Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Meaning Of The Browning Of America, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Many of you are in the same position that many of us are in the academy or at the community level. We have two jobs. That of doing the work we are paid to do - be it research or anything else - as well as developing the awareness of those around us of the particular needs of Latinos in the hopes of having the community receive a more equitable treatment.

In my experience, there is no other way to accomplish both jobs and remain sane without getting together with others in the same situation and discussing strategies and action. …

The Vietnam War Memorial And The Gulf War, Paul L. Atwood

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article discusses the debate over the "meaning" of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., relating it to the revision of the "Vietnam syndrome" as it has been played out in recent U.S. armed interventions overseas. Considerable political struggle occurred during the design phase of the memorial over which values the monument should enshrine. Since its construction the memorial has continued to be a focus for controversy about the future direction of U.S. foreign policy and has functioned as a magnet for continuing historical and political attempts to sort out the "lessons" of the second Indochina war. This debate …

Beyond The Party-Group Continuum: Massachusetts Interest Groups In The 1980s, John C. Berg

New England Journal of Public Policy

Studies in the 1960s determined that Massachusetts had strong parties and weak interest groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, as the Republican Party shrank, party competition declined, conflict with the Democratic Party grew, and interest groups gained more importance — and probably will remain important despite the Republican gains of 1990. However, group conflict and citizen mobilization, including increased use of the initiative and referendum, create a situation of interest-centered conflict rather than interest-group dominance as traditionally conceived. This article, based on a 1987 survey of state legislators and legislative aides, plus a summary of recent Massachusetts political history, assesses …

Representative Men, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

"Representativeness" is the theme of Shaun O'Connell's essay, "Representative Men." Reviewing six books, one about an actual man and five about fictional men, O'Connell sees them as attempts to define "representative men" of the 1980s, "an era," he observes, "when the worst were full of passionate intensities, particularly among men." Each antiheroic man in these books, he concludes, was "selfish, domineering, dangerous to women, and deceitful, yet each man was also committed to a system of values and ideas that made him an interesting case history — values which, in some instances, redeemed his failings."

As usual, O'Connell, in his …

Crime, Drugs, And Race, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

The crime and criminal record statistics of black Americans are frightening; and they keep getting worse. These figures, of course, give us pause. Yet, it must be kept in mind that none of these figures demonstrates that blacks as a race are more prone to crime. Rather, the figures show that the average black person in the United States is more likely than the average white person to be so situated in the social structure that he or she is more likely to be involved in crime, with an even higher likelihood of being arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

African-Americans And The Administration Of Justice, E. Yvonne Moss, Roy Austin, Nolan Jones, Barry A. Krisberg, Hubert G. Locke, Michael L. Radelet, Susan Welch

Trotter Review

The status of African Americans in relationship to the administration of justice has improved since the 1940s. Significantly, however, researchers continue to find racial discrimination and racial disadvantage operating in various aspects of the criminal justice process in numerous jurisdictions. Such findings are unacceptable in a society that claims to honor equal justice under law.

This article is reprinted from Summary, Volume 1 of the Assessment of the Status of African-Americans series, published in 1990 by the William Monroe Trotter Institute, University of Massachusetts at Boston, and edited by Wornie L. Reed. Materials included in the article were adapted …

Trends In Homicide Among African-Americans, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

Homicide is a particularly significant phenomenon for African Americans because it is the leading cause of death for young black men and women. Blacks, who make up some 12% of the population in the country, account for 44% of all murder victims. Thus, reducing homicide deaths among American population groups, particularly among young black males, is a growing public concern. The term homicide refers to any killing of one person by another. In this chapter the phenomenon and the changing trends of homicide among African Americans over the past 30 to 40 years will be examined.

Blacks In Bridge, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

Two events in the spring of 1991 brought to mind the long battle to integrate the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), which barely beat out the Boston Red Sox in integrating its membership. One was the closing of the famous Cavendish Bridge Club in New York City; the other was a bridge tournament that combined the efforts of ACBL and ABA (American Bridge Association) clubs in the Washington, D.C. area. The ABA is the national association of black bridge players. Both events appear to have been precipitated by a decline in the number of bridge players as the baby boomer …

Sports Notes, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

In the Winter/Spring 1991 issue of the Trotter Institute Review I reported that a black dentist from Boston, Dr. George F. Grant, invented and patented the golf tee in 1899. However, in the May 1991 issue of Golf Digest, a white man, Dr. William Lowell of New Jersey, another dentist, is credited with having invented the golf tee. Having read in a number of reputable publications that Dr. Grant had invented the golf tee, I was interested in finding out how a second man could have been credited so readily with the development of the tee. So I contacted …

Economic Prescriptions For Black Americans, Jeremiah P. Cotton

Trotter Review

The following is a policy statement issued October 12, 1989, by the "Study Group on Employment, Income, and Occupations" of the Assessment of the Status of African-Americans project conducted by the William Monroe Trotter Institute. The full report of the study group is published in an article entitled "Race and Inequality in the Managerial Age," which appears in Social, Political, and Economic Issues in Black America.

One of the major conclusions of this report on the relative economic status of blacks in the United States is that a substantial and persisting gap exists between the general circumstances of blacks …

African Americans And The Future Of The U.S. Economy, Lou Ferleger, Jay R. Mandle

Trotter Review

For the first time in the country's history, the level of skills and education of the African-American labor force is a critical determinant of the potential for growth of the economy itself. The integration of black labor into the economy now means that the development of one is dependent upon the development of the other. To investigate this relationship we first examine the recent performance of the economy and the consequences of that performance for the black standard of living, and then the role the African-American labor force can play in overcoming the economic deficiencies that have plagued the economy.

Blacks In Golf, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

From 1961 until the mid-1980s a weekend ritual was repeated by many African Americans who follow golf. For these individuals, each weekend morning included a peek at the standings of the weekly Professional Golf Association (PGA) tournament printed in the newspaper to see how the black golfers were doing and whether any one of them was the tournament leader or was close enough to the lead to win the tournament. As the 1980s came to an end anyone still practicing the old ritual was doing so in vain. No blacks were winning tournaments on the regular PGA Tour, nor were …