Race-Related Correlates of Young Adults' Subjective Well-Being

We investigated how often young adults worry about race relationsand whether they perceive that white/black relations have beendeteriorating. We also explored the relationships betweenrace-related worry and pessimism, and subjective well-being. This study addressed the distribution of race-related worry andpessimism, and their relationship to subjective well-being innational probability samples of high school seniors completingself-administered questionnaires in 1996 and 1997 (n = 4,514). Nearly one-third of high school seniors often worry about racerelations, and about 20% perceive that contemporary white/blackrelations have been getting at least a little worse. Worryingoften about race relations and perceiving that race relationshave been getting worse were significantly associated withdiminished levels of life satisfaction and happiness. Theresults confirm that race-related worry and pessimism werecommon, and that they impact youth's affective and cognitivestates.     

Educational Cultural Negotiators for students of color: a descriptive study of racial advocacy leaders

The research presented in this study focuses on Educational Cultural Negotiators (ECNs). The participants were teachers, administrators, and graduate students in an after-school program in the Midwest and a community-based school/university partnership in the Western U.S. We posit that the roles of the ECNs function as advocacy leaders to invoke racial affirmation, and academic intervention on behalf of African-American and Latina/o students at these school sites. Relying on critical race theory as the methodological analysis of the findings, this study seeks to identify the role of the ECNs as advocates for students in these settings to promote their academic and personal growth and success. This work illustrates how these particular educational leaders provide academic direction and challenge racial neglect and color-blindness within the public school system.     

The absence of ‘race’ in German discourses on Bildung. Rethinking Bildung with critical race theory

This paper investigates the impact of mostly implicit convictions about ‘white supremacy’ and racist ideas in traditional and recent theories of Bildung which is a central educational concept in Germany. Concepts of Bildung describe processes of individual self-formation. It will be argued that the notion of Bildung is still very important in academic and public discourses on education in general and on educational inequities in particular. It will be argued that the concept of Bildung focuses on a certain understanding of the subject which does not take into account structural inequities in terms of diversity, even though it is omnipresent in discourses on education and diversity in Germany. To show how deeply ingrained in philosophical and political ideas a racialised concept of Bildung is, selected works of Kant, Hegel and Wilhelm von Humboldt on education on the one hand, and on ‘race’ on the other will be analysed by using Critical Race Theory. However, despite this critique concerning the inherent ‘white’ supremacy, the critical potential of Bildung is worth recognising by formulating a critical race perspective on Bildung.     

What’s left unsaid? In-group solidarity and ethnic and racial differences in opposition to immigration in the United States

Do racial and ethnic characteristics of non-immigrants play an important role in shaping attitudes toward immigrants in the U.S.? Using a 2010 survey experiment representative of the U.S. general population, this paper examines differences in opposition to immigration by the race or ethnicity of the respondent. By manipulating the amount of anonymity offered to respondents, the experiment allows explicit opposition to be distinguished from implicit opposition, which offers unique insight into the extent to which opposition is masked. Consistent with theories of in-group solidarity, we find that Hispanics, who comprise nearly half of all immigrants in the U.S., overtly express a less restrictive posture, which, relative to Black and White respondents, is not significantly masked. In contrast, White and Black respondents only overtly express more openness to immigration. When offered absolute anonymity, opposition is significantly and substantively greater. The implications are profound in that differences in the extent to which opposition is masked, rather than overtly expressed, fundamentally patterns racial and ethnic differences in opposition to immigration in the U.S.     

Economic Americanness and defensive inclusion: social location and young citizens’ conceptions of national identity

What does it mean to be ‘American’? Drawing on in-depth interviews with 76 undergraduates attending elite universities and 72 teenaged citizen children of immigrants living in mostly low-income households, we identify understudied economic narratives of Americanness: as future-oriented economic opportunities for elite undergraduates or stratified notions of current economic condition among immigrant-origin teens. We also find, depending on social location, that economic notions of Americanness overlap with other boundaries: whiteness for some immigrant-origin youth, and civic membership for elite undergraduates. Elite students place themselves at the centre of Americanness; immigrant-origin youth, even though they are U.S. citizens, sometimes place themselves outside these symbolic boundaries. Still, youth in more disadvantaged social locations sometimes appropriate markers of Americanness in strategies of what we call ‘defensive inclusion’, employing symbolic boundaries of hard work, multiculturalism and birthplace to contest perceived social boundaries of race and class that might exclude them from the core of ‘Americanness’. Our findings suggest that researchers should include measures of economic national identity in future survey-based work and examine discursive practices of defensive inclusion in fieldwork.     

东胡到鲜卑檀石槐时期的政权演变

东胡族是与匈奴、月氏大体处在同一历史时代的古族。从东胡与匈奴、燕国发生的各种交往及其对控制地区的管制等情况分析,东胡族已经建立了与匈奴对峙的政权。后来,东胡族虽然被匈奴击败,但其原属部众逃往鲜卑山及大鲜卑山者自称鲜卑,他们在匈奴政权衰落之后统控北方草原大部分地区。其中,具有一定规模的鲜卑游牧政权出现在东汉末年,影响较大的是鲜卑檀石槐政权。     

在冲撞中感悟——关于《撞车》(Crash)的读解和分析

《撞车》在第78届奥斯卡上击败呼声很高的《断背山》夺得最佳影片大奖,引起了各界的关注。对影片的叙事策略、人物塑造,以及由其主题所迁延出的美国种族问题进行分析,可以从几个不同的角度来认识这部作品。     

Issue Conclusion: Sociology,Political Inequality,and Democracy Beyond 2020

The articles in this special issue all contribute to a broader and richer understanding of racial and gender politics. They help reveal how racialized and gendered barriers to political participation reflect and reproduce intersecting racialized and gendered systems of domination. In doing so, they provide insights that can be applied to uncover political processes, cultivate political praxis, and draw our awareness to empowering modes of social and political transformation. Given all this, I propose a renewed sociology of political inequality that focuses on advancing democracy. This agenda includes (1) emphasizing the state of democracy over the state of political party competition, (2) highlighting how democratizing social change happens at various levels, (3) developing and practicing empirically grounded public advocacy, (4) seeing social and political structures are interconnected, and (5) employing sociology in the service of democracy.