November/December 2009

Kirwan Update
November/December 2009
The “Post-Racial” Mainstream Media and
the New American Racism
Jared Gardner, Associate Professor of English
The first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency have witnessed accomplishments
(pulling the economy back from the brink) and disappointments (the broken promises
to the gay and lesbian community). If you are of a certain age, you have seen this strange
and often dispiriting first-year blend of callousness, courage, and concession before, and
it is too soon to know how this story will be told two or three years from now.
But there is one story that can be told right now. This is the story of the resurgence
of mainstream, Main Street racism in the wake of Obama’s election. For a surprising
number of people in America, the election of the first African American president has
become a license to print (and speak and circulate) hate. The testing of the new rules
began slowly at first: in February, a mayor in California sent an e-mail representing the
White House as surrounded by a watermelon farm (“No Easter Egg Hunt this year”);
in May, a Republican staffer in Tennessee circulated a “Historical Keepsake Photo” dignifying all the U.S. Presidents with official portraits or photographs—save for Barack
Obama, who is represented by a field of black with two bug-eyes staring bewildered
from the shadows. Then, as the “tea party movement” heated up this summer, the
hate came spilling out onto the street: a litany of signs decrying President Obama as
a “Lyin’ African,” the endless parade of “birther” signs suggesting that Obama “go back
to Kenya,” all taking their cues from the movement’s leadership—men like Dr. David
McKalip who forwarded to his fellow “activists” a Photoshopped image of Obama as a
bone-in-nose-wearing witch-doctor. “Funny stuff,” McKalip wrote to his correspondents.
These “jokes,” all of them, are straight out of a long line of racist imagery going back to
the origins of the form, cartoons portraying uppity people of color mimicking the whitefolk—and making a travesty of everything in the process. Illustrated magazines in the
19th century (Harper’s Weekly, Life) ran these cartoons regularly, and I have for years
used them as a historical lesson in my classes on the power of racist imagery. Apparently,
however, the election of the first black president, far from making these jokes unintelligible or intolerable relics from a by-gone age, has made them newly (and newly acceptable) “funny stuff” for a growing number of people.
Of course, these jokes never went out of fashion—they just left the mainstream media
and buried themselves deep inside the institutions that govern society. It is this “joke”
that underwrites the violence directed at young African Americans guilty of the travesty
of driving while black, or the arrest of an African American man in his own home guilty
of being an irate homeowner in a “nice” neighborhood. And it is the “joke” that empowers a backbencher from South Carolina to call the President a liar in a congressional
address.
So, there is nothing surprising about seeing the resurgence of this brand of racism based
on the “joke” (always a mask for the humorist’s deepest fears of a Black Planet) now that
a black man is in the white (man’s) house. Nor is there anything surprising in the new
media that has been used to disseminate them; all of these incidents began as “funny”
(continued on page 3)
INSIDE:
Feature Articles • International Perspectives • Kirwan Institute Blog • GIS Update • Talking about Race • More Than Just Race • Call for Papers • Kirwan in the News • New Media
Update • Events • Obama Reflections • New Faculty/Staff
Executive
Notes
john a. powell,
Executive Director
President Obama’s first
summer saw the country embroiled in intense
debates on issues ranging
from health care, to the
environment, to concerns Professor
john a. powell
about “big government.”
Many protested health
care reform by alleging President Obama
is not a real American, his birth certificate
is phony, and that he is a closet Muslim.
Others claimed that the White House
wanted to kill the elderly or that health
care reform was a way of giving reparations to black Americans. Talk show hosts
called then Supreme Court Justice nominee
Sonia Sotomayor a racist and said President
Obama did not like white people after he
challenged the arrest of Professor Henry
Louis Gates Jr. The tone and content of the
debates were far-fetched and hardly made
any sense, but they were informed by deep
emotions rather than facts.
Two main positions seek to explain what
triggered this response. The first position,
held by former President Jimmy Carter
among others, holds that racism is driving
the intensity of the debate. This position
understands racism as intentional conscious
racial animus and leads to questions about
whether Joe Wilson or the birthers are racist.
Not surprisingly, this is strongly resisted and
those who make such claims are accused of
playing the race card.
(continued on page 2)
Executive Notes
(continued from page 1)
The second position, taken by NY Times columnist David Brooks for example, accepts that
a nerve may have been hit, but rejects the role of race. Rather, it is simply that a large number of Americans embrace the Jeffersonian or Jacksonian wariness toward federal government and desire for local control.
A third viewpoint asserts that racial anxiety is likely part of the intense reaction during the summer, but this need not be conscious or racist. It emphasizes that cultural and
institutional norms in our society, such as local or state control, carry racial associations. In addition, this position holds that the country’s mistrust of federal government is
inherited from the fight over slavery, race, and the North/South division. This is not to say
that all opposition to big government is about race, but that there is a connection in our
nation’s culture between race and anti-federal government, states’ rights, and local control
attitudes.
A closer look reveals that these claims are supported by a growing body of research. Over
90% of our emotional and cognitive processes are not directly accessible to us. On matters of race, we have unconscious or implicit attitudes and biases. These biases have strong
associations with ideas that are not explicitly about race. There are concrete ways of measuring our hidden associations, and this insight is not limited just to race, but impacts
every aspect of our lives.
We can expose biases to our conscious mind and shift to make certain biases less dominant. However, not talking about race or focusing only on the conscious two percent is
not effective. Understanding race requires looking at the work of structures, institutions,
and also our unconscious associations. The goal should be to become more skillful in constructively talking about and engaging with race. john a. powell, Executive Director
For more information:
Americans for American Values (americansforamericanvalues.org)
Harvard Implicit Association Test: (implicit.harvard.edu/implicit)
The Kirwan Update is produced by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
at The Ohio State University, 433 Mendenhall Lab, 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210.
For questions or comments about this publication, please contact
Kirwan Update editor Angela Stanley at (614) 247-6329 or [email protected].
Contributing Staff Editors
Kathy Baird, Director of Communications
Philip Kim, Assistant Editor
Rajeev Ravisankar, Research Assistant
kirwaninstitute.org
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ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
and Ethnicity is a university-wide interdisciplinary research institute. Its goal is
to deepen our understanding of the causes
of and solutions to racial and ethnic disparities and hierarchies. This includes an
explicit focus not only on Ohio and the
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human destinies are intertwined. Thus,
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our diversity and common humanity in
real terms.
The institute brings together a diverse and
creative group of scholars and researchers from various disciplines to focus on
the histories, present conditions, and the
future prospects of racially and ethnically
marginalized people. Informed by realworld needs, its work strives to meaningfully influence policies and practices.
The institute also focuses on the interrelatedness of race and ethnicity with other
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and systems. Collaboration with other
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The institute employs many approaches
to fulfilling its mission: original research,
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While the institute focuses on marginalized racial and ethnic communities, it
understands that these communities exist
in relation to other communities and that
fostering these relationships deepens the
possibility of change. It is the sincere hope
and goal of all of us that the institute gives
transformative meaning to both our diversity and our common humanity.
Feature
The “Post-Racial” Mainstream Media
e-mails forwarded to friends or listserv
groups—but specifically designed (like
racism itself) “to go viral.”
What has surprised me, although it
shouldn’t, has been the role (at once passive and deeply cynical) in all of this played
by mainstream media. No longer able to
depend on big media (like Harper’s in the
19th century) to spread the message, those
with an investment in propagating racism
have increasingly turned to new digital
media to spread their message—new media
that are in the very process, we are told, of
ringing the death knell for the news industry. Racism has of course long played a vital
role in the popularization and legitimization of emerging media in the United States.
(As Michael Rogin pointed out, for example,
“the founding Hollywood movie, The Birth
of a Nation, celebrates the Ku Klux Klan.
The first talking picture, The Jazz Singer,
was a blackface film.”) One might, therefore,
imagine a role for the now “old” media
of television and daily newspapers in counteracting the renewed mass circulation
of racist humor on the Internet, perhaps
deploying some of that investigative reporting, editorial perspective, or, at the very
least, basic coverage they have been going
on about while lamenting their imminent
doom. Instead, mainstream media have
found a role to play that relies entirely on
their decorous, even righteous, silence.
