scholarly journals The perception of “new” immigration in different strata of American society (late XIX – early XX centuries)

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Kostyleva
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
American Society

The subject of this research is the factors that led to formation of a negative image of “new” immigration and the occurrence of anti-immigrant moods in the United States in the last decades of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries. The author examines the social interaction processes between the local Anglo-Saxon population and the representatives of the so-called “new” immigration from Asia and South-Eastern Europe, which replaced the traditional labor immigration from Western and Northern Europe. Special attention is given to studying the origins of hostility and xenophobia towards migrants manifested in different strata of US society – the representatives of working and middle class, academic and cultural intelligentsia, and political elite. The author concludes that all social classes showed antagonism towards the “new” immigration. Although, the rhetoric on immigration varied depending on affiliation to one or another social segment. Working and middle class were concerned about competition on the job marker, social tension and nonconformity of immigrants to the image of the “ideal American”; while the ruling elites adhered to the ingrained in public discourse idea of Anglo-Saxon supremacy, which later on became the foundation for restrictionist policy towards migrants who were trying to get established in their land.

scholarly journals The Color Line Reconsidered

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-313
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Incorporation ◽  
Color Line ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Configuration ◽  
American Society ◽  
Rightward Movement ◽  
Moynihan Report ◽  
First Time

It is fitting that in the same issue that we present a previously unpublished article by W. E. B. Du Bois and host a symposium reviewing new major works on his political philosophy, we also present major essays debating the contours of the color line in the twenty-first century. Immigration and a strong rightward movement in American society are rapidly remaking the demographic and political configuration of the color line in the United States. Several essays in this issue debate critical aspects of this reconfiguration such as the relative importance of cultural versus structural causes of continued racial disparities; the role, if any, that racialization plays in shaping the modern immigrant incorporation into U.S. society; and, the legacy of the Moynihan report. Complementing these essays is a symposium on two major new books that provide fresh takes on the philosophical and theoretical relevance of Du Bois's thought for our times. We are also proud, for the first time anywhere, to publish Du Bois's essay, “The Social Significance of Booker T. Washington,” with an accompanying analytical introduction by Robert Brown.

1968: Music as Rhetoric in Social Movements

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Mark Goodman ◽  
Stephen Brandon ◽  
Melody Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Rhetorical Criticism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rhetorical Practice ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Rhetorical Force ◽  
Insight Into

<p>In 1968 social movements sparked rhetorical discourses which occurred in many nations and on hundreds of colleges and in communities across the United States.  These rhetorical discourses ultimately changed the direction of human events.  Sometimes these points of ideological protests shared views on specific issues, especially demonstrations against the Vietnam War, but each conflict was also its own local conflict.  There is no evidence that any specific group organized the protests, or that speakers motivated demonstrations, or that the rhetoric of one protest caused other protests.  Yet, the protests were not just spontaneous fires that happened to occur in the same year. So, how is it that so many protesters shared the desire for change and shared rhetoric, but each protest was sparked by local issues?  Answering that question provides insight into how the rhetoric of social movements occurred in 1968. </p><p>               Many scholars call for the study of the social movements of the 1960s.  Jensen (1996) argues, “The events of the 1960s dramatically increased the interest in studying social movements and forced rhetorical scholars to reconsider their methods for studying public discourse” (p. 28). To Lucas (2006), “Words became weapons in the cultural conflict that divided America” (x). Schippa (2001) wrote, “Many accounts identify the 1960s as a turning point. For better or for worse, there was a confluence of changing rhetorical practices, expanding rhetorical theories, and opportunities for rhetorical criticism. The cultural clashes of the 1960s were felt perhaps most acutely on college campuses. The sufficiency of deliberative argument and public address can be said to have been called into question, whether one was an antiwar activist who hated LBJ's war in Vietnam or a pro-establishment stalwart trying to make sense of the rhetoric of protest and demonstration. Years later, scholars would characterize war itself as rhetorical. What counted as rhetorical practice was up for grabs”(p. 261).</p>               First, this paper will frame the protest movement of 1968.  Then, we will search for the common factors that shaped the protests of 1968, focusing on the role of music. This analysis will provide insight into how music became a rhetorical force in a significant social movement of the 20th Century.

