Exploring Logics of Exclusion and Radical Transformation in Cold War Context

LOGICS OF EXCLUSION CRES 100 W21 WEEK THREE

CRES EVENT FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2021 2:00-3:30 PM [LINK TO REGISTER WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU] CRES DIRECTOR CHRISTINE HONG S BOOK TALK AND CELEBRATION FOR A VIOLENT PEACE: RACE, US MILITARISM, AND CULTURES OF DEMOCRATIZATION IN COLD WAR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC A VIOLENT PEACE OFFERS A RADICAL ACCOUNT OF THE UNITED STATE'S TRANSFORMATION INTO A TOTAL-WAR STATE. AS THE COLD WAR TURNED HOT IN THE PACIFIC, ANTIFASCIST CRITIQUE DISCLOSED A CONTINUITY BETWEEN US POLICE ACTIONS IN ASIA AND A RISING POLICE STATE AT HOME. WRITERS INCLUDING JAMES BALDWIN, RALPH ELLISON, AND W.E.B. DU BOIS DISCERNED IN DOMESTIC STRATEGIES TO QUELL RACIAL PROTESTS THE SAME COUNTERINTELLIGENCE LOGIC STRUCTURING AMERICA'S DEVASTATING WARS IN ASIA. WITH RESPONDENTS: NEEL AHUJA - ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, FMST / CRES ALYOSHA GOLDSTEIN - PROFESSOR, AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

IN A POSTHUMOUSLY PUBLISHED ESSAY, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. POINTED OUT THAT THE BLACK REVOLUTION HAD GONE BEYOND THE RIGHTS OF NEGROES. THE STRUGGLE, HE SAID, IS FORCING AMERICA TO FACE ALL OF ITS INTERRELATED FLAWS RACISM, POVERTY, MILITARISM AND MATERIALISM. IT IS EXPOSING THE EVILS THAT ARE ROOTED DEEPLY IN THE WHOLE STRUCTURE OF OUR SOCIETY. IT REVEALS SYSTEMIC RATHER THAN SUPERFICIAL FLAWS AND SUGGESTS THAT RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY ITSELF IS THE REAL ISSUE TO BE FACED. --KEEANGA YAMAHTTA-TAYLOR AS THE 1960S ADVANCED, HOWEVER, MANY REJECTED KING S FORMULATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND REFRAMED DEBATES ABOUT EQUALITY IN TERMS OF RACIAL AND SEXUAL IDENTITIES. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT CAME TO ABANDON THE NONDISCRIMINATION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OF COLORBLIND CIVIL RIGHTS IN FAVOR OF GROUP RIGHTS AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT. A RADICAL WOMEN S LIBERATION MOVEMENT REIMAGINED AMERICA AS A PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM, ASSERTING THAT EVERY WOMAN IS A VICTIM OF OPPRESSION BY MEN. THE BLACK POWER AND BLACK NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS REIMAGINED AMERICA AS A WHITE SUPREMACIST REGIME. MEANWHILE, OTHER ACTIVISTS CONSTRUCTED ARTIFICIAL GROUPINGS TO FURTHER DIVIDE AMERICANS BY RACE, CREATING NEW CATEGORIES LIKE ASIAN AMERICAN AND HISPANIC TO TEACH AMERICANS TO THINK OF THEMSELVES IN TERMS OF GROUP IDENTITIES AND TO ROUSE VARIOUS GROUPS INTO POLITICALLY COHESIVE BODIES. --1776 COMMISSION

COMPARATIVE CONTEXTS: WOLFE BRAZIL, BAROQUE CLASSIFICATION , FRAGMENTATION, AND ASSIMILATION AUSTRALIA: ELIMINATION THROUGH LEGAL DEFINITIONS OF RACE IN BLOOD QUANTA: HALF- CASTE -> QUADROON -> OCTAROON -> WHITE; REMOVAL OF MIXED CHILDREN (873) US, EXCLUSION AS ABOLITION OF THE MULATTO AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF BLACKNESS UNDER THE ONE-DROP RULE (879-883) US: INDIAN MISCEGENATION TOLERATED ALONG WITH MURDER, ALLOTTMENT, RESERVATIONS, REMOVAL, CULTURE SUPPRESSION. BLOOD QUANTUM CONVERTS INTERNATIONAL RELATION TO IDENTITY POLITICS (885, 887) 887: WHEREAS RACE FOR BLACK PEOPLE BECAME AN INDELIBLE TRAIT THAT WOULD SURVIVE ANY AMOUNT OF ADMIXTURE, RACE FOR INDIANS BECAME AN INHERENTLY DESCENDING QUANTITY THAT WAS TERMINALLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO DILUTION.

