Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

The Gulf Cooperative Council And The Arab Spring, Ahmed Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

No abstract provided.

Apathy In The Face Of Cruelty, Ahmed Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

No abstract provided.

The R-Word: A Tribute To Derrick Bell, Kenneth B. Nunn

UF Law Faculty Publications

Racism has become the “R-word,” an allegation that is so outrageous that it cannot even be spoken in public, let alone seriously addressed. In this brief exploration, I propose that it is exactly because racism continues to loom large in American society that talking about it has become taboo. In other words, banning the “R-word” serves a political function. It masks the failure of American society to confront the existence of racism and do something about its effects. Derrick Bell's path breaking work can be used to show why the focus of race discourse has moved from debating over what …

Qatar, Al Jazeera, And The Arab Spring, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

No abstract provided.

Torch (November/December 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Disparate Impact Realism, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

In Ricci v. DeStefano, 129 S. Ct. 2658 (2009), the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the doctrine, first articulated by the Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 401 U.S. 424 (1971), that employers can be held liable under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for neutral personnel practices with a disparate impact on minority workers. The Griggs Court further held that employers can escape liability by showing that their staffing practices are job related or consistent with business necessity.

In the interim since Griggs, social scientists have generated evidence undermining two key assumptions behind that decision and its …

For A Sociology Of Reconciliation And Conflict: An Ascending Ethic Of Reconciliation?, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

The paper discusses 'the ethic of reconciliation' by Ari Sitas by exploring the potential for synthesizing a number of alternative formulations in terms of structures of thought, political, ideological and social movements, which have the potential of uniting as a global force for change. Is there a logic of convergence towards an ‘ethic of reconciliation’?

A Multicultural Grassroots Effort To Reduce Ethnic And Racial Social Distance Among Middle School Students, Christopher Donoghue, David Brandwein

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Raising tolerance for people of different ethnic and racial groups is the goal of the Multicultural Mosaic program, a grass-roots multicultural education effort initiated by a small group of middle school teachers in a private school in the northeast. After years of enjoying the comforts of a modern, but European-based, curriculum, these teachers took the initiative to pursue an ambitious transformation of their entire school's approach to pedagogy. Not only would the English teachers introduce new texts by foreign authors and the social studies teachers introduce new materials on the history of non-Western cultures, but also the teachers of mathematics …

Torch (September/October 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Why Advocates For Economic And Racial Justice Need The Employee Free Choice Act, Peter Dreier, Gary Flowers

Peter Dreier

No abstract provided.

Torch (June 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Traps And Pitfalls In Comparatively Analysing Reconciliation – A Critical Epistemological Contribution And A Research Agenda, Nicos Trimikliniotis, Wiebke Kiem

Nicos Trimikliniotis

This paper is a contribution to ongoing debate around comparative perspectives on reconciliation processes. For social researchers and activists alike, possibilities to draw parallels and make comparisons between conflicts and reconciliation processes in different historical, cultural and socio-economic settings are crucial – for adequate social scientific analysis as well as for appropriate political agency. While we find a huge body of literature around philosophical and methodological issues in international comparative endeavours, in recent times little has been said on the broader epistemological underpinnings of the debate. In how far are concrete social experiences and social knowledge derived thereof at all …

Trends And Inconsistencies In Immigration And Refugee Board Case Decisions, Julianna Beaudoin

Western Migration Conference Series

The last fifteen years have included dramatic policy changes to the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). These changes are reflected through IRB year-end statistics/graphs and an anthropologically focused discussion that illustrates the need for reform to correct current inconsistencies in the IRB decision-making process.

Sociolinguistics Barriers: Constructing And Reproducing Temporary Migrants' Social Inequalities, Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

Western Migration Conference Series

This study explores the sociolinguistic barriers that Mexican Agricultural Temporary Workers (MATW) experience during their temporary stays in Canada. Following an ethnographic approach, some of the findings were that the sociolinguistic barriers lead to sociolinguistic dependency, increasing and perpetuating human and social inequalities of the MATW.

Reviewing Racism And The Right To Marry: An Analysis Of Loving V. Virginia, Kathryn L. Jordan

Senior Honors Theses

Prior to the 1967 United States Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, many states had laws that banned the intermarriage of whites with black or other minorities. Since then, the number of interracial marriages has increased and the attitudes of society have shifted. This thesis uses Loving as basis to explore the ways in which societal views have changed since the overruling of the anti-miscegenation statutes. It first discusses the culture in America before Loving and then, explains the details of the Loving case. This is then followed by a synopsis of how the culture changed after Loving. After …

Fairness In Disparity: Challenging The Application Of Disparate Impact Theory In Fair Housing Claims Against Insurers, Matthew Jordan Cochran

Matthew Jordan Cochran

This article responds to courts and commentators that have expressed willingness to apply the familiar "disparate impact" analysis--which is a creation of Title VII (employment discrimination) jurisprudence--in suits against homeowners' insurers. Specifically, these insurers' credit-based pricing mechanisms systems are attacked under the Fair Housing Act as having a discriminatory effect on members of protected classes with poor credit. Unfortunately, there are a number of legal, conceptual, and practical arguments against application of this Title VII standard in such cases. Yet courts endorsing this standard do not appear to have given due consideration to the possibility that some disparities simply might …

Synecdoche, Gerald Torres

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article suggests that the ideas of synecdoche and metonymy are not just figures of speech in which the part stands in for the whole. They are potentially useful metaphoric devices to understand the politics of institutional change through the inclusion of the formerly excluded.

