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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Rebranding Diversity: Colorblind Racism Inside The U.S. Advertising Industry, Christopher Boulton Sep 2012

Rebranding Diversity: Colorblind Racism Inside The U.S. Advertising Industry, Christopher Boulton

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines race inequality inside the United States advertising industry. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted at three large agencies in New York City during the summer of 2010 (including ethnographic observations, affinity-based focus groups, in-depth interviews, and open-ended surveys), I argue that the industry's good faith effort to diversify through internship-based affirmative action programs is overwhelmed by the more widespread material practices of closed network hiring--a system that advantages affluent Whites through referral hires, subjective notions of "chemistry" or "fit," and outright nepotism through "must-hires." Furthermore, the discriminatory nature of White affirmative action is hidden from view, masked by …


The Changing Politics Of Diversity: Lessons From A Federal Technical Assistance Grant, Erica Frankenberg, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Elizabeth Debray, Ann Blankenship Jan 2012

The Changing Politics Of Diversity: Lessons From A Federal Technical Assistance Grant, Erica Frankenberg, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Elizabeth Debray, Ann Blankenship

Kathryn A. McDermott

This paper begins with background information on the federal grant program, and on the scholarship that has informed our research. We then provide brief sketches of the eleven grantee districts and how they have used their federal funds. Our analysis focuses on how the school districts defined diversity, and how local politics were shaped by national factors like the economic recession. These policies fundamentally affect the distribution of educational and social opportunity within communities, and, in fact, may be even more subject to local variation and political dynamics than were earlier federal diversity efforts. We conclude that existing ambiguity about …


Lessons From A Federal Grant For School Diversity: Tracing A Theory Of Change And Implementation Of Local Policies, Elizabeth Debray, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Erica Frankenberg, Ann Blankenship Jan 2012

Lessons From A Federal Grant For School Diversity: Tracing A Theory Of Change And Implementation Of Local Policies, Elizabeth Debray, Kathryn A. Mcdermott, Erica Frankenberg, Ann Blankenship

Kathryn A. McDermott

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education made grants to eleven school districts under the Technical Assistance for Student Assignment Plans (TASAP) program. The impetus for the program came mainly from the Council of Great City Schools, which was concerned that school districts would respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Parents Involved in Community Schools decision by dismantling policies intended to maintain diverse school enrollments. In this paper, we use data from interviews with federal and local participants to identify the theory of change behind TASAP and to determine the local effects of TASAP. The federal government’s intentions for the …