The United States is known as a "melting pot" yet this mix tends to be volatile and contributes to a long history of oppression, racism, and bigotry.
Emerging Intersections, an anthology of ten ...previously unpublished essays, looks at the problems of inequality and oppression from new angles and promotes intersectionality as an interpretive tool that can be utilized to better understand the ways in which race, class, gender, ethnicity, and other dimensions of difference shape our lives today. The book showcases innovative contributions that expand our understanding of how inequality affects people of color, demonstrates the ways public policies reinforce existing systems of inequality, and shows how research and teaching using an intersectional perspective compels scholars to become agents of change within institutions. By offering practical applications for using intersectional knowledge, Emerging Intersections will help bring us one step closer to achieving positive institutional change and social justice.
Hurricane Katrina forced the largest and most abrupt displacement in U.S. history. About 1.5 million people evacuated from the Gulf Coast preceding Katrina’s landfall. New Orleans, a city of 500,000, ...was nearly emptied of life after the hurricane and flooding. Katrina survivors eventually scattered across all fifty states, and tens of thousands still remain displaced. Some are desperate to return to the Gulf Coast but cannot find the means. Others have chosen to make their homes elsewhere. Still others found a way to return home but were unable to stay due to the limited availability of social services, educational opportunities, health care options, and affordable housing. The contributors to Displaced have been following the lives of Katrina evacuees since 2005. In this illuminating book, they offer the first comprehensive analysis of the experiences of the displaced. Drawing on research in thirteen communities in seven states across the country, the contributors describe the struggles that evacuees have faced in securing life-sustaining resources and rebuilding their lives. They also recount the impact that the displaced have had on communities that initially welcomed them and then later experienced “Katrina fatigue" as the ongoing needs of evacuees strained local resources. Displaced reveals that Katrina took a particularly heavy toll on households headed by low-income African American women who lost the support provided by local networks of family and friends. It also shows the resilience and resourcefulness of Katrina evacuees who have built new networks and partnered with community organizations and religious institutions to create new lives in the diaspora.
Using case studies from universities throughout the nation, Doing Diversity in Higher Education examines the role faculty play in improving diversity on their campuses. The power of professors to ...enhance diversity has long been underestimated, their initiatives often hidden from view. Winnifred Brown-Glaude and her contributors uncover major themes and offer faculty and administrators a blueprint for conquering issues facing campuses across the country. Topics include how to dismantle hostile microclimates, sustain and enhance accomplishments, deal with incomplete institutionalization, and collaborate with administrators. The contributors' essays portray working on behalf of diversity as a genuine intellectual project rather than a faculty "service."
The rich variety of colleges and universities included provides a wide array of models that faculty can draw upon to inspire institutional change.
Inequality and oppression are deeply woven into the tapestry of American life. As a result large disparities exist on measures of income, wealth, education, housing, occupation, and social benefits. ...These disparities are neither new nor randomly distributed throughout the population, but occur in patterns along such major social divisions as race, gender, class, sexuality, nationality, and physical ability. Social scientists have traditionally analyzed inequalities by isolating these factors and treating them as if they are independent of one another. Even when their interactions are discussed they are still conceptualized as if they are largely independent forces that happen to overlap
Feminism developed as a result of the efforts of white middle-class women to gain a sense of equality. Given its predominantly white lineage, feminism never fully encompassed the needs of minority ...women, especially Afro-American ones. In light of this limitation, a new feminism movement has been constructed. Called multiracial feminism, it seeks to present new universal concepts about women's equality.
Using data drawn from in-depth, life history interviews of a sample of low-income single mothers in two rural communities in the southern United States, this article explores the stated goals and ...aspirations of approximately thirty African American single mothers, most of whom are or have been welfare recipients. The article focuses upon the ways these Black women talked about their own goals and aspirations, the impact of motherhood those goals, and their current hopes for their children. The article also explores the potential influence of the availability of educational resources within the counties on these goals. It discusses how the opportunity structures of the communities in which the women live are reproduced through social, economic and political practices that are deeply influenced by race and gender relations. Utilisant des données recueillies sur un échantillon de mères à faible revenues, par des interview compréhensifs sur l'histoire de leur vie, dans deux communautés rurales dans le Sud des Etats-Unis, cet article explore les dits buts et aspirations d'environ trente mères célibataires Africaine-Américaines. La plupart d'entre elles sont ou ont été des récipiendaires du Bien-Etre Social. L'article est consacré aux voies par lesquelles ces Femmes Noires abordent d'ellesmemes leurs buts et aspirations, l'impact de la maternité sur ces buts, et les espoirs qu'elles fondent pour leurs enfants. L'article explore également le potential de ressources éducationelles disponibles dans ce cadre au niveau du district. Il discute également comment les opportunités structurales au niveau des communautés dans lesquelles vivent ces femmes sont exploitées sur le plan social, économique et politique, facteurs qui influent profondément sur les relations interraciales, et entre les different sexes. Utilizando data tomada de, entrevistas autobiograficas de madres solteras de bajos ingresos en dos comunidades rurales del area Meridional de los Estado Unidos. Este artículo explora las metas expresada y las aspiraciones de aproximadamente treinta madre solteras afroamericanas, mucha de las cuales han recibido ayuda Federal. Este artículo enfoca en las formas que las mujeres negras hablan sobre sus metas, sus aspiraciones, el impacto de ser madre sobre estas metas y las esperanza actuales con sus niños. Este estudio, además examina la influencia potencial de los recursos educativos disponible dentro del govierno local en las metas de estas mujeres. Este artículo examina como las oportunidades estructurales de la comunidades, en las cuales esta mujeres viven, son reproducida a través de practicas sociales, económica y política, estas mujeres son influenciada profundamente por la raza y el género.
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