Race and Ethnicity | Open Access Articles | Digital Commons Network™

Yoruba Girl Dancing And The Post-War Transition To An English Multi-Ethnic Society, Helen Lock

Ethnic Studies Review

This paper exemplifies the insider/outsider binary in a nation's shift towards a multi-ethnic society. The writer gives insight into the African Diaspora within England in her exploration of Yoruba Girl Dancing.

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Contextual Factors Associated With The Achievement Of African American And European American Adolescents: A Diversimilarity Approach, Joseph Ofori-Dankwa, Robin Mckinney

Ethnic Studies Review

The current study is an extension of Luster & McAdoo's 1994 study of African American children and ecological factors impacting academic performance of these children. Luster and McAdoo found that maternal educational level, income, number of children and living conditions were related to how well children performed in school. Those children from impoverished backgrounds with uneducated mothers had lower quality academic performance. Using the Nation Longitudinal Survey of Youth data (1992), the current study investigated similarities and differences in the impact of ecological factors in European American(n = 266) and African American adolescents (n = 400). The results indicated that …

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[Review Of] Gustavo Leclerc, Raúl Villa, And Michael J. Dear (Eds.). Urban Latino Cultures: La Vida Latina En La., Catherine S. Ramirez

Ethnic Studies Review

Throughout the twentieth century (and now the twenty-first), the specter of a Latina/o past, present, and future has haunted the myth of Los Angeles as a sunny, bucolic paradise. At the same time it has loomed behind narratives of the city as a dystopic, urban nightmare. In the 1940s Carey McWilliams pointed to the fabrication of a "Spanish fantasy heritage" that made Los Angeles the bygone home of fair señoritas, genteel caballeros and benevolent mission padres. Meanwhile, the dominant Angeleno press invented a "zoot" (read Mexican-American) crime wave. Unlike the aristocratic, European Californias/os of lore, the Mexican/American "gangsters" of the …

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Strategies Of Resistance And Disengagement In An Ethnic Enclave: Ei Barrio In Aurora, Illinois, Jack Thornburg

Ethnic Studies Review

This paper is a case study of a small city undergoing a process of demographic and ethnic change in community, empowerment, and political participation. For the dominant ethnic group these changes are threatening, but resisting the Latino community that they fear tends to set in motion the very conditions that exacerbate the growing prevalence of poverty and the attendant problems of gangs, domestic violence, and school drop-out rates. For the Latino community the challenge to such resistance is through community organizing and bringing pressure upon the city for inclusion in the political structure to influence policy regarding these problems.

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[Review Of] Rey Chow. Ethics After Idealism, Andrew Walzer

Ethnic Studies Review

I am largely sympathetic to Rey Chow's stated purpose of bringing together cultural studies with critical theory. Chow is critical of the gap that has been created between the two. She accuses critical theorists of believing that theory is superior to cultural studies and suggests racialization is implicit in this claim. But her real ire is reserved for cultural theorists who, in the name of recognizing and celebrating "otherness," reject theory and idealize and thus reify non-Western cultures. She argues that we need to portray non-Western cultures with the same kind of complexity and theoretical analysis as Western cultures. This …

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[Review Of] Alaina Lemon. Between Two Fires: Gypsy Performance And Romani Memory From Pushkin To Post-Socialism, Cynthia R. Kasee

Ethnic Studies Review

When most people hear the word "Gypsy," images are automatically conjured up of nomadic caravans of colorfully attired, swarthy-complected romantic souls, accompanied, of course, by the mournful strains of a violin. Others think of fortune tellers, confidence swindlers, even nefarious home improvement crews, painting driveways with black paint and charging for blacktopping. Whichever stereotype comes to mind, it is the conjurer's assertion that this is the real thing, the authentic reality of Gypsy life.

