SOCIAL JUSTICE – Page 14

Should architecturally significant low-income housing be preserved?

8Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Should architecturally significant low-income housing be preserved?

This past January, in Buffalo, New York, the second phase of demolition for a low-income housing complex called Shoreline Apartments commenced. A 1974 photograph of Buffalo’s Shoreline Apartments. George Burns/National Arcvhives at College Park The property owner had long wanted to replace the crumbling buildings. Residents also sought a safer and more welcoming living space that better blended in with the rest of the neighborhood. It sounds like a win-win for all parties. But Shoreline, designed by famed architect Paul Rudolph, had been considered an exemplar of modern architecture in the Western New York area. For this reason, local preservationists wanted to landmark the complex – and save it from the wrecking ball. As historic preservation scholars, we were drawn to this controvers...

There are many leaders of today’s protest movement – just like the civil rights movement

8Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

There are many leaders of today’s protest movement – just like the civil rights movement

The recent wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism has inspired numerous comparisons with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Commentators frequently depict the charismatic leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in sharp contrast with the decentralized and seemingly leaderless nature of the current movement. Despite the efforts of activists and historians to correct this “leaderless” image, the notion persists. Such comparisons reflect the cultural memory – not the actual history – of the struggle for Black equality. Heroic struggle led by charismatic men Through collective remembering and forgetting, societies build narratives of the past to create a shared identity – what scholars refer to as cultural memory. The civil rights movement is...

Muslim Americans assert solidarity with Black Lives Matter, finding unity within a diverse faith group

1Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Muslim Americans assert solidarity with Black Lives Matter, finding unity within a diverse faith group

The killing of George Floyd took place at the doorstep of Muslim America. He was killed in front of Cup Foods, a store owned by an Arab American Muslim, whose teenage employee – also a Muslim – had earlier reported to police that Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Muslim American businesses are common in lower-income areas, such as the part of Minneapolis where Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck. And as the writer Moustafa Bayoumi has noted, this puts stores in a precarious position – catering for the community while also duty-bound to report crime to the police, sometimes under the threat of being closed down if they don’t comply. As a Muslim scholar of Islam who has written about the role of Muslims in the making of the United States, I recog...

Studies of Other Countries Show Truth-Telling Leads to Racial Healing

29Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Studies of Other Countries Show Truth-Telling Leads to Racial Healing

As the U.S. prepares to celebrate another year of its independence, the country is paying renewed attention to the founders, and how their legacy of slavery is linked to systemic racism. Calls for reform to policing across the nation can help to directly reduce police violence against civilians but don’t address the centuries-old underlying problems in American society. Our research indicates that the country is not likely to escape its historic cycles of violence and racial oppression without addressing this painful and troubled history. Sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, protests have emerged across the United States demanding police and criminal justice reform. Reform efforts abound—including Minneapolis city councilors declaring they will d...

Sexual Violence And The Confederate Flag

26Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Sexual Violence And The Confederate Flag

As a Black woman born in Louisiana, I was elated by NASCAR’s and the U.S. Navy and Marine’s decision to ban the Confederate flag because those are three fewer places where a flag that represents systematic torture is flown. Supporters of the stars and bars love to argue that the flag stands for rebellion, and that flying the flag is not “about slavery,” but about the pride of being from the South. However, the flag makes me think of something else: violence—sexual violence, in particular. It reminds me of Sam, Louisa, Ann, Henrietta, and Florence, who refused to let their trauma die in silence. Sam and Louisa Everett did not have a beautiful floral June wedding. Louisa, on her wedding day, did not wear a white dress with flowers decorating her hair. Sam did not wear a nice suit. There wa...

John C. Calhoun Authorities are yanking the legacy of the slaveholder but his bigotry remains embedded in American society

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, SOCIAL JUSTICE

John C. Calhoun Authorities are yanking the legacy of the slaveholder but his bigotry remains embedded in American society

When I toured the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion in 2019, I noticed the multi-volume papers of John C. Calhoun on display. It struck me as remarkable that Calhoun’s ideas would be featured so prominently given his vigorous defense of slavery and his role in laying the groundwork for the Civil War. But the reality is Calhoun’s legacy until now has been quite prominent in American society – and not just in the South. His statue stands between the two chambers of the House and Senate in the South Carolina Statehouse. However, a separate statue in Charleston has been removed from the town square following nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd during an encounter with police. The statue had stood for 124 years just a block from Mother Emanuel Church, site of the horrif...

22Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Pandemic-Induced Voter Suppression

Voting rights have always been inconsistently applied. Now the coronavirus pandemic is threatening those rights even more, and activists are pushing back. Georgia’s mid-June primary was the latest example of pandemic-induced voter suppression. Long lines at polling stations stretched for blocks and blocks as socially distanced voters waited for several hours to vote in person. In Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is the state’s most populated county, some voters waited past midnight to cast their ballot. Scenes like the one in Georgia—and Wisconsin before that—have ignited a national conversation about voting by mail. In response, President Trump has claimed that voting by mail “will lead to massive fraud” and favor the Democratic Party. Notably, Twitter even placed a fact-checkin...

George Floyd protests aren’t just anti-racist – they are anti-authoritarian

22Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

George Floyd protests aren’t just anti-racist – they are anti-authoritarian

The massive protests that erupted across the United States – and beyond – after the police killing of George Floyd are billed as anti-racist mobilizations, and that they are. Demonstrators are denouncing police violence in minority communities and demanding that officers who abuse their power be held accountable. But I see something more in this wave of American protests, too. As a sociologist specializing in Latin America’s human rights movements and policing, I see a pro-democracy movement of the sort more common south of the border. The Latin Americanization of United States Normally, U.S. protests have little in common with Latin America’s. Demonstrations in the U.S. are usually characterized by pragmatic, specific goals like protecting abortion access or defending gun rights. They r...

Latest legal hurdle to removing Confederate statues in Virginia: The wishes of their long-dead white donors

19Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Latest legal hurdle to removing Confederate statues in Virginia: The wishes of their long-dead white donors

A controversial statue of Robert E. Lee will remain in place in Richmond, the former capital of the American Confederacy –- at least temporarily. On June 18, a judge extended an injunction barring the removal of the Confederate general’s statue, stating that “the monument is the property of the people,” not the state of Virginia, which seeks its removal. In early June Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam vowed to dismantle the prominent Lee statue in Richmond, the state capital, following sustained, nationwide protests over police brutality and racism. That plan was blocked by a 10-day court injunction – now extended through late July – based on the petition of a man whose ancestor, Otway Allen, gave Virginia the land the the sculpture sits on. In his petition, William C. Gregory claimed that di...

Land loss has plagued black America since emancipation – is it time to look again at ‘black commons’ and collective ownership?

19Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Land loss has plagued black America since emancipation – is it time to look again at ‘black commons’ and collective ownership?

Underlying the recent unrest sweeping U.S. cities over police brutality is a fundamental inequity in wealth, land and power that has circumscribed black lives since the end of slavery in the U.S. The “40 acres and a mule” promised to formerly enslaved Africans never came to pass. There was no redistribution of land, no reparations for the wealth extracted from stolen land by stolen labor. June 19 is celebrated by black Americans as Juneteenth, marking the date in 1865 that former slaves were informed of their freedom, albeit two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Coming this year at a time of protest over the continued police killing of black people, it provides an opportunity to look back at how black Americans were deprived of land ownership and the economic power that it bring...