Monthly Archives: June 2016

Editors’ Introduction, Issue One

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Othering & Belonging: Expanding the Circle of Human Concern. We are delighted you are here and hope the insights and information you find here will usefully inform your thinking and work. This new publication is produced by the Haas

Racism and the Narrative of Biological Inevitability

As we approach the conclusion of the Obama presidency, it is ironic to think that it is bookended by two very different narratives around race. On the 2008 end, there were pronouncements of a “postracial” America, where the election of a black man to the

Trump, The Tea Party, The Republicans and the Other

In the spring of 2015 it looked as if the 2016 Republican primary season was going to be a near replay of 2012. In 2012 the campaign drama emanated from the Republican civil war: the party’s “establishment” versus its insurgent Tea Party wing. Tea Party

Migration, Austerity, and Crisis at the Periphery of Europe

Introduction Over the past five years, two key social justice questions have emerged in the European Union. On one hand, as a result of the Eurozone crisis and related austerity measures, poverty and inequality have dramatically increased in southern Europe. On the other hand, the

Reflections on Policing: Organizers in Five Communities Speak Out

In the midst of two years of highly publicized, often lethal encounters between police officers and people of color in Ferguson, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere, as well as the increasing involvement of police in immigration enforcement mechanisms, a great many people have

Precarious Lives

I’ve been pulled over for traffic violations just a few times in my life. Only once was I taken into a station. It was a Sunday morning in Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago. Instead of sleeping in or nursing a hangover, I

Take a Look at Ourselves

Hope. Being surrounded by our youth media producers at the Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology1)BAYCAT (BAYCAT) gives me hope: young graduates like Alex Sorto, one of the rappers and media producers behind the award-winning, youth-produced music video Take a Look at Yourself. We