Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Jfk: The Education Of A President, Nigel Hamilton

New England Journal of Public Policy

What goes into the making of a president? To what extent are the mind and character of the American commander in chief determined by his background, his family — and his education? This article represents a transcript of two lectures Nigel Hamilton presented in the spring and fall of 1989 at the Massachusetts State Archives. They were derived from the preliminary sketches for the author's full-scale biography of John F. Kennedy, to be published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992 on the anniversary of the birth of the thirty-fifth president.

News & Views - Vol. 09, No. 01 - September 15, 1990, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 08, No. 12 - July 11, 1990, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

The Faculty Of The Sixties: A Reappraisal, Monroe H. Little

Trotter Review

Between 1967 and 1969 the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education initiated and substantially funded several national surveys of U.S. higher education. One such study of faculty employed a questionnaire that was mailed to approximately 100,000 full-time college and university faculty at 303 schools nationwide. The results of this survey, which solicited more than 300 items of information from each respondent and enjoyed an unusually high response rate of over 60%, contain a wealth of data on a variety of political and social issues that has rarely been subjected to careful analysis by scholars.

This is especially unfortunate in retrospect. The …

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 …

Sports Notes, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

The big-business nature of college sports is becoming increasingly apparent. Each of the four schools with basketball teams in the 1990 "Final Four" received $1,430,000, while the 64 invited teams were guaranteed at least $286,000 each. On top of this, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently signed a $1 billion basketball deal with CBS television, ensuring that the take for individual schools will be greater in the future. College athletes are producing this revenue without remuneration other than their scholarships, which pale in comparison to the revenue they generate.

In Appreciation Of Birago I. Diop: A Subtle Advocate Of Négritude, Winston E. Langley

Trotter Review

The closing weeks of the last decade brought with them the death of three distinguished world figures: Samuel Beckett, the Irish-French playwright, novelist, and poet; Andrei D. Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear physicist, human rights advocate, and leader in the international disarmament movement; and Birago I. Diop, the Senegalese poet, storyteller, and statesman. In the case of the former two, leading U.S. newspapers and other media paid merited tribute in the amplest of proportions; in case of the last, however, it was as if he had either never lived or had gained no standing of importance worthy of much attention. Diop …

News & Views - Vol. 08, No. 11 - May 28, 1990, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

After The Miracle: A History And Analysis Of The Massachusetts Fiscal Crisis: Being A Drama In Five Acts, With An Implied Invitation To The Reader To Participate In The Crafting Of The Final Act, Joseph S. Slavet, Raymond G. Torto, Edmund Beard, Louis C. Dinatale

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

"After the Miracle" documents the factors that have shaped the recent political debate in Massachusetts and are likely to determine continuing economic and fiscal conditions in Massachusetts in the near future. The paper indicates that 1990 may begin a decade of real limits for Massachusetts. The economy has stagnated and the next two years will be a period of deep economic uncertainty. It is also clear that a resurgence, like that of the boom period of the eighties, is unlikely to be replicated.

The 1980's was a period when state-local spending in Massachusetts, propelled by the infusion of double-digit tax …

News & Views - Vol. 08, No. 10 - April 6, 1990, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Care Policy: Where Are We Going?, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Omb Watch

Gerontology Institute Publications

Millions of Americans suffer from physical or mental conditions that make it difficult for them to live fully independent lives. These are the frail elderly, disabled and chronically ill persons of all ages, and many mentally ill or mentally retarded persons. They need help to manage daily activities, whether they live in their own homes or in nursing homes.

Such care can be extremely expensive, since it often must be provided for many years, even a lifetime. Today, those costs are met largely by the individuals themselves or by their families and by public programs for low-income persons.