SYNTHESIS: LOGIC OF EXCLUSION ACCUMULATING LAND AND LABOR WITH THE GEOGRAPHIC EXPANSION OF COLONIALISM SETTLER COLONIALISM AS AN ONGOING STRUCTURE, RACE AS A REGIME THAT HELPS COLONIALISM ADAPT TO CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCE. RACE INTENSIFIES AS SPACE IS SHARED. WOLFE: ANTIBLACKNESS IN THE US SOLIDIFIES ONLY AFTER EMANCIPATION; ARGUMENT DIFFERS SOMEWHAT FROM SMITH AND FROM CERTAIN STRANDS OF BLACK STUDIES (AFROPESSIMISM) CONSIDER LIMITS OF THE MODEL: GENERALIZING/EXCEPTIONS WOMEN S REPRODUCTIVE LABOR IS KEY TO THE RACIAL REGIME EVEN THOUGH WOLFE DOESN T GIVE US A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF THE STRUGGLES OR AGENCY OF WOMEN NOTE THAT THE VIRGINIA COLONY IS THE FOCUS OF MOST OF WOLFE S US EVIDENCE. FOR PAPERS, YOU MIGHT CONSIDER HOW IT LOOKS DIFFERENT ELSEWHERE IN NORTH AMERICA RACE EMERGES NOT JUST AS A SET OF IDEAS IMPOSED UPON THE WORLD, BUT A TACTIC FOR

MIGRATION AND THE LOGIC OF EXCLUSION DAY S EXPANSION ON WOLFE S MODEL, CONNECTING ANTIBLACK EXCLUSION TO ANTI-ASIAN IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION DOMESTIC RACIAL CONTROL SERVED A BROADER LOGIC OF EXCLUSION THAT IS INHERENT IN IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION: TO UNDERSCORE AND PRESERVE ASIANS ALIEN STATUS BY CREATING POLICY THAT EXPLOITED THE VOLATILITY OF ASIAN PRESENCE. FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SETTLER COLONIALISM, WE CAN BUILD ON THIS FRAMEWORK BY CLARIFYING THE IMPORTANCE OF SPATIAL ALIENATION (RATHER THAN INDIGENEITY) AS A FACTOR IN THE EXPLOITATION OF A RACIALIZED LABOR FORCE. IN THIS LIGHT, A LOGIC OF EXCLUSION IS A PREREQUISITE FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF ALIEN LABOR, FUNCTIONING EITHER TO PRODUCE AN EXCLUSIVE LABOR FORCE IN THE CASE OF AFRICAN SLAVES OR TO RENDER AN ASIAN LABOR PRESENCE HIGHLY CONDITIONAL TO THE DEMANDS OF CAPITAL. BOTH ARE SUBJECT TO FORMS OF SEGREGATION, ON EITHER A NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL SCALE. (34) READINGS FOR THIS WEEK BUILD ON THIS MODEL, SUGGEST THAT BLACKNESS WAS CENTRAL TO THE FREE LABOR IDEOLOGY THAT STRUCTURED ANTI-MEXICAN AND ANTI-ASIAN RACISM IN CA.

DAY: WHITENESS AND THE SETTLER PROJECT BEGINNING IN THE 19C, THE SPREAD OF WHITENESS IN NATIONS BORDERING THE PACIFIC WAS A TRANSNATIONAL FORM OF RACIAL IDENTIFICATION THAT WAS AT ONCE GLOBAL IN ITS POWER AND PERSONAL IN ITS MEANING, THE BASIS OF GEO-POLITICAL ALLIANCE AND A SUBJECTIVE SENSE OF SELF (DAY 17). AUSTRALIA, US, CANADA, SOUTH AFRICA

WHITENESS AND THE SETTLER PROJECT SETTLER COLONIALISM PARTICULAR CONTEXT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHITENESS AS A TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY (DEY 17) SETTLERS OF COLOR? RACIAL TRIANGULATION: NATIVE, SETTLER, ALIEN OR ARRIVANT LOGICS OF EXCLUSION: DAY PLACES ASIANS AND BLACKS IN A SINGLE, HETEROGENEOUS LOGIC. LATINX AS WELL?

