Matthew W . Hughey
University of Connecticut, Sociology, Faculty Member
- Columbia University, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Department Memberadd
- Sociology, Qualitative methodology, Race and Racism, Media Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Cultural Sociology, and 9 moreCritical Race Theory, Media Studies, Ethnic Studies, Racial and Ethnic Oppression in the U.S., Social Media, New Media, Digital Media, Media and Cultural Studies, and Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theoryedit
- I am Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. See my personal website at: https://www.matthewhughey.com/edit
In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are “educated gangs.” First, the author examines this... more
In this article the author explores the controversial thesis that African American Collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, also known as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs), are “educated gangs.” First, the author examines this polemic as a “truth claim” and compares BGLOs and gangs through: (1) hazing, (2), rape and substance abuse, (3) social constructions of black masculinity and femininity, (4) social structure, and (5) cultural aesthetics. Second, the author finds the legitimacy of the “educated gangs” thesis untenable due to the racist nature of the discourse itself. Third, the author argues that BGLOs are deemed “educated gangs” via: a nouveau “culture of poverty” ideology, the exaction of “symbolic violence,” and the propagation and protection of a normative and pure whiteness that is constructed relationally to a demonized and vilified blackness.
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This article provides a critical decoding of black masculine representations in the Black Panther Party newspaper—The Black Panther. Through a random sample of 100 papers inclusive of 1,316 articles from 1967 to 1980, the analysis focuses... more
This article provides a critical decoding of black masculine representations in the Black Panther Party newspaper—The Black Panther. Through a random sample of 100 papers inclusive of 1,316 articles from 1967 to 1980, the analysis focuses on both the aesthetic and rhetorical devices that construct black masculinity. These depictions do not turn on agendas to install ‘positive’ images in order to contest ‘negative’ ones, but are concerned with a recuperation of power and self-determinism to reframe the terms of debate over those representations. Findings challenge earlier assumptions that Black Nationalist (and in specific Black Panther) conceptions of black masculinity were predicated solely on essentialized, fixed, and patriarchal identities, and posit that these representations yielded a fluid and socially constructed notion of a black self predicated upon a resistive politic.
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Huey P. Newton’s legacy as a sociological, pedagogical, and theological philosopher has long been obscured. First, this work maps Newton’s pedagogical development. Second, I illuminate his theological insights as combination of Eastern... more
Huey P. Newton’s legacy as a sociological, pedagogical, and theological philosopher has long been obscured. First, this work maps Newton’s pedagogical development. Second, I illuminate his theological insights as combination of Eastern religious philosophy, Black Protestantism, and the double-edged transcendentalism of Marxist thought as both revolutionary catalyst and “opiate.” Third, I outline his sociological philosophy through the development of eight stages: (a) Black Nationalism, (b) Revolutionary Nationalism, (c) Revolutionary Socialism, (d) Revolutionary Internationalism, (e) Revolutionary Intercommunalism, (f) the “death of the [hero] subject,” (g) existentialism, and (h) African Socialism. I find that Newton’s project was a blueprint for an utopian (re)articulation of the social order that gestured toward a global, Habermasian-like notion of radical democracy.
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Abstract: The latest turn in the sociological study of white racism argues that the paradigm of color-blind racism is the predominant form by which many whites unintentionally reproduce racist ideology due to ignorance, or dismissal, of... more
Abstract: The latest turn in the sociological study of white racism argues that the paradigm of color-blind racism is the predominant form by which many whites unintentionally reproduce racist ideology due to ignorance, or dismissal, of structural racism. As a remedy, many scholars advocate that whites should turn to explicitly antiracist activism informed by structural analysis.
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Abstract The so called “Arab,”“Middle Eastern,” and “South Asian”(hereinafter “AMESA”) worlds are oft-described as barbaric, untrustworthy, anti-democratic, violent, and filled with religious militants. Many claim that animated cartoons... more
Abstract The so called “Arab,”“Middle Eastern,” and “South Asian”(hereinafter “AMESA”) worlds are oft-described as barbaric, untrustworthy, anti-democratic, violent, and filled with religious militants. Many claim that animated cartoons propagate this bigoted point of view, and that engagement with progressive and antiracist systems of representation are rarely combined in mainstream media formats.
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Recently, the Internet has become the focus of immense speculation regarding the social construction of identity and cultural “authenticity.” However, examinations of virtual communities such as blogs, multiuser domains, and chat rooms... more
Recently, the Internet has become the focus of immense speculation regarding the social construction of identity and cultural “authenticity.” However, examinations of virtual communities such as blogs, multiuser domains, and chat rooms have largely ignored nonwhite, especially African American, virtual communities (VCs). Through participant observation, content analysis, and personal interviews, this article analyzes a VC dedicated to members of African American fraternities and sororities, generally referred to as black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs). Findings show that BGLO virtual authenticity is accomplished via (1) the making of “brothers” and “others” based on symbolic boundaries of exclusion and inclusion and (2) the deployment of themes of resistance based on emotions of both sufferance and success. Implications suggest that interrogations of how virtuality constrains and enables processes of “authentic” racial identity formation as well as configurations of racist narratives and ideologies can yield added insights regarding the raced character of structure/agency, symbolic boundaries, and the social use of emotions.
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Recent research on African American media representations describes a trend of progressive, antiracist film production. Specifically, “Magical Negro” films (cinema highlighting lower-class, uneducated, and magical Black characters who... more
Recent research on African American media representations describes a trend of progressive, antiracist film production. Specifically, “Magical Negro” films (cinema highlighting lower-class, uneducated, and magical Black characters who transform disheveled, uncultured, or broken White characters into competent people) have garnered both popular and critical acclaim. I build upon such evidence as a cause for both celebration and alarm. I first examine how notions of historical racism in cinema inform our comprehension of racial representations today. These understandings create an interpretive environment whereby magical Black characters are relationally constructed as both positive and progressive. I then advance a production of culture approach that examines twenty-six films as resonating within mainstream audiences’ understanding of race relations and racialized fantasies. I find that these films constitute “cinethetic racism”— a synthesis of overt manifestations of racial cooperation and egalitarianism with latent expressions of White normativity and anti-Black stereotypes. “Magical Negro” films thus function to marginalize Black agency, empower normalized and hegemonic forms of Whiteness, and glorify powerful Black characters in so long as they are placed in racially subservient positions. The narratives of these films thereby subversively reaffirm the racial status quo and relations of domination by echoing the changing and mystified forms of contemporary racism rather than serving as evidence of racial progress or a decline in the significance of race.
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Although law prohibits race-based exclusion in college sororities and fraternities in the United States, racial segregation prevails. As a result, nonwhite membership in White Greek-Letter Organizations (WGLOs) is often hailed as a... more
Although law prohibits race-based exclusion in college sororities and fraternities in the United States, racial segregation prevails. As a result, nonwhite membership in White Greek-Letter Organizations (WGLOs) is often hailed as a transformative step toward equality and unity. The bulk of work on such cross-racial membership centers on comparative-historical and survey data and treats integrated membership as the successful end, rather than a problematic beginning, of analysis. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in three university campuses on the East Coast, I shift the focus from resource factors that either prevent or enable membership to the strategies of action that nonwhite members employ in their everyday lives in order to be perceived as full, belonging members. By drawing upon the insights of the sociology of culture, I argue that robust racialized schemas simultaneously enable and constrain inclusion. Rather than hide explicit racial-ethnic difference or accede to traditional expectations of Anglo-conformity, I find that nonwhite members are enmeshed in a paradox of participation: their ability to frame themselves as equal and belonging Greek “brothers and sisters” remains tied to a patterned reproduction of their racial and ethnic identities as essentially different and inferior. Such a paradox emerges as an important theoretical and pragmatic dilemma with implications for an array of institutional contexts.
