By Blyth Crawford

This report examines the often under‑studied connections between antisemitism and anti‑gender sentiment within the neofascist militant accelerationist (NMA) movement. It considers the central importance of family within the NMA mission to maintain white racial ‘purity’, before outlining dominant antisemitic conspiracy theories prevalent between accelerationist movements such as the ‘Great Replacement’. Closely related is the ‘Cultural Marxism’ conspiracy theory which is a key point of focus of this paper. This narrative frames Jewish people as having disproportionate influence within cultural institutions, such as the media, with Jews often imagined as using this power to influence society subtly in a variety of ways that might lead to the white race being ‘replaced’. In particular, this report focuses on how the NMA movement imagines Jewish people as influencing sexual politics in ways that are regarded as being ‘anti‑family’ and therefore constitute a threat to the white race.

Key Findings

• The rigid conceptions of what constitutes a ‘real’ family typical among NMA movements has direct implications for sex and gender norms. Any sexuality or aspect of sexual politics that falls outside these strict constructions is regarded as a threat to the white race and is attributed to hostile Jewish influence.

• NMA groups’ anti‑gender narratives therefore constitute a multi‑pronged threat, combining hatred towards feminists and the LGBTQ+ community with antisemitism.

London: ICSR King’s College London 2022. 40p.

By: Amber Woodburn McNair, Jason Reece, Destiny N. Thomas, Imani Mitchell-Wyatt, Julia Nagy, and Sara Kaplan

Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Project 02-99: Incorporating Environmental Justice and Equity Principles and Data into Airport Decision-Making provides resources to educate and support airport practitioners integrating environmental justice, equity principles and data into airport decision-making. Airports (and the impacted communities that surround them) need resources to carefully assess and respond to inequitable outcomes, particularly with respect to impacts felt by airport passengers, the airport workforce, and the airport-adjacent communities whose environments are impacted by airport development and operations. This document is one of two research publications associated with ACRP Project 02-99.

To adequately incorporate environmental justice, equity principles, and data into airport decision-making processes, it is critical for practitioners to understand the historical context of current conditions. This publication provides evidence that the structural origins of inequity, as experienced in the United States, can be traced back to four broad conceptual themes: group-based othering (Chapter 2), settler colonialism (Chapter 3), economic systems of racial capitalism (Chapter 4), and systemic oppression (Chapter 5). Where Chapters 2 through 5 focus on key concepts and provide specific examples pertinent to the air transportation system today, Chapter 6 begins to explore the aspirational goal of an inclusive, equitable, and just airport planning and decision-making process. Chapters 2-6 each begin with a one-page “Insight Warm-Up” that lists the learning goals for the chapter and short prompts about the relevant historical context, lenses and ways of knowing, and present-day legacies in aviation. Overall, this publication intends to improve a reader’s knowledge of systemic racism within the United States, as well as improve their understanding of the links between historical instances of harm to outcomes that persist within the aviation industry today (with a focus on airports where applicable).

The intended audience for this document includes practitioners who are tasked with setting forth equitable policies and procedures, practitioners who are responsible for prioritizing projects and fiscal allocations, planners whose work includes designing infrastructure and implementing engagement strategies, and practitioners tasked with collecting, analyzing, and reporting on equity-related data, among others. Each chapter contains specific learning objectives that guide airport practitioners to reflect on a range of systemic inequalities and consider ways to intervene on current practices within their industry, within their organization, or through their specific role.

The research team sought to highlight lived experiences and offer qualitative depictions of the ways people experience inequities in terms of airport planning, siting, and operations. This publication illustrates the meaning of terms like environmental justice and equity by exploring the ways people experience the processes by which inequities occur within transportation and airport planning. As described throughout this publication, those processes are fostered by racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and anti-indigeneity. This publication’s narrative approach to illustrating environmental justice and equity is an analytical departure from the (more common) practice of listing brief definitions or brief descriptions of inequities, which often lead to over-simplification or ‘checklist thinking’ that can undermine efforts to orchestrate more equitable processes and outcomes.

The National Academies Press 2024

May Contain Markup

By John E. Tropman

Dualistic Perspective on Values: The book explores the idea that values come in pairs of partially contradictory concepts, such as permission and control.

Alcohol in American Society: It examines the historical shifts in attitudes toward alcohol in the U.S., highlighting the cyclical nature of permission and control.

Cultural and Social Systems: The interaction between social and cultural systems is discussed, emphasizing how changes in one can lead to changes in the other.

