional” in the sense of “unique,” “different,” “unusual,” “extraordinary” or “peculiar.” Ironically, scores of Americans equate “exceptionalism” with their nation’s superiority when it might be its Achilles Heel—a self-destructive vicious circle threatening admirable dimensions of American society.

A Qualitative Analysis of the Vulnerability Narratives of Student Gun Rights Advocates

2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042092224
Author(s):  
Todd C Couch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Gun Politics ◽  
Faculty And Staff

In recent years, colleges and universities in the United States have considered allowing concealed firearms on their campuses. Yet, substantive research on why a minority of students’ desire to arm themselves is scarce. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study examines 30 interviews with chapter presidents of a national student gun rights organization. Using racialized narratives, participants express intense feelings of vulnerability on campus and in the larger society. Extending Feagin’s theory of systemic racism to gun politics, I argue respondents’ belief that they must be armed to co-exist with people of color reproduces racial inequality and poses a potential threat to students, faculty, and staff of color.

The Dimensions of Racial Inequality: Occupational and Residential Segregation Across Metropolitan Areas in the United States

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Ovadia
Keyword(s):  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Zero Order ◽  
Structural Systems ◽  
Exogenous Factor ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
American Society

Residential and occupational segregation are two structural systems that perpetuate the disadvantaged status of blacks in American society. Despite extensive research on both these topics, there has been little empirical examination as to whether they are independent systems or both part of a larger monolithic system of racial inequality. An analysis of 1990 Census data for 261 metropolitan areas shows that there is a negative zero‐order correlation between the two forms of segregation. However, controlling for the size of the population accounts for the negative correlation. Net of this exogenous factor, the correlation between the two forms of segregation is not statistically significant. This suggests that for individuals, the issue of racial inequality is one of tradeoffs between forms of disadvantage as one moves from city to city. For policymakers, these results indicate that urban racial inequality is multidimensional, requiring different strategies for different manifestations.

The Rosewood Massacre

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward González-Tennant
Keyword(s):  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Race Riot ◽  
New Methods ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Town

The Rosewood Massacre investigates the 1923 race riot that, in a weeklong series of events, devastated the predominantly African American community of Rosewood, Florida. The town was burned to the ground by neighboring Whites, and its citizens fled for their lives, never to return. None of the perpetrators were convicted. Very little documentation of the event and the ensuing court hearings survives today. The only signs that there was once a vibrant town are a scattering of structural remains and a historical marker erected in 2004 declaring the site a Florida Heritage Landmark. Drawing on new methods and theories, Edward González-Tennant uncovers important elements of the forgotten history of Rosewood. He uses a mix of techniques such as geospatial analysis, interpretation of remotely sensed data, analysis of census data and property records, oral history, and the excavation and interpretation of artifacts from the site to reconstruct the local landscape. González-Tennant interprets these and other data through an intersectional framework, acknowledging the complex ways class, race, gender, and other identities compound discrimination. This allows him to explore the local circumstances and broader sociopolitical power structures that led to the massacre, showing how the event was a microcosm of the oppression and terror suffered by African Americans and other minorities in the United States. González-Tennant connects these historic forms of racial violence to present-day social and racial inequality and argues that such continuities demonstrate the need to make events like the Rosewood massacre public knowledge.

scholarly journals An Endless Struggle of Fighting Discrimination in the Name of Human Rights Protection

2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 207-228
Author(s):  
Hernadi Affandi ◽  
Tarsisius Murwadji
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Government ◽  
Intergroup Relation ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
American Society ◽  
Modern Era

The Incident of George Floyd’s death reminds people of the peril of discrimination that still exists within the American society. The incident has triggered worldwide reactions from people who feel sympathy for the victim and reject racism. To eliminate racial discrimination, every modern society needs to remove any negative paradigm towards intergroup relation. In the context of the United States, the American Government has the responsibility to protect the rights of citizens from any forms of discrimination. That includes racial discrimination. In addition, people have to be reminiscent of the danger of racial discrimination in the modern era. The danger has the ability to disturb human rights protection. This study revealed history, criteria, and impacts of discrimination within the scope of human rights protection.

scholarly journals Institutional Racism and Black Resistance as Portrayed through Images and Narratives in American Graphic Novels

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Titien Diah Soelistyarini ◽  
Nuril Rinahayu ◽  
Ridha Dinauri Nuswantari
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Black Resistance

For centuries, racial discrimination and injustice have resulted in the struggle of African Americans to resist racial inequality. Nevertheless, their struggle has never been easy since racism against African Americans has long been institutionalized. In other words, any kinds of white oppression that marginalized, discriminated, and alienated African Americans have embedded in formal institutions, such as legal, educational, as well as social and political institutions. Accordingly, this study dealt with institutional racism and black resistance in the United States as portrayed through images and narratives in two American graphic novels, Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation and John Lewis’ March: Book Three, which depicted different ways African Americans were oppressed by and resisted against institutionalized racism. This study applied African American criticism to reveal the racism and black resistance portrayed in both graphic novels based on Feagin’s and Better’s theories of systemic racism and institutional racism. As this study focused on graphic novels, the analysis combined both narrative and non-narrative elements in making meaning through cues provided in the graphic novels, including stressed words and facial expressions. This study reveals that the whites have successfully oppressed African Americans for so long due to the white racial frame and its embedded racist ideology that enforced segregation system. Furthermore, the findings suggest that only by empowering themselves, African Americans are able to resist institutionalized racism in order to gain their freedom and equality of rights.

Enforcing the Politics of Race and Identity in Migration and Crime Control Policies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Vázquez
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Politics Of Race ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines how migration and crime policies in the United States have shaped and been shaped by race and racism. Specifically, it discusses the racialization of the ‘criminal alien’ as Latino and the way in which this category has shaped contemporary notions of race and racial identity. It argues that the historical construction of Latinos as inferior and temporary labourers continues to influence the way in which migration and crime policies are created in a post-racial society. At the same time, these policies reinforce the nation state’s understanding of race and racism, racial ideology, and the position that Latinos hold within American society. Through the category of the ‘criminal alien’, societal attitudes and beliefs are formed that view Latinos as dangerous to the nation and its community, legitimizing increasingly harsh migration and criminal laws, policies, and practices that disproportionately impact Latinos and reinforce their racial inequality.

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