by pj.rey The increasing centrality of the Internet in our daily lives has precipitated a spate of theorizing about how we – as humans and as a society – are changing (or not) due to the constant technological mediation of our most basic interactions and activities. Let’s face it: This sort of theorizing is populated … Continue reading »
Tagged with race …
Contentious Data: Hate Crimes and Resistance to the Matthew Sheperd Act
by NickieWild Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” also known as the Matthew Shepard Act. Named after a college student who was robbed, tortured, and killed in Wyoming in 1998, it is believed that he was targeted because he was gay. The legislation will enhance … Continue reading »
Gendering HIV/AIDS Discourse
nmccoy1 Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Africa (see BBC article below) included comments on the AIDS epidemic that has disproportionately affected Africans worldwide. While staying true to Catholic doctrine and its teachings on abstinence, his insistence that condoms are both ineffective against the spread of HIV/AIDS and can in fact increase the rate of contamination … Continue reading »
“I Missed the Joke”: Race, Rupert Murdoch, and the NAACP
by NickieWild Last week, a very racially charged cartoon appeared in the New York Post, featuring a couple of police officers having killed a chimpanzee, with the caption, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The cartoon was supposedly a somewhat weak joke about an animal that attacked a woman, … Continue reading »
Race and Distrust in a Texas Town
by theoryforthemasses The killing of a young black man in Paris, Texas last September reignited racial tensions in the community, tensions which federal mediators have recently been dispatched to resolve. The victim, Brandon McClelland, was run over and dragged by a pickup truck driven by two white men with whom McClelland was friends. Despite this … Continue reading »
The So-Called “Silent Minority” Speaks
by theoryforthemasses In the months leading up to the national election, the American news media has explored several demographic groups whose votes are up for grabs. The focus has largely been on African Americans, Latinos, and white female Clinton supporters; meanwhile, the Asian American vote (as though “Asians” can be qualitatively lumped together) has … Continue reading »
Chocolate or Milk Chocolate?
(by linanne10) Race has long time been a crucial issue for the American society. The representation of people of color is especially tricky in the media, where the mainstream discourses are produced and reproduced largely by and for the white community. The recent debut of the comedy, “Chocolate News,” unrolls with the idea of creating … Continue reading »
Sudhir Venkatesh on Gang Leader for a Day
By Feistyle In a video speech, Sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh talks about his time spent studying and living with a Chicago gang called the Black Kings in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His study was made famous in the book Freakonomics and has been documented in more detail in his book Gang Leader for a Day. He discusses urban poverty … Continue reading »
