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Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

The particular relationships between communities of color in the United States could very well be the political issue for urban America in the next century, with profound racial, cultural, and economic implications for all Americans. This issue of the Trotter Review focused on various aspects of relations between communities of color.

Communication and collaboration between communities of color are vitally important today for the maintenance and expansion of democracy and social justice in the United States. We hope this issue of the Trotter Review will contribute to improving relations between communities of color.

"No Justice, No Peace!": The Politics Of Black-Korean Conflict, Claire Jean Kim

Trotter Review

In the opening scene of the recently released film, Menace II Society, the protagonists, two young African-American men, make a routine beer run to a convenience store owned by a Korean-American couple. The merchants’ manifest suspiciousness toward them triggers an exchange of hostilities that concludes when one of the men kills and robs the couple. For audiences of all colors. this depiction of black-Korean conflict appears starkly familiar. Ranging from verbal altercations to killings, to retail boycotts and picketing campaigns, conflicts between Korean-American merchants and black customers, including African Caribbeans, have become commonplace in many major American cities over …

Women Of Color Reclaiming Power, Cheng Imm Tan

Trotter Review

The following is the address that was given at the Sixth Annual Women of Color Day Celebration at the University of Massachusetts at Boston on March 5, 1993.

In a racist and sexist world, our realities are hardly ever alluded to, let alone affirmed; the way we see ourselves and the way we experience the world is hardly ever reflected in the images we see around us or in the stories we read. We constantly have to translate information in order to make it relevant and applicable to our lives. Our realities, experiences are often discounted, overlooked and ignored. Both …

Communities Of Color Unite For Places At The Welcome Table, Harold Horton

Trotter Review

The “vote” is often referred to as the political equalizer in a democratic society, because when citizens enter the voting booth they express an inalienable right that belongs to all, regardless of education, income, gender, national origin, religious preference, or color. And, as we recall from history, on many occasions one vote has made the difference between winning or losing a crucial decision or political contest.

Puerto Rican And African-American Males: Current Challenges, Promising Strategies, Sonia M. Pérez

Trotter Review

Before the beginning of the next century, the Hispanic, African-American, and other “minority” populations in the United States are expected to increase at a faster rate than the white population. In fact, the Census Bureau projects that Latinos will become the largest minority and, together with African Americans, will constitute one-fourth (25.5 percent) of the U.S. labor force by the year 2010. However, despite some gains, increases in population have not been proportionate to increases in voting and buying power—or to comparable increases in economic success or socioeconomic stability—for a significant proportion of either Latinos or African Americans. Moreover, inaccurate …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

On April 23, 1993, the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs celebrated its tenth anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Institute established the John Joseph Moakley Award for Distinguished Public Service, which will be awarded annually to a man or woman whose contribution to the public good merits our most grateful acknowledgment. The first recipient of the award was Congressman John Joseph Moakley, Chairman of the House Rules Committee, one of the most powerful and influential positions in Congress.

Among those who paid tribute to Congressman Moakley were Michael E. Haynes, Minister, Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston; Raymond G. Torto, …

The Influence Of Europe On The Young Jfk, Nigel Hamilton

New England Journal of Public Policy

I think that of all twentieth-century American presidents, John F. Kennedy is considered — by Europeans at least — to be the most Eurocentric in his sympathies and political orientation. In the days ahead we shall be reexamining the history of the Kennedy administration in relation to Europe, but before we do, I think it might help to know the true genesis of JFK's personal attitudes towards Europe, so that we may better understand his eventual role in the history of the early 1960s: culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis and his anti-Communist speech in Berlin in June 1963, as …

State Strategy For Developing Base Industries: A Massachusetts Case Study, Chris Tilly

New England Journal of Public Policy

In developing strategies for economic development, state governments must target base industries that bring income into the state and drive the rest of the economy. This article presents a case study of industry analysis and development strategy for Massachusetts, focusing on the state's base industries. Particular attention is paid to the role of industry clusters — groups of industries linked through customer, supplier, or other relationships, and typically concentrated geographically as well. After assessing strengths and weaknesses of the state's economy, the author concludes that despite the current severe recession, the state possesses the basis for renewed growth. Policy implications …

Education And Community Development Among Nineteenth-Century Irish And Contemporary Cambodians In Lowell, Massachusetts, Peter N. Kiang

New England Journal of Public Policy

As cities undergo dramatic demographic changes, schools become important sites of conflict between the interests of established and emerging communities. This article presents a case study of Lowell, Massachusetts, where the second largest Irish community in the country resided during the 1850s, and which is now home to the second largest Cambodian community in the United States. Analysis of nineteenth-century Irish community dynamics, particularly in relation to issues of public education in Lowell, reveals the significance of religious institutions and middle-class entrepreneurs in the process of immigrant community development and highlights important relationships to ethnicity, electoral politics, and economic development. …

The Press And Politics: A Comprehensive Examination, Heather Long

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is based on interviews and research on the press and politicians, whose relationship is shown to be extremely controversial. Views held by members of the press, who see themselves as dutiful to their readers, are radically different from those held by politicians, who see reporters as money-hungry thieves who do not stop short of invasion of privacy for a story. The views of scholars — who attempt to make sense of the relationship — are different from both. The author attempts to amalgamate these views, assess the picture of the institutional relationship as it truly exists, and discover …

The Entrepreneurial State Goes To Europe: State Economic Policies And Europe 1992, John J. Carroll, William E. Hudson, Mark S. Hyde

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article investigates state-level export programs in response to the emerging new economic and political regime of Europe 1992. Little related export promotion activity is found, even in states reputed to have the most active entrepreneurial policies. The authors conclude that states have few resources to invest in export promotion and are inappropriate jurisdictions around which to organize such policy, despite the much touted "entrepreneurial state."

