Media do not reflect: media refract. In the United States, established and enduring prisms of prejudice about the projected “Middle East” are mediated through popular culture, broadcast news, government mission statements and official maps. This mediation serves to assert political boundaries and construct the United States as heroic against a villainous or victimized Middle East. These problematic maps and narratives are persistent over time and prevalent across genre, with clear consequences evidenced by the rise in discriminatory sentiments in the US population and experiences of harm in US Arab and Muslim communities. Exploring a wide range of media, Karin Gwinn Wilkins illuminates the shape and scope of these narratives and explores ways to counter these prisms of prejudice through informed and engaged strategic intervention in critical communication literacy.
`This book stands out for a number of reasons...the result is an authoritative, provocative and challenging collection, which will doubtless help to stimulate further debate in the field′ Susan Condor, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University `The authors are to be commended for assembling an unusually stimulating collection of chapters...the book is clearly distinguished by the breadth of its coverage and the theoretical insights it offers. It is a valuable addition to any collection on this topic′ Jack Dovidio, Department of Psychology, Colgate University `This is a comprehensive text that is extremely well written by top social psychologists, with all of the major theoretical perspectives represented. The editors should be commended for putting together this lively and engaging text′ Nyla Branscombe, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas A range of international events have recently focused attention on issues of prejudice, racism and social conflict: increasing tensions in former Eastern bloc countries, political conflict in Northern Ireland and the United States, as well as racial conflict in the Baltic States, Middle East, Africa, and Australasia. In light of these events, Understanding Prejudice, Racism and Social Conflict presents a timely and important update to the literature, and makes a fascinating textbook for all students who need to study the subject. A variety of theoretical and conceptual approaches are necessary to fully understand the themes of prejudice and racism. This textbook successfully presents these, uniquely, by examining how these themes manifest themselves at different levels - at the individual, interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels. It aims to integrate the different approaches to understanding racism and prejudice and to suggest new ways to study these complex issues. This integrated, international focus should make it key reading for students in many countries. With contributions from world-leading figures, Understanding Prejudice, Racism and Social Conflict should prove to be an invaluable teaching resource, and an accessible volume for students in social psychology, as well as some neighbouring disciplines.
Most of us know something of America's long history of racial prejudice, but it's easy to forget the extent to which explicit racism has been, until only recently, an acceptable part of public discourse, in many cases espoused by some of the country's most influential and public figures and bolstered by references to well-respected scientific, religious, and philosophical theories. In Documents of American Prejudice, S. T. Joshi provides an anthology of primary documents tracing the evolution of racial prejudice since early colonial times.In the more than 100 selections spanning more than 300 years of injustice, we hear the voices of both well-loved and reviled figures, from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke. They write about the supposed shortcomings of specific ethnic and racial groups and in defense of racist theories like Social Darwinism and eugenics. Included also are arguments against racism, which highlight a tradition of anti-racist writing in American history. Sobering, lively, infuriating, and provocative, this thoughtfully edited anthology shows us America's long and tangled history of racial prejudice and helps us understand contemporary American racism through the prism of the country's history.
The twentieth-century reality in the Unites States was harsh for Japanese immigrants who attempted to settle down and follow their dreams in the new land. Prejudice and discrimination against the newcomers, rife among Americans, were exacerbated by the ramifications of World War II events, including the Pearl Harbor attack, which irrevocably changed the pattern of immigrant lives. In the aftermath, internment camps that ensued became an inexorable part of their already miserable existence. The book delves not only into the painful past of the Japanese immigrants and their immediate descendants but also illustrates a wide array of Japanese customs that the immigrants brought with them as their rich cultural legacy. It also engages in discourse on acculturation and acculturation strategies adopted by the two generations. Japanese-American authors, in their fictional and non-fictional literary accounts, reveal the search for their ethnic identity and resulting tensions between their American and Japanese selves. An examination tool employed for the purpose of the study has been developed by John Widdup Berry, a cross-cultural psychologist, who has formulated acculturation theory with its strategies of assimilation, integration, separation and marginalisation. The book attempts to examine cultural attitudes (preferences) of Japanese immigrants and their offspring, and their cultural practices (reflected in acculturation strategies). It also presents the reader with a wide array of cultural aspects of life in the United States that—through the lens of acculturation strategies—reflect a rich literary matrix of intersecting sociocultural, historical and political factors inscribed in the twentieth-century reality of Japanese immigrants and their Japanese-American offspring. Engaging not only for academic professionals but also for those curious readers who long to inspect the past and its cultural interrelations through the memories of witnesses and their literary heritage they have left.