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This article documents the shared patterns of private white male discourse. Drawing from comparative ethnographic research in a white nationalist and a white antiracist organization, I analyze how white men engage in private discourse to... more
This article documents the shared patterns of private white male discourse. Drawing from comparative ethnographic research in a white nationalist and a white antiracist organization, I analyze how white men engage in private discourse to reproduce coherent and valorized understandings of white masculinity. These private speech acts reinforce prevailing narratives about race and gender, reproduce understandings of segregation and paternalism as natural, and rationalize the expression of overt racism. This analysis illustrates how antagonistic forms of “frontstage” white male activism may distract from white male identity management in the “backstage.”
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This article documents the collective interpretations of film reviewers; a position typically associated with individual aesthetic judgment rather than socially shared scripts of explanation. Drawing on the reviews of a feature film with... more
This article documents the collective interpretations of film reviewers; a position typically associated with individual aesthetic judgment rather than socially shared scripts of explanation. Drawing on the reviews of a feature film with implicit racial content, produced in the context of a supposedly “color-blind” era, this article documents how reviewers constitute a racialized interpretive community. Reviewers rely upon specific cultural frameworks to both contest and reproduce the notion of a “post-racial” society. These interpretations equate non-whites with pathological and dysfunctional traits, frame hard work as a white normative characteristic, and construct deterministic views of both Hollywood’s ability to represent progressive racial representations and the educational system’s potential. This analysis illustrates how film reviews operate as mediating voices between producer and consumer, and in so doing, the interpretations of the film serve as “common-sensed” mappings of the contested terrain of contemporary race relations.
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This article examines the processes of white racial identity formation in the United States via an examination of a white nationalist organization and a white antiracist organization. Findings indicate that the construction of white... more
This article examines the processes of white racial identity formation in the United States via an examination of a white nationalist organization and a white antiracist organization. Findings indicate that the construction of white racial identity in both groups is based on the reproduction of various racist and essentialist ideologies. The realization that there is a shared ‘groupness’ to outwardly different white identities has the potential to destabilize the recent trend that over-emphasizes white heterogeneity at the expense of discussion of power, racism, and discrimination. As a resolution to this analytic dilemma, this article advances a conceptual framework entitled ‘hegemonic whiteness.’ White identity formation is thereby understood as a cultural process in which (1) racist, reactionary, and essentialist ideologies are used to demarcate inter-racial boundaries, and (2) performances of white racial identity that fail to meet those ideals are marginalized and stigmatized, thereby creating intra-racial distinctions within the category ‘white.’
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This article examines how meaning is made of white racial identity by comparing two white racial projects assumed antithetical—white nationalists and white antiracists. While clear differences abound, they make meaning of whiteness and... more
This article examines how meaning is made of white racial identity by comparing two white racial projects assumed antithetical—white nationalists and white antiracists. While clear differences abound, they make meaning of whiteness and racial “others” in surprisingly similar ways. Racial identity formation is structured by understandings of whiteness as dull, empty, lacking, and incomplete (“white debt”) coupled with a search to alleviate those feelings through the appropriation of objects, discourses, and people coded as nonwhite (“color capital”). Drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews, fourteen months of ethnographic observations, and content analysis, this article demonstrates how the prevailing meanings of whiteness, not their antithetical political projects or material resources, enable racial identity management. By examining seemingly antithetical white formations, the article illuminates not only striking differences but how divergent white actors similarly negotiate the dominant expectations of whiteness.
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Abstract In the wake of Barack Obama's 2009 ascension to the White House, stories questioning his citizenship slowly trickled into the mainstream. By 2011,“Birtherism”—the belief that Obama is constitutionally disqualified from holding... more
Abstract In the wake of Barack Obama's 2009 ascension to the White House, stories questioning his citizenship slowly trickled into the mainstream. By 2011,“Birtherism”—the belief that Obama is constitutionally disqualified from holding Presidential office—was a principle aspect of public discourse. Through an analysis of online comments in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, I analyze how dominant understandings of citizenship, race, class, and civil rights structure public navigation of “Birther” claims.
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"This article examines how ‘‘white antiracists’’ manage a perceived, and sometimes selfimposed, stigma. Given that whiteness and antiracism are often framed as antonyms, white engagement with matters commonly deemed ‘‘nonwhite issues’’... more
"This article examines how ‘‘white antiracists’’ manage a perceived, and sometimes selfimposed, stigma. Given that whiteness and antiracism are often framed as antonyms, white engagement with matters commonly deemed ‘‘nonwhite issues’’ often involves a presentation of self that unsettles established habit and expected modes of interaction. Adding to the research on race and stigma, I demonstrate how privileged actors repeatedly construct a broken and stigmatized white and antiracist identity in which management of one recreates the stigmatization of the other. They not only accept a ‘‘spoiled’’ identity (whiteness-as-racist and
antiracism-as-too-radical), but embrace stigma as markings of moral commitment and political authenticity. This dynamic—what I call stigma allure—illuminates how stigma, rather than a status to be shunned or entirely overcome, can become a desired component of identity
formation that drives and orders human behavior toward utilitarian, symbolic, and self-creative goals."
antiracism-as-too-radical), but embrace stigma as markings of moral commitment and political authenticity. This dynamic—what I call stigma allure—illuminates how stigma, rather than a status to be shunned or entirely overcome, can become a desired component of identity
formation that drives and orders human behavior toward utilitarian, symbolic, and self-creative goals."
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The articles affords a detailed exploration of the practice of hazing in Black Greek-Letter Organizations. Particularly, they look into the social-psychological reasons why even the most respected people—people with the most to lose—take... more
The articles affords a detailed exploration of the practice of hazing in Black Greek-Letter Organizations. Particularly, they look into the social-psychological reasons why even the most respected people—people with the most to lose—take part in such behavior in the face of legal penalty, physical and emotional trauma, and even death.
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In 2004, awash with the hope for a public sphere reinvigorated by the popular internet, the online arms of many U.S. newspapers opened their websites for comments. Now, nine years into this experiment, many newspapers have abandoned the... more
In 2004, awash with the hope for a public sphere reinvigorated by the popular internet, the online arms of many U.S. newspapers opened their websites for comments. Now, nine years into this experiment, many newspapers have abandoned the practice of allowing comments. Online news sites have adopted a variety of strategies to deal with offensive comments, including turning “comments off,” not archiving comments, and adopting aggressive comment moderation policies. These strategies present researchers who wish to understand how racism operates in the new public sphere of mainstream news sites with a set of methodological dilemmas. In this article we (1) lay out the methodological pitfalls for the systematic investigation of the prevalent pattern of racism in online comments in the public sphere and (2) suggest steps by which scholars may deal with these methodological intricacies. We conclude by pointing to the broader implications of online content moderation.
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Moving out of the shadows of their secret roots, African-American fraternities and sororities or ‘Black Greek-Letter Organizations’ (BGLOs) have recently witnessed an explosion of attention. From Hollywood depictions to academic... more
Moving out of the shadows of their secret roots, African-American fraternities and sororities or ‘Black Greek-Letter Organizations’ (BGLOs) have recently witnessed an explosion of attention. From Hollywood depictions to academic scholarship, BGLOs' form and function, in a world increasingly hailed as ‘post-racial’, is increasingly interrogated. Activists, members, and scholars commonly argue that BGLOs suffer from a dearth of quality media representation; they are propelled into mainstream discourse only in relation to tales of violent hazing or coverage of stepping. Yet, no empirical work to date has considered this topic. Moreover, given current theoretical debates over either the one-sided framing or the fragmented state of racial media representations, we examine a random sample of the last thirty years of US newspaper articles on BGLOs (N = 1,917). While findings are mixed, we illuminate clear patterns that simultaneously constrain and enable the representation of BGLOs and African-American civic participation.
