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The history and dynamics of reparations for African Americans are explored. The lack of current research and writing on the subject in sociology and political sciences journals is contended to be a conspiracy of silence in academia on the subject of restitution for 500 years of oppression. A program of reparations of three kinds is suggested: 1) Economic assistance for Africa along the lines of the Marshall Plan; 2) A diasporic community development fund that would include forgiveness of all educational and business debts of African descendants in the Americas, Europe, etc. for those who have successfully completed their course of study and those whose businesses have been successfully engaged for a 10-15 year period of time. (3) Creation of a reparations educational skills development, and business innovation fund. This fund would be open to all individuals regardless of race, creed, color, sexual orientation, and gender to fund higher educational pursuits, technical training, and business development. Thus, an equal playing field is the beginning point for all ? not some racialized elite or nonelite. This equal playing field, guaranteeing access to education, training, business loans, and development, allows unbridled freedom to take flight.

Social justice, predicated on the expansion of human rights, is by definition a critical and intellectual enterprise. Social critique, made possible by social justice paradigms, provides the basis for social action and social change and leads ultimately to the enhancement of social democracies. Such critical intellectual enterprises require that people constantly reevaluate not only their social institutions but also the terms they use to describe their very existence. Such reevaluation is best accomplished within the crucible of the academy. Keywords: social justice; hegemony; race relations; antihegemonic movements; pedagogy

America, to the extent that it is a nation of laws, must be understood within the context of these laws. Unfortunately, these laws have not always conformed to the ideals associated with the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Through much of our history, the law has served to protect a racialized elite from competition from another racialized nonelite. Race and racialized sociopolitical systems of inequality have served to structure American society since its inception. Ignoring the rhetoric of freedom, justice, and equality for all, America developed laws that were distinctively racial in character, substance, and operation. This article demonstrates the exact period, conditions, and processes whereby racism and racist social structures came into being. It is argued that laws and the legal record represent uniquely cultural elements of America. As such, they demonstrate the cultural production of race and racialized systems of oppression. Keywords: culture; law; race; racialized oppression

As we watch COVID devastate our country, many wonder how we got here. I argue that in this paper that the crisis has been agrevated, if not a direct result of presidential missteps, and belligerence. Further, most impacted have been racialized groups. These factors, described here as elements of the perfect storm, are not by accident, but a series of miscalculations and errors, blatant disregard for reality and science, and deliberate attempts to mislead, minimize, and dismiss the severity, reality, and dangers associated with this pandemic. Early responses by President Donald Trump to COVID-19 can be characterized as inept, unfocused, and lacking leadership. Even as the first cases of COVID-19 were being identified in Wuhan, China, President Trump was working to promote his anti-science stance by dismantling the science policy infrastructure installed to advise him. Following Trump's lead, many GOP local and state leaders trivialized the significance of COVID-19 early as it ravaged the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coates argues that Rod Bush's journey for justice is best understood as a quest for social justice derived from his interrogation of imperialism, racism, and exploitation, to move beyond binary constructions of race and class. He was critical of complacent sociology that frequently misdiagnosed social movements, misinterpreted social protests, and misunderstood how to bring about meaningful change. He proposed that the agency of change begins at the grassroots level and extends outward. Bush demonstrated that the sequence of events that produced the modern racial state were wrapped in the language of freedom and democracy, but were birthed out of the misery of black, red, brown, tan, and yes white laborers. This praxis for change represents a new consciousness, much like Black Nationalist consciousness that, according to Bush, "... almost always appears to most whites as a great ideological transformation, and a quite unfathomable transformation at that. But it should not be a mystery." Rod's emphasis on radical Black Nationalism is to point out distinctive ways in which revolutionary change can come about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines race and ethnicity differences in the early socialization experiences of children. We use the National Household Education Survey of 1993, which employed a large, national random sample of parents of preschool children, kindergarten children, and primary school children. These data shed light on race and ethnicity differences in the following categories of early socialization experiences: home life characteristics, family activities, developmental and medical characteristics, school-related characteristics, and values placed on intellectual and other skills. We place our findings in the context of the larger literature on race and ethnicity differences., Introduction Parents, teachers, and educational researchers have tried to understand how children develop cognitive and other skills. We do know that expectations and perceptions of parents and other significant others [...]

Reviewer: RODNEY D. COATES, Miami University I am not one for high praise, but The Agony of Education: Black Students at White Colleges and Universities is one where such acclaim [...]