There was not one mainstream account,
for example, of a May e-mail sent by a
Republican official decrying “the black
house and its minions” (well, none in the
U.S. media, anyway; it was covered in
London papers and called by its proper
name). The Los Alamitos mayor’s watermelon White House postcard elicited some
media coverage, but only after the mayor
resigned (retaining his council seat), and
mostly highlighting the obvious absurdity
of the former mayor’s statement that “he
was unaware of any racial stereotypes associated with watermelons.” Sherri Goforth’s
“Historical Keepsake” elicited virtually no
mainstream news response whatsoever.
This doesn’t mean people aren’t seeing these
images, reading these words. They likely
reside somewhere right now in your computer’s browser cache or archived e-mail.
They certainly reside for the foreseeable
future on the Internet itself in countless
(continued from page 1)
blogs, both delighted and outraged by the
messages. And increasingly they are bubbling back up into the accepted daily discourse of American life.
logic of “post-racial” racism in his own
comic, “This Modern World” (9/22/09), concluding with a panel showing two Klansmen
complaining, “It’s getting so a fella can’t
even wear a pointy hood and burn a cross—
without being accused of racism!”
Meanwhile the mainstream media sit off at
the sideline, discussing the birther movement with its back-to-Africa chants as if
No, Virginia (or any of the states on
there are legitimate concerns here that have
the “Tea Party Express II: Countdown to
nothing to do with racism. And when Joe
Judgment Day Tour”), dissent and opposiWilson calls the President a liar on global
tion is not racism: it is healthy and necestelevision, and folks
sary to any democracy.
who know a thing or
However, lynching,
two about racism—
cross-burning, or porThe media can stare at
from Jimmy Carter
traying the President
their own monitors in
to Spike Lee—state
as an “African witch
innocent bewilderment:
unequivocally that
doctor” is racism, and,
“Where? I don’t see
race has a whole lot of
as both Knight and
any racism. Do you?”
something to do with
Tomorrow insist, we
this unprecedented
cannot allow that
speech act, the media
distinction to be
can stare at their own monitors in innocent
lost. We cannot allow acts of racism to be
bewilderment: “Where? I don’t see any
tolerated or winked at, even for an instant.
racism. Do you?”
When protests erupt at the prospect of the
President talking with school kids “alone”
And they don’t, and you won’t, at least not
(as one radio talkshow host wailed), one
on your television news or in your city’s
doesn’t have to look very hard to see the
daily paper. The images of the tea party
racist fear of “predatory black men” behind
protests on broadcast television were devoid
the hysterical tears.
of any of the images and signs decrying
the President as an “African” out to creOnly the most idealistic imagined that
ate a system of “White Slavery”—just as
the election of the nation’s first African
the media have for the most part turned a
American president would dissipate the
blind eye to the “jokes” that are circulating
deep legacy of American racism. But only
through their computers as surely as they
the most hardbitten cynic could have
are through ours. In their deliberate silence
anticipated the paradox resulting from this
on the racism they see openly articulated
historical event, in which we are told by
when they visit the rallies or read their audi- old media that our election of an African
ence’s e-mails, the mainstream media make
American president has magically inocuthe racism as invisible—and therefore as
lated the nation from racism, while the
natural—as air. And even as we see the open racism circulates with unparalleled ferocarticulation of racism directed against the
ity via new media. In their stalwart refusal
President moving closer and closer to the
to acknowledge the ways that race is very
center of political discourse, mainstream
much in the limelight of opposition to our
media now present themselves as innocent
current president, the mainstream media
and pure and thus perpetuate perhaps the
make all-too plausible the seemingly outmost insidious myth of all: the notion that
landish scenarios imagined by Knight and
race has nothing to do with it.
Tomorrow. This last month saw a Facebook
poll asking for people’s opinions about
Keith Knight, in a recent installment of
killing the President. Tragically, we also
his comic “The K Chronicles” (9/21/09),
learned of the lynching of a part-time cenbegan with a panel portraying an African
sus worker in Kentucky, whose bound-andAmerican man in the process of being
gagged body was found with the word “FED”
lynched by a mob of white men. “You’re
scrawled on his chest. As violent resistance
doing this because I’m black, aren’t you?”
against the Federal government increasingly
“See?” one of the mob complains, exasperbecomes intertwined with racist fears and
ated. “There you go again!! Pulling the race
fantasies, I fear we may already be there. card.” Tom Tomorrow tackled the absurd
3
Feature
Obama’s Denial Should Put Race on Trial
Robert A. Bennett III
Graduate Administrative Associate with the Bell Resource Center
Many have argued that Obama’s plan will
enact death panels where the federal government would determine whether a person
could receive life-saving care. American
citizens also fear longer waiting periods to
receive the help needed, which has been
attributed to nations that have nationalized
their care. Additionally, there is anxiety
over whether Americans will have to change
their coverage for one that is government
sanctioned, which will not cover medical issues that their current plans insure.
Obama has stated that Americans who have
health care plans they are satisfied with may
stay with their present providers.
However, misinformation has been promoted with racist undertones as seen in the
comparisons of Obama to Adolf Hitler and
Nazism. This has created an environment
in which many have opposed the current
administration without having an understanding of its objectives. Fox News sponsored “Tea Bag Parties” across the nation
with the intent of undermining the current
administration. Participants at
these events argued that Obama is
not a citizen of the United States,
is a socialist seeking to overthrow
American capitalism, and is a clandestine Muslim linked to Islamic
terrorists due to the phonetic similarity of Obama and Osama (bin
Laden, the supposed mastermind of
the 9/11 attacks).
On September 16, former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter addressed
the outcries against Obama at the
Twenty-eighth Annual Town Hall
Meeting at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia. He stated that he
4
believed racism was a factor in the treatment President Obama had received. Carter
believed that a great deal of the hostile
demonstrations directed against Obama
were because he was African American.
However, Obama does not share Carter’s
belief that the public protests are a consequence of his ethnic makeup. He argues
that his opponents have disdain towards his
proposal for political reasons and not on the
basis of race.
Anyone doubting that there is a racial
component to recent protests should view
the documentary Right America: Feeling
Wronged—Some Voices from the Campaign
Trail. During the 2008 presidential campaign, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi interviewed voters throughout the United States
who voted for John McCain for president.
Some of the reasons interviewees gave for
not voting for Obama were because they
believed he was not a citizen of America,
was a socialist who sought to prevent them
from earning a living, and worked with terrorists. One person candidly said he “is the
wrong color,” while another mentioned that
he was not “voting for no nigger.”
The reality of the presidential campaign
was that a fair number of people voted
based on color alone, and failed to understand the particular platforms of those
running for elected office. The same is true
regarding Obama’s health care reform. I
would argue that many Americans who are
against the proposed plan do not have a full
understanding of the President’s agenda,
and rather the disdain they feel is directed
towards his race. Many Whites refuse to
deal with the fact that the President of the
United States is Black.
During his campaign, Obama addressed
the issue of race on March 18, 2008, in
a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.”
He mentioned that the racial problem in
America needed to be resolved for the
nation to be unified in order to deal with
the economic issues the country was facing.
Obama stated he believed solidarity would
happen because of his “unyielding faith in
the decency and generosity of the American
people.” However, the recent backlash that
ensued has prevented any concerted effort of
Americans coming together to solve issues
around health care.
The current administration must continue
to find ways to address issues regarding race
in this country. Earlier this year, shortly
after Obama’s inauguration, Attorney
General Eric Holder called America “a
nation of cowards” regarding racial matters.
He endured a backlash for his comments.
No matter how controversial the comments,
Americans have failed to deal with issues
of racism. Hence a fruitful understanding
regarding health care probably will not
come to fruition, because of Obama’s race.
Federal leaders should ensure that
they not uphold the cowardice
Holder believed plagued the nation.
