Division on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Summer 2016 Newsletter
OUR MISSION 
The Racial and Ethnic Minorities Division of SSSP is a collective of scholars, activists, and concerned individuals who recognize that, while significant strides have been made toward racial equality and justice, we continue to live in a society in which racial inequality, segregation, discrimination, and systematic racism function both tacitly and overtly. Simply put, racism continues to inform our daily lives. Our Division’s vision of our future society is one in which racial and ethnic (and all other types of) oppression and discrimination no longer exist. Accordingly, in a world in which the multifarious manifestations of racism are often minimized or ignored, we believe it is a moral and scholarly responsibility to remain vigilant in our quest to study, understand, and make visible the latent and hidden operations, mechanisms, and effects of racism and to speak out against it. Our collective goals revolve around gaining higher levels of inter-and intra-racial understanding, substantive cooperation, and intimate camaraderie toward dismantling racial inequality and injustice. We utilize various sociological models to address racial and ethnic inequality and injustice at all levels, investigating governmental policies, practices of social institutions, representations through media and culture, and individual and group interactions. Our vision for the future is of a just society, in which racial and ethnic histories and cultures are not subjugated, but acknowledged and understood. Further, we implore all members of this section to understand the struggle that people of color often endure, and to join in the fight for alleviating the causes of human suffering through our scholarship, our teaching, and our service to the community and beyond. We encourage members and allies to engage with books from the suggested (but by no means exhaustive) list of readings below. Division members are also encouraged to join our Facebook community. There, we share information related to our larger interests and investment in the alleviation of racial and ethnic social problems. Division mission statement last edited in 2015 by Michelle R. Jacobs, Wayne State University, Racial and Ethnic Minority Division Co-Chair, 2014-2016, and Matthew W. Hughey, University of Connecticut, Racial and Ethnic Minority Division Co-Chair, 2015-2017.

Letter from the Outgoing Co-Chair
Greetings DREM members,

I hope this letter finds you well and right where you want to be –whether that means in a state of relaxation after the busy academic year or in a state of frenzied and productive scholarship and activism.  Perhaps, like me, you are trying to achieve some balance between these things.  Aaaah, summertime.  It seems like such a lovely, extensive moment in our lives until July arrives to remind us that our annual meeting is just around the corner (and we all know what happens shortly after that)!

I’m incredibly excited about this year’s meeting.  Not only will we be gathering in beautiful Seattle, but we have some great sessions planned to complement the timely and relevant conference theme, “Globalizing Social Problems.”  Our thematic sessions will investigate such interesting topics as “getting it right” in the global fight for racial justice and using institutional ethnography to study race, ethnicity, and migration.  A notable, non-thematic session, “30 Years since Racial Formation: Promises, Pitfalls, and Prospects,” will give us an opportunity to reflect as a group on the continuing influence of Omi and Winant’sgroundbreaking work.  Please see the complete list of DREM-sponsored sessions in this newsletter.    
In addition, our division and Conflict, Social Action, and Change (CSAC) have co-organized back-to-back meeting sessions focused on the #blacklivesmattermovement.  You won’t want to miss this important event.  It begins on Sunday, August 21st at 8:30 am with a special screening of the documentary film Unapologetically Black: Movement for Black Lives Convening.  The film captures the activities of 1200 people who gathered from around the world in July 2015 to create a safe space for channeling the energy of the #blacklivesmattermovement.  Following the screening, you are invited to join us for a critical dialogue with the film’s producer and director, Soraya Soi Free, and other panelists.  Both sessions will be held at the Seattle Westin in room Cascade I-B.  

Also, please plan to join us at the DREM Business Meeting on Saturday, August 20th at 10:30 am (rm. Puget Sound).  Your attendance at the business meeting is key to our success as a division.  We will recognize our division award winners and think collectively about what DREM can and should offer its current and future members.  Attending the business meeting is an excellent way to meet like-minded scholars and become more involved in our division and SSSP.   

In August I must bid you farewell as co-chair of our mighty division.  I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to serve you and have truly enjoyed my tenure as co-chair.  Although I will miss working with you in this capacity, I am delighted to leave DREM in the capable hands of my co-chair, Matthew W. Hughey, and newly elected co-chair, Omari Jackson.  
Onward as we engage in our collective struggle for justice!   

