This book tells the story of the Mekong River, from its source in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to its delta in southern Vietnam, and the geographical changes in its environment on its journey to the sea. It mainly focuses on the many ethnic minorities living within the Mekong's reach. These minority nationalities all have their own distinct customs, traditions and ways of life that have carried on for many centuries. Much of that has survived the influences of politics, national integration and modernization. Nevertheless, their traditions and lifestyles are being profoundly affected by recent economic development and mass tourism. The book introduces each of these peoples and reveals and examines what makes them unique.It begins with the Tibetans in the high-altitude, snow mountain regions of the Upper Mekong. Then it covers the Lisu, Naxi, Bai and Yi who live further down the river where the mountains are somewhat lower. Finally, it describes the hill peoples of the tropical zone - the Wa, Bulang, Lahu, Akha, Jinuo, Yao, Hmong - and the Dai of the plains. Each chapter summarises their lifestyles and interesting customs and traditions. Supplementing these entries are portraits of the peoples in their traditional clothing, along with photographs of their environment, work, home life, ceremonies, and festivals.

Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-making of Blackness, through an interdisciplinary and intersectional analysis of Black Panther, discusses the importance of superheroes and the ways in which they are especially important to Black fans. Aside from its global box office success, Black Panther paves the way for future superhero narratives due to its underlying philosophy to base the story on a narrative that is reliant on Afro-futurism. The film's storyline, the book posits, leads viewers to think about relevant real-world social questions as it taps into the cultural zeitgeist in an indelible way. Contributors to this collection approach Black Panther not only as a film, but also as Afrofuturist imaginings of an African nation untouched by colonialism and antiblack racism: the film is a map to alternate states of being, an introduction to the African Diaspora, a treatise on liberation and racial justice, and an examination of identity. As they analyze each of these components, contributors pose the question: how can a film invite a reimagining of Blackness?

Racism has been endemic in the history of western societies, while the nature of race as a social category of difference is controversial and rigorously contested from scholarly and everyday perspectives today. This edited collection traces the history of considerations of the meaning and importance of race and racism in society and education through a deep dive into the contents of the archives of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory. Journal articles from the 1970s to today have been carefully selected throughout the text to showcase the trends and transformations in the field of educational philosophy over time. While historically western analytic philosophy of education did not focus particularly on race and racism, this changed in the 1990s, with the emergence of critical conversations about social justice that moved beyond liberal models. More recently, historical and theoretical accounts have sought to understand the processes of racialization in depth, as well as the intersectional nature of race privilege and discrimination across contemporary diverse societies worldwide. Taken together, the pieces in this book illustrates both the history of theorizing about race and racism in educational philosophy and theory as well as the breadth of present-day concerns. This collection provides a foundation for developing a historical understanding of the position of race and racism in philosophy of education, while it also inspires new works in Critical Race Theory, Black and African Studies, critical pedagogy, and related areas. Additionally, it will inspire educators and scholars across diverse fields to further consider the significance of race and racism in education and in research in the present age.

An up-to-date discussions of interculturality, especially in teaching Adopts critical and reflexive perspectives Presents varied international voices Helps unthink and rethink interculturality for the 21st century

This edited collection focuses on the ethics, politics and practices of responsiveness in the context of racism, inequality, difference and controversy. The politics of difference has long been concerned with speech, voice and representation. By focusing on the practices and politics of responsiveness-listening, reading and witnessing-the volume identifies vital new possibilities for ethics and social justice. Chapters focus on the conditions of possibility, or listening as ethical praxis; unsettling or disrupting colonial relationships; and ways of listening that highlight non-Western traditions and move beyond the liberal frame. Ethical responsiveness shifts some of the responsibility for negotiating difference and more just futures from subordinated speakers, and on to the relatively more privileged and powerful.

