Kirwan Update November/December 2010 by Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Kirwan Update

November/December 2010

Seceding from a Union john a. powell Professor and Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute

e have just had a midterm election, and while this might appear like many other midterm elections, I want to suggest it is not. I will assert here that we are wrestling with whether we can become one nation or if the right to secede from the union persists. I pick this term deliberately knowing that it will likely produce a strong response. This situation is significant and the health of our country may be at stake. When Barack Obama was elected president, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that we can finally end the Civil War. I believe he was too optimistic. The Civil War was about many things, including the effort by President Lincoln and the North to maintain the Union. While Lincoln did not foreclose the possibility of continuing slavery, he limited the right of the South to secede. The South argued it had the choice to secede—a choice guaranteed in the founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, but Lincoln disagreed. Before the Civil War, many, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney, argued that blacks—free or otherwise—could not be members of the political union or be regarded as citizens, and that citizenship and political rights belonged only to whites. The struggle over what this country is and who can belong has been fought repeatedly. The contours of the fight are often about some whites, but not only whites, claiming the right to disaffiliate with non-whites and to secede. The country has lurched back and forth on this issue. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision set off a wave of calls to secede, resist

the Supreme Court, and create all-white private schools funded by the public. We continue to live with the ramifications. Public accommodation laws have been argued many times in terms of the right of individuals, specifically whites, to disaffiliate from non-whites at restaurants or lunch counters. This practice and rationale have re-emerged again and again under headings of choice, white flight, forced busing, privacy, and many others. Today it takes form as anti-government, anti-public, taking the country back, restoring the country’s values, exclusive communities, and states’ rights. While much has been written about this, it is not clearly named. As Justice Harlan understood in defending the right to prohibit racial exclusion by “private businesses” in public accommodation, this fight was about fulfilling the promise to make blacks full citizens. Despite progress in outlawing Jim Crow laws with the help of the Court and policymakers, we continue to afford many whites the right to secede from the Union and claim Americanism. When one looks at our education, housing, or transportation systems we see this pattern repeated. Federal, state, and local governments are using public money to assist those who claim the right to secede. Recently, some of the Tea Party and rightwing rhetoric has picked up the confederate flag issue. Surprisingly, the response from the center and the left has been weak. But some voices have called attention to this 150-year-old fight. Both Tim Wise and Jeffrey Sachs have noticed that the withdrawal of support for investing in the public is partly about the public’s becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Since the Civil War, a major battleground has been

INSIDE: Institute Events •

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Media Update

Legal Research Update

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Global Justice Program

Call for Papers

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New Staff

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Opportunity Communities

the definition of public and private with the understanding that if blacks have any claim of rights, it is largely consigned to the public space. Even as the government opened up public space for excluded racial groups in cities Professor john a. powell after WWII, it was concurrently creating a functionally private space in suburbs, which excluded nonwhites. It paid for this space with tax abatements, roads, and cheap credit for housing. It is sorely wrong to think this battle is just old history. When Rand Paul suggested the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be repealed, he sided with the Confederacy. Of course in today’s parlance, he asserted that he opposes discrimination but favors the right for private businesses to exclude. He later backed down. We cannot win this war and make a united America without understanding and engaging what is at stake. Some will object that hostility to public investment by Tea Party members does not mean they are racist, and I might agree. My point is not that those who reject public investment are racist, but that this position is on the wrong side of the Civil War. I am not, I repeat, not insisting that to be on this side of the Civil War and against a united future requires explicit racist motivation. But disaffiliating from engagement and investment in a robust plural public will not only keep the spirit of the Civil War alive, it will assure the decline of America as a disunited nation. The election and the rhetoric around it can be understood as a rejection of the future in favor of a failed past.

Kirwan Institute Events

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Visits the Kirwan Institute U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (third from right) paid a visit to the Kirwan Institute to discuss urban policy, including Preserving, Enhancing, and Transforming Rental Assistance (PETRA), with Kirwan Institute executive director john powell and a group of Kirwan Institute staff and Moritz College of Law faculty members on October 22. This past summer, powell coauthored a letter in support of housing mobility and choice elements in the PETRA draft bill released by HUD. In particular, PETRA would provide new choices for public and assisted housing residents, allowing them to receive a housing choice voucher after a period of time to move to be near family, a better job, or better schools. The letter was signed by the national NAACP, the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, the National Council of La Raza, and several other major civil rights organizations. The letter is available on the Kirwan Institute web site.

Upcoming Co-Sponsored Events 41st Annual United Black World Month

February 2011 The Ohio State University

Law Journal Symposium

February 25, 2011 Moritz College of Law, Saxbe Auditorium 6–8 p.m.

