Race, Ethnicity and Immigration

Liebow, Eliot. 1967. Tally's Corner. Boston: Little Brown and Company.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Ethnography of the work and family life experiences of poor, black street corner men in DC. He advances a structural, rather than cultural, explanation for poverty and joblessness. He argues, in contrast to prevailing views, that the street corner men do not have a unique culture or value system, they hold the same values as mainstream society but are seen through the prism of repeated failure, so it seems as if they have a different culture (refusing work, leaving wives, not caring for children) and are not future-thinking. However, their structure of opportunity is limited and prevents them from fully realizing those values. Unable to deal with the private reality of failure, men increasingly turn to the street corner where a shadow system of values constructed out of public fictions serves to accommodate men, permitting them to be men again provided they do not look too closely at one another's credentials. The street corner is his way of trying to achieve many of the goals and values of the larger society, of failing to do so, and of concealing his failure from others and from himself as best he can.

Cornell, Stephen, and Douglas Hartmann. 1998. "2. Mapping the Terrain: Definitions." In Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World, 15-40. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Cornell & Hartmann argue that racial and ethnic forms of categorization are distinct and include two different processes: ethnicization and racialization. Argue that race is specifically a group defined on the basis of perceived commonality of physical characteristics (though this is not determined by biology often) and ethnicity is a shared sense of common ancestry among a group. They argue that there is a distinct difference between race and ethnicity as race often originates from classification by a dominant group and ethnicity often is asserted by the group members themselves. Emphasize the key difference as being that race typically reflects power relations (domination of one group over another), and is assigned by others whereas ethnicity is often self-ascribed.

Sharkey, Patrick. 2013. Stuck in Place. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-4, 7.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Falls in line with the Wilson, Massey & Denton conversation. Extends Massey & Denton's argument by adding the mechanism of inherited disadvantage. He argues that the problem of urban poverty in the post-civil rights era is not only that concentrated poverty has intensified, and racial segregation has persisted but that the same families have experienced the consequences of life in the most disadvantaged environments over multiple generations. Finds that when white families live in a poor neighborhood, they typically do so for only a single generation and when they live in a rich neighborhood, they usually stay there for multiple generations. However, 2/3 black children raised in poor neighborhoods continue to live in poor neighborhoods as adults. Argues that the effects of living in severely disadvantaged neighborhoods accumulates over generations - more severe than consequences of living in poor neighborhood at one point. It could take 5 generations to move from the bottom quarter of neighborhoods by income to the median neighborhoods by income. Emphasizes the importance of tracking neighborhood effects over time and not just as a snapshot. Argues that neighborhood inequality is incredibly durable which helps to explain why mobility out of the poorest neighborhoods may be even less common than mobility out of individual poverty. Suggests place-based investments that are durable and able to withstand changing political climates.

Anderson, Elijah. 2000. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. NY: W.W. Norton and Co. Chapters 1-3.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Focuses on the social and cultural dynamics of interpersonal violence that undermine the quality of life in Philadelphia. Anderson argues that interpersonal violence is a problem plaguing the poor, inner-city black community and that the inclination to violence is a result of lack of good jobs, public services (e.g. police), racism, and the increase in drug trafficking and use. He frames his study with the typology of "decent" and "street" residents to describe the social and cultural character change that has occurred as a result of shifting economic and structural dynamics in the inner-city. He argues that a "code of the street," has emerged because of the alienation of inner-city blacks from the mainstream economy and a lack of faith in the police and judicial system. This code is an informal form of social control, particularly violence, that is largely defensive and necessary for street survival. Even those families that are "decent" though opposed to the code, often reluctantly encourage their children's familiarity with it in order to enable them to negotiate the inner-city environment". These children are skilled at "code switching" between street and decent mannerisms.

Lacy, Karyn R. 2007. Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Lacy draws on ethnographic work of 3 middle class neighborhoods in the DC area to explore how the core black middle class, and the elite black middle class negotiate issues of racial identity and status. She finds that the black middle-class experience is not monolithic, that identity construction varies based on economic status and neighborhood context of respondents. She develops the idea of strategic assimilation to describe how this group manages their multiple identities, seeking to both adapt to requirements of mainstream work life, while maintaining cultural ties to black identity, especially emphasizing black culture for their children. With her concept of strategic assimilation, she emphasizes that previous assimilation theories have not considered blackness as a potentially positive thing in people's lives. She also describes their strategies for dealing with whites in public spaces and work, documenting how public identities and boundary making are used to set themselves apart from black underclass and manage racial discrimination. She focuses specifically on shopping, housing searches, and in professional workplaces. She also looks at boundary making within class as well, finding that the elite black middle class draws boundaries between itself and the core BMC. Her ethnography shows greater heterogeneity in black middle-class experiences than previous studies have accounted for.

Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. 1999. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-2, 4-6, Conclusion.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Pattillo challenges Wilson's argument that the black middle class abandoned the underclass and moved on to better things. Also addresses the fact that Wilson never discussed the conditions of where the black middle class went. In an ethnography of a black middle-class neighborhood in Chicago, Pattillo demonstrates how the BMC has not, in fact, fled far from the poor inner city, but has largely come to occupy neighborhoods between poor blacks and more affluent whites. These neighborhoods are more economically diverse, though racially homogenous after white flight, and most black live in this type of moderate to middle income neighborhood. She shows the fragility of black middle-class status, which is exposed to greater social problems than comparable white neighborhoods and more vulnerable to economic changes. She argues that parents, business owners, churches, etc seek to maintain control over crime and disorder through the use of the strong family and friendship ties that typify the community. Because of their close proximity to disadvantaged neighborhoods compared to whites, the BMC is more exposed to crime and disorder than their white peers. Also finds instances where close social ties actually inhibit informal social control due to plurality of associations among residents which confuses and complicates social control efforts. Because black kids grow up closer to poverty they are more vulnerable to street life.

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. NY: Routledge.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Key thesis is their racial formation theory. They emphasize the centrality of race in American society and propose a perspective based on the concept of racial formation to understand changing U.S. racial dynamics. Argue that historically race has been an unstable system of social meanings and has been constantly transformed by political struggle. Racial formation is a result of macro (racial policy, collective action, political challenges etc.) and micro-level processes by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed. Racial formation is the process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings. Importantly, race is the central axis of social relations. "The theory of racial formation suggests that society is suffused with racial projects, large and small, to which all are subjected. Racial formation, therefore, is a kind of synthesis, an outcome, of the interaction of racial projects on a society wide-level". Argue that current neo-liberal race projects (colorblind policy) have fostered the neglect of issues of race by conceiving of race in narrowly bipolar terms (black-white) and downplay the continuing significance of race.

Massey, Douglas and Nancy Denton. 1993. American Apartheid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-5, 8.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects They are joining the conservation Wilson started with his seminal work The Truly Disadvantaged. Massey & Denton refocus the conversation on urban poverty and the black underclass to include the role of residential segregation that they argue is the key mechanism perpetuating poverty, inequality, and racial discrimination. Residential segregation remains quite high, with more than 1/3rd of blacks experiencing hypersegregation unlike any other group. They argue that segregation creates and perpetuates urban poverty by concentrating black Americans into neighborhoods which are more acutely vulnerable to economic downturns and are then caught in spirals of decline. They argue that the current residential segregation was intentionally created and maintained through systematic and persistent structural housing discrimination. They historically analyze the role of housing policies and discriminatory practices (redlining, FHA loans, racial violence, white flight etc.) in creating segregation. The key takeaway is that residential segregation is the linchpin in creating the urban black underclass, because without racial segregation, the effects of economic downturns would not devastate the black community to the extent seen in the 1970s. Disputes Wilson's assertion that the out-migration of the black middle class was crucial in creating the underclass he witnessed, instead arguing that although this out-migration may have occurred, the creation of the black underclass was inevitable given the combination of extreme racial segregation and the economic downturn, with or without the stability of the black middle class.

Emerson, Michael, Karen Chai and George Yancey. 2001. "Does Race Matter in Residential Segregation? Exploring the Preferences of White Americans." American Sociological Review 66:922-35.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects They ask: Does race play an independent factor in residential segregation? Or does it only come into concern as an influence once we consider associated factors (crime, violence, poverty etc.)? Used statement controls when posing the hypotheticals to respondents, telling them the hypothetical crime rate, violence rate, and property values as a way to isolate racial bias. They use a nationally representative telephone factorial analysis that analyzes factors that may influence the likelihood of buying a house, treating racial composition as an independent variable and including Asian and Hispanic neighborhoods as well as black n=1,663. The authors find that independent other factors, black neighborhood composition has a significant influence on whites' likelihood of buying a house, whereas Hispanic and Asian composition do not. Above 15% is where the scale starts to tip toward not-likely to buy, Supports Schelling's model- whites with a lower preference for blacks move out of integrated neighborhoods making space for more blacks to move in, and then even the whites that do prefer a few blacks in their neighborhood move out after the tipping point. Found an additional interaction effect with interacting children under the age of 18 with likelihood of buying a house in black neighborhood.

