Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

African-American Males In Prison: Are They Doing Time Or Is The Time Doing Them?, Anthony E. O. King

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

African-American males comprise a disproportionate percentage of the individuals imprisoned in State correctional institutions across the United States. The purpose of this paper is to describe how incarceration affects African-American males. The author recommends more rigorous and systematic analysis of the prison experience, and how it affects the mental, physical, and social well-being of African-American males. Given this nation's commitment to using imprisonment as the principal means for punishing convicted felons, it is imperative that society ascertain the social, psychological, and economic effects of such confinement on millions of African-American males.

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 …

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 …

Race, Gender, Occupational Status, And Income In County Human Service Employment, R.L. Mcneely, Jerome L. Blakemore, Robert O. Washington

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Data obtained from more than 1,900 public welfare workers employed in five regions of the country were examined to compare occupational status and earnings by race and gender. The study group was stratified so that respondents' educational attainment and job seniority levels could be taken into account. Findings indicate the presence of significant sex and race-linked differences.

Review Essay: "Arthur M. Schlesinger's Vision Of America And The Multicultural Debate" By Jesse M. Vazquez, Jesse M. Vazquez

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

In April of 1990, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., published an essay in the Wall Street Journal entitled "When Ethnic Studies are Un-American."[1] The publication of that article followed, by about eight months, the release of New York State's Department of Education's now controversial report -- "A Curriculum of Inclusion."[2] Interestingly, the publication of The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society also follows, by about seven months, the release of New York State's second and most current Education Department report calling for the development of a new multicultural social studies curriculum -- One Nation, Many Peoples: A Declaration of …

[Review Of] Marian Anderson. My Lord, What A Morning, Catherine Udall Turley

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

When Marian Anderson passed away in April 1993 at the age of ninety-seven, the distinguished contralto was remembered as a gifted artist of great dignity and as a pioneer who shattered racial barriers in the arts. Indeed, most memorial tributes recounted her triumphant concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939. On that occasion, which became one of the earliest symbols of the struggle for civil rights in America, Anderson sang after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her use of the recital stage at Washington's Constitution Hall. Additionally, in 1955 Anderson became the first …

[Review Of] Pastora Sanjuan Cafferty And William C. Mcready Hispanics In The United States: A New Social Agenda, Luis L. Pinto

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This book is an unrevised third printing of eleven inspiring essays written by twelve social scientists who have devoted years of research to their respective fields. The book opens with an enlightening introduction by the editors, Pastora San Juan Cafferty and William McReady.

[Review Of] Stephen Clingman. The Novels Of Nadine Gordimer: History From The Inside, Martha A. Davies

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Nadine Gordimer received the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 1991, celebrating nearly half a century of her writing of her homeland, South Africa. The prize-giving precipitated the reissue of this survey of Gordimer's work by Stephen Clingman, also a South African. His book was written as a doctoral dissertation for Oxford University. The second edition, under review in this article, is unaltered except for a "Prologue" in which Clingman examines Gordimer's two novels that followed changes in South Africa: the release of Nelson Mandela and other African National Party leaders and the apparent breakdown of apartheid.

[Review Of] Jose Luis Colon-Santiago. La Primera Vez Que Yo Vi El Paraiso, Luis L. Pinto

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Written reminiscences have taken the form of a literary subgenre and are very popular among Puerto Rican writers residing in the United States. This literary form not only is an integral part of a serious body of literature in Puerto Rican letters, but in most cases, constitutes the first step taken by many of our writers. Such is the case of Colon-Santiago's first narrative experiment: La Primera Vez Que Yo Vi El Paraiso (The First Time I Saw Paradise).

[Review Of] S. Allen Counter. North Pole Legacy: Black, White, And Eskimo, George H. Junne Jr.

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

According to the Guiness [Guinness] Book of Records, Eskimos Egingwah, Ootah, Ooqueahand Seegloo, along with African American Matthew Henson, became the first humans to stand on the North Pole. The date of their famous journey to "where no one has gone before" was April 6, 1909. However, they were denied the status of "co-discoverer" with Robert E. Perry, who came along about forty-five minutes later. Perry's reward to Henson for reaching the Pole before him was to ignore Henson from that time. The names of the Eskimos were also dropped from history.

[Review Of] Maika Drucker. Grandma's Latkes, Laurie Lisa

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Grandma's Latkes, written by MaIka Drucker (who wrote the acclaimed Jewish Holiday Series published by Holiday House) and illustrated by Eve Chwast, accomplishes three things simultaneously: it is an instructional story on the preparation of latkes, it retells the story of the origin of Hanukkah, and it is an endearing story of the passing down of a tradition from one generation to another. The book works successfully on all three levels, and children from the ages of six to ten will be able to understand and appreciate its rich multiplicity.