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Keynote

April 21, 2011 The Ohio State University

Department of Women’s Studies Conference on Gender and States of Emergency

April 22, 2011 The Ohio State University

33rd Annual African American Heritage Festival

April 23–May 1, 2011 The Ohio State University

Recent CoSponsored Events Thinking about Race

bell hooks: Visiting Distinguished Professor at Ohio State bell hooks, the internationally recognized feminist scholar, is in residence at Ohio State this year as Visiting Distinguished Professor of Women’s Studies. She delivered a number of lectures and conversations during her first two-week stay in October and spent time with the Kirwan Institute staff. Dr. hooks has written 35 books and numerous articles on black feminist scholarship, popular culture, race theory, sexuality studies, and gender studies. Her work is taught at universities around the world. Her residency is made possible by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Women’s Studies, the Office of Minority Affairs, the Kirwan Institute, and the Women’s Place. 2

November 10, 2010 Wexner Center for the Arts The Ohio State University

Facing Race Conference

September 23–25, 2010 Applied Research Center Chicago, Illinois

Community and Resistance Tour Afternoon Event

September 20, 2010 Hale Black Cultural Center The Ohio State University

Ohio State Editorial Professionals Group

The next meeting is scheduled for early January, and will be announced in OSU Today. For more information, contact Ruthmarie Mitsch (mitsch.2@osu.edu) or Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu).

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

of Minority Affairs, Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center, at The Ohio State University. Pictured with powell is Ohio State student Winchell Grant.

Hale Center Honors powell Kirwan Institute executive director john powell was honored October 22 with the donning of Kente Cloth, one of the most prestigious awards presented by the Office

The Kente Cloth is a symbol of great respect for outstanding contributions and is presented to people who have reached optimum levels of achievement and success. Professor powell received the honor following his presentation for the Hale Center’s Authors, Conversation, and Soul Food Luncheon Series. The Kente Cloth tradition dates back to 12th-century Africa, in the country of Ghana. The cloth was worn by royalty during ceremonial and special occasions. The woven pattern was worn as a garment that came in various colors, sizes, and designs; each design had a deep symbolic meaning.

Media Update Kirwan in Media Spotlight Kathy Baird Director of Communications

The Kirwan Institute’s work attracted the media spotlight from June through September, including coverage by several major national media outlets including the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The Washington Post carried insight from john powell, Kirwan Institute executive director, on black voters and the midterm elections. National Public Radio’s Tell Me More interviewed Andrew Grant-Thomas, Kirwan Institute deputy director, about racial discussions in America. A New York Times article about prisoners’ lack of voting rights quoted Michelle Alexander, associate professor of law who holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute. Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, was also the focus of stories on National Public Radio; KUOW Radio in Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Several Florida media, including the Miami Herald, the Florida Times-Union, the Florida Independent News, and four TV news broadcasts, carried stories about Kirwan’s opportunity mapping work and its impact in that state.

In other coverage, the Daily Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina, mentioned Kirwan’s partnership with the Pitt County, North Carolina, coalition for educating black children; the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentioned a Kirwan report on Ohio’s loss of 10,000 construction jobs; and the Montclair Times in New Jersey referenced Kirwan’s work on a student assignment plan for the local school district. john powell was quoted in the St. Louis PostDispatch about the NAACP’s role in pushing for change. He also was interviewed by KAAL TV in Rochester, Minnesota, about the RACE Exhibit at the Rochester Public Library, by City Newspaper in Rochester about racial equity in subprime lending, and by KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, part of the Pacifica Network. WOSU Radio in Columbus, Ohio, carried two commentaries by Andrew Grant-Thomas on immigration and on how to imagine a brighter racial future; and another by Hasan Jeffries, associate professor of history with a joint appointment with the Kirwan Institute, providing insight on the NAACP and the Tea Party. The Other Paper in Columbus quoted Andrew GrantThomas on an article about inner-city violence.

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.

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 3

Global Justice Program

Kirwan Institute’s Global Justice Program Launching New Research on Global Food System Crisis

n the midst of the ongoing global food crisis that continues to harm communities, regions, and countries in the global South, over 1.2 billion of the world’s population continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition with women and children disproportionately represented as the face of severe poverty. During the last three decades, neoliberal reforms have materialized in the international trade regime as systems of monopolies and privatization, and the majority of the world population today is defenseless in the face of this crisis. These structural imbalances undermine the viability of rural and agrarian communities in most countries of the global South, which historically developed and existed under radically different social and economic relations from the global North. For many communities, the system based on neoliberal and racialized structures perpetuates brutal material realities. For these material conditions to change, the logic of these structures must be substituted with more equitable and just calculations that give rise to different outcomes of international trade and agricultural reforms in our global economic system. Consequently, this global tragedy presents enormous threats to global peace and security. Moreover, the Kirwan Institute, as a research policy institute, is well grounded in the work of advocacy for the concerns and issues of marginalized populations. The current crisis in the global food system and its future implications present a new frontier for the institute to contribute and add value to the national and worldwide debate on the universality of a fundamental human rights issue—the right to adequate food. The right to adequate food is recognized in several international covenants such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art. 25); the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, (Art. 11); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 24[2][c] and Art. 27[3]); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Art. 12[2]); and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Art. 25[f] and Art. 28[1]).