SMITH: DIFFERENTIATING ANTIBLACKNESS/ EXCLUSION FROM ORIENTALISM SMITH: FUNGIBILITY/SLAVEABILITY OF BLACK LIFE AS THE ANCHOR OF CAPITALISM COMMODITIZES ALL WORKERS TO KEEP THIS CAPITALIST SYSTEM IN PLACE, THE LOGIC OF SLAVERY APPLIES A RACIAL HIERARCHY TO THIS SYSTEM. THIS RACIAL HIERARCHY TELLS PEOPLE THAT AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT BLACK, YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE THE COMMODIFICATION OF CAPITALISM. ANTI-BLACKNESS ENABLES PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BLACK TO ACCEPT THEIR LOT IN LIFE BECAUSE THEY CAN FEEL THAT AT LEAST THEY ARE NOT AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE RACIAL HIERARCHY: AT LEAST THEY ARE NOT PROPERTY; AT LEAST THEY ARE NOT SLAVEABLE. (SMITH 68-9) DISCUSS FURTHER IN RACIAL CAPITALISM UNIT; PRISONS; AFROPESSIMISM

SMITH: DIFFERENTIATING ANTIBLACKNESS/ EXCLUSION FROM ORIENTALISM SAID S ORIENTALISM: FOCUS ON BRITISH AND FRENCH COLONIAL HISTORY OF REPRESENTING MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTH ASIA AS EXOTIC, HYPERSEXUAL, FEMINIZED; ACADEMIC AND LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS THE LOGIC OF ORIENTALISM MARKS CERTAIN PEOPLES OR NATIONS AS INFERIOR AND DEEMS THEM TO BE A CONSTANT THREAT TO THE WELLBEING OF EMPIRE. THESE PEOPLES ARE STILL SEEN AS "CIVILIZATIONS" THEY ARE NOT PROPERTY OR "DISAPPEARED" HOWEVER, THEY ARE IMAGINED AS PERMANENT FOREIGN THREATS TO EMPIRE. THIS LOGIC IS EVIDENT IN THE MOVEMENTS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES THAT TARGET IMMIGRANTS OF COLOR. REGARDLESS OF HOW LONG ANY PARTICULAR GROUP OF IMMIGRANTS OF COLOR RESIDE IN THE UNITED STATES, THEY GENERALLY BECOME TARGETED AS FOREIGN THREATS, ESPECIALLY DURING WARTIME. (SMITH 69) FOR SMITH, ANTIBLACKNESS IS EXCEPTIONAL AND BORDER XENOPHOBIA IS CONFIGURED AS EXTERNAL WAR RATHER THAN LABOR MANAGEMENT DISCUSS

ALMAGUER: RACIALIZATION AS HISTORICAL PROCESS OMI/WINANT: RACIAL FORMATION AS THE PROCESS BY WHICH SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL FORCES DETERMINE THE CONTENT AND IMPORTANCE OF RACIAL CATEGORIES, AND BY WHICH IN TURN THEY ARE SHAPED BY RACIAL MEANINGS. (ALMAGUER 2-3) RACIALIZATION: THE EXTENSION OF RACIAL MEANING TO A PREVIOUSLY RACIALLY UNCLASSIFIED RELATIONSHIP, SOCIAL PRACTICE, OR GROUP ; RACIALIZATION IS AN IDEOLOGICAL PROCESS, AN HISTORICALLY SPECIFIC ONE (3). REMINDER OF WOLFE S IDEA OF A RACIAL REGIME: FORM OF RACIALIZATION DIFFERS DEPENDING ON WHETHER PEOPLE ARE TARGETED FOR LABOR (EXCLUSION) OR LAND (ELIMINATION)