Exploring the Implications of Culturally Relevant Teaching: Toward a Pedagogy of Liberation

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-389
Author(s):  
Dari Green
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Freedom Schools ◽  
Common Trend ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Academic Enrichment ◽  
American Society

Schools in America may provide opportunities for upward mobility while also perpetuating social inequality. The inequities found in the US public school system probably result in such a highly stratified society. Conditions found in many schools and classrooms are often a microcosm of the same conditions and factors present in the broader American society. Scholars and education reform activists often use the term school-to-prison pipeline to describe what they view as a widespread pattern in the United States of pushing students, especially those who are already at a disadvantage, out of school, and into the criminal justice system. This research explored whether mentorship in the lives of these very students can affect the trajectory that these students take in life by moving toward a pedagogy of liberation that challenges the inequities and contradictions in the institution of education. Building from a model similar to CDF Freedom Schools, but targeting academic enrichment, Farrah and her colleague Hope developed the Sankofa Project at Yin Elementary School (YES). Embracing both the social-emotional and pedagogical aspects of CDF Freedom Schools, the Sankofa Project moved from a mission that sought to instill a love for reading to actually teaching children to read. This aspect was pivotally important to Farrah and Hope as they sought to dismantle the “cradle to prison pipeline,” the concept of funneling masses of people into marginalized lives, imprisonment, and often premature death. Farrah believed that all her predecessors had done “was spot on, but academic enrichment was a key to steering children away from the pipeline.” With the rebirth of a caste-like system in America, black and brown bodies are disproportionately locked behind bars, relegated permanent second-class status if declared a felon and an increasingly common trend toward annihilation at the hands of those of who are designated to serve and protect them.

Beyond Chrismukkah

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira K. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Eye Opening ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
American Society

The rate of interfaith marriage in the United States has risen so radically since the sixties that it is difficult to recall how taboo the practice once was. How is this development understood and regarded by Americans generally, and what does it tell us about the nation’s religious life? Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Samira K. Mehta provides a fascinating analysis of wives, husbands, children, and their extended families in interfaith homes; religious leaders; and the social and cultural milieu surrounding mixed marriages among Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. Mehta’s eye-opening look at the portrayal of interfaith families across American culture since the mid-twentieth century ranges from popular TV shows, holiday cards, and humorous guides to “Chrismukkah” to children’s books, young adult fiction, and religious and secular advice manuals. Mehta argues that the emergence of multiculturalism helped generate new terms by which interfaith families felt empowered to shape their lived religious practices in ways and degrees previously unknown. They began to intertwine their religious identities without compromising their social standing. This rich portrait of families living diverse religions together at home advances the understanding of how religion functions in American society today.

scholarly journals Out-of-Class Project: American Teachers' Summertime Activities, 1880s–1930s

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-35
Author(s):  
Christine A. Ogren
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
York State ◽  
Class Project ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chautauqua Institution ◽  
Previous Summer

In March 1887, Eva Moll wrote about the previous summer in her diary: “The season was fall of rich things of course. Heard some fine violin and harp playing by two Italians. I never expect to hear ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ sweeter on this earth, than it was played by the violinist. We first went to Niagara, visiting all the points.” Moll was not a wealthy person of leisure. She was a single Kansas schoolteacher in her late twenties who struggled to make ends meet, and yet had spent nine weeks at the quintessentially middle-class Chautauqua Institution in western New York State. A slice of my larger investigation of the history of teachers' “summers off,” this essay will explore the social-class dimensions of their summertime activities during a distinctive period for both the middle class and the teaching force in the United States, the decades of the 1880s through the 1930s.

The Discovery of the Author

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Scaff
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
College And University ◽  
Diffusion Of Knowledge ◽  
Graduate Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
University Curricula ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Conceptual Language

This chapter discusses the successful reception and dissemination of Max Weber's work beginning in the 1920s. It shows that interest in Weber's work led to the gradual translation and incorporation of his thought into the social science disciplines, college and university curricula, and even public discourse. The chapter examines the necessary conditions for the successful reception and propagation of Weber's writings, including the “institutionalization” of his thought, research problems, and conceptual language in curricula, undergraduate courses, and advanced graduate research seminars in American colleges and universities. It also considers the role played by the “clusters” of scholars in the diffusion of knowledge about Weber. Finally, it analyzes how the translation, publication, reading, and diffusion of Weber's work influenced the disciplines, scholarship, and intellectual life generally in the United States.