Our project aims to inform policies and practices in order to support the rights of marginalized populations to have equitable opportunity and healthy lives. Such rights necessitate paying particular attention to structural and root causes of the current global food crisis rather than simply its effects. In this context, our Food Justice Project intends to produce the following:

I. Comprehensive report The report will aim to examine and address the underlying nature of the global food system crisis by applying the structural racialization framework as a mode of analysis to understand the systematic failures that deter accessibility to food. The report will go on to propose short-term and long-term maneuvers to suggest compelling arguments for policy changes.

II. Research policy papers series Our policy papers will deeply examine the global food system by applying structural racialization, targeted universalism, and systems thinking as critical modes of analysis to understand the systematic causes of the food crisis. The first working research policy paper (autumn 2010) takes on the issue of Structural Racialization and the Global Food System Crisis. The paper underscores the Kirwan Institute’s understanding of the system crisis from historical and political economy perspectives. In addition, the series will study other critical issues including the Green Revolution and the mechanization of agriculture in Africa, large-scale land acquisition and agrofuels, intellectual property rights and seed systems, and the dysfunctional role of the international financial institutions and international trade system in creating and maintaining the current crisis in the global system.

III. Interactive map In this project, the Kirwan Institute will develop a global interactive map to be utilized by policymakers, community activists, scholars, and students to highlight the scale and causes of the global food crisis and possible policy changes to address the crisis. Using GIS techniques and statistical analysis, the map will contain ample information on historical, political, economic, and legal causes of the crisis.

IV. Conference To affirm our engagement with critical voices in the field of the food justice movement (i.e. advocates, researchers, academics, and practitioners working on the global food system and crisis), the Global Justice Program at the Kirwan Institute plans to host a conference (autumn 2011) to discuss major structural impediments of the global food system (i.e. large-land acquisition, the right to food, agriculture and international trade, agrofuels, and intellectual property rights). The conference is expected to create a venue for exchanging ideas and to produce innovative and effective tools for policy advocacy to tackle the global food crisis.

V. High-profile documentary film The Global Justice Program is also seeking funding for production of a documentary film on the multidimensional traits of the global food system crisis. The film would incorporate our accumulated knowledge from our research studies, the report, policy papers, conference, and other publications. The production would engage and create space for dialogue on the persisting questions of food security, food justice, and the food system crisis on the African continent.

Global Justice Program

Fighting Trafficking Through Education S.P. Udayakumar Research Fellow

ost South Asian societies claim to regard women as custodians of their culture and tradition and hold them in high esteem with due honor and respect. But it is a sad fact that the very women considered as the embodiment of “Sakthi” (power) are being shamelessly discriminated against and subjected to many forms of exploitation. All this makes women hesitant to participate in public life, and the full blossoming of their personalities is severely hampered. Women have to passively accept the male-chauvinistic public policies, technologies, services, value-systems, and the overall establishment itself. It has been reported that India is a major transit point for “girl-running” and that there has been an increasing influx of women from Nepal and Bangladesh. Most of the women are tricked into prostitution by procurers, smuggled across the border, and sent through KolkataMumbai-Karachi (Pakistan) to West Asian countries. Poverty is the main reason for prostitution and quite often families themselves send their girls into prostitution for money. Another important reason is the procurers trap the girls by the promise of marriage to rich men and prosperous lives,

Prostitution is defined as a purely female phenomenon; male prostitutes are not incorporated since they are considered culturally non-existent. The law penalizes only the prostitutes, but clients are not considered offenders.