Warmly,
Michelle R. Jacobs, SSSP DREM Co-Chair (2014-2016)

Letter from the Current Co-Chair
Dear DREM members, 
I hope this newsletter finds you well.  My name is Matthew W. Hughey, and I am Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and Visiting Scholar for the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.  I am now entering my second year as your SSSP-DREM (Division of Racial and Ethnic Minorities) co-chair.

I write to you from Vienna, Austria, as I attend the International Sociological Association World Forum.  Everywhere I go, I see various global news services cover the righteous anger, honest confusion, and supreme sadness at the senseless deaths and injuries of black and brown bodies from the barrels of white supremacist policing practices.  On top of these emotions, I am stunned at some of the nonsensical and reactionary discourse spewing forth from many of these televisual “talking heads.”  The rising trend of deaths that reminds us that Black and Brown Lives Matter, coupled with the relative absence of sociological voices in the media, recalls what I just wrote in a dialogue on race and policing in Critical Sociology(Vol 41, Issue 6), whereby the honest sociologist:


“…stands against such views of social life that are individualistic and which analyze society only in terms of psychological make-up, skills, and atomistic behaviors. On the one hand, some argue that the key to eliminating police violence is the removal of ‘bad apple’ officers from the overall orchard, even as it systematically and habitually blossoms “strange fruit” from its boughs. On the other hand, some posit that a reprieve from police violence is found in compliant behavior –what some term the ‘politics of respectability’ –even as profiling, beatings, and deaths occur across black and brown communities intersected by class lines, across geographic areas, and regardless of wrongdoing. These assumptions gesture toward a belief that social structures will magically change via one’s hard work, good intentions, or education. History affords too many examples of participation by the ‘righteous,’ ‘educated,’ and ‘hard-working’ in structures of oppression to allow any objective observer of social life to accept the notion that equitable or just social arrangements are based entirely on the redemption of the individual without direct attention to external social forces.  Rather, we must focus on the aforementioned dimensions of how ‘race’ operates as a systematic process of domination –from laws and policies on the habits and techniques of policing to the juggernaut of the for-profit prison system, and from the unequal outcomes in criminal justice sentencing to the high unemployment rates across an increasingly black and brown class of ex-felons.” (Hughey 2015:865)

It is my sincere hope that we can put pressure on not only SSSP, but all our relative organizations—from ASA or ESS or AHS or whatever social scientific organization of which you are a part—to provide financial resources, space, and time for any and all already over-extended sociologists to organize responses beyond that of published dialogues.  Will you join me to push our organizations to better serve us?  

Toward this end, I hope that you attend our Division meeting at SSSP in Seattle.  I want to take this time to emphasize how important it is that you attend the Division meeting.  This is THE place where decisions are made on what session themes we have for next year’s meetings, who organizes those sessions, and what we will also engage. Moreover, this is THE place for you to serve as influential movers and shakers in the Division—such as our book and article award committees.  There are positions for those just getting started (from graduate students and Assistant Professors) to those that have been around the block (Emeritus Professors and seasoned activists).  This is THE opportunity to be heard as members of this Division!  But that can’t happen if you don’t SHOW UP. 

In switching gears, I must acknowledge our outgoing division co-chair Michelle Jacobs, who has served SSSP and SSSP-DREM with distinction and has been particularly helpful as my “senior” co-chair this year.  Thank you, Michelle!  Also, join me in welcoming the new SSSP-DREM co-chair Omari Jackson, with whom I will share responsibilities in guiding this Division over the next academic year.  Welcome, Omari!  And finally, I want to publically acknowledge the newly-minted Dr. Kasey Henricks, who will stay on, at least for one more year, as our newsletter editor even after years of service at the helm.  Thank you, Kasey!

I look forward to a wonderful meeting with you this August.

