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Critical Race Theory and International Law: Convergence and Divergence Racing American Foreign Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2017

Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon*
Affiliation:
Villanova University School of Law
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Type
Meeting Report
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 94 , 2000 , pp. 260 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2000

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References

1 See Calmore, John O., Critical Race Theory, Archie Shepp, and Fire Music: Securing an Authentic Intellectual Life in a Multicultural World, 65 S. Cal. L. Rev. 2129 (1992)Google Scholar; Delgado, Richard, Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2411 (1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Delgado, Richard & Stefancic, Jean, Criticai Race-Theory: An Annotated Bibliography, 79 Va. L. Rev. 461 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Winter, Steven L., The Cognitive Dimension of the Agon between Legal Power and Narrative Meaning , 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2225 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; On Narrative (W. Mitchell ed., 1981).

2 Gordon, Ruth, Saving Failed States: Sometimes a Neocolonialist Notion 12 Am. U. J. Int’l L. & Pol’y 903 (1997)Google Scholar.

3 Symposium, , Critical Race Theory and International Law: Convergence and Divergence, 45 Vill. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2000)Google Scholar.

4 The domestic legal discourse now espouses colorblindness, however. See, e.g., Gotanda, Neil, A Critique of “Our Constitution is Color-Blind,” in Critical Race Theory: Key Writings that Formed the Movement 257 (Crenshaw, Kimberlé et al. eds., 1995)Google Scholar.

5 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, opened for signature Mar. 7, 1966, 660 UNTS 195 (entered into force Jan. 4, 1969).

6 See Mickelson, Karin, Rhetoric and Rage: Third World Voices in International Legal Discourse, 16 Wis. Int’l L. J. 353, 376-77 (1998)Google Scholar.

7 Isabella D. Bunn, The Right to Development: Implications for International Economic Law, (paper presented at American Society of International Law, International Economic Law Section Meeting, Mar. 2000).

8 Wa Mutua, Makau, The Ideology of Human Rights, 36 Va. J. Int’l L. 589, 597, 617 (1996)Google Scholar; Wa Mutua, Makau, The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties, 35 Va. J. Int’l L. 339, 341 n.7 (1995)Google Scholar; Mickelson, supra note 6.

9 Wa Mutua, Makau, Critical Race Theory and International Law: The View of an Insider-Outsider, 45 Vill. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2000)Google Scholar.

10 Jill Lawless, Immigration and Politics: Xenophobia Wins Votes, Parties Find, Seattle Times, May 3. 2000, at A3, available in 2000 WL 5534096; Ray Moseley & Tom Hundley, Right-Wing Views Beginning to Influence Official Policies, Chi. Trib., May 7, 2000, at 19, available in 2000 WL 3663414; Carol J. Williams, Danes Cast Cold Eye on Immigrants: Denmark ‘s Tight Controls Reflect Europe ‘s Intensifying Dilemma. While Industry Sees an Expanding Need for Skilled Labor, Nationalist Appeals Are Closing Doors, L.A. Times, Apr. 28, 2000, al Al. available in 2000 WL 2235555; but see Roger Cohen, Social Democrats Win Re-election in Germany’s Larges: State, N.Y. Times, May 15, 2000, at Al 1. The anti-immigrant backlash in Europe indicates just how complex “race” may be in a particular context. The backlash extends to people of color from the Middle East and Africa, as well as those from Eastern Europe, who may not be Christian and who are European, but not Western European.

11 Michael Omi & Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s at 54—76 (2d ed. 1994). All references to the role of race in the domestic milieu are taken from this text, unless otherwise noted.

12 See, e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, (1896); Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857); see also Gotanda, supra note 4, at 259-63.

13 See Gordon, supra note 2, at 934-37.

14 See, e.g., Chin, Gabriel J., Segregation’s Last Stronghold: Race Discrimination and the Constitutional Law of Immigration, 46 Ucla L. Rev. 1 (1998)Google Scholar; Kawanabe, Kenzo S., American Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric against Asian Pacific Immigrants: The Present Repeats the Past, 10 Geo. Immigr. L. J. 681 (1996)Google Scholar; Smith, James F., A Nation that Welcomes Immigrants? An Historical Examination of United States Immigration Policy, 1 U.C. Davis J. Int’l. L. & Pol’y. 227 (1995)Google Scholar.

15 This account is taken from Rafael, Vicente L., White Love, Surveillance and Resistance in U.S. Colonization of the Philippines, in Cultures of United States Imperialism 185 (Kaplan, Amy & Pease, Donald E. eds., 1994)Google Scholar.

16 For a full discussion of these concepts, see Antony Anghie, Finding the Peripheries: Sovereignty and Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century International Law, 40 Harv. Int’l L. J. 1 (1999); Gordon, supra note 2.

17 Dred Scott, 60 U.S. at 407.

18 Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 226 (1944).

19 John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War 79, 81 (1982). This description of American views of the Germans and Japanese during World War II is taken from this excellent account.

20 Omi & Winant, supra note 11, at 96-97.

21 See Charles Babington & William Drozdiak, Belgrade Faces the 11th Hour, Again; U.S. Sends Envoy as NATO Readies an Aerial Assault, Wash. Post, Mar. 22, 1999, at Al, available in 1999 WL 2206748; Norman Kempster, Crisis in Yugoslavia: Leaders and Scholars Clash over Legality International Law; U.S., Others Say U.N. Charter, Resolutions Back NATO Action, L.A. Times, Mar. 26,1999, at A26, available in 1999 WL 2142809; Lawyer Sam’s War, Economist, Apr. 24, 1999, at 30, available in 1999 WL 7362645; see also Schwabach, Aaron, Yugoslavia v. NATO, Security Council Resolution 1244, and the Law of Humanitarian Intervention, 27 Syracuse J. Int’l L. & Com. 77, 78, 91-92 (2000)Google Scholar; Sofaer, Abraham D., International Law and Kosovo, 36 Stan. J. Int’l L. 1.3(2000)Google Scholar.

22 Pamela Constable, World Response to Rwanda Crisis Questioned; Critics Cite Lack of Plan, Will to Intervene, Boston Globe, July 28, 1994, at 18, available in 1994 WL 5987931 ; Joe Lauria, Inaction by UN Cited in Report on Rwanda Killings, Boston Globe, Dec. 17, 1999, at A2, available in 1999 WL 30400899; Keith B. Richburg, Rwanda Again Surpasses Itself in Tragedy, Wash. Post, July 16, 1994, at Al, available in 1994 WL 2430175; Paul Richter, Rwanda Violence Stumps World Leaders Africa: Though Clinton and Boutros Boutros-Ghali Have Made Guarded Threats, Calls for Action Have Been Eerily Absent, L.A. Times, Apr. 30,1994, at 13, available in 1994 WL 2160357.

23 See Wa Mutua, Makau, Never Again: Questioning the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals, 11 Temp. Int’l & Comp. L. J. 167, 174 (1997)Google Scholar. Professor Mutua also notes that Eastern European Bosnians did not rate the same treatment as Western Europeans, and that they were left to be slaughtered. Id. at 173-75. Perhaps Kosovo was Western atonement for this sin.

24 In January 2000, the United States used its one-month presidency of the Security Council to examine the plight of Africa. A national summit on Africa was held in Washington, DC, in March 2000 that was attended by President Bill Clinton and many other high-level U.S. officials.

25 Lawrence, Charles R. III, The Id, the Ego and Equal Protection: Reckoning with Unconscious Racism, in Critical Race Theory: Key Writings that Formed the Movement 235 (Crenshaw, Kimberlé et al. eds., 1996)Google Scholar.