then force them into the trade. Female illiteracy, little political participation of women, and the refusal of the right to property to women are some other major reasons. The women themselves are not there for money or sexual pleasure and their income goes to the brothel owner. Young women and even minor girls are sold to the prostitution racketeers by girl-runners. Migration and urbanization are the most important causes for present-day prostitution. Urbanization with increasing displacement of people and the growth of industrialized cities has caused a steep increase in prostitution. Religious prostitution is being replaced by industrial prostitution. The Jogins, the Basaris, the Parvathis, and the Devadasis in India, the Devakis and the Bandhinis in Nepal, and other such women are “married off to God,” becoming available to any man in the village and living at the mercy of anyone who fancies them. These outdated religious practices tend to sanctify prostitution. Industrial prostitution is a by-product of the hotel and resort industry. Tourism also has given a boost to prostitution, and every big town or city has red light areas although they are non-existent legally. There are some pockets of tourist attractions that enhance “prostitution tourism.” There is a clear streak of gender bias in law. Prostitution is defined as a purely female phenomenon; male prostitutes are not incorporated since they are considered culturally non-existent. The law penalizes only the prostitutes, but clients are not considered offenders. Furthermore, the law in India does not seek to abolish prostitution but intends to prevent the practice of prostitution or the solicitation of a customer in a public place. Implementation of this law has not been effective. According to one estimate, there are over 50,000 brothels in Bombay alone with more than 100,000 prostitutes, 20 percent of whom are minors. The whole issue needs a series of measures to curb this social evil and the exploitation of women and children. A massive awareness campaign is needed not only to inform people, but to bridge the chasm between legislation and reality. The law should be made more stringent so as to punish the brothel owner, the procurer, the pimp, and the client. Women who are rescued from brothels should be rehabilitated in special centers

with adult education classes, health lessons, and training programs to acquire the skills necessary for a decent livelihood. Provisions must be made to ensure proper care, schooling, and normal life for their children. It is imperative to provide equal rights to women in family, inheritance, and property as well as an equal right to have custody of children, including guardianship. Such rights would facilitate opportunities for education and employment for their children. Intergovernmental action must be mooted to curtail girl-running, to track down the elements involved in the trade, and to eradicate the evil as a whole. The UN has adopted a “Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women,” which states that “discrimination against women is incompatible with human dignity and with the welfare of the family and of society, prevents their participation, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries and is an obstacle to the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of humanity” and is “fundamentally unjust.” The declaration adds that “all appropriate measures shall be taken to abolish existing laws, customs, regulations and practices which are discriminatory against women.” Women’s liberation should not be based just on freedom from patriarchal tradition and culture; studies should analyze South Asian society and its value system, coupled with present day individuals’ social and economic needs. Such a need-based and culturally oriented approach would not be based on a “confrontation model” but on a combination of “complementary model” and “self-reliant model.” Anti-trafficking efforts should focus on women’s and children’s self-empowerment and self-improvement, complementary of their lives with their counterparts (men and adults, respectively) and the larger society, and also on understanding and attaining a balanced life. Personal growth education (with personality development, leadership training, career counseling, etc.), sex education, sexism education, human rights education, crime education, “reverence for life” education, marriage education, peace education, and other such efforts should also be built into anti-trafficking efforts. 5

Global Justice Program

Structural Racialization and the Global Food System Wendy Ake Graduate Research Associate

or the last three years we witnessed intensified political and social unrest in regions throughout the world in no small part due to a huge increase in global food prices. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), food prices rose by 83% between 2005 and 2008, with maize prices nearly tripling, wheat prices increasing by 127%, and rice prices increasing by 170% between January 2007 and June 2008.

Food crises of this proportion create conditions that spill over into other institutional domains, affecting patterns of migration and increasing refugee populations through internal displacement, regional conflicts, spread of infectious diseases, and increased urbanization. In some African cities, 65% of the population lives on 5% of the city’s total area. The escalating food crisis is unevenly expressed across physical space and among populations according to gender, class, race, and ethnicity. The recent crisis that captured global attention in 2008 is the materialization of dominant social beliefs including neoliberal competition, environmental activism, patriarchy, and racialization. Racialized structures have directly influenced global trade systems and their historical evolution. The problematic mentalities that foment racialized outcomes in the world food system are grounded in the following structures of power. 1. Free Trade and Agriculture. In the Global South, the agricultural trade system is acted out in a landscape of regions, countries, communities, families, and individuals devastated by decades of failed policies implemented by regional investment banks and international financial institutions. Such institutions began the practice of conditional loans in the 1980s known as Structural Adjustment Programs. These arrangements, initiated by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), demanded economic restructuring in recipient countries. These changes frequently failed