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[Review Of] Stewart E. Tolnay. The Bottom Rung: African American Family Life On Southern Farms, Clarence Spigner

Ethnic Studies Review

Stewart E. Tolnay has a message to deliver. In his excellent historical treatise on the family life of African American sharecroppers he counters current belief that rural Southern blacks who migrated North brought with them a dysfunctional family structure, a view espoused today by scholars as politically disparate as the liberal Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the conservative Charles Murray. Through the use of interview data gathered from the New Dears Federal Writers Project and with statistical analysis of U. S. Census data, Tolnay's seven chapters and epilogue span the years 1910-1940 from the post-Slavery period and the era of Jim …

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[Review Of] Chon A. Noriega. Shot In America: Television, The State, And The Rise Of Chicano Cinema, Elsa O. Valdez

Ethnic Studies Review

Shot in America provides the reader with a complex historical examination of the representation and exclusion of Chicano filmmakers within the American film and television industry. This comprehensive study covers a forty-year period of political activism by Chicano media makers. Noriega's powerful analysis begins with the relationship between Chicano "poetic consciousness" and social movements, the state, and mass media; follows the protests against the Frito Bandito commercials in the 1960s, the media reform movement, the emergence and decline of Chino public affairs programming, and the rise of Chicano professionalism within the independent sector; and concludes with a brief overview of …

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[Review Of] Leland T. Saito. Race And Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, And Whites In A Los Angeles Suburb, David Covin

Ethnic Studies Review

This book is a testament to the maturity of ethnic studies curricula. They were developed by activist students, primarily of Asian, Native American, African, and Latino ancestry, and by faculty members who had no formal training in ethnic studies because the discipline did not exist. The faculty who participated in the creation of ethnic studies curricula were scholars with an interest in this emerging field or people who by dint of race were deemed to have interests in the field. By training they were primarily historians, English department faculty, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and art and drama department faculty. There …

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[Review Of] Yanick St. Jean And Joe R. Feagin. Double Burden: Black Women And Everyday Racism, Lisa Pillow

Ethnic Studies Review

The women interviewed in Double Burden share personal accounts of what it is like to be black and female in the contemporary United States. Drawing on over two hundred interviews with middle-class, well-educated black women, Yannick St. Jean and Joe R. Feagin present a collective memory of the misrepresentation of black women in our history, as well as individual experiences and triumphs. Through excerpts of personal narratives on topics including career, work, physical appearance, media representation, relationships with white women, and motherhood, the women recount experiences dealing with everyday racism, the denigrating social messages about their beauty, self-worth, sexuality, intelligence, …

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[Review Of] Patsy West. The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling To Ecotourism, Cynthia R. Kasee

Ethnic Studies Review

Patsy West, long the archivist of photographs for the Seminole and Miccosukee Native nations of Florida, has written an exceptional book in her first full-length work, The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism. Although she has devoted a lifetime to researching, writing, and cataloging the photos which show the degree of cultural change of these two groups, this is her first book on the subject.

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[Review Of] Calvin Winslow, Ed. Waterfront Workers: New Perspectives On Race And Class, Arthur S. Evans Jr

Ethnic Studies Review

Students of race and ethnic relations have used two perspectives to explain the effects of industrialization on dominant and subordinate relations. One view holds that the process of industrialization results in individuals becoming detached from associations based in race and ethnicity as their life chances are determined by their participation and position in the economic order. A second perspective suggests that industrialization inevitably leads to tension and hostility between groups because they are forced to compete for scarce resources. The articles in Waterfront Workers: New Perspectives on Race and Class attempt to bridge the gap between these conflicting perspectives by …

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[Review Of] Susan Lobo And Steve Talbot, Eds. Native American Voices: A Reader, Elsa O. Valdez

Ethnic Studies Review

This valuable collection of readings edited by leading scholars in the field enriches the social science and educational literature for several reasons. First, the book provides a wealth of information for both undergraduate and graduate students. The readings are multidisciplinary, and contain scholarly articles, journalistic selections, documents, oral history and testimony, songs and poetry, maps and charts. The readings encompass a global approach with their foci on Indian peoples of the United States, as well as a few selections of indigenous groups in Canada and Latin America. The book is arranged into nine interrelated parts with discussion questions, key terms, …

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[Review Of] Devon A. Mihesuah, Ed. Natives And Academics: Researching And Writing About American Indians, Susan L. Rockwell

Ethnic Studies Review

As a white scholar of American Indian autobiographies, I approached this collection of essays edited by Devon A. Mihesuah, Associate Professor of History at Northern Arizona University, with both anticipation and trepidation. Conversations about the place of white scholars in all areas of ethnic studies has crested again recently and is appearing in many academic journals. In the May 1998, PMLA (113.3), the Guest Column by Nellie Y. McKay, Professor of American and African American Literature at University of Wisconsin, Madison, states that too many qualified white scholars are not being asked to fill positions, which results in African American …

