Andrew Greeley

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF RACIAL PREJUDICE

In the sociology of racial prejudice, two major paradigms can be distinguished: Cultural-environmental and social class or conflict paradigms. On the basis of Durkheimian theory, it is hypothesized that cultural-environmental variables (education, knowledge) offer stronger and more consistent explanations of racial prejudice than status variables (self-perceived class position, occupational prestige, income). To test this hypothesis, National Opinion Research Center (NORC) data are analyzed. Findings corroborate the major cultural-environmental hypothesis that racial prejudice emerges from ritually dense sociocultural lifeforms. Little support is found for the claim that prejudice arises from class conflict and competition over material resources.

Ethnicity and Nationality in Alcoholism

Ethnic and national origins have been part of the study of alcohol use and consumption for a long, long time. Observers have always been quick to point out that drinking behaviors are characteristic of a certain group and frequently those characteristics have found their way into the stereotype of the group itself. Much of the humor surrounding national identity has to do with alcohol use and abuse, even though much of it is not very humorous. In this chapter, we attempt to describe the overall picture regarding work that has been done concerning ethnicity, national identity, and alcohol use. We begin with some comments about research into the social correlates of ethnicity and national identity. We then proceed to include what is hopefully a representative spectrum of work concerning the relationship between these social characteristics and alcohol use. We then report on some recent work concerning ethnicity, alcohol use, and family structure. And finally, we suggest some implications of these studies for the researcher and the practitioner dealing with problems of alcoholism.

Book Review: Catholic Immigrants in AmericaCatholic Immigrants in America. By OlsonJames S.Chicago:Nelson Hall, 1987. Pp. 287.

that unaccompanied child refugees have often experienced all of these kinds of traumatization in addition to their lack of parental support. The strength of this bookcomprehensive coverage of the issues through multi-authorship predicates its major weakness. The writing is uneven, of course. In some chapters there is repetition and redundancy rather than clarification. Some chapters seem less readable than others because of more technical language and/or issues. The authors have taken into account a plethora ofresearch and theory on children in trauma. Much of this literature is of very recent vintage. Data on children in crisis prior to this decade was obscured in the corners of either large demographic studies on population movement, social crises or such segregated sub and interdisciplinary construct as holocaust studies or community organization/disorganization; child welfare; institutionalization versus foster care; cross cultural adoptions; and studies of the family in transition. Their achievement in this book is, in itself, a strong and cogent argument for the establishment of a data bank and center for the study of childhood trauma children and war. Ressler, Boothby and Steinbok have done a masterful job of relating the studies of each other and illustrating the consequences of one or another approach to treatment, resettlement, legal analysis or prevention with examples from several cases. They use, for instance, the experiences of each wave of Cuban refugee children to compare with each other and with organized removal of children from war zones such as the World War II removal of English children to America and the movement of Finnish children to Sweden. These comparisons provide understanding and insight into the relative impact of various factors on repatriation and resettlement of these children and the sequelae of separation from parents at different ages and under differing conditions. Unaccompanied Children is an important and encyclopedic work. Nonetheless, it emphasizes the urgency of studying the effects of violent traumatization in childhood. Catholic Immigrants in America. By James S. Olson. Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1987. Pp. 287.