Abstract This article examines and finds problematic the gap in the existing literature of intersections of Dr. Huey P. Newton and critical pedagogy. A cultural sociology approach critically interrogates Newton's writings and... more
Abstract This article examines and finds problematic the gap in the existing literature of intersections of Dr. Huey P. Newton and critical pedagogy. A cultural sociology approach critically interrogates Newton's writings and speeches, seeking the following: First, situate Newton in historical context, focusing on how his theoretical development was both constrained and enabled by the political milieu. Second, unpack the labor of representation of both his vilification and deification that work to hyper-mythologize his legacy, making ...
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Abstract This article explores how discursive repertories about black masculinity inform the construction of white masculinity in two settings assumed diametrically opposed: white nationalists and white antiracists. Drawing from in-depth... more
Abstract This article explores how discursive repertories about black masculinity inform the construction of white masculinity in two settings assumed diametrically opposed: white nationalists and white antiracists. Drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews, year-long ethnographic field notes, and content analysis from two nationwide white nationalist and white antiracist organizations, the author finds three common discursive frames to saturate both groups' discourse: black male dysfunctionalism, paternalistic surveillance of ...
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In the wake of both long-standing frustration with, and objective levels of, race, gender, and class exclusion in academic societies, I dive into a professional diary I have collected over the years. I demonstrate nine interactional... more
In the wake of both long-standing frustration with, and objective levels of, race, gender, and class exclusion in academic societies, I dive into a professional diary I have collected over the years. I demonstrate nine interactional patterns culled from my own experiences alongside the Du Boisian "veil." Such social forces are often considered esoteric and inaccessible due to racial hierarchies, elite gatekeeping, and methodological constraints. I read these patterns as mechanisms in the reproduction of a racialized interaction order. That order both creates, and is bolstered by, systematic discrimination, disciplined exclusion, and constricted knowledge production.
I provide first an overview of the predictions of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the public penance paid by political oracles in the wake of the results. Next, I reflect on the social science emphasis on forecasting "who" will... more
I provide first an overview of the predictions of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the public penance paid by political oracles in the wake of the results. Next, I reflect on the social science emphasis on forecasting "who" will win and by "how much." Third, I argue that our collective emphasis on prediction and realpolitik may obscure, if not stop, our ability to both understand how and why outcomes occur (by illuminating causal mechanisms at play) as well as how to imagine and form social worlds different than our current social relations (by alleviating or eliminating destructive leadership, policies, and rhetoric). Fourth, I call attention to some important gender and racial dynamics-all with the aim of better understanding how modern politics work in order to identify and pursue equitable movements, policies, and laws, rather than to simply (and problematically) make pre-election seasons into carnivalesque fortune-telling distractions. I conclude with recommendations on social science at the nexus of gender, race, and politics.
Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order... more
Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order from the shadows. Membership in these organizations is often simultaneously revered and misunderstood. The reverence toward these organizations is both a product and a cause of recent popular cultural fascination with the secret world of fraternal orders.
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Although law prohibits race-based exclusion in college sororities and fraternities in the United States, racial segregation prevails. As a result, nonwhite membership in white Greek-letter organizations (WGLOs) is often hailed as a... more
Although law prohibits race-based exclusion in college sororities and fraternities in the United States, racial segregation prevails. As a result, nonwhite membership in white Greek-letter organizations (WGLOs) is often hailed as a transformative step toward equality and unity. The bulk of work on such cross-racial membership centers on comparative-historical and survey data and treats integrated membership as the successful end, rather than a problematic beginning, of analysis. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in three university campuses on the East Coast, I shift the focus from resource factors that either prevent or enable membership to the strategies of action that nonwhite members employ in their everyday lives in order to be perceived as full, belonging members. By drawing upon the insights of the sociology of culture, I argue that robust racialized schemas simultaneously enable and constrain inclusion. Rather than hide explicit racial-ethnic difference or accede to traditional expectations of Anglo conformity, I find that nonwhite members are enmeshed in a paradox of participation: their ability to frame themselves as equal and belonging Greek " brothers and sisters " remains tied to a patterned reproduction of their racial and ethnic identities as essentially different and inferior. Such a paradox emerges as an important theoretical and pragmatic dilemma with implications for an array of institutional contexts.
Research Interests:
This study examined how stereotypes among alumnae members of historically Black sororities affected their experiences as both undergraduate and graduate members. This research contributes to the literature on skin color bias and to the... more
This study examined how stereotypes among alumnae members of historically Black sororities affected their experiences as both undergraduate and graduate members. This research contributes to the literature on skin color bias and to the stereotypes of Black women. For the majority of women we surveyed for this research, the myths and stereotypes surrounding skin color bias, intra-racial group relations, beauty, and femininity of different historically Black sororities influenced the initial perceptions of members in each group. The findings include some commonality among stereotypes about the oldest sororities (Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta), yet stereotypes about the other organizations (Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho) varied due to age, college life experience, and the geographic location of the interviewees. Implications and considerations for future research are included.
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Recent research on the intersection of race and media describes a trend of progressive, even antiracist, narratives that showcase close inter-racial friendships and camaraderie on the silver screen. Films in which one character saves or... more
Recent research on the intersection of race and media describes a trend of progressive, even antiracist, narratives that showcase close inter-racial friendships and camaraderie on the silver screen. Films in which one character saves or helps another from some unholy or disastrous plight are common in films like The Green Mile (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Amistad (1997) and The Blind Side (2009). While these films present a stark change from the patently racist and on-screen segregationist history of Hollywood cinema, these films often trade on racist meanings and expectations. Many of these films are what critics call ‘‘Magical Negro’’ or ‘‘White Savior’’ films – cinema in which implicit and explicit racial stereotypes are employed to structure the inter-racial interactions where one character labors to redeem another. In comparing these two genres, this article provides an overview for how both cinematic forms reproduce racist messages by naturalizing the supposed cerebral rationality, work ethic, and paternalistic morality of select White characters while normalizing Black characters as primordially connected with nature, spiritually connected to the carnal, and possessive of exotic and magical powers. Together, these films subversively reaffirm the social order and relations of racial domination by reproducing centuries’ old understandings of racial difference.
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While the sociological study of white identity has traversed many stages, its most recent turn emphasizes the contextual heterogeneity of whiteness. Because of this increased attention to context and locality, the study of whiteness has... more
While the sociological study of white identity has traversed many stages, its most recent turn emphasizes the contextual heterogeneity of whiteness. Because of this increased attention to context and locality, the study of whiteness has never been more amenable to cultural analysis than it is today. Hence, an emphasis on different white racial formations that span a political spectrum from conservative to liberal and racist to antiracist is now dominant. In this vein, white nationalists and white antiracists represent the distinct polarities of contemporary inquisitions into white identity formation. Motivated by this academic milieu, this article first reviews the common perception that whiteness is in 'crisis' and polarizing into antagonistic political projects. Second, the article scans the literature on white nationalist and white antiracist groups, making explicit the relation to cultural theory. Third, the article questions why these two groups are consistently juxtaposed against one another and how such a conceptualization hinders, rather than advances, cultural analysis. Fourth and last, the article advanced a cultural sociological framework for understanding white racial identity formation that neither collapses white identities into a monolithic collective nor reifies white formations as a static typology. Such an approach considers the general processes and contexts which produce 'whiteness' and give it meaning, as well as illuminates the social relationships and practices in which white racial identity formations become embedded.