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[Review Of] Patricia Hill Collins. Fighting Words: Black Women & The Search For Justice, Venetria K. Patton

Ethnic Studies Review

Collins' Fighting Words builds on her previous work, Black Feminist Thought, as she explores standpoint theory and "the outsider within" position and their usefulness for Black feminist thought. She structures her analysis by critiquing its effectiveness as critical social theory. For Collins, "Critical social theory constitutes theorizing about the social in defense of economic and social justice." Because African American women and other oppressed groups seek economic and social justice, she posits that their social theories may generate new perspectives on injustice.

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Editor's Note, Jonathan Majak

Ethnic Studies Review

The articles in this volume share a common retrospective focus, but they can be clustered around two themes. Two articles deal with theoretical and or conceptual aspects of Ethnic Studies whereas the other three are about specific ethnic/racial groups.

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[Review Of] William G. Bowen And Derek Bok. The Shape Of The River: Long-Term Consequences Of Considering Race In College And University Admissions, Robert L. Perry

Ethnic Studies Review

The metaphor conveyed in the title, The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, captures the undercurrents, uncharted obstructions, and twists and turns as they unfold through the experiences and research of two captains who have navigated the mysteries of their journey through Affirmative Action in higher education.

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Anthropology And Ethnicity: From Herder To Hermeneutics, Jack Eller

Ethnic Studies Review

For a long time, the central focus of anthropology has been on the study of the so-called traditional societies. However, with the transformation of those societies into "ethnicized" groups within state systems, anthropologists have had to rethink their concepts, theories, and methods. They have had to deal with, among others things, issues of cultural difference, cultural boundaries, and cultural movements. This article looks retrospectively at certain changes that have taken place in anthropology especially with regard to the study of ethnicity.

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[Review Of] Raymond A. Bucko. The Lakota Ritual Of The Sweat Lodge, James V. Fenelon

Ethnic Studies Review

This well-researched book presents an excellent anthropological discussion of the "ritual" aspects of the "sweat lodge" as practiced among some Lakota, while posing some very thorny problems in terms of treatment of religion, knowledge and spirituality among Native American people (Deloria, 1995).

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[Review Of] James P. Danky And Wayne A. Wiegand, Eds. Print Culture In A Diverse America. The History Of Communication Series, Ellen M. Gil-Gomez

Ethnic Studies Review

This volume functions both in illuminating minority perspectives in print culture and describing and furthering the field of "print culture studies." The introduction then both discusses the structure and purpose of the field and argues that the book's contents challenge it in a variety of ways. Three thematic sections follow which cover, respectively, "lost" serials, the publishing industry, and written reconstructions of historical events.

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[Review Of] Elizabeth Martinez. De Colores Means All Of Us, Larry J. Estrada

Ethnic Studies Review

Elizabeth Martinez, well known San Franciscan activist, author and journalist, in her most recent work endeavors to connect the movements of the 90s with the crucible of the 60s. Her narrative of the course of contemporary activism and insurgence in the United States gives the reader an introspective look into the underbelly of Chicano/Chicana activism in the 60s and the resultant conflicts which ensued from not initially addressing issues of sexism, classism and machismo within the Movimiento. She provocatively talks about the utilization of "chingon politics" and the suppression of the Chicana feminist voice which has ultimately led to attempts …

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[Review Of] Peter C. Rollins And John E. O'Connor, Eds. Hollywood's Indians: The Portrayal Of The Native American In Film, Connie Jacobs

Ethnic Studies Review

Hollywood inherited conflicting myths of Native Americans: barbaric savages or "Noble Savage." Influenced by the latter romantic view, James Fenimore Cooper in print and George Catlin and Edward Curtis in art conveyed to an American public a portrait of a noble but vanishing race of America's first people. The dime store novels and Wild West shows of the late 1800s played with the dueling idea of a noble yet menacing Red Man, and Hollywood picked up this created myth of American Indians which, while ostensibly sympathetic, actually perpetuated stereotypes of a depraved and primitive race. Hollywood then packaged these images, …

