Ethnic and Racial Studies

Ethnicity and machine politics

by Jerome Krase

This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.

Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victims and Victimizers

by Jerome Krase

This is a draft of an article published as “Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victimizers and Victims.” In The Review of Italian American Studies. 2000: 233-44.

In pursuit of the pagans: Muslim law in the English context

by Prakash Shah

Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the... more Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are being foregrounded. With the English case as the main focus, I further argue that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatisation’. Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place as a result of Muslims living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and are judged to be potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on Balagangadhara’s (2005) explanation of the ‘dynamic of religion’, I present these processes as an outcome of the collision of two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western.

Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe

by Prakash Shah

This MMG Working Paper 12-09 (Göttingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) is Co-authored with Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Publications include: Pluralism and the Politics of Difference: State, Culture, and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective, Clarendon Press (1998); editor of The Family in Question: Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural Europe, Amsterdam University Press (2008); co-editor of Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity, Ashgate (2009). Ralph Grillo is a member of the Advisory Group of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity at Göttingen.

During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a... more During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.

Beitar Jerusalem fans beat Jewish musician for protesting against their racism

by James M. Dorsey

By James M. Dorsey

Militant supporters of storied but controversial Beitar Jerusalem Football Club known... more By James M. Dorsey

Militant supporters of storied but controversial Beitar Jerusalem Football Club known for their anti-Palestinian, anti-Ashkenazi Jewish attitudes harassed and beat a middle-aged Jewish woman who objected to their anti-Arab slogans in the second such attack in less than a month, according to Haaretz newspaper.

Contrary to last month’s assault by the Beitar fans on Palestinian shoppers and workers in a Jerusalem mall, police launched an immediate investigation. The Israeli police force was heavily criticized for failing to initially intervene or investigation the mall incident.

The attacks as well as the police’s laxity have outraged many Israelis and raised questions about the moral fiber of a society that tolerates such incidents as well as a soccer club that is unashamedly racist.

Jerusalem musician Reli Margalit was attacked after she objected to dozens of  Beitar fans chanting anti-Arab slogans as they marched on Sunday to Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium for a match against Hapoel Acre that Beitar won 1:0.

"I heard cries of 'Death to the Arabs,' and since I was still incensed by the Malha Mall attack, I decided that I had to confront them now. I made a sign reading 'Down with Beitar's racism.' I believed that since I'm not a young woman and since I was alone, at worst it would come to curses, no more," Ms. Margalit told Haaretz.

Her assumption proved to be wrong. "Within seconds they surrounded me and started spitting at me. They took away my sign, and one of them - actually an older fan - hit me on the head with the pole of his flag. None of the fans protected me, and one girl showed up and tried to argue with me,” she said.

Police said they had escorted the militants for part of their march but had not heard racist slurs in the fans’ chants.

In a repeat of Beitar’s standard response to the racism of its most militant fans, spokesman Assaf Shaked said the team "cannot be responsible to all its supporters' actions."

Mounting Beitar fan aggression and violence is believed to stem from the growing influence among the club’s fans of a group known as La Familia that is dominated by supporters of Kach, the outlawed violent and racist party that was headed by assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane. Beitar’s management has so far failed to stymie the group’s influence.

The incidents occurred in what City University of New York scholar Dov Waxman described in a recent article in The Middle East Journal as an atmosphere of escalating tension between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. “Attitudes on both sides have hardened, mutual distrust has intensified, fear has increased, and political opinion has become more militant and uncompromising….Jews and Palestinians are currently on a collision course, with potentially severe consequences for their continued peaceful co-existence, as well as for stability and democracy in Israel,” Mr. Waxman wrote.

The incidents further highlight the failure of the Israeli Football Association (IFA), the only soccer body in the Middle East and North Africa to have launched a campaign against racism and discrimination, to rein in the Beitar fans and curb the club’s submission to its supporters’ racist attitudes. With  the worst disciplinary record in Israel’s Premier League, Beitar has faced since 2005 more than 20 hearings and has received various punishments, including point deductions, fines and matches behind closed doors because of its fans’ racist behaviour.

Beitar’s matches often resemble a Middle Eastern battlefield. It’s mostly Sephardic fans of Middle Eastern and North African origin, revel in their status as the bad boys of Israeli soccer. Their dislike of Ashkenazi Jews of East European extraction rivals their disdain for Palestinians.

Supported by Israeli right wing leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Beitar traces its roots to a revanchist Zionist youth movement. Its founding players actively resisted the pre-state British mandate authorities.

Beitar is Israel’s only leading club never to have signed an Israeli Palestinian player because of fan pressure despite the fact that Palestinians are among the country’s top players. Maccabi Haifa striker Mohammed Ghadir recently put Beitar on the spot when he challenged the club to hire him despite its discriminatory hiring policies. The club refused on the grounds that its fans were not willing to accept a Palestinian player.

