Call for Papers

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

Issue Two, Spring 2008
“Race and Coalition”

The editorial staff of the new peer-reviewed journal Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts invites submissions for its second issue on the subject of “Race and Coalition.” Race/Ethnicity maps the development of important themes in the field of race and ethnic studies by using a “classic” piece as a point of departure for a reconsideration of critical issues within the contemporary economic, political, and cultural terrain.

While the classic piece establishes the thematic parameters of each issue, authors are under no obligation to actively engage the arguments posed by that work.

Issue two explores the subject of “Race and Coalition” with consideration of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and Charles V. Hamilton’s “The Myths of Coalition” from the 1967 text Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. In this seminal essay, the authors question the viability of coalitions that do not seek radical changes in racial hierarchy, include partners with disparate amounts of economic and political power, and rely on sentimentality and goodwill to build and maintain cohesiveness.

The authors argue instead that viable and productive coalitions must do the following:

1) recognize the self-interests of the groups involved in the relationship;
2) have the capacity for realizing the self-interests of each group;
3) articulate their own “independent base of power”;
4) have specific goals.

Proceeding from this articulation of coalition politics, Race/Ethnicity seeks manuscripts that investigate the dynamics of “Race and Coalition” with particular attention to one or more of the following themes:

A) Theoretical Foundations of Coalition. If organizing is no longer forged on the basis of shared identity or “unity,” what serves as the “foundation” for political mobilization? What new forms of coalition, alliance, or issue-based organizing have emerged in the current political, economic, and cultural context? Can these convergences operate only temporarily or can they be more sustained? How can/must/do coalitions negotiate differences along the lines of gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, and class in articulating a shared platform? What productive alliances have been or can be forged between different marginalized groups? What makes these coalitions cohere? How do these projects (re)shape experiences of race and ethnicity?

B) The Multicultural Terrain of Organizing in the United States. With the rise of Asian/Pacific American and Latino/a social movements, how is the concept of “coalition” being rearticulated today? Does the “people of color” construct, expressing the common bonds of non-white groups, still make sense? What new challenges to coalition-building emerge in the context of the variable power relations of nations, economic operations, and discourse that characterize the contemporary multiracial terrain of US organizing? What strategies can be mobilized to negotiate these differences? What roles are available to whites in multiracial coalitions and in coalitions for racial justice?

C) The Global Context. What challenges and possibilities do new communications and other technologies linking people across the globe offer for multiracial coalitions? How do the ties of nation, state, and culture complicate efforts to organize pan-ethnically? How can models of organizing around race throughout the world, or on behalf of racially identified groups and concerns, usefully inform organizing strategies in the US context, or vice versa? What is at stake and where are we headed? 

The deadline for manuscript submission is March 2, 2007. Please send manuscript submissions to the editor: race-editor@osu.edu. See http://www.kirwaninstitute.org/RaceEthnicity/styleguide.html to prepare your document in accordance with the style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity.