With the 2012 US presidential election campaign in full swing, the meaning and significance of Barack Obama and his presidency are once again in the spotlight. Has the election of Barack Obama served as the watershed moment for American politics and race relations that many predicted? A number of experts in the field of critical race theory attempt to answer this question in a special issue of Qualitative Sociology, edited by Simone Browne and recent TSP contributor Ben Carrington.
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Metta World Peace and his Lakers are out of the running now, but with the NBA playoffs in full swing it’s a great time to take a look at this recent book from one of the leaders in sport sociology. Leonard uses Artest and the infamous melee in Motown as a meditation on how the league goes about the business of packaging and controlling its African American superstars, how we participate in the process, and what it all says about race in contemporary American culture.
In conjunction with the larger, more theoretical recommendation of Laub and Sampson’s 2001 article from our previous reading list suggestion, those interested in employment and criminal records might be particularly interested in Devah Pager’s 2003 piece in which the researcher found a prison record reduced the likelihood of a “callback” from an employer by 50% for whites and over 60% for African American job-seekers. The problem clearly goes well beyond Target and began well before last week.
Colleges and universities all tout the value of diversity on campus, but what’s the real payoff? This brand new study finds that in classroom discussions African American students are more likely to invoke media depictions of race/religion and describe unique personal experiences with them, thus enriching and expanding the quality of teaching and learning on these topics.
As the Sanford, FL city commission voted “no confidence” in their police chief following the shooting of teen Trayvon Martin, this article is instructive in what legal scholars like Donald Black call violent “self-help”—a tactic vigilante citizens may use when they feel their government is not providing control and protection. In a classic piece, Smith and Uchida test this ideas, finding higher weapon ownership in areas in which police are perceived as ineffective and citizens report feeling vulnerable.
As the national conversation takes shape around racial coding in politics (this time around, it’s Newt Gingrich and the “food stamp president”), The Race Card is a particularly useful text. Mendelberg uses the famous Willie Horton ads from the 1988 election as her jumping-off point into the murky pool of rhetoric, race, and politics.
The Civil Rights Movement reached far beyond MLK, influencing everything from public discourse to, as Andrews explores in this article, the implementation of “war on poverty” policies. For more on this, you can also listen to our recent podcast with Prof. Joe Soss, who discussed his new book on race, poverty, and America today.
Following up some years later, Aldon D. Morris’s 1999 ARS piece takes a broad look at the civil rights movement literature in the social sciences and pays special attention to its larger lessons for subsequent social movements and policy formation.
In addition to celebrating charismatic leaders, sociologists who study social movements tend to want to call attention to the historical conditions and organizations that help a leader like MLK emerge and foster their impact. This 1986 classic focuses particular attention on the black church, reminding us of the broader movement and key institutions and organizations that made the movement as well as the man.
Metta World Peace and his Lakers are out of the running now, but with the NBA playoffs in full swing it’s a great time to take a look at this recent book from one of the leaders in sport sociology. Leonard uses Artest and the infamous melee in Motown as a meditation on how the league goes about the business of packaging and controlling its African American superstars, how we participate in the process, and what it all says about race in contemporary American culture.
In conjunction with the larger, more theoretical recommendation of Laub and Sampson’s 2001 article from our previous reading list suggestion, those interested in employment and criminal records might be particularly interested in Devah Pager’s 2003 piece in which the researcher found a prison record reduced the likelihood of a “callback” from an employer by 50% for whites and over 60% for African American job-seekers. The problem clearly goes well beyond Target and began well before last week.
Colleges and universities all tout the value of diversity on campus, but what’s the real payoff? This brand new study finds that in classroom discussions African American students are more likely to invoke media depictions of race/religion and describe unique personal experiences with them, thus enriching and expanding the quality of teaching and learning on these topics.
As the Sanford, FL city commission voted “no confidence” in their police chief following the shooting of teen Trayvon Martin, this article is instructive in what legal scholars like Donald Black call violent “self-help”—a tactic vigilante citizens may use when they feel their government is not providing control and protection. In a classic piece, Smith and Uchida test this ideas, finding higher weapon ownership in areas in which police are perceived as ineffective and citizens report feeling vulnerable.
As the national conversation takes shape around racial coding in politics (this time around, it’s Newt Gingrich and the “food stamp president”), The Race Card is a particularly useful text. Mendelberg uses the famous Willie Horton ads from the 1988 election as her jumping-off point into the murky pool of rhetoric, race, and politics.
The Civil Rights Movement reached far beyond MLK, influencing everything from public discourse to, as Andrews explores in this article, the implementation of “war on poverty” policies. For more on this, you can also listen to our recent podcast with Prof. Joe Soss, who discussed his new book on race, poverty, and America today.
Following up some years later, Aldon D. Morris’s 1999 ARS piece takes a broad look at the civil rights movement literature in the social sciences and pays special attention to its larger lessons for subsequent social movements and policy formation.
In addition to celebrating charismatic leaders, sociologists who study social movements tend to want to call attention to the historical conditions and organizations that help a leader like MLK emerge and foster their impact. This 1986 classic focuses particular attention on the black church, reminding us of the broader movement and key institutions and organizations that made the movement as well as the man.