Structural Violence Is Historical

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 2 gives the example of testimony to show how settler colonial impunity is a historically and hermeneutically bone-deep phenomenon tied to the endurance of gender-based violence. Since the beginning of european colonization, sexual violence against racialized women in the Americas has persevered despite the enactment of sweeping social reforms associated with the rise of democratic nation-states. Administrative structures enable wide-scale impunity for sexual violence and allow its production by interlocking oppressions to continue unabated. The increasing impact and scope of sexual violence against racialized women since the start of european colonization is indicative of the structural automation of injustice produced by structurally invariant settler colonial systems. This chapter draws on legal case studies and a conceptual history of testimony in gender-based violence cases to illustrate how structural invariance sustains white dynastic formations through social transformations.