Color Class Country

On gender race and class.

The topic of sexual harassment is a real threat to society in spite of its downplaying by a large segment of society including the 42nd President of the United States. This book presents analyses designed to help shed light on it and a bibliography sorted for ease of use.

Three recent and dramatic national events have shattered the complacency of many people about progress, however fitful, in race relations in America. The Clarence Thomas—Anita Hill hearings, the O. J. Simpson trial, and the Million Man March of Louis Farrakhan have forced reconsideration of their assumptions about race and racial relations. The Thomas-Hill hearings exposed the complexity and volatility of perceptions about race and gender. The sight of jubilant blacks and despondent whites reacting to the 0. J. Simpson verdict shook our confidence in shared assumptions about equal protection under the law. The image of hundreds of thousands of black men gathering in Washington in defense of their racial and cultural identity angered millions of whites and exposed divisions within the black community. These events were unfolding at a time when there seemed to be considerable progress in fighting racial discrimination. On the legal side, discrimination has been eliminated in more and more arenas, in theory if not always in practice. Economically, more and more blacks have moved into the middle class, albeit while larger numbers have slipped further back into poverty. Intellectually, figures like Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Patricia J. Williams are playing a central role as public intellectuals. In the face of these disparate trends, it is clear that Americans need to rethink their assumptions about race, racial relations, and inter-racial communication. Color • Class • Identity is the ideal tool to facilitate this process. It provides a richly textured selection of readings from Du Bois, Cornel West, Derrick Bell, and others as well as a range of responses to the particular controversies that are now dividing us. Color • Class. Identity furthers these debates, showing that the racial question is far more complex than it used to be; it is no longer a simple matter of black versus white and racial mistrust. A landmark anthology that will help advance understanding of the present unease, not just between black and white, but within each community, this book will be useful in a broad range of courses on contemporary U.S. society.

This volume is the first general social and economic history of the Western Cape of South Africa. Until recently, this region had been largely neglected by historians because it does not occupy a central place in the national political economy. Wilmot G. James and Mary Simons argue that a great deal about modern South Africa has been shaped by the distinctive society and economy of the Western Cape. Its history also reveals striking parallels and contrasts with other regions of the African continent.The Western Cape is the only region of South Africa to have experienced slavery. In this sense, the Western Cape has historical traditions more akin to colonial slave societies of the Americas than to those of the rest of Africa. Moreover, in contrast to the rest of South Africa, a proletariat emerged in the Western Cape early in its history, at the start of the eighteenth century. There developed a much more stable and enduring system of class and labor relations. In the twentieth century, these became closely enmeshed with race and status. Racial paternalism and the close correlation between class, caste, and color have their historical roots in the Western Cape.The book is arranged thematically and explores the social and economic consequences of slavery and emancipation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Issues of economy and labor, such as economic underdevelopment in the Western Cape, the labor market, and trade-union organization in the twentieth century are examined. The authors also treat the role of the state in shaping Western Cape society. Class, Caste, and Color is not only a groundbreaking work in the study of South Africa, but provides an agenda for future researchers. It will be essential reading for historians, economists, and Africa area specialists.

Taking the reader into the lived experience of Afro-Caribbean people who call the watery lowlands of Belize home, Melissa A. Johnson traces Belizean Creole peoples' relationships with the plants, animals, water, and soils around them, and analyzes how these relationships intersect with transnational racial assemblages.