Formative Texts
Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law makes the claim that US segregation is the result of government policies and practices at the federal, state, and local levels. Racial segregation in US neighborhoods is thought by some to be a product of private workings, which occur from things deriving from outside the law, and thus creating de-facto segregation (a way of life). However, Rothstein challenges this narrative time after time. Private workings could not have created racial segregation if it were not for the racist policies instituted and upheld by the government, and thus would be de jure segregation (by law). This text has enabled me to think critically about the implications of the policies have had on racial segregation in the United States today. This text has helped to further the perspective that the way to see social change should start at the structural level. The work of Richard Rothstein offers a perspective about racial segregation that advocates for the government to be the institution that solves the issue of racial segregation by giving back to the groups most negatively affected by the racist policies created by the government during the mid 20th century. Rothstein has provided me with a framework to examine racial segregation through a transformative lens by seeking structural change to remedy the issue. We must challenge our government officials to look to the bottom and propose policies that shape a just future.
Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.
Coates, T. N. (2015). Between the world and me. Text publishing.
Published in 2015, Between the World and Me is quickly becoming an influential text for what it means to be black in the United States. In this book, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, it discusses how racist culture has been woven through American culture throughout its history. It is this that is translated into violence against the black body. All over US history there are examples of black people facing violence in the name of white supremacy. Martin Luther King Jr. believed the systems of white supremacy would destroyed through hope, faith, and integration. Along with the idea of dismantling white supremacy, Malcolm X believed black nationalism was the best remedy to the issue. Coates makes the claim that the systems of white supremacy are set to remain as there is no real evidence that it is due to change. The work of Coates has brought a perspective about race to the forefront that most people in the United States would like to ignore - it is tradition for the black body to be destroyed in the United States. As a black-multiracial person dedicated to social justice work, it is important for me to critically think about the meaning of my body in the systems in which I am trying to change. I am in the group that his been oppressed by the various different systems throughout United States history.
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown, shares insights on how people can use emergent strategy to change in ways that allow them to grow so they can embody the just and liberated society they long for. It is important for connections among people to be created so there can be authentic relationships. Within these relationships, change must be welcomed and accepted. Adrienne Maree Brown puts important emphasis on the idea of change because it should be embraced so we can better understand the outcomes. Emergent Strategy has given me the tools to think critically about how I can apply the elements of emergent strategy to my own life’s work. This text creates a framework for how people can understand the socialization of their life and what is needed to create a just world for everyone. Instead of destroying the systems that are in place now, Brown offers the idea of turning and evolving to make the current systems just. This framework has been important to my social justice learning because it has given me a fresh perspective on how I can work within the system to create change.
Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. Ak Press.
In The New Jim Crow, written by Michelle Alexander and published in 2012, the idea and practices of Jim Crow are revisited and shown how those racist ideologies are still very much prevalent in the United States today. Author Michelle Alexander makes the claim that the practices of Jim Crow have been recreated but under a new guise, mass incarceration. Alexander makes the argument that it is difficult to dismantle this new idea of Jim Crow because it is direct due to the racial motivations being hidden under different names, such as restrictions against felons, ambiguous laws, and voter restrictions. This text creates a new perspective on what both activists and social movements are doing in terms of challenging the new face of the Jim Crow. The work of Alexander has enabled me to think critically about future activism work that I may find myself in, and the type of impact I want to make.
Alexander, M. (2011). The new jim crow. Ohio St. J. Crim. L., 9, 7.
The film BlacKkKlansman, directed by Spike Lee, was released in 2018 and explores the story of Ron Stallworth, a black man who joins the Colorado Springs Police Department. Race is at the center of the film and is used to make the claim of the struggles a black cop goes through even when they are just trying to do their job. Officer Ron Stallworth takes the case to be an undercover detective with hope of infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan. The mission is considered successful with the tactics of using Ron Stallworth’s voice and a white Jewish officer to act as Stallworth when interacting with the Ku Klux Klan in person. The film demonstrates the way a degree of structural change can be completed through a paradoxical lens. At a time when police violence against blacks is seen as normal and policing of the white supremacist groups is second thought, Ron Stallworth becomes a cop and successfully infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, but it is the police department who ultimately shutdown the operation. Spike Lee uses the film to create a framework that emphasizes parallels of race relations from the 1970s to now. BlacKkKlansman has been influential in developing a new perspective for how justice can be achieved even through environments that are typically against social justice work.
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In Post Racial or Most Racial, author Michael Tesler demonstrates how the election of 2008 and presidency of Barack Obama made racial tensions in the United States even worse than before he won. Causing a significant shift in political polarization and racial resentment, Michael Tesler makes the argument that the United States moved into a period where someone’s racial attitudes could be linked to a vast majority of their political decision making. Post Racial or Most Racial has provided me with the knowledge to understand the ways in which the United States began to significantly change around the meaning of how race and politics would intersect. Tesler makes the claim that the it is racial spillover and its manifestations during the Obama presidency that has caused much of the political polarization in the United States. This text has helped to apply a new meaning to the role race has in American politics.
Tesler, M. (2016). Post-racial or most-racial?: Race and politics in the Obama era. University of Chicago Press.