Kirwan Update March/April 2010 by Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Kirwan Update

March/April 2010

The Power of Intersectionality: Reflections on Getting Arrested, Teaching, and DISCO Judy Tzu-Chun Wu Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies and Co-coordinator of the Asian American Program at The Ohio State University

I became a scholar and teacher of intersectionality because I was arrested in college. Or, perhaps I chose to be arrested because I believed in the power of intersectionality. I am a member of the 1.5 generation. I was born in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, but at the age of six, I immigrated with my family to Spokane, Washington. I grew up helping my parents run labor-intensive businesses, first a restaurant and then a convenience store. When I left to attend college at Stanford University, my parents wanted me to major in pre-med. I became a student activist instead. It began with a racially motivated attack against the African American theme dorm, a residence hall where students of all backgrounds could learn about black history and culture. Even though I was not living there, the attack reminded me of the harassment and discrimination that my family experienced in the predominantly white community of Spokane. I decided to do something that could help change the racial environment at Stanford. I worked with people of varying backgrounds—white, black, Chicano/a, Native American, Asian American, and international students—to advocate for more courses that examined race and inequality. We also called for more institutional support for ethnic student service centers so that students of color might feel more at home on the college campus.

Leadership Notes

I believed that if all students were exposed to the diversity of American society, they might learn to treat each other with more respect and hopefully work towards creative solutions to alter inequalities. We met with numerous faculty, staff, and administrators, submitted petition after petition, organized rallies, and eventually decided to occupy the president’s office as an act of civil disobedience. We were arrested. And, as a result, we succeeded in persuading the university to hire the first faculty members in Asian American Studies, conduct a review of the African American Studies Program, provide more funding and a full-time dean for the Chicano Student Center, and reexamine the eligibility of Native Hawaiians for affirmative action programs. Although these events occurred over half of my lifetime ago, they remain formative for my intellectual, political, and personal development. My research, teaching, and university service foreground the intersectional analysis of race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and other forms of difference. By intersectionality, I mean the ways in which categories of social difference and inequality are constructed, interconnected, and mutually defined. This quarter, I have the good fortune to be teaching a course on this topic. The class is exploring subjects that range from the racialized nature of sexuality and the sexualized nature of race; the connections between sexual violence, American conquest, and Native sovereignty; the medical management of disability and race, as well (continued on page 3)

INSIDE: Feature Articles • International Perspectives • Race-Talk • Media Update • Housing Policy/ GIS Update • Book Discussion: Rising Road, by Sharon Davies • Call for Papers • Institute Events • Kirwan Work Affects Recent Decisions

Many commentators noted that the 2008 presidential campaign brought much needed attention to issues of race and gender in the United States. Fewer observed that it also Andrew Grant-Thomas revealed how far we have to go before we fully grasp the continuing significance of race and gender as categories and constituents of meaning and opportunity. It took 56 elections and 219 years before we saw a presidential campaign featuring a nonwhite candidate or a woman with a real chance of winning the office. When it finally happened, some falsely concluded that the strength of the Obama and Clinton candidacies signaled an end to non-whiteness and femaleness as constraints on political aspiration. I’m also talking about how, for much of the media and the public, race and gender rose to view only with the emergence of an African American and a woman as top candidates. As if the overwhelming predominance of white male candidates through our history; the success of the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy”; the prominence of issues such as abortion, crime, guns, equal rights for women, and the role and size of government; the demographics of party support—as if these and many other longstanding realities of U.S. political life have nothing to do with race and gender (and class, power, age, sexuality norms, and more, besides)! (continued on page 2)

Leadership Notes

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At the Kirwan Institute we try to account for the interplay of race and gender in various ways, though we have much more work to do in that regard. The forthcoming issue of our journal, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, is titled “Intersections of Race and Gender.” There we will explore implications of race and gender across the globe and the dynamics and consequences that meet at those intersections. How do race and gender intersect with each other to mediate access to social opportunity? What is the relationship between gender and racial discrimination? By what logics has the intersection of “female” and racial/ethnic “other” as identities so often resulted in the formation of a subclass rendered marginal and even expendable? Where data allow, our opportunity analyses report outcomes by race-and-gender. It is one thing to know that single-mother families are much more likely than samerace single-father families to live in poverty. It is another to find that in 2008 the poverty rate for single-mother families ranged from 16 and 22 percent for Asian Americans and whites, respectively, to 41 percent for African American and Latino families. We are complementing our

update of the research literature on African American males with empirical work on African American girls, with emphasis on the factors that account for some girls’ resiliency in the educational context. Our evolving work on systems thinking and structural racism and racialization suggests that outcomes for individuals and groups depend largely on inter-institutional and systemic dynamics. It also highlights how the very meanings assigned to race, gender, and race-and-gender are given content largely through those dynamics. This is important, exciting work, but we cannot afford to feel satisfied. Those of us working on issues of racial equity and justice too often nod rhetorically to the importance of “intersectional” analyses rather than doing work that reflects its importance. If we do not do better, then in 10 years, or 20, or 50, another presidential election may find our children again celebrating a milestone while drawing too many of the wrong conclusions.

Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director

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 stanley.140@osu.edu.

Contributing Staff Editors Kathy Baird, Director of Communications Philip Kim, Assistant Editor

kirwaninstitute.org

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 United States, but also on the Americas and our larger global community. Our primary focus is to increase general understanding that, despite many differences, human destinies are intertwined. Thus, the institute explores and illustrates both 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 factors, such as gender, class, and culture, and how these are embedded in structures and systems. Collaboration with other institutions and organizations around the world and ongoing relationships with real people, real communities, and real issues are a vital part of its work. The institute employs many approaches to fulfilling its mission: original research, publications, comparative analyses, surveys, convenings, and conferences. It is part of a rich intellectual community and draws upon the insight and energy of the faculty and students at Ohio State. 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 Power of Intersectionality

