image: Ben Shahn photo of Arkansas sharecropper Creating civil and political rights for African Americans in the 1960s required courage and persistence by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. The system of Jim Crow assured subordination in fundamental rights and needs for millions of rural southern black people -- the right to vote, the right …
The March on Washington, August 1963
African-American citizens and a host of supporters made some of this country's most important history almost forty-seven years ago in the mobilization that resulted in the March on Washington in August, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his most famous speech on the occasion, and of course many of us are remembering Dr. King's …
American urban unrest
photo: Newark, 1967 Several recent posts have focused on periods of civil unrest in other countries -- France and Thailand most recently. The United States has its own history of civil unrest as well; and much of that history involves poverty, race, and cities. So it's worthwhile taking a look at some of the dynamics …
Why does unrest spread?
Why does social unrest occur and spread? This is a little bit of a trick question. It really implies three questions: What are the circumstances that make unrest in a population possible or likely? What circumstances need to occur in order to precipitate expressions of unrest in particular places? And what circumstances are conducive to …
Social construction?
It is common to say that various things are "socially constructed". Gender and race are socially constructed, technology is socially constructed, pain and illness are socially constructed. I am inclined to think that these various statements are reasonable -- but that they mean substantially different things and are true in very different ways. So it …
How can race be a cause of something like asthma?
Though I've posed this posting around the question of "race and asthma," the question here isn't really about public health. It is rather concerned with the general question, how can a group characteristic be a causal factor in enhancing some other group characteristic? Suppose the facts are these: that African-Americans have a higher probability of …
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Racial inequalities as a social science research topic
W. E. B. Dubois described the problem of the twentieth century as the problem of the color line. He was right -- except in his expectation that the problem would be resolved within the century. It has not been resolved. American cities from east to west show the encrusted social residues of racism, racial discrimination, …
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Understanding Society 