[Review Of] Lois Elhert And Amy Prince, Trans. Moon Rope (Un Lazo A La Luna), Laurie Lisa

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

In this children's explanatory tale, Fox persuades Mole to go to the moon on a braided grass rope. After Mole slips from the rope and is carried to earth on the back of a bird, he digs a tunnel, which explains why Mole chooses a nocturnal existence. The simplicity of the story, with its trickster characteristics of Fox, belies the actual experience of reading this visually stunning, bilingual, timeless tale.

[Review Of] Arthur S. Evans, Jr. And David Lee. Pearl City, Florida: A Black Community Remembers, Harriet Ottenheimer

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This is a delightful book. Using the words of over two dozen individual residents of Pearl City, Florida, the authors have put together a group autobiography with both historical and sociological significance. A brief introduction provides background and methodology, and two final chapters by Evans and Lee provide analytical insights and theoretical perspectives on questions of history, sociology and social geography.

[Review Of] Carlos Fuentes. The Buried Mirror: Reflections On Spain And The New World, Cortland P. Auser

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

The marvelous narrative ability of Carlos Fuentes has already been discovered by the many readers of his fiction. They will find here how well he has turned his remarkable talents to the writing of history.

[Review Of] Claude Levi-Strauss And Didier Eribon. Conversations With Claude Levi-Strauss, Harriet Ottenheimer

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This series of conversations between French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss and French journalist Didier Eribon was first published in French in 1988. Happily, it has now been translated into English and can be more widely read in the English-speaking world. It is, in a sense, a guided autobiography, although one gets the impression that Levi-Strauss resists revealing too much of himself to Eribon and his readers. Nonetheless, one gains significant insights into the man and his world in at least two different domains: the personal and the academic. Ethnic studies scholars should find both of interest.

[Review Of] Alain Leroy Locke (Jeffrey C. Stewart, Ed.). Race Contacts And Interracial Relations: Lectures On The Theory And Practice Of Race, Vernon Williams Jr

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Scholars of the history of race and race relations social science should be deeply indebted to Jeffrey C. Stewart for uncovering and meticulously reconstructing these extant lectures by the philosopher better known for his later contributions to the Harlem Renaissance than his social scientific theorizing: Alain LeRoy Locke. The book is an invaluable source on the thought of an African American intellectual on the subject of the nature of race relations during the Progressive Era and on its relationship to ethnic and class relations as well. So fecund are these lectures with insights and hypotheses which deserve further investigation and …

[Review Of] Alejandro Portes And Ruben G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait, Janet E. Benson

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

The subtitle of this book is apt. Its authors paint a rich and varied portrait of recent and turn-of-the-century immigrants to America: Vietnamese and Cuban refugees, Mexican, Chinese, Polish and Irish laborers, Indian professionals, Korean entrepreneurs. Unlike many works which focus on a particular nationality or type of immigrant, Portes and Rumbaut attempt a broad comparative sketch. The result is an enlightening synthesis of a very large literature. The authors discuss origins -- who the immigrants are and why they come; the context of exit, or conditions under which people leave home; issues of adaptation (economic, social, and psychological); and …

[Review Of] William K. Powers. War Dance: Plains Indian Musical Performance, David M. Gradwohl

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

This book on Plains Indian music and dance goes far beyond its geographically indicated target. It provides an instructive view of musical performances as a paradigm for understanding cultural continuity and change not only among American Indians in general but, I submit, many other ethnic and minority groups. Powers's discussion includes descriptive material pertaining to the movements and costumes involved in Plains Indian tribal and intertribal dances. He also reviews and critiques a number of available audio tapes and records which should be of special interest to readers of Sights and Sounds.

[Review Of] Robert Rotenburg And Gary Mcdonogh, Eds. The Cultural Meaning Of Urban Space, Douglas D. Brimhall

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

So begins The Cultural Meaning of Urban Space, a compilation of urban case studies edited by Robert Rotenberg, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the International Studies Program at DePaul University, and Gary W. McDonogh, Visiting Professor and Director of the Growth and Structure of Cities Program at Bryn Mawr. These twelve very diverse chapters attempt to understand the construction of an urban landscape from the cultural and social perspectives of those groups that experience and manipulate the landscape.

[Review Of] Juan Suarez. Contra El Viento: Un Historia De Lucha Y Amor, Luis L. Pinto

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

Contra El Viento (Against the Wind) is an autobiography that reads like a novel. This biographical narrative is divided into four parts. The novel itself uses the device of a writer-narrator who pieces together the history of his life from the moment of his birth to the most difficult times, now being faced by the Suarez family as they confront the most daily grueling demands and special attention from a beloved member of the family, who suffers from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

[Review Of] Virgil Suarez. Welcome To The Oasis And Other Stories, Frances Hernandez

Explorations in Sights and Sounds

If one is seeking a text to help expand the multicultural approach in a course on contemporary fiction or literature in general, a new collection of short stories by Virgil Suarez may be a successful addition. Welcome to the Oasis and Other Stories has the virtues of compactness in 124 pages and of variety in the length of the six works included, as well as a reasonable cost. An instructor would have the option of including the entire volume in her syllabus, which would provide an assignment easily encompassed in one or two class meetings. Or she could tuck in …