A death in the family: a metaphor about race and police brutality

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 769-773
Author(s):  
Derek R. Avery ◽  
Enrica N. Ruggs

PurposeThis essay was written in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks by police in 2020 and the surge of social justice protests they helped to reignite.Design/methodology/approachThis essay uses a metaphor that nearly everyone can understand to help build common understanding around the unique impact of police killings of Black people on other Black people.FindingsThis essay uses social psychological theory and our experiences as Black Americans and diversity scholars to illustrate why interracial conversations about police killings of Black people may not proceed as intended.Originality/valueIn the wake of growing social justice protests aimed at combating systemic racism in the US, many individuals and organizations are wrestling with determining how people can talk about race. This is uncharted territory for many, as sociological research shows that racioethnic integration has stalled or even regressed in schools, workplaces and social networks in the US This essay seeks to help readers move toward a common understanding to facilitate more empathetic interracial interactions involving Black people in the aftermath of these traumatic experiences.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Breen

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a call to action to use a new theoretical framework for disaster researchers that focuses on using a critical approach to understanding differential disaster impacts due to systemic racism.Design/methodology/approachUsing critical race theory (CRT) and Black Sociology, theoretical and disciplinary frameworks that center Black people and NBPOC as well as a focus in dismantling systemic racism and other oppressive systems, this article calls for a new approach – “disaster racism” – that builds on past discussions for a more nuanced theoretical approach to disaster studies.FindingsAlongside CRT and Black Sociology, this study identifies two examples of the oppressive systems that create disparate impacts to disaster including slavery and the legacy of slavery and mass incarceration.Originality/value“Disaster racism” – a critically focused approach – should be used in the future rather than social vulnerability to further dismantle oppressive systems and institutions, which not only provides strong theoretical backing to research but also creates an actively anti-racist research agenda in the discipline of sociology of disaster.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 803-809
Author(s):  
Oscar Holmes IV

PurposeThis article was written in response to the #BlackLivesMatter social justice protests that erupted around the world in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.Design/methodology/approachThis article weaves personal experiences, published research and current events and social issues to build the case that there are many ways that racism kills Black people.FindingsAlthough antiblack police brutality looms largely in people's minds of how racism kills Black people, less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people are often overlooked.Originality/valueIn this article, the author highlights: (1) the perennial expectation that Black people cater to other people's needs and desires; (2) performative activism and allyship; (3) assigning Black people the responsibility for fixing racism and (4) thinking education, mentoring or wealth is the panacea for racism as these less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thomas Greer ◽  
Scott Davidson Dyle

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and expand the legal discussion on T-Visa requirements and how it can be better structured to provide support for victims of sex trafficking that suffer from severe mental health injuries. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted extensive US legal and sociological research compiling human trafficking mental health report data, primarily conducted in Europe. Based on these finding, the authors interviewed practitioners in the legal field to verify assumed legal hurdles. Once validated the author's attempted to address and design an equitable approach towards mitigating the demonstrated legal shortfall. Findings – There is a dearth of US research on mental health trauma survivors of trafficking endure. This void prevents the legal system from adequately addressing likely outcomes suffered by the victims of this crime and prevents policy makers from structuring legal requirements equitably. Policy makers often need concrete examples of problems before reacting. This paper attempts to demonstrate how the current T-Visa requirements fail to fully recognize mental health injuries of sex trafficking and begins to provide a pathway to balance. Originality/value – While the statistical data was previously conducted by outside sources, the legal analysis is completely original by the author's and is likely to have a very high value to policy makers when addressing these issues. This paper also highlights the need for a more robust research program into human trafficking and mental health injuries within the US so that many of the analogies and assumptions can be supported.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-289
Author(s):  
Janie Hubbard

