"The culmination of four years of ethnographic research at the Roma Community Centre in Toronto, Writing the Roma is the first book to provide an overview of the identities, origins, history and treatment of Roma refugees. Cynthia Levine-Rasky traces the historical and cultural roots of the Roma in Europe, through their genocide in the Holocaust, their persecution in Eastern Europe in the post-Communist era, to their settlement as refugees in Canada. What emerges is a book that challenges the stereotypes surrounding this non-territorial nation while exposing the ways that Canadian immigration policies have affected Roma populations."--
Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Literary Excerpts -- Section I Introduction -- 1 Framing Whiteness -- 2 Theorizing Whiteness -- 3 Interpreting Whiteness and its Correlates -- 4 Histories of Whiteness -- Section II Four Ways in Which Whiteness Works -- 5 Normalization and Solipsism -- 6 Controlling Terms of Engagement -- 7 Ideological Commitments -- 8 Exclusionary Practices -- Section III Outward Fractures: Whiteness and Intersectionally -- 9 The Rise of Intersectionality Theory -- 10 Intersectionality Theory and the Analysis of Power -- 11 Intersections between Whiteness and Class -- 12 Intersections between Whiteness and Ethnicity -- 13 Intersections between Whiteness and Jewish Ethnicity -- Section IV Inward Fractures: The Psychic Life of Whiteness -- 14 The Emotionality of Whiteness -- 15 The Epistemology of Ignorance -- 16 The Psychic Turn -- 17 Construction of the Other in Popular Racism -- 18 Psychoanalytic Themes in the Construction of the Racialized Other -- Section V Approaches to Studying Whiteness -- 19 Critical–Relational–Contextual Revisited -- 20 Whiteness in Popular Culture -- 21 The Paradox of Action -- References
Access options:
The following links lead to the full text from the respective local libraries:
Intro -- Working through Whiteness -- Contents -- Introduction by Cynthia Levine-Rasky -- Part I: Contexts of Whiteness -- 1. Whiteness and The Great Law of Peace by David Bedford and W. Thom Workman -- 2. "The Iniquitous Practice of Women": Prostitution and the Making of White Spaces in British Columbia, 1898-1905 by Renisa Mawani -- 3. A White World? Whiteness and the Meaning of Modernity in Latin America and Japan by Alastair Bonnett -- 4. White Noise: Australia's Struggle with Multiculturalism by Andrew Jakubowicz -- Part II: Studies in Whiteness -- 5. A Room without a View: Social Distance and the Structuring of Privileged Identity by Michael Alan Sacks and Marika Lindholm -- 6. Looking at the Invisible: A Q-Methodological Investigation of Young White Women's Constructions of Whiteness by Stephanie Kellington -- 7. Building a Home on a Border: How Single White Women Raising Multiracial Children Construct Racial Meaning by Jennifer A. Reich -- 8. The Impact of Whiteness on the Culture of Law: From Theory to Practice by L. A. Visano -- Part III: Pedagogies for Whiteness -- 9. "In Whitest England": New Subject Positions for White Youth in the Post-Imperial Moment by Anoop Nayak -- 10. When the Big Snow Melts: White Women Teaching in Canada's North by Helen Harper -- 11. Developing Feminist Pedagogical Practices to Complicate Whiteness and Work with Defensiveness by Jessica Ringrose -- 12. Critical/Relational/Contextual: Toward a Model for Studying Whiteness by Cynthia Levine-Rasky -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- X -- Y.
Access options:
The following links lead to the full text from the respective local libraries:
Photographer Chad Wyatt's RomaRising is an extensive series of black and white portraits of middle-class European Roma who have a wide range of professional occupations. By constituting the Romani subject as middle class, the exhibit defies stereotypes about this maligned group. Two key questions may be raised about its implications: Does RomaRising infer that acceptance of Roma in European society is conditional upon gaining admission to the middle class? And does the way in which the images are framed exclude their social context? Specifically, does it neglect the powerful barriers to Roma's class mobility caused by widespread anti-Roma racism in European society? When these questions are positioned in the foreground and analyzed, emphasis shifts from the content of the images to the social and political consequences of representing Roma through the photographic image.
While crossing cultural and political borders and maintaining relations spanning those borders should qualify the Roma of Toronto as a transnational group, they are not easily subsumed under theories of transnationalism. Reasons pertain to the asylumseeker status of a segment of the community, as well as their 'super-diversity'. These factors mitigate effective transnational activities. More problematic in viewing local Roma through a uniform transnational lens is the concept of host/home, a linguistic convention used throughout the literature. Due their history and current status as a vilified minority throughout Europe, the possibility of belonging to a 'home' country has been undermined by states that are intent on subjugating the Roma as permanent outsiders. In assessing the applicability of general theories of transnationalism, the Roma embody a unique case that calls for a more thorough recognition of political context and social particularity.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe, situate and justify the use of creative nonfiction as an overlooked but legitimate source of text for use in social inquiry, specifically within the ambit of narrative inquiry. What potential lies in using creative writing, creative nonfiction specifically, as a source of text in social research? How may it be subjected to modes of analysis such that it deepens understandings of substantive issues? Links are explored between creative nonfiction and the social context of such accounts in an attempt to trace how writers embed general social processes in their narrative.