Farley, Reynolds, Charlotte Steeh, Maria Krysan, Tara Jackson, and Keith Reeves. 1994. "Stereotypes and Segregation: Neighborhoods in the Detroit Area." American Journal of Sociology, 100(3): 750-80.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects They summarize changes in the racial residential preferences of blacks and whites to test the hypotheses by Massey and Denton that relate the use of stereotypes to their preferences for white neighborhoods. Find that preference for living amongst own kind has decreased in recent past, but that whites still prefer to live in majority white neighborhoods. Stereotypes link white preferences to discriminatory real estate practices in a way that helps to explain the persistence of segregation in the Detroit area. The results show a link between whites' racial attitudes and their residential preferences, but it is a complicated one. The majority of whites who said they would move away when blacks came did not invoke racial stereotypes, their primary explanation was fear of declining housing values. However, these may be guided somewhat by racial stereotypes. Evidence supports Massey and Denton's position that stereotypes contribute to the persistence of residential segregation, since whites who endorse negative stereotypes were more likely to say they would flee integrated neighborhoods and were less likely to consider moving into them. Most commonly cited reason for moving would be declining property values, with the second cited reason being crime, violence or drug problems. All of which they associate with blacks moving in. Their findings suggest that segregation levels would remain high even if real estate dealers and lenders complied with fair housing laws because both races would seek neighborhoods where they would feel comfortable.

Anderson, Elijah. 1990. Streetwise: Race and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-3, 5, 8.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects This book is an ethnographic study of two neighborhoods in Philadelphia, The Village and Northton. Anderson creates a typology for understanding how the diverse residents of these two neighborhoods are able to get along with each other and utilize the same public spaces. He argues that there is actually very little interaction between blacks and whites, unless they are of the same social class. Anderson outlines features of both the white, middle class and black, lower class cultures. He focuses more heavily on the lower-class black culture in Northton. Anderson describes the emergence of these two cultures as splitting from a more singular orientation that existed during a stronger manufacturing sector. The decline of manufacturing has caused many individuals to move out of the city in favor of the suburbs. He argues that the residents of Northton have not been as successful in negotiating this economic transition. He argues that the rise of the drug trade has filled the void left by the manufacturing sector. He argues that this street culture is alluring to many youth, and that many youth at least dabble in it. As a result of the rise of street culture, youth no longer respect the wisdom of "old heads," that is older figureheads in the community, but instead idolize figureheads of the street culture which he refers to as "young heads". Anderson argues that residents use "street wisdom" as "a way of negotiating day-to-day actions and interactions with minimum risk and maximum mutual respect in a world full of uncertainty and danger. Important themes: social isolation, neighborhood social cohesion, social disorganization, and social capital.

Wilson, William Julius, 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-3, 5, 7.

Community, segregation, neighborhood effects Wilson focuses on the flight of the black middle and working classes (along with other demographic shifts) and the loss of jobs as key explanatory variables for increasing poverty rates in black neighborhoods and the perpetuation of poverty. He argues what is most important to consider in understanding the lives of the black "underclass" is the lack of social and economic opportunities, social isolation, and concentration effects (i.e., effects of broader social and economic trends that are not caused by contemporary racism). Wilson's key ideas are 1) social isolation, the flight of black middleclass and deteriorating conditions in underclass communities have led to isolation of these communities, as families and individuals within them have become increasingly socially isolated from mainstream patterns of behavior 2) effect of concentrated poverty, the social transformation of the inner city has resulted in disproportionate concentration of the most disadvantaged segments of the urban black population, creating a social milieu significantly different from the environment that existed in these communities several decades and 3) social disorganization, the same inner cities several decades earlier were much more socially organized. Included in Wilson's "underclass" are inner-city segments of the black urban community who are outside the mainstream of the American occupational system. This includes individuals who lack training and skills and either experience long-term unemployment or are not members of the labor force, engaged in street crime, and families that experience long-term spells of poverty and/or welfare dependency.

Horowitz, Donald. 2000 [1985]. Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 2nd Edition, 41-54. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Argues for an inclusive concept of ethnicity that embraces differences identified by color, language, religion and other attributes of common origin. Horowitz argues that even color differences are unreliable signs of ethnic identity and can be changed and that there are a host of other visible rank signs (behavioral, posture, language, grammar) that can be used as cues of ethnic group. While no cue is wholly reliable, there is a spectrum of ethnic cues, that collectively sort how categorization occurs. Argues that the distinction between color and other forms of ethnic identification derive from failure to distinguish between ranked and unranked systems of ethnic relations. What matters is to differentiate between ranked and unranked systems.

Wacquant, Loïc. 1997. "For an Analytic of Racial Domination." Political Power and Social Theory 11: 221-34.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Argues that we need to move beyond a reflexive history of racial discourse and proposes instead for an analytic of racial domination, a conceptual apparatus to help us understand relations of racial subordination that assume in different time and place. This would allow us to capture the nature of racial divisions along with symbolic and material mechanisms whereby racial divisions are drawn, produced, and enforced. The problem with focusing on "racism" is the analogy of the trial, that we are somehow "condemning" a person or group of racism, but we shouldn't be trying to attach blame but rather understand the mechanisms that produce, reproduce and transform domination. Argues that we shouldn't place discourse at the center of our inquiry but rather the procedures and techniques aimed at directing person's conduct. Wacquant proposes instead that we abandon the search for one overarching concept and instead address racial situations into five elementary forms of racial domination: 1) categorization 2) discrimination 3) segregation 4) ghettoization and 5) racial violence.

Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ch. 1 & 3, pp. 7-27, pp. 64-87.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Argues that we need to move beyond thinking about ethnic "groups" as taken for granted, real, substantial things in the world. Brubaker challenges essentializing groups and uncritically accepting these categories in our analyses. Instead, we must acknowledge the performative character of these categories as an ongoing process of ethnicization and racialization, emphasizing the malleable nature of the conceptual variable. Argues that scholars are guilty of "groupism" or taking for granted 'groups' as discrete, bounded categories, or facts of social life. Brubaker argues instead for a cognitive approach to studying race and ethnicity focusing on understanding, interaction, framing experiences etc. We have to understand the mechanisms by which these categories are reproduced daily to understand ethnicity, race and nation.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 1997. "Rethinking Racism" American Sociological Review, 62: 465-480.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Bonilla-Silva's key takeaway is the thesis of a racialized social system. By system he refers to the economic, political, social and ideological levels in society that are structured by actors in racial categories. He argues that our social system is built on a structural foundation of racism in that all social relations are hierarchical. Argues that the current framework for thinking about racial issues focuses too much on "racism" and individual ideas and ideologies, rather than looking at structure and how racism shapes life choices. Racism refers only to the ideologies that exist within a larger racialized system.

Loveman, Mara.1999. "Is Race Essential" American Sociological Review, 64: 891-898.

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Loveman's primary argument is we should eliminate race as a category of analysis and focus instead on the processes that go into the creation of racial categories and these symbolic boundaries in the first place. Directly responding to Bonilla-Silva's article, agrees w/ Silva about the importance of understanding mechanisms, causes and consequences of "racial phenomena" but disagrees that a structural theory of racism is not the best approach. Argues that the important empirical question we should ask is: whether and to what extent systems of classification, systemic stratification and social injustices buttressed by ideas about "race" is historically distinct from "ethnicity" and "nationality" discourse. Loveman suspects the answer will reveal that race is a less significant signifier. Proposes a comparative sociology of group-making approach to studying symbolic boundaries (categorization) and the processes and consequences of groupness. Gives priority to the relational construction or the dissolution of boundaries rather than the substance on either side of the boundary.

Barth, Fredrik. 1969. Introduction to Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. "Introduction."

Conceptual issues: race, ethnicity, intersectionality Barth takes an interactionist approach to studying boundary maintenance and group formation. Differentiates between how groups are defined, and what is included within those boundaries. Barth introduces the analogy of a vessel to clarify the difference between the shape of the vessel (the boundary) and the things that are put into the vessel. We should not assume that these boundaries are not contested by individuals within the drawn boundaries, or by individuals attempting to cross or straddle the boundaries. Importantly, challenges to boundary creation and maintenance shape the boundaries themselves. Also, we cannot assume that what is contained within boundaries are necessarily internally homogenous or accepted on the part of the individuals being identified by the boundary. Instead, Ethnoracial boundaries are the result of ongoing interactions and ascriptions between actors operating within a broader structure.

Alba, Richard and Victor Nee. 2003. Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Ch. 1 & 2.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Alba and Nee aim to provide new ways to theorize assimilation in such a diverse and ethnically dynamic society, arguing that the experience of current immigrants is different than the historical, ideological, economic and social contexts that influenced old wave immigrants such that different forms of assimilation such as transnationalism, segmented assimilation and acculturation are now possible. Attempt in theory to remedy the problems with the traditional assimilation theory: the ethnocentrism, the idea that assimilation was inevitable, the belief that assimilation does not affect the mainstream group, ignorance of agency and purposive action of individual actors. Their theory suggests that assimilation occurs through causal mechanisms stemming from purposive action of 1) individuals and social networks shaped by the forms of capital the group or individual possesses (proximate) and 2) deeper, institutional structures such as firms, labor market, or the state (distal). Alba & Nee draw distinctions between boundary crossing, boundary blurring and boundary shifting, which they argue assimilation of immigrant groups has involved all three. Boundary crossing corresponds to the classic version of individual-level assimilation, someone moves from one group to another without any real change to the boundary itself. Boundary blurring is where the social profile of a boundary has become less distinct, and the clarity of the social distinction involved becomes clouded. Alters the order of ethnic stratification. Finally, boundary shifting is the relocation of a boundary so that populations once situated on one side are now included on the other: former outsiders are thereby transformed into insiders.

