Abstract

Disposability, a condition written on the body, is a racial project. Populations that stand in the way of the progress of capital accumu­lation, are targeted for disposability, and relegated to the realm of "sub-humanity." Processes of dis­posability enable white Europeanness to prevail. In this paper, I pursue what race has to do with disposability through an examination of the death in custody of a Roma refugee. I end with comments about the connections that can be drawn between the processes of disposability for refugees, African Americans and Canadians and Indigenous peoples who die at the hands of the police. These connec­tions reveal disposability to be a racial and glob­al process orchestrated by states and sustained by professionals (medical, legal, police).

About the Speaker

Sherene H. Razackis Distinguished Professor and the Penny Kanner Endowed Chair in Gender Studies, UCLA. Her books include: Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody (2015); At the Limits of Justice: Women of Colour On Terror (2014, ed. with Suvendrini Perera); States of Race (2011, co-editor with Malinda Smith and Sunera Thobani); Casting Out: Race and the Eviction of Muslims From Western Law and Politics (2008); Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping and the New Imperialism (2004); and Looking White People in the Eye (1998).

Presented by the Center for Race & Gender, talk is produced by the Native/Immigrant/Refugee: Crossings Research Initiative, which is supported by Critical Refugee Studies, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, the Institute of International Studies, the Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study, and Social Science Matrix.