Purpose Dorothea Lange was one of the first US documentary photographers, and she was empowered by the belief that seeing the effects of injustice, in photographs, could elicit social and political reform. She famously documented the plight of Dust Bowl migrants during the US. Great Depression and harsh difficulties endured by incarcerated Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Lange’s photographs brought suppressed issues of class and race to the surface, depicting those impacted by national tragedies into recognizable, honorable, determined individuals. By showing Americans how suffering and injustice look in real life, she stimulated empathy and compassion. This inquiry is not particularly about the Great Depression or Japanese Internment, though disciplinary concept lessons would certainly support students’ prior knowledge. This lesson focuses students’ attention on broader ideas regarding social justice and how social and political documentary photography transform people’s views about distressing problems, even today. Supporting questions are: How can deep analysis of photographs affect our thoughts and emotions about social issues? What is empathy? How can social documentary photography affect people’s emotions? Supporting questions guide students to answer the greater compelling question, How can visuals, such as photographs, impact social change? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This is an inquiry lesson plan based on a National Council for the Social Studies Notable Trade book for Young People award winner, Dorothea’s Eyes, written by Barb Rosenstock. Findings The paper is a lesson plan, which incorporates students’ analyses of primary sources and other research methods to engage the learner in understanding how Dorothea Lange helped change perspectives regarding the need for social and political reform. Though the story is historic, similar social justice topics still persist, worldwide, today. Originality/value Through inquiry and research, students begin to learn how social and political documentary photography began in the USA, and students create their own social documentaries. Though the US Great Depression and Japanese Internment are highly relevant within this lesson, the overall, greater message is about class, race, suffering and how to inspire empathy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Robert Van Grover

Purpose To summarize and interpret a Risk Alert issued on April 12, 2018 by the US SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) on the most frequent advisory fee and expense compliance issues identified in recent examinations of investment advisers. Design/methodology/approach Summarizes deficiencies identified by the OCIE staff pertaining to advisory fees and expenses in the following categories: fee billing based on incorrect account valuations, billing fees in advance or with improper frequency, applying incorrect fee rates, omitting rebates and applying discounts incorrectly, disclosure issues involving advisory fees, and adviser expense misallocations. Findings In the Risk Alert, OCIE staff emphasized the importance of disclosures regarding advisory fees and expenses to the ability of clients to make informed decisions, including whether or not to engage or retain an adviser. Practical implications In light of the issues identified in the Risk Alert, advisers should assess the accuracy of disclosures and adequacy of policies and procedures regarding advisory fee billing and expenses. As a matter of best practice, advisers should implement periodic forensic reviews of billing practices to identify and correct issues relating to fee billing and expenses. Originality/value Expert guidance from experienced investment management lawyer.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-475
Author(s):  
Selma Izadi ◽  
Abdullah Noman

Purpose The existence of the weekend effect has been reported from the 1950s to 1970s in the US stock markets. Recently, Robins and Smith (2016, Critical Finance Review, 5: 417-424) have argued that the weekend effect has disappeared after 1975. Using data on the market portfolio, they document existence of structural break before 1975 and absence of any weekend effects after that date. The purpose of this study is to contribute some new empirical evidences on the weekend effect for the industry-style portfolios in the US stock market using data over 90 years. Design/methodology/approach The authors re-examine persistence or reversal of the weekend effect in the industry portfolios consisting of The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations exchange (NASDAQ) stocks using daily returns from 1926 to 2017. Our results confirm varying dates for structural breaks across industrial portfolios. Findings As for the existence of weekend effects, the authors get mixed results for different portfolios. However, the overall findings provide broad support for the absence of weekend effects in most of the industrial portfolios as reported in Robins and Smith (2016). In addition, structural breaks for other weekdays and days of the week effects for other days have also been documented in the paper. Originality/value As far as the authors are aware, this paper is the first research that analyzes weekend effect for the industry-style portfolios in the US stock market using data over 90 years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Barnes ◽  
Jessica Mesmer-Magnus ◽  
Lisa L. Scribner ◽  
Alexandra Krallman ◽  
Rebecca M. Guidice

