Race and Rights Podcast

Opportunity Hoarding in the Age of Inequality with Sheryll Cashin (Episode 56)

Opportunity hoarding occurs when advantaged groups secure and monopolize valuable resources—such as high-quality education, exclusive networks, or prime housing—to benefit their own members while restricting access for others. This behavior creates and sustains categorical inequality, often manifesting through exclusionary zoning, preferential hiring, or hoarding educational opportunities.  Advantage groups create exclusive networks, secure resources, and develop practices (like exclusionary zoning or elite school networks) that protect their advantages.  Such opportunity hoarding contributes significantly to the widening gap between high- and low-opportunity neighborhoods and schools. Join host Professor Sahar Aziz in conversation with Professor Sheryll Cashin about her groundbreaking book White Spaces, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding in the Age of Inequality [https://www.beacon.org/White-Space-Black-Hood-P1726.aspx]. Drawing on nearly 2 decades of research in cities including Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cleveland, Professor Cashin traces the processes of residential caste as it relates to housing, policing, schools, and transportation. She contends that geography is now central to American caste. Poverty-free havens and poverty-dense hoods would not exist if the state had not designed, constructed, and maintained this physical racial order. Cashin calls for abolition of these state-sanctioned processes. The ultimate goal is to change the lens through which society sees residents of poor Black neighborhoods from presumed thug to presumed citizen, and to transform the relationship of the state with these neighborhoods from punitive to caring. She calls for investment in a new infrastructure of opportunity in poor Black neighborhoods, including richly resourced schools and neighborhood centers, public transit, Peacemaker Fellowships, universal basic incomes, housing choice vouchers for residents, and mandatory inclusive housing elsewhere. Recommended Reading: Sheryll Cashin, White Spaces, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding in the Age of Inequality [https://www.beacon.org/White-Space-Black-Hood-P1726.aspx] (2021) Sheryll Cashin, Brown v. Board of Education: Enduring Caste and American Betrayal [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4895253], 4 Am. J. Law & Equality 141 (2024) Support the show [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html] Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html]  Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy  [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy] Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr [https://twitter.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr [https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr [https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr [https://facebook.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr [https://tiktok.com/rucsrr]

Critical Perspectives on Relations Between Israel, Iran and the U.S. with Juan Cole and Mojtaba Mahdavi (Episode 55)

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel coordinated an unprovoked military attack on the sovereign state of Iran without any credible evidence of an imminent threat posed by Iran or a United Nations Security Council Resolution. On that first day of the war, the Israelis killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials, immediately transforming their attacks into a regional war.  Iran invoked its right to self-defense under international law by launching missiles, drones and proxy attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Persian Gulf and in Israel.   On March 2, 2026, Hezbollah entered the war by attacking Israel in response Ali Khameini’s killing, which has led to a major Israeli air and ground escalation in Lebanon.  Also on March 2, 2026, the Iranian government effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which cuts off the 20% of the world’s supply of oil and natural gas from the global economy.  In this episode, Professor Juan Cole and Professor Mojtaba Mahdavi critically examine the historical, political and economic origins and consequences of Israel and the United States’ war on Iran.   Guest Biographies Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Professor Cole has written, edited or translated 21 books and authored over 100 articles and chapters.  Among his recent publications are Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/juan-cole/muhammad/9781568587820/] (Bold Type Books, 2018) and The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East [http://www.amazon.com/New-Arabs-Millennial-Generation-Changing/dp/1451690398%2520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411525758&sr=1-1&keywords=juan+cole+the+new+%2520/arabs] (Simon & Schuster, 2014). Professor Cole edited the volume ' Peace Movements in Islam, [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/peace-movements-in-islam-9780755643202/] and is the author of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian. [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam-9780755600519/] He is proprietor of the Informed Comment [https://www.juancole.com/] news and analysis site.  Mojtaba Mahdavi is a Professor of Political Science and the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author and editor of numerous works on pos-trevolutionary Iran, contemporary social movements and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, post-Islamism and modern Islamic political thought.  #Iran #Israel #Democracy #MiddleEast Support the show [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html] Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html]  Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy  [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy] Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr [https://twitter.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr [https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr [https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr [https://facebook.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr [https://tiktok.com/rucsrr]

Law and Politics of Israel and the United States’ Attacks on Iran with Maryam Jamshidi (Episode 54)

Join host Professor Sahar Aziz [https://www.law.rutgers.edu/bio/sa1356] in her conversation with Professor Maryam Jamshid [https://www.colorado.edu/law/node/12579/maryam-jamshidi]i about the political and legal implications of Israel and the United States' unprovoked military attacks against Iran on February 28, 2026. As Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu publicly admitted, the Israeli government has been preparing for a war to topple the Iranian regime for over 30 years. [https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/03/02/netanyahu-s-30-year-obsession-with-iran_6751018_4.html] Knowing they do not possess sufficient military capacity to do it alone, Israel unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the United States to start a war of aggression against Iran under the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations.  The reasons for restraint by past US administration were often the same. Iran posed no direct threat or conducted an imminent attack toward the US that legally justified an offensive war of aggression. The risk of a global economic downfall and the exorbitant price tag of a major war far outweighed the benefits of removing a hostile government. And perhaps most importantly from a military perspective, the United States had no exit strategy.  Indeed, these were the same reasons that led to the Democratic Party winning the White House in 2008 after expensive and endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2001.  Republican politicians campaigned on an America First platform in the 2021 elections by explicitly rejecting wars of choice in the Middle East that cost American lives and treasure. And yet, Republican President Donald Trump violated that promise to his constituents and granted Israel its 30-year dream to start an offensive war on Iran despite no credible evidence of an imminent threat by Iran. The result has been predictably catastrophic for the Middle East and the global economy. The war has engulfed the Gulf states, the Strait of Hormuz is closed to the 20% of global supply of oil and natural gas, energy prices are skyrocketing across the world, Tehran is being bombarded daily by Israel, over 1300 Iranians have been killed thus far, and the war is costing American taxpayers $1 billion per day.  Additional Readings: Maryam Jamshidi (2025), A Transformational Agenda for National Security [https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2024/iss1/5/], University of Chicago Legal Forum, Vol. 2024, Article 5. Maryam Jamshidi, Whose Security Matters [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4190554], 116 AJIL Unbound (2022). Middle East and South Asia Lectures, Center for Security, Race and Rights [ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZaqvjC8VDMPNtK3Lg0sqNokL] Support the show [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html] Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html]  Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy  [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy] Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr [https://twitter.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr [https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr [https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr [https://facebook.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr [https://tiktok.com/rucsrr]

