May

29

Whiny academic question for ya? About sociology…

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Sociology, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Update: Hey I just realized that Changeseeker is a sociologist. Which means that I actually am reading the blog of a sociologist that I don’t know personally. Yippee!!

Without doing a web search can you name a famous sociologist? or a book by a famous sociologist?? Does anybody read any blogs by any sociologists besides myself?

? My discipline has it’s PR work cut out for it, but maybe, just maybe, it’s not as bad as I think.? Hell even I have only one sociologist in my blogroll, and he’s a friend of mine.? I used to have Pub Sociology, until they quit.? Plus, they never found the need to reciprocate a link even though I posted frequently at their site.

May

28

Barnes and Noble, Books, and Blacks

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Education and Academia, Media Praises and Critiques, Original Essays and Analysis, Pop Culture, Race and Racism, Reviews-Books Movies TV Albums, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Today for my holiday jaunt into the neighborhood, I went to Barnes and Noble.? Every time I’m in the book store I checked out the sociology section, the cultural studies section, the gay/lesbian issues section, the gender/women’s studies section, and almost always the African American studies section.? Truthfully, out of all of the areas I study, my favorite area is race/ethnic studies, and within the area of race I like the Black studies the most.? But there are a few things about the African American book section that I observe in almost every book store.? The section with books about/for African Americans is loaded with three types of books–biographies, self help, and romantic fiction.? It seems to me that there is a lot more out there than these three genre’s, and I understand that there are many books don’t fit into these three groups.? However,? my guess is that the majority of the books in the African American Studies section do.?

I started at the general African American section, which was completely overloaded with biographies.? I love a good biography, but I’m a little troubled at how the stories of individual African Americans, most of whom are famous, come to represent the struggles and experiences? of an entire group of people.? I guess part of the reason I get frustrated is that I am a sociologist, and we are very much interested in general trends among groups.? It was amazing how many of my students in my African American class? had read these biographies, and had arrived at conclusions about the general experiences of African Americans based on biographical books (especially biographies of famous and powerful African Americans.

I? also saw tons of self-help books (many focused on relationships) in the Black? themed book section–Mostly how to get a man, how to keep a man, how to make a whole bunch of money, how you can be like a famous celebrity (Michael Jordan, Mohammed Ali, and Ben Carson), and of course, how to empower yourself in 30 days (LOL!!).? Many of the self help books are pseudo-biographies (Take a look at the list.).? The self help books appeal to the armchair psychologist in all of us (even though many of them are not written by psychologists), but they rarely employ sociological theories ideas or concepts.? (A side note, self help is focused on the individual, which is of course the realm of psychology.? Sociologists are more interested in the group than the individual.)? I am a social scientist, and I really want people who are not social scientists to read the books? myself and my fellow sociologists write.? I wonder what we can do to get some play in the book store.

After leaving the main African American section, I arrived at? a table called “urban romance.”? I looked down at the book covers, which certainly appeared to be Black themed books.? I had one of those “urban? isn’t a synonym for Black” moments” as a browsed over the books.? The romance novels remind me of the literary version of the Chitlin Circuit, which apparently is now being called the urban theater circuit. (I should note that rural never gets a racial connotation, although I do think suburban is frequently used as a synonym for White, but that is really for another discussion.)? I also noticed that many of the covers of the so called urban romantic fiction book did not have photos of people.? They tend to have cartoon looking covers, which seems to be in contrast to the White oriented romance novels. (I also want it duely noted that I’m not dissing the Chitlin Circuit or Black themed romance novels, I think they are valuable cultural products.)

I didn’t find one book in my browsing that was written by a sociologist in the African American themed book section.? In fact, I had my students read the following books in my African American sociology class– Black Picket Fences by Mary Patillo-McCoy, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia Rose,? Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity by Ann Arnett Ferguson,? The Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson, Beyond the Down Low by Keith Boykin, New Black Man by Mark Anthony Neal, and Hair Matters? by Ingrid Banks.? I specifically told the students that they should order the books on line because all of them except the down low book and the new Black man book? would be hard to find in the book store.? Since? a few of my? students? didn’t listen, many of them came to me saying they went all over Long Island and couldn’t find their assigned book.? With the exception of Boykin, all of these authors are academics, and their books are relatively hard to find unless you order on line.? Ferguson, Anderson, and Patillo-McCoy are all trained as sociologists, and they are all ethnographers.? Rose is trained in American Studies, and Banks is a (very rare) PhD in Ethnic Studies.? Anderson’s books can be found on the book store shelves, but for some reason they are in the sociology section, and not in the African American Studies section (at least not in the AAS section at the book stores I shop at), and the other academics books are relatively hard to find.? One reason that academics’ books (and this is true across the board when it comes to subject matter) are not popular is that they are often produced by University Presses, which don’t have the budget’s of major publishing houses.? Many of us academics also have the problem of readability.? Many academics write in exceptionally jargonistic terms, but in the books mentioned above only Rose’s book is heavily laced with post modernist jargon.? (Neal’s earlier books are extremely heavy on pomo jargon, but? New Black? Man is not.)?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the biography, self help, and romance books, but I wish there was more diversity in the African American Studies section.? (Admittedly, I rarely read fiction.) I also wish sociologists, and academics more generally, could learn to write in a way that would make sociology popular.? Maybe that would change the way our research is viewed, maybe people would actually know what the hell sociology is.? But beyond how sociology is viewed, maybe we would have different views on major social problems.? Maybe in the area of African American studies, we would get a more diverse view of African American experiences.