Gonzales, Roberto. 2011. "Learning to be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood." American Sociological Review 76: 602-19.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Examines through life history interviews with 150 Mexican 1.5 generation immigrants how they come to experience their statuses as undocumented and the effect that has on their life outcomes and sense of identity. Explores three stages in the life course: discovery, learning to be illegal, and coping with illegality. His findings emphasize the importance of the role of the state and immigration policy in mobility and incorporation into the mainstream for immigrant children. Finds that regardless of educational attainment, extrafamilial mentors, financial support for college, and factors traditionally required for the success of student populations, the legal status renders traditional measures of mobility irrelevant. Emphasizes that the successes of these immigrant children rests in the hands of the state and policy allowing US-raised young adults to be upwardly mobile. Moreso than simply affirming segmented assimilation theory these findings emphasize the role of the state and immigration policy in the importance of successful integration. For these immigrants, mobility is blocked by the lack of a legal status that renders traditional measures of mobility by educational progress irrelevant.

Joppke, Christian. 2005. Selecting by Origin: Ethnic Migration in the Liberal State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ch. 1 & 5.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Joppke shows that historically, ethnic migration has appeared in different forms, with varying degrees of: 1) discriminatory direction, for example negative targeted exclusion of groups versus positive encouraged of groups 2) justifications 3) selection mechanisms and legal infrastructures, and 4) pressures and types of conflict surrounding it. Selection mechanisms and legal infrastructures force the liberal state to define and constitute social groups which conflicts with liberal principles of public neutrality and equality. Joppke argues that ethnicity has placed a reduce role in immigration policies compared to the past indicating that liberal norms have circumscribed what states can do in this area. The de-ethnicization of contemporary liberal state is most visible in what the state does to and expects of migrants once they have passed the selection hurdle. Citizenship laws have moved from residence to birth as the main attributive mechanism of state membership and this evaluation of territorial citizenship has said that states owe human rights obligations to individuals who are vulnerable to their exercise of sovereign power, adding territorial elements to previously ethnic citizenship laws. Nationality laws have also become de-ethnicized due to increasing toleration of dual citizenship, which breaks with the logic of the classic nation-state, where you could only belong to one state at a time. De-ethnicization has become hallmark of Western states' policies of immigrant integration and has helped bring multiculturalism into existence. Emigration reveals all states to be ethnic in a temporal sense and the presence of national minority points to spatial dimension of ethnicity.

Portes, Alejandro and Min Zhou. 1993. "The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530: 74-96.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Seeking to explain how new second-generation immigrants' experiences are different from adult first-generation immigrants in the immigrant community post 1965 immigration act. Specifically, addressing why the traditional notion of assimilation leading to upward economic mobility is not necessarily true anymore. Unlike previous European immigrants, new age immigrants may not have the benefit of assimilating into white middle-class America because they face different skin-tone discrimination than previous immigrant groups. Authors propose theory of segmented assimilation to explain how different immigrant groups' experiences differ. They find three primary patterns of assimilation amongst the new 2nd gen groups 1) traditional integration into white middle class 2) downward integration into the underclass, opposite the traditional assimilation, leading to downward mobility and poverty 3) middling- rapid economic achievement based in strong ethnic ties and community value, solidarity and ethnic preservation. By analyzing the experiences of Haitians, Cubans, Mexican Americans and Punjabis the authors show how the location of the immigrant, their skin color, mobility ladders within the ethnic group, the strength of the ethnic group, and the social context (political relations between host and receiving) all impact that immigrant experience. Different groups have different profiles of vulnerabilities exposing them to negative consequences of assimilation. For some ethnic groups, remaining entrenched in coethnic communities rather than being representative of escapism or poor assimilation may be a strategy toward upward mobility that allows 2nd gen immigrants to capitalize on otherwise unavailable material resources. Each ethnic group has a different "profile of vulnerabilities" and cannot be treated as uniform in the strategies they apply--hence the theory selective/segmented assimilation.

Gans, Herbert. 1979. "Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America." Ethnic and Racial Studies 2:1-20.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality There has been renewed interest in ethnic identity in America, but Gans argues this is not due to an "ethnic revival" that in fact acculturation and assimilation continue to take place. Rather, today's ethnics have become more visible as a result of upward social mobility of ethnic groups, and a new kind of selective ethnic involvement that does not require entire cultures or organizations, but instead relies on the use of ethnic symbols—symbolic ethnicity. Gans defines symbolic ethnicity as a nostalgic allegiance to the culture of the immigrant generation that can be felt without having to incorporate it into everyday behavior. As the function of ethnic cultures and groups diminish and identity becomes the primary way of being ethnic, ethnicity takes on an expressive rather than instrumental function in people's lives, becoming more of a leisure-tie activity and losing its relevance on labor and family life. White ethnics have increasing agency in choosing their own ethnic identities rather than having ethnic identities ascribed. Along with this comes increasing freedom in how individuals choose to express their ethnic identities, which Gans argues is becoming increasingly individualistic.

56. Fox, Cybelle, and Thomas Guglielmo. 2012. "Defining America's Racial Boundaries: Blacks, Mexicans, and European Immigrants, 1890-1945." American Journal of Sociology 118 (2): 327-79.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality This article draws from census data from IPUMS as well as historical documents from both legal and business institutions to see considerations that went into boundary drawing within multiple arenas. They are attempting to assess the brightness (unambiguous and widely accepted) or blurriness (less recognizing, less institutionalized) nature of various racial boundaries. They do so by looking at two dimensions: social closure and how boundaries are linked to individual's life chances, and social distance or how those boundaries are felt by the individual. They emphasize that boundaries are not static conditions but change from blurred to bright over time, and also shift by expanding or contracting. Additionally, individuals can move along or across boundaries and gain membership into a different bound group. The compare the boundaries of blacks, Mexicans, and Southeastern Europeans. They argue the boundary between black and white is bright and has long been established and institutionalized but the extent to the boundary influencing life chances has varied over time and space (ex. bright in slavery, but blurred post-civil war, bright in Jim Crow era, blurred in affirmative action era). They find that no boundary ever separated SEE from whites, but a fairly bright boundary separated Northwestern Europeans, but has blurred over time. They show how the boundary between Mexicans and Whites was both blurry and bright, with different census classifications at different points in time and also with whiteness varying spatially and contextually depending on location, darkness of skin/color, and their socioeconomic status.

Kim, Jaeeun. 2011. "Establishing Identity: Documents, Performance, and Biometric Information in Immigration Proceedings." Law & Social Inquiry 36 (3): 760-86.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality This article focuses on the micro-politics of identification in immigration through examining struggles over family-based immigration in South Korea between the State and Korean Chinese migrants. Kim focuses on how bureaucrats and migrants mobilize various "identity tags" to evaluate or establish the authenticity of the claimed family relationship. Official documentation - the identity tag the state originally relied on - proved difficult to provide. Even "legitimate" migrants had difficulty proving their status. As a response, migrants undermined the efficiency and legitimacy/symbolic power of the state (they blind the state) in two ways: (1) they challenge the artificiality of official state documents (their intuitive sense of entitlement conflicts with state documentation practices) and (2) sham marriages act to mimic state documentation practices through creating their own papereality. Kim shows this "identity fraud" by migrants was a "weapon of the weak" (quoting J.Scott) in that it was a mechanism they used to sabotage and reshape state agendas without directly confronting the state. The three identity tags she identifies as key instruments of family-based immigration are: (1) official documentation (2) public demonstration/performance and (3) biometric information. Kim argues that these identifications are not merely technical means to establish/verify an external reality (i.e. family relationship) but when migrants & bureaucrats struggle over identification authenticity it is a struggle over particular understandings of personhood, entitlement, belonging.

Waters, Mary C. 1999. Black Identities: West-Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Chapters 1-3, 5, 9.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality This book examines social process of identity construction among West Indian immigrants and their children with special attention to immigrant experiences in work, school, and the neighborhoods and institutional resources available them. Waters highlights the heterogeneity of immigrant identities (by race, class, gender, age) and emphasizes the structural bases for people's identities—identity as an outcome developed to match experience more than as a causal force. She argues that West Indians and their children elect to adopt black, ethnic, or dual identities in response to experience, elaborating on segmented assimilation theory. She identifies three groups of identity 1) Black Americans - perceive their lives as tied to the racial barriers found in the United States. Often poor and urban, youths reject immigrant parents' disdain for black Americans and perceive that among blacks' better qualities is the willingness to "work hard and struggle" 2) Ethnic identified - emphasize their Caribbean background to distance themselves from black Americans. Predominantly middle‐class, perceive that whites treat them better than they treat blacks, and feel their ethnic values give them a better chance to be successful 3) Immigrant identified - juggle both an ethnic identity and accept of being black in the United States.

