From its prehistory in the biological theories of racial difference formulated in the 1800s to its current position in academic debate, Richard Rees investigates the diverse fields of scholarship from which the multifaceted understanding of the term ethnicity is derived. At the same time, Rees traces the broader historical forces that shaped the needs to which the concept of ethnicity responded and the social purposes to which it was applied. Centrally, he focuses upon the emergence of ethnicity in the early 1940s as a means of resolving contradictions and ambiguities in the racial status of...

Emotional Bridges to Puerto Rico is about Puerto Ricans' struggles of incorporation into U.S. society, and the conditions under which members of the Puerto Rican middle-class move back and forth between the mainland and island. The book illustrates how structures of inequalities based on race, class, and gender affect Puerto Ricans' subjective assessments of incorporation. Issues regarding the racialization of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. reveal that in spite of structural incorporation, Puerto Ricans do not feel like they fully belong in mainland society. These experiences carry implications...

Emotional Bridges to Puerto Rico is about Puerto Ricans' struggles of incorporation into U.S. society, and the conditions under which members of the Puerto Rican middle-class move back and forth between the mainland and island. The book illustrates how structures of inequalities based on race, class, and gender affect Puerto Ricans' subjective assessments of incorporation. Issues regarding the racialization of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. reveal that in spite of structural incorporation, Puerto Ricans do not feel like they fully belong in mainland society. These experiences carry implications...

Recent adoption policy changes are based on assumptions that race is no longer relevant and that if government officials and activists would just get out of the way, adoption would provide one means of eradicating the fixation on race and racism. Adoption in a Color-Blind Society examines the public presentation of private adoption agency Web sites and 'race talk' in adoption chat rooms to lay bare the lie of color-blind discourse and reveal that rather than eroding, the meaning of race has shifted. The private adoption market provides an illustration of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's thesis of the...

There is no teasing apart what interracial couples think of themselves from what society shows them about themselves. Following on her earlier ground-breaking study of the social worlds of interracial couples, Erica Chito Childs considers the larger context of social messages, conveyed by the media, that inform how we think about love across the color line. Examining a range of media_from movies to music to the web_Fade to Black and White offers an informative and provocative account of how the perception of interracial sexuality as 'deviant' has been transformed in the course of the 20th...

Using in-depth interviews with hair salon owners, Doing Business with Beauty explores several facets of the business of owning a hair salon, including the process of becoming an owner, the dynamics of the owner-employee relationship, and the factors that steer black women to work in the hair industry. Harvey Wingfield examines the black female business owner's struggle for autonomy and success in entrepreneurship.

The Cosby Cohort examines the childhood experiences of second generation middle class Blacks who grew up in mostly White spaces during the 1980s and 1990s. This probing book explores their journey to upward mobility, including the discrimination they faced in White neighborhoods and schools, the extraordinary pressures placed upon them to achieve, the racial lessons imparted to them by their parents, their tenuous relationships with Black children of other classes, and the impact that all of these experiences had on their adult racial identities. At young ages, this generation of middle class...

From African American pilots being asked to carry people's luggage to patrons refusing drinks from African American flight attendants, Cabin Pressure demonstrates that racism is still very much alive in the "friendly skies." Author Louwanda Evans draws on provocative interviews with African Americans in the flight industry to examine the emotional labor involved in a business that offers occupational prestige, but also a history of the systemic exclusion of people of color.

Whitewashing the South is a powerful exploration of how ordinary white southerners recall living through extraordinary racial times--the Jim Crow era, civil rights movement, and the post-civil rights era--highlighting tensions between memory and reality. Author Kristen Lavelle draws on interviews with the oldest living generation of white southerners to uncover uncomfortable memories of our racial past. The vivid interview excerpts show how these lifelong southerners reflect on race in the segregated South, the civil rights era, and more recent decades. The book illustrates a number of...

Jim Crow's Legacy shows the lasting impact of segregation on the lives of African Americans who lived through it, as well as its impact on future generations. The book draws on interviews with elderly African American southerners whose stories poignantly show the devastation of racism not only in the past, but also in the present. The book introduces readers to the realities of the Jim Crow era for African Americans--from life at home to work opportunities to the broader social context in America. However, the book moves beyond merely setting the scene into the powerful memories of elderly...