Chapter Fourteen: Racial Justice in the United States Today By Tanya Maria Golash-Boza

Racial justice is defined as a society without racial oppression. Racial Justice

Different models provide tools to think and act toward racial justice:  Yamamoto’s Four Steps  Civil Rights  Human Rights Ways to Understand Racial Justice

These four steps provide addressing and responding in material ways to harm caused by racism: Recognition Responsibility Reconstruction Reparations Yamamoto’s Four Steps

Empathy is needed in order to identify and understand the level of harm perpetuated. “Recognition extends to the particularity of different groups’ experiences, such as how African Americans feel about slavery, Native Americans about genocide, and Japanese Americans about internment…it allows us to reflect on the gravity of racial harms. We must come to terms with the fact that these wrongdoings continue to affect people’s lives and outlooks today.” (p. 393) Recognition

 “…[I]t is only through dialogue that we, as a society, can begin to understand who is responsible and what the consequent response should be.” (p. 394)  This identification of responsibility then can lead to the next steps, actions to remedy harm. Responsibility

 This is the action taken to admit harm has been done, such as through an apology. Reconstruction

 This is the actual action taken to repair a wrong. “A program of reparations has three main objectives: acknowledgement of past injustice, redress for the injustice, and closure.” (p. 394)  One economist identifies three situations in which reparations are required: “slavery, legal segregation, and ongoing present-day discrimination” (p. 394) Reparations

 How does a country or community gain racial healing?  How should economic reparations be distributed?  How would reparations help with racism that continues in the present?  How would resource provision reparations help everyone when recipients live in different locations and use different resources? Questions about Reparations

 Civil rights are defined as “government sanctioned freedoms and privileges designed to promote equal opportunity…” (cited on p. 396)  “Civil rights include the right to a fair trial, the right of each adult in the United States to a vote, the right to not face discrimination in employment, and the right to have equal access to public education” (p. 397) Civil Rights

 Civil rights victories, despite setbacks, have been monumental in the United States. These are considered “freedoms from” or negative rights.  There are challenges to identifying civil rights violations:  Discriminatory intent must be proven  They do not promise equality in outcomes. They only provide initial protection from being discriminated against and equality of opportunity. Civil Rights

 These are rights that are positive rights or freedoms for elements of well-being and fairness.  Rights to healthcare, housing, and education are included  A Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines a framework for these rights. Human Rights

 This provides a scrutiny not only of racial injustice, but how sexism, homophobia, and classism combine and interlock together to form different experiences of injustice. Intersectional Analysis

A model from a scholar named Valdez asserts that an interlocking system of oppression is made up of  Capitalism  Patriarchy  White supremacy (p. 401) One Approach to Intersectional Analysis

 A question emerges about if it is necessary to get rid of capitalism in order to get rid of racism. “How would capitalism look without racism?” (p. 402)  Capitalism was present and influential in the very beginning of the development of race so this question needs to be discussed. A Question Evoked from Intersectionality

“In the context of massive overall inequality, it makes no sense to ask questions about the utility of fighting against racism without paying attention to the economic inequalities created by capitalism.” (pp ) More on Capitalism and Racism

“Racism is simultaneously a system of oppression and set of ideologies. When we think about how to overcome racism, we have to keep this dual character in mind. Racism needs to be rooted out at the ideological, psychological, and systemic levels. These processes have to be concurrent—they can’t happen separately.” (p. 403) Final Thoughts (for now) on Racism

“Racism is an ideology that makes us believe that some people are less worthy than others. Can we imagine a society where all human life is valued equally?” (p. 411) Empathy will help us as well as noticing the struggles for racial justice that are occurring in the current moment. Racial Justice

 Not only describing both the problem of racism and how racism comes about is important but also determining what will repair racism’s wrongs  Several models can help us think about repairing wrongs and preventing future wrongs Conclusion