The Complexities of Race: Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving America PDF
Preview The Complexities of Race: Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving America
The Complexities of Race The Complexities of Race Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving America Edited by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York www.nyupress.org © 2021 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wijeyesinghe, Charmaine, 1958– editor. Title: The complexities of race : identity, power, and justice in an evolving America / edited by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe. Description: New York : New York University Press, [2021] | bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021009014 | ISBN 9781479801404 (hardback) | ISBN 9781479801411 (paperback) | ISBN 9781479801398 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479801435 (ebook other) Subjects: LCSH: Race awareness—United States. | Racism—United States. | Race discrimination—United States. | United States—Race relations. Classification: LCC E184.A1 C5754 2021 | DDC 305.800973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009014 New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli- ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook This book is dedicated to Bailey W. Jackson III, teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend whose work and wisdom placed me on this path thirty- five years ago and have guided me ever since Contents Introduction 1 Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe 1. The Day George Floyd Died: Change That Goes beyond Police Reform 13 William E. Cross Jr. 2. Who Gets to Choose? Racial Identity and the Politics of Choice 36 Marc P. Johnston- Guerrero 3. Naming the Problem: Epistemic Violence, Cognitive Maps, Relationships of Power, and Resistance in National Narratives about Belonging 56 Nancy López 4. Queer and Trans* People of Color Worldmaking as Subject Formation and Identity Development 83 Reginald A. Blockett and Kristen A. Renn 5. Race and Power in Transracial and Transnational Adoption: Historical Legacies, Current Issues, and Future Challenges 104 JaeRan Kim 6. How Did Black Folks Become Indians? What Lived Experiences Say about Belonging, Culture, and Racial Mixture in Native America 126 Robert Keith Collins 7. Racializing Faith: The Intersections of Racism and (White) Christian Hegemony 148 Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad and D- L Stewart 8. The Dangers of Being Too Certain: How White Desires for Racial Innocence Hinder Meaningful Racial Justice Work 172 Zak Foste vii viii | Contents 9. Islam and Hip Hop in Black America: Oral Tradition as Critical Liberatory Praxis 192 Amer F. Ahmed 10. Understanding and Responding to Resistance When Intersectionality Is Utilized to Address Race, Racism, and Racial Justice Work 216 Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe 11. Embracing the Complexities of Race, Racism, and Social Justice in Changing Times 240 Raechele L. Pope, Amy L. Reynolds, and Chazz Robinson Acknowledgments 267 About the Editor 269 About the Contributors 271 Index 277 Introduction Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe Race and racism provide key but complex lenses through which critical events and issues of any moment can be more fully understood. These lenses have been constructed by generations of policies and practices based on race, power, and inequality, such as miscegenation laws and legislation limiting access to education, employment, and housing. They adapt and change as new issues, causes, and laws emerge. Applying the lenses of race and racism to historical and contemporary events unveils significant and oftentimes troubling areas that call for inquiry, discus- sion, and action. For example, the public health crisis caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic revealed how the interconnections between poli- tics, power, and policies created and supported inequality based on race, geography, and class, and fostered conditions that in part determined who was more likely to contract the virus, receive sufficient and timely care, and in many cases live or die. The notable absence of the words “race” and “racism” in a nearly seven-m inute- long speech delivered by President Donald Trump on June 1, 2020, in response to nationwide pro- tests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, illustrated how race and racism can be front and center even when they are never named. The proposal of an item designed to ascer- tain the citizenship status of each resident of the United States by the Trump administration for the 2020 census calls out for the examina- tion of how nationality, citizenship status, race, and racism transcend the level of individual identity and interpersonal interactions, and rise to the level of policies that affect entire groups of people. It is becom- ing more urgent to examine how the contested subjects of legitimacy, ancestry, identity, and inclusion complicate the experiences of Indig- enous communities and people who are Multiracial or transracially and transnationally adopted. For these issues and many more, social media 1 2 | Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe and technology facilitate connections that foster community build- ing, coalitions, and racial justice as well as backlash, resistance, and the maintenance of white supremacy. In the foundational volume New Perspectives on Racial Identity De- velopment: A Theoretical and Practical Anthology (Wijeyesinghe and Jackson 2001, 2, emphasis added), Bailey Jackson and I noted that the “understanding of racial identity development is constantly evolving in response to social dynamics, ongoing research, and the fluidity of our understanding of both race and the experiences of racial groups in the United States.” Thus, any book centering the topics of race, racism, and their complexities “provides a view of the particular moment in the ever- changing social context related to race and racial identity in the United States.” In a sense, new perspectives will always be needed because the is- sues and forces of any period require, create, and feed them. In addition, the meaning and representation of the concepts that these perspectives draw upon, such as race, racial identity, racism, and racial justice, can be captured only momentarily within the changing social, cultural, politi- cal, and institutional landscapes of American life. Several contemporary dynamics both call for and inform the recon- sideration of race, racial identity, and racism by scholars, practitioners, and individuals and organizations involved in promoting racial justice. These factors include the increased focus on the interrelationship be- tween social identities (such as race, gender, and ability) and systems of inequality (such as racism, sexism, and ableism) that are influenced by changing contexts (Barker 2016; Harris and Poon 2019); the emer- gence of intersectionality as a core framework for evaluating identity theories, manifestations of inequality, and strategies addressing social oppression (Collins and Bilge 2016; Jones and Abes 2013; Wijeyesinghe 2019); and the use of critical and poststructural perspectives to inter- rogate foundational principles of identity development and oppression (Abes, Jones, and Stewart 2019; Jones and Stewart 2016; Torres, Jones, and Renn 2009). In addition, forces beyond academic and theoretical arenas fuel discussions and debates about race, identity, and racism in social, cultural, and political spaces. The very different presiden- tial terms of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the emergence and increasing impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, the changing racial and ethnic demographics of the United States, the increased use
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