Joseph Gerteis

Dealing with Diversity: Mapping Multiculturalism in Sociological Terms

Since the 1960s, a variety of new ways of addressing the challenges of diversity in American society have coalesced around the term “multiculturalism.” In this article, we impose some clarity on the theoretical debates that surround divergent visions of difference. Rethinking multiculturalism from a sociological point of view, we propose a model that distinguishes between the social (associational) and cultural (moral) bases for social cohesion in the context of diversity. The framework allows us to identify three distinct types of multiculturalism and situate them in relation to assimilationism, the traditional American response to difference. We discuss the sociological parameters and characteristics of each of these forms, attending to the strength of social boundaries as well as to the source of social ties. We then use our model to clarify a number of conceptual tensions in the existing scholarly literature and offer some observations about the politics of recognition and redistribution, and the recent revival of assimilationist thought.

The Possession of Civic Virtue: Movement Narratives of Race and Class in the Knights of Labor

This article explores how race is understood within an explicitly class‐based movement, the Knights of Labor. The movement presents an empirical puzzle: it simultaneously pursued racial openness and racial closure, and it justified both in the name of class interest. The article examines movement‐level narratives of race and class to show how underlying conceptions of class become implicated in the construction of interests regarding race. Communications drawn from the movements official journal provide comprehensive data for identifying and interpreting the movement narratives of race and class. There were three separate Knights of Labor narratives. Although each connected race and class in a different way, all were driven by the movements understanding of class and to “civic virtue” as a particularly important resource.

Colorblindness in Black and White An Analysis of Core Tenets, Configurations, and Complexities

The concept of colorblind racism has been developed in recent years to explain racial attitudes held by white Americans in the post–civil rights era. The authors use data from a new nationally representative survey with an oversample of black Americans to investigate the prevalence of core elements of colorblind ideology and to see the extent to which both black and white Americans adhere to three core dimensions of colorblindness theory: (1) abstract liberalism, (2) minimization of racism, and (3) cultural racism. They find that there are differences between black and white Americans with regard to their awareness of systemic dimensions of racial inequality. Yet they also find that the differences are not always large and that there is more awareness of racial inequality among whites than existing theories might suggest. Additionally, although blacks are much more likely than whites to reject some elements of colorblindness, the ideals of one element, abstract liberalism, are widely adopted by black and white Americans alike. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and the underlying tensions and variations for existing theories of colorblindness.

The salience of class in Britain and America: A comparative analysis

In this paper the authors provide a comparative analysis of the political and ideological salience of class in Britain and the USA, using the Comparative Project on Class Consciousness and Class Conflict dataset. They show that class divisions, however measured, are much more salient in British political choices. They then ask whether this difference results from the weaker cultural salience of class in the USA, or whether it reflects the distinctive nature of the American political system. They find that class is strongly salient in the USA, not in politics, but in the sphere of workplace and industrial relations. They conclude with a discussion of the meaning of these findings for British and American class research

Political Alignment and the American Middle Class, 1974–1994

The middle class is central to American political life, yet the political alignment of this occupationally diverse class is unclear. This paper proposes an ideal-typical scheme of alignment structures for the middle class that incorporates several major theories of middle-class politics. Using data from the General Social Surveys and employing Multiple Correspondence Analysis, this framework is used as the basis for comparing the observed pattern of political alignments among middle-class occupations in two recent periods, 1974–1978 and 1989–1994. In the earlier period, the middle class was clearly segmented into liberal, conservative, and centrist groups in a way that accorded with established sociological descriptions. By the second period, this clear segmentation had largely broken down. Much of this breakdown occurred on the political right. The paper concludes with a discussion of this finding.

Populism, Race, and Political Interest in Virginia

This article examines the interests expressed by white Populists and black Republicans regarding political coalition in Virginia. Virginia is interesting because it is generally considered a failed site for the Populist movement and for interracial organizing under it. Such a coalition was untenable statewide, but economic, social, and historical conditions opened a space for it in a cluster of majority-black counties. The failure of the coalition was not due to incompatible interests but to changing calculations of the outcomes. The interests expressed by white Populists and black Republicans converged and then diverged sharply as the meaning of past interracial coalitions changed for both sides.