Permission/Control Balance: The book delves into the balance between permissions and control in society, particularly in the context of alcohol use.

University Press of America, 1986, 105 pages

By Jake Addams

Social Service and Progressive Party: The document discusses the role of Hull-House in social reform and its connection to larger movements,including the Progressive Party and various social surveys.

Efforts for Peace: It highlights efforts for peace during World War I,including the Woman's International Peace Congress and the FordPeace Ship.

Immigration and Quota Acts: The document examines the impact of immigration policies and quota acts on families and communities,emphasizing the challenges faced by immigrants.

Education and Integration: It underscores the importance of education in integrating immigrants and the role of settlements in providing educational opportunities.

Macmillan, 1930, 413 pages

By: Ximena Canal Laiton

LGBTIQ+ people on the move in Latin America can face significant risks of targeted violence and discrimination related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. This paper explores the experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals travelling towards the United States from Latin America and the Caribbean. Data was gathered in Tijuana, Monterrey and Mexico City (Mexico) through the 4Mi project between September 2023 and March 2024.

Findings are based on 474 in-person surveys, with 131 LGBTIQ+ individuals and 343 non-LGBTIQ+ individuals to compare their migration experiences, along with 15 interviews with LGBTIQ+ migrants and key informants.

Highlights

LGBTIQ+ phobia, discrimination and violence: a driver for migration

LGBTIQ+ individuals often migrate to escape discrimination and violence related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

LGBTIQ+ phobia and violence on the migration route

Nearly all LGBTIQ+ individuals surveyed (98% of 131 respondents) indicated a high or very high level of exposure to risks related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

91% of LGBTIQ+ respondents surveyed (119 of 131 respondents) said they experienced some form of LGBTIQ+ phobic incident themselves during their migration, mainly in Mexico and Guatemala.

Attacks against trans-women migrants were reported as relatively frequent by interviewees. They also said that attacks sometimes culminate in transfemicide or attempted transfemicide.

Surveyed trans women reported more frequent experiences of social discrimination than other LGBTIQ+ respondents.

Disparity in Perpetrators of Violence

Organised crime: LGBTIQ+ respondents identified members of organised crime groups as primary perpetrators of abuse to a far greater extent (73%) than the non-LGBTIQ+ group (42%).

Migrant perpetrators: While 38% of LGBTIQ+ respondents reported other migrants as the main perpetrators, only 5% of the non-LGBTIQ+ control group did the same. This difference can be attributed to the widespread presence of LGBTIQ+ phobia across diverse groups, including among migrants themselves.

Self-protection strategies

The two most common self-protection strategies reported by LGBTIQ+ respondents were careful planning of journeys and keeping in regular contact with friends and family.

Safe Space and other needs

LGBTIQ+ migrant interviewees and key informants stressed that access to safe spaces and shelters is essential for the protection of life and dignity of LGBTIQ+ individuals on the migration route. Psychological support is also a pressing necessity.

Methodology

Quantitative data was based on 474 in-person surveys conducted with individuals in transit in Mexico towards the United States. This included 131 individuals who identified as LGBTIQ+ and 343 individuals who didn’t. This allowed to draw comparisons between the migration experiences of the two groups.

Qualitative data was collected through 15 semi-structured interviews in Mexico: eight interviews with LGBTIQ+ migrants and seven with key informants from organisations that assist LGBTIQ+ migrants and refugees.

Geneva, SWIT: Mixed Migration Centre, 2024. 24p.

By Heidi Beirich, Wendy Via

The decision by multiple social media platforms to suspend or remove ex-American President Donald Trump after he incited a violent mob to invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was too little, too late. Even so, the deplatforming was important and it should become the standard for other political leaders and political parties around the world that have engaged in hate speech, disinformation, conspiracy-mongering and generally spreading extremist material that results in real-world damage to democracies.  

 Montgomery, AL: The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. 2021  33p

By The United Nations Development Programme  

The surge in violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa undermines hard-won development gains and threatens to hold back progress for generations to come. The need to improve understanding of what drives violent extremism in Africa, and what can be done to prevent it, has never been more urgent. Sub-Saharan Africa has become the global epicenter of violent extremist activity. Worldwide deaths from terrorism have declined over the past five years, but attacks in this region have more than doubled since 20161. In 2021, almost half of all terrorism-related deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than one-third in just four countries: Somalia, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. Violent extremism (VE) has also spread to other parts of the continent, such as Mozambique, and is having a devastating impact on lives, livelihoods, and prospects for peace and development. This is despite an astounding wealth of endogenous resilience manifested by local communities across the continent, who have been at the forefront of prevention and innovative practices of building everyday peace in uncertain times. These dramatic shifts in violent extremist activity from the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa have garnered relatively little international attention in a world reeling from the impacts of an escalating climate crisis, increasing authoritarianism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. The surge in violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa undermines hard-won development gains and threatens to hold back progress for generations to come. The need to improve understanding of what drives it in Africa, and what can be done to prevent it, has never been more urgent. The United Nations Secretary-General’s 2021 report, Our Common Agenda, stresses the importance of an evidence-driven approach to address development challenges. In 2017, UNDP published a groundbreaking study, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment. This established a robust evidence base on the drivers of violent extremism, with important implications for policy and programming. As a major output of UNDP’s multi-year Programme on Preventing and Responding to Violent Extremism in Africa (2015-2022), the 2017 study informed and shaped UNDP’s approach across the continent, as well as its programming at national and regional levels. Based on the personal testimonies of former members of VE groups and a reference group of individuals living in similar at-risk circumstances, the 2017 study revealed the amalgam of macro-, meso- and microlevel factors driving violent extremism in Africa, as well as sources of resilience that can prevent its spread. It concluded that effective responses to violent extremism require a multifaceted, development-focused approach, with development actors uniquely placed to address the structural drivers. It also highlighted the very localized and fast-changing nature of violent extremism, underscoring the importance of regular research to understand the evolution of its drivers and dynamics. Importantly, the 2017 study put in stark relief the question of how counter-terrorism and wider security functions of governments in at-risk environments conduct themselves about human rights, due process, and sensitivity to context. It thus underlined the United Nations 2016 Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, which acknowledged that the traditional “single-minded focus only on security measures and an utter disregard for human rights have often made things worse.”  Despite the clear lessons on the limitations and risks of state-alone security-driven responses to violent extremism, militarized approaches have continued to predominate in sub-Saharan Africa over the past five years. Within the region, resources have increased for an array of multi-country military coalitions set up to conduct counter-terrorism operations. The international architecture for counter-terrorism has also expanded with the creation of more dedicated mechanisms, despite the limited evidence that such security-driven militarized responses, by themselves, would be effective in contributing to sustainable peace, security and stability. Indeed, despite more than a decade of security-driven responses underpinned by huge international investment, VE groups have extended their reach and impact markedly in the Sahel region and elsewhere on the African continent. Against this backdrop of the surge in violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa, and the continued prioritization of security-driven responses, UNDP initiated a follow-up study, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Pathways to Recruitment and Disengagement in 2020. The research was developed to strengthen and refine the evidence base established in 2017, as well as to update and expand the scope of the research, tracking variations about the findings of the first report. The objectives were to further analyze the changing nature of violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa and take stock of efforts to prevent its spread since the 2017 study. In addition to analyzing the drivers, ‘tipping points’, and accelerators affecting recruitment to VE groups, the new research also explores pathways away from extremism. The second edition of the Journey to Extremism research focuses on eight countries across sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. It reflects the life journeys of 2,196 interviewees, three times as many respondents as in the 2017 study. This includes over 1,000 former members of VE groups, both individuals who joined voluntarily and those who were forcibly recruited. Importantly, the sample also includes a significantly higher number of female interviewees (552). While more research is required on the experiences of women and girls about violent extremism, the gender-disaggregated findings of this study shed light on women’s and men’s divergent pathways to recruitment. The report presents the interview data about the changing nature of violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa and efforts to address it, providing a complementary analysis of the broader international policy context, trends in aid flows, and responses to violent extremism. 

New York: UNDP, 2023. 158p.

Edited by Juline Beaujouan, Véronique Dudouet, Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic, Johanna-Maria Hülzer, Marie Kortam, and Amjed Rasheed  

This book examines the actors that shape societal dynamics leading to, or preventing, violent extremism from taking root in their communities, including state representatives, religious institutions, and civil society actors. The volume contributes to an emerging stream of research focusing on intra- and inter-group dynamics to explain the emergence and persistence of, or resilience against, violent extremism. It utilizes an actor-centric approach, uncovering the landscape of actors that play relevant roles in shaping societal dynamics leading to, or preventing, violent extremism affecting their communities. The analysis builds on new empirical evidence collected in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia. This allows for an innovative comparative perspective on two regions in the European neighborhood that are rarely studied together, even though they seem to share common patterns of (de-) radicalization and violent extremism despite their distinct historical, political, and cultural trajectories and relations with the EU. In both regions, the book analyses the roles of and interactions between state, political, religious, and civil society actors in shaping community vulnerability to and/or resilience against violent extremism. Different types of community leaders are equipped with varying levels of authority, trust, legitimacy, and influence over community members. As such, the categories of actors analyzed can play either detrimental or beneficial roles, which makes vulnerability and resilience to violent extremism two sides of the same coin. This volume will be of much interest to students of countering violent extremism, terrorism, political violence, security studies, and International Relations generally.