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as how individuals navigate these restrictions on their bodies and psyches; and the impact of globalization on the labor and lives of immigrant women. The class is a joy to teach. In my 12 years at Ohio State, this course is the most diverse in terms of the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of the students. It is not just the subject matter that might attract students of different backgrounds. The institutional location of the course is a key factor. Crosslisted among three departments, the class enrolls students through African American and African Studies, Comparative Studies, and Women’s Studies. Consequently, the students have a range of intellectual perspectives as well as diverse life experiences. Both inform the ways they interpret the readings and engage with one another. I look forward to every class session because our discussions are so rich. The students also recognize the unique learning environment that we are creating together. When I recently asked for their feedback about the class, one student shared: “This is the most diverse class I’ve been in so it is interesting to hear everyone’s stories and ideas.” This type of invigorating, cross-disciplinary, intersectional community is what I hope to help create through DISCO (the Diversity and Identity Studies Collective at OSU). We’re not trying to bring back the music and clothing of the disco era, although I confess to purchasing an ABBA greatest hits CD after watching Mamma Mia! over the winter break. Rather, DISCO is trying to foster intellectual and institutional collaboration across eight academic units: African American and African Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Comparative Ethnic and American Studies, Disability Studies, Latino/a Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Women’s Studies. This effort is rather unprecedented, and not only for Ohio State. Other institutions have comparative ethnic studies programs that bring together fields that focus on racialization, migration, and empire. Women’s and Sexuality Studies also tend to be partnered fields because of their mutual interest in the social construction of gender and sexuality.

DISCO is groundbreaking because it seeks to expand beyond even these complex intellectual formations. We are interested in understanding how multiple categories of difference—race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and nation—are interconnected. We also are invested in making visible and analyzing the power of “normality,” whether it is defined through whiteness, masculinity, heterosexuality, or able-bodiedness. It is not an easy process to form collaborations across our fields. While we have overlapping interests, we also have divergent intellectual origins, trajectories, and priorities. In addition, we exist at a university that, despite pronouncements of supporting interdiscipinarity, actually encourages departmental and unit competition. There also is the unfortunate tendency to pay lip service to diversity initiatives without offering the resources, infrastructure, and vision to truly change the university. On top of all this, Ohio State, like the rest of this country, is facing uncertain economic times. In spite of these obstacles, we are finding allies and support from a variety of sources, including the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities as well as the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

Creating institutional space for new intellectual endeavors can be a long, frustrating process. What compels me and others to continue, though, is the belief that the intellectual communities that we are forming have transformative potential. I am partnering with my students and colleagues to collectively analyze and hopefully begin to address some of the most challenging and pressing problems of our time. As one of my students explained: “Intersectionality… sheds light on how intertwined we are socially, sexually, and racially. It also displays how the…ills of our society are the responsibility of everyone if we are to bring about change and healing.” My thanks to Ebisende Akah (a senior in Actuarial Science) and Nkrumah Pollard (a senior in African American and African Studies) for allowing me to share their reflections about the Intersections course. Also a big hug to Debra Moddelmog for her advice about this article and for her dedicated leadership. DISCO sponsored a public symposium titled “Collaborating Across Social Differences” on February 19 at the Frank W. Hale, Jr. Black Cultural Center. For more information, please see: drupal.asc. ohio-state.edu/disco/events/WI2010.

Feature

American Girlhood Mary E. Thomas Departments of Geography and Women’s Studies at The Ohio State University

The day I contacted a high school principal in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles about the possibility of doing research with teenage girls at her school, a large fight broke out on campus. The fight occurred over the lunch period and was primarily a racial conflict between boys. As best guess, several hundred Armenian and Latino students battled each other in the center of campus where their segregated turfs met. The LAPD was summoned, the school was locked down, and students were allowed to leave only in groups of two to three under police escort, several hours later. Thrown trash cans, scattered litter, and the mess of hurled food—from milk and chicken patties to bananas—left the school campus in complete disarray. According to one girl, over 700 students stayed away from school the next day to avoid a feared retaliatory fight (a false fear, as it turned out). Many parents did not allow their children to return to school for several days, although a mostly regular routine quickly reestablished itself. I spoke to 26 girls shortly after the “riot,” as it came to be known by students, school officials, and the press. Overwhelmingly, each of the girls denounced the outbreak of racist violence at their school, calling for multicultural understanding and peaceful co-existence. The typical refrain, “why can’t we just get along,” became an easily articulated response to the fight by many girls. The girls I interviewed vociferously insisted that boys’ racialized fighting was to blame, and they simply decried that it was “stupid.” Yet, their manifest narratives on “getting along” masked their own investments in the social orders of racial, class, and gender-sexual difference. At the same time as pleading for racial harmony, sometimes even in the very next breath, the girls also overwhelmingly articulated racist resentment and detailed their extremely segregated social practices at school and in the city. Very few girls I met had a close friendship with a girl of another race. When they did have friends of other ethnicities/races at school, they did not hang out together at home or in the city; there were only two exceptions out of the 26 girls. The girls were uncritical of the often racist and misogynist beliefs embedded in their stories of school and everyday life, yet these stories are deeply instructive because they illustrate the confounding aspects of their

subjectivities. I argue that this simultaneous articulation of both racism and racial peacemaking by the girls presents a contradiction inherent in the processes of being a subject. My work explores the importance of these sorts of contradictions and displacements, those that constitute the racial, sexual, and gendered relationships that the girls described to me in our conversations. Pronouncing commitments to multicultural understanding while detailing the faults of other-raced girls, and enforcing segregated spaces of racial and class differences while lamenting the personal confinements of racial segregation—both illustrate the paradoxes of racial and gender identification and provoke a serious need to reconsider the processes and practices of girls’ identities. In one aspect of my work, I focus on girls’ narratives about family life and I suggest that focusing solely on the spaces of the high school—or its urban scene—naively insinuates that youth act only in the moment of their spatial locale. Of course, the temporality of a contingent spatial identification is insistent in the moment. Youth may, for example, explain a fight in the moment of the outbreak of that violence. Perhaps, as with the reasons girls give for the fight’s beginning, these include just “stupid boys” acting out in the moment, a flare that exploded. The contingent spatial identity of that moment, according to the girls’ depictions of how the fight started, would be as a warrior trying to protect “the women,” or the girl-supporter cheering on “the men,” at the border between racial turfs. Again, these explanations are specific to the spatiality