For many …

News & Views - Vol. 08, No. 09 - March 23, 1990, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Media Images Of Boston's Black Community, Kirk A. Johnson

Trotter Review

In their efforts to report on the forces that affect Boston's racial climate, the local media have typically focused on the more obvious institutional actors: businesses, city hall, school boards, churches, the courts, neighborhood groups. Rarely have the media themselves been subjected to the same scrutiny. This study represents one such effort. It is an analysis of the images of Boston's black community that are conveyed through the local news media. It asks the question: If a Bostonian relied solely on the local news for information about local blacks, what impressions would he or she be left with, and how …

Women And Money: Getting Money And Using It, Sheryl R. Marshall

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author of this article has spent her career in the world of finance. Here she examines the way women make economic decisions. The article centers on attitudes concerning women, money, and financial independence; the availability or lack of capital for women who want to start businesses; and a strategy for using their economic clout to forward the agenda of the economic empowerment of women.

Reel Blacks: A Kinder, Gentler Fbi, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

Revisionist interpretations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) role in enforcing civil rights legislation and its monitoring of black activists have proliferated during the last decade. Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Racial Matters by Kenneth O'Reilly, and The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. by David Garrow are just a few of the numerous books to chronicle the FBI's somewhat embarrassing record on race-related issues. Given this wealth of documentation in print, it is even more startling that in the …

Tainted Glory: Truth And Fiction In Contemporary Hollywood, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

In the earliest days of cinema, the image of the African American on screen matched the off-screen image. When a 12-minute version of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) was filmed, "Tom" shows were the most popular stage shows, the Stowe novel was still a top-seller, and the notion that white southerners were the real victims of the peculiar institution was gaining increasing acceptance in academic circles. When D.W. Griffith's epic and revolutionary Birth of a Nation (1915) depicted a set of stock African-American movie characters — the subservient overweight domestic servant; the indifferent, coquettish mulatto; the savage, sexually driven buck; and …

Introduction, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

The mass media can be a positive or negative force in the struggle for racial progress. Unfortunately, the black community faces media that provide many negative influences. Consequently, there is a continuing need to address this issue.

In the articles in this issue of the Trotter Review we examine the current representation of blacks in the news media and representations of blacks in history through the entertainment media.

Consequences Of Racial Stereotyping, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

What are the consequences of negative portrayals of blacks? As mentioned in the previous articles, the media help to provide definitions of social reality, of social situations. Attendant upon such definitions is an implicit action orientation, a recommendation as to action appropriate to the situation.

The media are a significant factor in the ongoing battle for racial progress. While some of the battles take place in official forums (i.e., governmental institutions), other battles take place in unofficial forums such as newspapers, television, radio, movies, books, and magazines. These should not be taken lightly; there is ample evidence that individuals act …

Foreword, Rosabeth Moss Kanter

New England Journal of Public Policy

Two significant facts are apparent from reading this volume. First, the authors are themselves examples of women overcoming barriers, breaking into formerly all-male domains, succeeding against the odds, and exercising economic, political, and educational leadership — on behalf of other women as well as on behalf of the institutions they serve. Thus their own lives are eloquent rebuke to anyone who still thinks that women cannot manage effectively in any realm, or that women must always take second place to men, or that family responsibilities make women less serious about public responsibilities, or that women fail to help one another; …

Women And Economic Empowerment, Kitty Dukakis, Vivian Li

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article proposes a women's economic agenda to help fulfill the needs of working women. The first component outlined is the appointment of women who are sensitive to the needs of all women, including the poor, to key decision-making positions. The agenda then calls for employers to recognize changing workforce demographics by initiating programs that can accommodate the needs of single-person as well as dual-income households. The final component is an argument for the implementation of pay equity.

Reaching Tomorrow's Hispanic Leaders, Sister Thérèse Higgins

New England Journal of Public Policy

High school-age Hispanics have a 50 percent drop-out rate. College-age Hispanic youth account for only 3.9 percent of the United States college population. A report of the Commission on Minority Participation in Education and American Life challenged college planners to do something about the neglect of young minority students. However, Regis College had already developed a four-week residential summer program to enable Hispanic ninth-graders to complete high school and prepare for college. The anticipated outcome of this College Awareness Program is that the dream of higher education and empowerment for two hundred gifted young Hispanics will be realized.