Colorblindness as Identity: Key Determinants, Relations to Ideology, and Implications for Attitudes about Race and Policy:

Colorblindness is often conceptualized as a set of deeply held but unrecognized ideological tenets. However, we believe that colorblindness has also now become an explicit cultural discourse involving self-conscious claims and specific convictions. To illustrate this point—which has both conceptual and empirical implications—we introduce the notion of colorblindness as identity. We define this concept as subjectively meaningful, self-asserted identification with colorblindness. We use data from a nationally representative survey to explore the social determinants of colorblind identification and assess its relationship to both colorblind ideologies and standard attitudinal measures. We find that a relatively large percentage of Americans across racial lines identify as colorblind. Furthermore, such identification is connected to racial ideologies but not all tenets of colorblind racism. For white Americans, colorblind identification is associated with decreased perceptions of social distance, but not support for policies designed to ameliorate the effects of racial discrimination. We conclude that colorblind identification is a unique social phenomenon, connected to views on race but not always in the ways that existing research would predict. We also suggest directions for further exploration of the depth of colorblindness as an identity form and implications for theorizing colorblind discourse more generally.

Civil Religion and the Politics of Belonging

Philip S. Gorskis “Barack Obama and civil religion” seeks to revive and reform the concept of civil religion. This response addresses two sets of issues raised by the entwined analytic and normative claims in the chapter. The first concerns the definition of civil religion, including how the civil and religious spheres are connected within it and how civil religion differs conceptually from other related models. The second concerns whether a renewed commitment to civil religion will provide a platform for greater openness and pluralism, as Gorski claims.

Race as an Open Field: Exploring Identity beyond Fixed Choices

This paper uses new, nationally representative data to examine how Americans describe their own racial and ethnic identities when they are not constrained by conventional fixed categories. Recent work on shifting racial classifications and the fluidity of racial identities in the United States has questioned the subjective and cultural adequacy of fixed categorization schemes. Are traditional racial boundaries breaking down? We explore the possibility in three ways. First, we explore the relationship between open-field identification (asked at time of survey) with fixed-choice racial and ethnic identifications (asked upon panel entry). Despite changes in American racial and ethnic discourse, most people reproduce normative, categorical racial and ethnic descriptors to identify themselves. Yet racial and ethnic classification is more complex and fluid for some respondents, particularly those who had earlier described themselves as Hispanic or mixed race. Second, we investigate the social meaning of alternative racial labels. Within the standard racial and ethnic categories, there are both dominant labels (e.g., White, Black, Hispanic) and less dominant alternatives (e.g., Caucasian, African American, Latinx); in some cases, the differences come with important social distinctions. Third, we explore the ways that a small but important subset of respondents refuse or deny racial identification altogether. We conclude with a discussion of the future of racial and ethnic classifications, paying particular attention to plans for the 2020 U.S. census.

Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after BushImagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush, by GansHerbert J.. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2008. 210 pp.

threat that going to the police might land her in jail (leading us to presume that jail is worse than forced prostitution in the eyes of women who have been trafficked, a sentiment echoed by others (see, e.g., Farida, p. 124)). Sometimes, as in the case of Adelina from Albania (p. 52), who describes a childhood living on the streets, rape by her mother’s boyfriend followed by pregnancy and abortion at the age of 12, all prior to engaging in self-employed sex work as a teen, it can be difficult to ascertain where “freedom” is understood to end and “slavery” to begin. The narratives presented also provide evidence of the limited appeal of criminal justice remedies for many of the people they purport to help. Roseline (pp. 146–153), from Cameroon, who was forced into domestic servitude in the United States, recounts that despite the fact that her traffickers were given nine years in jail “Whatever punishment they gave them actually won’t do me any good. It’s not taking away what they did to me” (p. 152). Beatrice (pp. 161–164), from Sri Lanka, who was trapped in domestic servitude in Lebanon, makes a powerful case for the stricter enforcement of labor regulations, arguing that “We need accountability, and we should pressure governments around the world to monitor job agencies more closely.” Despite the editors’ own viewpoint, there is much in their book to contest the claim that law enforcement and rehabilitation will be sufficient to abolish the global economic, racial, and gendered inequalities that form the substratum of slavery and suffering, in all of their diverse forms.