In solidarity, 
Matthew W. Hughey, SSSP DREM Co-Chair (2015-2017)

The 2016 SSSP Meetings, a Preview of DREM Sessions

Friday, August 19, 8:30am
30 years since Racial Formation: Promises, Pitfalls, and Prospects (Room: Mercer)
Organizer: Bianca Gonzalez-Sobrino, University of Connecticut
Presider: Michael L. Rosino, University of Connecticut
Papers:
* “Dramaturgical Domination: The Genesis and Evolution of the Racialized Interaction Order,” Michael L. Rosino, University of Connecticut
* “Muslim Americans, Racialization, and Islamophobia,” Patrick Michael Casey, University of South Florida
* “A Theory of Racialized Organizations,” Victor Ray, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
* “Re-Making Race, Place, and Inter-racialism: Case Studies from Hawaii,” Jennifer R. Darrah-Okike, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa

Friday, August 19, 10:30am
Global Capitalism: Race, Ethnicity and Class (Room: Pine)
Organizer & Presider: hara bastas, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY
Papers:
* “Fencing the Other: Symbolic Constructions of the ‘Immigrant’ Within,” Holly Sevier, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa, Winner of the Global Division/Critical Sociology Student Paper Competition
* “Migrating to ”Paradise”: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Letters to the Editor,” Nathalie Pauline Rita, University of Hawai‘I at M?noa

Friday, August 19, 12:30pm
Intersections of Race, Gender, and Crime (Room: Denny)
Organizer, Presider & Discussant: Patrick M. Polasek, Benedictine University
Papers:
* “Cyber-Bullying: Differences in Race and Gender,” Matthew M. Le Claire, University of Nevada and Andrew L. Spivak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
* “Latinos Framing Race in a Colorblind Era: Making Sense of Criminalization in the Inner City,” Maria G. Rendon, University of California, Irvine, Adriana Aldana, California State University, Dominquez Hills and Laureen Hom, University of California, Irvine
* “Structural Disorganization: Prison Gang Politics, Carceral Policy and Violence in Prisons,” Robert Donald Weide, California State University, Los Angeles
* “What Does the Media Tell Us About Rape Culture? A Content Analysis of Campus Sexual Assault,” Hannah Liebreich, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa

Friday, August 19, 12:30pm
Global Capitalism: Race, Ethnicity and Class II (Room: Pine) 
Organizer & Presider: hara bastas, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY
Papers:
* “Whiteness as a Visa,” Rahsaan H. Mahadeo, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
* “The Making of ‘Skilled’ Overseas Koreans: Transformation of Visa Policies for Co-ethnic Migrants in South Korea,” Sohoon Lee, University of Sydney and Yi-Chun Chien, University of Toronto
* “The White Tourist’s Burden: Neocolonial Encounters in South African Township Tourism,” Annie Hikido, University of California, Santa Barbara
* “Beauty Capitalism and Neo-colonial Racial formations,” Meeta Rani Jha, University of Winchester

Friday, August 19, 2:30pm
CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Interrogating Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Using Institutional Ethnography 
(Room: Cascade I-C)
Organizer: Sarah Faude, Northeastern University
Presider: Dana M. Greene, University of North Carolina and University of Michigan
Papers:
* “A Hurricane Katrina Retrospective: Ten (10) Years of Voices Still Not Being Heard,” Dana M. Greene, University of North Carolina and University of Michigan
* “Contrast structures and Comparative structures in Tuscans’ Talk about Immigrants,” Robert Garot, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
* “The Continuum of Ethno-Racial Socialization: Learning About Culture and Race in Middle-Class Latina/o Families,” Maria D. Duenas, University of California, Merced
* “Transgressive Temporalities: How youth of color make sense of time in urban space,” Rahsaan H. Mahadeo, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
* “Conceptualizing the Complexities of Whiteness for Latino@s: Agency and Racial Decision Making for those in the Honorary White Category,” Daniel J. Delgado, Salem State University

