The Fractured American Dream

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-97
Author(s):  
Simone Delerme

Chapter 3 of the book focuses on the character, reputation, and place-identity of the Buenaventura Lakes suburb, and the impact of linguistic transformations due to the community’s Latinization. Drawing on various data sources, the chapter shows how talk about landscape aesthetics, living conditions, crime, racial, ethnic, and class identities, and language intertwine to reinforce social class distinctions and the racialization of suburban spaces, places, and therefore people. The strong connection between suburban living and prosperity is unraveling, and Buenaventura Lakes is a declining suburb representative of the changing social and economic conditions and demographics in suburbs across the United States. Buenaventura Lakes, once a community for “country club living” and “affordable luxury,” is perceived as a Latino “ghetto” or “slum” in the eyes of residents and non-residents, Latinos and non-Latinos. Despite the populations’ income diversity and the high prices of some homes, the residents are paradoxically described as poor, lower class, low income, or at best working class. Additionally, the concentration of Latinos is interpreted as a lack of diversity. Thus, this suburb is constructed as a non-white space, foreign and uncomfortable for non-Latino whites, which adds to residential segregation in Greater Orlando.

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ramirez ◽  
Linda Oshin ◽  
Stephanie Milan

According to developmental niche theory, members of different cultural and ethnic groups often have distinct ideas about what children need to become well-adapted adults. These beliefs are reflected in parents’ long-term socialization goals for their children. In this study, we test whether specific themes that have been deemed important in literature on diverse families in the United States (e.g., Strong Black Woman [SBW], marianismo, familismo) are evident in mothers’ long-term socialization goals. Participants included 192 mothers of teenage daughters from a low-income city in the United States (58% Latina, 22% African American, and 20% European American [EA]/White). Socialization goals were assessed through a q-sort task on important traits for a woman to possess and content analysis of open-ended responses about what values mothers hoped they would transmit to their daughters as they become adults. Results from ANCOVAs and logistic regression indicate significant racial/ethnic differences on both tasks consistent with hypotheses. On the q-sort task, African American mothers put more importance on women possessing traits such as independence than mothers from other racial/ethnic groups. Similarly, they were more likely to emphasize self-confidence and strength in what they hoped to transmit to their daughters. Contrary to expectation, Latina mothers did not emphasize social traits on the q-sort; however, in open-ended responses, they were more likely to focus on the importance of motherhood, one aspect of marianismo and familismo. Overall, results suggest that these mothers’ long-term socialization goals incorporate culturally relevant values considered important for African American and Latino families.


Elements ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Charlie Power

The debate over the future direction of elementary and secondary education in the United States is fractious and contentious. Many of these are rooted in concerns over disparities in financial circumstances and race. While the full extent of the gaps, in addition to the United States' mediocre education system relative to other industrialized nations, has been a subject of frequent research and heated debate, one crucial component of this divide has yet to be analyzed: summer learning loss. This paper will closely analyze published literature in order to analyze the impact of summer education loss. Additionally, this paper will argue that summer learning varies by socioeconomic status (SES), with low-income populations gradually regressing over the years. This phenomenon has ramifications on students' achievement and explains the disparities that accumulate over a student's educational career. Finally, based on current evidence, this paper will make policy recommendations on how to change the current education system to better address summer's inherent inequities. 


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Pittman ◽  
Carolina Herrera ◽  
Joanne Spetz ◽  
Catherine R. Davis

More than 8% of employed RNs licensed since 2004 in the United States were educated overseas, yet little is known about the conditions of their recruitment or the impact of that experience on health care practice. This study assessed whether the labor rights of foreign-educated nurses were at risk during the latest period of high international recruitment: 2003 to 2007. Using consensus-based standards contained in the Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Health Professionals to the United States, this study found 50% of actively recruited foreign-educated nurses experienced a negative recruitment practice. The study also found that nurses educated in low-income countries and nurses with high contract breach fees, were significantly more likely to report such problems. If, as experts believe may occur, the nursing shortage in the United States returns around 2014, oversight of international recruitment will become critically important to delivering high-quality health care to Americans.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia H. Kim ◽  
Jong C. Shin ◽  
Sharon M. Donovan

Background Returning to work is one of the main barriers to breastfeeding duration among working mothers in the United States. However, the impact of workplace lactation programs is unclear. Research Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of workplace lactation programs in the United States on breastfeeding practices. Methods A systematic search was conducted of seven databases through September 2017. Articles ( N = 10) meeting the inclusion criteria of describing a workplace lactation intervention and evaluation in the United States and measuring initiation, exclusivity, or duration using an experimental or observational study design were critically evaluated. Two reviewers conducted quality assessments and reviewed the full-text articles during the analysis. Results Common services provided were breast pumps, social support, lactation rooms, and breastfeeding classes. Breastfeeding initiation was very high, ranging from 87% to 98%. Several factors were significantly associated with duration of exclusive breastfeeding: (a) receiving a breast pump for one year (8.3 versus 4.7 months), (b) return-to-work consultations (40% versus 17% at 6 months), and (c) telephone support (42% versus 15% at 6 months). Each additional service (except prenatal education) dose-dependently increased exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months. Sociodemographic information including older maternal age, working part-time, longer maternity leave, and white ethnicity were associated with longer breastfeeding duration. Conclusion Workplace lactation interventions increased breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusive breastfeeding, with greater changes observed with more available services. More evidence is needed on the impact of workplace support in low-income populations, and the cost-effectiveness of these programs in reducing health care costs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 506-515
Author(s):  
Katie L. Acosta