to alleviate the country’s financial problems, creating a cycle of debt that was nearly inescapable. With some modification, similar economic changes are expected of recipient countries today through the use of lending institutions’ Poverty Reduction Alleviation Papers. 2. Intellectual Property Rights Regime and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The intellectual property rights regime is inherited from the exploitation and control of plant and genetic plant material by colonial powers. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement and the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) are currently two agreements pertaining to intellectual property and trade. Both were negotiated through the WTO, a notoriously undemocratic organization particularly for indigenous peoples, peasants, and fisher folk—stewards of the planet’s biodiversity for thousands of years. Cargill and Monsanto, new to the field of biodiversity but with advanced Western scientific expertise, were recruited into the drafting of the AoA. However, other voices were absent from the process, partly due to racialized exclusion. 3. Agrofuels and Environmentalism. The merging of environmentalism and activism has had adverse effects in the Global South related to the food crisis. The UN, World Bank, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have presented agrofuels as a renewable fuel that avoids environmental hazards and ensures sustained economic growth. This does not consider the environmental hazards or issues of land tenure rights with large-scale agriculture projects. If smallholder farmers are involved in growing crop for agrofuels, it means they are not growing food for subsistence, but for exchange with someone else in their community or for trade across borders. The smallholder will be selling the crop low on the value chain and not reaping the higher value of the fuel refining process. This is the economic growth potential many economists point to when they talk about development, but it is beyond the reach of many smallholders. 4. Large-Scale Land Acquisition. Catalyzed by the rising cost of food commodities, the financial crisis and subsequent need for new investment strategies, decline of land

prices, increasing demand for agrofuels production, carbon trade policies, and land conservation projects, many countries, investment firms, and financial institutions are acquiring large tracts of arable land in Global South countries. These acquisitions are documented by local media, international NGOs, and the World Bank, although details frequently remain undisclosed. It is not uncommon for tracts of land to be hundreds of thousands of hectares, often representing a significant fraction of that territory’s arable land, or for the lease term to be decades long. In exchange, some firms provide minimal capital amounts or have only to provide promises of infrastructure development or jobs. Additionally, if these operations are in areas that lack tax structures for land and where land values are expected to appreciate, the agreements negotiate acquisition of far more land than the firm can cultivate in order to lock in favorable terms for the recipient firm. Large-scale land acquisitions of all types are considered exceptionally controversial by organizations representing the interests of peasants, indigenous peoples, and fisher folk. 5. Financial Speculation. Financial speculation played a critical role in the 83% rise in commodity food prices between 2005–2008. Arguments that appeal to market fundamentals offer at best an incomplete explanation of the complex phenomena. This account is called into question by the 2007 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports, which point to world record grain harvests exceeding demand one-and-a-half times. FAO and peer reviewed journals report that overall, for the last 20 years, global food production has risen 2% per year while world population growth has dropped 1.14% per year. Morgan Stanley reported that the number of outstanding contracts in maize futures increased from 500,000 in 2003 to nearly 2.5 million in 2008. Agricultural commodity index funds increased from $13 billion USD in 2003 to $317 billion USD in 2008. UNCTAD reported that “the trend towards greater financialization of commodity trading is likely to have increased the number and relative size of price changes that are unrelated to market fundamentals.” This calls for policy recommendations regarding the need for greater regulation of derivatives and trading, particularly given the human rights implications of the right to food.

Opportunity Communities The Geography of Opportunity: Mapping to Promote Equitable Community Development and Fair Housing in King County, Washington

concentrated in opportunity-deprived communities, which places them within a system of disadvantage that can ultimately affect life outcomes. By adopting an opportunity-oriented model of development and empowerment, we can address the systemic and structural barriers that cumulatively work to deny opportunity and advancement to the marginalized. The project report and data are available on our web site at kirwaninstitute.org/research/projects/king-county-waopportunity-mapping/index.php.

The Kirwan Institute was commissioned by the Northwest Justice Project in Seattle to assess the “State of Opportunity” in King County, Washington. This “Opportunity Mapping” analysis was made possible through a small grant funded by the Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC).

Below is one of the maps created for this project. The Kirwan Institute is currently working on developing a web-based mapping application to display and query opportunity mapping data for this project online. We plan to launch the web application soon.

The analysis of opportunity in King County has shown that opportunity is not evenly distributed throughout the region. In King County, this means that people of color are disproportionately

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Map 2A: OPPORTUNITY & RACE

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This map displays the spatial distribution of opportunity in King County, based on education, economic/mobility, and housing/neighborhood indicators, at the census tract level. Non-White population is symbolized by dots, showing density per tract. TUKWILA Source: KCGIS, Washington State Report Card: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, National CenterRENTON for Education Statistics, Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau: County Business Patterns, King County Sheriff's Office, Seattle Police Department, municipal crime statistics, King County Department of Assessments, HUD, EPA, ESRI BURIEN

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Manhattan, New York City : Recovery.gov ARRA Job Summary This map shows the reported location of ARRA jobs created in relation to the change in county unemployment rates from Februry 2009 to May 2010. While Recovery.gov data provides historic levels of detail about the # of jobs created & retained, the demographics of workers and the precise locations of work remain unknown. Often, the green dot represents the corporate address of the recipient agency or company, not the actual location of the work or the worker(s)