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From the political behemoths of the Democratic and Republican Parties, to the Civil Rights Era racially progressive Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and reactionary American Independent Party, to the contemporary third party Green and... more
From the political behemoths of the Democratic and Republican Parties, to the Civil Rights Era racially progressive Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and reactionary American Independent Party, to the contemporary third party Green and Libertarian Parties, party politics in the USA has a long and storied relationship to the reproduction and contestation of racial domination. Recent works illuminate the strategic use of racial discourse by major party political elites, their deployment of racialized political platforms, and the relationship of these phenomena to power dynamics and racial interests but have yet to fully move beyond the two-party system and engage with innovations in political and cultural sociology. We outline openings for an empirically-grounded sociology of political parties that would reveal the micro- and meso-level features of racialized party politics and the operations of discursive and performative power within both major and minor political parties.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Ethnic Studies, and 27 moreAmerican Politics, Cultural Sociology, Political Participation, Political Parties, Racial and Ethnic Politics, Race and Racism, Political Science, Critical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Politics, Political communication, Political History, History of Political Parties, Racial Identity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Racial Inequalities and Policy, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Democracy, Elections, Racialization, Racial and ethnic discrimination, Elections and Voting Behavior, Social Inequality, Sociology of Ethnicity and Race, Racial Poltiics, Racial and Ethnic Relations, and Public Policy
While many issues of diversity within organizations and corporations themselves are fairly well researched, less attention has been paid to how the business media creates narratives around diversity issues. As business practitioners... more
While many issues of diversity within organizations and corporations themselves are fairly well researched, less attention has been paid to how the business media creates narratives around diversity issues. As business practitioners consume business media, these narratives have a major influence on business practices such as hiring and management. In our chapter in a forthcoming book entitled Underneath the Thin Veneer: Critical Diversity, Multiculturalism, and Inclusion in the Workplace, we analyze the diversity narratives in 275 business media articles to understand how a relatively unidimensional perspective is perpetuated and legitimated given corporate diversity’s highly complex and intersecting nature with social issues. Here, we highlight some core findings of the study.
Research Interests: Business, Discourse Analysis, Media Sociology, Media Studies, New Media, and 17 moreSociology of Work, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business & Society, Diversity, Digital Media, Qualitative methodology, Critical Social Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Gender, Sociology of Organizations, Social Media, Critical Discourse Analysis, Inequality (Economics), Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Social Inequality, Diversity in Corporate America, and Business Journalism
Abstract Although law prohibits de jure race bias in US college fraternities and sororities, racial separation prevails de facto through custom, tradition, and preference. While historically Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) are... more
Abstract Although law prohibits de jure race bias in US college fraternities and sororities, racial separation prevails de facto through custom, tradition, and preference. While historically Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) are typically depicted as racially 'closed'and 'exclusive,'this article explores the social history and meaning of those instances when non-blacks have crossed that specific racial boundary.
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Critical sociological analysis suggests that Sony Picture Entertainment’s film Stomp the Yard immerses its audience in a myopic legend of African American fraternities and sororities. Combining historical photos of Civil Rights leaders,... more
Critical sociological analysis suggests that Sony Picture Entertainment’s film Stomp the Yard immerses its audience in a myopic legend of African American fraternities and sororities. Combining historical photos of Civil Rights leaders, traditions of “stepping,” tales of meritocratic social uplift, and romanticized aspects of Historically Black College or University (HBCU) culture, Stomp the Yard reveals a hyper-individualistic, conservative, and politically-blunted form of historiography. Specifically, five ideological mythologies ground the film’s construction of Civil Rights memory and racialized identities: (1) The complexity of BGLO life is reduced into step show competitions, (2) southern HBCUs are framed as places for the essentialized exoticism of black bodies, (3) historical references to BGLO Civil Rights leaders are used as sentimental plot-driving devices, (4) formulaic and clichéd depictions of black and inner-city ghettos, juxtaposed against “black bourgeoisie” elitism, frame a conservative morality tale, and (5) an reactionary rags-to-riches redemption story is dominant. These five mythologies decisively fail to interrogate the complexity of black fraternities and sororities. In so doing, they invite a critical blindness to these organizations’ role in past Civil Rights struggles as well as their intersection with contemporary issues such as economic classism, hazing, and resistance to contemporary forms of racial inequality.
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Review of The struggle for black freedom in Miami: civil rights and America’s tourist paradise, 1896-1968, by Chanelle N. Rose, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2015, xiii +315 pp., £31.31 (hardback), ISBN 978-0807157657
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Conventional academic approaches to African American and Asian American inclusion generally follow one of two dominant lines of inquiry: First, these two groups share an inter-racial 'linked fate'due to their collective... more
Conventional academic approaches to African American and Asian American inclusion generally follow one of two dominant lines of inquiry: First, these two groups share an inter-racial 'linked fate'due to their collective subjugation under white supremacy. Second, because of split labor markets, middle-man positioning, and inter-racial prejudice, these two groups represent distinct economic, political, and social processes of racial formation. Without dismissing the salience of either perspective, Race for Citizenship attempts a new ...
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Perhaps it is the C. Wright Mills legacy, run through forty-some years of my teaching Introduction to Sociology, contrasting ''troubles''with ''issues,''biography with history, but I find myself... more
Perhaps it is the C. Wright Mills legacy, run through forty-some years of my teaching Introduction to Sociology, contrasting ''troubles''with ''issues,''biography with history, but I find myself particularly intrigued when a sociologist turns to (auto) biography. And not just any sociologist. This is Peter Berger who, along with Thomas Luckmann, changed my life and made me who I am—or at least let me understand who I am. I took my undergraduate theory class in the summer of my freshman year. And after reading Berger's biography, I was ...
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Why, how and towards what end do different social justice movements, specifically concerned with welfare rights, contend with the fractured yet intersecting social experiences of race, gender and class? In The Price of Progressive... more
Why, how and towards what end do different social justice movements, specifically concerned with welfare rights, contend with the fractured yet intersecting social experiences of race, gender and class? In The Price of Progressive Politics (hereafter PPP) Rose Ernst attempts to tackle this question through a comparative analysis of the strategies used by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO)–both founded in the USA on 30 June 1966.
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Michel Agier's Managing the Undesirables is one of several texts that addresses the complex and proliferating humanitarian infrastructure that is increasingly prevalent in regions of the world besieged by violence and displacement,... more
Michel Agier's Managing the Undesirables is one of several texts that addresses the complex and proliferating humanitarian infrastructure that is increasingly prevalent in regions of the world besieged by violence and displacement, but his work stands out as particularly important and innovative. Agier addresses some of the central questions facing our world today: belonging, personhood, and the ability of those most cut off from political power to speak for themselves and shape their own lives, and he does so in a way that ...
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Secret and private organizations, in the form of Greek-letter organizations, mutual aid societies, and civic orders, together possess a storied and often-romanticized place in popular culture. While much has been made of these groups’... more
Secret and private organizations, in the form of Greek-letter organizations, mutual aid societies, and civic orders, together possess a storied and often-romanticized place in popular culture. While much has been made of these groups’ glamorous origins and influence—such as the Freemasons’ genesis in King Solomon’s temple or the belief in the Illuminati’s control of modern geo-politics—few have explicitly examined the role of race and ethnicity in organizing and perpetuating these cloistered orders. This volume directly addresses the inattention paid to the salience of race in secret societies. Through an examination of the Historically Black and White Fraternities and Sororities, the Ku Klux Klan in the US, the Ekpe and Abakuj secret societies of Africa and the West Indies, Gypsies in the United Kingdom, Black and White Temperance Lodges, and African American Order of the Elks, this book traces the use of racial and ethnic identity in these organizations.
This important contribution examines how such orders are both cause and consequence of colonization, segregation, and subjugation, as well as their varied roles as both catalysts and impediments to developing personal excellence, creating fictive kinship ties, and fostering racial uplift, nationalism, and cohesion.
This important contribution examines how such orders are both cause and consequence of colonization, segregation, and subjugation, as well as their varied roles as both catalysts and impediments to developing personal excellence, creating fictive kinship ties, and fostering racial uplift, nationalism, and cohesion.
