A Common Destiny Blacks and American Society (1989) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Notes on Methodology, Definitions, and Needed Data and Research
Appendix A: Notes on Methodology, Definitions, and Needed Data and Research
Pages 559-569
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From page 559... ...
Our extension involves bringing into a single report a wide range of complex evidence, linking together economic and political changes with changes in family structure, residence, health, and organizational and community life. We found that many widely accepted generalizations are misleading, and we often had to disa,g,gre~ate national data to see important differences among regions of the country, among individuals and families, and among other demographic groups, such as those based on age, sex, or education.
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From page 560... ...
Assessments of significance and of implications cannot be simple extensions of analysis; they must integrate empirical findings with knowledge of the broader sociocultural setting and with interpretations of values and potential policy options. As these comments suggest, the study confronted challenging technical problems in measuring or indexing changes in the status of black Americans; not the least has been the problem of defining what we mean by "status." MEANING OF STATUS In common parlance, status most often refers to a person's or group's relative social position within a hierarchical ranking.
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From page 561... ...
Their usefulness, of course, depends on their generality-the more status measures included under a statement the more useful it becomes. The use of this concept does not allow us to make a single statement assessing black status, but it does classier questions concerning black status into two categories: those that are consistent with our major findings and those that are not.
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From page 562... ...
Social norms, as noted above, as well as other situational constraints such as laws, expected costs and benefits, and psychological considerationsthe intensity of feelings associated with an attitude-affect whether or not an attitude influences a person's behavior. One cannot argue, however, that underlying attitudes bear no relationship to individual behavior.
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From page 563... ...
Yet the types of relations desired by white and black Americans, and Americans' interpretations of the nature of racial inequality, are of unavoidable concern if we are to understand the character of popular discourse on these issues. In sum, prevailing attitudes and beliefs can be viewed as a set of demands on political leaders; as a set of broad constraints on viable reform agendas; as dues to likely individual behavior; and as a measure of success at fulfilling certain democratic values.
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From page 564... ...
Such opinions are often short-run, volatile phenomena that can shift drastically in response both to microcontexts-situations-and to macroevents, such as an economic depression, national election, and war or other international crises. The constant interaction of transformative social movements, established social institutions and actors, everyday human adaptation and activity, and common-sense understanding affects patterns of racial attitudes and beliefs.
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From page 565... ...
As Omi and Winant wrote (1986:60~: O ~ Race is indeed a pre-eminently soc~oh~stoncal concept. Racial categories and the meaning of race are given concrete expression by the specific social relations and historical context in which they are embedded.
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From page 566... ...
For some people, y form of race recognition, especially instances in which leged groups act in a manner injurious to a disadvantaged owever, reserve the term for patterns of belief and related tly embrace the notion of genetic or biological differences groups. Still others use the term to designate feelings of ity.
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From page 567... ...
Data sources that explicate such differences aid the vigilance of research workers in identifying information that can greatly aid appraisals of factual basis for public policies. Thus figures on "unemployment" need to be interpreted 567
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From page 568... ...
The few ethnographic studies that exist are very useful, but their findings cannot be safely generalized to all other settings. Needed is systematic research, over time, that collects comparable information from strategic sampling locations on changes in job search, employment, family patterns, social services, crime, informal social structures, schools, and residents' views of their situations.
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From page 569... ...
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders 1968 Rest of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books.
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