This simultaneous articulation of both racism and racial peacemaking by the girls presents a contradiction inherent in the processes of being a subject. and particular context of the immediate moment. Yet, I argue, confining an analysis to just that space at only that moment neglects an understanding of how those identifications and practices became possibilities to the youth in the first place. Race and its spaces are not born as instantaneous sparks or created from essentialism inherent in the subject, despite whether youth think so. Rather, the spatiality and temporality of the subject are both long and unconsciously effective, not merely discernible. In other words, subjects’ relationships, formed in particular times and contexts, mold identification through their long social and personal contingency, like those formed through family relationships and international migrations. More than merely providing a case study about the instabilities of teenage violence and feminine angst, and ending up with various “correctional” responses that schools could engage to control youth, my work attempts to provide a way to think more complexly about who the city is and who youth are that make up its school

populations. Approaching these questions is an important maneuver, since many urban and educational programs and policies have an implicit answer to it that is problematic and assumed, rather than theorized and explored through research and theory on the complicated ways that social differences work on and through the subject. Thus, my aim is less to extend lessons for “dealing with youth” in public urban schools and urban spaces, and more about contributing to conversations about how subjectivity and social difference affect the city subject. This matters for urban people at all ages, not just teenage girls. It certainly matters for schools driven by racial strife and violence. Given my research, I think the spatial complexity and subjective contradictions involved in racial, feminine, and sexual identifications and practices make it impossible to take a spoken agency for racial harmony, or a feminine commitment to peace and harmony, for granted. We cannot assume that progressive identities are simply potential sources for progressive feminist or urban politics. Nor can identities be assumed to operate unilaterally or discretely in practice; social differences rely on their conscious and unconscious inter-articulation for their production. To confront racial violence without an attention to the sexual and gender investments spurring it would result in a failure to address its remarkable complexities. To assume that conflicts in one space are uninformed by the multiple spaces of the subject would do the same.

International Perspectives When a Khaki Trouser Shakes a Regime: A Story of Women’s Struggles in Sudan Elsadig Elsheikh Research Associate

n Sudan last September, a single woman’s preference for wearing a loose khaki trouser brought the government’s legitimacy into question. When Lubna Hussein, a 34-year-old Sudanese journalist, decided to stand in the face of one of the oldest forms of discrimination—gender inequality—the entire regime was in disarray, looking for a place to hide from her single question: where is my right as a human being, as a woman? The case of Lubna Hussein goes back to July 2009 when she was arrested with 13 other young women in a café in Khartoum by the Sudanese police. The police charged Hussein with “disturbing the public order and the moral code” of article 152 of the Sudanese penal code for wearing “indecent clothes.” Ten of the young ladies pleaded guilty and accepted 10 lashes and a fine (about $120) to avoid public humiliation and social stigma. But Hussein refused to accept the accusation and asked for a lawyer and a trial. Before her trial, Lubna Hussein, an employee of the United Nations’ mission in Sudan, resigned her post, which offered her immunity from prosecution, in order to make a stand against a law that was considered un-Islamic and discriminated against women. By September 1, a Sudanese court found her guilty of violating article 152 of legislation outlining so-called “Indecent and Immoral Acts.” The Act, among other unusual legislation added to the country’s penal code since the military coup of 1989, has been enforced by an illegitimate regime who hijacked the country at gunpoint on an eerie dawn on the last night of June, 20 years ago. The Sudanese regime has exercised the politics of erasing heritage and destroying social fabric by means of structural violence

utilizing a theological legal framework in conjunction with neo-liberal economic policies as oppressive tools. Most Sudanese people hold a view of the regime as being illegal, immoral, and inhumane due to its politics that often contradict what it preaches. Lubna Hussein’s case, her trial, and her arrest address a fundamental issue of human rights—the issue of gender equal-

ity. This incident represents more than a violation of the legal code enforced by the regime. More importantly, the case is a demand for civil liberty in the form of women’s rights, and publicly demonstrates the questionable legitimacy, and inequitable policies, of the regime. On one hand, Hussein stood to demand her rights as a woman who carries her ancestors’ tradition—that long ago embraced matrilineal society—to walk upright without gender stigma. She refused to obey a peculiar attitude imposed by the regime that vigorously engaged in the “modernity” of disaster capitalism—to borrow author Naomi Klein’s term. Hussein stood on behalf of all Sudanese to reverberate their cry: give us back our heritage, our culture of tolerance, and our humanity that have

been hijacked by the agents of privatization and free market. She refused to accept the solutions the regime presented her with (the public flogging and fine, accepted by the 10 women who pleaded guilty for the same “crime”). Rather, she prepared her body to be whipped but her soul and dignity to be free. She stood for women’s rights in Sudan that were hijacked in one night by manipulative and power-hungry bandits. On the other hand, Hussein expressed her worries that her stand against the Sudanese regime would be misinterpreted by the West as an attack on Islam, which was not what she intended. “The West really doesn’t understand Islam,” she said. “Because as Muslims, we know that if the police catch girls and arrest and flog them, we know this is not Islam. But when the government of Bashir [the President of Sudan] does that, the West says: ‘Oh that is Islam.’ It presents a bad face of Islam” (The Guardian, 8/4/09). The court found Hussein guilty, but did not order her to be lashed. The court fined her $250, which she refused to pay. As a result she was jailed. Sudan’s journalist union paid the fine—against her wish—and she was released the next day. Now that she is free, she is writing a book on the events of her trial and continues advocating for women’s rights. On behalf of women internationally, we all salute Lubna Hussein who, with her loose khaki trouser and headscarf, stood defending her, and our, basic human rights. Her courage has indicated a downfall of an ideology usurped by alien norms rooted in “disaster capitalism” that oppresses and marginalizes women in Sudan—something that has been practiced for the past 20 years and counting.