"On November 5, 2008, the nation awoke to a New York Times headline that read triumphantly: “OBAMA. Racial Barrier Falls in Heavy Turnout.” But new events quickly muted the exuberant declarations of a postracial era in America: from... more
"On November 5, 2008, the nation awoke to a New York Times headline that read triumphantly: “OBAMA. Racial Barrier Falls in Heavy Turnout.” But new events quickly muted the exuberant declarations of a postracial era in America: from claims that Obama was born in Kenya and that he is not a true American, to depictions of Obama as a “Lyin African” and conservative cartoons that showed the new president surrounded by racist stereotypes like watermelons and fried chicken.
Despite the utopian proclamations that we are now live in a color-blind, postracial country, the grim reality is that implicit racial biases are more entrenched than ever. In Wrongs of the Right, Matthew W. Hughey and Gregory S. Parks set postracial claims into relief against a background of pre- and post-election racial animus directed at Obama, his administration, and African Americans. They provide an analysis of the political Right and their opposition to Obama from the vantage point of their rhetoric, a history of the evolution of the two-party system in relation to race, social scientific research on race and political ideology, and how racial fears, coded language, and implicit racism are drawn upon and manipulated by the political Right. Racial meanings are reservoirs rich in political currency, and the Right’s replaying of the race card remains a potent resource for othering the first black president in a context rife with Nativism, xenophobia, white racial fatigue, and serious racial inequality. And as Hughey and Parks show, race trumps politics and policies when it comes to political conservatives’ hostility toward Obama."
Despite the utopian proclamations that we are now live in a color-blind, postracial country, the grim reality is that implicit racial biases are more entrenched than ever. In Wrongs of the Right, Matthew W. Hughey and Gregory S. Parks set postracial claims into relief against a background of pre- and post-election racial animus directed at Obama, his administration, and African Americans. They provide an analysis of the political Right and their opposition to Obama from the vantage point of their rhetoric, a history of the evolution of the two-party system in relation to race, social scientific research on race and political ideology, and how racial fears, coded language, and implicit racism are drawn upon and manipulated by the political Right. Racial meanings are reservoirs rich in political currency, and the Right’s replaying of the race card remains a potent resource for othering the first black president in a context rife with Nativism, xenophobia, white racial fatigue, and serious racial inequality. And as Hughey and Parks show, race trumps politics and policies when it comes to political conservatives’ hostility toward Obama."
The cinematic trope of the white savior film-think of Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, or Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai-features messianic characters in unfamiliar or hostile settings discovering... more
The cinematic trope of the white savior film-think of Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, or Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai-features messianic characters in unfamiliar or hostile settings discovering something about themselves and their culture in the process of saving members of other races from terrible fates.
In The White Savior Film, Matthew Hughey provides a cogent, multipronged analysis of this subgenre of films to investigate the underpinnings of the Hollywood-constructed images of idealized (and often idealistic) white Americans.
Hughey considers the production, distribution, and consumption of white savior films to show how the dominant messages of sacrifice, suffering, and redemption are perceived by both critics and audiences. Examining the content of fifty films, nearly 3,000 reviews, and interviews with viewer focus groups, he accounts for the popularity of this subgenre and its portrayal of "racial progress."
The White Savior Film shows how we as a society create and understand these films and how they reflect the political and cultural contexts of their time.
In The White Savior Film, Matthew Hughey provides a cogent, multipronged analysis of this subgenre of films to investigate the underpinnings of the Hollywood-constructed images of idealized (and often idealistic) white Americans.
Hughey considers the production, distribution, and consumption of white savior films to show how the dominant messages of sacrifice, suffering, and redemption are perceived by both critics and audiences. Examining the content of fifty films, nearly 3,000 reviews, and interviews with viewer focus groups, he accounts for the popularity of this subgenre and its portrayal of "racial progress."
The White Savior Film shows how we as a society create and understand these films and how they reflect the political and cultural contexts of their time.
"Discussions of race are inevitably fraught with tension, both in opinion and positioning. Too frequently, debates are framed as clear points of opposition—us versus them. And when considering white racial identity, a split between... more
"Discussions of race are inevitably fraught with tension, both in opinion and positioning. Too frequently, debates are framed as clear points of opposition—us versus them. And when considering white racial identity, a split between progressive movements and a neoconservative backlash is all too frequently assumed. Taken at face value, it would seem that whites are splintering into antagonistic groups, with differing worldviews, values, and ideological stances.
White Bound investigates these dividing lines, questioning the very notion of a fracturing whiteness, and in so doing offers a unique view of white racial identity. Matthew Hughey spent over a year attending the meetings, reading the literature, and interviewing members of two white organizations—a white nationalist group and a white antiracist group. Though he found immediate political differences, he observed surprising similarities. Both groups make meaning of whiteness through a reliance on similar racist and reactionary stories and worldviews.
On the whole, this book puts abstract beliefs and theoretical projection about the supposed fracturing of whiteness into relief against the realities of two groups never before directly compared with this much breadth and depth. By examining the similarities and differences between seemingly antithetical white groups, we see not just the many ways of being white, but how these actors make meaning of whiteness in ways that collectively reproduce both white identity and, ultimately, white supremacy."
White Bound investigates these dividing lines, questioning the very notion of a fracturing whiteness, and in so doing offers a unique view of white racial identity. Matthew Hughey spent over a year attending the meetings, reading the literature, and interviewing members of two white organizations—a white nationalist group and a white antiracist group. Though he found immediate political differences, he observed surprising similarities. Both groups make meaning of whiteness through a reliance on similar racist and reactionary stories and worldviews.
On the whole, this book puts abstract beliefs and theoretical projection about the supposed fracturing of whiteness into relief against the realities of two groups never before directly compared with this much breadth and depth. By examining the similarities and differences between seemingly antithetical white groups, we see not just the many ways of being white, but how these actors make meaning of whiteness in ways that collectively reproduce both white identity and, ultimately, white supremacy."
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"The United States has taken a long and winding road to racial equality, especially as it pertains to relations between blacks and whites. On November 4, 2008, when Barack Hussein Obama was elected as the forty-fourth President of the... more
"The United States has taken a long and winding road to racial equality, especially as it pertains to relations between blacks and whites. On November 4, 2008, when Barack Hussein Obama was elected as the forty-fourth President of the United States and first black person to occupy the highest office in the land, many wondered whether that road had finally come to an end. Do we now live in a post-racial nation?
According to this book's contributors, a more nuanced and contemporary analysis and measurement of racial attitudes undercuts this assumption. They contend that despite the election of the first black President and rise of his family as possibly the most recognized family in the world, race remains a salient issue-particularly in the United States. Looking beyond public behaviors and how people describe their own attitudes, the contributors draw from the latest research to show how, despite the Obama family's rapid rise to national prominence, many Americans continue to harbor unconscious, anti-black biases. But there are whispers of change. The Obama family's position may yet undermine, at the unconscious level, anti-black attitudes in the United States and abroad. The prominence of the Obamas on the world stage and the image they project may hasten the day when America is indeed post-racial, even at the implicit level."
According to this book's contributors, a more nuanced and contemporary analysis and measurement of racial attitudes undercuts this assumption. They contend that despite the election of the first black President and rise of his family as possibly the most recognized family in the world, race remains a salient issue-particularly in the United States. Looking beyond public behaviors and how people describe their own attitudes, the contributors draw from the latest research to show how, despite the Obama family's rapid rise to national prominence, many Americans continue to harbor unconscious, anti-black biases. But there are whispers of change. The Obama family's position may yet undermine, at the unconscious level, anti-black attitudes in the United States and abroad. The prominence of the Obamas on the world stage and the image they project may hasten the day when America is indeed post-racial, even at the implicit level."