Friday, August 19, 4:30pm
The Complexities of Race and Racism: Teaching Racial Inequality(Room: Cascade I-A)
Organizer, Presider & Discussant: Hephzibah V. Strmic-Pawl, Manhattanville College
Papers:
* “Challenging or Perpetuating the White Savior Complex and Paternalistic Racism in the Classroom? Community-Based
Learning at a Social Justice-Mission School,” Melissa F. Weiner, College of the Holy Cross
* “Contestations Between Ambivalent and Ethical White Subjectivity in Service-Learning,” Colleen Rost-Banik, University
of Minnesota
* “Expanding and Increasing Students’ Learning About Cultural Diversity: Outcomes From An Undergraduate Sociology Course,” Gloria P. Martinez-Ramos, Michael Whitehawk, Kami Rutherford and Paul Kappler, Texas State University
* “Exploring the Relationship between Social Identities and Social Attitudes in Sociology Classrooms,” S. Mo, Michigan State University

Saturday, August 20, 8:30am
PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Racial and Ethnic Minorities (Room: Puget Sound)
Organizer: Emma Lesser, University of Connecticut
Presider: Jason A. Smith, George Mason University
Roundtable Title: Discrimination and Action
Papers:
* “Preying On Poverty: The Impacts of Predatory Lending on Individuals in Low-Income, Minority Communities,” Shaonta E. Allen, University of Cincinnati
* “Selectively Racialized, Selectively Politicized? Politicized Ethnic Identity Among Second Generation Iranian Americans,” Sheefteh Khalili, University of California, Irvine
* “Theorizing Racial Microaggressions,” Ainsley Lambert-Swain, University of Cincinnati
Roundtable Title: Race and Ethnic Minorities
Papers:
* “‘I’m the Wrong Race’: Diversity, Whiteness, and Perceived Racial (Dis)advantage,” Lydia J. Hou, University of Illinois at Chicago
* “Engaging the ‘Renegades’: Racialization of Latin@ Media from Policy to Content,” Jason A. Smith, George Mason University and Randy D. Abreu, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
* “La Verdad: Chicano Print Activism in San Diego, 1968-1972,” Francisco Beltran, University of California, Santa Barbara
* “Marginal Voices-Indigenous and Immigrant Dialogue in Education,” Zuhra Abawi, University of Toronto

Roundtable Title: Race and Ethnic Relations
Papers:
* “Bright versus Blurry Ethnicity: The Black Middle Class Experience,” OrlyClerge, Tufts University
* “Race Structures Informing Intra Ethnic Relations among Mexican Americans and Mexican Immigrants,” Liliana V.
Rodriguez, University of California, Santa Barbara
* “Racial Formation, Racism and Queer South Asians in the U.S.,” Shweta MajumdarAdur, California State University, Fullerton
* “The Silencing of an American Art Form: The Unacknowledged Contributions of Puerto Ricans, Jews, and African Americans in the Making of Salsa Music,” Samantha Pina Saghera, The Graduate Center, CUNY
* “Black, Brown, or Asian?: U.S. Ethno-Racial Assimilation Pathways of West Indian Immigrants of South Asian Descent,” Anjanette Marie Chan Tack, University of Chicago
Roundtable Title: Race and Racial Formation in Historical and Contemporary Perspective
Papers:
* “Interrogating the Melting Pot; understanding race and ethnicity through the lens of Spickard’s assimilation, panethnicity, and the transnational-diasporic model,” Karolina Staros, Western Michigan University
* “The Genesis of American Colorism: Antebellum Mulatto Advantage and Mulatto-Black Stratification,” Robert L. Reece,
Duke University
* “The Inferior White: Politics and Practices of Racializing People from the Middle East in the US,” Hadi Khoshneviss, University of South Florida
* “Multiracial College Students: Expressions of Color-Blind Ideology,” Mette Evelyn Bjerre, University of Notre Dame

