Rebels of the underground: Media,orality, and the routes of black emancipation

Studies of race in communication studies often critique and/or celebrate representations of people of color, but recently scholars have called for studies to “go beyond” representation. Building off the work of Sarah Sharma, Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and Walter Ong, this article considers how forms of media, rather than solely content, have racial implications that exceed their representational capabilities. Through an analysis of slave narratives, this article argues that the Underground Railroad was a “media environment” that assisted slave emancipation. This environment celebrated oral forms of mediation and the bodies of certain black runaway slaves to mediate the lines between freedom and bondage.     

Hidden in plain sight: defying juridical racialization in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander

This article examines the intersectionality of law and race to argue that law, in its broadest understanding, has played a pivotal role in the performative constitution of racial subjects. This disciplinary regulation, which has operated to “fix” an individual within a racial status under law, has augmented the production of the individual as a raced subject. An analysis of Rhinelander v. Rhinelander, however, illuminates that a defiance of racial performative dictates can render “race” hidden in plain sight. This rendering represents an escape from the regulatory mechanisms of law, posing a counter‐power that threatens to disturb hegemonic whiteness.     

Between the Structural and the Personal: Situated Sense-Makings of “Race” This research was supported by a grant from the MOSAIC Multicultural Center at San Jose State University.

Using a critical intercultural communication perspective and cultural studies interviewing method, this study traces individuals’ subjective sense-makings of diversity through the trope of “race.” Such sense-makings represent the key (and taken-for-granted) locus of the structural and personal where social actors live out the constructions of diversity and race in deeply felt ways. Our study reveals how individuals articulate and understand race via raceless diversity encodings (whereby race is seemingly stripped of its power inequalities, and all racial/ethnic groups are made equal) and racial pivoting (whereby participants both discursively pull away from and move toward race to suit their individual experiences).     

Dynamic Rhetorics of Race: California's Racial Privacy Initiative and the Shifting Grounds of Racial Politics

In October 2003, Californians voted in the high-profile gubernatorial recall election and on what is referred to as the “Racial Privacy Initiative.” The Initiative sought to prohibit the gathering of racial data in education and state employment. Unlike recent such initiatives addressing California's racial laws, this one was unsuccessful: 62 percent of voters said no. This essay examines the discourse surrounding the initiative over its three-year history and traces the rhetorical dynamics that led to its defeat. The analysis details the implications of this moment for hegemonic processes in general and as they relate to the specifics of race.     

Classifying racial and ethnic group data in the United States: the politics of negotiation and accommodation

“Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity,” formerly known as “Statistical Policy Directive 15,” is a classification system that has formed the basis of the U.S. government's collection and presentation of data on race and ethnicity since 1977. During the mid-1990s, it underwent a public evaluation to determine whether the racial and ethnic group categories should be revised. This article examines the history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 from its origins through October 1997 and evaluates its consequences on political, economic, and social life. Among the many lessons that government information specialists can take away from the history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 is that classification systems are not neutral tools that objectively reflect and measure the empirical world. Classification systems cannot be isolated from the larger political setting. They are tightly linked to public policies, and, in the case of racial and ethnic group classification, they constitute highly contested social policy about which there is little public consensus.     

The problematic status of u.s. statistics on race and ethnicity: An “imperfect representation of reality”

This article extends Stratford's brief observations about the problematic status of racial and ethnic group statistics to a discussion of the relationship among these statistics, public policy, and the conceptual status of race and ethnicity. Federal statistics are organizational products that are socially constructed. They represent the implementation of public policies that govern political, social, and economic life. It is the interaction between politics and the subjective meaning of race and ethnicity that is responsible for the continual modification of racial and ethnic group statistics. The article discusses the premises on which racial and ethnic group statistics have been based and illustrates how they were implemented in the instructions of the decennial censuses for classifying the race and ethnicity of the population. The article then summarizes some of the empirical evidence from recent research conducted by federal agencies and social scientists to show that racial and ethnic group statistics produced by government record keeping systems have no objective status. The meaning of race and ethnicity is contextual, situational, and subjective, and, thus, how respondents and observers define these concepts has significant consequences for the quality of federal statistics.     

Constituting “the People” as Rhetorical Interruption: Barack Obama and the Unfinished Hopes of an Imperfect People

This article explores how Barack Obama's oratory positions “the people” as a site of ongoing rhetorical negotiation regarding national identity, ideology, and potentiality. Like the subjects implicated in Charland's consideration of constitutive rhetoric, “the people” of Obama's rhetoric emerge as the choosers, deciders, and accomplishers of collaborative identity performance. Unlike Charland's subjects, however, Obama's rhetoric of imperfection and dissent positions “the people” as never fully constituted but always engaged in the act of constitution. The people, like the country they constitute, are flawed, never perfect, and always in the process of perfecting.     

