2021 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
How taking Indigenous sovereignty seriously can help dismantle the
structural racism encountered by other people of color in the United
States
Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law provides a timely analysis of
structural racism at the intersection of law and colonialism. Noting the
grim racial realities still confronting communities of color, and how
they have not been alleviated by constitutional guarantees of equal
protection, this book suggests that settler colonial theory provides a
more coherent understanding of what causes and what can help remediate
racial disparities.
Natsu Taylor Saito attributes the origins and persistence of racialized
inequities in the United States to the prerogatives asserted by its
predominantly Angloamerican colonizers to appropriate Indigenous lands
and resources, to profit from the labor of voluntary and involuntary
migrants, and to ensure that all people of color remain "in their
place."
By providing a functional analysis that links disparate forms of
oppression, this book makes the case for the oft-cited proposition that
racial justice is indivisible, focusing particularly on the importance
of acknowledging and contesting the continued colonization of Indigenous
peoples and lands. Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law concludes
that rather than relying on promises of formal equality, we will more
effectively dismantle structural racism in America by envisioning what
the right of all peoples to self-determination means in a settler
colonial state.