That will help prevent people from
using racist and xenophobic attacks
as an attempt to refrain from any
productive conversations about the
issues concerning this nation. 1
National Coalition on Health Care
web site. http://www.nchc.org/facts/
coverage.shtml.
2
Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes,
“False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has
Some Familiar Roots,” New York
Times, August 14, 2009, New York
Edition, A1.
Janet Mayer, PR Photos
As debates across the United States continue
around the issue of universal health care
coverage, the issue of race lurks. There has
been great hostility among American citizens, particularly Whites, directed towards
President Barack Obama’s health care plan.
One of the President’s objectives is to provide coverage for an estimated 50 million
Americans who are without insurance.
Feature
“Ghetto Tennis Chicks” A Critical Analysis of the Serena Williams Meltdown
Kamara Jones, Graduate Research Associate
www.flickr.com/photos/toughlove/
After a lineswoman made a questionable foot
fault call against Serena Williams during the
semifinals of the recent women’s U.S. Open
Championship, the tennis superstar snapped. “You better [expletive] be right,” Williams
told the lineswoman. “I swear to God I’m
[expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball
and shove it down your [expletive] throat.
You hear that?”1
As a result of her outburst, Williams rightly
received a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, which ended the match and
allowed Kim Clijsters, her opponent, to
advance to the final round. Williams also
received a $10,500 fine. But that, of course,
wasn’t enough for some critics. Williams’
outburst deserved more scorn.
the fact that the questionable call was made
at the most inopportune moment or that
she was angry at herself for playing poorly,
but, instead, on the fact that she is from
the “ghetto.” And “ghetto,” in reference to
Williams’ outburst, is not merely a classist
According to Sports Illustrated writer S.L.
statement; it is a racially charged statement.
Price, Williams, who has won 11 grand slam
“Ghetto,” like “urban” and “inner city,” has
titles, blew her chance to be considered in
become a code word for “minority,” in gen“historical terms.” “Certainly, she’s a great
eral, and “Black” specifically—a code word
player, but this is going to be a great blight on
in an American society that has, since the
her career,” he wrote. “No question about it.”
civil rights movement, adhered to scholar
Tali Mendelberg’s “norm of racial equalOthers haven’t been as “nice” as Price.
ity,” and condemned, on the surface at least,
“Bottom line is, you can take the girl out of
overt racism.
the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out
Overreaction to Williams’ outburst was
of the girl,” wrote web surfer “wowurcrazy”
on the pop culture blog Rickey. “Ron in Cal,” exacerbated by the media’s not-so-subtle
juxtaposition of Williams and Clijsters.
a web surfer on the The Fox Nation web site,
Williams became the immature, smartmade a similar comment. According to him,
aleck, Black, single, overly driven bully
Serena’s outburst was influenced by “some
while Clijsters, the ultimate foil, became
residual traits” from the “ghetto.”
the poised, docile, White, motherly, selfless
The overreaction to Williams’ outburst,
underdog. In the New York Times article
despite overwhelming evidence that she is
“Clijsters Shows Maturity in Championship
not the only tennis player to berate an offiComeback,” journalist George Vecsey charcial, is related to race.
acterized Williams’ voice as “weirdly disassociated, the one she uses to hold people
Black anger is never taken lightly, mostly
off.” Conversely, readers were constantly
because Black people, in general, are feared
reminded by media outlets like ESPN.com
by dominant society. Consequently, when a
Black person expresses anger, it is deemed an that Clijsters, who “took time off” to have a
expected behavior, part of his or her cultural child, was the first mom since 1980 to win
a major championship. In addition, her win
disposition, even when the Black person’s
was framed in the AFP article “Super mom
anger is justified and/or uncharacteristic of
Clijsters comes back with a big win” by Jim
his or her normal personality. In addition,
Slater as an unlikely victory for “working
dominant society has placed Black women
moms everywhere.” Even Clijsters distinoutside of traditional American female
guished herself from her angry, Black opponorms and stereotyped them as unsophisnent. When asked about her struggle to get
ticated, overbearing, and loud-mouthed. So,
in shape after a series of injuries and childalthough Williams, who was characterized
birth, she admitted in an interview with
as a “mentally strong player” by Price, had
the Associated Press that “a lot of swearing
previously never bad-mouthed an official,
at home” was involved. But, she said, “No
her unusual outburst was not blamed on
swear words like Serena yesterday.” In the book Getting Played: African
American Girls, Urban Inequality, and
Gendered Violence, scholar Jodi Miller
notes that Black girls, especially those from
urban areas like Williams, are not often
thought of as victims. “They don’t garner
public sympathy,” Miller wrote. “The roots
of these ideologies are as old as the legacy
of slavery.” Although Miller was primarily
referring to sexual violence, her assessment can be applied to other circumstances.
Consequently, even if Williams would have
berated an official in a situation where she
was egregiously wronged, the amount of
sympathy she would have received would
have most likely paled in comparison to
her White female counterparts in a similar
circumstance.
This is not the first time Williams has been a
victim of racially tinged criticism. As author
Jacqueline Edmondson details in Venus and
Serena: A Biography, when she arrived on
the national tennis scene, sports commentators criticized her, and her sister’s, beaded,
French braided tresses for being “noisy and
disruptive.” One sports commentator stated
that he was “tired of the beads.” In addition,
sports commentators have also criticized
Williams for being overweight. Although
these criticisms are related to Williams’
occasional failure to properly train for
major tournaments, they are also related
to the fact that Williams’ Black voluptuous
body is unlike the bodies of her opponents.
During the 2007 Australian open, criticisms
about Williams’ weight increased. And even
though she won the tournament, she was
forced to address the fact that she was, as the
New York Times article “After Times of Grief
and Doubt, a Tennis Ace is Hungry Again,”
by journalist Christopher Clarey revealed,
“carrying more weight than she did at the
peak of her tennis career in 2003.”
“I think no matter if I were not to eat for two
years, I still wouldn’t be a Size 2, because no
matter how slim I am, I always have this and
that,” she told Clarey, pointing to her butt
and breasts. “We are living in a [Mary] Kate
Olsen world; I’m just not built that way.”
Williams is on display in a professional tennis freak show. And she isn’t the freak. 1
Mark Sappenfield, “Serena Williams foot
fault: What did she say and why?”
Christian Science Monitor
5
International Perspectives
Climate Change and Environmental Racism
By S.P. Udayakumar, Research Fellow for the
Kirwan Institute International Program
T
he right place to start thinking about climate change and
environmental racism is the very language that we all use
to talk about these issues. Just as the intrusion and invasion
into the native people’s territory by Christopher Columbus and
other Western voyagers are termed “discovery” and the colonial
occupation and domination are innocuously termed “first contact,”
the predominantly Western destruction of the delicate global climate system is innovatively called “climate change.” Consider the
language and rhetoric used in Western political and diplomatic
circles and media to talk about terrorism, im/migration, Muslims,
Africans, and some “Third World” countries and their leaders, and
contrast that with the language and rhetoric they use to talk about
“globalization,” “development,” “security,” and “climate change.”
The difference should be obvious.
Climate change? The word “change” does not usually prompt tough
questions about the “change” that has happened, who changed it,
how they changed it, and so forth. Change sounds rather benign.
If you call the spade a spade, it should be “climate destruction” as
Kamla Bhasin, an Indian feminist, said in one of her recent talks.
Say it loud: CLIMATE DESTRUCTION! Destroying anything is a
crime. Automatically, “climate destruction” triggers startling questions: who destroyed it, and how did they destroy, etc. Westerners
destroyed it! With their industrialization, globalization, development, and “pursuit of happiness” and what they fondly call “our way
of life”!