Exploring the creativity of mind through children's language: how the tiniest utterances can illustrate the simple but abstract principles behind modern grammar—and reveal the innate structures of the mind. Every sentence we hear is instantly analyzed by an inner grammar; just as a prism refracts a beam of light, grammar divides a stream of sound, linking diverse strings of information to different domains of mind—memory, vision, emotions, intentions. In The Prism of Grammar, Tom Roeper brings the abstract principles behind modern grammar to life by exploring the astonishing intricacies of child language. Adult expressions provide endless puzzles for the child to solve. The individual child's solutions ("Don't uncomfortable the cat" is one example) may amuse adults but they also reveal the complexity of language and the challenges of mastering it. The tiniest utterances, says Roeper, reflect the whole mind and engage the child's free will and sense of dignity. He offers numerous and novel "explorations"—many at the cutting edge of current work—that anyone can try, even in conversation around the dinner table. They elicit how the child confronts "recursion"—the heartbeat of grammar—through endless possessives ("John's mother's friend's car"), mysterious plurals, contradictory adjectives, the marvels of ellipsis, and the deep obscurity of reference ("there it is, right here"). They are not tests of skill; they are tools for discovery and delight, not diagnosis. Each chapter on acquisition begins with a commonsense look at how structures work—moving from the simple to the complex—and then turns to the literary and human dimensions of grammar. One important human dimension is the role of dialect in society and in the lives of children. Roeper devotes three chapters to the structure of African-American English and the challenge of responding to linguistic prejudice. Written in a lively style, accessible and gently provocative, The Prism of Grammar is for parents and teachers as well as students—for everyone who wants to understand how children gain and use language—and anyone interested in the social, philosophical, and ethical implications of how we see the growing mind emerge.
Exploring the creativity of mind through children's language: how the tiniest utterances can illustrate the simple but abstract principles behind modern grammar—and reveal the innate structures of the mind. Every sentence we hear is instantly analyzed by an inner grammar; just as a prism refracts a beam of light, grammar divides a stream of sound, linking diverse strings of information to different domains of mind—memory, vision, emotions, intentions. In The Prism of Grammar, Tom Roeper brings the abstract principles behind modern grammar to life by exploring the astonishing intricacies of child language. Adult expressions provide endless puzzles for the child to solve. The individual child's solutions ("Don't uncomfortable the cat" is one example) may amuse adults but they also reveal the complexity of language and the challenges of mastering it. The tiniest utterances, says Roeper, reflect the whole mind and engage the child's free will and sense of dignity. He offers numerous and novel "explorations"—many at the cutting edge of current work—that anyone can try, even in conversation around the dinner table. They elicit how the child confronts "recursion"—the heartbeat of grammar—through endless possessives ("John's mother's friend's car"), mysterious plurals, contradictory adjectives, the marvels of ellipsis, and the deep obscurity of reference ("there it is, right here"). They are not tests of skill; they are tools for discovery and delight, not diagnosis. Each chapter on acquisition begins with a commonsense look at how structures work—moving from the simple to the complex—and then turns to the literary and human dimensions of grammar. One important human dimension is the role of dialect in society and in the lives of children. Roeper devotes three chapters to the structure of African-American English and the challenge of responding to linguistic prejudice. Written in a lively style, accessible and gently provocative, The Prism of Grammar is for parents and teachers as well as students—for everyone who wants to understand how children gain and use language—and anyone interested in the social, philosophical, and ethical implications of how we see the growing mind emerge.
So many parts of society target citizens of color for violence--what can be done? Violence as Seen Through a Prism of Color examines violence from a structural perspective, including violence in prisons, schools and colleges, churches, homes, and within political/corporate structures. This unique, hard-hitting book argues that individual violence stems from the structure of our society and its institutions. Most of the contributors are African- American educators and practitioners who have a thorough understanding of structural violence. Some have experienced political violence; others have expert knowledge of structural violence within the criminal justice system, educational institutions, and elsewhere--even in churches and homes. Their writings are undeniably, unflinchingly authentic--it is impossible not to be moved and enraged by what they have to say. The good news is that in addition to calling attention to the structural violence in our society they provide excellent insights on how the situation might be resolved. Violence as Seen Through a Prism of Color shows: that much of the violence within the criminal justice system stems from decisions made at the highest levels of government that minority offenders are much more frequently convicted and more harshly sentenced than their white counterparts how cultural racism contributes to the construction of motives for lynching, hate crime, and police violence against Americans of color such as Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, and Rodney King how the judicial system encourages black on black violence by neglecting to halt criminal activities in non-white neighborhoods how, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ”Poverty is the worst form of violence” You’ll also learn: how corporations are amassing great wealth through privatizing prisons and conscripting the labor of non-violent African-American prisoners how racial profiling affects people of color how the media has exploited black men imprisoned for minor drug offenses how and why violence occurs in and against the black church Helpful charts and tables (like one that names the corporations that use prison labor) supplement the material--you’ll be surprised at what you learn! Extensive references are included at the end of each chapter.
Classrooms as communities are temporary, but the racial effects can be long term. The biblical studies classroom can be a site of personal and social transformation. To make it a space for positive change, the contributors to this volume question and reevaluate traditional teaching practices and assessment tools that foreground white, Western scholarship in order to offer practical guidance for an antiracist pedagogy. The introduction and fifteen essays provide tools for engaging issues of social context and scriptural authority, nationalism and religious identities, critical race theory, and how race, gender, and class can be addressed empathetically. Contributors Sonja Anderson, Randall C. Bailey, Eric D. Barreto, Denise Kimber Buell, Greg Carey, Haley Gabrielle, Wilda C. Gafney, Julián Andrés González Holguín, Sharon Jacob, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Francisco Lozada Jr., Shelly Matthews, Roger S. Nam, Wongi Park, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Abraham Smith, and Kay Higuera Smith share their experience creating classrooms that are spaces that enable the production of new knowledge without reproducing a white subject of the geopolitical West.