Week 9

RACE
REVIEW & BACKGROUND
Background What is Race? Racial categories as legal categories Complicated history between race and law o Colonialism and slavery o Decolonization and civil rights movement o Immigration laws

COLONIALISM & CAPITALISM

What is Colonization? Cannot have colonization without law (need legal documents to set up own business, once youre in that country etc..) Settlements and divisions Exploitation of resources (including slaves) o Expropriation favours colonizing country Colonized country meant to serve core (peripheral to serve core) global south: extracting countries, third world serve north. Control of indigenous population: Extermination, moving them to reserves and controlling them etc o Repressive o Violent o Racist Enslavement, Extraction, Profit Colonies source raw materials Feed Europes manufacturing industries o Slaves as machines of extraction and production o Euro wage laborers making commodities Colonies eventually become consumer markets Colonization As A Civilizing Mission Height of colonialism occurs with rise of liberalism Ideas about civility, superiority Aim: civilize the barbarians - white mans burden: to go out and civilize the world Revolutionary Era Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness Declaration of Independence (1776) & Constitution

France Liberty, equality, fraternity 1

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) Fight for Freedom and Independence Liberty of some at expense of others Cannot do both: colonize & civilize o Colonization: thingification Legacy of Colonialism 1776 Constitution of the USA (preamble) We the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves. Missing Anyone? Slaves? Canadian Constitution (1982) 35 (1): The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. (2) In this Act, Aboriginals of Canada includes the Indian, Inuit and Metis peoples of Canada Not a charter right Who is a citizen? Immigration law Decolonization and Civil Rights Movement Post World War 2 Struggle for independence and rights Gains largely formal, not substantive Citizenship and immigration How does criminal law fit into all of this?

DELGADO & STEFANCICS VIEW

Critical Race Theory (CRT) Late 1960s Dissatisfaction with merely formal gains Grows in response to backlash of 1970s By 1980s, more focus on and desire for works by minority scholars Main Claims Racism is not exceptional but systemic Interest convergence a barrier to anti-racism o Concerns about workers from outside North America: my interest will converge with yours to keep these people out o Categories that society invents for particular purposes (137) Differential racialization in response to shifting needs control racial groups based on circumstances. Ex. Japanese as threat in WW2 put into camps and strip them of all their assets Intersectionality and anti-essentialism: you are not just 1 category: not just an African American, also woman. Latin man who is gay. o Not defining someone by the essentials: defining a woman as

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someone who bears children looking at a larger scope. Criticism of Legal System Problem of colorblind liberalism Legal reasoning tends toward status quo Need to shift focus: ex. Immigration law. Race and Criminal Law People of colour make up more than 70% of the US prison population Defining o Threatening Behaviour o Reasonable Belief Interview with Angela Davis: arrested as Black Panther for shooting police officer. Did not pull trigger, but was arrested on her association with black panther movement (self defence) o Immigration o Race, slavery, prison system The average citizen is much more likely to be killed as a result of undeclared wars (which are illegal) or dangerous consumer products, and much more likely to suffer a loss of property due to white collar crime than to street crime (140)