The Homeless Of Massachusetts: An Analysis Of The 1990 U.S. Census S-Night Data, Christopher G. Hudson

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article, which examines epidemiological and policy correlates of homeless populations in 351 Massachusetts towns and cities, is based on an analysis of data from the 1990 U.S. census. It reviews the reliability of the most recent census data, reports findings on the distribution and characteristics of homeless persons in Massachusetts, and presents preliminary correlational findings on the impact of key demographic conditions and policies.

The report includes a meta-analysis of several studies that monitored the Census Bureaus street counts. It is estimated that 42.6 percent of the homeless on the streets in selected urban areas were counted by the …

Preface, James Jennings

Trotter Review

It gives me great pleasure to be part of the publication of this special issue on blacks in the U.S. military. Blacks in America have sacrificed their lives in all of the wars involving the U.S. at the same time that they have struggled for social and racial justice at home. Unfortunately, pervasive myths about the military sacrifices and valor of blacks in this country continue to be held by many Americans. It is also sad that too many blacks find that the military may be the only channel available to them for the realization of social and economic mobility. …

Introduction, William King

Trotter Review

Bloods. Brothers. The Griot. Vietnam Blues. Black Bitches Dancing With Charlie. These titles, and numerous articles, essays, poems, government reports, films, and related items, describe and detail various aspects of the black experience of the American war in Vietnam, the situation on the homefront during that conflict, and some of the things that happened to black veterans upon their return to the "world" in the postwar years. That only selected aspects of that experience are covered arises from the fact that blacks were not nearly as prolific inrecapitulating their tours of duty, forcing us to get at that information …

Acknowledgements, Kevin Bowen, David Hunt

Trotter Review

All of us at the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences are extremely grateful to our friends at the Trotter Institute for the opportunity to collaborate on this issue of the Trotter Review. It seems especially appropriate that this issue is being published at the time of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the center, named after William Joiner, Jr., an African-American veteran of the Vietnam War and the university's first director of Veterans' Affairs who died of cancer in 1981.

A Salute To African Americans Who Served In The United States Armed Forces, Harold Horton

Trotter Review

African Americans have volunteered to participate in every war or conflict in which the United States has been engaged. This is true despite their ancestors having been slaves for 244 years of America's history.

From the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War, African Americans have demanded the right to serve their country in the armed services and, in several instances, they have made the difference between victory or defeat for American troops. Throughout this history, African Americans were ever cognizant of the dual freedoms—their own personal freedom as well as the nation's—for which they so bravely fought and gave their …

Tough Eloquence, Yusef Komunyakaa

Trotter Review

I began reading Etheridge Knight's poetry in the early 1970s, and what immediately caught my attention was his ability to balance an eloquence and toughness, exhibiting a complex man behind the words. His technique and content were one—the profane alongside the sacred—accomplished without disturbing the poem's tonal congruity and imagistic exactitude. Here was a streetwise poet who loved and revered language. Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, and Langston Hughes seem to have been his mentors, but Knight appeared to have sprung into the literary world almost fully formed. He had so much control and authority; he was authentic from the onset. …

African Americans And The Persian Gulf Crisis, Jacquelin Howard-Matthews

Trotter Review

This article addresses two issues: the African-American response to United States involvement in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war and interrelated factors explaining the nature of that response. Despite the historical symbolism associated with African-American participation and disproportionate representation in the military, African Americans composed the most consistently identifiable strata either opposed to or suspicious of the deployment of U.S. troops and military equipment in the Gulf. The pattern of African-American response to the Gulf War is remarkably similar to its underlying reactions to military conflicts taking place in the recent past, including the Vietnam War and Laos invasion of the …

"Low-Intensity Warfare" In The Inner City: Veterans' Self-Control Strategies May Ameliorate Community Violence Among Youth, Erwin Randolph Parson

Trotter Review

The use of weapons in various inner-city communities in America is comparable to Nicaraguan "low-intensity warfare" whose objective was the mass terrorization of civilians by the Contras. Low-intensity warfare theory is defined as "total war at the grassroots level" (Summerfield and Tosser 1991, 85). Violence in the inner cities has been defined in similar ways by many authorities and observers. Although urban violence may not damage the infrastructure of communities to the same extent that lowintensity warfare does, its immediate and long-term impact is nonetheless devastating to human life and to a sense of security. In essence, it is a …

Fragments From A Work In Progress, Elizabeth Allen

Trotter Review

A long time ago in a place far away, a place called Vietnam, I had to come to grips with the monkey. The monkey was not war. As a colored woman born in the forties, the monkey was life. Vietnam just forced me to look at it. Maybe it allowed me the opportunity. Who knows. Looking back at it has been almost impossible. You see, growing up my grandmother would always say when I wanted to explain something, "Baby-darling, will talking about something that has already happened change it?" Of course it wouldn't change anything. Any fool knows that. "Well," …

Black Veterans: Organizing And Strategizing For Community Development, Ron E. Armstead

Trotter Review

The following article summarizes the findings and conclusions of a case study that was undertaken as part of the author's master's thesis at MIT. Ford Foundation Professor Frank Jones served as advisor. The study is part of an overall strategy to develop a National Black Veterans Network in conjunction with the Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse, Inc., and the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust. It is hoped that the study will provide a planning, research, and educational tool to enhance organizing and affordable housing development efforts on behalf of black veterans across the country. Future research is being proposed on a national …