Voice of Consciousness

A response to how sociologists "deal" with race launched a heated exchange on Scatterplot at the end of February regarding attributions of racism. I was disappointed at the defensiveness present in the Scatterplot response to the “trauma” post and at the dismissiveness present in their response to the NY Post picture overall (not to say that all bloggers were defensive or dismissive, respectively, at one or all issues presented). In response to a healthy discussion already in place at Scatterplot , Skinny Malinky 's original "trauma" post states: I mean to pause and remember the force of the accumulated and collective traumas of racism, and to think about what sort of failure it is for sociology to refuse a consideration of that force, and to what new traumas that failure contributes. As a POC who grew up in the Deep South ( not to say this identity is definitively linked to the subsequent clause, but to provide sociological context to me saying that: Upon se...

A fairly-recent article of Matthew O. Hunt highlights a rarely-recognized aspect of American racism: perceptions of racial discrimination are more likely in integrated settings. Below, I have included the reference and abstract of the study published in Social Psychology Quarterly . Hunt and colleagues highlight three types of neighborhoods -- relatively homogeneous without non-whites , "integrated" (i.e., approx. 50-50 split), and relatively homogeneous and dominated by non-whites. Perceptions of discrimination is highest in neighborhoods that are relatively homogeneous without non-whites and lowest in neighborhoods that are relatively homogeneous with non-whites. " Leavin ' the hood " may not be so psychologically pleasing after all, hmmph . This finding echoes Thomas A. LaVeist's thesis from the early 90s with regards to infant mortality rates. LaVeist found that, within highly segregated metropolitan contexts, IMR rates for blacks were lower, but only...

NPR on Post-Racial America Some of the themes touched on include, but are not limited to: the social construction of race and racial disparities race, power, and institutions the racialization of opportunity structures in the stimulus packages of the 1930s and the new millenium colorblind ideology language that bridges the color divide Here is a more detailed description of the 20 minute segment: Description President Barack Obama is the country's first African-American president. For some, his victory has ushered in a post racial era in which there is less need for Americans to talk about race. But not everyone agrees. Professor and commentator Boyce Watkins, author Shelby Steele and John Powell, of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, discuss whether a post-racial America really exists. Some Notable Quotes (chosen at my discretion) Shelby Steele : "what it means to me, a post-racial society, is a society where race is no longer ...