Second-Class Citizens in the “Land of the Free”

Abstract

Chapter 7 shifts the discussion to focus specifically on the case study of the United States, where “second-class” citizens are often unable to access fully functioning citizenship and enjoy their rights to place and purpose. Drawing from the work of Margaret Somers, the “contractualization of citizenship” and “color-blind” politics often lead to situations of “internal statelessness” in one of the world’s wealthiest, most powerful countries. Issues of police brutality and inequality before the law arise from pervasive systems of unequal citizenship and structural violence against racial minorities, many of whom occupy lower socioeconomic classes than their White counterparts in American cities such as Detroit, Flint, and Saint Louis. Human rights challenges such as forced eviction, lack of clean drinking water and affordable healthcare, and widespread racial inequalities highlight the ways many people are denied their full rights to place and purpose despite their status as American citizens.