Sociology – Contexts

So, do we live in a country where the color of your skin no longer determines where you live? We certainly haven't comethat far.Race still makes a difference, and, as last year's census reports, there are dozens of census tracts in America's oldercities that remain monochromatic (albeit with smaller populations than in the past). However, racial attitudes have changed,the ideal of equal housing opportunities is well-accepted, and many of the structures that created and maintained the American Apartheid system have been greatly weakened or removed.The long trend toward lower levels of black-white segregationseems sure to continue.

As a final matter, one might ask: What does all of this implyfor the future of measuring race in the census? Critics of raciallabels argue that if racial and ethnic boundaries are loosening,we should abandon the use of racial categories in the censusaltogether and learn to get along without them in our policymaking. They argue that if racial labels could be eliminated,racial discrimination itself would be eradicated. However, inthe United States today, because the practice of discrimination based on physical characteristics such as skin color continuesto persist, at least for African Americans, eradicating raciallabels would simply put us in a position where we know lessabout the disadvantages experienced by blacks and can doless about it.

The more popular diversity programs do little or nothing to actually change the corporate culture. Diversity task-forces and mentor programs are shown to be the most effective.

Unconscious biases are particularly difficult for an organization to address because offending individuals are typicallyunaware of them, and when confronted they may deny any racist intent.Unconscious biases can be eroded through education and exposure to minorities who don't fit common stereotypes. Biases can also be containedwhen people are held accountable for their decisions.

Although Linsanity lasted just three glorious weeks, Jeremy Lin still offers a powerful new image of Asian American male sport prowess that both challenges and reaffirms the model minority myth. His success offers a critical commentary on how we understand the contradictory and often frustrating place of Asian Americans in American culture.

Our current understanding of why high-achieving women quit—based as it is on choice and separate spheres—seriously undermines the will to change the contemporary workplace. The myth of opting out returns us to the days when educated women were barred from entering elite professions because "they'll only leave anyway." To the extent that elite women are arbiters of shifting gendernorms, the opting out myth also has the potential to curtail women's aspirations and stigmatize those who challenge theseparate-spheres ideology on which it is based. Current demographics make it clear that employers can hardly affordto lose the talents of high-achieving women. They can take a cue from at-home moms like the ones I studied: Forgetopting out; the key to keeping professional women on the job is to create better, more flexible ways to work.

Ironically, the freedom of choice that's so celebrated in affluent Western democracies seems to help construct and give agency to stereotypically gendered "selves.

" Self-segregation of careers may occur because some believe they're naturally good at gender-conforming activities (attempting to build on theirstrengths), because they believe that certain fields will be seen as appropriate for people like them ("doing" gender), or because they believe they'll enjoy gender-conforming fields more than gender-nonconforming ones (realizing their "true selves"). It's just that, by encouraging individual self-expression in postmaterialist societies, we may also effectively promote the development and expression of culturally gendered selves

Masculinity is elusive and tenuous, always capable of being undermined by a single failure. GFC gives men a venue where they can prove themselves physically, shielding them from the burden of trying to dominate others—and the fear of being dominated.

The higher proportion of degrees earned by women does not mean that higher education is feminizing, or that men are getting crowded out.

It seems that if women hold an advantage in any area, even a relatively slim one, we jump to the conclusion that it indicates a catastrophe for men. In the case of access to college degrees, that's simply not true.

So there is a lot of leeway for women's same-sex behavior with a straight identity.

But it is different than for straight men,who experience their same-sex interactions in a more private space, away from the gaze of women. Straight women can be "barsexual" or "bi-curious" or "mostly straight," but too much physical attraction or emotional investment crosses over the line of heterosexuality. What this suggests is that heterosexual women's options for physical intimacy are expanding, although such activity has little salience for identity, partner choice, orpolitical allegiances. But the line between lesbian and non-lesbian, whether bisexual or straight, remains firmly intact

Historian Lisa Duggan uses the term "homonormativity" to refer to media trends that increasingly portray white, middle-class gay and lesbian families as "just like everyone else.

" O'Brien calls this the "we're here, we're queer, let's go to Ikea" implications of marriage equality. But where do black gays and lesbians fit into this unfolding scenario of supposed domestic bliss and belonging?

Like others, Stepp, the author of Unhooked,suggests that restricting sex to relationships is the way to challenge gender inequality in youth sex. Certainly, sex in relationships is better for women than hookup sex.

However, research suggests two reasons why Stepp's strategy won't work: first, relationshipsare also plagued by inequality. Second, valorizing relationships as the ideal context for women's sexual activity reinforces thenotion that women shouldn't want sex outside of relationships and stigmatizes women who do. A better approach wouldchallenge gender inequality in both relationships and hookups. It is critical to attack the tenacious sexual double standard that leads men to disrespect their hookup partners. Ironically, thiscould improve relationships because women would be less likely to tolerate "greedy" or abusive relationships if they were treated better in hookups.

Fostering relationships among young adults should go hand-in-hand with efforts to decrease intimate partner violence and to build egalitarian relationships that allow more space for other aspects of life—such as school, work, and friendship.

The ways men participate in SlutWalk illuminates dilemmas feminist organizers face in creating inclusive protests. How do you get men involved in helpful ways without alienating them? How do you make the movement fun and engaging, as well as serious, and sensitive to those who have been assaulted? How might you build an anti-rape movement that is inclusive of both female and male rape victims?It is clear that many men wish to be involved in the conversation on sexual assault. Activists must figure out how to include men without diluting the core message of feminist protest: to make the world a better, safer place for women. For feminism to thrive, changing the hearts and minds of men is necessary—while keeping women's experiences at the center.

How sexuality, love, and autonomy are perceived and negotiated in parent-child relationships and among teenagers depends on the cultural templates people have available.

Normalization and dramatization each have "costs" and "benefits."On balance, however, the dramatization of adolescent sexuality makes it more difficult for parents to communicate with teenagers about sex and relationships, and more challengingfor girls and boys to integrate their sexual and relational selves. The normalization of adolescent sexuality does not eradicatethe tensions between parents and teenagers or the gender constructs that confine both girls and boys. But it does provide a more favorable cultural climate in which to address them.

Encouraging an awareness of the vicissitudes of fate helps to combat the common tendency to blame victims of chance and inequality for their own misfortunes, and to view one's own good fortune as the result of special individual talents unaffected by larger social forces or privileges. In this way, so-called disaster porn may prove itself to be more of a virtue than a vice.

The claim that American prisons spawn terrorism is false—or, at the very least, overstated. U.S. prisons are not systematically generating a large-scale terrorist threat. Of course we cannot be certain that prisons will never become breeding grounds for radicalization. But the fact is that few U.

S. prisoners have been radicalized behind bars, and fewer still have engaged in terrorist acts.