Cruelty as Citizenship

This book explores why political conservatives view immigrants from Mexico and Latin America as an emotionally charged population. The author connects the modern immigration debate to America's history of indigenous dispossession, chattel slavery, the Mexican-American War, and Jim Crow. Cristina Beltrán explains how white supremacy was a participatory practice of racial violence, domination, and exclusion that allowed white citizens to exceed the law. However, she also discusses growing movements for migrant and racial justice that offer hope. This thought-provoking work is part of the Forerunners series, which features gray literature publishing and draws on scholarly work from a variety of sources.