Beitar fans shocked Israelis several years ago when they refused to observe a moment of silence for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initiated the first peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Book review: Racial Criminalization of Migrants in the 21st Century (edited by Salvatore Palidda) Ashgate 2010

by Giovanni Picker

Critical Sociology, vol. 38 no. 2, 333-335, 2012

Heel bone mass of a young South Indian population with a Nigerian population residing in a South Indian suburban neighborhood: a comparative study

by Anburajan Mariamichael

V. Sapthagirivasan & M. Anburajan, Osteoporos International, DOI 10.1007/s00198-012-1898-9, Online Published on 14th Feb'2012 (Impact Factor: 4.859)

Summary This cross-sectional cohort emphasized the impact
of heel bone mass in the South Indian population and... more Summary This cross-sectional cohort emphasized the impact
of heel bone mass in the South Indian population and
its comparison with Nigerian ethnicity, residing in South
India. Peak bone mass, however, evidenced a significant
decrease of around 30% compared to that of Nigerian
ethnicity.
Introduction In the South Indian population, the local folks
do not seem to be well informed about the relative association
of bone mass with osteoporosis. Hence, there is an
acute necessity to assess the same with respect to the ethnic
population, presumed to have possessed high bone mass, i.e.,
the Nigerian population.
Methods The calcaneus of the right foot was measured with
a quantitative ultrasound device (Sahara, Hologic Inc.,
USA) for a total population of 734, out of which 314 were
Indian males, 348 Indian females, 41 Nigerian males, and 30
Nigerian females, whose ages ranged from 18 to 35 years.
Results The peak bonemass in Indian males and females is
0.507±0.1 and 0.479±0.1 g cm−2, respectively, and it is
0.714±0.2 and 0.682±0.2 g cm−2 with regard to Nigerian
male and female populations, respectively. Indian males
and females who were within the age group of 26–30
and ≤20 years, respectively, represented high bone mass,
and the same was the situation with respect to Nigerian
counterparts who were within the age group of 21–25 years.
Indian and Nigerian non-vegetarian population of both the
genders demonstrated a high significance value of p<
0.000001, deciphered by means of unpaired t test.Conclusion Peak bone strength was dominant in the Nigerian
population compared to that of Indians. The Indian
population is approximately lagging by 28–30% with respect
to peak bone mass behind their Nigerian equivalents.
Indian non-vegetarian male and female populations lagged
by 6.15% and 6.16% behind the Indian vegetarian male and
female populations, respectively.

[2003] Jah People: The Cultural Hybridity of White Rastafarians

by Michael Loadenthal

[This was completed as my first undergraduate independent research in 2003. I am uploading it not because I think it is amazing scholarship, but rather to fit within the other two Rastafarian-themed papers already added.]

Cultural hybridity, the idea that all cultures are composed of elements and influences of other cultures, can be... more Cultural hybridity, the idea that all cultures are composed of elements and influences of other cultures, can be clearly seen in white Rastas’ defiance towards traditional racial roles. While we hold Rastafarian culture in one hand, and white culture in the other, we can clearly see two distinct cultures. But what happens when a white person interacts with a culture that is not their norm? How has Rastafarian thought evolved as to allow whites a role in their movement? What does a culture of white Rastafarians look and feel like? Throughout this study these questions will be explored, and it will be argued that the creation of a white, Rastafarian, hybrid culture was made possible through globalization, the deterritorialization of Rastafari and an inherent fluidity found in Rastafari. Gradually changing views on race, aided by the turbulent political atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s allowed for whites to become active members in this historically black movement.

The Japanese Internment and the Racial State of Exception

by Fred Lee

Theory & Event 10.1 (2007)

Historical accounts of the Japanese internment often turn on the question of whether the rights of Japanese Americans... more Historical accounts of the Japanese internment often turn on the question of whether the rights of Japanese Americans were justifiably sacrificed to military necessity or were unjustifiably violated by racism. My analysis cuts through this normative question with the political theory of Carl Schmitt, theorizing the internment as a succession of sovereign decisions on the friend/enemy distinction that coincided with a racial state of exception from which a state project of racial assimilation emerged. In the sovereign decision on the state of exception, the state declared the ‘unassimilated’ and ‘dangerous’ Japanese American to be the racial enemy. The camp leave clearance policies then rearticulated the friend/enemy distinction in the state’s attempt to assimilate the ‘loyal’ Japanese Americans into the wartime society as racial friends. This emergency project aimed at the restoration of the ‘normal’ situation by striving to unify the liberal-democratic state as a nation of homogeneous people.

Understanding Somalia through the Prism of Bantu Jareer Literature

by Mohamed Eno

In Ali J. Ahmed and Taddesse Adera, eds., The Road Less Traveled:
Reflections on the Literatures of the Horn of Africa.

