Racism, Surveillance and Empire

Socialism 2014

June 26, 2014

Liisten to audio of this program here:
http://wearemany.org/a/2014/06/racism-surveillance-and-empire

The national security state relentlessly targets Muslim Americans. But racist targeting has a long history in the US. This panel featuring Dr. Deepa Kumar (Associate Professor, Rutgers University) and Dr. Arun Kundnani (Adjunct Professor, New York University) provides a sweeping history of surveillance, racism and empire. The panelists argue that the current discussion around NSA surveillance which focuses on questions of privacy is inadequate. Instead, by rooting surveillance within the bowels of empire they show how counterinsurgency practices used abroad always come back home, how the history of the US as a colonial settler state fuels mechanisms of racial control, and how if we want to end mass surveillance we need to organize against racism and empire.

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