Michal Buchowski: The European Union enlargement into Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries resulted in the expansion of neoliberal capitalism and acceptance of democratic principles. Commitment to the protection of collective and individual rights is inscribed in the constitution of any democratic polity. This liberal package deal implies, among others, a set of liberties such as tolerance for sociocultural diversity and respect for minorities, migrants and refugees’ rights. Read More …

Marco Aime (original text in Italian): In un’epoca post-razziale come quella in cui viviamo oggi, anche il lessico dovrebbe inventare nuove strade. Espulso dalla scienza, il concetto di razza ha però trovato nuove declinazioni a cui forse bisognerebbe trovare nuovi nomi. Non è bastato che la moderna genetica abbia decostruito l’idea di razza, per fare scomparire il “razzismo”. Perché è lì che sta la radice: è il razzismo che ha prodotto l’idea di razza e non viceversa. E oggi produce nuove forme di discriminazione e di esclusione, che stanno pericolosamente risorgendo dopo mezzo secolo di apparente oblio. Read More …

Marco Aime: In the post-racial era in which we are living today, a new lexicon is needed. Scientifically baseless, the concept of race has found new forms of expression, for which we need new names. It is no longer enough that modern sciences dismantled the idea of race, to make ‘racism’ disappear. Because this is where the roots lie: it is racism that produced the idea of race, not the other way around. And nowadays it produces new forms of discrimination and exclusion that are dangerously resurging after half a century of apparent oblivion. Read More …

Nicholas De Genova: Over the last two decades, human catastrophes at sea have indisputably transformed the maritime borders of Europe into a macabre deathscape. Untold tens of thousands of refugees, migrants, and their children have been consigned to horrific, unnatural, premature deaths by shipwreck and drowning, often following protracted ordeals of hunger, thirst, exposure, and abandonment on the high seas. Read More …