London; New York: Routledge, 2024. 227p.

By Transform Justice

Hate crime is a growing problem in England and Wales, highlighted by the Home Office’s Annual Statistical Bulletin which reported 155,841 hate crimes recorded by police in the year ending March 2022, this is a 26% increase compared to 2020-21.1 This reflects a year-on-year rise since 2013 and demonstrates the need to use new interventions to drive real behaviour change in offenders. However, it should be noted that an increase in public awareness of hate crime alongside improved police recording means that it can be difficult to definitively determine the cause of the increase, but rather a number of factors leading to this. Out of Court Disposals2 (OOCDs) are a method of resolution for an offence, designed to reduce re-offending by enabling restorative justice and giving offenders an opportunity to take responsibility for their behaviour through education, before they find themselves in the formal Criminal Justice System (CJS). They also offer victims a chance to see some resolution to their case even if they do not wish for it to be dealt with in a formal setting. There are a number of different forms an OOCD can take, however all may only be considered in situations where the offender is known and admits guilt of their offence. They are typically used in cases where the offending is deemed to be lower-level. In 2022, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) published its Out of Court Disposals (Resolutions) National Strategy.3 This strategy highlighted that the CJS cannot address vulnerability solely through prosecution. Instead, a sophisticated, whole-system approach is needed to give policing the capacity to make professional decisions and access a range of services in partnership such as early intervention pathways, OOCDs and where necessary, prosecution. Over the past nine years, there has been a growing evidence base that, for acquisitive and violent crime, early intervention (such as Turning Point4, CARA5 and Checkpoint6) as part of a conditional caution can reduce reoffending. However, the evidence is minimal with regards to hate crime interventions as its application is limited through the OOCD framework. In 2014, three police forces (West Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire) were given dispensation to use OOCDs for hate crime during a tri-force pilot of a simplified two-tier framework, designed to be easier for practitioners to implement and the public to understand.7 However, there was no specific rehabilitative intervention commissioned and the total number of offenders given OOCDs were low in all three forces, particularly for hate crime which only represented 1% of the total offences. This meant that it was not possible to draw statistically robust conclusions around reoffending rates. Existing interventions for hate crime tend to be targeted at more serious offenders, carried out post-conviction on a one to one basis and last for several months. Since the start of the 2014 pilot, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has adjusted its guidance to allow for the use of OOCDs in relation to hate crime and domestic abuse8, however statutory guidance states that issuing a conditional caution is “unlikely to be appropriate where the offence forms part of a pattern of offending”.9 A tri-force OOCD hate crime pilot with Avon and Somerset Police (A&S Police), West Midlands Police (WMP), and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary (HIOWC) was established in June 2021. All three police forces were given dispensation from the DPP to use conditional cautions for hate crime providing prescribed pre conditions (see Appendix 1) were met. RISE Mutual CIC10, a social enterprise which specialises in offender rehabilitative interventions, were commissioned via a procurement process to deliver a four session group intervention programme formerly known as Rise Against Hate, (from April 2023 this is now known as Perspective), for those who met the DPP OOCD hate crime criteria. It was envisaged that a high proportion of suitable offences for the proposed pilot would be of a public order nature, or involve minor assaults accompanied by the use of racist language towards figures of authority (police officers, door staff, store detectives) or individuals providing a service (ambulance crew, taxi drivers). These were deemed to be the most likely cases, where the victim often does not see the offence as serious enough to take the time to attend court, but at the same time, a meaningful sanction is desirable to protect victims who are providing a community service. Aims and objectives Aim: to develop and deliver a rehabilitative early intervention course specific to hate crime, commissioned by the three named forces (A&S Police, HIOWC and WMP) and offered at no cost to the offender. Objectives:  To increase the evidence base in the use of disposals in cases of hate crime  To increase victim satisfaction in hate crime outcomes  To reduce reoffending rates of hate crime  To better understand the demand profile for hate crime intervention and the processes surrounding this

London: Transform Justice, 2023.