New York Stimulus Alliance Partnership

source: Recovery.gov

Note: Job data represent quarterly reporting for April 1 to June 30, 2010

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During summer 2010, the Kirwan Institute partnered with the New York Stimulus Alliance to study stimulus Weinland Park and Vicinity investment and job creation across the state of New York. The primary objective of this research was to Food Land Use Map determine if the impact of the American Recovery Sources: Franklin County Auditor (August 2010), Local Matters inventory (Summer 2010) and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the Economic Stimulus, has been felt in communities hit 14th the hardest by the recent recession. The outcome of this work was a set of regional stimulus job maps, and a report that includes profiles about stimulus investManhattan 13th ment in each of eight regions of the state, as well as a statewide overview. The work reveals that although the 12th ! State Stabilization Funding has temporarily prevented massive cuts to education and health care throughout ! Chittenden 11th ! New York, the impact on local !job!!markets and family ! ! budgets appears to be minimal.!!The!report 11th also includes ! ! ! a set of recommendations10th for how similar proactive 10th !! ! investments in job growth should be improved in 9th ways that bring real and lasting !impacts to communiinland Park and Vicinity ! ! ! !! 9th ! ! ! !! ! ties in distress. ! d Land Use Map ! ay

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13th The Columbus neighborhoodKing known as Weinland Park, Brooklyn 7th located just south and east of The Ohio State University 12th ! Clarksubject of interest to campus, has recently become the 6th ! ! 6thresearchmany local investors, social service agencies, ! 6th Chittenden 1th ! ! ! ers, community advocates, developers, and !Ohio State Smith ! ! !! ! Weinland Park and Vicinity ! 11th ! ! affiliates. While the community may very well be on ! ! ! ! Food Land Use Map the cusp 10th of an exciting period of reinvestment, there !! ! ! ! 5th ! Sources: Franklin County Auditor (August 2010), Local Matters inventory (Summer 2010) are also many concerns about the threat of resident ! 9th ! ! ! !! ! Greenwood displacement!as redevelopment continues ! ! Greenw ! Greenwood ! !to unfold. ! ! ood ! Recognizing this and how particularly 14th ! ! challenge, ! 8th 4th 4th 8th racialized it is, the Kirwan Institute has joined the ! 8th ! ! !dialogue and partnered with other local Euclid community Detroit ! len ! ! organizations to follow the!development and !make sure ! ! ! 7th 12th 3rd King that new growth and investment opportunities don’t ! 7th 3rd exclude existing members of the community. ! Chittenden 11th ! Clark This involvement6thincludes the contribution of! a series Starr ! !! ! ! 6th ! 11th of maps depicting the community’s food sources, ! 2nd 6th ! 0 125 250 500 750 1,000 ! ! Smith ! ! ! 10th 10th !and a vision for improving access to healthy and !! ! Feet 2nd ! affordable food. ! 9th

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Legal Research Update The Kirwan Institute legal staff is currently researching the legal ramifications of the actions of the secondary mortgage market under Title VIII and other fair housing / fair credit laws. This research will not only help us to understand an inherently complicated securitization and market process, but also provide insight into possible policy

interventions that can prevent the tightening of credit and homeownership possibilities for marginalized communities. We also have been exploring the connections between the rise of corporate prerogative under the 14th Amendment in the late 19th century and the truncating of civil rights for African Americans in the same

period. We are currently tracing Supreme Court decisions on corporate prerogative and civil rights through the Lochner era, the Warren Court, the Burger and Rehnquist Court, and the new rise of corporate prerogative and anti-civil rights jurisprudence of the Roberts court.

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts Volume 4, Number 1 In this issue of Race Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, we ask questions such as what are the consequences of discriminatory behaviors, institutions, and structures acting at the intersection of race and gender? What can be done? As our classic piece, we chose “Movimientos de rebeldia y las culturas que traicionan,” from Gloria Anzuldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Here the author traces her personal experiences of being caught between two cultures, alienated from both.

their time and experience to answer our questions. We also recognize and thank our graduate research associate, Philip J. Kim, for his work in compiling and editing the responses. Everyone has heard of the Lost Boys of Sudan, but what about the girls? Anne Harris, lecturer, School of Education, Victoria University, began an arts-based intercultural collaborative film project with Sudanese women, providing them with their own forum for speaking. Harris explores these voices in I Ain’t No Girl: Representation and Reconstruction of the “Found Girls” of Sudan.

