After the ‘Great White Walls’ Came Down. Debating the Ethnicity of Immigrants in Australia and the USA, 1980–1990

In 1965 and 1973, the governments of the USA and Australia, respectively, abolished their racially discriminatory immigration policies. A line had seemingly been drawn in the sand in which one's race, nationality or ethnicity would no longer be grounds for exclusion. As a consequence of these reforms, the source countries of immigrants to Australia and the USA diversified. How did politicians react to this change? This article finds that although overtly racist immigration policies had become a relic of the past, a number of mainstream politicians in both countries did not welcome the outcomes of race-blind immigration policies.     

Redefining Racial Categories: The Dynamics of Identity Among Brazilian-Americans

Research based on a sample of Brazilian youth living in Massachusetts reveals a variety of responses to racialisation of their phenotypes. Caught between the fluid patterns of colour categories found in Brazilian society and the more rigid racial stratification that characterises the USA, Brazilian-Americans have followed a variety of strategies to adapt to this situation. By exploring the reactions of these young adults of different appearance along the colour continuum to the constraints of the dominant society, questions concerning the future dynamics of race relations in the USA are raised against a background of the continuing post-racialism debate.     

Racial/Ethnic Composition and Violence: Size‐of‐Place Variations in Percent Black and Percent Latino Effects on Violence Rates

According to racial invariance positions and mainstream sociological perspectives on race and crime, race differences in structural conditions should account for most if not all of the racial composition (or percent black) effect on aggregate‐level violence rates. However, prior research (mostly conducted prior to 1990) generally provides mixed or contrary evidence for this position, showing instead that greater concentrations of blacks are linked to increased violence even after accounting for racial differences in socioeconomic conditions. The current study uses recent data and a novel unit of analysis to go beyond extant research in two ways. First, we include percent Latino in our examination of the extent to which both racial and ethnic composition effects on violent crime rates are mediated by racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic disadvantage. Second, we test whether racial/ethnic composition effects are conditioned by size of place, through the use of census places as a uniquely varying unit of analysis. We find that both black and Latino composition effects are partly explained by controlling for structural conditions (especially structural disadvantage), but this characterizes smaller places much more than the largest, most urbanized places.     

Kids Talking About Race: Tween‐agers in a Post‐Civil Rights Era

Our research examines how American children understand and talk about how race matters in their everyday lives. We draw on interviews with 44 middle school children who attend schools in an integrated county‐wide system and find that while some use color‐blind rhetoric, most children in our study know that race matters, while they offer alternative accounts for why and how. Some explain race as social inequality, while others offer cultural accounts of racial differences. Our analysis suggests that for white children, gender matters; more girls describe racial inequality than boys. For children of color, class seems to be key, with middle‐class children giving cultural explanations, including negative evaluations of others in their own racial group. We use an intersectionality framework to analyze the alternative and complex narratives children give for their own experiences of race and race relations between peers.     

The Public Secrets of Welfare

The discourses surrounding the abolition of the federal welfare system provide an excellent opportunity to investigate instances in which people cling to erroneous beliefs in the face of clear proof of error. Gendered and racialized stereotypes abound in public discourse about welfare, and it is tempting to assume that those stereotypes remain in play because alternative information is not available. This article shows that in a survey of editorial coverage just before and after the 1996 federal welfare law change, ample corrective information was available, but certain features of the discourse remained consistent despite such correctives, for example, sympathy for children at the expense of blaming their mothers and the belief that the welfare system then existing was too generous. What, then, could help to explain the attachment to error and to unsupported beliefs? One productive approach is to apply Taussig's (1999) concept of the “public secret”: that is, something generally known but not explicitly acknowledged, which gains in force each time it is revealed. In the welfare context, two such public secrets can be found: (1) that the welfare system is harsh and punitive; and (2) that race and gender bias pervades that system as well as the wider social terrain. This article traces the revelation and reestablishment of those two public secrets, thereby offering an explanation, at the social level, for subjects' attachment to certain forms of error.     

A Diverging Trend in Marital Dissolution by Income Status

Was the divorce plateau of the 1980s experienced by people of all incomes? Using the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation, this study (N = 13,131) examined if there was a significant income class difference in marital dissolution within 10 years of first marriage and if this difference increased from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The findings indicated that there was a significant income class difference in marital dissolution and that the difference was growing during the study period. Whereas the dissolution rates of higher income women had gone down, the rates for women with the lowest incomes had significantly increased, especially for Black women after the 1980s, indicating a diverging trend in marital dissolution by income status.     

Rwanda's ‘Hutsi’: intersections of ethnicity and violence in the lives of youth of ‘mixed’ heritage

This article looks at young Rwandans of ‘mixed’ Hutu–Tutsi heritage, exploring how their mixed identity shaped their experiences during the 1994 genocide and how it influences their everyday experiences of categorization and belonging in contemporary Rwanda. It reveals the complex position of these young ‘Hutsi’ and the significant constraints they face in exercising identity choices in a context with a history of ethnic violence and where state policies have outlawed ethnicity. This article argues that the experiences, narratives and performances of these young Rwandans simultaneously challenge and reinforce the binary ‘ethnic logic’ that persists in contemporary Rwanda. Yet it suggests that providing space for Rwanda's ‘Hutsi’ and their diverse experiences could help to de-essentialize the categories ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’ and reduce the risks of future violence.     

Age at Entry into Prostitution: Relationship to Drug Use,Race, Suicide,Education Level,Childhood Abuse,and Family Experiences

This study seeks to explore factors related to age at entry into prostitution. Participants were 389 women arrested for prostitution who had attended a diversion program. Women who entered prostitution as minors were found to be more likely to be African-American; report having a family member with a substance use problem; have a history of attempted suicide; and not have completed middle or high school. The age at first drug use was found to significantly impact the reported age at entry. Key areas for intervention should include improving school connectedness and preventing adolescent substance abuse, specifically for African-Americans.     

Violent Crimes and Racial Profiling

Abstract

This paper considers racial profiling as it pertains to violent crimes both as a criminal justice issue and as a mental health issue. It attempts to determine if violent crimes associated with the index of violent crimes are endemic to one or several specific demographic groups of the general population. Risk factors for specified violent crimes are hypothesized. It presents research involving regression analysis of data for the city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is used because of its recent history of being challenged by violent crimesleading the nation in homicides in the years 1998 and 2001 (ignoring deaths associated with September 11, 2001). Results indicate that the identified violent crimes in terms of prevalence are not endemic to a racial or ethnic group, given this sample. Apparently, the over representation of African Americans in prisons may be in part the results of biases in the criminal justice system. Recently, the state of Illinois and Cook County have been forced to reform judicial proceedings.     

Influence of Age on Transracial Foster Adoptions and Its Relation to Ethnic Identity Development

In the United States, ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in the foster care system and underrepresented among potential adoptive parents. The need to find permanent homes for foster children has led to an increase in the controversial practice of transracial adoption (TRA), wherein ethnic minority children are placed in adoptive homes with Caucasian parents. While many child welfare scholars and dependency stakeholders support TRA as a positive alternative to foster care, others are concerned that such adoptions may inhibit the ethnic identity development of transracially adopted children. This article documents the large number of ethnic minority children who are adopted through TRA prior to the onset of ethnic identification and how age influences which children are adopted out of foster care. The findings indicate that young ethnic minorities are significantly more likely to be adopted through TRA compared to older children, an effect especially prominent among African Americans. Implications for the child welfare system are discussed.