Not By Numbers Alone: A New Decade For Women In The Law, Margaret H. Marshall

New England Journal of Public Policy

There has been a dramatic increase in both the percentage and the numbers of women who have entered the legal profession in the last fifteen years, but women have not penetrated its higher echelons — partnerships in law firms, general counsel of corporations, and chiefs of government bureaus — in the same percentage that those advances should be reflecting. While entry-level salaries may be equal for male and female attorneys, are women in the legal world discovering the same glass ceilings and barriers to entry at these top levels of economic empowerment that their corporate counterparts have experienced? The author …

From The Bar To The Bar: Prevailing Despite Gender Bias, Nancy Woolley

New England Journal of Public Policy

The report of the Gender Bias Study of the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was released in May 1989. After a thorough study of the areas of family law, domestic violence and sexual assault, criminal and juvenile justice, civil damage awards, gender bias in courthouse interactions, and court personnel, the study committee concluded that there was significant gender-based bias in the courts. The following article demonstrates how bias affected one woman and her children, and how, in spite of it and with the help of individuals and institutions in the private sector, she has attained empowerment and …

Protest And Thrive: The Relationship Between Global Responsibility And Personal Empowerment, Sarah A. Conn

New England Journal of Public Policy

Economic empowerment is intricately linked to personal empowerment, which for many women starts with notions of caring and responsibility. When we care about ourselves, our family, our neighborhood, our community, and our world, we are often moved to action. Examples of women activists abound. This article examines the psychological forces that lead to individual empowerment and social change and warns us that to ignore our reactions to the world around us is to limit our own possibilities for personal growth. Personal power comes from taking responsibility for ourselves in a context of interconnectedness and interdependence. Awareness, understanding, direct experience, and …

Moving In The Economic Mainstream, Brunetta R. Wolfman

New England Journal of Public Policy

The requirements for economic mobility in a postindustrial society present many barriers for low-income women. Social policy and program goals for improving their opportunities should focus on educational, training, and entrepreneurial activities using individualized assessment, counseling, and academic and occupational advisers. Social consensus needs to be achieved in order to establish viable programs that address women's total needs rather than approaching the problem with fragmented, uncoordinated solutions.

Providing Access To Power: The Role Of Higher Education In Empowering Women Students, Margaret A. Mckenna

New England Journal of Public Policy

Access to education opens the doors to future economic power — but are opportunities for women limited by the very way that institutions of higher education think about women students? Women comprise the majority of college students today, but the institutions they attend may not be serving their educational needs. This article explains that women's needs are different from those of men and illustrates how educators can respond to that difference, offering a "feminist environment" in which female students can meet their own educational goals.

The Third Stage: An Economic Strategy, Dawn-Marie Driscoll

New England Journal of Public Policy

If the first stage of the women's movement raised consciousness, changed statutes, and proposed the Equal Rights Amendment, and the second stage broadened the debate to include family, workplace, and societal issues, the third stage may focus simply on giving women economic power and independence. Issues for women in the 1990s will center on economics; this article suggests strategies for achieving these goals.

Women And Power: Women In Politics, Cathleen Douglas Stone

New England Journal of Public Policy

Are women making progress in the political arena, or are their frustrations at access to elective office severe enough to warrant their own political party? This article examines the statistics and argues that women should seize political power by voting as a bloc. As loyalty to traditional parties declines while their interest in and sensitivity to social issues grows, the moment is right for a real increase in women's political power.

Women, Leadership, And Power, Marilyn Swartz Lloyd

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women strive to attain power because it is the best way to achieve their personal and professional goals. This article describes how empowerment enabled its author to capture the vision of an ideal city in which education, culture, business, and industry all enjoy dignity and respect. Gaining acceptance for a light manufacturing zone in the city of Boston involved learning to build constituencies and rally support for a winning campaign.