Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Work Practice In Health Care: An Ethnic Sensitive Approach, Elfriede G. Schlesinger, Wynetta Devore

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The relationship between ethnicity and modes of response to illness has been well documented. One example is stoicism as contrasted with volatile behavior in response to pain of different groups. Another is increasing awareness of the fact that non-traditional healers (eog., espiritistas, cuaranderos) are used extensively by members of various ethnic groups.

Insufficient attention has been paid to how such knowledge can be incorporated in social work practice.

This paper reviews prevailing social work interventive procedures and skills and suggests needed adaptations if social work practice is to be more sensitive and responsive to different health behaviors and beliefs of …

Factors Affecting The Economic Status Of Elderly Chicanos, Alejandro Garcia

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper identifies and discusses factors affecting the economic status of elderly chicanos. These factors include historical factors, labor force participation, familial support systems, and human services utilization. Implications for policy are addressed.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Marital Abuse, Suzanne K. Steinmetz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A brief history of marital violence and statistics from recent studies are presented. Marital abuse data from six societies: United States; Canada; Finland; Israel, with city and Kibbutz sub-samples; Puerto Rico; and Belize (British Honduras) with sub-samples of Spanish speaking, Creoles and Caribs are compared. In general, similarities were found between political/civil profiles of violence and marital violence score within each society. The percentage of husbands and wives using abuse was also similar for each society. The major exception was Puerto Rico, where almost twice as many husbands were reported to have been violent. The percentage of husbands and wives …

African Liberation Theology, Lillian V. Grissen

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Welfare Reform And The Possible Demise Of White Paternalism And Black Flight In Mississippi, Lewis Walker, Chester L. Hunt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article makes an assessment of the possible impact of welfare reform on families currently receiving AFDC payments. An analysis of the data on variations in AFDC monthly payments, the per capital income and AFDC grants, and other selected factors for Mississippi, Nebraska, and New York suggests that the effects of federalization on welfare would indeed be far-reaching. For example, it would increase the economic level of Black mothers and children living in Mississippi (state with the lowest monthly payment), and possibly at the same time decrease the flow of Black emigration from that state.

Poor Urban Blacks And Community Participation, Charles Stevens

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This research elaborates the concept of community participation utilizing activities that reflect the experiences of poor urban Blacks. The residents of a low income housing development are studied with emphasis on how these people involved themselves in community affairs and how they interact with other tenants in their day to day activities. It is largely a descriptive study, in that it attempts to uncover and explain styles of participation that are not generally counted as meaningful participation. Therefore criteria for participation is defined in a manner to include some informal activities and other activities which seem to correspond to the …

Table Of Contents

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Table of contents for Explorations in Ethnic Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 1981

Explorations In Ethnic Studies

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

No abstract provided.

Ethical Problems In Evaluation Research, Elisabeth J. Johnson

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

For some time, social scientists have been concerned with ethics in research. Much of what they have written has focused on research in general, but many of the points they raise are applicable to evaluation research in particular. Included among these concerns are informed consent, the right to treatment, the right to refuse treatment, implicit coercion, powerlessness of subjects, and, perhaps most important, external access to confidential data.

Critique [Of Ethical Problems In Evaluation Research], Gary Y. Okihiro

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

“Ethical Problems in Evaluation Research” by Elisabeth J. Johnson summarizes some of the salient ethical concerns in social science research such as the relative positions of power between researcher and subject, confidentiality and privacy, and “political interests” or the use of research findings by sponsors. The author concludes with proposals and cautions; of special relevance to readers of this journal is Kelman’s “participatory research” which enables people being studied to participate in the research design and implementation.

Critique [Of Ethical Problems In Evaluation Research], Arnold Kahn

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Johnson’s paper contains four assumptions which deserve further attention, especially in the context of ethnic minorities. These four assumptions are both obvious and at the root of the ethical problems: 1) Minorities need services; 2) services are to be provided by the dominant group; 3) the providing of services must be evaluated for cost-effectiveness; and 4) the evaluators are more likely to come from the dominant group than the minority group and hence be more powerful than those being evaluated. This, then, leads to the basic problem addressed by Johnson: How can this evaluation process occur such that the rights …

Critique [Of Symbolic Interaction And Black Mental Health: Understanding Black Self-Conceptions], Jimmy L. Williams

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Aside from the intrinsic merit of Dr. Shirley V. Brown's "Symbolic interaction and Black Mental Health,...” the paper raises several important corollary issues that need extensive investigation; (1) the effects of one's self-concept upon how he or she views others; (2) the negligible effects of affirmative action programs; (3) the adverse effects of public school integration on blacks; (4) the validity of the assumption that schools in predominantly black neighborhoods are inherently inferior; and (5) the insidious notion that mainstreaming is both possible and desirable.