Anglo-Indians form the human legacy created and left behind on the Indian subcontinent by European imperialism. When Independence was achieved from the British Raj in 1947, an exodus numbering an estimated 50,000 emigrated to Great Britain between 1948-62, under the terms of the British Nationality Act of 1948. But sixty odd years after their resettlement in Britain, the "First Wave" Anglo-Indian immigrant community continues to remain obscure among India's global diaspora. This book examines and critiques the convoluted routes of adaptation and assimilation employed by immigrant Anglo-Indians in the process of finding their niche within the context of globalization in contemporary multi-cultural Britain. As they progressed from immigrants to settlers, they underwent a cultural metamorphosis. The homogenizing labyrinth of ethnic cultures through which they negotiated their way-Indian, Anglo-Indian, then Anglo-Saxon-effaced difference but created yet another hybrid identity: British Anglo-Indianness. Through meticulous ethnographic field research conducted amidst the community in Britain over a decade, Rochelle Almeida provides evidence that immigrant Anglo-Indians remain on the cultural periphery despite more than half a century. Indeed, it might be argued that they have attained virtual invisibility-in having created an altogether interesting new amalgamated sub-culture in the UK, this Christian minority has ceased to be counted: both, among South Asia's diaspora and within mainstream Britain. Through a critical scrutiny of multi-ethnic Anglophone literature and cinema, the modes and methods they employed in seeking integration and the reasons for their near-invisibility in Britain as an immigrant South Asian community are closely examined in this much-needed volume.

Winner of Honorable Mention for the 2018 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award This book examines the history of ethnic minorities particularly Chicano/as and Latino/as--in the field of composition and rhetoric; the connections between composition and major US historical movements toward inclusiveness in education; the ways our histories of that inclusiveness have overlooked Chicano/as; and how this history can inform the teaching of composition and writing to Chicano/a and Latino/a students in the present day. Bridging the gap between Ethnic Studies, Critical History, and Composition Studies, Ruiz creates a new model of the practice of critical historiography and shows how that can be developed into a critical writing pedagogy for students who live in an increasingly multicultural, multilingual society.

In 2012, an exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian entitled "IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas" illuminated the experiences and history of a frequently overlooked multiracial group. This book redresses that erasure and contributes to the growing body of scholarship about people of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry in the United States. Yoking considerations of authenticity in Life Writing with questions of authenticity in relationship to mixed-race subjectivity, Cannon analyzes how Black Native Americans navigate narratives of racial and ethnic authenticity through a variety of autobiographical forms. Through close readings of scrapbooks by Sylvester Long Lance, oral histories from Black Americans formerly enslaved by American Indians, the music of Jimi Hendrix, photographs of contemporary Black Indians, and the performances of former Miss Navajo Radmilla Cody, Cannon argues that people who straddle Black and Indigenous identities in the United States unsettle biological, political, and cultural metrics of racial authenticity. The creative ways that Afro-Native American people have negotiated questions of belonging, authenticity, and representation in the past 120 years testify to the empowering possibilities of expanding definitions of autobiography.

The recent rise of antisemitism in the United States has been well documented and linked to groups and ideologies associated with the far right. In From Occupation to Occupy, Sina Arnold argues that antisemitism can also be found as an "invisible prejudice" on the left. Based on participation in left-wing events and demonstrations, interviews with activists, and analysis of left-wing social movement literature, Arnold argues that a pattern for enabling antisemitism exists. Although open antisemitism on the left is very rare, there are recurring instances of "antisemitic trivialization," in which antisemitism is not perceived as a relevant issue in its own right, leading to a lack of empathy for Jewish concerns and grievances. Arnold's research also reveals a pervasive defensiveness against accusations of antisemitism in left-wing politics, with activists fiercely dismissing the possibility of prejudice against Jews within their movements and invariably shifting discussions to critiques of Israel or other forms of racism. From Occupation to Occupy offers potential remedies for this situation and suggests that a progressive political movement that takes antisemitism seriously can be a powerful force for change in the United States.

While globalization and the European construction increasingly undermine the model of the nation-state in the Mediterranean world, conversions reveal the capacity of religion to disrupt, and unsettle previous understandings of political and social relations. Converts' claims and practice are often met with the hostility of the state and the public while converts can often be perceived either as traitors or as unconscious and weak tools of foreign manipulation. Based on first-hand ethnographical research from several countries throughout the Mediterranean region, this book is the first of its kind in studying and analyzing contemporary conversions and their impact on recasting ideas of nationalism and citizenship. In doing so, this interdisciplinary study confronts historical, anthropological, political science and sociological approaches which offers an insight into the national, legal and political challenges of legislating for religious minorities that arise from conversions. Moreover, the specific examination of contemporary religious conversion contributes more widely to debates about the delinking of religion and culture, globalization, and secularism.

To understand police related deaths in the US, we need to understand the structures and systems that enable police to operate in the way they do. Giving voice to a previously unheard group in society, this book articulates the experiences of the families of those who died after police contact. David Baker considers the disproportionate number of deaths in marginalized communities, for example: people of color, people who are mentally unwell, and LGBTQ people. Each chapter begins with a short case study drawn from this qualitative research to humanize the story of the person who died and put the key issues into context. By examining these deaths and the investigatory processes that follow, Baker argues that an increasingly aggressive police mindset allied with relatively toothless regulatory frameworks effectively lead to police being enabled by the criminal justice system to use lethal force with relative impunity. Baker combines his qualitative research with the wide base of existing literature on police use of force in the US and maintains that the effects of these deaths go beyond merely policing and criminal justice but are corroding the core fabric of American society.

This book looks at conflict zones in the Asia Pacific with a special focus on secessionist groups/movements in the Indian Northeast, Tibet, Chinese Xinjiang, the Burmese borderlands, Kashmir in South Asia, CHT in Bangladesh, South Thailand, and Aceh in Indonesia. These conflict zones are predominantly ethnic minority provinces, which by and large do not share a sense of one-ness with the country that they are currently a part of; most of these insurgencies have had strong linkages with separatist nationalist groups in the region. Methodologically, the author uses extensive fieldwork, interview data, and participant observation from these conflict zones to take a bottom-up approach, giving importance to the voices of ordinary people and/or the residents of these conflict zones whose voices have generally been ignored. Although the book looks at both the historical background and contemporary dimensions of these conflicts, the author focuses on exploring how the role of race, ethnicity and religion in these conflicts can be both direct and indirect. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of conflict and security in contemporary Asia with a background in politics, history, IR, security studies, religion, and sociology.

Based on over a decade of fieldwork conducted with urban Roma, Staging Citizenship offers a powerful new perspective on one of the European Union's most marginal and disenfranchised communities. Focusing on "performance" broadly conceived, it follows members of a squatter's settlement in Transylvania as they navigate precarious circumstances in a postsocialist state. Through accounts of music and dance performances, media representations, activism, and interactions with both non-governmental organizations and state agencies, author Ioana Szeman grounds broad themes of political economy, citizenship, resistance, and neoliberalism in her subjects' remarkably varied lives and experiences.

Based on over five years of ethnographic fieldwork in Syria, Exemplary Life focuses on the life of a Damascus woman, Myrna Nazzour, who serves as an aspirational figure in her community. Myrna is regarded by her followers as an exemplary figure, a living saint, and the messages, apparitions, stigmata, and oil that have marked Myrna since 1982 have corroborated her status as chosen by God. Exemplary Life probes the power of examples, the modelling of sainthood around Myrna's figure, and the broader context for Syrian Christians in the changing landscape of the Middle East. The book highlights the social use of examples such as the ones inhabited by Myrna's devout followers and how they reveal the broader structures of illustration, evidence, and persuasion in social and cultural settings. Andreas Bandak argues that the role of the example should incite us to investigate which trains of thought set local worlds in motion. In doing so, Exemplary Life presents a novel frame for examining how religion comes to matter to people and adds a critical dimension to current anthropological engagements with ethics and morality.

This book addresses prominent debates in Western Europe and the United States on themes as seemingly diverse as national identity and nostalgia, migration and integration, gender relations and 'caring communities'. At the most fundamental level, all of these debates deal with the right to belong and the ability to 'feel at home'. The book examines what has happened to the 'home feelings' of the majority under the influence of the two major revolutions of our times: the gender revolution and increased mobility due to globalization. It analyzes how 'home' has been politicized, examines the risks of this politicization, as well as exploring alternative home-making strategies that aim to transcend the 'logic of identities' where one group's ability to feel at home comes at the expense of other groups.