Come to think of it, it’s neither “climate change” nor “climate challenge,” but “climate carnage,” a racist carnage of the indigenous
people and the people of color all over the world. For instance,
most parts of West Africa have witnessed a sharp decline in rainfall
since 1970 and successive droughts. There has been 20% decrease in
annual rainfall, and 40% to 60% decrease in river water level. The
interior delta of river Niger has almost halved, from 37,000 sq km in
1950 to 15,000 sq km now. Temperature in water bodies in Mali has
risen, leading to increase in invading plant species. Fishing, navigation, and irrigation have all become difficult with serious impact on
the agro-economy. Additionally, the conditions have forced people
to flee, rendering them victims of a crime that they did not have any
part in!1
It is quite racist to make it sound like “climate change” somehow
descended on us and it is a common problem of humanity without
acknowledging the explicit role of the “developed” “First World.” It
is even more racist to indicate or insist that the “developing” “Third
World” should not engage in the same kind of carbon producing
and polluting “development.” Now this is not to argue that the
“developing” world should also have an equal opportunity to repeat
the same mistake of the West; but it is only fair to admit that the
indigenous growth models and practices of the non-Western societies were meddled with by colonialism, imperialism, developmentalism, and, more recently, globalism. Not giving that space or credit to
victimized societies, not admitting one’s own crimes, unwillingness
to mend one’s ways, and attempting to make the whole issue a common problem of humanity is nothing but racism.
6
Even at this hour of unprecedented crisis, the “developed” countries
try to entrench their “way of life” by turning this into a trading
opportunity. Instead of engaging in some soul searching, recanting their “development” paradigm, and reducing their carbon
emissions, they propose international emissions trading as a way
of achieving cost-effective emissions reductions. The Western
“development” paradigm fixes monetary value on land, water, forests, hills, and everything else overriding the non-Western ways
of respecting and protecting the natural resources. Even after they
have hit the wall and their model brings doom to the whole globe,
they still insist there is nothing to learn from the traditional peoples
and they only have to trade-in pollution privileges. This is a racist
premise.
Everything is up for sale in the capitalist scheme, even the climate!
Instead of problematizing the existing paradigms of development
and the unquenchable thirst for fossil fuels, the disaster is being
turned into a corporate-style business of carbon trading. Instead
of addressing the root causes of the problem, the West is trying to move ahead with its corporatized “trading” mechanisms
and thereby continue the destruction of local communities and
ecosystems.
Take the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This is an
arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows “developed”
countries with greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in
projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.
Instead of eliminating emissions altogether, they are shifting to poor
countries. In other words, the reasoning seems to be that we will
do it somewhere else where human life and natural resources are
cheaper.
Curtailing organic indigenous growth by colonial oppression and
imperialistic domination, it is presumptuous to impose CDM’s quotas of carbon emissions and engaging in carbon trading. Instead of
admitting that their reckless industrialization and capitalistic mode
of development have irretrievably damaged the Earth and seeking
an ecological remedy, the powerful countries are trying to couch
their criminal destruction in innocent terms and to turn the table
against the victims.
Industrial development has disproportionately benefited the West
and unduly affected the rest. Just as the capitalistic buyer decides
the terms of trade in the international market today, the violator
manages the whole climate show. The Western-dominated climate
negotiations with little transparency and popular participation
will in fact worsen conditions for the indigenous peoples and
people of color.
There is a Tamil proverb that says, “Someone commits the crime
and another gets the punishment.” Indigenous people and people
of color are hardest hit by the climate destruction, but have far
fewer resources to cope with this destruction. Rich countries are
“spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst
consequences, like drought and rising seas” but “despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming,
these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars
on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most
vulnerable regions — most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.”2
Turning a tragedy such as climate destruction into a profit-making
endeavor is the pinnacle of environmental racism. While the United
States has not set up a new nuclear power plant in the past 32 years,
it is selling reactors to countries such as India under the pretext of
generating clean and green energy.
Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heattrapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries,
has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and
Western European countries. Africa accounts for less than 3 percent
of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since
1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from
drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific
assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets,
it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt along with
small island nations that are most at risk. “Like the sinking of the
Titanic, catastrophes are not democratic,” said Henry I. Miller, a
fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. “A much
higher fraction of passengers from the cheaper decks were lost. We’ll
see the same phenomenon with global warming.”3
In the climate divide, wealthy nations far from the equator not only
experience fewer effects but are also better able to withstand them.
Professor Howard Richards says: “I have calculated that the number
of people possessing private automobiles in the world is approximately the same as the number of people living in poverty, although
one might of course dispute this conclusion by defining poverty in
a way that brings into that category a number of people exceeding
the number of car-drivers.” It is high time the privileged gave up
their racist precepts and practices, and start living simply so that the
underprivileged can simply live. 1
Jayashree Nandi, “Climate change impact leaves Mali villagers high
and dry,” Sunday Times of India, September 20, 2009.
2
Andrew C. Revkin, “Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms,”
The New York Times, April 1, 2007.
3
Op Cit., Note 2.
Kirwan Institute Blog
(kirwaninstitute.blogspot.com)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2009
Things That Make
You Go Hmmm…
This blog is devoted to stimulate and sustain dialogue
around issues of race, ethnicity, social hierarchy,
democratic principles, and other intersections of
social justice.
To initiate a new discussion…
e-mail [email protected].
By Angela Stanley, Research
Associate at the Kirwan Institute
I’ve recently been thinking about concepts like priorities,
standards, representation, and fairness—not in any in-depth
kind of way, rather anecdotally and informally. The whole
Roman Polanski situation, and all of his supporters, has really
left me scratching my head or donning a furrowed brow or
whatever the move is that makes you look like you’re deep in
thought.
I find it interesting that there seems to be more public outcry
and scorn for Michael Vick over animal cruelty and Michael
Jackson (RIP) for the acquittal of child molestation charges
than for Polanski who admittedly had sex with a minor and
R. Kelly who has a documented history of his “relationships”
with underage Black girls. (PS: Is anyone really surprised that
Woody Allen is on Team Roman Polanski?)
Serena Williams recently got quite upset about a bad call during a tennis match and it was somehow attributed by many
to her Black girl Compton upbringing. Meanwhile, John
McEnroe was notorious for his routine temper tantrums during tennis matches and rarely had them boiled down to his
race, gender, and/or childhood residence.
My oh-so-favorite comedian Chris Rock, all sarcasm
intended, can profit comedically at the expense of Black
women and making fun of issues that are pretty personal and
yet be praised for capitalizing on those very same issues under
the guise of wanting his daughter to feel beautiful just as she
is through his upcoming documentary Good Hair. From a
business standpoint, I suppose playing both ends is the most
profitable way to go, but it’s interesting that there have been
several documentaries done on this issue, mostly by Black
women, yet Chris Rock is the one who gets the credit and
attention…and the Oprah couch time.
Tyler Perry who, although successful, has questionable writing and directing skills and regularly portrays Black women
in the most stereotypical of ways, has somehow managed to
score the rights to Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who
Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, and will
be bringing it to the big screen in the near future. Really?
Tyler Perry is the best person for the job? Really?
Anyway, I’m sure this list could go on and on, but I’ve said all
of this to say that there’s something going on with people’s
standards, what their priorities are, what they value, and how
they are being represented (or misrepresented). Through the
murkiness of it all, some people just aren’t emerging with a
fair shake and it makes me wonder if I’m the only one who’s
seeing it and going “hmmm…”
Coming December 1, our new blog:
www.race-talk.org
This is a sample of an entry on the Kirwan Institute blog. Please visit our
web site at kirwaninstitute.org to view and comment on current postings.
7
Recession, Recovery,
Equity, and the State of
Opportunity in Florida
Miami Workers Center is partnering with the Kirwan Institute
for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University
and the Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy
(RISEP) at Florida International University to analyze the
impact of economic recovery dollars on marginalized communities throughout Florida. The two-year study, advocacy, and organizing campaign will include quantitative tracking of stimulus
dollars in four Florida metropolitan areas through a lens of
racial equity, and a qualitative look at affected communities’
experiences with stimulus spending. The study will be used to
create policy recommendations on how federal and state spending can lead to a long-term recovery based on the principles of
racial and economic equity.