Design/methodology/approach Three exemplars from literary magazines are described in which whiteness is the substantive theme. The first author is a woman who writes about her relationship with her landscaper, the second story is written by a man who is overwhelmed by guilt after uttering a racial slur, and the third text is by a man who describes his attempts to help a homeless couple. The authors' interpersonal experiences with people unlike themselves tell something significant about the relationship between selfhood and power relations.
Findings No singular pattern emerges when analyzing these three narratives through the critical lens of whiteness. This is because whiteness is not a subject position or static identity but a practice, something that it is done in relation to others. It is a collective capacity whose value is realized only in dynamic relationship with others. As a rich source of narratives, creative nonfiction may generate insights about whiteness and middle classness and how their intersections give rise to complex and contradictory sets of social relations.
Originality/value There is very little precedence for using creative nonfiction as text for analysis in any discipline in the social sciences despite its accessibility, its richness and its absence of risk. Inviting the sociological imagination in its project to link the personal to the political, it opens possibilities for the analysis of both in relationship to each other. As a common form of narrating everyday understandings, creative nonfiction offers something unique and under-valued to the social researcher. For these reasons, the paper is highly original.
With organized hate crime and institutionalized discrimination, thousands of European Roma have fled to Canada, where they claim refugee status. Their arrival coincided with far-ranging reforms to the refugee determination system in 2012–13 in addition to some actions aimed specifically at the Roma. Against this backdrop, former and current Romani refugee claimants substantiate the experience of migration and settlement, beginning with the first moments after arrival, to the tasks of finding housing and work. Agency and resilience are evinced, despite the government's multiple instruments used against asylum-seekers. Romani refugees' lives show how, for transnational groups, belongingness is always contested and the meaning of home is always nuanced. ; En raison des crimes organisés motivés par la haine et de la discrimination institutionnelle, des milliers de Roms européens ont cherché asile au Canada où ils ont effectué des demandes du statut de réfugié. Leur arrivée a coïncidé avec des réformes de grande ampleur en 2012-13 portant sur le système de détermination du statut de réfugié, ainsi que des mesures visant les Roms particulièrement. C'est dans ce contexte que les anciens ainsi que les actuels demandeurs du statut de réfugié d'origine rom réalisent l'expérience de migration et d'installation, en allant des premiers moments après leur arrivée jusqu'aux démarches qu'ils entreprennent pour trouver des logements et du travail. Un esprit d'actualisation et de persévérance se manifeste, malgré les multiples mesures imposées par le gouvernement à l'encontre des chercheurs d'asile. L'expérience des réfugiés d'origine rom démontre que, pour les groupes transnationaux, l'appartenance est toujours soumise à la contestation, et que l'idée de domicile est toujours conditionnelle.
The complexity of conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR) at a small Romani organization is described through montage. Articulating with a desire for social change and the correction of the multiple injustices meted out to those who identify as Roma, CBPR commends collaborative research with a community. However, the researcher found herself not only working with the community but also doing work for them and about them—activities that do not sit comfortably with the CBPR approach. The researcher's disparate roles are presented as vignette, dialogue, and in graphic form corresponding to three prepositions, for/about/with. In this way, she illustrates the tensions associated with the process of conducting CBPR from her proximate position in the organization.
"The 2016 US presidential election exposed rising xenophobic and nationalist sentiment within the United States and other democratic countries. As populist movements grow, democratic freedoms erode. We Resist demonstrates that the things we often take for granted--safety, family, employment, health, a promising future--are under attack, and we must fight to preserve these resources before it's too late. We are currently witnessing the dismantlement of social programs, growing disinterest in international cooperation, and the devaluation of evidence-based knowledge. This disturbing shift in politics is leading to increased national security measures, violations to basic human rights, and widening social and economic inequalities. The rise of far-right populism brings with it intolerance of ethnic, sexual, and all other minority groups, and a rejection of democratic society. We Resist gathers the compelling perspectives of scholars and activists who are deeply embedded within political and community struggles, who participate in policy decisions, and who are engaged in research that advances those struggles. An essential and timely book, We Resist confronts the problems we face as a human community and impels a cross-sectoral movement to defend our rights and revitalize the common good. "Into a world of bully-boy heads of state and the rise of xenophobic right-wing populism, comes this important collection reminding us that the common good is still attainable, if fragile. It depends on our ability to work collectively, to build community and to cherish our diversity, always advocating for human rights, respect and dignity. This collection of the best of Canadian values is a gift to the world in its time of need." Maude Barlow, chairperson for the Council of Canadians and author of Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse, and Canada's Water Crisis"--