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[Review Of] Toyotomi Morimoto. Japanese Americans And Cultural Continuity: Maintaining Language And Heritage, Kumiko Takahara

Ethnic Studies Review

Japanese language schools in California are chronicled from the early twentieth century until the eve of World War II based mainly on the UCLA Japanese American Research Project Collections, Japanese language newspapers, and literatures by Issei (first generation Japanese immigrant) educators. Chapters two through five which follow a brief overview of the ethnic language schools of various immigrant groups illustrate Japanese immigrants' effort in transmitting their linguistic and cultural heritage to Nisei (American-born) children by supplementing their public school education with a Japanese language school curriculum in a hostile socio-political climate. The thematic coherence of the book is disrupted unfortunately …

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[Review Of] Katheryn K. Russell. The Color Of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, And Other Macroaggressions, Calvin E. Harris

Ethnic Studies Review

Is Crime a problem or color or race? What about the question of disproportionality: Do blacks commit more crimes in proportion to their percentage of the total population? Does disproportionality, as one measure of crime statistics, tell the whole story? What is black protectionism? Probably the most critical question Russell raises is does a racial bias exist in the reporting of crime statistics in the United States? This is not the first time such an issue has been raised. These are among the major questions dealt with in The Color of Crime.

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[Review Of] E. San Juan, Jr. Beyond Post Colonial Theory, Linda Delgado

Ethnic Studies Review

This is an important book for many reasons. Much like Michael Omi and Howard Winants' Racial Formation in the United States and San Juan's previous book Articulations of Power in Ethnic and Racial Studies in the US, this latest enterprise captures much of the drama and trauma that inequality of power produces when race, ethnicity and class are knotted at its core.

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[Review Of] E. San Juan, Jr. From Exile To Diaspora: Versions Of The Filipino Experience In The U.S., M.L. (Tony) Miranda

Ethnic Studies Review

The author has written an excellent summary of the little known events in Filipino history in the Philippines and the history of the Filipino community in the U.S., a history of over four hundred years that covers the colonial oppression, and resistance first to Spain and then the United States. He attributes the fractured Filipino identity, one that is "fissured by ambivalence, opportunism, and schizoid loyalties," to the colonial experiences under these two western European powers. In his brilliant analysis of the literature he uses a historical materialist theoretical framework (22).

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Afrocentric Ideologies And Gendered Resistance In Daughters Of The Dust And Malcolm X: Setting, Scene, And Spectatorship, David Jones

Ethnic Studies Review

This study of scenes from the films Daughters of the Dust and Malcolm X, describes images of myth, gender, and resistance familiar to African-American interpretive communities. Key thematic and technical elements of these films are opposed to familiar Hollywood practices, indicating the directors' effort to address resisting spectators. Both filmmakers, Julie Dash and Spike Lee respectively, chose subjects with an ideological resonance in African-American collective memory: Malcolm X, eulogized by Ossie Davis as "our living black manhood"(i) and the women of the Gullah Sea Islands, a site often celebrated for its authentically African cultural survivals. Both films combine images of …

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[Review Of] David Delaney. Race, Place, & The Law, David L. Hood

Ethnic Studies Review

David Delaney's work is informative and contributes to an understanding of race relations and the legal system. The central finding is that race relations exist in different spatial contexts at the same time. The author begins with the case Commonwealth v. Aves, 18 Pick. 193 (1836) which focuses on a young slave girl, "Med" and her freedom. The cause of action involved the movement of the servant girl to Massachusetts by her Louisiana master. The master was visiting relatives. Under Louisiana law Med was a slave, but Massachusetts law did not permit slavery.

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[Review Of] Stanley Nelson (Producer And Director). The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, George Junne

Ethnic Studies Review

One of the most important institutions established in African American communities has been the "Black Press." It is also an institution that has not received much of the attention it deserves. The Black Press today still consists of approximately 100 newspapers carrying on the tradition of the first Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal (1827). After recently compiling a bibliography on Blacks in the U.S. West, it became obvious that whenever and wherever a Black community became established, Black newspapers immediately emerged. For example, Colorado had over one hundred, California more than twice that number, and Iowa over forty. States such as …

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[Review Of] Lavina Dhingra Shankar And Rajini Srikanth. A Part Yet Apart: South Asians In Asian America, Kasturi Dasgupta

