“Let’s help our own:” Humanitarian compassion as racial governance in settler colonialism

• Main Author: Carmela Murdocca
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2020-12-01
• Series: Oñati Socio-Legal Series
• Subjects: humanitarian governance; settler colonialism; indigenous; syrian refugees; canada; gobernanza humanitaria; colonialismo de asentamiento; indígenas; refugiados sirios; canadá
• Online Access: http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/1111

This article explores narratives of humanitarian compassion as rendered intelligible through the relational intersecting concerns about Syrian refugees and the suicide crisis in the Indigenous community of Attawapiskat, Ontario. Fuelled by a combination of anti-refugee rhetoric, racism and ongoing colonialism experienced by Indigenous people and communities, public and media discourse reveals how humanitarian governance is constitutive of the genealogy of settler colonialism. I suggest that examining the political genealogy of humanitarian governance in white settler colonialism assists in revealing the centrality of racial colonial violence in producing public and media discourse that is contingent upon the relational currencies of anti-refugee rhetoric, racism and humanitarian compassion. As expressions of a grammar of racial difference in liberal settler colonialism, these discourses ultimately reveal how racial colonial violence is constituted through the genealogy of humanitarianism.<br /><br /> Este art&iacute;culo examina las narrativas de compasi&oacute;n humanitaria entendidas a trav&eacute;s de las preocupaciones interseccionales de relaci&oacute;n sobre los refugiados sirios y la crisis de suicidios en la comunidad ind&iacute;gena de Attawapiskat, Ontario. Alimentado por una combinaci&oacute;n de ret&oacute;rica antirrefugiados, racismo y colonialismo persistente experimentado por los pueblos ind&iacute;genas, el discurso p&uacute;blico y medi&aacute;tico revela que la gobernanza humanitaria es constitutiva de la genealog&iacute;a del colonialismo de asentamiento. Propongo que un examen de la genealog&iacute;a pol&iacute;tica de la gobernanza humanitaria en el colonialismo de asentamiento blanco ayuda a revelar la centralidad de la violencia colonial racial en la producci&oacute;n de un discurso p&uacute;blico y medi&aacute;tico que es contingente a la moneda de cambio relacional de la ret&oacute;rica racista y antirrefugiados y de la compasi&oacute;n humanitaria. Como expresiones de la gram&aacute;tica de la diferencia racial en el colonialismo liberal del asentamiento, estos discursos finalmente revelan c&oacute;mo la violencia colonial racial se constituye a trav&eacute;s de la genealog&iacute;a del humanitarismo.<br /><strong><br /> Available from:</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1067" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1067</a>