FitzGerald, David Scott, and David Cook-Martín. 2014. Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ch. 1& 2.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Though it was believed that democracies needed racist policies to protect their citizens and democracy itself, today racial selection of immigrants has become taboo. The authors ask: why have racial selection policies fallen from favor, and why did that process take longer in the most liberal-democratic country of the U.S.? The U.S. considers itself to be historically liberal and democratic nation yet the gap between abstract principles of universal equality and the conjoined histories of liberalism and racism especially in the U.S. is puzzling. The authors argue that previous attempts to explain the paradox fall short. Their coexistence cannot be explained as a temporal anomaly of two incompatible phenomenon when leading exemplar of liberal democracy persisted in application of ethnic selection and exclusivity. Similarly, these are not inherently linked ideology as demonstrated by the demise of ethnic selectivity in immigration laws since WWII. Finally, these are not just separate traditions that have coincided historically because historically these ideals have been linked and sometimes encourage one another. The authors suggest a three-dimensional, histo-comparative model. They focus on 1) vertical dimensions- interactions within a country, policy making and political struggles 2) horizontal dimensions- struggles between and across countries competing for resources over time 3) temporal dimension- that current preferences are not path dependent, but they are shaped by policies of yesteryear. Using a temporal model, they analyze long-term mechanisms of path reinforcement. Amongst the mechanisms they discuss are negative discrimination such as outright bans on entry or immigration quotas, and positive preferences such as assisted passage, higher quotas, exemptions from requirements enforced against other groups. Authors find that historically governments have used various means to select by ethnic origin even if the law is ethnically neutral on its face. One thinly disguised method of ethnic selection has been to pass laws that prefer ethnically "assimilable" immigrants or ban those that are "unassimilable."

Tilly, Charles. 1998. Durable Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ch. 5.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Tilly focuses on the Italian-American economic niche of landscaping firms in Mamaroneck, NY to explore how durable categorical inequality is created. Tilly specifies between two different types of categories of difference. Interior categories (unique to a given institution) and external categories (race, sex ex.) When external categories are already established and matched to these internal differences it makes it easier to uphold the boundaries and strengthens already established internal boundaries. The 2 mechanisms that help maintain boundaries and promote durable categorical inequality are exploitation and opportunity hoarding. Opportunity hoarding is defined as when the members of a categorically bounded network retains access to a resource that is valuable, renewable, subject to monopoly, supportive of network activities, and enhanced by network practices, such as information hoarding and sharing only with closely connected others. These networks also serve to enhance and sustain ethnic identity, and prevent members from accessing other economic opportunity, which thus leads to durable categorical inequality, as members fill the same social positions as their parents, rather than experiencing upward mobility. The installation of categorical boundaries in organizations produces unequal distribution of rewards (accumulate into differences in human and social capital- people have different skills and develop different social tie—shape social personhood) and those differences in resources produce actual different results in performances which create unequal rewards.

Jiménez, Tomás R. 2008. "Mexican-Immigrant Replenishment and the Continuing Significance of Ethnicity and Race." American Journal of Sociology 113 (6): 1527-67.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality To understand the differences in the assimilation processes of European ethnics and Mexican immigrants, Jimenez examines the role of durable immigrant flows as a central factor in shaping ethnic identity formation and racial/ethnic boundaries. He argues that immigrant replenishment impairs the ability of Mexican Americans to experience ethnicity as symbolic and optional, despite indications of structural assimilation. He argues that immigrant replenishment reinforces intergroup boundaries, because non-Mexicans reject Mexican-origin population on nativist and racialized grounds, which both distances the groups and also encourages Mexican Americans to embrace ethnicity. The visibility of continued immigrant flow incites nativism amongst non-Mexicans which in turn causes respondents to internalize this nativism and come to identify with immigrant's plight. The immigrant replenishment reinforced both intergroup boundaries- distinctions between Mexican Americans and non-Mexicans, and also Intragroup boundaries- where Mexican Americans have in-group policing and pose challenges to other Mexicans' authenticity. Mexican immigrants define "authentic" Mexican ethnicity, and Mexican Americans are treated as ethnic outsiders when unable to live up to that criteria. Jimenez notes how immigrant replenishment, along with greater racial diversity and legal status, distinguishes the experiences of Mexican Americans from European ethnics, and argues that the role of immigration flows in ethnic identity must be further explored.

Ngai, Mae. 2004. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chapters 3-6.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Using Filipinos, Japanese, and Chinese as case studies, Ngai illustrates her two central points—that illegal alienage is not natural, but the product of positive law, and that legality and illegality are negotiated and malleable categories. When the U.S. acquired the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, statehood was unthinkable because the inhabitants were considered alien races. Filipinos were deemed U.S. nationals, which did not give them traditional rights, but did allow them to emigrate to the U.S. However, they were assigned notions of racial primitiveness, thereby stripping them of their Americanness and ultimately overturning benevolent assimilation. In this way, they became alien in the U.S., despite having some formal right to the land. In contrast, the Japanese internment camps demonstrate the conflict over alien citizenship and the malleability of citizenship as a legal status category and a political-subject identity. The U.S. government never formally stripped Japanese Americans of their citizenship, but it nullified it on grounds of racial difference, presuming them all to be inclined to disloyalty. Lastly, the Chinese Exclusion Act and resulting paper sons again show the malleability of illegal and legal alienage and the creation of categories through the law. Chinese exclusion laws (1882-1943) barred Chinese from entering the U.S. with few exceptions (merchants, students, treaty traders and diplomats) however, many gained entry by posing as persons who were legally admissible, with fraudulent certificates claiming to be American citizens by native birth or China-born sons of U.S. citizens. Chinese immigrants invented a system of illegal entry built entirely upon a paper trail derived from the state's own efforts to enforce exclusion.

Lee, Jennifer and Frank D. Bean. 2004. "America's Changing Color Lines: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Multiracial Identification." Annual Review of Sociology 30: 221-242.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Using census and interview data, Lee and Bean explore whether the increases in immigration, rising intermarriage, and multi-ethnic identification increases have moved the US beyond the black-white color line. They assess whether the U.S. racial divide is best characterized as a black-white divide, a white-nonwhite divide, or a tri-racial hierarchy. They find that racial boundaries are not blurring or fading evening for all groups and that for blacks, a rigid color line continues to exist and is associated with racial stigma. Latinos and Asians on the other hand are more likely to report multiracial identifications. Lee and Bean found that Asian-whites and Latino-whites felt much more freedom to choose their identities, either identifying as multiracial or even white. Important to how a person self-identifies is their perception of how others identify them. African Americans felt constrained in their ability to choose their identity by the fact that they knew outsiders would consider them to be black. Upward mobility and skin-color (the ability to "pass" as white) were important factors in defining ethnicity as voluntary and optional. However, as Lee and Bean illustrated, economic mobility does not allow African Americans to achieve a white status. Thus, the existing color-line appears to actually be a black/non-black rather than a white/non-white line.

Pedraza, Silvia. 2000. "Beyond Black and White: Latinos and Social Science Research on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in America." Social Science History. 24: 697-726.

Immigration and boundaries of race/legality Work on Latinos combines the research traditions of studies on immigration and assimilation and studies on ethnicity and identity, revealing the ways that Latinos shape and are shaped by American society. The future potential of this literature lies in its ability to incorporate both structural and individual-based perspectives of migration. Assimilation theory focuses on the processes of acculturation and assimilation by which newcomers become like the dominant population (white) but overlooks the interesting aspects of immigration - the experiences of a separate life in another country and culture that immigrants bring with them while living out life in a new society. Latinos play an important role in the regional histories of the US, particularly the southwest and west, and play intermediary roles in racial struggles and geo-political conversations. Latinos have also played an important role in the study of work and industry (especially agriculture, organized labor, garment industry, domestic service, and ethnic enterprise). Finally, Studying Latinos as a category adds depth to understanding of residential segregation and poverty.

Glick Schiller, Nina, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc. 1995. "From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration." Anthropological Quarterly 68(1):48-63.

Migration Theories and Transnationalism Outlines the new concept of transmigration based on observations that a growing number of immigrants are best understood as trans migrants whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state. They maintain connections, build institutions, conduct transactions, and influence local and national events in the countries from which they emigrated. Argues that transmigration has arisen in response to destabilizaing forces of the restructuring of global capital, racism, and the extension of political loyalties beyond national borders. Gives evidence of politicians extending their reach to migrant constituents and striving to redefine national territory as a social space that exists outside of the bounds of the physical nation-state. Transnational migration is the process by which immigrants forge and sustain simultaneous multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies or origin and settlement, simultaneously embedded in more than one society.

Pedraza, Silvia. 1991. "Women and Migration: The Social Consequences of Gender." Annual Review of Sociology. 17: 303-325.

Migration Theories and Transnationalism The role of women in migration has been neglected due to the pervasive assumption that international migrants are young, economically motivated men. However, evidence shows that legal immigration to the US has been dominated by women for the last half century. Argues that sociological studies of migration wrongly treat gender as a variable instead of as a central theoretical principle. Gender plays a key role in the decision to migrate and can provide the necessary linkage of micro (agency) and macro (structural) levels of analyses of migration. Focuses on questions of how gender is related to the decision to migrate, what are the patterns of labor market incorporation for women immigrants, and what is the relationship between the public and the private. Emphasizes that the experience of immigration or emigration is different for women than it is for men and affects the private and public lives of women--including labor force participation, self-esteem, marital satisfaction, mental health-- in different ways than it does men. Often immigration was a more positive experience for women than for men, being a source of liberation and allowing them to break free from traditional roles. Suggests that future studies treat gender as a primary identity and central organizing principle rather than a control variable or secondary analysis.