PurposeThe unprecedented dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced firms to re-envision the customer experience and find new ways to ensure positive service encounters. This context has underscored the reality that drivers of customer delight in a “traditional” context are not the same in a crisis context. While research has tended to identify hedonic need fulfillment as key to customer well-being and, ultimately, to invoking customer delight, the majority of studies were conducted in inherently positive contexts, which may limit generalizability to more challenging contexts. Through the combined lens of transformative service research (TSR) and psychological theory on hedonic and eudaimonic human needs, we evaluate the extent to which need fulfillment is the root of customer well-being and that meeting well-being needs ultimately promotes delight. We argue that in crisis contexts, the salience of needs shifts from hedonic to eudaimonic and the extent to which service experiences fulfill eudaimonic needs determines the experience and meaning of delight.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing the critical incident technique, this research surveyed 240 respondents who were asked to explain in detail a time they experienced customer delight during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed their responses according to whether these incidents reflected the salience of hedonic versus eudaimonic need fulfillment.FindingsThe results support the notion that the salience of eudaimonic needs become more pronounced during times of crisis and that service providers are more likely to elicit perceptions of delight when they leverage meeting eudaimonic needs over the hedonic needs that are typically emphasized in traditional service encounters.Originality/valueWe discuss the implications of these findings for integrating the TSR and customer delight literatures to better understand how service experiences that meet salient needs produce customer well-being and delight. Ultimately, we find customer delight can benefit well-being across individual, collective and societal levels.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zimmer

Purpose – The US Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 introduced optional prescription drug coverage, beginning in 2006, widely known as Medicare Part D. This paper uses up-to-date nationally representative survey data to investigate the impact of Part D not only on drug spending and consumption, but also on the composition of drug consumption. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, the paper investigates whether Part D impacted the number of therapeutic classes for which drugs were prescribed, and also whether Part D lead to increased usage of drugs for specific medical conditions that typically receive drug-intensive therapies. Findings – In addition to confirming findings from previous studies, this paper shows that Part D increased the number of therapeutic classes to which seniors receive drugs by approximately four classes. Part D also lead to increased usage of drugs used to treat upper respiratory disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Originality/value – While mostly concurring with previous studies on the spending impacts of Part D, this paper is the first to shed light on other impacts of Part D, specifically with respect to its impact on therapeutic classes for which drugs are prescribed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Silva ◽  
Charles L. Slater ◽  
Gema Lopez Gorosave ◽  
Victoria Cerdas ◽  
Nancy Torres ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of school leaders to provide social justice in three contexts: Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted under the interpretative tradition characterized by a search for an understanding of the social world from the point of view of a school director from each of the three countries. Interviews were conducted to determine their views on social justice, the actions they took, and the obstacles they confronted. Findings The directors conceived of education as a right and believed in equal educational opportunity, and fair distribution of resources. They used a variety of methods to promote social justice, increase social cohesion, and provide emotional education. Obstacles came from educational authorities who tried to control rather than support their efforts. They were committed to working in schools with marginalized populations, but their efforts had taken a toll on their personal and professional lives. Research limitations/implications The research looked at just three principals whose experiences were unique to their context. However, the study has the advantage of looking at schools not typically included in educational research. Practical implications The work of these school directors underscores the need for preparation in skills, knowledge, and values to work for social justice. Originality/value The value of this research is to illuminate the narratives of school leaders. Working across borders can provide insights about the possibilities of change and strength to persevere.


Terminology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danièle Dubois

Given the double nature of experiencing food as individual as well as shared experience and knowledge, the question is how to connect the observed variability of expressing such a sensory experience with a normalized requirement for developing (food) terminology. On the basis of descriptions of food experiences in actual practices involving the way food is consumed, evaluated and expressed by individuals – experts or not – in all their diversity, we propose to contribute cognitive (psychological and linguistic) expertise to terminology research. We analyze terms as cognitive units, defined within a psychological theory of natural categories as acts of meaning. In tracking the processes of terminological meaning construction in discourse we find intersubjective experience within the complex process of terminologization.


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