Structural Violence The Makings of Settler Colonial Impunity

Enduring social inequalities in settler colonial societies are not an accident. They are produced and maintained by the self-repairing structural features and dynastic character of systemic racism and its intersecting oppressions. Using methods from diverse anticolonial liberation movements and systems theory, Structural Violence theorizes the existence of adaptive and self-replicating historical formations that underwrite cultures of violence in settler colonial societies. Corresponding epistemic forces tied to profit and wealth accumulation for beneficiary groups often go untracked. The account offered here argues that these epistemic forces play a central role in producing and maintaining massive health inequalities and the maldistribution of disease burdens—including those associated with sexual violence—for marginalized populations. It upends the widespread view that structural racism can be dismantled without addressing gendered violence. It also advocates for a theory of change rooted in reparative action and models of structural competency that respond to the built-in design of structural violence and the ecosystems of impunity that allow it to thrive.

Elena Ruíz is Director and Associate Professor of The Research Institute for Structural Change (RISC) at Michigan State University. She is a survivor advocate and served as the Principal Researcher on Gender-Based violence for MeToo International, the organization behind the #metoo movement. Her writings on structural justice and system change have focused on race, gender, ethnicity, and colonial occupation in the Americas.

Introduction
1. Structural Violence Is Self-Repairing: The Long Game of Colonialism: Dynastic Formations and the Structural Makings of Settler Colonial Impunity
2. Structural Violence Is Historical: On Testimony and Gender-Based Violence in Settler Credibility Economies
3. Structural Violence Is Profit-Driven: Epistemic Capitalism
4. Structural Violence Is by Design: Cultural Gaslighting
5. Structural Violence Is Not Fate: Beyond Structural Trauma: Indigenous Feminisms, Zapatismo, and the Fight for Structural Justice

Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index