International Perspectives Twice Scorned: Race and Gender Discrimination S.P. Udayakumar Research Fellow

acism could haunt a society in the form of institutionalized government policies, exclusivity doctrines such as racial superiority/inferiority, and/or other devious manifestations that are perpetrated by vested interests for their own socioeconomic-political purposes. When the issue of gender discrimination is added to racial discrimination, we vertically split humanity into two gender segments and chop it up further horizontally on the basis of race. Women come to be twice scorned.

other “South” countries, women are often looked down upon as second-rate citizens and are made to suffer mental humiliation from birth. Many parents even abort a female fetus on the belief that having a girl is a lifelong headache. Another equally awful discrimination women suffer is when a male evil is presented as a female problem. Most women

Both gender and racial discrimination are power issues. Hence, the right question to ask here is if women order their own world, or if someone else more powerful usurps their power to order their world. When we analyze the status of women of color, women of racial and religious minority groups, indigenous women, and women belonging to oppressed groups such as adivasis (tribal) and dalits (“untouchables”) in India, we can see that the upper echelons of the local, national, and international societies order their world. We must remember that racialized gender discrimination and gendered racism are more than man-woman or white-color binary situations and that the internal dimensions at the local, national, and global levels and other socioeconomic-political intricacies are equally vehement. Much of the gender and racial discrimination is a result of the globalizing aspect of economic changes. After all, poverty and misery are often feminized. The cultural unfairness is equally distressing also. Most of the world’s illiterates are women and more girls than boys are not in school. Women do twice the amount of unpaid work that men do and earn much less than men. Although the uneducated and disempowered women suffer more, women with education and economic security are also victims of many age-old practices and superstitions. In India and many

are in prostitution neither for money nor for sex. About 70 percent of prostitutes in India have been forced into the trade and 80 percent of their income goes to anti-social elements. Nearly 100,000 girls are brought from Nepal every year and sold in India. Migration and urbanization are often the most important causes for present-day prostitution all over the world. In fact, the tourism and resort industry, often floated rather euphemistically as the most enterprising,

lucrative, and spotless industry in the world, is one that exploits women the world over. The political culture in many countries also keeps women out. Women are hesitant to participate in a political process rampant with corruption, intolerance, mafia, and violence; therefore, women tend to withdraw from the political affairs of their countries. But things are changing for the better. For instance, several hundred women and their male sympathizers staged an unprecedented protest in support of women’s rights outside the Kuwaiti Parliament a few years ago. The demonstrators carried placards reading: “Women’s rights now,” and “Islamic law does not contain anything against women’s rights.” They supported a bill to amend an electoral law, which allowed only males to contest elections and vote, despite the fact that the Kuwaiti Constitution called for gender equality. In rural India, women who were made to veil their faces and submit to men are challenging the old, feudal hierarchies and occupying hundreds of thousands of local body seats and village chief positions. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women provides for women’s civil, political, economic, and cultural rights and their legal equality. Women’s rights include an end to all forms of discrimination in the family, in society, before the law, and in their daily lives. While we make women aware of their rights and entitlements, we also need to empower men and the powerful echelons of the society towards gender and racial justice. This two-pronged strategy can stop the twin evils of gender and racial discrimination and liberate the twice scorned women.

A Kirwin Institute Project

New Kirwan Blog Gains Early Success Jamaal Bell Media Relations Manager

Kirwan’s new Race-Talk blog, launched on December 1, 2009, has received wide-ranging support in its first few months, while enjoying rapid growth. Race-Talk is a forum to facilitate thoughtful but critical discussion on issues of race, ethnicity, social hierarchy, marginalized populations, democratic principles, and social justice. The topics of interest range from education and politics to racial equity and pop culture. In its first two months, Race-Talk garnered more than 185 subscribers, and had 15,956 visits and 65,718 page views. It also published more than 170 original articles, 100 of which were crossposted on the Huffington Post, with articles also crossposted in at least six other blogs including Racialicious and OpEdNews. Race-Talk has recruited more than 30 well-respected bloggers from Kirwan, The Ohio State University, nationally, and abroad. The short list includes: Sophia A. Nelson, political strategist, president of Iask, Inc. Sam Fulwood III, senior fellow, Center for American Progress Tim Giago, journalist, Native Sun Weekly Andrew Grant-Thomas, deputy director, Kirwan Institute Bill Quigley, legal director, Center for Constitutional Rights

Mike Barber, filmmaker, A Past Denied Hasan Kwame Jeffries, author of Bloody Lowdnes, associate professor at The Ohio State University Nisha Agarwal, director of the health justice program, New York Lawyers for Public Interest Faye Anderson, journalist, Anderson@Large George Davis, author, Until We Got Here Kirwan’s Facebook and Twitter followings have also experienced steady growth since their launch in October. Since that first month, the number of Kirwan’s Facebook friends have quadrupled and its Twitter followers have tripled. Because of Race-Talk, and other social media, the presence and awareness of the Kirwan Institute on the Internet have grown exponentially. Subscribers and fans now include members of leading media, including wire service and major-market newspaper reporters, TV network correspondents and news anchors, and political leaders and other advocates. Find out what it’s all about. Join the conversation on Race-Talk.org, become a friend at facebook.com/KirwanInstitute, and follow Kirwan at twitter.com/KirwanInstitute.

Avis Jones-DeWeever, political scientist, Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Media Update

ARRA Yields Less Than Fair Recovery in First Year The Kirwan Institute took the lead February 16, when policy advocates from seven leading national social justice organizations joined forces to host a media briefing for national press by teleconference. They joined forces to assess the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the economic stimulus on marginalized communities as well as other Americans. While the stimulus was important to uphold the economy for all Americans, the speakers agreed, it was especially important that such spending not further disadvantage already marginalized groups. They outlined how the economic stimulus has produced mixed results for people of color and other marginalized communities, with the unemployment rate for blacks at 16.5 percent, and the financial crisis in marginalized communities continuing to escalate. Speakers and themes included: john powell, executive director, Kirwan Institute, “A Crisis of Opportunity: How the Stimulus Is Falling Short for Our Most Vulnerable Citizens”; Dennis 8

Parker, director, racial justice program, American Civil Liberties Union, “Procurements and Set-Asides Are Legal, Within Specific Guidelines”; Juhu Thukral, director of law and advocacy, The Opportunity Agenda, “The Impact of Opportunity”; Dominique Apollon, research director, Applied Research Center, “A Green Recovery for All”; Phil Tegeler, president/executive director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, “ARRA and Access to Opportunity at HUD and the U.S. Department of Education”; Ira Goldstein, director, Policy & Information Services, The Reinvestment Fund, “Furthering Fair Housing as a Significant Policy Initiative for the Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Programs”; and Deidre Swesnik, director, public policy and communications, National Fair Housing Alliance, “How TARP Funds Could (and Should) Be Used to Improve Our Neighborhoods.” Major national media such as the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Pacifica Radio tuned in and planned follow-up coverage of the topic.