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama-Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy with Nathan Thrall (Episode 53)

There is a dire need for an interdisciplinary examination of the human cost of occupation through the lens of daily Palestinian experience in the West Bank. This episode explores the critically acclaimed work of Nathan Thrall, whose immersive narrative provides rare insight into the lived reality of Palestinians navigating Israeli systems of control that define life under occupation. There are prefixed structural inequalities embedded in the segregated apartheid landscape of Jerusalem and the West Bank that Palestinians including those within the diaspora must face daily—displacement from ancestral lands, violence from settlers, and systematic discrimination. Thrall's Pulitzer Prize-winning book explores the personal dimensions of a conflict often discussed in abstract geopolitical terms. Through intimate portrayals of individual Palestinians confronting institutional barriers and daily dignitary harms, his work humanizes the ancestral consequences of policies that separate communities, restrict movement, and create parallel legal systems based on ethnicity and religion.  In his conversation with Professor Sahar Aziz, Nathan Thrall shares powerful excerpts from his work that capture the apartheid conditions experienced by West Bank Palestinians who live under military occupation while neighboring Israeli settlements enjoy full rights and protection. His narrative approach moves beyond headlines and statistics to reveal the emotional and psychological toll of occupation on individuals and families caught in systems designed to maintain separation and inequality. Join Sahar Aziz and Nathan Thrall in a conversation that offers listeners a deeper understanding of one of the world's most contested regions through the transformative lens of personal narrative and lived experience. Recommended Reading: Nathan Thrall,A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250291530/adayinthelifeofabedsalama/](2023) Resources on Palestine and Palestinians -RutgersCenter for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] resources/palestinefacts/ [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/resources/palestinefacts/] #Israel #Palestine #Gaza #Apartheid #ICC #HumanRights Support the show [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html] Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html]  Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy  [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy] Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr [https://twitter.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr [https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr [https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr [https://facebook.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr [https://tiktok.com/rucsrr]

The Voting Paradox: Redistricting, Race and Democracy with Atiba Ellis (Episode 52)

A central paradox has plagued and continues to plague the American right to vote: the American republic has always conditioned participation in the democratic process on an antidemocratic ideology of worthiness needed to exercise the rights of citizenship. This reality has shaped debates around the right to vote in the past and in the present and has made it more difficult for the law to embrace the rhetoric of a universal right to vote—that is, a right for all citizens to participate freely and fairly.  This is the defining dilemma of voting rights in American history. Indeed, the histories surrounding voting rights admit to the progress that was required to gain a more expansive right to vote for all American citizens, yet at the same time recognize that these rights are inherently and constantly contested. The continued contest around voting rights is ultimately attributable to this paradox. An expert on voting rights law, Professor Atiba Ellis provides the historical, legal and political backdrop against which voting rights of racial minorities continue to be curtailed through manipulation of state laws.  Professor Ellis explains how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 shifted from a powerful tool for affirmatively ending racial discrimination especially against African American voters to an ineffective safeguard against rising disenfranchisement of racial minorities. Listen to the conversation between Professor Sahar Aziz and Professor Atiba Ellis about a topic that will shape the hotly contested November 2026 mid-term elections. Recommended Readings Atiba R. Ellis, The Voting Rights Paradox: Ideology and Incompleteness of American Democratic Practice [https://georgialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Atiba-R.-Ellis-The-Voting-Rights-Paradox-Ideology-and-Incompleteness-of-American-Democratic-Practice-55-Georgia-Law-Review-1553-2021.pdf], 55 Georgia L. Rev. 1553 (2021) Atiba R. Ellis, Voter Fraud as an Epistemic Crisis for the Right to Vote [https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi], 71 Mercer L. Rev. 757 (2020). Atiba R. Ellis, Tiered Personhood and the Excluded Voter [https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol90/iss2/4/], 90 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 463 (2015). Sahar F. Aziz, The Blinding Color of Race: Elections and Democracy in the Post-Shelby County Era [https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1693&context=facscholar], 17 Berkeley J. Afr.-Am. L. & Pol'y 182 (2015). Support the show [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html] Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights [https://csrr.rutgers.edu/] by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html [https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html]  Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy  [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbUfYcWGZapBNYvCObiCpp3qtxgH_jFy] Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr [https://twitter.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr [https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Threads: https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr [https://threads.com/rutgerscsrr]  Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr [https://facebook.com/rucsrr]  Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr [https://tiktok.com/rucsrr]