The Paradoxes of Race, Class, Identity, and "Passing": Enforcing the Chinese Exclusion Acts, 1882-1910

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring the entry into the United States of all Chinese laborers. This article explores the dilemmas and contradictions associated with the enforcement of this legislation, focusing on the early years during which the most glaring dilemmas were exposed. Drawing from congressional documents, as well as unpublished letters, memoranda, and circulars of immigration officials, I argue that the difficulties encountered by enforcement personnel, and the sometimes chaotic and inconsistent nature of enforcement, were related to paradoxes associated with prevailing assumptions about the nature of race, class, and identity more generally. I then document how these same paradoxes, and the techniques employed by inspectors to deal with them, ironically facilitated aspiring immigrants'resistance to the full force of the law. This case study, with its emphasis on the contradictions implicit in the law and the dialectical quality of enforcement and resistance, may contribute to OUR understanding of the law's fundamental indeterminacy. Finally, I suggest that the focus on the everyday dilemmas faced by frontline officials may tell us more about the ordinary life of the law and its indeterminacy than the heavily scrutinized landmark cases that constitute much of the literature.     

Trespass,impasse, collaboration: Doing research on women's rights in India

A developing tenet of feminism is the need to work collaboratively in order to avoid assumptions of universality and embrace differences between women. In this paper, Cossman and Kapur reflect upon their attempts to put this principle into practice in research on women's rights in India. They highlight ethical dilemmas raised by their project which forced them to problematize and challenge many of their initial assumptions about doing feminist research, particularly those of identity politics which give primacy to women's experiences as a claim to truth. The authors affirm the importance of identity and experience, but at the same time acknowledge the limitations of this affirmation for the development of effective methodological and political strategies. Osgoode Hall Law School What I feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before.     

Sympathetic Symbols,Social Movements,and School Desegregation

An important theoretical contribution to the study of social movements involving legal mobilization is framing theory. Framing encourages an analysis of the parties involved and the tools used to make meaning of their cause. A scholarly gap emerges, however, when considering the race, gender, and class of the litigants and the social challenges they face. In this article, the author blends framing theory with controlling‐images theory to provide a conceptual tool of ‘the sympathetic symbol’ to analyse the effects of race, gender, and class. Next, the author introduces the legal and social histories of two school desegregation cases involving Chinese‐American and Mexican‐American plaintiffs, identifying the relevant controlling images germane to each case. Finally, the author questions whether a sympathetic symbol is necessary to counter the raced, gendered, and classed stereotypes that threaten the struggle for equality and suggests future directions for research.     

Breaking the chain: Confronting issueless college town disturbances and riots

Law enforcement agencies and institutions of higher education have confronted increasing numbers of violent and destructive campus riots and disturbances over the past decade. Problematic is the fact that these riots typically have no underlying cause, other than students’ quest for excitement. Responding to gaps in the empirical literature about these events, this study used data from two waves of surveys to systematically examine those involved in a recurring problem event in a college town that was subject to a police crackdown. The analyses drew on survey responses from over eight hundred event participants in 2002 and 2003, and the results revealed that increased enforcement had a significant effect on crowd composition, including the gender and race of participants, repeat visitors, out-of-town participants, and perceptions about the subjects' overall experience. Implications for law enforcement and community strategies to decrease the size and destructiveness of such problem events are outlined.     

Integrating Critical Race Theory and Postmodernism Implications of Race, Class, and Gender

This paper begins with an overview of criticalrace theory tenets, which in turn will befollowed by an overview of postmodernism. These bodies of knowledge consist of an arrayof ideologies; but for the purpose of thisarticle only the fundamentals of each will bediscussed. Thereafter, an integration ofthese two contemporary areas of thought willdemonstrate the constructive linkage ofcritical race theory and postmodern theory. Theintegrations that follow will emphasize how acollaboration of critical race theory tenetsand postmodern thought can contribute to asuccessful, and more importantly improved,analysis of the social constructions of race,class, and gender. In addition, theintersectional analysis presented willdemonstrate a more informative and betterunderstanding of the subtleties of blatant andmore hidden forms of race, class, and gender.     

Measuring double consciousness among black law enforcement officers to understand the significant role of race in law enforcement occupational cultures

The current study correlates Merton's anomie theory and W. E. B. Dubois's double-consciousness theory to measure black law enforcement officers' reactions to occupational strain resulting from officers' ethnic-identification. Measuring levels of anomic behavior provides a scale for identifying levels of risk affecting the well-being of individual officers and organizations. Testing hierarchal regression models with a national sample of black state- and federal-level law enforcement officers (n = 84) reveals a presence of double consciousness as a significant predictor for levels of anomic behavior in law enforcement occupational cultures. It also further suggests that race remains a significant factor in law enforcement organizations and cultures, whereas many police executives would prefer to believe that race issues in policing are settled.     