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"When Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was questioned by the police on the front porch of his home in an affluent section of Cambridge, many people across the country reacted with surprise and disbelief. But African American men... more
"When Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was questioned by the police on the front porch of his home in an affluent section of Cambridge, many people across the country reacted with surprise and disbelief. But African American men from coast to coast experienced painful recognition; “Gatesgate” was merely the very public manifestation of a phenomenon many black men experience regularly.
In Twelve Angry Men, a dozen eloquent authors tell their own personal versions of this story. Among others, we hear from a Harvard law school student who was tackled by security guards on the streets of Manhattan; a federal prosecutor who was detained while walking in his own neighborhood in Washington, D.C.; a high school student in Colorado who was arrested for “loitering” in the subway station as he waited for the train home; a bike rider trailed by police cars in Austin, Texas; a professor at a Big Ten university in Iowa; a New York Times reporter; and the head of the ACLU’s racial profiling initiative, who was pursued by National Guardsmen after arriving on the red-eye in Boston’s Logan Airport. Here we have the full spectrum of African American men sharing the predicament of being law-abiding black men in America today.
By turns angry, funny, bitter, and rueful, the effect of these first-person accounts is staggering, and will open the eyes of anyone who thinks we live in a “postracial” or “color-blind” America."
In Twelve Angry Men, a dozen eloquent authors tell their own personal versions of this story. Among others, we hear from a Harvard law school student who was tackled by security guards on the streets of Manhattan; a federal prosecutor who was detained while walking in his own neighborhood in Washington, D.C.; a high school student in Colorado who was arrested for “loitering” in the subway station as he waited for the train home; a bike rider trailed by police cars in Austin, Texas; a professor at a Big Ten university in Iowa; a New York Times reporter; and the head of the ACLU’s racial profiling initiative, who was pursued by National Guardsmen after arriving on the red-eye in Boston’s Logan Airport. Here we have the full spectrum of African American men sharing the predicament of being law-abiding black men in America today.
By turns angry, funny, bitter, and rueful, the effect of these first-person accounts is staggering, and will open the eyes of anyone who thinks we live in a “postracial” or “color-blind” America."
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“On one hand, the 'hood (brotherhood) positively shaped my undergraduate experience, deepening my commitment to community service and establishing lifelong bonds of camaraderie, fellowship, and love. On the other hand, as my dedication to... more
“On one hand, the 'hood (brotherhood) positively shaped my undergraduate experience, deepening my commitment to community service and establishing lifelong bonds of camaraderie, fellowship, and love. On the other hand, as my dedication to progressive politics grew after college, I found myself increasingly troubled by the elements of elitism, factionalism, and homophobia that remain endemic to African American fraternities and sororities, nowhere more acutely than at historically black institutions like Howard. I have always yearned for more critical, scholarly engagement of Black Greek Letter Organizations and their role in shaping political consciousness, cultural identity, and social activism in our society. This significant volume, part of an emerging literature on BGLOs, richly supplies the kind of critical assessment of 'Black Greeks' that I have craved since first sporting my 'letters' on the fabled Howard yard in spring 1995." - Russell Rickford, Assistant Professor of History, Dartmouth College
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Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order... more
Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order from the shadows. Membership in these organizations is often simultaneously revered and misunderstood. The reverence toward these organizations is both a product and a cause of recent popular cultural fascination with the secret world of fraternal orders. For example, the 2006 film The Good Shepherd portrayed Matt Damon's character's coming of age via the Yale University secret society “Skull and Bones,” all against the backdrop of the burgeoning Cold War and McCarthyism. Dan Brown's recent books qua films (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol) follow Tom Hanks' character “Harvard Professor Robert Langdon” and his attempts to disentangle the web of deceit and manipulation that supposedly characterize secret fratern...
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This article depicts two cases of “lost Whiteness” and unintentional racial “passing.” Based on years of ethnographic research, we present the story of two White people who – largely because of their truly-determined commitment to racial... more
This article depicts two cases of “lost Whiteness” and unintentional racial “passing.” Based on years of ethnographic research, we present the story of two White people who – largely because of their truly-determined commitment to racial justice activism – were thought by others as being or becoming Persons of Color. These activists were not trying to pass. Rather, they are manifestations of a “reverse racial pass,” defined as “any instance in which a person legally recognized as white effectively functions as a non-white person in any quarter of the social arena” (Harper 1998: 382). These two cases illumine the relationships between the ongoing, negotiated process of racial identity formation and antiracist activism in the United States. We argue that Whiteness and antiracism are enmeshed in a paradoxical dynamic: Social emphases on antiracist activism enabled the reception of White activists as People of Color, while conversely, emphases on activists’ Whiteness enabled observers t...
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Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order... more
Fraternal organizations hold a storied place in the Western world. Sometimes romanticized and occasionally framed as malevolent and controlling forces, fraternal organizations are often thought to influence, if not rule, the social order from the shadows. Membership in these organizations is often simultaneously revered and misunderstood. The reverence toward these organizations is both a product and a cause of recent popular cultural fascination with the secret world of fraternal orders. For example, the 2006 film The Good Shepherd portrayed Matt Damon's character's coming of age via the Yale University secret society “Skull and Bones,” all against the backdrop of the burgeoning Cold War and McCarthyism. Dan Brown's recent books qua films (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol) follow Tom Hanks' character “Harvard Professor Robert Langdon” and his attempts to disentangle the web of deceit and manipulation that supposedly characterize secret fratern...
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Violent hazing has been a longstanding issue within African American, collegiate fraternities and sororities, otherwise known as black Greek‐letter organizations (BGLOs). This article investigates how and what hazing victims know about... more
Violent hazing has been a longstanding issue within African American, collegiate fraternities and sororities, otherwise known as black Greek‐letter organizations (BGLOs). This article investigates how and what hazing victims know about their hazing experiences. Additionally, the article examines how victims' knowledge of hazing may hold serious implications for tort defense doctrines like assumption of risk and comparative fault. Specifically, the authors conduct two studies—one quantitative and the other qualitative—to find that not only are BGLO pledges aware that their pledge experiences are likely to involve mental and physical hazing, but that they believe such experiences will likely continue throughout the entirety of their induction process. Moreover, appreciation for hazing experiences is often captured in the fraternal chants, greetings, and songs they learn or create, which together reflects some understanding of danger and risk. The authors contend that these element...
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ABSTRACT The initial 1920 publication of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil sold over 15,000 copies. Its initial 1969 reissue, and subsequent reprints, have since garnered even more sales and thousands of citations.... more
ABSTRACT The initial 1920 publication of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil sold over 15,000 copies. Its initial 1969 reissue, and subsequent reprints, have since garnered even more sales and thousands of citations. Darkwater is now considered a classic. The centenary of the publication (1920–2020) provides an opportune moment to reflect on the book’s significance and disparate interpretations. In this article, I first examine the antecedents of Du Bois’s Darkwater. I then examine the book reviews, announcements, book club declarations, and advertisements and I subsequently map the variations of their coverage, debate, and emphases. I conclude with some thoughts on sociology’s relative dismissal of Darkwater until recent years and what sociology’s modest rediscovery of, and debates over, Du Bois portend.
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research-article2015 To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief his-tory of scientific racism and the extent to which it reso-nates with the public. we then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall... more
research-article2015 To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief his-tory of scientific racism and the extent to which it reso-nates with the public. we then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall prey to the seduction of biological determinism and racial essentialism: (1) the DNA mystique, (2) scientific revo-lutions and paradigm shifts, (3) the ethno-politics of genetics, (4) dismissals of social science as “soft, ” (5) the defense of biology against reactionary dismissals, and (6) the aura of “objectivity ” surrounding genetics. Last, we point to a way forward that may help scholars and the public avoid a return to old and debunked theories: (1) engagement with interdisciplinary fields and science and technology studies, (2) involvement of knowledgeable scholars and policy experts in govern-ment and higher education, (3) revision of the current additive funding model used by federal agencies, and (4) evolution in the training of future and cu...
