Project Muse: Intersectionality in an Era of Globalization: The Implications of the UN World Conference against Racism for Transnational Feminist Practices–A Conference Report

As we prepared this report, we struggled tojind the meaning ofthe UN World Conference against Racism (wcar) buried under the rubble ofthe first week ofthe U.S. bombing campaign against Afghanistan and the devastation and massive loss oflife at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Like a historic dividing line that bisects our hearts and sense oftime— before September 11, 2001 and after— activists and organizers returned home from Durban tojind that the political terrain had shifted beneath ourfeet in ways we might still be measuringjor decades to come. Despite the dijpculry ofthe times, we need the message and the lessons gleanedJTom this historic anti-racism gathering more than ever as accounts pour injrom all over the country of the over 700 reported instances ofhate crimes committed against Arab Americans and those who have been mistakenfor them, mostly members ofSouth Asian communities. The post-September 11 political context has not only witnessed an upsurge in racist violence, it has also seen the implementation ofretrogressive policies, including indefinite detention and the renewal ofanti-immigrant policies such as “secret evidence” as a basis/or detention and deportation.