Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

The Meaning Of Black Entrepreneurship In Constructing Community, Stacey Sutton

Trotter Review

The small business sector in the United States has traditionally been viewed as a strong source of economic growth and prosperity, as entrepreneurship epitomizes the quintessential American fantasy of rugged individualism. Given the myths about larger-than-life entrepreneurial heroes, business development has historically been touted as a viable trajectory toward economic and social mobility for immigrant groups and marginalized people. Stories about "great" American businessmen such as John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs among others, often highlight rags-to-riches myths about innumerable possibilities within American capitalism given diligence, fierce competition, and an uncompromising work ethic. The work values of small business …

Democratic Economic Participation And Humane Urban Development, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard

Trotter Review

Humane economics, democratic economic participation, and democratic economic control are words not often combined and terms rarely used by traditional economic developers and urban planners, especially when addressing inner-city redevelopment. Most often, discussions about economic development and the elimination of poverty focus on job creation, workforce development, and access to job opportunities - promoting the corporate model of growth and fortifying big business's penetration into and control of community economics. Income receives a bit of attention, in the peripheral discussions about "living wages' or family-supporting wages and "good" jobs. However, concepts such as a guaranteed income or payment for the …

Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

We are proud to share with our readers the second annual issue of the Trotter Review. Since the first issue in 1984, the Trotter Review has grown to become a popular journal with a national and international readership. The journal has been particularly praised for its presentation and balance of scholarship informed by activism. We are currently planning future issues along the following themes: the experiences of Black children and the Black community with public schools; the historical and contemporary relationships between the Black and Native-American communities in the United States; and the role of Black educators in community …

Comparable Worth: Pay Equity And Women Of Color, Elizabeth A. Sherman

Trotter Review

The relationship between women of color and community economic development is fundamentally a question of income. And, for women, questions of income more often than not become questions of pay equity - whether or not women and men are receiving equal pay for equal, or comparable work. Because the economy retains entrenched vestiges of sexual discrimination, the solutions to such problems lie within the political realm, where laws to ensure equality are created and enforced. In this regard, women themselves have a vital role to play as activists focusing on mitigating the barriers to opportunity that have depressed women's well …

Race, Class, And The Distribution Of Radioactive Waste In New England, Douglas J. Anderton, John Michael Oates, Michael R. Fraser

New England Journal of Public Policy

Objective. Inequity in the distribution of environmental burdens among social groups, for example, minority and disadvantaged segments of the population, is an important topic in policy research. This research has largely focused on hazardous waste facilities and Superfund sites. Yet federal mandates to the states raise similar concerns over the social distribution of low-level radioactive waste facilities (LLRWFs). This study seeks to provide the first evaluation of equity in the distribution of LLRWFs within a state.

Methods. We use data from the 1990 Census to compare selected characteristics of tracts with low-level radioactive waste facilities to tracts without, tracts nearby …

Latinos In Massachusetts: An Update, Andrés Torres, Lisa Chavez

Gastón Institute Publications

This research report updates the socioeconomic picture of Latinos in Massachusetts. According to estimates contained in this report, the Latino population in Massachusetts experienced vigorous growth during the first half of the 1990s. Not since the 1990 census has there been a broad profile of this rapidly growing segment of the state’s population. This information should assist the general public in understanding some of the basic issues affecting the Hispanic community. It should also be useful to the many individuals and organizations who are concerned about the future of this community and responsible for informed decision-making: elected officials, policy makers, …

Educational Attainment, Non-English Language Usage, And Ability To Communicate In English In 30 Massachusetts Cities/Towns, Edward C. Besozzi, Carole C. Upshur

Gastón Institute Publications

Data regarding an individual's ability, or the ability of members of a household to speak English, primary language spoken at home, educational attainment, and the level of literacy proficiency should be taken into consideration when designing and implementing policies regarding health care initiatives and the publication of health care information. This report highlights data collected from three sources: 1) The National Adult Literacy Survey; 2) The 1990 Federal Census; and 3) The Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Research To Practice: Grant Development And Decision-Making: Comparison Of Funding Agencies And Community-Based Minority Organizations, Institute For Community Inclusion, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This report compares the perspectives of government funding agencies and community-based minority organizations on grant development and decision-making, and gives recommendations on how these groups can work together effectively to fund disability programs.

