Sociology Commons^™

Second-Generation Latino Immigrant Assimilation In Massachusetts, Phillip Granberry, Mary Jo Marion

Gastón Institute Publications

Approximately one-fourth of Latinos in Massachusetts are second-generation immigrants. This population is defined as having at least one foreign-born parent. Massachusetts has 216,964 second-generation Latino immigrants, which ranks fourteenth among states. However, second-generation Latinos represent a 25.5% share of all Latinos in Massachusetts, and this share ranks 35th among states. In comparison, 37.8% of all Latinos in California are second-generation immigrants. This lower share in Massachusetts is because Puerto Ricans, the largest Latino population in the Commonwealth, have birthright citizenship and therefore are not considered foreign-born.

The foreign-born have many reasons for migrating, but their children's future success is a …

Brief 16: In Search Of Equity: An Institutional Response, New England Resource Center For Higher Education, University Of Massachusetts Boston

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

The United States Supreme Judicial Court is currently deliberating the University of Michigan Affirmative Action lawsuits involving three white students who claim they were discriminated against because of race-conscious admissions policies. Organizations, such as the Center for Individual Rights, which sponsored the Michigan plaintiffs, and the Center for Equal Opportunity, have spearheaded drives to evaluate affirmative action programs in light of equal protection under the law. Viewed in this light, these policies appear to be unfair to white candidates. Examined more closely, concerns about equitability are missing from arguments about fairness. NERCHE’s Multicultural Affairs Think Tank members discussed the changed …

Globalization And Race Hierarchy In The United States, James Jennings

New England Journal of Public Policy

National economies have become irreversibly globalized while racial and ethnic divisions continue to be a reality in many societies. The author has set forth three different scenarios in an attempt to explain the link between globalization and racial and ethnic relations: (1) globalization limits national growth, thus contributing to increased racial and ethnic tensions; (2) globalization does not affect racial and ethnic relations either positively or negatively; and (3) globalization expands domestic economies, consequently helping to reduce racial and ethnic tensions within national borders. This article explores these scenarios and shows that globalization through immigration and movement of capital can …

Book Review Essay: Brazilian Race Relations In Hemispheric Perspective, Rhett S. Jones

Trotter Review

The late Oliver C. Cox, one of the most insightful black Americans from the leftist tradition, was not often fooled. In his classic 1948 work, Caste, Class, and Race, Cox, a long-time professor of sociology at Lincoln University in Missouri, revealed the nonsensical underpinnings of what then passed for the serious study of comparative race relations among sociologists in the United States. So successful was Cox that his book was thoroughly and deeply buried by the sociological establishment. When Pierre L. van den Berghe published Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective in 1967, sociologists hailed his work as the …

Stratification And Subordination: Change And Continuity In Race Relations, E. Yvonne Moss, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

One of the measures used to gauge progress made by African-Americans in gaining equal opportunity has been to compare and contrast the status of black Americans to that of white Americans using various social indices. Historically, the status of blacks relative to whites has been one of subordination; race has been a primary factor in determining social stratification and political status. Relations between white and black Americans were established during slavery and the Jim Crow era of segregation. In the infamous Dred Scott (1856) decison, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney articulated the fundamental nature of this system of racial …

Dynamics Of Minority Education: An Index To The Status Of Race And Ethnic Relations In The United States, James E. Blackwell

Trotter Review

Throughout this century scholars and legal experts have devoted special attention to the issue of race and ethnicity as a determinant of life chances in the United States. Some of the more influential treatises in the social and behavioral sciences, many of which have become classics, addressed fundamental, derivative (and often more compelling) extensions of race and ethnicity. They focused on such topics as race-based group dominance, ethnic stratification, structural inequality based upon racial or ethnic identification, beliefs in inherent racial superiority and status privilege, class exploitation, the nature of prejudice, and the maintenance of power over groups defined as …

Racial Insularity At The Core: Contemporary American Racial Attitudes, A. Wade Smith

Trotter Review

Survey research scientists have been interested in American racial attitudes ever since the craft has achieved a reasonable degree of precision. White attitudes toward blacks constitute the longest running topic in survey research. However, as a result of dramatic and systematic changes in racial attitudes and because of the changing nature of race relations per se, there may be less agreement now about the structure of American racial values than at any time since World War II. This paper will provide a capsule presentation of the major findings of recent research on racial attitudes and a brief summary of the …

Race And Class In American Race Relations Theory, 1894-1939, Vernon Williams Jr.

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The purpose of this essay is to identify the origins of the debate between Wilson and Pinkney. The period covered focuses on the years 1894 to 1939 - from the publication of Franz Boas's "Human Faculty as Determined by Race" in the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1894, to the publications of Robert E. Park's "The Nature of Race Relations" in 1939. It is my argument that the parameters of the discussion regarding the progressiveness of race relations in the United States were defined during these years, and that all current theories are but …

Boston School Desegregation: The Fallowness Of Common Ground, Robert A. Dentler

New England Journal of Public Policy

This essay scrutinizes the book by J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, to assess whether it presents a valid and reliable account of the issues, people, and events it chronicles. The substantive core of the book is shown to be the politics of Boston public school desegregation. The parts played by the three families in this event are dramatically portrayed but cannot be corroborated and are not interpreted. The parts played by five major policy leaders, when tested against other evidence, are found to be distorted, questionable legends woven in …

Getting Power Back: Court Restoration Of Executive Authority In Boston City Government, Marcy M. Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article chronicles some of the events that occurred when a state and a federal court attempted to disengage from active jurisdiction over two Boston public systems: the public schools and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). It makes three proposals which, if enacted, would help to keep the courts out of day-to-day management of municipal operations. It also makes some generalizations about the court-agency interplay which are relevant to the postremedial phase of institutional reform litigation. The author uses the term restorative law to describe this court-controlled process of returning power to the executive branch.

Black And White Perceptions Of Quality Of Life In Boston, Floyd J. Fowler Jr.

Center for Survey Research Publications

It is difficult, probably impossible, to compare objectively the seriousness of racial problems and tensions in Boston with those in other cities. However, there can be little doubt that there is a widespread perception that relationships between blacks and whites in Boston constitute a serious problem. Specifically, one image is that Boston is a community in which blacks are not welcome and in which they are treated with unusual hostility and abuse. Another image is that whites in Boston are unfairly maligned as racists and bigots.

In 1980, following several race-related incidents, The Boston Committee was formed. The purpose of …