(Editor’s Note: I know I have a whole bunch of authors, writers, librarians, academics, and academics to be reading this blog, who specialize in these genres mentioned above and/or in African American studies.? I know y’all have to have some opinions about this.)

May

26

Indian Students Protest Raising Affirmative Action Quotas

Filed Under Class Classism and Economic Inequality, International Racism, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Protests have been breaking out in Indian Universities in response to a proposal to increase the number of quotas available to students of the lower castes in universities.? The Chronicle of Higher Education has the following quote:

The legislation, which will be considered in a session of Parliament that usually begins in late July, would fix quotas for lower-caste Hindus, known as “Other Backward Castes,” at federally supported higher-education institutions at 27 percent. That shift would increase the total number of quota seats at those institutions to 49.5 percent. Currently 22.5 percent of university seats are reserved for students from the “Scheduled Castes and Tribes” — the Indians once known as “untouchables.” The new quota would take effect in June 2007.

In particular medical students have left Universities and taken to the street in protest (i’m assuming it is? almost exclusively? the upper caste medical students who are doing this.) The US and India? differ primarily in that the US supreme? does not allow quota based affirmative action (See University of California Regents v. Bakke? 1978).? However, quotas are firmly entrenched in the Indian system.? An older article reveals how entrenched the quote based system is in India,

In much of the world, quota is a dirty word. Not so in India. For more than half a century, India has operated the most sweeping affirmative-action program in the world. The Constitution, written shortly after India gained independence from Britain in 1947, guarantees that nearly a quarter of all government jobs and student places in higher education are reserved for untouchables and members of India’s indigenous tribal groups.

But quotas, or reservations as they are known here, did not stop there. The leaders of the newly independent nation believed the system could help solve myriad intransigent social and political problems. One of the greatest concerns was that the Hindu majority would swallow up India’s religious and ethnic minorities. One way to protect their cultural identities was to allow them to set up their own colleges and professional schools. The Constitution permits them to set aside places for their own members, even if the schools are financed completely by the government. The Supreme Court, trying to bring some order to the system, recently capped the number at 50 percent.

The current protesters are mostly upper caste students who claim that the quality of their education will be compromised and that they will be shut out of opportunities (This argument should sound familiar to people, as it is commonly used here in the US.)? According to recent estimates, the lower castes make up about 80% of India’s population.? The lower castes are subdivided, and the group receving by far the worst treatment are the Dalits (aka the “Untouchables”).? It should be noted that the protesting students are not opposed to quotas; they are opposed to raising the number of quotas at such a rapid pace.? Nevertheless, the 49.5%? is still an underrepresentation of lower castes.

It is interesting to think about how other societies deal with the ramifications of past and present discrimination.? These countries can serve as models of what to do or what not to do.

Here’s a brief description of India’s caste system and it’s effects on the Dalits? and religous minorities.

May

25

Do Black Women Earn More Than White Women?

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Demography, Family Issues, Gender and Sexism, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Some time during all of the time that the Duke rape scandal first erupted there was an interesting exchange in the comments section on my blog. A reader linked to this article, which includes the following quote:

Black and Asian women with bachelor’s degrees earn more money than similarly educated white women, and white men with four-year degrees still make more money than anyone else.

Income Personal by Race and GenderMy immediate reaction was, no Black women dont earn more than White women; where does this data come from? So I decided to go to the Census data and see what it revealed. Sure enought the 2004 Census reveals similar numbers, but I was still convinced that something was wrong with this picture. Then it hit me.? What this measure does is compare all college educated men and women whether they are in the labor force full time, part time, or not at all. Are college educated Black women really faring better than their White female counterparts in the labor force? The answer is no. In fact, this is a great example of how statistics can be misread and or misleading.

