“Did I see what I really saw?” Violence, percepticide, and dangerous seeing after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid

Abstract

We use a violence framework to describe an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, and the subsequent cultural and structural violence that played out in one community after the raid. First, we focus on testimonies given about the ICE raids at two city council meetings, compared with how the raids were characterized in the local paper. We document cultural and structural violence in the newspaper reporting, through ideology and narratives (as forms of cultural violence) and percepticide (as a form of structural violence). We then analyze the process undertaken by 9–12‐year‐old youth researchers to construct a problem definition, and the script they wrote to explain the problem. We describe the “dangerous seeing” they engaged in to decode fictions about violence and create a rupture for solidarity and social action. Finally, we examine how elementary school leadership responded to these youth. Through fieldnotes, we document the cultural violence (via the control of public space) and structural violence (via percepticide and the obscuring of the social origins of social problems) perpetrated by school leadership.

“They treat us like we are not human”: Asylum seekers and “la migra's” violence.

“…Cultural violence is any aspect of culture (e.g., narratives) that is, used to justify either direct or structural violence (Galtung & Fischer, 2013). According to Langhout and Vaccarino-Ruiz (2020), cultural violence is evoked in three ways: through narratives about a social group, dichotomous thinking, and control of public space.…”

“…The narrative created by DHS leaders and U.S. legislators was (and is) that immigrants and asylum seekers are potential security threats that need to be surveilled or kept out of the U.S. (Domínguez et al, 2012). This anti-immigrant narrative has exacerbated public fears and resulted in the idea that “Americans” (i.e., us) are worthy of protection, and immigrants or asylum seekers (i.e., them) are potential criminals (Langhout & Vaccarino-Ruiz, 2020). Dichotomous thinking (i.e., us vs. them ) has infiltrated different sectors of U.S. society, including law enforcement agencies (Johnson et al, 2019).…”

“…(e.g., Remain in Mexico Policy), (b) law enforcement programs that over-police them (e.g., the Secure Communities program), and (c) the imprisonment and deportation of those who do not comply with immigration laws. Cultural violence has “laid the groundwork and rationalization for [structural] and direct violence—by dominant groups or the state—against” asylum seekers (Langhout & Vaccarino-Ruiz, 2020, p. 2). Next, we discuss the presence of structural violence in immigration policy.…”

Structural marginalization and violence: Advancing research on how community structure contributes to violence and violence prevention

“…Next, Langhout and Vaccarino‐Ruiz (2020) provides an in‐depth examination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of Latinx communities to explore the relations between direct violence and structural and cultural violence. This study is especially notable for demonstrating reciprocal relations between instances of direct violence and the values, laws, policies, and practices that allow the direct violence to occur and persist.…”

Refugee experiences in Cincinnati, Ohio: A local case study in the context of global crisis

“…White supremacy culture is an outcome of colonial ideologies that purport white superiority, that has adverse implications for all communities of Color in the United States (Sue, 2006). Additionally, the intersection of racism and anti‐immigrant sentiments are evidenced in numerous policies both historically and in modern times (e.g., quotas on immigrants from particular regions of the world, recent family separation policies imposed upon migrants seeking entry through the United States’ southern border) that impact both dominant ideology and the wellbeing of recent migrants (Dutt & Kohfeldt, 2019; Langhout & Vaccarino‐Ruiz, 2021; Yakushko, 2009). Examples of racist disenfranchisement experienced by immigrants in the United States abound.…”