Development
The work of the Kirwan Institute is made possible by the
generous support of numerous people and organizations.
External funding includes the following:
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The African American Male Project
Advanced Racial Equity Planning Project
The Ford Foundation
General Operations
The Diversity Advancement Project
The Integration Initiative
Public Interest Projects
Fulfilling the Dream Fund (National Fund)
“A New Paradigm for Affirmative Action: Targeting Within
Universalism”
The following maps display hard hit populations and communities in four major metropolitan areas of Florida, identifying the
barriers to opportunity facing these communities prior to the
economic crisis in order to better understand the direct impact
from the economic crisis and the substantial federal and state
responses to foster recovery. The maps and report look at the
“opportunity divide” in Florida, both prior to the crisis and
afterward, and analyze currently available data on contracts,
grants, and proposed projects intended to stimulate Florida’s
economic recovery. Our analysis focuses on ARRA, with an
examination of proposed projects and existing expended funds
in Florida. Jacksonville Race and Opportunity
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD User, Florida Dept. of Education, Environmental Protection Agency
MSA Boundaries
US Route
National Park or Forest
1 Dot = 250
NON_WHT
Access to Opportunity
Very Low
Low
95
Moderate
High
School Desegregation Project
Core Operating Support
Framing Racial Justice through Emotive Strategies
Very High
17
200
1
21
1
17
90
10
90
90
295
202
1
115
Union
Heather A. Schwenker
Director of Development
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
(614) 688-5429
[email protected] 301
17
Bradford
0
Alachua
8
Atlantic Ocean
Counties (Not in Study)
The Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc.
For more information on making a commitment to excellence with a donation to the institute, please contact:
17
Ocean, Gulf, Lake, River
Race
The Open Society Institute
“Designing and Advocating for a Just and Equitable
Economic Recovery” (Fair Recovery)
1
State Park or Forest
The Tides Foundation
Core Operating Support
25
Interstate
3
6
9
12
Miles
Putnam
Miami Recovery Investment and Opportunity
Orlando Subsidized Housing and Opportunity
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD User, Florida Dept. of Education,
Environmental Protection Agency, Florida Dept. of Transportation
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD User, Florida Dept. of Education, Environmental Protection Agency
Marion
1
ARRA Transportation Projects
Interstate
US Route
810
Volusia
869
National Park or Forest
State Park or Forest
441
Ocean, Gulf, Lake, River
Access to Opportunity
441
19
27
869
Very Low
Low
Moderate
High
75
Very High
4
91
595
434
417
736
91
84
862
17
91
426
423
Atlantic Ocean
417
820
441
417
50
408
50
50
408
15
4080
852
95
92
821
826
528
5
7
91
112
821
417
Interstate
41
192
US Route
National Park or Forest
1
State Park or Forest
826
985
417
530
836
878
985
41
195
17
Ocean, Gulf, Lake, River
Subsidized Housing (2000)
27
Access to Opportunity
874
Very Low
192
Polk
Low
Moderate
821
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
Miles
High
Very High
821
0
Counties (Not in Study)
3
6
91
Miami Comprehensive Opportunity Mapping
Tampa Foreclosure and Opportunity
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD User, Florida Dept. of Education, Environmental Protection Agency
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD User, Florida Dept. of Education, Environmental Protection Agency
845
Parkland
Interstate
Deerfield Beach
US Route
North Lauderdale
Sunrise
2
4
11.5% - 18.2%
Lauderhill
75
8
Miles
Weston
Wilton Manors
Gulf of Mexico
Moderate
41
Low
Very Low
1
736
91
Davie
Southwest Ranches
98
High
Fort Lauderdale
595
98
Access to Opportunity
Very High
91
6
19
Oakland Park
Lauderdale Lakes
Plantation
0
98
8.7% - 11.4%
Sea Ranch Lakes
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
Moderate
Very High
0% - 6%
6.1% - 8.6%
Tamarac
27
Low
High
Foreclosure Rate
Pompano Beach
869
Access to Opportunity
Very Low
National Park or Forest
301
State Park or Forest
Ocean, Gulf, Lake, River
Margate
Ocean, Gulf, Lake, River
301
US Route
441
State Park or Forest
12
Miles
Interstate
Hillsboro Beach
Lighthouse Point
Coconut Creek
Coral Springs
National Park or Forest
9
84
54
862
301
Dania Beach
Cooper City
Atlantic Ocean
1
Hollywood
Pembroke Pines
441
West Park
Miramar
Pembroke Park
Hallandale Beach
852
Miami Gardens
821
826
7
Miami Lakes
Opa-locka
821
Doral
836
997
41
El Portal
Miami Springs
112
Virginia Gardens
836
4
600
92
589
19
North Bay Village
195
600
92
569
275
60
618
Surfside
Miami Shores
Hialeah
595
580
574
Bal Harbour
Biscayne Park
878
Sweetwater
Sunny Isles Beach
North Miami Beach
North Miami
Hialeah Gardens
Medley
582
Golden Beach
Aventura
95
688
Miami Beach
75
686
693
Miami
41
41
92
595
West Miami
301
92
826
985
874
175
1
0
South Miami
Coral Gables
Pinecrest
Key Biscayne
41
3
6
9
12
Miles
9
Talking about Race
press and pulpit.” It was ragtime’s connection with cakewalking
that made it less than respectable. The cakewalk was an exhibition dance performed in an exaggerated and comically formal
fashion by African American couples, perhaps mimicking and
I’ve been thinking about and listening to ragtime music lately,
poking fun at white couples—except that white people didn’t get
and also doing some reading. I realized I liked ragtime in 1973,
the joke and thought the black people were naturally
after I saw the movie The Sting and then bought the
buffoonish. The cakewalk may have its origins in a
soundtrack. Though the movie takes place in the
competition performed on plantations for the enter1930s, during the height of the Great Depression, the
tainment of white slaveholders (Caution: My descripscore hearkened back to the music of an even earlier
tions of the origins of the cakewalk are based on fast
generation, as if recalling the good old days for the
research. Please talk to your local scholar for a more
movie’s characters.
detailed picture.) So, anyway, according to the domiSomething about the music made me want to know
nant society, there was no room on the planet for mere
a bit more about it, so after I bought The Sting
cakewalking and ragtime as long as classical music
soundtrack, I bought an album of Scott Joplin
was around—or maybe a little room for ragtime but
Scott Joplin,
music—pure, unadorned piano numbers—played by
only along the margins of society.
ragtime composer
composer, conductor, musician, and arranger Joshua
Except that Scott Joplin, composer of “The Maple Leaf Rag,”
Rifkin. The album is easy to find at the Nonesuch site (if you’re
was a classical composer. Wald then suggests that the history
interested, nonesuch.com) and is called, quite simply, Scott
of Joplin’s music would be quite different had it
Joplin: Piano Rags. Joshua Rifkin, Piano. The picbeen “introduced by Antonin Dvořák and titled
ture on the album is a far cry from the cover art‘Étude in Syncopation.’” According to the Library
work for The Sting, which depicts actors Robert
of Congress online Performing Arts Encyclopedia,
Redford and Paul Newman as gleeful con-men in
Joplin held firm ideas about the performance of
a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover
ragtime: “[Joplin] warned that not all syncopated
style. The picture on the Nonesuch album is a
music ‘that masqueraded under the name of
re-rendering of Joplin’s portrait. Sober, serious,
ragtime’ was genuine. Only by giving each note
alone, and dedicated to his craft, Joplin sits at a
its proper value and by ‘scrupulously observing’
piano, composing and playing by candlelight.
the music’s markings could a pianist achieve the
If ever something seems safely tucked away as a
correct effect. Above all, he cautioned, ‘never play
cultural signifier or marker, it is ragtime music.