Telles, Edward E. 2004. Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1-4, 7.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making This book was a historical and quantitative analysis of Brazilian censuses, national household surveys, and attitudinal surveys. Previous literature on Brazil's race relations are split about how Brazil is characterized by both exclusion and racial mixing. Telles sets out to examine this seeming paradox. There were 2 pillars of Brazil's racial ideologies around miscegenation and Brazil's unique race relations: 1) Brazil's ideology of whitening based on scientific fears that extreme miscegenation in Brazil was perpetuating its underdevelopment and 2) the ideology of racial democracy as a source of national pride and racial superiority on a global scale. He argues that the US way of thinking about race is not appropriate for thinking about race in Brazil because our primary issue is the "color line" and segregation, and in Brazil there is no clear color line instead racial labeling is more situational. Ethnic fraud is not as clear-cut in Brazil and people of mixed origin could even be considered white. The racial purity of "white" is absent in Brazil but black is still heavily stigmatized. The term "moreno" is great example of how Brazilian racial democracy ideology works to avoid placing people in stigmatized "black" category. Racial categorization is more about color in Brazil. He uses the idea of horizontal versus vertical relations of inequality horizontal to describe race relations. Horizontal referring to the social distance between blacks and whites (adaptability, integration, social relations) and vertical inequality referring to hierarchies of relation (class inequality and economic, discrimination). Telles argues we can better understand race relations in Brazil by separating out horizontal and vertical relationships and paying attention to variations by geographic location.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. "Identity and Representation: Elements for a Critical Reflection on the Idea of Region." In Language and Symbolic Power, 220-28. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making Bourdieu makes an argument against the objective nature of seemingly neutral, or scientific categories of classification. He discusses 2 overlapping themes of construction and production in region analysis and discourse. He rejects that geographical classifications (census tracts, blocks etc.) are objective and argues that the drawing of these boundaries was still a social process and is often overlooked as such. Argues that the act of categorization itself is an exercise of power that the person who names a thing into existence both has power to be recognized and their speech acknowledged, and that they are successful in their performative discourse shows the authority of that person. In categorizing, the categorizer modifies the object of study in a non-neutral way.

López, Ian Haney. 2006. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York: New York University Press. Chapters 1, 2, 3.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making In this article, Lopez analyzes how the legal institution constructs race and the legal system's role in the attainment or frustration of social justice. Lopez focuses on three primary ideas in this article: the law as coercive, the law as ideological, and the role of judges. He argues that the law is coercive, shaping physical appearance through naturalization, immigration and anti-miscegenation laws. He argues the U.S. is a white country by design, not by accident. Legal rules establish material conditions which often code for race (ex. Citizenship, segregation laws). The law is also ideological and helps to legitimate race as normalize racial categorization. It lends support to the notion that races are biologically real, and a necessary system of classification. Lopez argues that the law fosters continued legal reliance on rigid racial categories, the paradox of vindication for minorities within the system of classification that generated the inequality in the first place (reifies the existence of racial categorization). Finally, Lopez addresses the role of judges and the question of whether or not the racism within the legal system is implicit or explicit, or whether it actually matters. He argues that to assume that the racism is explicit implies that judges are cynical manipulators and recognize the racism (somehow out of the system) and conceal their intentions intentionally. Instead, judges, like us, operate within the system of unconscious racism. He argues that unconscious racism maintains socially constructed notions of race through the mis-application of neutral laws.

Nagel, Joanne. 1995. "American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Politics and the Resurgence of Identity." American Sociological Review 60: 947-65.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making Nagel explores why there was such a sharp rise in individuals reporting to be American Indian on the census between 1960 and 1990 (when the explanation isn't an actual increase in the population size via births/ immigration). She uses interviews and analyses of public oral histories of American Indian activists during this time to argue ethnic renewal occurred during this time. Ethnic renewal is a re-traditionalization of the ethnic category and a reconstruction of the community and institutions associated with American Indians. In all, she attributes this renewal to political processes. She argues that there were three political forces that gave rise to this ethnic renewal. 1) federal Indian policy created the possibility of a "new" Indian population through a battery of federal policies that encouraged assimilation, movement to urban areas, learning English, and the creation of intertribal organizations. These policies fostered a younger generation that was in urban centers where there were small Indian populations which set the stage for pan ethnic associations. 2) the ethnic politics of the 1970s and the civil rights movement encouraged ethnic consciousness and fostered ethnic renewal and mobilization of urban Indians. 3) Indian political activism encouraged renewal in the forms of increased pride. Red Power movements were fostered on ethnic pride and supra-tribal identification. This encouraged young adults in urban centers to more closely align with their ethnic identity.

Okamura, Jonathan Y. 1981. "Situational Ethnicity." Ethnic and Racial Studies 4 (4): 452-65.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making Okamura argues for a situational ethnicity approach to understanding ethnic relations. He argues that scholars should approach ethnic study by merging both cognitive and structural aspects of study. He cites Barth as the premiere cognitive scholar to ethnic studies. The cognitive dimension refers to how the relevance of ethnicity is situationally defined. The subjective perspective of the situation and the salience an actor gives ethnicity during interaction (actors understanding of cultural meanings, signs, symbols, ethnic identity and self-ascription, categorizing others) define ethnicity. Ethnicity is also structural which refers to the objective organizing conditions that constrain the individual actors (setting, political and SES constraints) of ethnicity. By situational ethnicity Okamura means that particular contexts may determine which identities a person's communal loyalties lie or are appropriate at a given time and setting. Argues that the structural perspective takes precedent over the cognitive dimension, critiquing Barth as overstating the autonomy actors have in interactions and not focusing enough on power and structural constraints.

Paschel, Tianna. 2010. "The Right to Difference: Explaining Columbia's Shift from Color-Blindness to the Law of Black Communities." American Journal of Sociology 116:729-69.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making Paschel explores the strategies the Afro-Columbians used to gain institutional recognition on the basis of ethnic differences as an example of her broader argument that social movements with regard to race and ethnic equality, make use of specific political openings to gain rights. In the case of the black Columbians, the black population negotiated with the Columbian government to entitle Columbia's black population to 2 seats in the House, land rights, and mandatory incorporation of their history in educational curriculum. Paschel shows how the Afro-Columbian movement capitalized upon an opportunity opened up by politics of the state, namely the demands on the Columbian state for a constitutional reform process. Taking advantage of the political unrest and faltering legitimacy of the state, the black Columbians were able to make demands on the state that without the political opening would not have been possible. She contends that such policies have been adopted throughout the region due to a convergence of global and domestic factors. In examining the case of Colombia, she found that domestic state disequilibrium converged with changes in global policy norms to provide both the material and the discursive openings that Afro-Colombian activists seized to make successful claims on the state. Overall she argues for the importance of understanding both domestic-level policies and global politics to understand social movement frames.

Mora, G. Christina, 2014 "Cross-field Effects and Ethnic Classification: The Institutionalization of Hispanic Panethnicity." American Sociological Review 20 (10): 1-28.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making There was a shift in the U.S. Census Bureau's classification of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans as white (as late as 1969) into classifying these Latin Americans in a new-Hispanic category as its own panethnic classification. Mora examines how this shift occurred and what were the struggles that emerged between state and non-state actors. Mora extends a relational organizational analysis to the subject of classification, drawing from archival, interview, and media data. Mora examines the relational processes that unfold across state and non-state arenas at the meso-level (falling between micro and macro at the organizational or community level). In this article she focused on three key organizational mechanisms, 1) boundary spanning networks -the way organizations respond to external shocks by forging links outside their field with advisory boards and consultants— 2) transposition—process of taking resources and practices from one organization and incorporating them into another to generate frames that leaders can use strategically— 3) ambiguity and analogy—analogies allow firms to make links between new classifications and existing classifications to make the new ones seem more familiar and acceptable. These 3 mechanisms explain how cross-field effects take hold. By cross-field Mora refers to how organizational changes in one field, spark changes in another, which in turn reinforce the original changes in the first organization. The analysis is structured around three firms: The U.S. Census, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and Univision Communications Corporation. In her analysis she shows how the interaction between the census bureau, activists and media executives forged links, shared resources, and developed communication tools for the common purpose of communicating the idea of Hispanic panethnicity and crystallizing the category (although each group's motivations were different).

Snipp, Matthew C. 2003. "Racial Measurement in the American Census: Past Practices and Implications for the Future." Annual Review of Sociology 29: 563-88.

Racial/ethnic classification and boundary (re)making This article is an example of the political implications of census data and also makes evident the malleability and non-neutral status of categories of difference. Snipp argues that census data is shaped by the political climate of the time. Snipp gives an account of the historical development and changes of the census measurements of race and ethnic categories. He highlights how these changes both result from and respond to political pressures, and also create changes that are important for shaping how the public thinks about race and ethnicity. Important examples are the shift to self-identification, directive no. 15 (establishing an official racial cosmology in the US), increased importance of formula funding, and aggregation of data (hypodescent). Implications for the future: Issues for temporal comparability (changing categories makes hard to compare across time), impact of measurement error (response variability and classification error- more categories make it more likely people will change the way they identify), substantive interpretability (we don't know how people think and what meaning is in their choices of identification, how people choose how to identify).

