Editorial

As I write this in October 2020, the nation in which I live is griped by many crises: COVID-19, economic chaos, racial injustice, and the mobilization of racial resentments.

The president of the United States has turned to patriotism as a rallying cry for white privilege, attacking the New York Times’s 1619 Project, issuing executive orders banning racial sensitivity training, mocking critical race theory, and questioning the right of women of color in the House of Representatives to speak about what he refers to as “our country.”

The “and” in that sentence is fraught. Where does one stop in listing the assaults carried out against democracy, equality, and the rule of law?

It seems that the need to understand and call out the politics of exclusion in which President Trump traffics is more important than ever. And whatever the outcome of the American election, it will not dissipate.

The three contributors to our commentary section explore that politics in fascinating, theoretically informed essays.

Austin Sarat Faculty William Nelson Cromwell Professor Jurisprudence & Political Science, USA