Capture: here the hazard is that those who find themselves in a position to use institutional power may find themselves subject to pressure to conform to the norms and values of those who have traditionally benefitted from the conventional use of that institution's authority. This will often be subtle and it may merely be a …

Torch (April/May 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Language Of Action: A Creative Study Of Resistance To Slavery From West Africa To The Days Across The Sea, Kali Block-Steele

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to study one of the lesser known aspects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: resistance. Before the discussion of resistance, a brief history of the trade can be found. The focus on active resistance to slavery both on an individual and collective level begins on the African continent and continues through the Middle Passage, finishing with a discussion on forms of resistance in the Americas. There is a second part encompassing some creative writings inspired by the formation of this paper.

Torch (March 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Torch (February 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Central And Eastern Europe: Europeanization And Westernization Through Accession Conditionality, Michael K. Marriott

Michael K Marriott

With 27 member states, the EU is not a body in and of itself, but rather is a central authority constituted of its member states. In order to create a reasonable level of coherence within the Union, the national politics of each member state must undergo a process of Europeanization so as to find a common ground for the members to work together. This leads to the logical question: ‘to what extent are national politics Europeanized?’ Although important to consider, this question is overly broad for the purposes of this paper. A more appropriate question, one that exists within the …

Utilizing The Past To Shape The Future: The Rehabilitation Of Child Soldiers In Darfur, Michael K. Marriott

Michael K Marriott

Child soldiering, an unfortunate reality of war, has become increasingly common in modern warfare. With world attention focused on the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan, issues regarding the use of child soldiers in the conflict have come to light. By providing an overview of the use of child soldiers both globally and in Sudan, discussing the relevant legal norms theoretically governing the country and providing a case study on Sierra Leone, this paper ultimately provides an analysis and proposed framework for comprehensive programs that could be put into action after cessation of hostilities in an attempt …

Debt, Financial Distress, And Bankruptcy Over The Life Course, Allison L. Mann, Ronald J. Mann

Ronald Mann

This paper examines how the risks of debt, financial distress, and bankruptcy shift over the life course. Comparing parallel data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances and the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we analyze use of the bankruptcy process as a product of the distribution of unplanned events, the ability of households to use credit markets to limit the adverse effects of such events, and barriers in access to the bankruptcy system. Our findings suggest two things. One, bankrupt households generally come from the bottom quartiles of the population in assets and income and the top quartile in debt, …

Undergraduate Student Responses To Arizona’S “Anti-Ethnic Studies” Bill: Implications For Mental Health, Andrea J. Romero, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

Over the past thirty years Mexican American adolescents have had the highest rates of depressive symptoms, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts when compared to other racial/ethnic groups. This troubling statistic reveals a significant need to understand the broader ecological risks for the mental health of Mexican-descent youth. Discrimination—unfair treatment due to one’s race/ethnicity—has been associated with higher levels of stress, more depressive symptoms, and lower self-esteem (Meyer 2003). In our study we examined the mental health of Mexican-descent students in relation to the anticipated passage of legislation designed to eliminate ethnic studies programs. We discovered that although these students experienced …

Born Criminal: The Criminalization Of African Americans, Debra Carolyn Wasserman

Theses Digitization Project

This study examined the factors that have contributed to the overrepresentation of Black Americans in the criminal justice system.

Torch (January 2011), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Untouchability Today: The Rise Of Dalit Activism, Christine Hart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On July 19, 2010, the Hindustan Times reported that a Dalit (“untouchable”) woman was gang-raped and murdered in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The crime was an act of revenge perpetrated by members of the Sharma family, incensed over the recent elopement of their daughter with a man from the lower-caste Singh family. Seeking retributive justice for the disgrace of the marriage, men from the Sharma family targeted a Dalit woman who, with her husband, worked in the Singh family fields. Her death was the result of her sub-caste status; while the crime cost the Singh family a valuable …

The Campaign For Bias-Free Policing In Vermont: One State’S Resistance To The Localization Of Federal Immigration Agency, Amanda L. Park

Capstone Collection

There are roughly 1,500 immigrants from Mexico and Central America currently working on farms in Vermont, helping to sustain approximately half of all milk produced in the state. But the lack of adequate visa-to-work options leaves these individuals without proper documentation to be in the US. As such, they are vulnerable to exploitation by their employers, susceptible to harassment from the communities in which they live, and under constant threat of deportation by federal immigration agents. Now, the US Department of Homeland Security—in charge of domestic defense and immigration—is attempting to use local and state law enforcement officers in the …

The Thirteenth Amendment And Interest Convergence, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

The Thirteenth Amendment was intended to eliminate the institution of slavery and to eliminate the legacy of slavery. Having accomplished the former, the Amendment has only rarely been extended to the latter. The Thirteenth Amendment’s great promise therefore remains unrealized.

This Article explores the gap between the Thirteenth Amendment’s promise and its implementation. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, this Article argues that the relative underdevelopment of Thirteenth Amendment doctrine is due in part to a lack of perceived interest convergence in eliminating what the Amendment’s Framers called the “badges and incidents of slavery.” The theory of interest convergence, in its …