Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Public debate on multiculturalism heated up in most European countries in the 2000s. Many countries, the Netherlands and Denmark in particular, which have been known of their multicultural and tolerant policies towards ethnic minorities began to tighten their immigration and minority policies. This paper aims to analyze European multicultural discourses by focusing on a critical analysis of the media prize Prix Europa Iris, the yearly awards competition that celebrates multicultural television programming in Europe. Although submissions are received from independent filmmakers, public broadcasters and commercial television, public broadcasting corporations play key roles in the organization and definition of the event. In this paper I examine how the jury reports and speeches define and signify multiculturalism and anti-racism. These statements help to influence multicultural media policy throughout Europe. Policy can be analyzed as a crystallization of values and definitions. The paper tackles these key questions: What kinds of discourses of multiculturalism and anti-racism are expressed? How is multiculturalism defined? How is Europe and European identity presented? How are these definitions and positions limiting and opening up possibilities for minorities?
The paper concludes that recognition of minority identities and status does not necessarily lead into inclusion. Multicultural media initiatives, such as the Prix Europa Iris, have fundamental problems. Increased recognition and intercultural exchange do not solve problems of marginalization, instead marginalization and recognition of ethnic identities co-exist in the contemporary Europe.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Italian antiracist movement is a composite political entity that has expressed the views, concerns and political protests of various institutionalised and non institutionalised constituencies. In recent years this movement has mainly taken a defensive stand as in the mind of many Italians race is associated with migration which in turn is associated with crime, ethnic rivalry and more generally illegality. The movement has focused on affirming the primacy of human rights and individual responsibility in the face of a political system that has often yielded to negative stereotypes in order to exploit emerging political opportunities for the populist right. In addition, the movement has been active in particular policy fields where racial discrimination is more likely to occur, such as housing policy, education, sports, health policy and practices in the job market.
This paper reviews the role and impact of the main actors of the antiracist movement in terms of its structure and composition, its campaigns and its activities in key policy areas and in political communication. It examines the distinction between the catholic and the leftist component of the movement. It discusses the role of migrant associations and contrasts it with the role of generalist Italian-staffed voluntary associations. With reference to the last three legislatures, it discusses the impact of changing government coalitions for the prospects of the movement.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: White antiracist activists attempt to change the racial order that privileges them. Researchers have suggested that this contradiction makes whites insecure about their place within antiracism. Considering whiteness the source of conflict for white antiracists, they imply that antiracists of color easily find their place within antiracism. This study tests this assumption by analyzing interviews with African American, Asian American, white, and Latino American antiracists in Boston. Unlike activists in movements that rely on direct action, these antiracists primarily use tactics of personal transformation and group interaction. I find that, regardless of race, antiracists struggle to transform themselves into antiracists. Experiences with group interaction, however, differ by race of activist. While antiracists of color are comfortable doing mixed-race and same-race group work, whites are very uncomfortable working with other whites. This refines previous understandings of white antiracism by showing that whites most doubt their place in the movement when working with other whites. This study contributes to our understanding of the ways race effects antiracist identity formation and of repertoires of contention within new social movements.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How do the current debates on immigration impact pedagogical practices in a bilingual classroom? Against the backdrop of heightened xenophobia and ubiquitous discussions of “the border” and “illegal aliens,” it is important to uncover how these political, economic and cultural discourses trickle down to public school classrooms in the United States. Drawing on data from participant observation in a bilingual mathematics high school classroom in the Southwest, I detail the racial projects present in the classroom. I found that the classroom artifacts, discourse and pedagogy utilized in the classroom were examples of antiracist racial projects that were based on naming racism and urging students to engage in resisting racial oppression. I argue that antiracist pedagogy is a powerful way of educating youth, particularly those from racially stigmatized backgrounds.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Jane Lazarre’s 1996 memoir, Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness, and Rebecca Walker’s Black White and Jewish, published in 2001, both couch the public potential of mixed racialism in terms of intimacy and kinship. However, just as the interracial “movement” gives way to separatist identity politics, Walker’s parents eventually divorce, establishing places in separate worlds—one black, feminist and bohemian, the other white and staunchly middle class. As it is represented here, the resurrection of these separate publics implies a late twentieth-century failure of a liberal idealism that requires the minimizing of racial and ethnic particularity in favor of an “empathic link […] between black and white, family and friend” (322).

If the family drama that Walker narrates suggests that the multiracial subject announces a “new” racial formation that can posit interracial “love” as part of the conditions of social change, and as that which comes “before” the tragically segmenting effects of “identity politics,” then Lazarre’s narrative also posits the potential “love” has to do the work of social “transformation.” Lazarre’s narrative, which traces her own “transformation of consciousness” (3) as a white mother of black, biracial children, may be seen as an extension of the manner in which “white motherhood” has been mobilized around an emergent racial politics. Both Walker and Lazarre’s texts suggest that the figure of “love” has the capacity to enable an antiracist agenda—either in an idealized, pre “identity politics” past or in a racially “transformed” future. However, “love” also stands in for a late twentieth century impasse regarding how “race” continues to signify the demands of history, public policy and participation.