We are at a crossroads in American history when we as a nation must decide a path toward racial equality. It is a crossroads that we have come to in the past, primarily in the 1960s and 1970s (i.e., civil rights or black power, peace or... more
We are at a crossroads in American history when we as a nation must decide a path toward racial equality. It is a crossroads that we have come to in the past, primarily in the 1960s and 1970s (i.e., civil rights or black power, peace or violence, etc.). It is a narrative that has been told for decades in the comic book The X-Men. This comic book as well as its graphic novel series and collection of movies has long served as a metaphor for what has played out with regard to race on the American landscape. This article explores that metaphor and raises an important question: Which approach (peace or violence) was best, particularly in light of the current struggle for racial equality in the United States? As a country, we are in the midst of a storm. It is a tempest born of decades, generations, and centuries of white supremacy. One of the current iterations and manifestations resulted, in part, from the killing of nine black worshipers in a Charleston, South Carolina church. The stor...
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The initial 1920 publication of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil sold over 15,000 copies. Its initial 1969 reissue, and subsequent reprints, have since garnered even more sales and thousands of citations.... more
The initial 1920 publication of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil sold over 15,000 copies. Its initial 1969 reissue, and subsequent reprints, have since garnered even more sales and thousands of citations. Darkwater is now considered a classic. The centenary of the publication (1920–2020) provides an opportune moment to reflect on the book’s significance and disparate interpretations. In this article, I first examine the antecedents of Du Bois’s Darkwater. I then examine the book reviews, announcements, book club declarations, and advertisements and I subsequently map the variations of their coverage, debate, and emphases. I conclude with some thoughts on sociology’s relative dismissal of Darkwater until recent years and what sociology’s modest rediscovery of, and debates over, Du Bois portend.
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I provide first an overview of the predictions of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the public penance paid by political oracles in the wake of the results. Next, I reflect on the social science emphasis on forecasting... more
I provide first an overview of the predictions of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the public penance paid by political oracles in the wake of the results. Next, I reflect on the social science emphasis on forecasting "who" will win and by "how much." Third, I argue that our collective emphasis on prediction and realpolitik may obscure, if not stop, our ability to both understand how and why outcomes occur (by illuminating causal mechanisms at play) as well as how to imagine and form social worlds different than our current social relations (by alleviating or eliminating destructive leadership, policies, and rhetoric). Fourth, I call attention to some important gender and racial dynamics-all with the aim of better understanding how modern politics work in order to identify and pursue equitable movements, policies, and laws, rather than to simply (and problematically) make pre-election seasons into carnivalesque fortune-telling distractions. I conclude with recommendations on social science at the nexus of gender, race, and politics.
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1. Chasing shadows: from the power elite to a new paradigm Matthew W. Hughey 2. The duality of spectacle and secrecy: a case study of fraternalism in the 1920s US Ku Klux Klan Kathleen Blee and Amy McDowell 3. Ekpe 'leopard'... more
1. Chasing shadows: from the power elite to a new paradigm Matthew W. Hughey 2. The duality of spectacle and secrecy: a case study of fraternalism in the 1920s US Ku Klux Klan Kathleen Blee and Amy McDowell 3. Ekpe 'leopard' society in Africa and in the Americas: influence and values of an ancient tradition Ivor Miller and Mathew Ojong 4. 'Weak power': community and identity Brian Belton 5. Black, Greek, and read all over: newspaper coverage of African American fraternities and sororities, 1980-2009 Matthew W. Hughey and Marcia Hernandez 6. Fraternity life at predominantly white universities in the US: the saliency of race Rashawn Ray 7. Why some black lodges prospered and others failed: the Good Templars and the True Reformers David M. Fahey 8. Ardent citizens: African American Elks and the fight for equal employment opportunities Venus Green
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Max Weber (1864–1920) is considered one of the canonical founders of sociology, while W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), author of The Philadelphia Negro (1899), The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and Black Reconstruction (1935), has only... more
Max Weber (1864–1920) is considered one of the canonical founders of sociology, while W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), author of The Philadelphia Negro (1899), The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and Black Reconstruction (1935), has only recently been included in the sociological canon. We provide a historical review of what we know of their relationship in order to first ask, what did Du Bois say about Weber, and second, what did Weber say about Du Bois? We then analyze the extant scholarly discourse of published English-language academic journal articles that substantively mention both Weber and Du Bois in order to address a third question: what did other scholars say about their relationship? We provide an analysis of the variation of scholars’ perceptions on the relationship between Du Bois and Weber to illumine the dominant assumptions about founding figures and the origin story of American sociology writ large. We argue that three mechanisms of white group interests configured the marginalization of Du Bois from both mainstream and sub-disciplinary sociological theory: (1) reduction or “knowing that we do no know and not caring to know” (when knowledge is perceived as irrelevant to white group interests), (2) deportation or “not wanting to know” (when knowledge is systematically exiled), and (3) appropriation or “not knowing that we do not know”) (when dominant knowledge usurps or assimilates challenges to that knowledge).
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To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief history of scientific racism and the extent to which it resonates with the public. We then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall prey to the seduction of... more
To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief history of scientific racism and the extent to which it resonates with the public. We then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall prey to the seduction of biological determinism and racial essentialism: (1) the DNA mystique, (2) scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts, (3) the ethno-politics of genetics, (4) dismissals of social science as “soft,” (5) the defense of biology against reactionary dismissals, and (6) the aura of “objectivity” surrounding genetics. Last, we point to a way forward that may help scholars and the public avoid a return to old and debunked theories: (1) engagement with interdisciplinary fields and science and technology studies, (2) involvement of knowledgeable scholars and policy experts in government and higher education, (3) revision of the current additive funding model used by federal agencies, and (4) evolution in the training of future and current scholars and policy-m...
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The link between black athleticism and biological determinism has been wrought with debate. With the domination of black athletics over white challengers—such as boxer Jack Johnson or sprinter Jessie Owens—some began to assert that blacks... more
The link between black athleticism and biological determinism has been wrought with debate. With the domination of black athletics over white challengers—such as boxer Jack Johnson or sprinter Jessie Owens—some began to assert that blacks possessed a biological predisposition toward athletic excellence and that Darwinian winnowing during chattel slavery’s harsh conditions magnified African American and West Indian athletic prowess. Despite biological and sociological evidence to the contrary, recent mainstream journalism has collectively advanced the proposition that black athletic success is the product of little more than genetic traits. In this article, we examine the events and ideologies employed to reify a media discourse of “black brawn vs. white brains.” We demonstrate how such a thesis is empirically untenable. Through an examination of English-language newspaper articles ( N = 292) published in the decade immediately following the completion of human genome mapping (2003–2...
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As established in Morris’ book, The Scholar Denied (2015) Du Bois’ influence and contributions have often been ignored within mainstream sociology. When not completely snubbed, historiography has o...
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While scholars have shown how ‘color-blind racism’ functions as the dominant form of racist discourse in the post-Civil Rights era, few have interrogated how this logic operated before the advent of US Civil Rights, or how ethno-racial... more
While scholars have shown how ‘color-blind racism’ functions as the dominant form of racist discourse in the post-Civil Rights era, few have interrogated how this logic operated before the advent of US Civil Rights, or how ethno-racial groups such as Puerto Ricans exist in an unique and liminal position and have been subject to color-blind racist discourse. The authors explore the construction of Puerto Rican identity during the pre-Civil Rights: a time rife with color-blind American paternalism over the supposed cultural dysfunctions of the Puerto Rican diaspora, an era of mass Puerto Rican emigration to the US, and a moment when Puerto Rico underwent a political change. The authors employ a content analysis of The New York Times (1948 to 1958) in order to investigate the relationship between the discursive construction of Puerto Rican identity and the flagship newspaper’s use of nationalist and racialized cultural schemata.