The impact of COVID–19 on racially minoritized communities in the United States has forced us all to look square in the face of the systemic racism that is embedded in every fabric of our society. As the number of infected people continues to rise, the racial disparities are glaringly obvious. Black and Latinx communities have been hit considerably harder by this pandemic. Both racial/ethnic groups have seen rates of infection well above their percentage in the general population and African Americans have seen rates of death from COVID–19 as high as twice their percentage in the general population. These numbers bear witness to the high cost of racism in the United States.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 191-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Putnam

AbstractNew immigration restrictions in the United States and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s made legal entry dependent on specific kinship formalities. This article explores the impact of the new system through a study of British Caribbean migrants. Because family patterns and the place of church and state sanction within them varied greatly by class—here, as in many parts of the world—the result was a curtailment of mobility that affected elites very little, and working-class would-be migrants enormously. In order to elucidate de facto patterns of exclusion, the author concludes, historians of transnational labor must begin paying more attention to the work “family” does.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-188
Author(s):  
Sandra Scarr ◽  
Deborah Phillips ◽  
Kathleen McCartney ◽  
Martha Abbott-Shim

The quality of child care services in the United States should be understood within a context of child care policy at the federal and state levels. Similarly, child care policy needs to be examined within the larger context of family-support policies that do or do not include parental leaves to care for infants (and other dependent family members) and family allowances that spread the financial burdens of parenthood. Maynard and McGinnis1 presented a comprehensive look at the current and predictable policies that, at federal and state levels, affect working families and their children. They note the many problems in our "patchwork" system of child care—problems of insufficient attention to quality and insufficient supply for low-income families. Recent legislation is a step toward improving the ability of low-income families to pay for child care (by subsidizing that part of the cost of such care which exceeds 15% rather than 20% of the family income) and some steps toward training caregivers and improving regulations. They note the seeming political impasse over parental leaves, even unpaid leaves, and the impact of this lack of policy on the unmet need for early infant care. We should step back from the current morass of family and child care policies in the United States and look at what other nations have done and continue to do for their working families. By comparison with other industrialized countries in the world, the United States neglects essential provisions that make it possible for parents in other countries to afford to rear children and to find and afford quality child care for their children.


Author(s):  
Betsy Kalin

The documentary East LA Interchange (2015) has extraordinary potential to be used to increase awareness about our diverse, multicultural society and the specific challenges facing low-income communities of color. These communities’ residents are especially vulnerable to gentrification and displacement, and across the United States, we are currently seeing the impact of gentrification on our neighborhoods. One of the most important aspects of a documentary is what happens after the film is completed. We are in the process of creating a multiplatform strategic outreach campaign designed to engage youth and mobilize advocates around the issues addressed in the film. Our outreach and engagement goals are varied yet complementary to the themes in East LA Interchange. We believe that East LA Interchange’s message of empowerment through community action is one that can greatly benefit youth and adults in rapidly changing communities. Because Boyle Heights is one of the United States’ great places of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance, we would like the film to create momentum around social justice issues depicted in the film such as acceptance and appreciation of diversity, immigrant rights, environmental and transportation justice, urban development, and effective political representation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariela Schachter ◽  
Max Besbris

The recent settlement of immigrant populations into a wider range of geographies and communities across the United States raises new questions about the dynamics of residential segregation and complicates assumptions about how neighborhoods change—or don't—and why. While multiple theories attempt to explain the relationship between race/ethnicity, immigration, and neighborhood change, sociological examinations have been limited by the lack of systematic and frequently collected data. That is, the residential churn of neighborhoods, particularly in the market for rental housing where racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants predominate, often outpaces analysts’ ability to gather cross–neighborhood and cross–city data. In this essay we describe how online sources can help answer questions about race/ethnicity, immigration, and neighborhoods by providing large amounts of readily updatable data. An array of platforms designed to provide homeseekers with information about their housing options can also be used by sociologists for making claims about neighborhood change across multiple geographies. We review recent research that uses online data and describe an ongoing study by the authors that examines trends in the settlement patterns of immigrants and the rental housing market across the 50 largest MSAs in the United States. Online data sources can more accurately capture immigration and neighborhood processes, yielding better theories about the impact of immigration on neighborhood change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 2988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alana Siegner ◽  
Jennifer Sowerwine ◽  
Charisma Acey

The aim of our review is to critically analyze the urban agriculture and urban food systems literature in order to understand the impact of urban-produced foods on community food security. We examine the role of city planning, food policy, and civic engagement in creating spaces for urban agriculture in cities across the United States, and whether (and how) these spaces promote food justice and food security. Bringing together multidisciplinary literature on access to urban agriculture and the distribution of urban-produced foods in a thematic, systematic review, we point out gaps in the academic research that would benefit from further study. The review integrates academic literature generated from Web of Science searches with gray literature identified through Google Alerts. We find that while there is a strong focus on elucidating the multiple benefits of urban agriculture, there are few studies that robustly measure the impact of urban farms on improving food security in low-income communities. Much of the literature is theoretical, focused on the production potential of urban agriculture, while more work is needed to understand and overcome barriers to access and distribution among communities in need. We conclude with a set of recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who seek to create spaces in cities for food justice, equity, access, and sovereignty.


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