By Mario Peucker, Franka Vaughan, Jo Doley, Tom Clark

Based on a community survey among 703 Victorians from culturally and racially marginalised communities and 27 in-depth peer-facilitated focus groups with 159 participants, the project that led to this report aimed to gain a better evidence-based understanding of racism, discrimination and vilification as well as to create more safe spaces for communities to talk about racism and share their views on how to make practical changes that can have real-life impact. These community voices provided guidance on how to tackle the silencing effects of racism, enhance opportunities to speak out against racism and report personal experiences, and improve anti-racism support across Victoria.

Based on the community input, this report highlights five areas of action for different stakeholders to consider concrete measures to better align reporting pathways and support services with community needs:

1. Awareness raising: racism, legal protections and support services

2. Improving existing reporting pathways and support services

3. Establishing alternative community-led antiracism services

4. Building broad organisational capacity to provide basic guidance on anti-racism support

5. Improving anti-racism support in places racism happens: schools, workplaces, shopping centres and public transport

Melbourne: Victoria University, 2024. 64p.

By Tsering Woeser

Context of Self-Immolations: The book discusses the wave of self-immolations in Tibet as a form of protest against Chinese rule, with no tradition of such acts in Tibetan history.

Tapey's Act: The first recorded self-immolation was by a monk named Tapey in 2009, which marked the beginning of a series of similar protests.

Political Significance: Self-immolations are not seen as acts of despair but as sacrifices for a greater cause, aiming to press for political change.

International Attention: These acts have drawn global attention to the situation in Tibet, highlighting the struggle for human rights and autonomy.

This section provides an overview of the motivations and implications of self-immolations in Tibet.

Verso Books, 2016, 114 pages

By Virgil Carrington Jones

Historical Context: The Hatfield-McCoy feud took place along the Kentucky-West Virginia border during the late 19th century, involving two families in a violent conflict.

Origins of the Feud: The feud's origins are unclear, but it was fueled by various incidents, including a disputed hog and romantic entanglements.

Key Figures: Prominent figures included Devil Anse Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, along with their families and allies.

Impact and Legacy: The feud escalated to involve state governments and even reached the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving a lasting legacy in American history

University of North Carolina Press, 1948, 295 pages

By Jared Del Rosso

This book titled “Talking About Torture: How Political Discourse Shapes the Debate” by Jared Del Rosso, discusses the political aspects of torture, including the use of enhanced interrogation techniques and the debate surrounding them. The book covers topics such as the torture word, incidents of torture at places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and the use of waterboarding. It also explores the political legacy ofGuantanamo and the transition from enhanced interrogation to the use of drones.

Columbia University Press, 2015, 276 pages

HO, BIANCA; DOYLE, KIERAN

From the document: "Pro-Palestine demonstrations involving students in the United States have nearly tripled from 1 to 26 April compared with all of March, ACLED [ [Armed Conflict Location and Event Data]] data show [...]. New York has been one of the main student protest battlegrounds since the Israel-Palestine conflict flared up in and around Gaza last October, and the arrest of more than 100 students at Columbia University in New York around 18 April heralded a new wave of campus demonstrations."

ARMED CONFLICT LOCATION & EVENT DATA PROJECT. 2 MAY, 2024. 5p.

edited by Kacper Rekawek, Thomas Renard and Bàrbara Molas

Russia’s influence over far-right/ racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (REMVE) milieus in Europe is multi-faceted and complex. It involves direct activities, such as financing or political support, as well as indirect activities, such as disinformation campaigns. In some cases, Russia was associated, albeit remotely, with some far-right violent incidents in Europe, including the alleged coup attempt by the sovereign movement Reichsburger, in Germany. Recognising the increasingly confrontational policy of Russia vis-à-vis Europe, and the growing threat from far-right extremism in Europe, this book thoroughly and systematically reviews Russia’s relationship with diverse far-right actors in ten European countries over the past decade. The countries covered in this book include Austria, The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and Sweden. The chapters are authored by some of the world’s most authoritative experts on extremism and Russian influence.