The S.A.T. and Social Stratification

1986 ◽  
Vol 168 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Owen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude Test ◽  
Sat Scores ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude ◽  
The Social ◽  
Selective Colleges ◽  
American Society

The publishers of the Scholastic Aptitude Test have maintained for many years that the SAT has helped blacks and members of other disadvantaged groups get ahead in American society. But this cheerful view has no basis in fact. SAT scores have never been a threat to the social hegemony of the American white upper middle class; indeed, they have reinforced it. Most minority applicants who are admitted to selective colleges are admitted in spite of their SAT scores, not because of them. American society has indeed become more egalitarian during the 60 years the SAT has been in existence, but the test itself has had nothing to do with bringing about that social transformation. If anything, it has stood in the way.

scholarly journals Why Contact Tracing Efforts Have Failed to Curb Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Transmission in Much of the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Clark ◽  
Elizabeth Y Chiao ◽  
E Susan Amirian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
Health Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Case Based

Abstract By late April 2020, public discourse in the United States had shifted toward the idea of using more targeted case-based mitigation tactics (eg, contact tracing) to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission while allowing for the safe “reopening” of society, in an effort to reduce the social, economic, and political ramifications associated with stricter approaches. Expanded tracing-testing efforts were touted as a key solution that would allow for a precision approach, thus preventing economies from having to shut down again. However, it is now clear that many regions of the United States were unable to mount robust enough testing-tracing programs to prevent major resurgences of disease. This viewpoint offers a discussion of why testing-tracing efforts failed to sufficiently mitigate COVID-19 across much of the nation, with the hope that such deliberation will help the US public health community better plan for the future.

scholarly journals Constructing Drug Using Victims

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Laguna
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
The United States ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Congressional Hearings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Congressional Hearing

Sociologists and political scientists examining the social construction of public anxiety surrounding drug use in the United States have argued that racial minorities are the targets of the harshest drug laws while middle-class whites are shielded. In this article, I provide further evidence that middle-class, white drug users are shielded from harsh punishment by analyzing the process through which U.S. legislators and policy makers decide which drug users need punishment and which deserve protection and treatment. Analyzing transcripts from federal Congressional hearings, I examine the rhetoric of legislators and stakeholder witnesses concerning the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) by middle-class whites. Building on the social construction literature, I use social identity theory to demonstrate how legislators within Congressional hearings create in- and out-groups in order to categorize different drug users and dealers. My analysis of Congressional hearing language concerning white MDMA use demonstrates that Congressional speakers use rhetoric to convince committee members and the wider public that middle-class, white drug users are different from drug users of color and that the appropriate policy response is education and treatment rather than punishment. My findings highlight how middle-class, white drug users are characterized differently from drug users of color, providing further evidence that U.S. drug policy has historically favored middle-class, white drug users.

Back to the Woodshop: Black Education, Imperial Pedagogy, and Post-Racial Mythology under the Reign of Obama

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (14) ◽  
pp. 27-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy J. Curry
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Moral Code ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
Great Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society

For centuries, European thinkers, and their contemporary white followers, have run rampant in the halls of academia prematurely championing the success of liberalism to speak to the experience of those historical groups of people excluded from modernity, while simultaneously celebrating the universal embrace by the supple bosom of whites’ anthropologically specific ideas of reason and humanity. This philosophical impetus has solidified the political regime of integration as not only the most desirable but also the most realizable condition of Black (co)existence in America. The education of Black Americans has been collapsed into a single ideological goal, namely, how to mold these Blacks into more functional and productive members of American society under the idea of equality established by Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately, however, such a commitment elevates the ethical appeals made by Brown, which focused on higher ideals of reason and humanity found in liberal political thought and the eventual transcendence of racial identity, to moral code. This ideology, instead of attending to what Blacks should learn or the knowledge Blacks need to have in order to thrive as Blacks in America, forces Blacks to abide by the social motives that aim to create good Negro citizens. When responding to the great debate over Negro education and Negro labor in the United States, Du Bois remarked: My thoughts, the thoughts of Washington, Trotter, Oswald Garrison Villard were the expression of social forces more than of our own minds. These forces or ideologies embraced more than reasoned acts. They included physical, biological and psychological habits, conventions and enactments. Opposed to these came natural reaction; the physical recoil of the victims, the unconscious and irrational urges, as well as reasoned complaints and acts. The total result was the history of our day. That history may be epitomize in one word—Empire; the domination of white Europe over [B]lack Africa and yellow Asia, through political power built on the economic control of labor, income and idea. The echo of this industrial imperialism in America was the expulsion of [B]lack men from American democracy, their subjection to caste control and wage slavery. (W. E. B. Du Bois— A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of its First Century: The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois—1968)

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