Kirwan Sources Inform Media Kirwan experts shared their insights with a variety of leading national media outlets from October through January. • The Washington Post and Time magazine quoted john powell, Kirwan Institute executive director, about tracking the impact of stimulus spending on marginalized communities. Other articles mentioning Kirwan’s work on the same subject were carried by McClatchy Newspapers (including the Miami Herald and Charlotte’s News Observer.com), the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Miller-McCune Magazine, and WBNS TV in Columbus. • john powell was also interviewed on various topics by Black Enterprise.com, and the Galveston Daily News. • Andrew Grant-Thomas, deputy director, was quoted in a wide range of media including: –– A Reuters news service article about fears of Muslim backlash after a shooting at Fort Hood, which was carried in such farflung locations as India and Algeria, and by AsiaOne News; –– An article in USA Today, about a recent Pew study in which African Americans report they are better off now than ever; –– Analysis of the Harry Reid “you lie” incident, carried on WCMH TV, WTVN Radio, and the Call & Post newspaper, all in Columbus; –– Commentary on WOSU Radio in Columbus, outlining the benefits of clemency as a justice tool. Other Kirwan staff members logging media interviews included: • Hasan Jeffries, associate professor of history with a joint appointment with the Kirwan Institute, discussed various topics in several publications including the Palm Beach Post and the Washington Post; • Jason Reece, GIS/senior researcher, discussed economic stimulus spending in the Columbus Dispatch; • Matt Martin, GIS planning specialist, provided background on economic stimulus spending to American Urban Radio, the Washington Post, and the Columbus Dispatch; • Rebecca Reno, senior research associate, provided insight to Understandinggov.org on school integration methods used to narrow the achievement gap. Another highlight of Kirwan’s recent media activity was a national media briefing teleconference. (See related story on page 8.)

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 Tides Foundation

Linked Fate Fund for Justice of the Tides Foundation Core Operating Support

The Open Society Institute

School Desegregation Project Core Operating Support Framing Racial Justice through Emotive Strategies

The Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc.

“Designing and Advocating for a Just and Equitable Economic Recovery” (Fair Recovery)

Northwest Area Foundation Geography Opportunity Project

For more information on making a commitment to excellence with a donation to the institute, please contact: Heather A. Schwenker Director of Development Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (614) 688-5429 schwenker.4@osu.edu 9

Post-Katrina Opportunity Mapping, New Orleans, LA Opportunity distribution based on Education, Environmental Health and Flood Risk, Public Health, Economic Opportunity, Housing and Neighborhood Indicators

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Source: CitizenCrimeWatch.org, ESRI Business Analyst, FEMA, GNOCDC/Valassis, GNOCommunity.org, HANO, HRSA, HUD User, New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee, New Orleans Parents' Guide to Public Schools, Trulia | Date: 12.07.09

Housing Policy/GIS Update

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Connecticut Opportunity Mapping

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2-Bedroom Section 8 Housing Units and Opportunity, Post-Katrina New Orleans, LA

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Opportunity distribution based on Education, Environmental Health and Flood Risk, Public Health, Economic Opportunity, Housing and Neighborhood Indicators, overlaid with 2-Bedroom Section 8 housing units listed by HANO 10-19-09 Source: CitizenCrimeWatch.org, ESRI Business Analyst, FEMA, GNOCDC/Valassis, GNOCommunity.org, HANO, HRSA, HUD User, New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee, New Orleans Parents' Guide to Public Schools, Trulia| Date: 12.07.09

New Orleans Opportunity Mapping (Post-Katrina)

As the recovery efforts in the city of New Orleans are unfolding, the city is still faced with great challenges. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), through an audit report, found discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders in the Greater New Orleans rental housing market. The Kirwan Institute assisted GNOFHAC to conduct opportunity mapping analyses for the city to study the spatial distribution of opportunity. These opportunity maps were overlaid with Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) Section 8 properties to study the correlation of opportunity and concentration of Section 8 voucher properties. The results were presented at a Fair Housing forum organized by GNOFHAC in collaboration with the Kirwan Institute. The Section 8 voucher discrimination issue and findings from this opportunity mapping were covered by The Times-Picayune on December 26, 2009.

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The Connecticut Fair Housing Center (CHFC) partnered with the Kirwan Institute to perform research that leads to better understanding of how to support and promote inclusive, diverse communities of choice. CHFC looked to our work in the area of opportunity mapping in order to identify how fair housing can become more of an intervention point for marginalized communities across the state. Access to good education, affordable housing, quality health care, employment, and open space was assessed to create maps showing spatial distribution of opportunity in the state. The maps and findings were presented to clients and stakeholders in Connecticut on November 12, 2009.

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Ongoing projects: Building a Fair Florida

Kirwan’s work on tracking the economic impact of recovery money on marginalized communities in Florida is ongoing in partnership with the Miami Workers Center (MWC) and the Research Institute for Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University. The next phase of the project focuses on job creation in the region based on infrastructure projects funded by recovery dollars. The research looks at total ARRA funding for the state, Florida Department of Transportation contracts awarded, and the award recipients to study this impact. This research supported a town hall meeting organized by MWC in Orlando on January 28.

Austin Opportunity Mapping

Green Doors, formerly Community Partnership for the Homeless, has approached the Kirwan Institute to revise opportunity maps and analyses created in 2007 to study the spatial distribution of opportunity in the Austin, Texas, area. The revisions will be based on updated data with a focus on emerging opportunity areas, transportation linkages, and children’s optimal health.