Overall, this edited volume is the first such comprehensive attempt at mapping the scope and depth of Russian influence over far-right extremism in Europe, resulting in the identification of key patterns of influence and offering some possible recommendations to counter it. This book is both a leading scholarly work, as well as a wake-up call and guide for action for European policy-makers.

by Jennifer Tilton

How do you tell the difference between a “good kid” and a “potential thug”? In Dangerous or Endangered?, Jennifer Tilton considers the ways in which children are increasingly viewed as dangerous and yet, simultaneously, as endangered and in need of protection by the state.
Tilton draws on three years of ethnographic research in Oakland, California, one of the nation’s most racially diverse cities, to examine how debates over the nature and needs of young people have fundamentally reshaped politics, transforming ideas of citizenship and the state in contemporary America. As parents and neighborhood activists have worked to save and discipline young people, they have often inadvertently reinforced privatized models of childhood and urban space, clearing the streets of children, who are encouraged to stay at home or in supervised after-school programs. Youth activists protest these attempts, demanding a right to the city and expanded rights of citizenship.
Dangerous or Endangered? pays careful attention to the intricate connections between fears of other people’s kids and fears for our own kids in order to explore the complex racial, class, and gender divides in contemporary American cities.

New York; London: NYU Press, 2010; 203p.

By Carl Gutierrez-Jones

The beating of Rodney King, the killing of Amadou Diallo, and the LAPD Rampart Scandal: these events have been interpreted by the courts, the media and the public in dramatically conflicting ways. Critical Race Narratives examines what is at stake in these conflicts and, in so doing, rethinks racial strife in the United States as a highly-charged struggle over different methods of reading and writing. Focusing in particular on the practice and theorization of narrative strategies, Gutiérrez-Jones engages many of the most influential texts in the recent race debates including The Bell Curve, America in Black and White, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, and The Mismeasure of Man. In the process, Critical Race Narratives pursues key questions posed by the texts as they work within, or against, disciplinary expectations: can critical engagements with narrative enable a more democratic dialogue regarding race? what promise does such experimentation hold for working through the traumatic legacy of racism in the United States? Throughout, Critical Race Narratives initiates a timely dialogue between race-focused narrative experiment in scholarly writing and similar work in literary texts and popular culture.

New York; London: NYU Press, 2001.

By John Tehranian

Middle Easterners: Sometimes White, Sometimes Not - an article by John Tehranian
The Middle Eastern question lies at the heart of the most pressing issues of our time: the war in Iraq and on terrorism, the growing tension between preservation of our national security and protection of our civil rights, and the debate over immigration, assimilation, and our national identity. Yet paradoxically, little attention is focused on our domestic Middle Eastern population and its place in American society. Unlike many other racial minorities in our country, Middle Eastern Americans have faced rising, rather than diminishing, degrees of discrimination over time; a fact highlighted by recent targeted immigration policies, racial profiling, a war on terrorism with a decided racialist bent, and growing rates of job discrimination and hate crime. Oddly enough, however, Middle Eastern Americans are not even considered a minority in official government data. Instead, they are deemed white by law.
In Whitewashed, John Tehranian combines his own personal experiences as an Iranian American with an expert’s analysis of current events, legal trends, and critical theory to analyze this bizarre Catch-22 of Middle Eastern racial classification. He explains how American constructions of Middle Eastern racial identity have changed over the last two centuries, paying particular attention to the shift in perceptions of the Middle Easterner from friendly foreigner to enemy alien, a trend accelerated by the tragic events of 9/11. Focusing on the contemporary immigration debate, the war on terrorism, media portrayals of Middle Easterners, and the processes of creating racial stereotypes, Tehranian argues that, despite its many successes, the modern civil rights movement has not done enough to protect the liberties of Middle Eastern Americans.
By following how concepts of whiteness have transformed over time, Whitewashed forces readers to rethink and question some of their most deeply held assumptions about race in American society.

New York; London: NYU Press, 2008. 250p.

By Sara Naicker

Data analysis shows how violence in childhood is connected to health and social problems almost three decades later.

This policy brief uses the adverse childhood experiences framework, coupled with data from the Birth to Thirty cohort study, to show the impact of violence and adversity on the lives of South Africans. It connects violence and adversity in childhood to health and social problems almost three decades later. Understanding, foregrounding and addressing the effects of violence and adversity are essential for national development

Policy Brief 174

South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2022. 16p.

By Elizabeth D. Kilmer, Rachel Kowert

The game industry has struggled to effectively mitigate various forms of disruptive behavior in games. Peer-to-peer social disruptions are of particular concern, such as sharing hate speech, harassing other players, and the propagation of extremist rhetoric. Most players have witnessed the expression of hate speech, and witnessed or been a direct target of harassment with a significant proportion experiencing sustained harassment over time. The prevalence and intensity of these experiences are magnified among marginalized communities, such as women and people of color. Extremist rhetoric is also commonplace, with extremist ideologies such as misogyny, racism, Islamism, white supremacy, and white nationalism being reported as relatively commonplace occurrences.

Kirkland, WA: Take This, 2024. 20p.