Reflecting on Race, Racism and Transitional Justice

ABSTRACT∞ Following the racial justice uprisings of 2020, our world order continues to reel from the consequences of the systemic racism that is the product of colonial projects past and present. In this introduction to the International Journal for Transitional Justice’s (IJTJ) Special Issue on Race, Racism and Transitional Justice, we ruminate on key disciplinary critiques of the bounds of transitional justice. We analyze the IJTJ’s record of addressing race and racism, relying on data from a coding project of almost all its publications. We find that the explicit discussion and engagement with race and racism has been wanting in the Journal. This volume helps us to consider what it would mean for the field to begin to take race, racism and racial justice seriously. Our hope is that it will help catalyze the remembering, exposing and reimagining of the role of race and racism in transitional justice and beyond.