Cruelty as Citizenship

How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy

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Cristina Beltrán

More than a decade before the election of Donald Trump, vitriolic and dehumanizing rhetoric against migrants was already part of the national conversation. Situating the contemporary debate on immigration within America’s history of indigenous dispossession, chattel slavery, the Mexican-American War, and Jim Crow, Cristina Beltrán reveals white supremacy to be white democracy—a participatory practice of racial violence, domination, and exclusion that gave white citizens the right to both wield and exceed the law. Still, Beltrán sees cause for hope in growing movements for migrant and racial justice.

Background photo by Ed Hinchliffe on Unsplash

Metadata

  • isbn
    978-1-4529-6599-4
  • issn
    2373-5074
  • publisher
    University of Minnesota Press
  • publisher place
    Minneapolis, MN
  • restrictions
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
  • rights
    Copyright 2020 by Cristina Beltrán
  • rights holder
    Cristina Beltrán
  • series number
    43
  • series title
  • doi