Black Communities (black + community)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Oral 1, ,Colour coded': skin pigment and young people in the West Midlands

BRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 6 2007
C. Moss
Skin colour affects the lives of young people culturally, socially, emotionally and medically. This project was conceived by a young black film-maker from Handsworth to explore how young people feel about their particular skin pigmentation. Together with the TV company Resource Base and the Dermatology Department at Birmingham Children's Hospital he applied successfully to the Wellcome Trust for a Pulse award which provides funding for arts projects which engage young people with biomedical science. The aims were to engage young people from the Black community in the West Midlands in raising awareness of the determinants of skin colour, and to develop scientific understanding and also film-making and marketing skills of those participating. The film crew and professionals met with young people from ethnic minorities in homes, community centres, schools and on the streets. About 30 took part in developing the music video, another 40 in workshops leading to the drama production, 20 in filmed discussions of their perceptions of skin colour, and six in filming and post-production work. Material was checked for scientific accuracy by the dermatology team. The resulting DVD features a short drama about skin-lightening treatment, and a rap, both written, performed and filmed by the group. Other features include a discussion about skin colour, and question-and-answer sessions with members of the dermatology team. The DVD, which was launched at The Birmingham Artsfest on 9th September 2006, will be marketed to schools throughout the U.K. This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust. [source]


Black Employment, Segregation, and the Social Organization of Metropolitan Labor Markets

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2007
Niki T. Dickerson
Abstract: This broad analysis of the employment of blacks in metropolitan areas examines the role of residential segregation in comparison with four other key structural explanations for racial metropolitan inequality: industrial composition, minority concentration, immigration, and the racial disparity in skills. The goal of the analysis was to determine whether the spatial configuration of blacks relative to whites in a metropolitan area influences the employment rates of black men and black women in the context of the structural conditions of the local labor market. The study expanded the analysis of space and work beyond an emphasis on the physical distance between black communities and jobs to a broader conceptualization of residential segregation as a structural feature of the entire metropolitan labor market that is representative of its social organization with regard to race. Using a longitudinal data set of the structural characteristics of the 95 largest U.S. cities from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses, the study used a cross-sectional analysis of the cities in 2000 and a fixed-effects analysis to assess the impact of five dimensions of residential segregation and the four other structural factors on the employment of blacks across different labor markets and across time within each labor market. The results revealed that when the other structural characteristics are controlled, the employment rates of blacks are lower in more segregated cities and decrease as cities become more segregated over time. The clustering and evenness dimensions of residential segregation were the most determinative of black employment. [source]


Entre la autonomía y la institucionalización: Dilemas del movimiento negro colombiano

JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
Mauricio Pardo
Among the various trends of the black movement in Colombia, with diverse claims, it is the peasant movement of the Pacific,whose territorial struggle has been presented as ethnic vindication,with the most initiative and the greatest accomplishments. The so-called "black communities" Law 70 of 1993, the result of the mobilization of heterogeneous black organizations, centers on the creation of collective territories in the Pacific, but has marginalized other aspects of the black movement and has caused it a decrease in political initiative, as well as considerable institutionalization. This, along with particular identitary proposals and organizing styles, has favored local organizations tied or aspiring to collective territories, but has also generated increasing fragmentation of other black organizations. Recently, armed conflict has burst violently into areas of rural black organizations. This article analizes this situation in the last decade, in light of theoretical reflections on identity, ethnicity, race, and social movements. [source]


Reconstructing Bronzeville: Racial Nostalgia and Neighborhood Redevelopment

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2000
Michelle Boyd
Much of the existing work on heritage tourism emphasizes downtown or citywide tourism development. Yet, an increasing number of African American neighborhoods are using racial heritage tourism to revitalize their long neglected inner-city neighborhoods. This article examines the use of heritage in black neighborhoods and analyzes its use as a political resource. The development of heritage tourism encourages black communities to construct notions of authentic racial community, which they draw upon to legitimize both the processes of, and their role in, neighborhood redevelopment. [source]


Bounding the Commons: Land Demarcation in Northeastern Nicaragua

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
MARY FINLEY-BROOK
In north-eastern Nicaragua, territorial titling of communal lands conflates particular notions of ethnicity with proprietary conceptions of space to generate new forms of conflict within and between indigenous and black communities, and with mestizo migrants. Notions of rights between competing groups, or within conflicting normative frameworks, become increasingly polemic during demarcation. While analysis of three land titling case studies demonstrates that results are socially contingent and place based, trends include: (a) power disparities; (b) tension between ,traditional' and ,modern' patterns of land tenure and resource rights; and (c) contradictions fed by international conservation agendas and neoliberal economic reforms. Combining critical actor-based analysis with practical policy critique our work illuminates how contestations over the bounding of communal territories contribute to social injustice. [source]


Políticas de la alteridad: Etnización de "comunidad negra" en el Pacífico sur colombiano

JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
Eduardo RestrepoArticle first published online: 28 JUN 200
The ethnicization of the "black community" in the southern Colombian Pacific region is a process that originated at the beginning of the 1990s. Associated with the ruling of the article in the Political Constitution of 1991, which recognizes cultural rights and specific territories for the "black community," an innovative dynamic of organization was consolidated, articulated to politics of alterity in which multiple mediations and actors intervened. The present article is a contribution to the ethnography of the production of alterity, focusing on the black community as a political and legal subject in the region of the southern Colombian Pacific. [source]


REVISITING BLACK ELECTORAL SUCCESS: OAKLAND (CA), 40 YEARS LATER

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2009
FRÉDÉRICK DOUZET
ABSTRACT:,The city of Oakland, California, was one of the case studies Browning, Marshall and Tabb picked in their book,Protest Is not Enough,(1984) as a significant example of successful liberal black-and-white coalitions, leading to strong black incorporation. Yet over the past 40 years, the balance of power has dramatically changed in the city of Oakland. After several decades of experience with African-American mayors and changing demographics, we need to reflect on the adequacy of this paradigm in light of the contemporary situation. The city once governed by a black mayor with a majority black city council in a traditional white progressive-black coalition has now become intrinsically multicultural, leading to the election of former Governor Jerry Brown as a Mayor in 1998. Despite Ron Dellums's election in 2006, the black hold and control over the city seems to be more tenuous and fragile than it was 15 years ago. This article raises the question of the future of black urban political power in cities undergoing demographic and political changes. Our main findings are that black urban power in Oakland is still predominantly coalition-based but involves new coalition partners with the demographic growth and the electoral mobilization of Hispanics and Asians. While the black-led coalition still relies on white progressive support, this support has weakened, mostly because of the broadening of the progressives' agenda. Finally, the black community seems less likely to vote on pure identity grounds and seems increasingly inclined to vote along issues and interests. [source]


ORGANIZATIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND BLACK PARTICIPATION: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 4 2000
Darryl L. McMiller
Empirical investigations of black political activity either do not include measures for associational affiliation among blacks or take into consideration differences among black organizations in their capacity to promote political activity among their members. In this investigation, a model of black political behavior was presented that included not only the standard predictors of political activity, but also incorporated measures for membership in different types of voluntary associations. Two important conclusions emerge from this study. First, this investigation demonstrated that since the 1960s, there has been an important transformation in the organizational infrastructure of the black community: blacks changed their voluntary memberships from political to nonpartisan organizations. Second, these findings showed that the decline in group-based political mobilization since the 1960s is partly the result of this shift from partisan to nonpolitical affiliations. [source]