ragtime fast at any time.’ ‘Joplin ragtime,’ as he
Perfected by Scott Joplin and resurrected by
termed his style, would be destroyed by careless
Marvin Hamlisch for The Sting, ragtime’s syncointerpretation.” Indeed, if you listen to Rifkin’s
pated rhythms now sound charming and quaint,
version of the rags, you will be struck by the
like something you’d hear at a Disney theme park
bright yet dignified tone of the music, as proper
at ye olde-timey soda parlor, maybe issuing forth from yesteras you please while still providing entertainment and carrying
day’s hi-fi, the player piano. Of course, during the first wave of
the promise of a good time.
ragtime, in about 1898 or so, it was anything but fit for family
Marvin Hamlisch perhaps violated Joplin’s admonition that
entertainment.
ragtime should never be played fast, but the popularity of The
According to Elijah Wald in his book How the Beatles Destroyed
Sting, due in no small part to the musical score, re-introduced
Rock n’ Roll (Oxford 2009),“Ragtime was the first pop genre.”
the great composer to the general population. I have to assume
It was also highly suspect as dance music, just as the waltz
that Hamlisch, who won the Academy Award for the score, may
had been in its time due to the proximity of the dancers to one
have been familiar with Rifkin’s 1971 album, which was nomianother (very, very close). Wald goes on to quote a writer from
nated for a Grammy. A careful stylist and a musical perfectionist,
an 1899 periodical: “A wave of vulgar, filthy and suggestive
Joplin died in 1917, before he turned 50, in the Manhattan State
music has inundated the land. Nothing but ragtime prevails and
Hospital, and to the best of my research, didn’t win anything. the cakewalk with its obscene posturing, its lewd gestures. It is
artistically and morally depressing, and should be suppressed by
Some Thoughts on Ragtime Music
Leslie Shortlidge, Managing Editor
10
Book Review
More Than Just Race—Being Black
and Poor in the Inner City
Reviewed by Tom Rudd, Senior Researcher
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
In his newest book, More Than Just Race—Being Black and Poor in
the Inner City, William Julius Wilson, Harvard Professor and social
scientist, continues to illuminate the economic plight of African
Americans living in low-opportunity inner cities and, perhaps most
importantly, he creates a bridge between the often disparate notions
of structure and culture that energize our understanding of why so
many African Americans live in concentrated poverty in the U.S.
One of Professor Wilson’s greatest achievements in this book is the
development of a new frame for talking about and thinking about
the social and economic dynamics that create and perpetuate racialized disparities for poor isolated African American communities.
To fully appreciate why Professor Wilson’s argument in More Than
Just Race… is so critically important to the growing debate about
the causes and consequences of racialized barriers to opportunity
and how we can deal with these barriers, we must understand how
most Americans—most people—think about issues involving race.
Research tells us that the degree to which most people are emotionally invested in a social problem and the degree to which they are
willing to invest and channel resources and support into solutions
that can ameliorate the problem at any level, depend on how the
problem is contextualized—how it is “framed.”
The way that we perceive reality is profoundly influenced by symbolic attitudes—implicit biases—that develop in our unconscious
mind over many years. Typically, we respond favorably to information that supports these subconscious attitudes and we reject information that conflicts with these attitudes. In our quest for order and
meaning, we are prone to create “false dichotomies” that compartmentalize all information into two boxes—good/bad, rich/poor,
black/white, conservative/liberal, structure/culture, etc. Because
of the way that race has been framed in our national discourse,
most White Americans—even progressives—harbor some implicit
antipathy toward people of color. Too often, this bias leads to the
conclusion that people of color living in concentrated poverty are
just getting what they deserve. Arguments that illuminate historic
racial inequality are often rejected because they do not fit the prevailing race frame.
In More Than Just Race…, Professor Wilson gives us an analysis
that not only debunks the structure/culture dichotomy, but also
illuminates the interaction of structural forces and cultural norms
that operate in many African American communities. He posits,
for example, that over many decades federal policies have facilitated the migration of jobs out of inner-city neighborhoods creating communities of concentrated poverty and that cultural traits
identified with these communities are often a response to long-term
“economic and racial subordination.” He also cautions us to question and reexamine many of the common cultural assumptions that
inform our understanding of the choices made by young African
American males living in concentrated poverty. For example, he
points out that empirical evidence for a “subculture of defeatism”
(in which “individuals give up looking for work because they feel
the odds are stacked against them”), and a “subculture of resistance”
(in which “individuals reject working in low-skilled and menial jobs
Harvard University professor William Julius Wilson visited The Ohio State
University campus October 15–16, where he made two presentations on
the topic “Structure and Culture: Framing the Dialogue for Combating
Racial Inequality in the U.S.” and was involved in several additional
discussions with faculty and students. The Kirwan Institute hosted
Wilson’s visit, with co-sponsors the Department of Sociology and
the Office of Minority Affairs. More information is available at
kirwaninstitute.org.
because they feel those jobs are undignified or beneath them”) is
mixed at best.
More Than Just Race… provides social science research that assists
us in understanding how cumulative racialized structural disadvantage creates both structural barriers to opportunity—underperforming schools, for example—and cultural barriers to opportunity—“cool-pose culture” for example. However, the challenge
of shifting the focus away from cultural explanations of economic
disadvantage is formidable. National survey data cited by Professor
Wilson points out that individualistic explanations for poverty
(e.g., lack of effort or ability, poor moral character) are favored
over structural explanations (e.g., lack of adequate schooling, low
wages, lack of jobs). A 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Research
Center shows that two-thirds of all Americans believe personal factors, rather than racial discrimination, explain why many African
Americans have difficulty getting ahead in life. Surprisingly (or
perhaps not), a 2007 survey of 27 European Union member states
shows that only one in five European Union citizens supports the
idea that people live in poverty because of “laziness or lack of will
power.” (45)
In the current environment of “post-racialism” in the United States
where a growing number of Americans believe that race is not a
relevant factor in achieving the American dream, reframing the
debate about the causes and consequences of racialized economic
and social disadvantage will be increasingly difficult. Conversations
of the kind found in More Than Just Race… assist tremendously in
this process. However, it seems fair to posit that until all Americans
embrace a deep sense of our “linked fate”—the realization that what
affects the miner’s canary affects everyone in the mine—we are not
likely to see much progress on this project. Even if we are able to
convince everyone that racial barriers to opportunity are created
and perpetuated primarily by structural forces, and explain what
that means, we are not likely to see increased support for programs
and policies that can remedy these inequalities as long as Americans
frame their reality around what is best for the individual and the
individual’s “in-group.” As Kirwan Institute executive director john
powell has suggested, what we need is a resounding “yes” when
asked, “Am I my brothers’ and my sisters’ keeper?” and more importantly, “Are they indeed my brothers and my sisters?” 11
Call for Papers
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4, Number 1 (Autumn 2010)
“Intersections of Race and Gender”
The editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
invites submissions for the first issue of its fourth volume focusing on
“Intersections of Race and Gender.” Race/Ethnicity uses a classic piece
as a point of departure for treatments of critical issues within the field
of race and ethnic studies. While the classic piece establishes the thematic parameters of each issue, authors are under no obligation to
actively engage the arguments posed by that work.
The first issue of Volume 4 explores the multiple points where race and
gender intersect across the globe, the range of consequences that meets
those intersections, and the dynamics that occur at those intersections. The issue opens with “Movimientos de rebeldi y las culturas que
traicionan,” from Gloria Anzuldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New
Mestiza, in which the author traces her personal experiences of being
caught between two cultures and yet an alien in both, with the understanding that the work of the 21st century will be about the coming
together of diverse cultures.
Our focus on race and gender recognizes that there are numerous ways
in which racialized and gendered identities intersect and that their
intersection is often influenced by a variety of other cultural factors. We
welcome essays that explore intersections and impacts from perspectives across the world. We also welcome the viewpoints of activists,
advocates, researchers, and other practitioners working in the field.
raceethnicity.org
Topics of inquiry may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• How do race and gender intersect with each other to mediate access
to social opportunity?
• What is the relationship between gender and racial discrimination?
Is gender discrimination likely to be most severe in places where
racial discrimination is also severe, or are the two largely independent phenomena? Why is that the case?