RACIAL FAULT LINES ALTHOUGH EUROPEAN AMERICANS WERE SITUATED UNAMBIGUOUSLY AT THE TOP OF THIS SOCIAL HIERARCHY, THE RACIALIZED POPULATIONS DID NOT SHARE A COMMON STRUCTURAL POSITION. RACIALIZED RELATIONS IN THE STATE REVERBERATED ALONG A NUMBER OF RACIAL FAULT LINES; THEY DID NOT ASSUME A SIMPLE BINARY FORM OR ERUPT ALONG ONE PRINCIPAL FAULT. (7) HISTORY OF WHITENESS: ACCORDING TO ALMAGUER, BEGINS IN NOTIONS OF CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION, TRANSFORMS TOWARD NATIONAL DESIGNATIONS. ALTHOUGH ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO CLASSIFY SOUTHERN EUROPEANS, EASTERN EUROPEANS, AND JEWS AS NONWHITE, THESE WERE ULTIMATELY RESOLVED LEGALLY IN WAYS THAT CIRCUMSCRIBED WHITE AROUND THE BORDERS OF EUROPE DISCUSS: BRAINSTORM/WRITE DOWN WHICH GROUPS YOU THINK FIT WHERE IN THE RACIAL HIERARCHY: BLACK, ASIAN, MEXICAN, INDIAN, WHITE

RACIAL ORDER IN CALIFORNIA, 1850-1900 EURO-AMERICAN SETTLERS MEXICANS (INCLUDING CALIFORNIO ELITE) BLACKS ASIANS (CHINESE, JAPANESE) INDIANS CRITERIA: CHRISTIANITY, CULTURAL PRACTICES (DRESS, FOOD, RITUAL), LANGUAGE, GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE, STEREOTYPES ABOUT WORK. NOTABLY, COLOR WASN T THE PRIMARY DETERMINANT. (8) MEXICANS DEFINED AS WHITE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1849 (9)

LOGIC OF EXCLUSION BLUMER ON RACE PREJUDICE OF THE DOMINANT GROUP: "(1) A FEELING OF SUPERIORITY, (2) A FEELING THAT THE SUBORDINATE GROUP IS INTRINSICALLY DIFFERENT AND ALIEN, (3) A FEELING OF PROPRIETARY CLAIM TO CERTAIN AREAS OF PRIVILEGE AND ADVANTAGE, AND (4) A FEAR AND SUSPICION THAT THE SUBORDINATE RACE HARBORS DESIGNS ON THE PREROGATIVES OF THE DOMINANT RACE. PARKIN S IDEA OF SOCIAL CLOSURES: "THE PROCESS WHEREBY SOCIAL COLLECTIVITIES SEEK TO MAXIMIZE REWARDS BY RESTRICTING ACCESS TO RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES TO A LIMITED CIRCLE OF ELIGIBLES. . . . THIS MONOPOLIZATION IS DIRECTED AGAINST COMPETITORS WHO SHARE SOME POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE CHARACTERISTIC; ITS PURPOSE IS ALWAYS THE CLOSURE OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES TO OUTSIDERS. HOWEVER, REMEMBER HOW OVERLAPPING SETTLER COLONIALISMS AFFECT EXCLUSION HERE (INDIAN ENSLAVEMENT/SPATIAL ALIENATION)

DEMOGRAPHIC AND LABOR SHIFTS ELIMINATION: 100,000 INDIANS IN CA IN 1850; 20,000 IN 1870 BY 1870, MILLION NON-INDIAN CALIFORNIANS, WITH CHINESE THE LARGEST GROUP BORN OUTSIDE OF THE US ORIGINAL INDUSTRY MINING, THEN RISE OF LARGE-SCALE GRAIN AGRICULTURE AND THE RAILROAD AT THE TIME THE US CONQUERS CALIFORNIA FROM MEXICO, SMALL NUMBER OF MEXICAN SETTLERS NUMBERING IN THE THOUSANDS. LATER, AFTER 1870, MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS COME AS LABORERS. MEXICANS INCREASINGLY TARGETED AS LABOR THREAT RATHER THAN LANDOWNING COMPETITION BY 1870 MIGRATION OF SETTLERS FROM AROUND THE US SURPASSES GROUPS BORN OUTSIDE THE US