In order to understand what is wrong with using this measure it is important to think about the idea of statistical controls.? These figured did not control for the woman’s involvement in the work force.? A slightly better comparision would be to look at people who are of similar education, and a similar labor force status.? So I decided to look at only those college educated workers who were in the labor force full time year round.? ? When you compare similarly situated women? and the gap between White women and Black women reverses, so White women in this position are earning more.Personal Income for FT Over 25 by race gender The table also shows that this holds true for those women with a high school education.

So what is going here? The explanation is actually simple. White women are more likely to be out of the labor force or in the labor force part time. This is largely because White women are frequently married to White men, who are the highest earners. White mens much higher incomes make it feasible for White women to be less connected to the labor force, compared to Black women.

Another interesting thing to note about these charts is the position of Black men. College educated Black men earn more than all women, including White women, but they earn less than Asian, Latino, and White men. However, this pattern does not hold true for Black men with high school or less. Less educated White women earn more than less educated Black men.

Lately, I have heard several recent discussions insinuating that Black men are in a better economic position that White women; however, I think overall White women tend to be in a better financial position than Black men. I say this because the data in the two charts above reflects personal income. The vast majority of people do not live alonethey live in households or families.. The Census Bureau defines households and families as two different sets of living arrangements. Here is a quote:

Household A household includes all the people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. Family A group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.

Since the majority of Black men are married to or living with Black women and the vast majority of White women are married to or living with White men, their living situations are probably best measured by looking at household or family measures as the two tables below do. Family IncomeThe first? table looks at family incomes for both single mother households and married households, and it is not disaggregated by education. The next table covers households. In this table I looked a four person households, and only those household where the head of household had a college degree or higher. It is evident from these tables that Black and Latinos fair particularly poorly compared to their Asian and White counterparts. While individual income is useful at gauging discrimination against individuals in the labor force, it is not as useful when examining the actually living conditions of people. The only people who this measure would be applicable to is people who live alone (this group is growing, but even many single people have roommates or others they share homes with).

? So let me get back to the main point hereBlack women are not fairing as Household Income 2004well as White women when it comes to their financial situation, and this difference cannot be explained away by the higher rate of single parenthood or lower level of education. When Black women and White have similar levels of education and a similar position in the labor force (full-time, part time, or unemployed ), White women earn more. Unfortunately, the AP report mentioned in the beginning of this article failed to take account of the fact that many college educated White women are working part time or are taking time out of the work force, especially if they have a White male partner who is a high earner. This case is a prime example of how statistics can be misleading. Many people who read that article are probably convinced that Black women are truly fairing better in the job market than White women, but it is not so.

(Sorry that the graphs are so ugly.I’m having a hell of a time learning this program.) If you want to look up data on income, the following link has the data used in these graphs.

May

25

And the American Idol winner is………

Filed Under American Idol, Pop Culture, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Taylor HicksTaylor Hicks.? I guess it’ no real surprise.? Katharine has been in the bottom on several occasions.? I have to say American Idol put on a real extravaganza tonight.? They rolled out the read carpet for Meatloaf, Dionne Warwick, Toni Braxton, mary J. Blige, and PRINCE.? Yes, I was shocked to see Prince.? This really shows how much influence this show is having on pop music when you have big time performers like this willing to perform on the show.

Here are a Bunch-O-Links (All American Idol Edition)

1. Heres an excellent story on American Idol from NPR (National Public Radio). Critic Jody Rosen says American Idol is good for pop music.? I agree.? A few years back–in the Brittany Spears era pop was so pre-packaged and image based.? Look at the American Idol winners–you have a less than thin borwn haired White woman (I know she is very thin now, but she was not as thin back then), an overweight Black man, a Black woman who was a single teen mother, and a Carrie Underwood, who I think probably fits the country pop mold.? Now we have a premature graying 29 year old, who sings the music of 40 years ago.? I think Fantasia, Ruben, Kelly, and Carrie were the best singers in their years.? I actually think Taylor was not the best singer this year–that would go to Mandisa, but I get the distinct, impression that people were voting based on his personality.

2. I also got to read this link about how race affects the American Idol competition.? I think race does influence who wins the show, but I personally think American Idol is one of the least racist shows on TV.

3. Here are two essays over at Blackprof.com–this one by Paul Butler? and Sherrilyn Ifill? ? ?

May

23

American Idol Finals–Taylor Hicks v. Katharine McPhee

Filed Under American Idol, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

So it is the final show.? Here is my review:

Katharine McPhee Black Horse in a Cherry Tree by ? KT Tunsall Somewhere Over the Rainbow Her original song was called With You

Ok, the Black Horse song doesnt quite get it for me, but she sang it nicely. ? I agree with Simon it wasnt the best song.? Now Somewhere Over the Rainbow was fabulous.? That is the perfect song for her. ? Once again I agree with Simon that is the best song for her.? (unrelatedI love her clothing choices.? Especially the yellow dress from a few weeks ago.)? The original song sucked. ? She sang it well, but the song is a little boring.? Come on now you cant just bring out a pseudo-gospel choir and think the song is going to be good.