Faculty Diversity: Effective Strategies For The Recruitment And Retention Of Faculty Of Color, Sheila T. Gregory

Trotter Review

By the year 2000 one-third or more of the nation's population will be composed of African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Asians, and other minority and immigrant groups. It is expected that two-thirds of the nation's aging professorate will have to be replaced by the year 2000, and in the next century or two, women and minorities will out number non-minority men across the board. Unless more effective methods of recruitment and retention arc developed, few persons of color will be likely to assume faculty positions in American colleges and universities.

Leadership For Diversity: Effectively Managing For A Transformation, Adrian K. Haugabrook

Trotter Review

Diversity has become a contentious theme woven throughout many different aspects of higher education. Multiculturalism, ethnic studies, women's studies, curriculum reform, strategies for increasing access and opportunity to the under-represented and under-served and improving campus climate have all been vehicles to promote and further diversity initiatives. Diversity stands to challenge much of what has been the traditional views of higher education. The efforts to promote multiculturalism and diversity have caused the academy and the enterprise of higher learning to introspectively examine and reexamine its values, beliefs and relationships to a much larger society. American higher education now sees itself in …

Enhancing Multicultural Education Through Higher Education Initiatives, Porter L. Troutman Jr.

Trotter Review

This paper describes a comprehensive initiative intended to increase multicultural education and the amount of ethnic diversity among college of education faculty and undergraduate teacher education students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The paper details six components of the on-going initiative: 1) staff development: to enhance the sensitivity of college of education faculty regarding cultural issues, 2) a minority mentoring program: to provide a stronger support system for under-represented populations enrolled in the teacher education program, 3) the multicultural education project (MCE): a collaborative effort with the public school district in multicultural education, 4) the College of …

Institutional Language Of Control: Race, Class, And Gender Issues, Harry Morgan

Trotter Review

Controlling discourse is a common practice among colleges and universities, public and private schools, political parties, libraries, departments of government, and funding institutions, just to name a few. The control of discourse is essential for maintaining their power, status, and influence. The goals and missions of these institutions are shaped through conversations between individuals at various levels of power, status, and influence. The ongoing behavior of these institutions — as dictated primarily by those in positions of power, status, and influence — is reflected in discourse among and between themselves, and their counterparts in other institutions.

An Immigration Unit: Appreciation And Tolerance, Linda A. Dacorta

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In a pluralistic society like America, some of the most important dispositions for students to develop are open-mindedness, tolerance, and a valuing of the contributions of persons from a variety of different backgrounds. In this interdisciplinary unit entitled: An Immigrations Unit Appreciation and Tolerance, I offer one set of procedures by which to develop these dispositions along with other significant learnings in critical and creative thinking. Following a description of the fifth grade suburban classroom setting in which I did the work, I offer a selective review of relevant literature in the field of in order to detail my conceptual …

Job Mobility Of Entry-Level Workers: Black And Latina Women In Hospital Corridors, Maria Estella Carrión

New England Journal of Public Policy

Based on data from interviews with fifteen black and fifteen Latina women in entry-level jobs, this article discusses job access strategies, patterns of job mobility, and barriers to upward job mobility for low-income minority women in the hospital industry. Concentrated in the lowest wage levels and job tiers, they are quite diverse in subgroup composition, in age, and in training requirements. The research confirms that deficiencies in schooling and skills remain the major obstacles minority women confront when they apply for hospital jobs and restrict their opportunities once they are within the hospital labor market. Efforts to provide training and …

Attitudes Toward Sexuality And Sexual Behaviors Of Asian-American Adolescents: Implications For Risk Of Hiv Infection, Connie S. Chan

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

Until 1990, Asian Americans represented an ethnic minority group that was perceived to be at lower risk than African Americans or Hispanics/Latinos for HIV infection, the presumed causal agent for AIDS. Reasons cited for this perception include behavioral differences in intravenous drug use, sexual behavioral habits, and underidentification of AIDS cases. However, in urban areas such as San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle, where Asians have immigrated and settled in large numbers, cases of HIV infection and AIDS have begun to increase dramatically, perhaps reflecting the rise in the number of AIDS cases in Asia. In …

Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

Relatively little research has been conducted that focuses on the housing situation of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (hereafter generally referred to as Asian Americans), especially on the national level. From a review of about 30 articles and reports over the past decade that examine racial/ethnic housing situations nationally, only one specifically addressed housing problems of Asian Americans (Hansen, 1986) while two others included Asian Americans along with other populations of color. Of the remaining articles, most used the terms race, racial discrimination, or segregation in their titles, yet did not include Asian Americans in the studies. Of particular note, …

Leadership In The African Immigrant Community: Conflict And Coalition, Mfon Ufot

Trotter Review

Whenever African immigrants gather, most assuredly the conversation of their plight to the United States, will be a heated topic. Most of the discussion laments the apparent apathy in the African community and the lack of collective leadership to mobilize it. According to the 1990 census, there are over 350,000 African in the United States and that number is increasing every year. The State Department's Information on Immigration reports about 20,000 Africans won the "immigration lottery" to emigrate to the United States last year. This year, about 20,000 slots are allotted to the African continent. This program is a part …

Cape Verdean-Americans: A Historical Perspective Of Ethnicity And Race, Jean E. Barker

Trotter Review

Cape Verdean immigrants in the United States worked to establish their own unique ethnic identity in an effort not to be grouped with Afro-Americans. On the Cape Verde Islands they were Portuguese citizens and identified as Portuguese. In the United States they persisted in stressing their identification as Portuguese, claiming the right to self-designation rather than accepting one imposed by an exceedingly race-conscious society. As one immigrant stated: "We are not black, we are Portuguese. We know we have black in our blood, and white." In the turn-of-the-century United States any amount of African ancestry guaranteed an identification by society …

Caribbean Migrant Experiences In Church And Society, J A George Irish

Trotter Review

One of the greatest ironies of the Caribbean community in New York is, that it is at one and the same time, both "power-full" and powerless. Its power lies essentially in a relatively untapped and latent potential, whereas its powerlessness rests in its virtual immobilization as an ethnic group. By dint of sheer numbers the Caribbean presence, whether solely anglophone/West Indian, or more broadly representative of the wider Caribbean Basin, is a formidable force to reckon with, since over 30 percent of the immigrant population of New York is Caribbean. In fact, they are among the fastest growing immigrant groups. …

Explanations For African Immigration, Kwaku Danso

Trotter Review

Africa is a continent in crisis. Sub-Saharan Africa today poses the greatest development challenge facing the world today. Many of Africa's development programs have failed miserably. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have attributed this failure to inefficient internal economic policies pursued by African governments. These governments, on the other hand, blame failure on uncontrollable external factors in the world economy, such as international financial markets, worldwide recessions, declining commodity prices, protectionist trade policies against African exports, and the oil price shocks of the 1970s. While there is merit to each of these schools of thought, there is …

Haitian Immigrants And African-American Relations: Ethnic Dilemmas In A Racially-Stratified Society, Gemima M. Remy

Trotter Review

This article focuses on Haitian immigrants and how they have attempted to interpret their migration experience and ascribed racial and ethnic status in the U.S. It is argued that the legal and economic positions of Haitian immigrants have not only impacted their perceptions and understanding of their living conditions in this country, but they have also compelled them to reassess their self-definition as a distinct group of individuals with their own history, culture, nationality, and racial identity. Like many other Caribbean immigrants, Haitians "suffer double invisibility... as immigrants and black immigrants or double visibility as blacks in the eyes of …

Black Immigrant Community Of Washington, D.C.: A Public History Approach, Portia James

Trotter Review

In the Washington, D.C. area contemporary Black community life has been shaped in large part by a pattern of migration and settlement of African Americans from southern states. But international immigration has also made its mark on the local Black community. Today, Washington and its suburbs in Virginia and Maryland are home to significant populations of Black people from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. This international movement of people has resulted in the broadening of Black community life and the development of a multicultural and multi-ethnic Black population in the area.