DuBois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. NY: Dover Thrift Editions. Chapters 1-10.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism There were two primary themes within this book, the first being emancipation and the aftermath and the second being black leadership and community. DuBois outlines the failed possibilities of the Freedom Bureau which was never properly carried out or funded and how it failed to stand up to the white backlash of emancipation. Details the difficulties and hardship of labor in the cotton fields and how historical oppression has stunted current progress. Argues that intellectual contact/education is the place of greatest potential for growth and development for both races. Focuses on education as key to improving the black position, disagrees with Booker T. who advocates for vocational type training rather than higher education and disregarding politics. He introduces the concept of the veil which refers to 1) to the literal darker skin of Blacks, which is a physical demarcation of difference from whiteness 2) white people's lack of clarity to see Blacks as "true" Americans and 3) blacks' lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and prescribes for them. This third point leads into his concept of "double-consciousness" which is an awareness of both being American and black, and the interaction between these two identities. There is also the sense of always looking at yourself through the eyes of others.

Hochschild, Jennifer. 1995. Facing Up to the American Dream. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1-7.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism A black-white comparison, as well as class differentials within racial group comparisons of opinions on mobility possibilities using major survey data from 1940s-1990s. Conceptualizes the American Dream ideology using 4 tenets, 1) Everyone can participate 2) Reasonable anticipation of success 3) Success results from actions under one's own control and 4) Success is virtuous and honest. Together they amount to a view of radical individualism and belief that failure is of one's doing (blaming the poor for being poor). Hochschild finds a paradox existing that whites are more sure than blacks that discrimination is not a problem, believe much progress has been made for blacks and they can control their own destiny, but whites are less optimistic about their own future. Blacks hold exactly the opposite beliefs. Blacks are pessimistic about their racial groups mobility because they feel whites control the mobility processes, but they feel confident about their individual mobility (more so even than white individuals). Blacks believe the American dream to be true at an individual level, for them personally, but not on a collective level- for their entire race. Furthermore, blacks who are poorer tend to be more optimistic for mobility than blacks that are more well-off. Hypothesizes this is because wealthier blacks are less likely to be segregated from whites and are thus more likely to have interracial interactions and see how discrimination functions.

Morris, Aldon. 2015. The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Morris shows how racial prejudices and the scientific racism movement amongst white American sociological elites kept DuBois' work from receiving credit due. DuBois' sociological studies of African Americans could be used to discredit the dominant sociological and popular doctrine that blacks were fstuck at the bottom because nature made them inferior. Morris argues that DuBois and the Atlanta school, rather than Parks and the Chicago school were actually the first scientific school of sociology and were the first school to emphasize advanced methodology and empirical study (e.g. Philadelphia Negro). DuBois also emphasized the role of human agency when other sociologists were intent on establishing themselves as a "real" science by searching for some universal truth or law that governed human behavior. Additionally, DuBois focused on patterned social structure and spatial patterns (segregation) as well as emphasized structural factors (economic exploitation, lack of education, lack of political power) rather than racial inferiority as driving inequality. Thus, making him the first social constructionist. Morris considers DuBois to be the first public sociologist, emphasizing the importance of a political sociology. DuBois major theoretical contributions: the study of black agency and black achievement, study of spatial patterns, racial attitudes and prejudice, social constructionist approach to race, intersectionality (interactions between race, gender and class), black criminology.

Smith, Sandra Susan. 2007. Lone Pursuit: Distrust and Defensive Individualism among the Black Poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism An ethnography involving 100+ in-depth interviews in Michigan with black men and women between 20-40 with no higher education than GED or high school. Smith attempts to fill the gaps in previous literature on black joblessness, working within an existing body of literature that has sought to explain black unemployment through macro-level explanations such as discrimination, changing structure of urban economy, and cultural deficiencies. These theories, she argues, fail to capture the level of interaction that occurs during job seeking processes. Smith focuses on the interpersonal relationships between job-seeking and job-holder and the dynamics of trust, distrust, cooperation and non-cooperation, and individualism that exist between these two parties. Finds a serious amount of distrust between job-seekers and job-holders. Job-seekers engage in defensive individualism strategy- knowing how they were viewed by others and negative traits associated with them by job-holders the job seekers became defensive and reject help even when offered. Job-holders felt that job seekers were too unmotivated to accept help or worried about jeopardizing their own positions. Important interaction here with neighborhood environment that among the employed of low-poverty neighborhoods, greater social capital was associated with a willingness to assist. However, among the employed of high-poverty neighborhoods, greater social capital was associated with reluctance. Also, important gender interaction that men were far more likely than women to express great reluctance to seek assistance or to accept help when offered, in part because men had much greater difficulty protecting themselves and their sense of masculinity from suggestions that they were undeserving failures.

Bobo, Lawrence, James R Kluegel, and Ryan A. Smith. 1997. "Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology." In Racial Attitudes in the 1990s, (eds) Steven Tuch and Jack Martin. Westport, Conn: Praeger. pp. 15-42.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Argue that African Americans are uniquely disadvantaged in the American polity to this day, despite arguments that racism is waning or that the US is a colorblind society. Although surveys show that there has been increased support for racial equality and a decrease in racial attitudes, surveys also reveal that the action and active support for policies such as integrative housing, affirmative action is still low. Authors believe much of this is related to a denial of social responsibility in the US and resistance to the belief that discrimination persist. The authors explore the historical explanations for shifts in thinking from Jim Crow social order to Laissez-Faire racism. They argue that the reason race relations shifted from JC social order to LF reflects changes in the needs/interests of social groups in power. Changes in attitudes is linked to people's everyday lives and interests that people hold. That JC racism declined in the waning political and economic need for that type of racist ideology but LF racism remains.

Bonacich, Edna. 1972. "A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market." American Sociological Review. 37 (October): 547-59.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Defines a split-labor market as one where there is a large differential in price of labor for the same occupation. The price differential is not a response to race/ethnicity but rather results from differences in resources and motives which correlate with ethnicity. Challenges Marxist/non-Marxist writers that racial and cultural differences prompt the development of ethnic antagonism arguing instead that economic processes are more fundamental. Ethnic antagonism is a response to a labor market split along ethnic lines. It involves conflict between three groups: lower-wage workers, higher-wage workers, and business/employers. Ethnic antagonism can take two forms: exclusion and caste-systems. Exclusion attempts to prevent the physical presence of cheap labor and attempts to prevent the ethnically different group from participating at all. Caste-system depends on ethnically different groups, and involves monopolizing acquisition of skills, preventing general training/education, and weakening politically.

Frankenberg, Ruth. 1993. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. University of Minnesota Press. Chapters 1-6.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Discusses common themes and discourses amongst white women (many of whom identified as feminists) and how they thought about race, racism, and their own white identity. This book is set in the background of the second wave feminist movement as race and exclusion of black women from this space was becoming increasingly a part of the discourse. RF discusses three primary historical progressions of thinking about race: essentialism, color blindness, and race cognizance. Race cognizance refers to the acknowledgment that color does make a difference in people's lives. She makes clear that she is not arguing that these are smooth or unilinear progressions but that they are responded to one another and constantly referring back to racial essentialism from which race difference stems definitionally. She identifies how 30 women in the bay area engage with racial essentialist discourse and how their social geographies, sexual and intimate relationships with other races, and parenting of "mixed" racial children shapes how they experience race. Important concepts: "social geography of race", the ethnic mapping of environments in physical and social terms and how people mapped their selves (the social distance between the white women and people of other races) and "color evasion" which is similar to colorblindness where people tend to use "bracketting" to differentiate true racists from other people who may be a little racist but are really "good" people, use hyperboles and euphemisms to avoid speaking about race and differences of power, and fail to acknowledge structural inequality and the difference race makes in people's everyday lives.

DuBois, W.E.B. 1996 (1899). The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Chapter 1-13, 15, 16, 18.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism DuBois captures a comprehensive picture of the blacks living in the 7th ward of Philadelphia, including occupations, families, relation to whites, income, poverty, health and education. DuBois noted that while there were extensive social problems in black neighborhoods, these problems were directly related to historical legacies of racism and slavery that severely constrained the opportunities and environment for blacks. Du Bois finds that the environmental conditions of the 7th ward greatly affect the potential outcomes for blacks. Argues that slum neighborhoods are not a fact but a symptom, the cause of which often lies outside the neighborhood walls, and that we need to look at historical social relations, neighborhood conditions, and environmental conditions that shape opportunity in order to understand the "negro problem."

McDermott, Monica and Frank Samson. 2005. "White Racial and Ethnic Identity in the United States. Annual Review of Sociology, 31:245-61.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Review of the literature conducted on white racial identity to this point, rather than white ethnic identity. Focuses specifically on collective action and white supremacy movements, the invisible nature of the white identity, how the white identity varies contextually and is not at all static. Shows that much of the study of white identity has been focused on social responsibility. Importantly, whiteness is a good example of the shifting boundaries and malleability of racial identity. White supremacist organizations work to delineate white identities, construct boundaries and frame differences as absolute. Whiteness is a good example of race as situationally-defined. The white experience very much depends on context and their perceptions and experiences of being white (ex. whites in Detroit likely to have more salient experience with race than whites living other places). Also, a person's experience with whiteness depends on how this identity intersects with other held identities and how those affect the privilege experienced (ex. White and gay). Finally, who has been considered white is not constant historically or contextually. Suggests future studies navigate between the long-standing privilege that exists with white identity and the malleable nature of the white experience.

