Jesse Carr | University of Michigan (original) (raw)

Jesse Carr

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Research paper thumbnail of The lawlessness of law: lynching and anti-lynching in the contemporary USA

Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that ... more This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that American histories of lynching indicate it has been a form of state-sanctioned violence rather than a result of ‘lawlessness.' The article furthermore argues that pro-lynching discourses remain ubiquitous in contemporary US culture, despite ostensible rejection of the practice. The persistence of pro-lynching ideologies and ‘modern-day lynchings' indicates the ongoing need for anti-lynching movements; but, my analysis suggests these movements will be most successful when they critique the rule of law rather than idealize it.

Research paper thumbnail of States of Exceptionalism: Race, Violence, and Governance

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Combahee in Anti-Diversity Work

Souls

This article is focused on a critical and oppositional approach to diversity work on college camp... more This article is focused on a critical and oppositional approach to diversity work on college campuses--what we call “anti-diversity” work—that builds on and operationalizes various principles of black feminist thought articulated by the Combahee River Collective and other black feminist thinkers. At our small, Midwestern, residential, liberal arts college, we are “doing” anti-diversity work through a new faculty/staff development initiative, a project we developed and are currently implementing, called the Decolonizing Pedagogies Project (DPP). This project draws on concepts like intersectionality and coalition building, along with centering our inquiry on the experiences and theorizing of marginalized bodies and thought, to create decolonial locations that make space for “alternative ways of producing and validating knowledge itself.” The DPP demands that those who engage with the project do deep self reflection on the ways whiteness shapes and holds them to rigid understandings of diversity and inclusion that, as a result, preclude sustained institutional change. Using an intersectional lens, the foundational assumption of this approach is that “black women are inherently valuable” and that the liberation of black women would mean the liberation of everyone, because all systems of oppression would be toppled in the process.

Research paper thumbnail of The Lawlessness of Law: Lynching and Antilynching in the Contemporary United States

This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that ... more This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that American histories of lynching indicate it has been a form of state-sanctioned violence rather than a result of ‘lawlessness.' The article furthermore argues that pro-lynching discourses remain ubiquitous in contemporary US culture, despite ostensible rejection of the practice. The persistence of pro-lynching ideologies and ‘modern-day lynchings' indicates the ongoing need for anti-lynching movements; but, my analysis suggests these movements will be most successful when they critique the rule of law rather than idealize it.

Research paper thumbnail of The lawlessness of law: lynching and anti-lynching in the contemporary USA

Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that ... more This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that American histories of lynching indicate it has been a form of state-sanctioned violence rather than a result of ‘lawlessness.' The article furthermore argues that pro-lynching discourses remain ubiquitous in contemporary US culture, despite ostensible rejection of the practice. The persistence of pro-lynching ideologies and ‘modern-day lynchings' indicates the ongoing need for anti-lynching movements; but, my analysis suggests these movements will be most successful when they critique the rule of law rather than idealize it.

Research paper thumbnail of States of Exceptionalism: Race, Violence, and Governance

Research paper thumbnail of The Role of Combahee in Anti-Diversity Work

Souls

This article is focused on a critical and oppositional approach to diversity work on college camp... more This article is focused on a critical and oppositional approach to diversity work on college campuses--what we call “anti-diversity” work—that builds on and operationalizes various principles of black feminist thought articulated by the Combahee River Collective and other black feminist thinkers. At our small, Midwestern, residential, liberal arts college, we are “doing” anti-diversity work through a new faculty/staff development initiative, a project we developed and are currently implementing, called the Decolonizing Pedagogies Project (DPP). This project draws on concepts like intersectionality and coalition building, along with centering our inquiry on the experiences and theorizing of marginalized bodies and thought, to create decolonial locations that make space for “alternative ways of producing and validating knowledge itself.” The DPP demands that those who engage with the project do deep self reflection on the ways whiteness shapes and holds them to rigid understandings of diversity and inclusion that, as a result, preclude sustained institutional change. Using an intersectional lens, the foundational assumption of this approach is that “black women are inherently valuable” and that the liberation of black women would mean the liberation of everyone, because all systems of oppression would be toppled in the process.

Research paper thumbnail of The Lawlessness of Law: Lynching and Antilynching in the Contemporary United States

This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that ... more This article examines the mutually constitutive nature of mob rule and rule of law, arguing that American histories of lynching indicate it has been a form of state-sanctioned violence rather than a result of ‘lawlessness.' The article furthermore argues that pro-lynching discourses remain ubiquitous in contemporary US culture, despite ostensible rejection of the practice. The persistence of pro-lynching ideologies and ‘modern-day lynchings' indicates the ongoing need for anti-lynching movements; but, my analysis suggests these movements will be most successful when they critique the rule of law rather than idealize it.

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