The Political Issues For African Immigrants In The United States, Paul E. Udofia

Trotter Review

Since the 1970s the African-born population in the United States has grown steadily in numbers. This increase of African immigrants offers an historic opportunity for sustained reconstruction of ancestral relationships with Black America. At this point, however, Africans who are mostly English-speaking and highly educated, remain largely isolated and even ostracized. So, what must be done for these groups, Blacks and African immigrants, to begin working together effectively? This essay begins with one basic query necessary for understanding this potential development: What is the current status of African immigrants in the United States? After providing a brief overview in response …

West Indian Immigrant Adaptation: The Role Of Cross-Pressures, Milton Vickerman

Trotter Review

The purpose of this essay is to discuss ideas of race and achievement as they emanate from West Indian immigrants. I argue that these immigrants, part of the post-1965 upsurge in non-white immigrants, are helping to cement the significance of race in American life but making the racial picture more complex at the same time. This is occurring because their numbers are growing, their economic performance questions the traditional link that has been made between race and achievement, and their experiences in this country validate the complaints emanating from African-Americans about racial discrimination. In short, West Indians embody the contradictions …

The Linkage Between African Americans And The South African Black Immigrant Community, Chris Nteta

Trotter Review

An understanding of the South African immigrant experience in the United States requires placing it within a context of linkages and alliances between transported South African blacks and the African American community. Like many other nationalities, South African black immigration to this country resulted from people fleeing the murderous apartheid regime whose national constitution and laws enshrined a racist ideology buttressed by a myriad of draconian practices. In this respect, South African immigrants were predominantly refugees and exiles on a quest for asylum. On the other hand, this group exhibits distinctive political tendencies which sets it apart from other such …

Introduction, James Jennings

Trotter Review

The Black community in the United States is undergoing major demographic changes that point to greater ethnic diversity. There are many ethnic groups that compose the Black community today, including people from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and other parts of the world. This community can no longer be approached as socially or demographically monolithic. Individuals in these groups may define themselves as "Black" but not necessarily, "African American." This issue of the Trotter Review explores facets of on-going ethnic transformation within the Black community. It begins with several essays that introduce broad themes related to this social and demographic …

Beyond Affirmative Action: An Inquiry Into The Experiences Of Latinas In Academia, Martha Montero-Sieburth

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article presents a Latina professional's observations of the world of meanings and circumstances that Latina academicians and researchers face in higher education. While they are not represented as a definitive study, because research on underrepresented faculty is sparse and inconclusive owing to the small numbers, they are nonetheless exploratory and critical, rooted in the author's and other Latinas' exposure to academic contexts, forums, and institutes, the scant literature on Latina academicians, and the experiences and reflections of fifteen professional Latinas in higher education. The academic structural obstacles that have constrained the advancement of these women in their professionalization are …

Puerto Ricans' Access To Health Care, Ralph Rivera

New England Journal of Public Policy

The shift toward cost containment in health policy over the past decade has had negative consequences for the most vulnerable populations in the country, namely, ethnic minorities, the poor, and the uninsured. The Puerto Rican population is significantly affected by this shift, yet little is known of their health care usage. This study investigates the extent to which Puerto Ricans' health care use is determined by the relationship between predisposing variables, enabling variables, need, and other contextual variables and probes the implications of the findings for health policy. The adult Puerto Rican subsample (n = 1598) of the Hispanic Health …

Family Development In Cultural Context: Implications For Prevention And Early Intervention With Latino Families, Ester R. Shapiro

New England Journal of Public Policy

An integrative model of family development in cultural context is presented as an organizing conceptual framework for supporting the optimal development of Latino children and families. This social developmental approach locates individual developmental outcomes within nested structures of family, community, and culture, each offering resources as well as potentially presenting stresses. This model also considers social attitudes such as racism or as potential risks or burdens for Latino families and suggests ways to address these social risks at individual, familial, and social levels. The article describes two exemplary prevention and early intervention programs for Latino parents and children; focusing on …

Latino Students' Academic Literacy In Science Education: Contextualizing Policies, Raimundo Mora

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article reviews various interpretations of academic literacy that are being applied to science education, their limitations in terms of Latino students, and the case study experiences of three Latino students majoring in science. The author examines the ways in which factors he has identified in his experiences and research as crucial can be integrated to improve academic literacy programs. He recommends to planners of science programs methods to effect advancement in Latinos' academic performance.