This essay intends to touch briefly on the comparative cultures between Somalia and some of the communities in the... more This essay intends to touch briefly on the comparative cultures between Somalia and some of the communities in the neighboring countries. Second, the essay discusses the culture and literature of the Bantu Jareer, and their "thought and knowledge," which Sorokin calls "the very essence of civilization." To embark on this journey, we must unlearn much of what has been said of the Jareer, in particular, and of Somali culture in general. This is important if we are to discover what constitutes the aesthetics of Jareer history, literary art, social culture and thought. This act of unlearning what is committed to the official collective memory of the Somali demythologizes what I call "monoculturality of the camel complex" so pervasive in discussions of Somali culture. It is an act also that will help us uncover the Jarrer's "...tool of self-definition in relation to others."-Wa Thiong'o.

Equality, Self Respect and Voluntary Separation

by Michael Merry

A Tale of Two Minorities: The State of the Gaboye and Bantu Communities of Somalia

by Mohamed Eno

Co-authored with Omar A. Eno; In Michael Mbanaso and Chima Korieh (Eds.) Minorities and the State in Africa, Cambria Press Inc., (2010)

Millward, P. (2008) ‘Rivalries and Racisms: ‘Closed’ and ‘open’ Islamophobic dispositions amongst football supporters’ Sociological Research Online 13 (6)

by Peter Millward

McLaughlin, E and Murji, Karim (2001). Ways of seeing: the news media and racist violence. In: May, M; Brunsdon, E and Page, R eds. Understanding Social Problems,. Oxford: Blackwell.

by Karim Murji

France and the unknown second generation: preliminary results on social mobility

by Patrick Simon

Extrapolating Revolution in Who Fears Death and District 9

by Frederic Derose-Jacques

Eastern European Jewish Heritage: Adapting Old World Traditions with a Modern World through Storytelling, Artifacts, and Place-making

by Megan Sharpless

Presented paper at the 2011 Midwest Popular Culture/ American Culture Association Conference; Jewish Studies Panel, October 14-16, 2011.

This ethnographic interview examines culturally specific dimensions related to being raised in the Midwest by... more This ethnographic interview examines culturally specific dimensions related to being raised in the Midwest by Yiddish-speaking parents with an Old World ethos. The use of linguistic anthropology can be instrumental in exploring the modern ethnic fusion of Old World traditions in the New World, offering analyses and understanding to mysticism, place-making and material culture which links the past to the present day. Central to this study is placing the subject in a broader linguistic anthropological and cultural framework. Formal ethnographic documentation of first-generation immigration stories provides answers pertaining to intergenerational culture change as well as expands knowledge of American Jewish subculture today. Research questions addressed in the participant interview are relevant to the cultural dichotomy of the Old and New Worlds and how these cultural phenomena continue to reproduce and reinforce language, customs, and storytelling tradition in ethnic American families today. Research mediums such as anthropological linguistics, ethnography, and narrative can heighten awareness of the Jewish cultural-socio-historical experience.

Dynamics of the Political Alliances of Black Elected Officials in Three Local Governance Bodies in Austin, Texas

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Henderson, Don D., "Dynamics of the Political Alliances of Black Elected Officials in Three Local Governance Bodies in Austin, Texas" (1997). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 228.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/228

Fanon and the Négritude Movement

by Cynthia Nielsen

currently under editorial review

Frantz Fanon recounts how his subjectivity as colonized other was constructed and how a politics of white assimilation... more Frantz Fanon recounts how his subjectivity as colonized other was constructed and how a politics of white assimilation contributed to his self-fragmentation. While cognizant of the social forces at play in systemic racialized contexts, Fanon, nonetheless, refuses to deny a black person’s agency. Fanon’s insistence that the oppressed retain their ability to act as free agents and to resist and (re)configure their subjectivity has political, ethical, and philosophical import, as it highlights the fact that the subjugated are not mere things determined from the outside. To the contrary, just as several contingent factors coalesced to create the historical situation in which the colonized subject finds herself, other equally contingent factors—including the oppressed engaging in intentional subversive acts and resistance strategies—can emerge and help to bring about socio-political transformations. Moreover, Fanon, like his teacher Aimé Césaire, understood that the process of decolonization and subject re-narration would occur over a period of time and in various stages. By studying Fanon’s complex relationship to the Négritude movement and by highlighting his appropriation and critique of its themes and variations, Fanon’s resistance tactics come into sharper focus. That is, contrary to worries of Fanon promoting a reactionary racialized essentialism, I argue that Fanon’s employment of essentialized narratives can be interpreted as a variant of (what Spivak calls) strategic essentialism. In short, Fanon, like Césaire, understood that different historical moments require different resistance strategies. His recognition of the need to adopt for a time essentialized narratives for therapeutic and upbuilding purposes, coupled with his understanding of the productive nature of socially constructed identities signals a movement beyond a mere reactionary response still trapped within a binary Manichean framework.

“HISTORIA DE UNA DISCRIMINACIÓN: LOS AFRODESCENDIENTES EN MÉXICO (SIGLOS XVI-XIX)”

by Marco Perez

This article was published in: Olivia Gall (Coord.) "El Derecho a la No Discriminación = Todos los Derechos para Todos", Mexico: Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir A.C, 2009, 1112 pp.