Border Monsters and the Fight for Intersectional Internationalism

Sang Hea Kil, Ron Hayduk

Covering the Border War by Sang Hea Kil examines the notion of the body politic in border newspaper coverage of the USA-Mexico divide and how the nation and immigration are racially imagined in crime news discourse, where whiteness is associated with order and brownness is associated with disorder in a variety of imaginative, nativist ways. Untangling by Ron Hayduk asks how we understand the current conjuncture, characterized by multiple and colliding crises and monsters, from rising inequality, mass migration, and intensifying climate change to resurgent racism, gender violence, right-wing populism, and militarism, arguing that mass migration and inequality are two sides of the same coin, resulting from rapacious forms of capitalist accumulation and imperialist interventionism, which propel populist movements on the right and left. The right conjures up monsters that demonize immigrants, people of color, and “radical Marxists,” while the left targets “billionaires,” “Christian Nationalist Zionists,” and “tech bros” who threaten to bring on “end times fascism.” Join us to discuss valuable lessons for scholars and organizers interested in fighting these monsters and forging a more equitable, just and desirable future.