Questioning Race: Ancestry DNA and Dialog on Race

Human genetics and racial identity converge pointedly in the family narrative. Until recently, genetics, racial identity, and family narrative were all rather malleable concepts in the public arena. All were presented in anecdotal form for the most part, and were often based on certain social conventions. The interjection of popularly available ancestry DNA data adds an additional piece of information to the discussion of genetics, race, and narrative. Using the framework of both narrative theory and theory of social construction, this work uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore how individuals react to ancestry DNA findings and to consider if and how this information will change narratives, behaviors, and perspectives. We also explore whether one's racial identification makes a difference in initial accuracy and if there is a difference among racial groupings in terms of change in census identification based on knowledge of their DNA profile.     

通过里耶秦简"义陵用度简"的复原看秦代官文书的生成、传递和存档

里耶秦简“义陵用度简”是一份官文书,其传递过程是“A县库→A县廷→迁陵县廷→迁陵库”,可分为“库□告县廷书”“丞欧告迁陵主书”和“迁陵守丞殷告库书”三个传递阶段。其中,“丞欧告迁陵主书”和“迁陵守丞殷告库书”在县廷的处理流程可归纳为“原件签署+抄件批转+原件存档/抄件送出”,即:①在原件上签署收文记录;②抄写文书正文部分,制成抄件;③丞欧/守丞殷批转抄件;④将“批转”意见转抄到原件上;⑤原件存档,抄件送出。此种处理流程是秦汉时期官文书传递流转的重要方式之一,可用于分析“义陵用度简”同类文书的流转情况。     

Deciphering Kokopelli: Masculinity in Commodified Appropriations of Native American Imagery

Kokopelli “the hump-backed fluteplayer” has become an icon of the Southwest as well as a metonym for the region's Native American cultures. Guided by the trope of the primitive, this essay analyzes contemporary Kokopelli imagery as a projection of Euro-American masculinist fantasies and as a contemporary commodity form, the cipher. Kokopelli imagery models a virile and promiscuous heterosexual masculinity while erasing its anatomical signs. It articulates intersections of gender, race, and culture that simultaneously highlight and obscure primitive masculinity and racial difference, enabling the use of Native American culture and spirituality to (re)vitalize Euro-American masculinity and promote (neo)colonial appropriations.     

The effects of virtual racial embodiment in a gaming app on reducing prejudice

This research experimentally examined the effectiveness of the use of virtual racial embodiment in a digital gaming application for reducing bias against a non-dominant group. The findings of this study advance theory and have practical implications for the design of immersive diversity initiatives. We tested avatar creation and the gaming app as a new modality for stimulating perspective-taking. In addition, we explored how sex and race intersect in virtual embodiment and stereotyping. Results showed that creating and embodying a Black avatar produced more favorable beliefs about African American men, but not African American women, and greater support for “pro-minority” policies in comparison to creating and playing a White avatar. Avatar liking was a significant moderator, but self-presence had no effect.     

Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill and the Racialization of American Indian Identity

After publishing a controversial essay on 9/11, Professor Ward Churchill's scholarship and personal identity were subjected to a hostile public investigation. Evidence that Churchill had invented his American Indian identity created vehemence among many professors and tribal leaders who dismissed Churchill because he was not a “real Indian.” This essay examines the discourses of racial authenticity employed to distance Churchill from tribal communities and American Indian scholarship. Responses to Churchill's academic and ethnic self-identification have retrenched a racialized definition of tribal identity defined by a narrow concept of blood. Employing what I term blood-speak, Churchill's opponents harness a biological concept of race that functions as an instrument of exclusion and a barrier to coalitional politics.     

African American women and violence: gender,race, and class in the news

This study uses discourse analysis to examine the representation of violence against African American women in local TV news coverage of Freaknik, an annual “spring break” ritual that drew African American college students from throughout the country to Atlanta, Georgia in the 1990s. It draws on Black feminist theory in its examination of the ways that gender, race, and class intersected to shape the representation of the victims, the perpetrators, and the violence. The results indicate that the convergence of gender, race, and class oppressions minimized the seriousness of the violence, portrayed most of its victims as stereotypic Jezebels whose lewd behavior provoked assault, and absolved the perpetrators of responsibility. Coverage also reinforced race and class stereotypes by representing locals as underclass troublemakers prone to crime while students were linked to law‐abiding, middle class values and norms. In demonstrating the utility of addressing the intersectionality of gender, race, and class, this study argues that such an approach is necessary to the study of representation.     