Critique [Of The Roles Of Ethnic Theater In Immigrant Communities In The United States 1850-1930], Jeffrey F. Huntsman

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Seller's broad overview of the functions of ethnic theater in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century provides a useful compilation of information hitherto scattered throughout a variety of often obscure publications. Commenting chiefly on Scandanavian, [Scandinavian] German, and Yiddish theater, she presents a glimpse into a complicated and rich social and cultural life through which American communities of immigrants established and maintained a sense of identity with their place and culture of origin and through which life in Europe was sea-changed into a different but still distinct life in America.

Critique [Of An Invisible Minority: An Examination Of Migrant Education], Dennis Stewart

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

"An lnvisible Minority” is a well-written. sensitive, and on the whole, accurate article which could have been written a decade ago. | am reminded by it of an astronomer who periodically releases to the press a statement outlining the difference between astronomy and astrology as a professional obligation. So too, people need to be reminded of the terrible toll extracted from migrant worker families.

Wiesel's Memoir And God Outside Auschwitz, Mildred L. Culp

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Night records Elie Wiesel’s internment at Auschwitz, and it raises questions about God’s and humanity’s respective roles in the death camps. Today’s literary critics and theologians, however, highlight Wiesel's gift for story-telling of his theology and miss the quality of the writer’s individual works. Tending to group all of the author's Holocaust stories to illuminate a particular theme, they have failed to recognize that Wiesel’s theology in Night is manifest only when they perceive "that there is meaning in [it, which] comes only when the elements that go up to make that thing" appear in their relatedness. They do not …

Critique [Of Wiesel's Memoir And God Outside Auschwitz], David M. Gradwohl

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

It is not exactly a guarded secret that Jews, for three or four thousand years, have questioned who they were, who they are, and who they are going to be as individuals and as members of the various groups within which they associate. And through those many centuries they have often cried out in anguish and ambivalence to their God. Elie Wiesel, who writes with great power and also great agony, is certainly not the first writer to express these themes. Nor is the German Holocaust with all of its unspeakable and unfathomable horrors the first event to evoke these …

A Note On Reviews, Helen Maclam

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

This issue (January 1981) of Explorations In Ethnic Studies is the last in which book reviews will appear. ln March we will publish our first annual review supplement, Explorations in Sights and Sounds. Sights and Sounds will consist entirely of reviews and we plan to include non-print media such as records and films, as well as books, monographs, and new journals.

[Review Of] Miracle Hill: The Story Of A Navaho Boy By Emerson Blackhorse Mitchell And T.D. Allen, Dona Hoilman

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

A unique experience awaits readers of Miracle Hill, the autobiography of Blackhorse Mitchell, nicknamed “Barney” a young Navaho boy who began his own story as an assignment in his twelfth grade English class in the Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts under the tutelage of Terry D. Allen. Unlike the other students in the class, who finished their life stories in half an hour or so, Barney found that he had a whole book stored up inside him, just waiting to be put on paper But Barney was still in the process of learning English as a second language, …

[Review Of] The Immigrants Speak: Italian Immigrants Tell Their Story By Salvatore J. Lagumina, Frank J. Cavaioli

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

In The Immigrants Speak, Italian Americans Tell Their Story LaGumina has fashioned fourteen personal life histories that include miners, shoemakers, a poet, an artist, theater people, a social worker, a soldier, a lawyer and an entrepreneur. Through their recollections they have increased our understanding of the Italian American experience. Their stories. told in the first person, both dramatize and illuminate the role of ethnicity in the twentieth century. As LaGumina states, “These stories detail the lives of a people bridging two cultures in modern history.”