FREE LABOR IDEOLOGY INTEGRATED WITH MANIFEST DESTINY: AN EXPANDING CAPITALIST SOCIETY BASED ON FREE LABOR, MARKET RELATIONS, INDIVIDUALISM, AND PRIVATE PROPERTY PROTESTANT ETHIC/PRODUCER CLASS (JACKSON) CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE OVER BLACK IMMIGRATION TO CA REFLECTS THAT FREE LABOR WAS ABOUT PROTECTING WHITE LABOR, NOT ABOUT MORAL CONCERN FOR VICTIMS OF SLAVERY WE DESIRE ONLY A WHITE POPULATION IN CALIFORNIA; EVEN THE INDIANS AMONG US, AS FAR AS WE HAVE SEEN, ARE MORE A NUISANCE THAN A BENEFIT TO THE COUNTRY, WE WOULD LIKE TO GET RID OF THEM. . . . [W]E DEARLY LOVE THE UNION, BUT DECLARE OUR POSITIVE PREFERENCE FOR AN INDEPENDENT CONDITION OF CALIFORNIA TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ANY DEGREE OF SLAVERY, OR EVEN THE IMPORTATION OF FREE BLACKS. (THE CALIFORNIAN, 1848, 34-5)

SANCHEZ/PITA: COMPARATIVE SETTLER COLONIALISMS STRESSES THAT SPANISH, MEXICAN, AND ANGLO-AMERICAN SETTLER COLONIAL PROJECTS OVERLAP IN THE US-MEXICO BORDERLANDS, CONTRIBUTING TO THE ELIMINATION OF INDIANS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FRANCHISE COLONIAL STRUCTURE OF RACIAL HIERARCHY CRITIQUES IDEA THAT MEXICANS ARE SIMPLY ANOTHER COLONIZED GROUP: CONQUEST DID NOT DEPRIVE CALIFORNIOS, TEJANOS, AND NUEVO MEXICANOS IN THE NEWLY ANNEXED LANDS OF THE US SOUTHWEST OF BASIC NECESSITIES, AS HAS APARTHEID IN ISRAEL. NO, AFTER THE US INVASION, MEXICAN SETTLERS AND RANCHEROS UNDERWENT PROLETARIANIZATION AND RAPIDLY BECAME THE PROVIDERS OF WAGE LABOR. THE LIMITED NUMBER OF CALIFORNIOS COULD NOT, HOWEVER, MEET THE GROWING DEMANDS FOR LABOR IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CALIFORNIA; THE SOLUTION WAS THE IMPORTATION OF A FOREIGN LABOR FORCE. THOSE WORKERS WERE CHINESE, SETTLERS OF ANOTHER TYPE, LABOR SETTLERS/MIGRANT WORKERS, LIKE THE MANY WAVES OF LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS TODAY WITHIN THE UNITED STATES.

COMPARATIVE SETTLER COLONIALISMS WE HAVE TO SEE THAT THE TRULY COLONIZED IN THE SOUTHWEST WERE THE NATIVE AMERICANS, FIRST BY THE PEOPLE OF MEXICAN ORIGIN AND LATER BY THE ANGLO SETTLERS. IN EFFECT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE US SOUTHWEST IS THAT ONE GROUP OF COLONISTS WAS REPLACED BY ANOTHER GROUP OF COLONISTS. IN THE PROCESS WE, THE DESCENDANTS OF THE FIRST GROUP, MUCH LIKE THE CHINESE WORKERS AND BLACKS, AFTER ABOLITION, SUFFERED RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL OPPRESSION, DISENFRANCHISEMENT AND EXPLOITATION. TODAY WE, WHETHER NATIVE BORN OR IMMIGRANTS (DOCUMENTED OR UNDOCUMENTED), CONTINUE TO SUFFER CRIMINALIZATION AND XENOPHOBIA AS WELL AND ARE TREATED AS FOREIGNERS IN OUR NATIVE LAND, AS IS EVIDENT IN ICE AND BORDER PATROL RAIDS, AND, IN SEVERAL STATE MEASURES, LIKE THOSE OF ARIZONA, ALABAMA, AND GEORGIA, DENYING US THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION, MEDICAL CARE, HOUSING, WELFARE, AND EMPLOYMENT.