The Future of Fair Credit and Fair Housing In the fall of 2007, the Kirwan Institute launched a comprehensive research initiative on the emerging subprime lending and foreclosure crisis and its impact on communities of color across the nation. In October 2008, a month after the failure of Lehman Brothers, Kirwan held a national convening that drew together academic researchers, community advocates, fair housing attorneys, and civil rights workers to comprehensively understand the roots of the crisis and to better arm advocates and policymakers with effective, strategic responses. The commissioned research and convening speakers emphasized the historical and geographic exclusion of communities of color from fair credit as a significant factor in the crisis. Subsequent to this convening, Kirwan proposed deepening its research to include a wider lens on banking, credit and finance inequalities, and the role of the secondary mortgage market, including the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The institute also proposed to develop a targeted and strategic federal response and advocacy strategy. The 2009 “Future of Fair Credit and Fair Housing” initiative, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, encompassed conversations with 25 diverse advisory board members, 14 in-depth commissioned works by leading academics and practitioners, and an in-person look at the fair housing and fair credit landscapes across the country. In addition, Kirwan formed a strategic partnership with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council in Washington, DC. Kirwan commissioned assessments of the future (and past) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the duty to affirmatively promote fair housing under Title VIII, the Administration’s Troubled Asset Relief Program and Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the Community

Reinvestment Act, and sustainable advocacy applied to fair credit and fair banking. Kirwan sponsored facilitated convenings in which communities evaluated their own challenges and potential solutions to fair credit and fair housing in the wake of the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis. Kirwan also commissioned papers to explore additional regions of the country and challenges to specific populations. These included papers assessing fair housing challenges in Cleveland, the effect on immigrants in New York, asset stripping in Boston, what happens to foreclosed rental properties in North Minneapolis, and the legacy of redlining in Sacramento. Kirwan also co-hosted a policy and advocacy strategy session in Washington, DC, with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, the Center for Responsible Lending, the National Council of La Raza, the National Community Reinvestment Corporation, and the National Fair Housing Alliance. This is the first time Kirwan has partnered with La Raza and the Center for Responsible Lending, and the institute is pleased to consider them both new working allies. Kirwan also co-hosted a policy and advocacy session with PolicyLink in Oakland, California, after the two organizations realized their need to partner more effectively to address this crisis. In addition, Kirwan facilitated policy evaluation sessions with established advocacy partners in Seattle, Washington (with the Northwest Justice Project), Austin, Texas (with Green Doors), Detroit, Michigan (with the Michigan Roundtable), and New Orleans, Louisiana (with the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Advocacy Center). Kirwan was also a new sponsor and presenter for the Connecticut Housing Coalition’s Annual Conference. Watch for a special issue of the Kirwan Institute newsletter to be published in May 2010 that will be dedicated to the findings of this initiative.

Book Discussion Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America by Sharon Davies (Oxford University Press, 2010) Leslie Shortlidge Managing Editor

In Birmingham, Alabama, in 1921, if a man wanted to save his daughter from the embraces of both the Catholic Church and a Negro husband, he had the right to use deadly force in order to accomplish his goal. That was the unofficial verdict of the jury at the trial of Methodist minister Edwin Stephenson, who shot and killed Father James Coyle because the priest married Stephenson’s daughter Ruth, a convert to Catholicism, to Pedro Gussman, a Catholic and native of Puerto Rico.

ous murder in the Sharon Davies, a gripping story of the John C. Elam/Vorys Sater he age of Jim Crow

Designated Professor of Law at The Ohio State University, and recipient of a Senior ligion inFaculty America Fellowship from Kirwan, has just published a fascinating, sobering, enlightiminal cases of itsand day. On ening book on this abama, a fiercely xenophobic little-known incident phenson that shottook andplace killed a in our ylight andrecent in front of numerAmerican hisThe priest hadshemarried tory, and has done it Ruth towith Pedro Gussman, a novelist’s flaira as tholic. well as a scholar’s scope attentionSharon to detail. historicaland memory,

The book took her three years to research, and another two to write. “I was tremendously lucky to have the support of the dean and associate dean at the Mortiz College of Law and also the support of the Kirwan Institute,” says Sharon. She was able to access original documents and microfilm records of newspaper coverage of the murder and the trial, as well as interview Catholic men and women in their 80s and 90s who were able to give her firsthand accounts of what it was like to be Catholic in Birmingham all those years ago. “To me,” says Sharon, “the story had it all: star-crossed lovers, forbidden love, violence, race, religion, gender, politics, and celebrity— providing the reader with as compelling a mix of facts as the most sensational fiction writer could devise.” She first learned of the story by accident when she was researching information for an article on how criminal law had been used in the past to determine who could marry and who could not. Sharon tracked down the story thinking it would serve

der of Father Coyle and the s with novelistic richness, The story had it all: star-crossed lovers, potent bigotries forbidden of the age: a love, violence, race, religion, gender, FEBRUARY 2010 olics and “foreigners” as well. politics, and celebrity—providing the reader ns, the minister hired future American History with as compelling a mix of facts as the most to lead his defense. Though 320 pp., 15 b/w halftones, 6 ⁄ x 9 ⁄ sensational fiction writer could devise. mpion, in 1921 Black was just 978-0-19-537979-2 the Ku Klux Klan, the secret $27.95(02) e. Entering a plea of tempor on claims that the Catholics rotestant faith, and that her egro—an unparalleled attack erarchies of the day—to perurder. orical context, Davies brings ck to life, in a brilliant and f prejudice 12 and a trial that ow. 1 8

1 4

as an “example of the kind of intense emotion that once fueled the laws that banned marriage across the color line.” She quickly became hooked and realized that a book was in order. The tale is certainly unforgettable. Ruth Stephenson, drawn to the religion of the church located one block away from her house, was the daughter of two staunch anti-Catholics. Edwin Stephenson, her father, had set himself up as a courthouse minister, marrying couples in need for a fee when they presented themselves to apply for a license at the Jefferson County courthouse. In addition to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Stephenson had an abhorrence of Catholicism. Ruth’s mother, Mary, had commented more than once over the years that she’d like to plant a bomb underneath St. Paul’s Church. Edwin had wished Father Coyle dead on many occasions, and Ruth knew that her father participated in the lynching of James Glover in 1904, a black man accused of assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Cedartown, Georgia, when the Stephenson family had lived there. One of the surprises that Sharon says she encountered in her writing and research was “the overt and unapologetic depths of the anti-Catholicism that existed in the country in the early decades of the 20th century. And not simply in the South.” Catholics were thought to be plotting to overthrow the United States government, explains Sharon; they were rumored to be storing weapons for a take-over, and salacious stories of priests’ behavior with nuns and other women were widespread. Sharon vividly illustrates this paranoia by describing the behavior and beliefs of the Stephensons, who were sure that their daughter was under (continued on page 15)

Volume 3, Number 1 (Autumn 2009) Contents

v From the Editors

Articles

ARtICles v From the Editors

1 Public Health Data: Selected Comparisons

COMPILED BY ELSADIG ELSHEIKH, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OF THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