'An instant classic. Sabir is an inspiration' Arun Kundnani, author of The Muslims are Coming! What impact has two decades' worth of policing and counterterrorism had on the state of mind of Muslims in Britain? The Suspect draws on the author's experiences to take the reader on a journey through British counterterrorism practices and the policing of Muslims. Rizwaan Sabir describes what led to his arrest for suspected terrorism, his time in detention, and the surveillance he was subjected to on release from custody, including stop and search at the roadside, detentions at the border, monitoring by police and government departments, and an attempt by the UK military to recruit him into their psychological warfare unit. Writing publicly for the first time about the traumatising mental health effects of these experiences, Sabir argues that these harmful outcomes are not the result of errors in government planning, but the consequences of using a counterinsurgency warfare approach to fight terrorism and police Muslims. To resist the injustice of these policies and practices, we need to centre our lived experiences and build networks of solidarity and support.

Armed with the motto "Diversity Our Strength," the City of Toronto has garnered a world-class reputation for challenging racism, largely because of how it is seen to value and include racialized groups through its diversity policies and practices. Toronto the Good? unsettles popular depictions of both diversity and the City of Toronto by attending to what diversity does in and for the City in the context of historical relations of race. Toronto the Good? brings together Shana Almeida's critical insights as a former political staff member along with her years of in-depth research on diversity in the City of Toronto to offer a compelling case to rethink how we understand diversity and racial inclusion in the City of Toronto and beyond. Initiated in a local context, Toronto the Good? critically contributes to global discussions on diversity, race, democracy, political participation, and power.

Travel and the Pan African Imagination explores the African Atlantic world as a productive theater or space where modernity, racialized dominance, and racialized resistance took form. The book stresses the importance of placing three Atlantic figures-the Charleston, South Carolina-based armed resistance leader Denmark Vesey; the West African emigration advocate Edward Wilmot Blyden, and the Christian missionary and teacher in Liberia as well as the United States, Alexander Crummell-within an Atlantic context and as African world community figures between the late-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The book also examines the religious origins of Black Power ideology and modern Pan Africanism as products of the intense dialogue within the African world community about concepts of modernity, progress, and civilization. Tracy Keith Flemming identifies how travel and social mobility led to the generation of an ever more complex and dynamic Atlantic world and of a fluid and adaptive African world community imagination for those figures who were forced to operate within and against a racially framed universe. The vexing social position and symbolic figure of "the African" was central to the dilemmas facing the racialized imagination of African world community figures and the discipline of Africology.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of the most influential autobiographies ever written. This classic did as much as or more than any other book to motivate the abolitionist to continue to fight for freedom in American. Frederick Douglass was born a slave, he escaped a brutal system and through sheer force of will educated himself and became an abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman, and reformer. This is one of the most unlikely and powerful success stories ever written.

Set in Fordsburg between the 1950s and 1990s against the backdrop of apartheid, A Home on Vorster Street invites us into the life of Razina Theba and the vibrant community to which she and her characterful Indian-Muslim family belongs.

The book offers an intimate, vividly told narrative of a family bound by loyalty to their culture, religion and each other.

At times laugh-out-loud funny, and at others emotional, painful and tender-hearted, Theba’s memoir is a spirited exploration of the themes of family, racism, cultural heritage and identity.

In nineteenth-century Australia, the main commentators on race and biological differences were doctors. But the medical profession entertained serious anxieties about the possibility of "racial denigration" of the white population in the new land, and medical and social scientists violated ethics and principles in pursuit of a more homogenized Australia. "The Cultivation of Whiteness" examines the notions of "whiteness" and racism, and introduces a whole new framework for discussion of the development of medicine and science. Warwick Anderson provides the first full account of the shocking experimentation in the 1920s and '30s on Aboriginal people of the central deserts--the Australian equivalent of the infamous Tuskegee Experiment. Lucid and entertaining throughout, this pioneering historical survey of ideas will help to reshape debate on race, ethnicity, citizenship, and environment everywhere.