Race,class and the South African progressive press

The shift from primary to secondary industry during the 1970s resulted in the growth of trade unions and community organisations in the cities. An anti-apartheid press developed as adjuncts to these organisations and have provided the gravitational centre for resistance against apartheid connecting community struggles to the national struggle for democracy. This paper examines structure, objectives and conventions of this press and the stale response to the development of this press.     

Dragon Boat Race at Mount Xisai

Mount Xisai, located at the south bank of the Yangtze River in the city of Huangshi, central Hubei Province, is known for its dragon boat race which is now included in the first national list of intangible cultural heritage, Taoshifu Village at the foot of Mount Xisai was a prosperous village during the Ming and Qing dynasties where salt granaries,     

Family size and parental satisfaction: Race and sex differentials

The impact of family size on parental satisfaction is investigated with race and sex as moderating variables. From a national sample of parents, a white subsample is matched to the black sample on the basis of education, city size, and age. The association between family size and parental satisfaction is negative and low for white males and females as well as for black females. For black males, the association between family size and satisfaction is positive and moderately high. Exchange interaction and role transition are proposed as frameworks which could account for the general relationship between family size and satisfaction as well as for the black male anomaly.     

Constructions of Race Among Religiously Conservative College Students

The “Whites as victims” motif in conversations about race has been well documented in recent decades. When discussing affirmative action hiring policies, a common belief expressed by Whites is that people of color have been permitted to progress unfairly at the expense of harder working Whites. Whites using this discourse see themselves as victims of a political process that ignores individual responsibility and caters to people of color who are not willing to work toward their own success. Using students’ Blackboard discussion forum postings, the author analyzes ideas about race expressed by students in education classes at a small denominational Christian college in the northeastern United States, and compares these students’ constructions of race to those analyzed in previous research using Whites as subjects in both religious and non-religious settings. The author argues that these students do not differ in their constructions of race and racism from other Whites in non-religious settings. Further, with more complete education and intentional conversation about the history of racism in the United States, these students are able to incorporate understandings of deeper structural causes of racial inequality.     

Grease and Sweat: Race and Smell in Eighteenth-Century English Culture

From 1690 to 1800 texts printed in England linked racial difference and foul odour through understandings of occupation, food, cosmetics and sweat. Even by the end of the eighteenth-century racial odour was represented as a labile, culturally and environmentally determined characteristic. This article traces how the social ‘use’ of olfactory stereotypes, particularly their links with cosmetics, food, and odorous spaces, determined the mobilization of explanations for and attitudes to racial scent. It argues that ideas of race should not be considered monolithic or described in terms of narratives that posit a divide between the body/culture, but that racial stereotypes should be understood as collections of traits, of which smell was one, with distinctive histories.     

Straight Talk: Talking Across Race in Schools

As a first-year teacher, out of field, European-American, and female, I expected I would have some growing pains teaching a class of African American boys with emotional and behavior disorders. I was unprepared for exactly how much growing and pain would actually be involved. Instinctively, I reached out to the paraprofessional with whom I was working, Mrs. Watkins (pseudonym), and to my surprise I was cleverly deflected with enthusiastic assurances of how I was the teacher and it was my classroom. It was clearly logical to me that, since she was African-American, had worked with African-American boys with emotional and behavioral disorders in the past, and was partnered with me for the year, she would openly work with me to make the classroom the best it could be for all involved. It seemed reasonable to me that I would look to her for guidance. She declined.

After two months, I was barely making it through each day. It was obvious the classroom needed serious changes, but I did not know where to begin. Our interactions were polite, but brief. Our work was always done, but separately. After two months of attempting to solicit her input and begin a reflective conversation about the happenings of our classroom, the most I would get is a shaking of her head or “They're playing you.” When I would ask her to explain how they were “playing me,” she would just shake her head. One day I confronted her unwillingness to engage in a conversation with me. She simply stated, “You're the teacher.” We stopped speaking unless absolutely necessary. (Cicetti-Turro, Personal Correspondence, 2001)     

Teachers Initiating Conversations About Race and Racism in a High School Class

This qualitative study explores the techniques, materials and processes of a Black teacher and a White teacher who introduced issues of race and racism in their team-taught high school class. The teachers explicitly put the issues of race and racism on the table, asked questions that challenged students to think about the topics, and used race-related curricular materials and assignments. The teachers' initiative encouraged the students in the class to speak out about the language and meaning of race and racism.