Current Research
In my spare time (!!!), I'm working on a book on race, migration and human rights for the University of Pennsylvania Press. The title keeps changing—at the moment it is Black Without Borders: Race, Migration and Human Rights. It will build on my earlier work on Afro-Caribbean immigrants and African asylum-seekers. These travelers embody globalization in many respects.
We are finally learning that human rights should not end (or begin) at the border. Low-wage immigrant workers help take care of our children, our elders, our homes and our offices. They work in agriculture, restaurants, transportation, manufacturing, health services, small businesses and community organizing. Because some do not have legal status, they are subject to wage abuses, dangerous working conditions, sexual harassment, and arbitrary detention and deportation. Despite these barriers, many still risk their lives to get here, then work to send remittances home to feed, clothe, and house their families. They are overlooked but significant actors in the global economy. The book will explore how the human rights framework fails them, but, if reconceived could help support the positive contributions they make.
Most Interesting Case
It's actually not a "case" at all. A friend reminded me recently that this fall marked the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Anti-Apartheid Act (overriding Reagan's veto). I had just started work at TransAfrica (a leading Capitol Hill anti-apartheid and foreign policy NGO). As we young lawyers and activists sat in the Senate gallery watching the historic vote unfold, everything seemed possible. It is still one of my favorite memories.
As an SEC attorney, I was involved in a number of interesting cases and projects related to the financial consolidation of Europe, the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the disappearance of traditional pensions for ordinary workers in the US. But there is one early incident that made me realize the potential power of the state even when in the guise of an ordinary attorney: I called a law school friend's firm to set up lunch. He was out, but when his assistant asked where I was calling from, I automatically replied with the standard "Office of the Chief Counsel, Securities and Exchange Commission" identifier we used for business messages. She had me hold on and, before I realized what was happening, I heard her literally running down the hall. My friend soon picked up the phone, huffing and puffing, having been pulled out of an important meeting. He had been told only that "the SEC's on the phone!" It was great (unintentional) "revenge" for the difference in our paychecks, but also a lesson in how power operates.
Recent Publications
My new human rights textbook, Human Rights and the Global Marketplace: Economic, Social, and Cultural Dimensions (co-edited with Jeanne Woods) (Transnational/Brill USA, 2005) looks at poverty, racial, cultural and religious conflict, trade, migration, and development through the lens of international and comparative human rights.
I wrote an article this summer for an encyclopedia on human rights. The topic of the piece was the human rights implications of harmful cultural practices affecting women and girls. I make the point that the positive and negative implications of culture are not confined to "exotic" racial, religious, or ethnic groups—the global north is just as marked and enhanced by culture as the rest of the world.
Also, I finally learned how to "blog." I was asked to be a September guest contributor to blackprof.com. I wrote primarily about Katrina as a human rights issue.
