Constructing Criminals: Xenophobia and the Politics of Panic
04.15.2015 | 4:00 – 5:30 PM | 691 Barrows Hall
Perceptions of Threat and the Racialization of Illegality: Explaining Immigrant Group Participation in New York’s 2006 Protests
Prof. Chris Zepeda-Millán, Ethnic Studies
This presentation will utilize the case New York City to examine why certain immigrant groups participated in the 2006 protest wave more than others and why the city mobilized less compared with other major immigrant metropolises. The findings presented will indicate that certain immigrant groups participated more than others because of how the issue of “illegal immigration” was racialized and framed by the media, and because of the disproportionate impact the proposed legislation would have had on them. The data presented will illustrate how the city’s heterogeneous population served to diminish its capacity to produce the magnitude of mobilization found in other large immigrant cities.
The Boston Bombers, or The Citizen and the Terrorist
Prof. Leti Volpp, School of Law
On April 15, 2013, two bombs were set off during the Boston Marathon. The first suspects were fingered by the public through a new, technologically enabled vigilantism, based upon their appearance as “brown,” or “looks Muslim.” More than a decade after September 11, that those who appear Middle Eastern, Arab, or Muslim are identified as terrorists and disidentified as citizens, seems sadly uncontroversial. But what to make of the Tsarnaev brothers? While both brothers are generally held to have been responsible for the bombings, at various points Dzhokhar has been perceived as the citizen, with Tamerlan as the terrorist. This correlates with how they have been differently racialized.