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In a day when many are fatigued with discourse on racism, discrimination, and inequality but others face a socially and politically trenchant White backlash against the gains of the civil rights movement, race scholars are faced with the... more
In a day when many are fatigued with discourse on racism, discrimination, and inequality but others face a socially and politically trenchant White backlash against the gains of the civil rights movement, race scholars are faced with the complex scenario in which they must simultaneously articulate (1) what, when, and where racism operates to exercise both deleterious and advantageous effects on differently racialized actors and (2) exactly why and how racism (especially its “color-blind” variant) functions toward the reproduction of the racialized social system. While scholarship on the former is well rehearsed, we see this special issue as a clarion call for new scholarship to interrogate the precise mechanisms by which color-blind racism and the racialized social system operate. New work on mechanisms gestures (at the least) toward the three directions laid out in this issue: the axiological (the study of values), ontological (the study of being), and epistemological (the study o...
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This article examines how meaning is made of White racial identity by comparing two White racial projects assumed antithetical—White nationalists and White antiracists. While clear differences abound, they make meaning of Whiteness and... more
This article examines how meaning is made of White racial identity by comparing two White racial projects assumed antithetical—White nationalists and White antiracists. While clear differences abound, they make meaning of Whiteness and racial “others” in surprisingly similar ways. Racial identity formation is structured by understandings of Whiteness as dull, empty, lacking, and incomplete (“White debt”) coupled with a search to alleviate those feelings through the appropriation of objects, discourses, and people coded as non-White (“Color capital”). Drawing from in-depth semi-structured interviews, fourteen months of ethnographic observations, and content analysis, this article demonstrates how the prevailing meanings of Whiteness, not their antithetical political projects or material resources, enable racial identity management. By examining seemingly antithetical White formations, the article illuminates not only striking differences but how divergent White actors similarly negot...
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The so called “Arab,” “Middle Eastern,” and “South Asian” (hereinafter “AMESA”) worlds are oft-described as barbaric, untrustworthy, anti-democratic, violent, and filled with religious militants. Many claim that animated cartoons... more
The so called “Arab,” “Middle Eastern,” and “South Asian” (hereinafter “AMESA”) worlds are oft-described as barbaric, untrustworthy, anti-democratic, violent, and filled with religious militants. Many claim that animated cartoons propagate this bigoted point of view, and that engagement with progressive and antiracist systems of representation are rarely combined in mainstream media formats. Using episodes from the animated series Family Guy and South Park culled from 2001 through 2007, we highlight the presence of a new cultural moment in post-9/11 culture that we call the “economy of hyper-irony and manic-satire.” Through this framework, we find that animated cartoons simultaneously reproduce and confound racist and essentialist representations of AMESA people.
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This article explores a counterintuitive intersection of class, gender, and race within two politically antagonistic white movements—white nationalists and white antiracists. Ethnographic field-notes, in-depth interviews, and content... more
This article explores a counterintuitive intersection of class, gender, and race within two politically antagonistic white movements—white nationalists and white antiracists. Ethnographic field-notes, in-depth interviews, and content analysis provide comprehensive data and triangulation for how implicit perceptions of class and gender are intertwined with the social construction of an ideal white, male, middle-class identity. While both organizations express antithetical political goals, they together reinforce broader discourses about whiteness and white supremacy. In so doing, these two organizations present an empirical and theoretical puzzle: How and why do two supposedly antithetical and divergent white male organizations simultaneously rationalize the inclusion and exclusion of women and the lower class from their ranks? Findings gesture toward tempering conceptual models of white male identity formation to further explore how cultural schemas are utilized toward the construction of both identity formation and interest protection.
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This article examines how “white antiracists” manage a perceived, and sometimes self-imposed, stigma. Given that whiteness and antiracism are often framed as antonyms, white engagement with matters commonly deemed “nonwhite issues” often... more
This article examines how “white antiracists” manage a perceived, and sometimes self-imposed, stigma. Given that whiteness and antiracism are often framed as antonyms, white engagement with matters commonly deemed “nonwhite issues” often involves a presentation of self that unsettles established habit and expected modes of interaction. Adding to the research on race and stigma, I demonstrate how privileged actors repeatedly construct a broken and stigmatized white and antiracist identity in which management of one recreates the stigmatization of the other. They not only accept a “spoiled” identity (whiteness-as-racist and antiracism-as-too-radical), but embrace stigma as markings of moral commitment and political authenticity. This dynamic—what I call stigma allure—illuminates how stigma, rather than a status to be shunned or entirely overcome, can become a desired component of identity formation that drives and orders human behavior toward utilitarian, symbolic, and self-creative g...
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Abstract Moving out of the shadows of their secret roots, African-American fraternities and sororities or 'Black Greek-Letter Organizations'(BGLOs) have recently witnessed an explosion of attention. From Hollywood... more
Abstract Moving out of the shadows of their secret roots, African-American fraternities and sororities or 'Black Greek-Letter Organizations'(BGLOs) have recently witnessed an explosion of attention. From Hollywood depictions to academic scholarship, BGLOs' form and function, in a world increasingly hailed as 'post-racial', is increasingly interrogated. Activists, members, and scholars commonly argue that BGLOs suffer from a dearth of quality media representation; they are propelled into mainstream discourse only in relation to ...
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Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Political Sociology, Ethnic Studies, American Politics, Cultural Sociology, and 15 morePolitical Participation, Political Parties, Political Science, Critical Race Theory, Politics, Political communication, Political History, History of Political Parties, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Democracy, Elections, Multidisciplinary, Elections and Voting Behavior, and Public Policy
The relationship between police violence and race is one fraught with both specific historical and contemporary tensions (i.e., white police profiling, beating, and murder of people of color) and with ambiguity (e.g., what is meant by... more
The relationship between police violence and race is one fraught with both specific historical and contemporary tensions (i.e., white police profiling, beating, and murder of people of color) and with ambiguity (e.g., what is meant by “race” and how do we operationalize and measure “violence” at the hands of law enforcement?). Defining the concept of “race” as a multidimensional process of oppression and justification for social inequality can shed light on why and how police violence often descends upon black and Latino populations as well as why such brutality and state surveillance is supported by many whites yesterday and today. In this article I analyze the relationships between police violence and race as an ongoing feedback loop: “race” produces violence and inequality while violence and inequality (re)forms “race.” Their intertwined formation reproduces the dominant meanings and structural location of racial groups in five key domains: ideologies, institutions, interests, id...
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Now months into the already turbulent presidency of Donald Trump, and in the wake of both the Obama presidency and Moonlight’s awkward ceremonial win for “Best Picture” at the 2017 Academy Awards, what are the meanings of Moonlight? We... more
Now months into the already turbulent presidency of Donald Trump, and in the wake of both the Obama presidency and Moonlight’s awkward ceremonial win for “Best Picture” at the 2017 Academy Awards, what are the meanings of Moonlight? We contend that the film’s polysemy both reproduces and challenges the continuing fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer; racial; class; and gender equality and representational struggles of marginalized peoples on the silver screen. With complexity, the film trades in and tests racial stereotypes and understandings of black families; relishes in the heterogeneity of black and Latinx identities; displays cultural contradictions at the heart of racism, heteronormativity, and hegemonic masculinity; and refuses to shy away from topics of love, lust, and loss. Together, the film is an epic—a sweeping homage to social transformation and to the nobility and negativity of the human condition.