Taylor Hicks Livin For the City by Stevie Wonder Leave On by Elton John His original song was Do I Make You ProudTaylor really got the crowd hyped up with the first.? I loved the second songit gave me chills.? I really like that song, but I like it even better in Taylors southern accent. ? Ok, so Taylors song was a little better than Katharines, but it did start out really slow. ? Ok, here goes the pseudo-gospel choir again.? I guess it works a little better with Taylor.? Judging by the audience response, and Simon, it sounds like Taylor has the leg up.

Im rooting for Taylor.? I think his advantage is that he is much better able to inspire people. ? I have to admit that the fact that he is such an underdog is why I like him. ? If you remember, Simon didnt even want to let him out of the first round in part because of his look. ? Of course, the other big reason Taylor has an advantage is because he is a southerner.no northerner or westerner has ever one American Idol. ? Only southerners have won the competition.? In fact, the state of Alabama has three contestants in the finalsRueben Studdard, Bo Bice, and Taylor Hicks (admittedly three of my favorite Idol contestants.).? I guess well see who the winner is tomorrow.

BTW–Carrie Underwood just won the song of the year on the country music awards.? Idol does seem to be turning out a few stars.

May

23

Serious question for men…..

Filed Under Demography, Family Issues, Gender and Sexism, Uncategorized | 35 Comments

Would you take a male birth control pill?? Of course, this is assuming it was as safe and effective as a female birth control pill?

What if they developed a pill that stopped (temporarily, of course) ejaculation under the guise that ejaculation was messing and unnecessary?

Are there any men out there who have the primary “burden” of birth control in their relationships?? If so how and why did you arrive at this decision? (I’m thinking here of men who have vasectomies or relationships that rely on male condoms only.)

May

23

I Want My Period, At Least Until Menopause

Filed Under Gender and Sexism, Original Essays and Analysis, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Today I had the pleasure, or should I say displeasure, of reading this article. The article notes that more and more women are taking hormonal contraceptives that are designed to stop menstruation, not for a few weeks, but for months and even years. I cant speak for anybody else, but personally I want my period. For me, my menstrual cycle is a sign that my body is functioning normally. And when I have early or late periods, especially late ones, I tend to be under stress. I am reminded how stress influences my body. What struck me about this article was the very negative description of menstruation. In particular I was struck by the notion that women of childbearing age have to endure the nuisance. Yes, nuisance is used as a synonym for menstruation in the article.

I understand that many women wish they never had a period, and I realize they are willing to use these methods to stop their periods. I think if they technology is available and women want to do it, then women should have the freedom to chose this as an option. However, I am very skeptical of the long term consequences for women. This article makes it seem as if our normal bodily processes need to be stopped or controlled by pharmaceutical companies and their surrogates–doctors. There are no conclusive long term studies on using hormonal methods to stop menstruation, so we dont know what if any are the risks of this. The article even mentions a new implantable device that can stop menstruation for three years, which concerns me a littleI certainly hope this isnt Norplant redux.

Another thing that concerns me about stopping menstruation is what actually happens if the woman does have an unintended pregnancy. How much longer would it take her to realize this? I understand that when used perfectly these methods are very effective at preventing pregnancy, but this is one of the reasons I wouldnt want to use a method that stops my period. I would be worried that I wouldnt know if I was pregnant.

But my biggest concern about these methods is that the way they are advertised. The advertising makes it seem as if our normal bodily processes are somehow bad, flawed, or deviant. Can you imagine a pill being invented that would stop men from ejaculatingthey could still have the orgasm, but not the nuisance of semen, which is really unnecessary unless you are trying to impregnate a woman. My personal belief is that a period is more than a nuisance. This reminds me of the rhetoric against breastfeeding from 50 years ago, especially the idea that science can do better than womens bodies. I am by no means trying to join the war against birth control here. I am just questioning how our (womens) bodies are portrayed.

So what do you think? If youre a woman, would you want your period to stop? How do you feel about the safety of these methods of stopping menstruation? Would you be willing to use such methods?

May

23

I need some programming help…

Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Does anyone know the code to add most recent comments to the side bar? If you know can you send it to my email or put it in the comments section, pretty please?? Thanks in advance.

May

21

The Erase Racism Carnival is Up and Running!!!

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Go check it out at Allywork!!

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