Ethnic Studies Review

In their introduction to this stimulating collection of Asian American voices, editors Lavina Dhingra Shankar and Rajini Srikanth describe "A Part Yet Apart: South Asians in Asian America," as an "exploration" of the ways in which South Asian Americans from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, do or do not "fit" into the popular, academic, and activist consciousness associated with the Asian American Identity which has traditionally embraced immigrants from countries hugging the Pacific rim - China, Taiwan, the Koreas, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Philippines. The essays in the book debate what constitutes the gap, …

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Full-Text Articles in Race and Ethnicity

Yoruba Girl Dancing And The Post-War Transition To An English Multi-Ethnic Society, Helen Lock

Ethnic Studies Review

Contextual Factors Associated With The Achievement Of African American And European American Adolescents: A Diversimilarity Approach, Joseph Ofori-Dankwa, Robin Mckinney

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Gustavo Leclerc, Raúl Villa, And Michael J. Dear (Eds.). Urban Latino Cultures: La Vida Latina En La., Catherine S. Ramirez

Ethnic Studies Review

Strategies Of Resistance And Disengagement In An Ethnic Enclave: Ei Barrio In Aurora, Illinois, Jack Thornburg

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Rey Chow. Ethics After Idealism, Andrew Walzer

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Alaina Lemon. Between Two Fires: Gypsy Performance And Romani Memory From Pushkin To Post-Socialism, Cynthia R. Kasee

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Stewart E. Tolnay. The Bottom Rung: African American Family Life On Southern Farms, Clarence Spigner

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Chon A. Noriega. Shot In America: Television, The State, And The Rise Of Chicano Cinema, Elsa O. Valdez

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Leland T. Saito. Race And Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, And Whites In A Los Angeles Suburb, David Covin

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Yanick St. Jean And Joe R. Feagin. Double Burden: Black Women And Everyday Racism, Lisa Pillow

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Patsy West. The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling To Ecotourism, Cynthia R. Kasee

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Calvin Winslow, Ed. Waterfront Workers: New Perspectives On Race And Class, Arthur S. Evans Jr

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Susan Lobo And Steve Talbot, Eds. Native American Voices: A Reader, Elsa O. Valdez

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Devon A. Mihesuah, Ed. Natives And Academics: Researching And Writing About American Indians, Susan L. Rockwell

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Patricia Hill Collins. Fighting Words: Black Women & The Search For Justice, Venetria K. Patton

Ethnic Studies Review

Editor's Note, Jonathan Majak

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] William G. Bowen And Derek Bok. The Shape Of The River: Long-Term Consequences Of Considering Race In College And University Admissions, Robert L. Perry

Ethnic Studies Review

Anthropology And Ethnicity: From Herder To Hermeneutics, Jack Eller

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Raymond A. Bucko. The Lakota Ritual Of The Sweat Lodge, James V. Fenelon

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] James P. Danky And Wayne A. Wiegand, Eds. Print Culture In A Diverse America. The History Of Communication Series, Ellen M. Gil-Gomez

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Elizabeth Martinez. De Colores Means All Of Us, Larry J. Estrada

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Peter C. Rollins And John E. O'Connor, Eds. Hollywood's Indians: The Portrayal Of The Native American In Film, Connie Jacobs

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Toyotomi Morimoto. Japanese Americans And Cultural Continuity: Maintaining Language And Heritage, Kumiko Takahara

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Katheryn K. Russell. The Color Of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, And Other Macroaggressions, Calvin E. Harris

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] E. San Juan, Jr. Beyond Post Colonial Theory, Linda Delgado

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] E. San Juan, Jr. From Exile To Diaspora: Versions Of The Filipino Experience In The U.S., M.L. (Tony) Miranda

Ethnic Studies Review

Afrocentric Ideologies And Gendered Resistance In Daughters Of The Dust And Malcolm X: Setting, Scene, And Spectatorship, David Jones

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] David Delaney. Race, Place, & The Law, David L. Hood

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Stanley Nelson (Producer And Director). The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, George Junne

Ethnic Studies Review

[Review Of] Lavina Dhingra Shankar And Rajini Srikanth. A Part Yet Apart: South Asians In Asian America, Kasturi Dasgupta

Ethnic Studies Review