Skocpol, Theda and Vanessa Williamson. 2013. The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapters 1, 2, 6.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Skocpol and Williamson examine the rise of the Tea Party and show how the movement grew not just out of the mid 2000s economic decline, but was ultimately most directly sparked by the election of President Obama and a Democratic Congress. Just because the tea party is a recently popular political group does not mean these members were not previously involved in politics or that they are new political actors. Many of them were engaged in the conservative party prior to their involvement in the tea party. They show that Tea Partiers are largely older, educated, middle class, staunchly conservative whites. Contrary to popular belief, the TPers should not be considered swing voters, they are always conservative, even when not agreeing with the republican party. Tea Partiers range from true libertarians (those with more emphasis on fiscal conservativism and a desire to leave the moral and social realm out of the government) to social conservatives, with many Tea Partiers expressing contradictory views about government. In particular, they support social programs that help the deserved, while fighting to slash funding for programs for the "undeserved." TPers are asserting a desire to restore a remembered American Dream. Many share the belief that hard work is no longer fairly rewarded in America and that government redistribution skews the rewards and costs of the free market, though they believe public benefits should be distributed based on moral worth. Again, the idea of supporting equality of opportunity but not equality of outcomes.

Bobo, Lawrence and James R. Kluegel. 1993. "Opposition to Race Targeting: Self-interests, Stratification, Ideology, or Racial Attitudes?" American Sociological Review 58:443-464.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism The article is attempting to examine why, despite racial prejudice amongst whites has decreased, the general support for social policies has not increased and remains low. They hypothesize that this hinges on whether the policy or program is explicitly race-targeting or opportunity enhancement/outcome focused. Uses data from the 1999 GSS. They find that race-targeting diminishes white support for the social policy across the policy spectrum- this effect is even larger when the policy aims to equalize white and black outcomes. Find strong support for group-interest hypothesis that whites will not benefit as a group from these targeted programs and thus do not support it. Also find that race-targeted programs trigger more racial prejudice and attitudes than income-based policies. In sum, race-targeting matters and matters more when dealing with outcome equalizing policies. Largely explained by group-interest motivations. Find that people generally support equality of opportunity but not equality of outcome.

Wilson, William J. 1978. The Declining Significance of Race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Racial/ethnic relations and racism Wilson is writing in response to the culture of poverty thesis and following the Moynihan Report, seeking to explain the persistence of poverty amongst African Americans from a structuralist/Marxist approach. His central argument is that different stages of race relations are structured by the unique arrangements of the economy and the polity. Wilson argues that different systems of production and arrangements of the polity impose different constraints on the interactions b/w different racial groups. He focuses on three key time periods. 1) pre-industrial, explained by orthodox marxist theory 2) industrial, explained by split-labor theory and 3) modern industrial. Wilson argues none of the current race theories are sufficient to explain relations in the modern industrial era. He argues that modern industrial marks progressive shift from race to class inequalities with the recognition of blacks in unions, improvements in segregated labor market, and the creation of class cleavage amongst black population. In MI period, economic and political changes have made economic class affiliation more important than race in determining black prospects for occupational advancement. He argues that the black experience is no longer a shared one but is instead split into a black underclass and a black educated and professional class. This thesis has been highly criticized.

Young, Alford A. Jr. 2004. The Minds of Marginalized Black Men. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Stratification/ inequality The main goal of this book is to uncover black men's worldviews on issues of mobility, opportunity, and future life chances. Ethnography of black men living on Chicago's west side. Young grounds his analysis in cultural sociology and ethnographic study attempting to introduce a new cultural framework of analysis. Focuses on meaning-making and the content of worldviews and how these shape behavior and individual agency. The theme of social isolation and deprivation of social capital were dominant themes through the chapters with the key argument being made that exposure to the social world outside their immediate neighborhood most affected their framing strategies regarding social mobility and personal mobility. Although all the men emphasized individualism and American Dream factors as being important, the ones with greater social contact outside the Near West Side were more likely to also emphasize stratification, racism, discrimination as barriers to employment. Found that all men lacked enough proximity with those in social power to give them an understanding of how to overcome these structural barriers. Young's main conclusion is that social isolation not only deprives the men of job opportunities but also the ability to interpret that which extends beyond their social milieu. The men lacked an understanding of the changing work world, realizing that work opportunities had worsened but not realizing this was because the types of jobs they were most qualified for, low-skilled labor had been replaced by white-collar type jobs. The lack of stable employment not only left them chronically unemployed, but left them with a decreased capacity to make sense of the world.

Pager, Devah and David Pedulla. 2015. "Race, Self-Selection, and the Job Search Process." American Journal of Sociology, 120:4, pp.1005-1054.

Stratification/inequality A study using a sample of 2,910 black and white working-age people who were actively pursuing employment to measure the number of jobs a person applied for and the types of jobs (categories) of which they applied to assess whether black job seekers were self-selection out of certain jobs. They found that rather than self-selecting, black job seekers engaged in net-widening, increasing the number of jobs applied. They hypothesize that job seekers are generally aware of employment discrimination but lack knowledge about where it occurs or how to pinpoint it, thus they widen their search to maximize encounters with non-discriminatory employment opportunities. They do find self-selection occurring amongst women which they theorize has to do with discrimination in the gendered labor market being more settled and predictable than racial discrimination. Thus, women have more knowledge about which jobs they are more and less likely to experience discrimination and self-select accordingly. The breadth of job search is linked to higher chances of finding a job, but lower wages offered which may help to explain the wage gap.

Conley, Dalton. 1999. Being Black, Living in the Red. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Stratification/inequality An analysis of PSID data analyzing the black-white wealth gap. Argues that the many differences between blacks and whites stem not from race or culture but from economic inequalities that have accumulated over the course of American history, that then shape culture. He finds that race had no direct effect on the children in the youth cohort's wealth, but that the most significant predictor of youth wealth was parent's net worth, followed by the individual's own income. Important descriptive statistic, that the median white family assets were worth 15x those of the median blacks in 2007. Conley argues that disparities in assets (property, stocks, bonds etc.) help to explain variation between blacks and whites in other areas, such as educational attainment, that in the past may have been attributable to "race alone." Argues that the intergenerational transmission of poverty and affluence is more strongly influenced by parental assets (net worth), or class, than by race, though those assets are indirectly influenced by history of racism. The racial discrepancy in wealth holdings leads to advantages for whites in the form of better schools, more desirable residence, higher wages, and more opportunities to save, invest, and thereby further their economic advantage. Wealth provides whites with better protection during economic depressions. Blacks on the other hand are more vulnerable to financial ruin in times of financial emergencies. Suggests class-based affirmative action rather than race-based.

Bertrand, Marianne and Sendhil Mullainathan. 2004. "Are Emily and Brendon More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?: A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination." American Economic Review.

Stratification/inequality An audit study using fictitious resumes and measuring call-back differentials between black and white-sounding names to assess race discrimination. They find a 50% gap in callbacks. White names receive 1 callback in 10 resumes sent whereas black names receive 1 callback in every 15 (the equivalent benefit to about 8 additional years of experience). The quality of the resume has a 30% improvement of odds for whites but much less significant effect for blacks. Thus, the gap between white and black names widens with quality of resume. These findings indicate racial discrimination based on racially perceived names, that black names chances do not increase with skill acquisition or credentials.

Royster, Deirdre. 2003. Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapters 1-4, 6, 8.

Stratification/inequality Asks the question, why do blacks have different job market outcomes than equally qualified whites? Explores this question using a Baltimore case study of 25 black men/25 white men graduates of the Glendale Vocational High School. The subjects have identical school and training that enable us to reject the idea that disparities in job outcomes are due to differences in schooling, education, skills, or motivation. Finds that despite existing within the same environment and having identical training, that whites are afforded more social capital than blacks. Found that while white men draw upon informal networks (generations of white school graduates and white teachers) for help in attaining apprenticeships, jobs and successfully switching trade specializations; black men relied mostly on formal networks (guidance counselor, want ads). Within these formal networks, white teachers gave blacks verbal support but not referrals, whereas they were more likely to give white students referrals and insider information about jobs. Amongst informal networks, blacks had fewer resources to make connections, but even amongst their contacts the helpers were more cautious and reluctant to offer assistance than white's contacts. Whites also had more job security and room within the job to make mistakes. Royster also concludes that with the "reverse discrimination" movement ongoing that supporting black inclusion is tantamount to professional suicide for whites who depend upon older men in their support networks. His findings emphasize the role of trust, social capital in job seeking while contradicting Wilson/Booker T theories that job training is key.

Sampson, Robert J., Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Stephen Raudenbush. 2005. "Social Anatomy of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Violence." American Journal of Public Health 95:224-232.

Stratification/inequality Assesses the racial/ethnic gap in violent crime rates. The odds of perpetrating violence is 85% higher amongst blacks compared to whites. They find that the majority (60%) of the gap is explained by marital status of parents, immigrant generation, but most importantly the neighborhood social context. They hypothesize that because blacks are segregated by neighborhoods they are differentially exposed to key risk factors that explain racial/ethnic disparities in violence. The results suggest that interventions to improve neighborhood conditions and support families may reduce racial gaps in violence.

Rios, Victor. 2011. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York University Press. Chapters 1-4, 7.

