The Supreme Court and Minorities in Contemporary America
The controversies surrounding the nominations, confirmations, and rejections of recent Supreme Court justices, and the increasingly conservative nature of the Court, have focused attention on the Supreme Court as never before. Although the Supreme Court is commonly understood to be the guardian of minority rights against the tyranny of the ......
In this volume, Thomas unites two traditions in social science - critical theory and qualitative research - in an attempt to apply a critical world view to the conventional logic of cultural inquiry. Rather than standing in opposition to traditional ethnography, it offers a style of considering the direct relationship between knowledge, society and political action. Thomas addresses the question: if the duty of the researcher entails the righting of social wrongs as well as producing valid research results, how is it possible to juxtapose the two goals? He defines the rules and guidelines for a praxis-oriented ethnographic tradition, one both ideologically engaged and scientifically valid. In addition, he outlines the various types of critical ethnography, explaining the tenets of each and how research can be carried out under these frameworks.
This book compares contemporary racism in the US and the Netherlands through in-depth interviews with fifty-five black women. As an interdisciplinary analysis of gendered social constructions of racism, it breaks new ground. Essed problematizes and reinterprets many of the meanings and everyday practices that the majority of society has come to take for granted. She addresses crucial but largely neglected dimensions of racism: how it is experienced; how black women recognize its covert manifestations; how they acquire this knowledge; and how they challenge racism in everyday life. To answer these questions, over two thousand experiences of black women are analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates the disciplines of macro- and micro-sociology, social psychology, discourse analysis, race relations theory and women's studies. The samples include only black women with higher education. Many of their experiences of racism involve the `elite' among the dominant group. The book seriously challenges both the notion of Dutch tolerance and the idea that US racism is a problem of the past. Understanding Everyday Racism is thus urgent reading.
The effects of social and environmental conditions on mental health, and the need to understand ethnic values and attitudes when developing helping strategies are the major themes of this volume, which is aimed at raising awareness of the effects of ethnicity on adolescent mental health.
This political history of Mexican Americans analyses and interprets the last fifty years in the movimiento. Written by a leading Chicano historian who spent many years as an activist, this study evolved from Juan Gomez-Quinones's participation and reflection. Examined are the leaders and organisations that waged struggles for political rights as ......
Alan Swanson discusses Swedish-American literature in terms of its relevance to its intended audience and the audience of today. He focuses on the function of literature generally and the function of Swedish-American literature in particular before presenting the work of Arthur Landfors (the best-known Swedish-American poet).
How does everyday talk contribute to the spread and acceptance of ethnic prejudice? Communicating Racism is a revealing interdisciplinary study of ethnic prejudices and the ways in which they are diffused through interpersonal communication and intergroup interaction. In this clearly written and comprehensive study, van Dijk establishes a crucial link between the cognitive, social and communicative dimensions of racism. He examines: the social psychology of ethnic attitudes; the cognitive psychology of ethnic prejudice; and the social context of prejudice; the interpersonal communication of racism. By analysing informal discourse and the reproduction of racism within the white majority, the author offers us a new understanding of many deep-rooted and poorly understood patterns of prejudice.
From cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper to displays of the Confederate battle flag over the South Carolina statehouse, acts of cultural significance have set off political conflicts and sometimes violence. These and other expressions and enactments of culture-whether in music, graffiti, sculpture, flag displays, parades, religious rituals, ......
