 |
| Rashad Shabazz, Arizona State University Photo: R. Shabazz through MPR News. |
For instance, the migration of black populations from the South to the North that shows with data how the rail-trains paths available at the time yielded a migration to certain US states that have the biggest African American populations congregated and at the same time segregated. Followed by all the facts about how these segregation came to be in the form of home-loans denials and access to finance aids from the government, and thus, to a devaluation of the homing possibilities of this population. It is all so powerful and clear how space mobility and space restrictions and segregation came to be and still happens.
After listening to his podcast it got me thinking of how much this historical abuse perpetrated by white privileged power is a social and cultural scar that far for being healed is still very much alive, and how white privilege ideology is still so much in place culturally but also institutionally through the government and private sector practices. It actually got me thinking too, after hearing this podcast, that in the name of white-privilege power, the African Americans in the US are owed a historical apology for their historical oppression - beyond slavery- to the black citizens and communities all together.
It also got me thinking how current US immigration policies are a reflection of this same kind of discrimination and segregation to the ones that are seen as "the other", as the ones whose bodies are "less valuable" and not susceptible to be "defended or taken care of" (as Shabazz explains it in relation to black bodies in their representation of the white-privileged). This is a key point made by Shabazz about what is behind all these discrimination and segregation, which is currently occurring nowadays in most of the world with immigrants from other countries that are seen as the "defeated" or the "weak" in this twisted "social darwinian" mind framework. This is also something that happens within countries with their own migrants, for instance in Peru, this happens with Indigenous People from the Amazon as well with indigenous people from the mountains when they migrate to the capital (economic and political capital), and also even in their own national territories where Western neoliberalism supported by the government in the form of licenses granted to perform extractives activities that harm these populations' own habitat and wellbeing.
 |
| 'Baguazo' is how it has come to be known the clashes between Indigenous People in Peru and police officers in 2009 that resulted in the killings of 33 people and more than 150 wounded. Photo: Canal N. |
In all, I believe that these kind of practices that are so ingrained in society's culture, and validated and promoted by economic and political powers, can only be overcome sometime with a deep and extended social work to appeal to people's empathy towards others and acknowledgement of "the other" - seen differently or as "less" than the hegemonic powers - as the same as everyone else, with same rights as persons; but also a most needed change of the hegemonic social and cultural ideology of 'success' equated to materialistic success in a Western-development (mostly economic) fashion. These are extended and very much even unconscious ways of thinking about us and the others that are very hard to change if it is not with a process that entails all layers of society, but unfortunately with slim chance of efficacy since these neoliberal and capitalist values are invisible and the perpetuated by everything we do and the ways we live by in todays Western or Westernized societies.
Links:
I found this article on the Starbucks' affair in 2018 that relates to what Shabazz talks about:
https://time.com/5292177/starbucks-bias-training-history-geography-race/
I also found his book if someone wants to further knowledge on his research:
https://www.amazon.com/Spatializing-Blackness-Architectures-Confinement-Masculinity/dp/0252081145
Finally, if someone might be interested in a case study in Peru where indigenous people from the Amazon and police officers were killed (2009)due to the indigenous people's protest for the government trying to impose extractive activities in their territories without being consulted, some journalist colleagues and I made this film documentary on this. https://vimeo.com/70404070
Further context information can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Peruvian_political_crisis
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteClaudia,
ReplyDeleteYour point on the space-place confinement of Blacks and how it gives justification for discrimination reminded me of Dave Chappelle’s most recent stand-up comedy special on Netflix, “Sticks & Stones”. Dave Chappelle matched up reactions to the contemporary opioid crisis that is currently taking place in White spaces and places and the crack epidemic that lasted from early 1980s to early 1990s and took place in Black spaces and places. Dave said he lives in Ohio and that he has insights on “how the white community must have felt watching the Black community go through the scourge of crack, because I don’t care either. Hang in there whites. Just say no. What’s so hard about that?” I thought, wow, Dave’s comment is sure to receive backlash. But, the crack epidemic was a period where discrimination and space had severe implications for Blacks. And considering how people in political power, the federal government, and law enforcement handled the crack epidemic, Dave’s point, deserves some level of serious consideration.
I found a YouTube video, where, in 2016, CNN interviewed Ruben Castaneda, a journalist who covered the crack epidemic and follows the current opioid crisis. In the interview, Castaneda was asked if there’s a difference in the race and ethnicity of the drug users. He responded that “the crack epidemic was associated with Black and Latino addiction” in the inner-city, while the victims of the opioid crisis are whites in suburban and rural areas. He went beyond his demographic description when he said that during the crack epidemic, a federal law punished “people with crack cocaine versus powder” severely and that these people were young men who “were not even accused of any violent acts. They were just a part of a drug crew and they got federal charges.” As a result, many were imprisoned for twenty to thirty years, which resulted in mass incarceration and a vacancy of young men in inner-city neighborhoods. He then claimed that congress was currently attempting to pass a bill that would implement a yearly sum of four point five billion dollars over ten years, so that state drug programs could combat the opioid crisis. Castaneda claimed that the response was different because people in power like politicians “empathize with someone who reminds them of themselves.” He developed this point further when he said that former Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and Carly Fiorina all had friends and family members who were addicted to opioids and “have, perhaps, a greater natural empathy.” This is in contrast to how, in reaction to the crack epidemic, President George H.W. Bush declared a war on drugs on national television.
All of this reminds me of how in class we talked about how decisions, actions, and beliefs that stem from white privilege are normalized, unquestioned, and supported by institutions. This matched well with your point about how practices (how the crack epidemic was handled the federal government and law enforcement) are ingrained in society’s culture and are validated by those with political power (the war on drug by President Bush). White privilege is still a concept new to me that I’m trying to understand, but, clearly, white privilege played a role in both these drug epidemics. The moral solution lies in your comment that “the other” or, bodies deemed less valuable than hegemonic powers, should be deemed with the same value, consideration, protections, and rights. This sentiment would have made the crack epidemic a public health issue rather than a problem that could be remedied by the criminal justice system.
Sources:
Dave Chappelle’s comparison of the crack epidemic and opioid crisis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuN_wRlBpn4&list=PLcO0bNs-7eqJrldysb6YWjHu7sStUEgLh&index=6
CNN Interview with Ruben Castaneda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ckmVSSgsc&list=PLcO0bNs-7eqJrldysb6YWjHu7sStUEgLh&index=8&t=122s
This comment is from Ritika:
ReplyDeleteClaudia, thank you so much for your insightful blog post. Reading your thoughts on racial justice being closely related to spatiality and the comment you make about reparations. I also wanted to share this excellent article on the case for reparations: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
I think it wonderfully encapsulates the whole argument about reparations, and it also then makes me wonder that what is the stake of spatial justice in retrospective actions like this. There continue to be such deep rooted racial segregations in cities, so how would reparations look like for them. Maybe, as we discussed in the last class the idea about accounting for spatial justice in future urban planning is a step in that direction.