Robin M. Williams, Jr. Lecture, 1995--Dominant and Subdominant People of Power: A New Way of Conceptualizing Minority and Majority Populations.

The article is based on sociologist Robin M. Williams lecture presented at an annual meeting of Eastern Sociological Society at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1995. In his important book "American Society" published in 1960, Williams stated that the increased public attention and recognition of the social sciences demand careful self-criticism and continuous revision based on penetrating research and theoretical reflections. The goal of the lecture is to show how diagnosis of social problems and prescriptions for their solution are related, in part, to the analytical concepts one uses. A study that Williams conducted with sociologist Margaret Ryan about community experiences in school desegregation included facts and theories that could have assisted the Supreme Court. A good society achieves its effectiveness by way of both contributive and distributive justice. The gift of poor White families to the society at large is a working model of contributive justice and the gift of poor Black families to the society at large is a working model of distributive justice.