The overall goal of this course is to examine the contemporary circumstances of the African Diaspora (and “other” immigrants of color) in Europe. We focus on and discuss the origins of Black Europe and investigate the impact of these legacies on policies, social organizations and legislation today. This course begins with a historical overview of the African Diaspora in Europe that traces the involvement of European nations in the colonization of the Americas. We address the migration and settlement of Blacks in Europe, and examine immigration and citizenship laws that regulated their settlement. We also look at anti-discrimination laws as they have arisen in various European countries. We compare the history of regulation and management of race and ethnic relations and the discourse surrounding the concept of Blackness and self-identification.

 

Historically, social forces and social movements within Europe have given rise to policies to combat racism. We trace the chain of events following social and civil conflicts that prompted these policies and analyze the legislative and intellectual discourse produced in the aftermath. In addition, we explore notions of Blackness as official categorization; as a social construction employed by the dominant groups to indicate (non) belonging; as a Diaspora living within Europe; and as a contestation of the dominant (White) paradigm. In this way, we examine the social mobilization of Blacks to resist domination.

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The above issues are considered in light of the immediacy of contemporary global and European forces, including competing issues and discourses on Islamophobia, increased non-Black migration into and across Europe, and the debt crisis in the European Union.

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This course also seeks to address the dimensions of race and ethnic relations that are unique to Europe; examining the ways in which conceptions of the "other" are institutionalized and reproduced; the rise of xenophobia in various EU countries; issues such as global racisms, everyday racism and epistemic racism; the legal definitions and discourse surrounding the conceptualized "other"; and examining the ways in which each country has dealt with issues of race and national identity.​