Aino Rinhaug of the University of Oslo/ University of London, writes about the artistic aesthetic of Korean adoptees, which is grounded in their status as a kind of perpetual immigrant, as well as their permanent masking as people from an Asian society living in a Western culture. In Adoptee Aesthetics: A Gendered Discourse, the performance of the male body, the female body, the transgendered body, the Asian body—all on a Westernized stage—allows bodies to “generate identity.”

Juhu Thukral, director of law and advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda, examines the realities of women workers of color in the information economy in the United States in Race, Gender, and Immigration in the Informal Economy. Vulnerabilities are a very real concern for this segment of the population. Lorraine Leu, University of Bristol, discusses Brazilian sexual and racial identity by way of the life of outlaw and cross-dressing performer João Francisco dos Santos as represented in the 2002 film Madame Satã.

Our interview, The Impact of Race and Gender, is rich and varied thanks to the participation of several committed individuals who gave of

The increasing visibility of multi-racial individuals prompted Andra Basu to examine the

“500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade” There is little doubt that from its origins in the 16th century through its end in the 19th century, the transatlantic slave trade dramatically shaped the trajectories of many millions of lives on at least four continents (Africa, Europe, North America, and South America) and the Caribbean. Whether in what forms, by what means, and to what effect the slave trade continues to leave social, cultural, institutional, familial, and

personal impressions in the present day are matters of considerable debate and even tension—in the former slave-trading and slavehosting nations, in West and Central Africa, and also in countries whose involvement was less obvious. Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, director of Research and Training for Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement, and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, invite submissions for Volume 5, Number 2 titled “500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.”

gender differences and similarities on campus, and presents her findings in The Role of Gender in the Experiences of Biracial College Students. Discrimination from professors and fellow students remains an unwelcome aspect of college life. Kellie Bean’s Twenty-Four Notes on Appalachian Women Blogging discusses the “ethnicity that is not one” by examining the outputs and attitudes of women who selfidentify as Appalachian. Akinyi Margareta Ocholla volunteers for Minority Women in Action (MWA), an organization that works for the rights of lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and intersex women in Kenya in her paper, Thoughts on LGBTI Activism, Race, and Gender in a Kenyan Context. The discussion focuses on how beliefs drawn from many sources have an adverse impact on quality-of-life outcomes for LGBTI women in Kenya, but holds out hope for the future. Our Fact Sheet on Gender: Selected Comparisons draws from a variety of sources to try to broaden reader understanding of attitudes and facts about men and women around the globe.

The transatlantic slave trade most immediately touched societies and lives in France, Great Britain, Portugal and Brazil, the Netherlands, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Central Africa. We especially welcome analyses, critiques, reflections, and documentation by activists, community-based organizations, and others living and working in these countries and regions or working on issues that implicate developments and dynamics in these places. Of course, the work of scholars, advocates, activists, and practitioners in all disciplines working elsewhere are also welcome.

(continued on page 11)

Call for Papers Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts Volume 5, Number 1 (Summer 2011)

“Race and the Food System”

Sample topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Development

Papers must be received by January 10, 2011, to be considered for publication in this issue.

• Black land control/food production/ black farms in the 21st century, the black cooperative movement

Please send manuscript submissions to the editor: shortlidge.2@osu.edu. See Style Guidelines (raceethnicity.org/styleguide) to prepare your document in accordance with the style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity.

• Black-led urban food production movement

The work of the Kirwan Institute is made possible by the generous support of numerous people and organizations. External funding includes the following:

• Latino farm/food production

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See web site at raceethnicity.org/coverart for submission guidelines. The U.S. and international food system— from the ground to the grocer—rests on a racial construct that has historically had, and continues to have, severe adverse impacts on producers, consumers, and workers of color. Structural racism shapes the development of the food system in the new century, not unlike it has in the past, and demands new, creative, and strategic thinking and action in response. Some of the questions we would like to address in this issue include:

• Hmong farmers/food production

The African American Male Project Advanced Racial Equity Planning Project

• The worker/race construct of the meatpacking and poultry processing industry

The Ford Foundation

• An overall racial analysis of the food production, processing, distribution sector, which would focus on the industrialization process, race, and low-wage labor

Public Interest Projects

• A racial analysis of U.S. international food policy: benefits primarily to white farmers, food costs, “foreign aid,” and the impact on farmers in other nations • Dumping impacts on farmers of color in other nations, particularly in Africa • The racial structure of the restaurant industry • The racial structure of poultry production (contractors, catchers, plants)

General Operations The Diversity Advancement Project The Integration Initiative

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

• How does race intersect with the production, processing, and provision of food in the domestic and international food system?