Roundtable Title: Racial Threat and Mobilization
Papers:
* “Minority Group Opposition and Challenges to White Race Consciousness,” Jacqueline D. Brooks, California State University, Sacramento
* “Pimping the Nations: Selling Racial and Ethnic Diversity to Fund Religious Organizations,” Christopher W. Munn, The Ohio State
University
* “Threatened by Memory: White Americans’ Reactions to Collective Representations of Slavery,” Ashley Veronica
Reichelmann, Northeastern University
Roundtable Title: Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Education
Papers:
* “College Course Enrollment Patterns: The Role of Instructor Last Name,” Elizabeth Martinez, Indiana University-Bloomington
* “Josephs Without Pharaohs: The Du Boisian Framework for the Sociology of Education,” Jordan A. Conwell, Northwestern University
* “New Industrial Complex, Same Ol’ Ideological State Apparatus: Connecting the Latino PhD ‘Talented .2%’ to the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” Marisa D. Salinas, University of California, Santa Barbara
* “Protection and exclusion: School racial composition and teacher resource adequacy,” jim saliba, University of Minnesota 
* “The Future is Bright: The perceived role of race in the lives of black college students,” Kennedy A. Turner and Christina J. Cross, University of Michigan

Saturday, August 20, 10:30am
Divisional Meeting, Open to All Members (Room: Puget Sound)

Saturday, August 20, 12:30pm
Race and Refugees (Room: Denny)
Organizer & Presider: Jessica Lucero, Utah State University
Papers:
* “Understanding Forced Migration: ‘Gaps in Protection’ in the Americas,” Isabel J. Anadon, University of Wisconsin-Madison
* “Human Service Provider’s Perceptions on Refugee Employment and Educational Barriers,” Caralee Child and Jessica Lucero, Utah State University
* “How do Refugees and Local Turkish People Perceive Each Other in Bolu, Turkey,” Ülkü Güney and Nahide Konak, Abant ?zzet, Baysal University
* “The Migration Crisis of 2015: Race, Cultural Challenge, Social Citizenship, and Xenophobia in EU Politics and Popular Northern European Literature,” John F. Moe, The Ohio State University

Saturday, August 20, 2:30pm
A Sociology of Success: Getting it Right in the Global Fight for Racial Justice(Room: Denny)
Organizer & Presider: Michael L. Rosino, University of Connecticut
Papers:
* “I Got All My Sisters With Me (On Black Twitter)!,” Vanessa Gonlin and Apryl Williams, Texas A&M University
* “Navigating Racial Identity in the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Kristen J.C. Powell, University of Denver
* “Origin Stories: Urban Sociology and Unstated Whiteness,” Miguel A. Montalva, Northeastern University
* “Politicizing the Roots and Responses to Intersectional Trauma: College Students’ Mental Health & Well-Being,” May Lin, University of Southern California
* “School Racial Segregation and Health Disparities among Adolescents and Young Adults,” Mara N. Eyllon, Northeastern University

Sunday, August 21, 8:30am
FILM SCREENING: Unapologetically Black: Movement for Black Lives Convening (by Soraya SoiFree) 
(Room: Cascade I-B)
Organizer & Presider: Michelle R. Jacobs, Wayne State University

Sunday, August 21, 10:30am
Panel: Black Lives Matter (Room: Cascade I-B)
Organizer: Michelle R. Jacobs, Wayne State University
Presider: Vilna Bashi Treitler, The Graduate Center and Baruch College, CUNY
Panelists:
* Soraya Soi Free, Independent Filmmaker and Medical Professional
* Portia Allen-Kyle, Rutgers University 
* Nikita Carney, University of California, Santa Barbara
* Deana G. Lewis, University of Illinois at Chicago
* Vilna Bashi Treitler, The Graduate Center and Baruch College, CUNY
* David C. Turner III, University of California, Berkeley

Sunday, August 21, 2:30pm
Native Americans: Representation, Conflict, and Discrimination (Room: Cascade I-B)
Organizer & Presider: Devon R. Goss, University of Connecticut
Papers:
* “Urban and Rural Differences in the Sexual Victimization of Native American Children: Environment, Culture, and
Institutional Response,” Paul D. Steele, Morehead State University
* “Relocated American Indians’ Experiences of Discrimination in Rural and Urban Contexts,” Michelle R. Jacobs, Wayne State University
* “The Use of Native American Imagery in the Boy Scouts of America,” Carol S. Walther, Northern Illinois University and Carla D. Goar, Kent State University
* “Social Problems Warriors: Narratives About Native American Elders,” Anastacia Schulhoff, University of Missouri
* “‘If We Can Use the Term Darkie, Why Can’t We Use the Word Redskin?’: Racist Mascots, School Boards, and the Democratic Process,” Adriana Leela Bohm, Delaware County Community College

