Room: H 1028

Institute for Policy Studies & Transnational Institute

The rise and power of militarism and war is always tied to racism – to demonize the “enemy” powerful forces turn on the “enemy’s” counterparts at home.  Americans of Japanese descent rounded up and held in concentration camps during World War II. Asian-American soldiers humiliated as “gooks” and Black and Latino youth are disproportionately drafted as cannon fodder during the US war in Viet Nam. And throughout the 15 years of the global war on terror, Islamophobia on the rise in Europe, the United States and beyond.

Martin Luther King described “the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism” as the key evils to be fought. And the policy platform of the 2016 Movement For Black Lives calls for “a cut in military expenditures and a reallocation of those funds to invest in domestic infrastructure and community well-being.