Alien Files: The Green Card as Racial Control

Alien Files: The Green Card as Racial Control

Presented by the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society
Co-sponsored by Themester and American Studies

This talk examines how discourses of enmity were embedded in technologies of control such as the Green Card and its subsequent automation in the 1970s.

At a time when elected officials and policy makers insist on marking non-White populations as dangerous threats to the nation, it is fundamental that we interrogate the long, historical relationship between discourses of enmity and its impact on the lives of these stigmatized populations. Their democratic participation is shaped by the persistent push to monitor and control their public presence. This talk examines how discourses of enmity were embedded in technologies of control such as the Green Card and its subsequent automation in the 1970s. Scrutinizing the interactions between politics, technology, and immigration helps us understand how migrant populations are allowed to participate, or not, in public life.