Sunday, August 21, 2:30pm
Race and Drugs (Room: Cascade I-B)
Organizers: Dina Perrone, California State University, Long Beach and Ellen Benoit, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.
Presider: Ellen Benoit, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

Papers:
* “‘Keeping It Real’, Media, Moscato, and the (Re) Production of the Hip Hop Consumer: A Narrative Analysis,” Erik T. Withers, University of South Florida
* “Implications of Race and Class in the Shift from a War on Drugs to Treatment Interventions for the Opiate Epidemic,” Tasha Perdue and Alice Cepeda, University of Southern California
* “Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use: Initiation, Social Supply, and Whiteness,” Sheigla Murphy and Fiona Murphy, Institute for Scientific Analysis
* “Practical Morality: Social Order in a Mexico City Impoverished Neighborhood,” Avelardo Valdez and Alice Cepeda, University of Southern California
* “Substance Use by Immigrant Generation, Gender, Crossborder Mobility, and Housing Status in a U.S.-Mexico Border City,” Oralia Loza, The University of Texas at El Paso and Ernesto Castaneda, American University

2016 DREM AWARDS, Work Recognized for Excellence

2016 Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award Winner

Despite the Best Intentions
How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools
by Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high-achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latina/o students continue to lag behind their peers? 

Through five years' worth of interviews and data-gathering at Riverview, Lewis and Diamond have created a powerful and illuminating study of how the racial achievement gap continues to afflict American schools more than fifty years after the formal dismantling of segregation. As students progress from elementary school to middle school to high school, their level of academic achievement increasingly tracks along racial lines, with white and Asian students maintaining higher GPAs and standardized testing scores, taking more advanced classes, and attaining better college admission results than their black and Latina/o counterparts. Most research to date has focused on the role of poverty, family stability, and other external influences in explaining poor performance at school, especially in urban contexts. Diamond and Lewis instead situate their research in a suburban school, and look at what factors within the school itself could be causing the disparity. Most crucially, they challenge many common explanations of the “racial achievement gap,” exploring what race actually means in this situation, and how it matters.



KimberléCrenshaw 
Outstanding Article Award

McGuffey, C. Shawn.2013. "Rape and Racial Appraisals: Culture, Intersectionality, and Black Women’s Accounts of Sexual Assault." Du Bois Review10(1): 109-130.

Abstract
Using Black women's responses to same-race sexual assault, I demonstrate how scholars can use interpersonal violence to understand social processes and develop conceptual models. Specifically, I extend the concept of racial appraisal by shifting the focus from how indirect victims (e.g., family and friends) use race to appraise a traumatic event to how survivors themselves deploy race in the aftermath of rape. Relying on 111 interviews with Black women survivors in four cities, I analyze how race, gender, and class intersect and contour interpretations of sexual assault. I argue that African Americans in this study use racially inscribed cultural signifiers to root their understandings of rape within a racist social structure (i.e., a racial appraisal)—which they also perceive as sexist and, for some, classist—that encourages their silence about same-race sexual assault. African and Caribbean immigrants, however, often avoid the language of social structure in their rape accounts and use cultural references to distance themselves from African Americans. Last, I discuss the implications of my findings for Black feminist/intersectional theory.

Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner
Li, Yao-Tai, University of California at San Diego
“Racial Micro-aggressions in the Labor Market and Workplace in Australia"

Member News
New Positions, Moves, and/or Promotions

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva was elected as the next President of the American Sociological Association. His official term begins in 2017. 

David G. Embrick is now Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Kasey Henricks is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

BhoomiK. Thakore is now Director of the Sociology Program at Elmhurst College.

Awards

Janet Garcia is recipient of the 2016 Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Scholarship awarded by the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman is recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant to engage in research on Brazil from March 2016 to August 2016.

The Color of Love: Racial Features, Stigma, and Socialization in Black Brazilian Families (University of Texas Press, 2015), written by Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, was receive the Book Award sponsored by the Section on Emotions of the American Sociological Association. 