• The racial structure of field and fruit cropping

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

• The emerging racial/immigrant labor structure of the dairy industry

The Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc.

• How does structural racism in the food system affect communities, particularly communities of color?

• The sustainable agriculture movement and worker/racial justice

• How does structural racism in the industrial food system rest on and continue to affect low-wage food system workers, most of whom are people of color? • As the industrial food system continues to transform food production, what can be done to assure structural equality for food producers of color? • What creative, new responses are needed in the 21st century to organize a racially just food system that equitably serves workers and communities?

• Community-based workers of color organizing in the food sector • Union organizing among workers of color in the industry

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

Northwest Area Foundation

Geography Opportunity Project

• Building a race-based, worker movement in the food sector, the Food Chain Workers Alliance

For more information on making a commitment to excellence with a donation to the institute, please contact:

• The racial construct of forced migration, climate change impact on food production and distribution

Tara McCoy Fiscal and Human Resources Manager Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (614) 688-5571 mccoy.266@osu.edu

We welcome the viewpoints of activists, advocates, researchers, and other practitioners working in the field.

“500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade” (continued from page 9) Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to: • In what ways do the effects of the transatlantic slave trade continue to ripple through the lives of particular people, institutions, communities, and societies? With what impact? How do we know? • What narratives prevail about the linkages between the slave trade and its historical impacts, on one hand, and contemporary racial meanings and conditions, on the other? • How pronounced are calls for racial “healing” and reconciliation? What are their sources? What efforts have been tried and with what success? Failures?

• Do reparations movements do more good or more harm? Under what circumstances and in what respects? What are the potential dangers and pitfalls of demands for reparations for the descendants of slaves? What would a truly beneficial approach to reparations look like? • How has the slave trade shaped contemporary notions of “whiteness” and “blackness,” whether locally or globally? What effect does it continue to exert on other identities? What reparative work is needed, if any, to fashion more constructive concepts of racial identity and meaning? Or are we at a point in time where notions of race no longer serve a

beneficial effect, and, if so, what, if anything would “replace race”? • What current efforts seek to link the descendants of former slaves, slave traders, and slave holders? What are their aims, mechanisms, and outcomes? • What current efforts seek to link former countries and regions that participated most actively in the slave trade? What are their aims, mechanisms, and outcomes? Please feel free to contact our managing editor, Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu), with any questions or concerns about submitting your work. Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is also welcome.

The Kirwan Institute Welcomes New Staff Wendy Ake is a graduate research associate who joined the Kirwan Institute as an international program summer intern in 2010. She has undergraduate degrees in physics and geography with a specialization in critical human geography. Previously she worked for the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio and Badil, an NGO in Bethlehem, West Bank, which addresses advocacy and research pertaining to Wendy Ake Palestinian refugees, including internally displaced persons. Wendy also has engaged in activism on international political movements. These experiences have influenced her path and research interests as she intends to continue study in the field of geography grounded in critical theory and oriented towards individuals taking action and creating social change. Liz Colombo is a graduate research

associate at the Kirwan Institute, pursuing a degree in city and regional planning at Ohio State. Liz graduated from Xavier University in the Philosophy, Politics, and the Public program and previously worked as a community organizer in Liz Colombo Cincinnati.

Brookes Hammock (BA, JD, Ohio State) is a research associate who joined the staff at Kirwan as an intern during his second year of law school in 2009. Before coming to the institute, Brookes interned in the Health and Human Services section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and worked as a research assistant for Professor Marc Spindelman of the Moritz College of Law. Prior to starting law school, he worked in the Department of Pharmacy at Ohio State’s Medical Center. His research interests Brookes Hammock include poverty, health, the intersections of race and sexuality, urban political economy, and the philosophy of science/social science methods. So-young Lee worked as a Kirwan

Institute volunteer in the summer of 2009 and now works at the institute as a graduate research associate for the GIS/Housing Policy section. She started her master’s program in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Ohio State in autumn 2008. She concentrates on quantitative and spatial analysis at Kirwan.

Melissa Lindsjo is a graduate research

associate at the Kirwan Institute, pursuing a master’s in city and regional planning at Ohio State. She graduated from Wittenberg University with a bachelor’s degree in geography and minors in political science and urban studies. Melissa previously served with AmeriCorps*VISTA at the Ohio Campus Compact, working to promote and develop the civic purposes of higher Melissa Lindsjo education. Brandy S. Thomas, originally from

Georgia, joins the Kirwan Institute as a research intern for the Race/Ethnicity journal. She is a PhD student in the Department of History at Ohio State. Brandy received her BA in history from Paine College, and her research interests include black women’s organizational efforts, with a focus on those in the United States and southern Africa.

Brandy S. Thomas

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