馆藏纲要与藏书结构理论的比较研究

本文在分别介绍我国“藏书结构”理论及美国“馆藏纲要”方法的基础上,从“藏书等级”的内涵、考察馆藏的着眼点、属性三方面进行分析,指出两者的区别。我国在馆藏纲要的实践中存在混淆两者的情况,明确它们的区别,对于正确应用纲要方法将大有裨益。     

“Everybody’s hard times are different”: country as a political investment in white masculine precarity

Recognizing the complex interplay between country music, lifestyle, and identity, and the disparate nature of these texts and their producers, we center our analysis of the politics of contemporary “country” in the accounts of country music listeners. Through this lens, “country” foregrounds a portrait of precarious labor and white rural economies. Precarity is held up as aspirational, facilitated by the relative structural support of whiteness and masculinity that simultaneously leverages economic hardship to obfuscate these privileged positions. “Country” elides experiences of class marginalization, white rurality, and masculinized labor with mythologized narratives that position simplicity and work as “the good life.”     

《陕西民报》的办报理念与办报实践

本文结合《陕西民报》的办报背景,运用文本分析的方法,从内容、业务两个方面对《陕西民报》的“要政府的意见趋于民众化、要民众的意见趋于政治化”的办报方针的践行进行探析。由此得出,“民众的意见”与“民众化”只是西北军“反蒋”的“幌子”,该报归根到底是为政治权力服务的。但该报对“民众”的关注,重视政府与民众之间的互动、联系,在同时期的国民党报纸中具有开创性和领先性。     

Looking toward an information base in the 21st Century: The American Community Survey

Communities traditionally have relied on demographic and economic data from the decennial census for key decisions. Those same data are used by Congress and federal agencies to distribute billions of dollars, to administer federal programs, and to evaluate the results of federal policies. As the decade progresses, communities and their financial supports have had no alternative other than to live with the fiction that their areas have not changed since the last census. This article describes the American Community Survey, which the U.S. Census Bureau has designed to provide demographic, economic, and housing information to communities every year instead of every 10 years, providing them with a “video” of changes in their areas, rather than the current decennial “snapshot.”     

In/discernible bodies: the politics of passing in dominant and marginal media

This essay explores news media coverage of two types of alleged “passing”: passing across racial lines from Black to White and across sex lines from female to male. Textual analysis of dominant print media and print media discourses produced by and/or addressed to Blacks and queers reveals prominent frames through which news consumers are invited to perceive these events. In particular, the analysis demonstrates that both dominant and marginal social groups express the desire to fix the identities of passers in a single, discrete category, although these groups wish to do so for disparate reasons. In addition, marginal groups frame passing events within broad cultural and historical contexts in contrast to the narrow contexts framed by dominant media. Comparison of race and sex passing exposes the similarities–including community consternation about the passer–and differences–including disparate focus on civil rights rather than identity issues–between Black and queer coverage of these events. Comparison of race and sex passing also exposes the way in which dominant media correlate race passing with class passing, while sex passing is correlated to sexuality passing (that is, queer passing for heterosexual).     

“改革开放一代”新老年人阅读推广工作研究

“改革开放一代”老年人成长于我国历史性的转折时期,是第一代整体上浸润和认同流行文化的老年群体。在分析“改革开放一代”特征的基础上,提出要将流行文化作为公共图书馆老年阅读推广工作的基本要素,并阐述了“当代大众文学”“当代审美精神”“书模展演”等老年阅读推广工作的几种具体实现形式,目的是更好促进“改革开放一代”老年读者的阅读发展、文化发展、生命发展,积极建立适应老龄社会要求的现代文化模态。     

When Athlete Activism Clashes With Group Values: Social Identity Threat Management via Social Media

On November 30, 2014, five African American St. Louis Rams players locked hands and displayed a “hands-up” gesture during player introductions in response to racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri, emanating from the Michael Brown case. This act generated significant media attention and prompted discussions via Facebook and Twitter. Two notable venues on social media for these conversations were the “Boycott the St. Louis Rams” Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag #BoycottRams. A thematic analysis of 1,019 user-generated Facebook comments and 452 tweets was conducted through the lens of social identity threat management. Six primary themes emerged: (a) renouncing fandom, (b) punishment commentary, (c) racial commentary, (d) general criticism, (e) attacking other group members, and (f) presenting the “facts” of the case. The results suggest that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter serve as forums where group members discuss and debate challenges to group values and promote action steps that can mitigate social identity threats. This form of protest holds implications for minority athletes’ activism efforts and sport organization administrators.