Sana Skaikh was selected as a Harvard Rappaport Summer Fellow and placed in Boston Public Schools at the Office of School and Community Partnerships.

Articles and Book Chapters

Armenta, Amada. 2016. “Racializing Crimmigration: Structural Racism, Colorblindness, and the Institutional Production of Immigrant Criminality.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 

Brunn-Bevel, Rachelle J. and W. Carson Byrd. 2015. “The Foundation of Racial Disparities in the Standardized Testing Era: The Impact of School Segregation and the Assault on Public Education in Virginia.” Humanity & Society.

Carlson, Jennifer. 2016. “Moral Panic, Moral Breach: Bernhard Goetz, George Zimmerman, and Racialized News Reporting in Contested Cases of Self-Defense.” Social Problems.

DiTomaso, Nancy. 2015. “Racism and Discrimination versus Advantage and Favoritism: Bias For versus Bias Against.” Research in Organizational Behavior.

DuCros, Faustina M. “Creating Transregional Collective Nostalgia: The Organizing Role of Catholic Parishes among Louisiana Migrants in Great Migration-era Los Angeles." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Feliciano, Cynthia. 2016. “Shades of Race: How Phenotype and Observer Characteristics Shape Racial Classification.” American Behavioral Scientist. 

Freiberg, Fred and Gregory D. Squires, 2015. “Changing Contexts and New Directions for the Use of Testing.” Cityscape.

Garcia, Janet. 2016. “Understanding the Lives of Mothers after Incarceration: Moving Beyond Socially Constructed Definitions of Motherhood.” Sociology Compass.

Jones, Antwan, Gregory D. Squires, and Cynthia Ronzio. 2015 “Foreclosure is Not an Equal Opportunity Stressor: How Inequality Fuels the Adverse Health Implications of the Nation’s Financial Crisis.” Journal of Urban Affairs.

Kwon, Yaejoon. 2016. “Transcolonial Racial Formation: Constructing the ‘Irish of the Orient’ in U.S.-Occupied Korea.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 

McMillan Cottom, Tressie. 2015. “‘Who Do You Think You Are?’: When Marginality Meets Academic Microcelebrity.” Gender, New Media & Technology.

Patterson, Evelyn J. and Helena E. Dagadu. 2015. “Fractures in the Color Line: Consequences of Constructions of Race and Ethnicity on Measures of Imprisonment.” Sociology of Race & Ethnicity.

Quiroz, Pamela Anne and Vernon Lindsay. 2015. “Selective Enrollment, Race, and Shifting the Geography of Educational Opportunity: Where ‘Diversity’ and Opportunity Compete with Tax Increment Financing.” Humanity & Society. 

Richards, Bedelia Nicola. 2016. “Tracking and Racialization in Schools: The Experiences of Second Generation West Indians in New York City.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

Smith, Jason A. 2016. "Mutating Minorities: White Racial Framing and Group Positioning." In: The X-Men Films: A Cultural Analysis, edited by C. Bucciferro. Rowman & Littlefield.

Weiner, Melissa F. 2016. “Colonized Curriculum: Racializing Discourses of Africa and Africans in Dutch Primary School History Textbooks.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

Presentations

Sana Skaikh presented "Organizational Theory and Behavior: Using Theory to Elicit Change in Baltimore City Public Schools" to the Relational Coordination Research Collaborative in 2016.

Jason A. Smith was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington, DC. It was entitled "#IfWeBridgeTheDigitalDivide: Media Perceptions of Women and People of Color."

In the News and Popular Media

In wake of the largest Powerball jackpot to date, Kasey Henricks was interviewed by Forbes regarding his work on the state lotteries and the implications they have for race and class inequality. The article can be found here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2016/01/12/the-state-house-always-wins-taxes-on-a-1-5-billion-jackpot-are-the-least-of-it/#719d38076844.
Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman participated in a TEDxtalk Presentation for her book, The Color of Love: Racial Features, Stigma, and Socialization in Black Brazilian Families (University of Texas Press, 2015). It can be viewed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eolZFz5a_dQ.