Public Health Data: Selected Comparisons—Compiled by Elsadig Elsheikh, Research Associate for the International Program of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity COMPILED BY ELSADIG ELSHEIKH, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OF THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

11 On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View from Below

at the bottom:” The role of privilege in understanding

BELINDA A.E. BORELL, AMANDA S. GREGORY, TIM N. MCCREANOR, VICTORIA G.L. JENSEN, AND HELEN E. MOEWAKA BARNES

disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand TIM N. MCCREANOR, VICTORIA G.L. JENSEN, AND HELEN E. MOEWAKA BARNES

51 Science, Surveillance, and the Politics of Redress in Health Disparities Research SIMON J. CRADDOCK LEE

75 Biobanks and the Inclusion of Racial/Ethnic Minorities

51 Science, Surveillance, and the Politics of Redress in Health Disparities Research SIMON J. CRADDOCK LEE

Volume 3 Number 1 • Autumn 2009

PAUL FARMER

29 “It’s Hard at the Top but It’s a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom:” The Role of Privilege in Understanding Disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

“It’s hard at the top but it’s a whole lot easier than being at the bottom:” The role of privilege in understanding disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand—Belinda A.E. Borell, Amanda S. Gregory, Tim N. McCreanor, Victoria G.L. Jensen, and Helen E. Moewaka Barnes BELINDA A.E. BORELL, AMANDA S. GREGORY,

Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

11 On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View from Below

Chapter 2 from On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View from Below—Paul Farmer 29 “It’s hard at the top but it’s a whole lot easier than being

Race / ethnicity

PAUL FARMER

Volume 3 Number 1 • Autumn 2009

“Race and the Global Politics of Health Inequity”

RICHARD TUTTON

97 Cultural Factors Influencing HIV-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in the Third World: Ethnicity and Religion in Guyana

Science, Surveillance, and the Politics of Redress in Health Disparities Research—Simon J. Craddock Lee JESSICA HUBBARD AND RICHARD LEE ROGERS

75 Biobanks and the Inclusion of Racial/Ethnic Minorities

RICHARD TUTTON

115 Poverty, Structural Violence, and Racism in a World Out of Balance EDWARD O’NEIL JR., M.D.

97 Cultural Factors Influencing HIV-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in the Third World: Ethnicity and

139 List of Contributors

Biobanks and the Inclusion of Racial/Ethnic Minorities—Richard Tutton Religion in Guyana

JESSICAHUBBARD AND RICHARD LEE ROGERS

111 Poverty, Structural Violence, and Racism in a World

Cultural Factors Influencing HIV-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in the Third World: Ethnicity and Religion in Guyana—Jessica Hubbard and Richard Lee Rogers Out of Balance

EDWARD O’NEIL JR., M.D.

INDIANA

Poverty, Structural Violence, and Racism in a World Out of Balance—Edward O’Neil Jr., M.D.

CALL FOR PAPERS Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

INDIANA

135 List of Contributors race

Race and the Global Politics of Health Inequity

raceethnicity.org

Volume 4, Number 2 (Winter 2011) “Reworking Race and Labor”

Volume 4, Number 3 (Spring 2011) “Transforming Race”

Papers must be received by April 30, 2010, to be considered for publication in this issue. Please see raceethnicity.org for submission guidelines.

Papers must be received by July 15, 2010, to be considered for publication in this issue. Please see raceethnicity.org for submission guidelines.

Submissions are invited that explore the role of race, ethnicity, and labor at all levels.

This issue of Race/Ethnicity will build on themes pursued in the Kirwan Institute’s spring 2010 conference, “Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama.”

What is the impact of race in national and international labor flows and the global economy? How does race shape the development and direction of the labor movement? What factors account for the strength and weakness of organized labor in different national contexts? How have labor unions responded to specific challenges involving race and ethnicity? How does race determine occupation so that certain tasks become racialized, and to what degree and in what ways do certain racialized groups of workers enjoy privileges as workers and citizens? How does labor contribute to the creation of new social classes/ castes or otherwise have influence on cultures? How have or might governments, NGOs, and other groups address issues of race and labor?

Some thought the election of Barack Obama confirmed the end of race as an issue worthy of national discussion, much less policy debate. Subsequent events—Henry Louis Gates, Sonia Sotomayor, the “birthers” phenomenon, Joe Wilson (“You lie!”), Van Jones, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh—have proven that conclusion premature. Of course, the challenges race presents in the United States at the present moment go well beyond the high-profile incidents involving these individuals and even beyond its implication in crucial developments such as the economic recession and the debate over health care. Sadly, many old standbys of concern—residential and school racial segregation, criminal injustice, wealth inequities, immigration, and more—have hardly passed us by. At the same time, this is a new administration and a new day. With crisis comes opportunity, if only we can recognize it and muster the insight and will to see our way forward. • We particularly welcome the viewpoints of activists, advocates, researchers, and other practitioners working in the field.

Please contact Leslie Shortlidge for submission deadlines and information (shortlidge.2@osu.edu). 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. 13

Kirwan Institute Work Affects Recent Decisions in Two Communities Work by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity to foster racial justice had major impact on two U.S. communities already this year.

After a year and a half of working closely with the Montclair, New Jersey, school district, the Montclair Board of Education approved a student assignment plan on February 1, 2010, designed by the Kirwan Institute. The plan utilizes five factors to assign students to schools: the racial diversity of the neighborhood, the percentage of free and reduced lunch students, household poverty rates, median household income, and parental education levels. These five factors, each calculated at the neighborhood level, were equally weighted to create three geographic zones. Kindergarten assignment at each of the district’s elementary schools will give preference to students

from underrepresented zones in an attempt to promote zone balance. This plan will sustain and promote racial and socio-economic integration throughout the district, while complying with the requirements of law. On January 11, 2010, Stephen Menendian presented Kirwan’s plan to the Montclair School Board. The presentation is available on the Kirwan Institute web site. As a follow-up to Kirwan’s mapping work in the state of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership has

Kirwan Institute Events Upcoming Events Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama March 11–13, 2010 The Kirwan Institute hosts its second semiannual conference, Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama. Forty-plus plenary sessions, workshops, panels, roundtables, and performances are being offered. Participants will also enjoy film, cultural performances, and other activities designed to stretch our understanding of these issues. More than 500 race scholars, social justice workers, students, practitioners, and a range of luminaries are joining forces to explore the challenges and opportunities provided by race in our “Age of Obama.” More information about the conference and registration can be found at transforming-race.org.