The Editor Notes, Charles C. Irby

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

I thank George Carter for his willingness to give advice to the new editorial staff, in his last editorial for Explorations (Vol. 3, No. 2.). concerning the frustrating experiences we would have in attempting to produce a quality journal. This is our premier edition. and we trust that it will improve with age.

Table Of Contents

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Table of contents for Explorations in Ethnic Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 1981

What Is Ethnic Pride? A Poem, Judith Lundin

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

A poem by Judith Lundin: What is Ethnic Pride?

Critique [Of What Is Ethnic Pride? A Poem], Alice A. Deck

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Judith Lundin's poem successfully conveys both the elusive nature of defining ethnic pride and the certainty that it exists.

Ethnicity And Human Rights: An Organizational And Individual Perspective, George E. Carter

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human rights adopted by the United Nations in December, 1948, holds: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Article II stipulates that everyone is entitled to the rights set forth in the Declaration "without distinction of any kind," including race, colour, sex, language. In the view of many American ethnic people the question of human rights and ethnicity has been and still is one of the most neglected aspects of …

God's Silence And The Shrill Of Ethnicity In The Chicano Novel, Joe E. Rodriquez

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

Ethnic identity has to do with freely set of values, attitudes, and behavior from one’s cultural legacy in order to affirm a unique sense of peoplehood. In the United States ethnic groups such as the Chicano or Mexican American are often stigmatized, and the psychological burden of ethnic awareness can weigh heavily. Yet a healthy sense of ethnic identity is absolutely necessary for a positive self-concept when a person is part of a group that is slighted because of race or appearance. The question then is: how do Chicanos come to terms with their cultural tradition in a society that …

Critique [Of God's Silence And The Shrill Of Ethnicity In The Chicano Novel], Gladys David Howell

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

The concepts of society and culture, so vital in the pursuit of understanding human behavior. its patterns and effects, are ultimately expressed in the lives of individuals. Cultural values are carried, symbolized, and integrated in the minds of human beings Innovative individuals challenge and change culture. The crucial intersection of society, culture, and individual has not always been granted sufficiently high priority in social science research to exploit this rich vein. As sociology and anthropology have moved toward quantitative methods, material is often fractured so that society seems peopled by disembodied fragmented men and women. This is regrettable since the …

Addressing Gaps In The Delivery Of Community Services: The Case Of One Inner-City Community, Cecilia E. Dawkins

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

The need for more effective approaches to the delivery of health and social services in inner-city communities is well established. Attempts to improve service delivery in such areas as housing, health care and job training usually concentrate on strengthening' community education efforts and other strategies designed to motivate potential users of community services. Little emphasis has been placed on increasing the communication between different community service providers to achieve better coordination among organizations responsible for service delivery in inner-city communities. As a consequence, major service gaps exist including such problems as duplication of services, limited accessiblity [accessibility], and the absence …

Critique [Of Addressing Gaps In The Delivery Of Community Services: The Case Of One Inner-City Community], Minnie T. Bailey

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

This descriptive study was completed to assess the demographic characteristics of respondents; the kinds of services provided by twenty-eight social agencies, organizations, and institutions and the perceptions of low-income clients held by providers. The purpose of the survey was to gather baseline data to improve the COALITION‘S ability to coordinate services and planning as well as to avoid duplication of services.

Critique [Of Addressing Gaps In The Delivery Of Community Services: The Case Of One Inner-City Community], Shirla Mcclain

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

This study has two major implications for human service professionals. First, it identifies some of the essential ingredients that enable human service agencies to be effective. Second, it provides a basis for further research possibilities among the human service professions.

The Image Of Gays In Chicano Prose Fiction, Karl J. Reinhardt

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

One of the world's best-kept secrets, until recently, was that a sizable proportion of men and women find their most significant relationships, both emotionally and physically, with members of their own sex. For example, the 1971 edition of Brief Lives fails to inform its readers that homosexual relationships were meaningful in the lives of Tchaikovsky, Thoreau, Garcia Lorca or Virginia Wolfe. A most blatant example of this intentional negligence dealing with Chicano writers can be found in Literatura Chicana: texto y contexto, in which a selection of John Rechy is given a fourteen-line introduction which does not mention that Rechy …