Cristina Beltrán discusses her book, “Cruelty as Citizenship How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy.” Prof. Beltrain explains the how Herrenvolk Democracy is useful in understanding White Supremacy and how it transformed into White Democracy. By exploring whiteness as a political and legal project as well as political, White Standing extends beyond racialized categories to create the contours of freedom and democracy. Western expansion, the Mexican American War, and Manifest Destiny factor into American notions of immigration, nativism, and replacement fears.
Cristina Beltrán is an associate professor in New York University’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.