• By what means does the intersection of “women” and racial/ethnic
“other” as identities so often result in the creation of a subclass considered expendable and exploited?
• More generally, what are the consequences of discriminatory behaviors, institutions, and structures acting at the intersection of race
and gender?
• What can be done? How might intersections or race and gender be
celebrated? Please contact Leslie Shortlidge for submission deadlines and information ([email protected]). See Style Guidelines (raceethnicity.
org/styleguide.html) to prepare your document in accordance with
the style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity.
Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the
issue is welcome. See raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.
Kirwan in the News
New Media Update
Media Feature Kirwan Experts
Kirwan Attracts Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers
Leading media featured the Kirwan Institute’s expertise on several
key topics during the months of June through September.
• Kirwan’s “Opportunity Mapping” work was featured in The
Economist and Poverty & Race.
• Kirwan Institute leaders’ discussion of racial profiling and
the Henry Louis Gates case was featured by USA Today,
USA Today.com, CNN.com, American Urban Radio, and
two Columbus, Ohio, TV stations.
• Kirwan leaders’ insight on the impact of the economic crisis and
government stimulus spending on people of color was carried
by Harper’s Magazine, Essence.com,The Guardian in the United
Kingdom, and radio talk shows in Orlando and Cleveland.
Executive director john powell was also interviewed about
Florida-based work on recovery spending currently underway
with Miami Workers Center, in comments carried by the Miami
Herald, a Miami radio station, and AM Talk Radio News Service.
• Associate Professor Hasan Jeffries’ new book, Bloody Lowndes:
Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt, was featured by Book TV, WOSU Radio’s Open Line, The Montgomery
Advertiser, and Free Speech TV, among other media.
Among a variety of other media mentions, these were just a few
of Kirwan’s recent opportunities to speak out on key issues related
to race. The Kirwan Institute has long had a strong network of partners
and advocates; now we have “fans.” That’s right—Kirwan is now
on Facebook, and in the first week had already enlisted nearly 100
Facebook fans. Kirwan is also on Twitter, posting regular updates
for interested followers.
Linking into this latest technology will allow us to share our news,
activities, and research results with you faster while reaching a
broader audience interested in our work. On Facebook, you’ll find
announcements about our upcoming presentations and events, links
to research summaries, Kirwan commentary on current events,
multimedia, stories on the impact of Kirwan’s work in the community, and links to news articles featuring Kirwan staff.
Connecting to Twitter, a micro-blogging service, allows us to share
information and stay in touch with our community partners and
friends. We deliver news about Kirwan and share updates of those
whom we are following, such as PolicyLink, Opportunity Agenda,
and Applied Research Center. The ability for Twitter followers to
“re-tweet” our messages to their own networks allows word of
Kirwan’s work to travel quickly and build incrementally, as it is
repeatedly passed along.
Kirwan is working to build a diverse network of fans and followers
from its already strong network of community collaborators and
friends. Please join us!
Facebook: facebook.com/KirwanInstitute
Twitter: twitter.com/KirwanInstitute 12
Kirwan Institute Events
Upcoming Events
Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity
in the Age of Obama
The Kirwan Institute will host its second semiannual conference,
Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama,
on March 11–13, 2010. Offering 40-plus plenary sessions, workshops, panels, roundtables, and performances, the conference will
feature the following three thematic tracks:
• Racial Dynamics and Systems Thinking. Systems dynamics are
very much at work in relation to race and opportunity, and in
order to ensure all have access to opportunity we need to focus
on identifying successful leverage points for social reform.
This track will explore the application of systems thinking to
social and racial justice as a tool to create a more sustainable,
equitable society.
• Race Talk. With the election of our first African American
President there is no better time to explore racialized attitudes
and racialized institutional and systemic processes or to examine how best to engage policymakers, advocates, and the public
effectively on these issues.
• Race, Recession, and Recovery. Times of crisis can also be
times of great opportunity. In the face of the current economic
downturn, marginalized groups, including people of color,
have been disproportionately negatively impacted. This track
will focus on what happened, how it happened, and the types
of policy reforms needed to ensure a more equitable distribution of benefits and burdens.
Join more than 500 race scholars, social justice workers, students,
practitioners, and a range of luminaries as we explore the challenges and opportunities provided by race in our “Age of
Obama” through panels and sessions that:
• Explore the effects of President Obama’s election on our
national dialogue around race;
• Illuminate ways systems thinking principles have been applied
to complex social issues;
• Trace the racialized roots of the economic and housing crises;
• Present empirical results of research on forms of racial dialogue on higher education campuses;
• Examine the stakes implicated in the conduct of the 2010
Census;
• Explore the role of new media formats in mediating racial
understandings in the Age of Obama;
• Look at the Obama Administration’s engagement with civil
rights issues in its first year;
• Anticipate the course of policy and advocacy around national
health care in the United States.
Participants will also enjoy film, cultural performances, and other
activities designed to stretch our understanding of these issues.
More information about the conference and registration can be
found at: transforming-race.org.
Recent Events
Fair credit and fair housing policy discussions
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity has
launched an initiative to explore the subprime loan and foreclosure
crisis as part of a long history of discriminatory credit, banking,
and consumer protection practices. As part of the initiative, Kirwan has sponsored small policy discussions with partner organizations in Hartford, CT (Connecticut
Housing Coalition, Oct. 7); Seattle, WA (Northwest Justice Project,
Oct. 30); Austin, TX (Green Doors, Nov. 6) Detroit, MI (Michigan
Roundtable, Nov. 10); Washington, DC (PRRAC, La Raza, NFHA,
CRL, NCRC, Nov. 18); New Orleans, LA (Dec. 11); and Oakland,
CA (Dec. 18). For more information on the initiative, please contact
Christy Rogers of the Kirwan Institute at [email protected].
Reaffirming the Role of School Integration in K-12 Public
Education Policy: A Conversation among Policymakers,
Advocates, and Educators
The Kirwan Institute was among co-sponsors of a conference
on school integration on Friday, November 13, at the Howard
University School of Law in Washington, DC. The conference
brought together government officials with educators, civil rights
advocates, and scholars who support racially and economically
integrated K-12 public schools. Racial and socioeconomic integration incentives in current and proposed federal policies, regulations, and spending programs were discussed. More information is available at: charleshamiltonhouston.org/Events/Event.
aspx?id=100099.
13
Recent Events
continued
Harvard University Professor William Julius Wilson
Professor William Julius Wilson visited The Ohio State University
campus October 15–16. A review of his most recent book, More
Than Just Race—Being Black and Poor in the Inner City, is featured
on page 11 in this issue of the Kirwan Update. More information is
available at: kirwaninstitute.org.
conclusions. “Reading Between the Lines: Uncovering Unconscious
Bias” was co-presented by the Kirwan Institute, the Writers Guild
of America West, the Screen Actors Guild, Americans for American
Values, and Equal Justice Society. A reception following the panel
was introduced by TV and film producer and political and social
activist Norman Lear.
Racial Equity and Systems Thinking
The Kirwan Institute hosted a fall gathering, Racial Equity and
Systems Thinking, for a small group of systems experts and racial
justice advocates. Drawing on the experience of experts who have
applied systems approaches in other fields, the group worked to
define how the racial justice community can best apply systems
thinking and approaches to race work.
Building One America Summit
The Kirwan Institute was a co-sponsor of the Building One
America Summit held September 17–18 in Washington, DC, to
advocate innovative regional and metropolitan strategies to address
some of our nation’s most pressing problems.
Reading Between the Lines: Uncovering Unconscious Bias
Kirwan Institute executive director john powell addressed the
Writers’ Guild and Screen Actors’ Guild during a September 30
panel discussion on unconscious bias at the Writers’ Guild of
Los Angeles. Panelists explored how the brain processes information and how the need for quick decision often leads to faulty
Tides Momentum Leadership Conference
Kirwan Institute executive director john powell spoke at the Tides
Momentum Leadership Conference September 7-9 in San Francisco.