Stratification/inequality Attempt to understand the processes by which marginalized boys become enmeshed in systems of punishment. Explores how a system of punitive social control shapes the boys minds and experience by living in a highly-policed environment it becomes a part of their everyday life. He argues that in response to constant policing and criminalization they develop oppositional culture and self-defeating resistance as a form of resilience. Criminalization is a central, pervasive and ubiquitous phenomenon impacting the everyday lives of youth in Oakland who are under constant surveillance and are harassed and disciplined daily. He refers to this as "Hypercriminalization"- the process by which an individual's everyday behaviors and styles become ubiquitously treated as deviant, risky, threatening or criminal of black and brown male bodies. He endeavors to highlight the consequences that is has on youth. While still considering the agency, young men have in making their own choices, Rios describes how the boys make those choices within the structural constraints of their environments in a way that encourages criminal activity. Crime statistics themselves are not race-neutral. Highly influenced by Goffman's labeling theory and stigma theory. Also supports theory of racialized social control: the regulation and repression of a population based on race.

Carter, Prudence, 2005. Keepin' It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White. NY: Oxford University Press. Chapters 1-2, 5-6.

Stratification/inequality Carter's study includes 68 students ranging from 13-20 and her interviews focus on topics of education, racial and ethnic beliefs, cultural beliefs and practices. This study is responding to Ogbu's oppositional culture theory. Carter's findings contradict Ogbu's theory, she finds that children overwhelmingly believe in the importance of school, even the noncompliant are believers. Her findings identify four main issues 1) that only a privileged few get to define the image of an intelligent student and that students are aware of this unfairness 2) rather than being reactive non-compliant cultural presentations of self are based on a critique of the mainstream school culture, 3) student's differing attachments to school are connected to their ideologies about how in-group members should respond to social inequalities and respect cultural boundaries between themselves and others 4) purely cultural explanations for minority education achievements misses the intersection of ethno-specific culture and gender socialization. She identifies three groups in her study: non-compliant believers, cultural mainstreamers, and cultural straddlers (code switchers).

Fordham, Signithia and John Ogbu. 1986. "Black Students'; School Success: Coping with the Burden of 'Acting White'." Urban Review 18(3):176-206.

Stratification/inequality Ethnographic study of successful and unsuccessful students in a predominantly black high school in Washington, DC. Fordham & Ogbu argue that one major reason why black students do poorly in school is that they feel external cultural pressures that associate academic success with "acting white." This oppositional culture situates academic effort as seeking white assimilation and the rejection of one's own black culture, therefore, students feel both internal and external pressure against trying hard in school. Situated within literature on the Cultural-Ecological model (low academic performance is an adaptive response to cultural requirements of black ecological structure enforced by white dominance), oppositional collective identity (resisting qualities associated with dominant group and creating clear boundaries), and fictive kinship (denoting and enforcing a "true" cultural identity of blacks). They are focusing on the within-group factors to understand how black students respond to others who are trying to succeed academically (peer pressure and in-group boundary policing).

Western, Bruce. 2002. "The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and Inequality." American Sociological Review 67:477-98.

Stratification/inequality Takes a life course approach to examining crime and employment, to examine growing inequality in the U.S. labor market. Uses survey data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Asks: Was the growth in wage inequality in the 1980s and 1990s due to the poor labor market performance of low-skill and minority convicts? He hypothesizes that incarceration slows wage growth at an individual level which results in an aggregate economic inequality. Conducts a regression analysis of wage mobility in a sample of young men building the regression model around three main predictors 1) age 2) whether or not the person previously served prison time and 3) current incarceration status. OLS estimates indicate ex-inmates earn 7% less than men not incarcerations, after adding individual-level fixed effects the incarceration is estimated to reduce earnings by 19%, after adding period effects the estimation is reduced to 16%. Also finds that the interaction (age x incarcerated) effects exceed the main effects of age alone which are the same for Hispanics and whites and slightly smaller for blacks. Finds support for hypothesis that incarceration reduces the wages of ex-inmates by 10-20% and reduces wage growth by 30% much of which results also from the increasing penalty for low education. Finds relatively small aggregate effects of incarceration on wage inequality. Concludes that the U.S. penal system and the influence of the prison institution on economic opportunity is deepening racial inequality and imposing systemic influence on broad patterns of social inequality. Hypothesizes that why there are not stronger aggregate effects is because the stigma of imprisonment may attach to the whole minority group and affect overall wage inequality rather than only limited to those who have actually been incarcerated.

Lewis, Oscar. 1969. "The Culture of Poverty," in Daniel Patrick Moynihan, editor, On Understanding Poverty: Perspectives from the Social Sciences. New York: Basic Books.

Stratification/inequality This article is based on his research in Five Families which was a case study of 5 Mexican families in poverty. His work predates the Moynihan Report and is a cultural explanation for persistent poverty based on the "blame the poor" argument. Lewis attempts to make sense of how poverty exists as a multigenerational subculture that "is both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their marginal position in a class-stratified, highly individualized, capitalistic society" (p. 188). He describes a list of 70 interrelated social, economic, and psychological traits that characterize the culture of poverty, which he differentiates from poverty in the economic sense. The culture of poverty, he argues, is a state of mind or orientation to the world that includes low levels of aspiration, social disorganization, high single-motherhood and shortage of cash to name a few.

Spohn, Cassia. 2015. "Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries" Crime and Justice: A Review of Research 44:49-97.

Stratification/inequality This is a review of the literature regarding overt racism, implicit bias, and policies in the criminal justice system that produce racially disparate effects for blacks and Hispanics. Outlines 5 waves of research on race and sentencing. First, there are studies on overt systematic racial discrimination and the no-discrimination thesis that there is no evidence of widespread or systemic discrimination at point of sentencing. The next wave of research challenged this thesis and suggested that racial discrimination had not declined but instead changed forms. Next, there were investigations of how race affected the severity of sentencing. These studies look at sentencing and sentencing guidelines and found interactions between race and other irrelevant offender characteristics produced greater sentencing disparity than race/ethnicity alone. For instance, victim race matters, and crime nature matters. Current literature has shifted focus on sentencing outcomes to the entire life course of the criminal case and the ways disparities accumulate throughout the criminal process. Acknowledges that focusing on a single-decision making stage masks the disparities originating at other discretionary stages (cumulative disadvantage). Notes that research has been divided into studies of policing, courts, and corrections (some scholars push to examine the ties between these subfields and examine the interrelated discretionary components in the entire formal criminal punishment process).

Pager, Devah. 2003 "The Mark of a Criminal Record" American Journal of Sociology, 108 (5): 937-975.

Stratification/inequality Uses an experimental audit design to isolate the effect of having a criminal record while observing employer behavior in real employment settings. Testing the hypothesis that having a criminal record stigma attached to the individual will have negative employment outcomes and this effect will be unevenly distributed racially. She examines 1) the main effect of having a criminal record 2) the continued effect of race discrimination in hiring decisions and 3) how the main effect interacts with race to produce different results for black and white applicants. Found that ex-offenders were only one-half to one-third as likely as non-offenders to be considered for employment which suggests a criminal record presents a major barrier to employment. Also found that race, independent of the criminal record, continued to serve as negative affect on employment opportunities. Discredits the hypothesis that racial discrimination is no longer a major barrier to employment. Found that even whites with a criminal record were more likely to receive calls than blacks without. 5% of blacks with a criminal record and 14% without received a call back. 17% of whites with and 34% without received a call back.

Tyson, Karolyn, et al. 2005. "It's Not a "Black Thing:" Understanding the Burden of Acting White and Other Dilemmas of High Achievement." American Sociological Review 70: 582-605.

Stratification/inequality Using interviews and existing data from 8 NC secondary public schools she responds to Ogbu's oppositional culture thesis in explaining achievement gap. Argue that students of all races can develop this type of oppositional culture which dismisses academic achievement as "acting white" or acting snobby. She notes the importance of understanding school context and institutional structure as it can promote or prevent certain cultures from forming among students. Critique Ogbu for only focusing on one school context. Tyson finds that the stigma of "nerd" or negative associations and negative peer pressures experienced by achieving children are not unique nor limited to black high achievers. Experienced by both races. Also analyzes school course choice- that black students opting out of honors classes is not because of negative peer reactions, had more to do with fear of failure, worried about inability to master the work, [a fear of failure, not an avoidance of success]. Also highlights the role of steering/tracking in keeping blacks out of honors classes. Argue that black students know these classes are racially segregated and do not want to be the only black kid in an all-white class. Conclude that oppositional attitudes appear to be connected to experiences of inequality in class placement and achievement.

Sampson, Robert, and William Julius Wilson. 1995. "Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality." In John Hagan and Ruth Peterson (Eds.), Crime and Inequality. (pp. 37-56).

Stratification/inequality Wilson and Sampson propose a theory on the study of race and crime that denounces previously individualistic theories of crime as being attached to the individual (victim blaming) or deriving from the race of the individual. Rather, they theorize that blacks are more likely to live in communities where the social ecology of the community is more socially isolated, and socially disorganized, characterized by higher rates of family disruption, concentrated poverty, middle and upper class exodus, deindustrialization and joblessness, and disinvestments. These communities are more likely to be criminogenic and poor blacks are more likely to live in them than poor whites. Their theory further considers that these social ecological conditions produce cultural norms and values within these communities that influence crime patterns. They also consider the role of local policies in adding to a community's disorganization. They conclude that a theory on race and crime should incorporate both structural community-level factors as well as cultural ones. Community-level factors such as ecological concentration of poverty, racial segregation, residential mobility and social disorganization all contribute to increased crime amongst poor blacks.