Following the police brutality leading to the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Reuben J. Miller penned an essay in The Huffington Post entitled “I can’t write fast enough.” In it, he asks why we know so much of these innocent lives lost and so little about those police officers who took them. Read it in full here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-cant-write-fast-enough_us_577eb0cfe4b03288ddc5907b.

Jason A. Smith wrote an essay entitled "The 'technique' of blackface" that was featured in Cyborgology of The Society Pages. It can be accessed here: https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/05/02/the-technique-of-blackface/.

Call for Submissions
Humanity & Society  –  Media Reviews
Recognizing the multiple modalities of communication and how presentations enhance our sociological understanding of the complex realities of the 21st century, the journal Humanity & Society (http://has.sagepub.com/) seeks authors for Media Reviews. We invite reviewers of critical messages in popular films, television shows, documentaries, multimedia presentations, video games, and other forms of media. Written submissions should be approximately 1,000 words. The journal welcomes reviewers from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives, including activists, graduate students, and practitioners in fields other than sociology. To review for Humanity & Society, please contact the Media Review Editor, Bhoomi K. Thakore, with your background information and suggested review topic at bhoomi.thakore@northwestern.edu. 

Sociology of Race & Ethnicity
In January 2015, the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the American Sociological Association, along with Sage, published the first issue of the new journal, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity! Please share this news widely with colleagues and students. This is an exciting new venture!

Each issue is organized around a core group of original research articles. Original articles, of 8,000 to 10,000 words, will represent rigorous sociological research in the sociology of race and ethnicity, broadly conceptualized, with varying methodologies. We are also very interested in publishing theoretically important pieces. The journal also includes a section that features pedagogical application pieces devoted to the teaching of race and ethnicity – “Race and Ethnicity Pedagogy” – as well as Book Reviews and a section on Books of Note.

Meet the Incoming Chair

Greetings Fellow Members of the Racial and Ethnic Minorities Division, 
Thank you for electing me as your incoming 2016 - 2018 co-chair.  If you did not elect me, I hope to gain your support throughout my time as co-chair.  I am currently wrapping up three years as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colby-Sawyer College (CSC), in New London, New Hampshire.  This Fall, I am joining the faculty at Morgan State University, in Baltimore, Maryland, as Assistant Professor of Sociology.  Prior to my appointment at CSC, I was Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Concordia University-Ann Arbor. 

I see myself as a teaching-scholar.  Accordingly, I teach courses on race and social class; which are influenced by my active research agenda.  With broad interests in the black middle class, I examine education patterns/choices, economic patterns, and media representations among this group.  My research interests fit perfectly at Morgan State; as it is a Historically Black University.  My interests also fit perfectly in metropolitan Baltimore as neighboring Prince George’s County has one of the largest population of middle class blacks.  Lastly, my interests fit perfectly in the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) because my work is interdisciplinary.  My interdisciplinary interests provide me with a willingness to meet scholars, within SSSP, as well as connect scholars from different disciplines.  As your new co-chair, I will serve as a liaison in connecting colleagues with similar interests.  I will also connect junior scholars with senior scholars; as junior scholars provide fresh ideas and senior scholars provide sound mentorship.  

I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and attended public schools--Ralph Waldo Elementary and Middle School and Lewis Cass Technical High School.  I graduated from The University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.  I earned master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from Wayne State University.  I am also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.  My wife of eight years--Kanika Nicole Jackson--is also a higher education professional; specializing in student activities and diversity programming.  We have a four year old son who is ACTIVE in every way imaginable.  I am hoping to gain tenure while managing his activity; so keep me in your prayers and positive thoughts!

See you in Seattle!

Omari Jackson, SSSP DREM Co-Chair (2016-2018)

We Are Yours

Thanks to all of you who read our newsletter, as well as everyone who contributed to it. As we move forward with new issues, I remain interested in evolving the newsletter with innovative content and new faces. If you have ideas, I’d like to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line via email about what you’d like to see in upcoming issues. After all, this newsletter belongs to us all. 

In hope, peace, and struggle, 

Kasey Henricks, khenricks@abfn.org

Another Sociology is Possible! A hearty congrats to Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Future President of the American Sociological Association