His presentation, “Race to the Center: Race and the Progressive
Movement,” examined how to ensure that the progressive movement is inclusive and moving the issue of race from the margin to
the center. The presentation can be viewed at: fora.tv/2009/09/07/
POWER_John_A_Powell_on_Opportunity_and_Race. New Publication
Obama Reflections Book Available for Online Orders
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s election this November, the Kirwan Institute has published Obama
Reflections, a book of commentary from social justice thought leaders. The book assesses the impact of Barack Obama’s election and presidency on race in the United States and the world. It includes 25 personal essays from authors from the U.S. and abroad, including contributions from well-known academics and social justice thought leaders.
“The defined impact of the Obama presidential campaign is about more than the man; it is about the country, our history, and, perhaps
more importantly, our emerging and projected future,” says john powell, executive director of the Kirwan Institute, in his commentary. “I
believe it is too soon to know how the Obama presidency will affect how we practice and
address issues of race. We are certainly in a new terrain with new possibilities... The true
impact…will be judged only after much time and effort: when we wait for young Americans
to grow up; when we assess how our institutions function; and when we become attentive
to racial perspectives hidden in the less conscious recesses of our minds.”
OBAMA
REFLECTIONS
From Election Day to Presidency:
Social Justice Thought Leaders Speak Out
Among others, contributing authors include: Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and chief
executive officer of PolicyLink; Reverend Dr. Eugene Callender, Presbyterian clergyman,
lecturer, and urban strategist; Guillermina Hernandez-Gallegos, senior program officer at
the Fetzer Institute; Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity;
Alan Jenkins, executive director of The Opportunity Agenda; Anne Kubisch, director, and
Keith Lawrence, research associate, both at The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community
Change; Firoze Manji, founding executive director of Fahamu and editor-in-chief of
Pambazuka News; Michael Omi, professor of ethnic studies, and Taeku Lee, professor of
political science and law, both at the University of California, Berkeley; and William Taylor,
lawyer, teacher, and writer.
A limited number of copies of the book are available for purchase at cost, and further
information is available on the Kirwan Institute web site at: kirwaninstitute.org/
publicationspresentations/publications/obama-reflections.php. 14
New Faculty/Staff
Charisma Acey
Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning
Joint Appointment
Charisma Acey is an assistant professor of City
and Regional Planning in the Austin E. Knowlton
School of Architecture and holds a joint appointment with the Kirwan Institute. Charisma’s background includes extensive work, research, and travel
to countries in West Africa, southern Africa, and
Central America. Her research focuses on international community development, poverty alleviation,
and human-environment interactions at multiple
scales in urban areas of developing countries. Most
recently, she completed an article for publication
(forthcoming) in Gender and Development, “Gender
and Community Mobilization for Urban Water
Infrastructure Investment in Southern Nigeria,”
and is working to publish the findings from her
doctoral dissertation, which investigated inequity
in household access to potable water in rapidly
urbanizing areas of Nigeria. Charisma teaches
classes in international development, GIS, and
social equity. She earned her BA in English and Pan
African Studies from California State University,
Northridge, and went on to earn both a master’s
degree in public policy and PhD in urban planning
from the School of Public Affairs at the University
of California, Los Angeles.
Keischa Irons
Graduate Research Associate
Keischa Irons works as a graduate research associate
with the Kirwan Institute. She received a bachelor of
arts degree in Africana Studies at the University of
Cincinnati in 2008 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in city and regional planning at Ohio
State. Her academic interests include cultural planning, economic development, and community planning. Keischa previously served with AmeriCorps of
Ohio at the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative providing research in the mentoring department.
Sarah Solarik
Administrative and Development Assistant
Sarah Solarik joined the Kirwan staff as an
administrative and development assistant in
September 2009. Sarah was with Kirwan prior to
that as a student assistant for the fiscal and human
resources manager and also worked for Ohio Public
Employees Retirement Systems. Her main focus in
Kirwan will be human resources, but she will also
be assisting with fiscal processing and assisting the
director of development. Sarah is a 2009 graduate of
The Ohio State University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, specializing
in labor and human resources.
Abigail St. Peter
Graduate Research Associate
Abigail St. Peter works as a graduate research
associate with the Kirwan Institute. She received
a bachelor of arts degree in urban and community
studies from the University of Connecticut in 2009
and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in city
and regional planning at Ohio State. Her academic
interests include sustainable development and
neighborhood revitalization.
UMC 09414
Eric Stiens
Research Associate
Eric Stiens returns to the Kirwan Institute from
St. Louis. He worked for the Kirwan Institute
from its opening in 2003 until 2005 and, prior
to that, at the Institute on Race and Poverty in
Minneapolis. He has a master’s degree in social
work from Washington University in St. Louis
where he focused on community development.
For the past two years, he has lived and worked
at a community center in inner-city St. Louis as a
program and development coordinator and has also
taught science to at-risk high school students in an
experiential-based learning program at the St. Louis
Science Center. He was the lead researcher on the
article “Dreaming of a Self Beyond Whiteness and
Isolation,” and a coauthor with others at the Kirwan
Institute on a book chapter on the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, “Towards a Transformative
View of Race: The Crisis and Opportunity of
Katrina.” He is particularly excited to be working on
projects surrounding the systems thinking initiative
at the Kirwan Institute, as well as the research and
organizing around ongoing Kirwan projects. His
research interests include systems science and racial
disparities, white privilege, program design/evaluation, and research design.
Angela Stuesse
Postdoctoral Researcher
Angela holds a postdoctoral research fellowship
at the Kirwan Institute. She has studied issues of
migration, identity, rights, and power in the U.S.
south and southwest, Mexico, Central America,
and Central West Africa. While at Kirwan she is
working on projects related to the institute’s African
American-Immigrant Alliances initiative. She
is also writing a book, Globalization “Southern
Style,” based on her research on Latino migration to rural Mississippi, the poultry industry, and
cross-racial worker organizing there. Her work has
been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Social
Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation, and the School for Advanced Research
(SAR), among others. Her publications include
articles in Human Organization, Latino Studies, and
Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, a chapter in
the 2009 edited volume, Latino Immigrants and the
Transformation of the U.S. South, and a handful of
more popular articles. Prior to coming to Kirwan,
Angela was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s Institute
for Research on Labor and Employment. She was
also a co-founder of MPOWER, a workers’ center in
Mississippi. She received her PhD in anthropology
and her MA in Latin American studies from the
University of Texas at Austin, and her BA in anthropology from the University of Florida.
Carlos Teel
Graduate Research Associate
Carlos Teel is a graduate research associate at
the Kirwan Institute. He is currently a secondyear graduate student in the Master’s of Public
Administration Program at the John Glenn School
of Public Affairs at Ohio State. Carlos previously
worked with the Kirwan Institute as a volunteer,
performing research for the African American Male
Initiative. He has interned with both the Children’s
Defense Fund and Community Research Partners in
Columbus. He holds bachelor’s degrees in political
science and sociology, also from Ohio State.
Caitlin Watt
Legal Research Associate
Caitlin is a legal research associate who joined the
staff at Kirwan as an intern during her second year
of law school in 2008. Before working at Kirwan,
Caitlin worked as a political organizer for the
Michigan Democratic Party in the 2004 election,
as an assistant to the state and local policy director at the AFL-CIO, and assisted with the United
Auto Workers’ organization of the Foxwood Casino
dealers. She received her BA from the University
of Michigan and her JD from Ohio State’s Moritz
College of Law, focusing her studies on civil rights,
criminal defense, and employment law. Charisma Acey
Keischa Irons
Sarah Solarik
Abigail St. Peter
Eric Stiens
Angela Stuesse
Carlos Teel
Caitlin Watt
15
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• Fostering critical and creative thinking on concepts about race and ethnicity
• Examining hierarchies and systems of control, domination, and oppression
• Exploring the interrelatedness of race and ethnicity to other foci such as gender and class
• Examining the cultural, economic, political, and social experiences of racial and ethnic minority groups
• Interrogating the material conditions of life and achievement among groups who are systematically marginalized
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