Upcoming Co-Sponsored Events 2010 Authors and Conversations Soul Food Luncheon Series Date TBD Hale Black Cultural Center The 2010 Authors and Conversation Soul Food Luncheon Series, sponsored by the Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center and Office of Minority Affairs at Ohio State, will feature Michelle Alexander as she discusses her new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The session will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Hale Center and include a buffet lunch followed by the presentation. For more information, contact Wanda White at the Hale Center, white.4@osu.edu. Past Kirwan Institute featured authors include Hasan Jeffries discussing his book Bloody Lowndes and Sharon Davies discussing her book Rising Road.

Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus: Fifth Annual Black Women’s Retreat April 16–18, 2010 Mohican Resort and Conference Center in Loudonville, Ohio The Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus will host the fifth annual “Black Women’s Retreat.” This year’s theme is “Sister to Sister: Solidarity Breeds Strength.” The Black Women’s Retreat serves as a space to acknowledge the historical and current contributions of Black women to society as well as to dispel historical misrepresentations and mistreatment. Ultimately the goal of the retreat is to ensure a better future for African American women at The Ohio State University. The retreat will focus on mental and physical wellness of Black women along with workshops on spiritual well being, balance, identity, managing relationships, and the experiences of Black professional women. Early registration ($20) was February 8–12. Late registration ($25) is available March 8–12. For more information, please contact Gisell Jeter at jeter.18@osu.edu. The President and Provost’s 2009–10 Diversity Lecture & Cultural Arts Series: Mahzarin Banaji April 29, 2010 Location TBD Mahzarin Banaji is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. She received her PhD from Ohio State (1986) and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. She is president-elect of the Association for Psychological Science for 2009-2010. Banaji has served as associate editor of Psychological Review and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and she co-edited Essays in Social Psychology and

Book Discussion committed $5 million in zero percent interest, second-mortgage financing to support the development of affordable rental housing in suburban and high-opportunity communities. This financial boost will ensure that communities have increased housing options, stabilized neighborhoods, and an increase in affordable rentals for families in the midst of a very difficult economic time. Working in collaboration with the Massachusetts legal community, the Kirwan Institute provided an analysis of low-income groups and ethnic populations in relationship to geographic areas of high opportunity.

currently serves on an advisory board of the Oxford University Press on Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience. Banaji studies human thinking and feeling as it unfolds in social contexts. Her focus is primarily on mental systems that operate in implicit or unconscious mode. In particular, she is interested in the unconscious nature of assessments of self and other humans that reflect feelings and knowledge (often unintended) about their social group membership (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender, class) that underlie the us/them distinction. For more information contact Edie Waugh, program manager, Office of Minority Affairs, (614) 292-4355, waugh.2@osu.edu. Criminal Justice and Research Center: Crime and Justice Summer Research Institute July 12–30, 2010 Faculty pursuing tenure and career success in research intensive institutions, academics transitioning from teaching to research institutions, and faculty members carrying out research in teaching contexts will be interested in this Summer Research Institute. All applicants must hold regular tenure-track positions in U.S. institutions and demonstrate how their participation broadens participation of underrepresented groups in crime and justice research. Graduate students without tenure-track appointments are ineligible for this program. For more information, contact cjrcinstitute@osu.edu.

Recent Co-Sponsored Event Multicultural Center: An Evening with Ms. Angela Davis The History of Economic Empowerment Angela Davis was the featured speaker for the 40th Annual United Black World Month Celebration. February 11, 2010

(continued from page 12)

the threat of kidnapping and who went to the police more than once as Ruth tried again and again to escape from her home, the parents always blaming the Catholics for seducing their daughter away from the Protestant church and never considering that their own violence and ill-treatment had anything to do with the young woman’s desire to get as far away as possible. Sharon surmises that this might be part of what attracted young Ruth to Pedro Gussman, who had boarded at the Stephenson family home for about a week while doing interior work when Ruth was twelve years old, which was also about the same time Ruth was discovered talking to Father Coyle. Pedro and Ruth stayed in touch regardless of where he lived until she was 18 and he was 42, when they decided to marry. Clearly, Pedro offered Ruth a way out. Not the least among the fascinating aspects of this book are the novelistic techniques Sharon employs to tell the tale. The murder of Father Coyle is told from the different points of view of the various witnesses, one right after the other, as they hear the gun shots fired off by Edwin Stephenson, and then the screams of Coyle’s sister and housekeeper, Marcella. Emotions are teased out from documents and transcripts, and newspaper stories are mined for contemporary attitude. The long-standing political rivalries of the chief prosecutor, Joseph R. Tate, and the attorney for the defense, future Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, are as much a part of the proceedings as the murder. The trial is rendered in dialogue, complete with a description of the courtroom. Sharon also carefully builds one of her book’s main themes—that from the outset, there was no desire to send Edwin Stephenson to jail for his crime and that a conspiracy of the like-minded (even if an unacknowledged and/or unconscious conspiracy) in the end carried the day. The innocent became the guilty in short order, and the perceived race of Pedro Gussman became a focal point for all of Birmingham’s anxieties. When asked what she’d like readers to take away from her book, Sharon points out that at the time of the events, people did not consider themselves racist or bigoted. “Rather, patriotism and the need for 100% ‘Americanism’ were the reasons for. . .laws” to segregate or to conduct warrantless inspections of Catholic institutions. “So often it is only with the advantage of time that we are able to see and call the impulses that actually animate law what they truly are. Realizing that, we might reflect on the laws being proposed today with an extra measure of circumspection and humility about our own present-day motivations.” The story, Sharon says, also “exposes something about the hierarchy of prejudices that can infect our laws and affect legal outcomes.” Nowhere is this clearer than the defense attorney’s intent to put the murdered priest on trial. And while the level of anti-Catholicism in this country is nowhere near that of the early 1900s, Sharon wishes to remind readers that, according to Mark Twain, even if history does not exactly repeat itself, it does rhyme. 15

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