Making Quotas Work: The Effect of Gender Quota Laws On the Election of Women

Gender quota laws are intended to increase the number of women elected to legislatures, but initial evidence suggests that many laws have had little effect. I present a cross‐national, statistical test that analyzes how three key dimensions of candidate quota laws affect women's representation. My results show that quotas that require more women to be on party ballots lead to the election of more women, independent of placement mandates and enforcement mechanisms, but rules governing where female candidates are listed on the ballot and sanctions for noncompliance amplify that effect. Candidate quotas can increase women's representation, but the quotas' effectiveness depends on their design.     

Judging the Other: The Intersection of Race,Gender, and Class in Family Court

This critical ethnographic study of family court child maltreatment proceedings describes and illuminates the ways in which racial, gender, and class disadvantages can manifest on the ground as judges, attorneys, social service workers, and parents—joined often by gender but split by race and class—adjudicate cases. The findings suggest that intersectionality worked in ways that exponentially marginalized poor mothers of color in the courtroom. They were marginalized both through the rules of the adversarial process (which silenced their voices) and through the construction of narratives (which emphasized individual weakness) over structural obstacles as well as personal irresponsibility over expressions of maternal care and concern. Standard due process courtroom practices also communicated bias or social exclusion, especially in a courtroom split by race and class.     

Qualitative Research and Intersectionality

Much of the extant criminological literature on the relationships between race, class, gender, and crime has treated these demographic characteristics as isolated, independent variables. More recent theorizing has called our attention to fact that these constructs are not autonomous. Instead, people’s identity lies at the intersection of race, class, and gender and it is the combination of these constructs that often shapes people’s experiences with the criminal justice system and other social structures. It is well-documented, however, that purely quantitative methodologies are not well suited to studying intersecionality. The findings of qualitative research have lent a greater understanding to the intersection of race, class, gender, and crime. The appropriateness of certain methodological frameworks and the thematic contributions of qualitative research to intersectionality are discussed.     

Race, gender, and motivation for becoming a police officer: Implications for building a representative police department

Police departments have come under increasing pressure from community groups, professional organizations, and their constituents to hire more female and minority officers. Although prior research suggested that there might be both gender and racial differences in the factors influencing the decision to enter police work, much of the work was dated and findings were mixed. The current research, conducted in spring 2002, examined motivations for entering police work among a sample of 278 academy recruits in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Findings indicated that motivations for becoming a police officer were similar regardless of race or gender, and the most influential factors were altruistic and practical, specifically the opportunity to help others, job benefits, and security. Minor differences did emerge among male and female recruits, as well as among Whites, Hispanics, and African Americans, but the practical implications of those differences seemed limited. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for recruitment efforts as police departments seek to draw more diverse applicant pools and build more representative law enforcement agencies.     

The police subculture and occupational socialization: Exploring individual and demographic characteristics

Popular in the law enforcement literature, the concept of the “police subculture” traditionally has been predicated on homogeneous personnel selections. Although female and minority representation has increased in law enforcement, the impact of females and minorities on the police subculture has not been empirically evaluated. Traditional research in this area has suggested that the socialization process is so intense and the subculture so strong that individual characteristics are quickly overwhelmed. However, these studies were undertaken prior to the mandated introduction of female and minority officers. Results of this study show no significant relationship exists between occupational identification and demographic characteristics; however, level of socialization does show a significant relationship to demographic variables. The sample consisted of four regularly scheduled academy classes with varying levels of police experience. This sample was selected due to the diversity in the level of police experience among respondents. It was hypothesized that demographic variables, such as race, gender, age, military experience and level of police experience, would not significantly affect occupational identification or levels of socialization. The data indicated that individual characteristics, such as race, gender, age, military experience, and level of police experience, did not appear to have a significant effect on occupational solidarity. These individual characteristics, however, were found to display significant relationships with level of socialization.     

UNDERSTANDING THE INFLUENCE OF VICTIM GENDER IN DEATH PENALTY CASES: THE IMPORTANCE OF VICTIM RACE,SEX‐RELATED VICTIMIZATION,AND JURY DECISION MAKING*

Using data from the Baldus, Woodworth, and Pulaski (1990) study of Georgia's death penalty system, we examine the influence of victim gender in death penalty cases. Furthermore, to improve our understanding of the meaning of victim gender, we consider 1) the joint effects of victim gender and victim race, 2) victimization characteristics that might explain victim gender effects, and 3) the impact of victim gender at different decision‐making stages in the death penalty case process. We find that both victim gender and race are associated with death sentencing outcomes and that an examination of the joint effects of victim gender and race reveals considerable differences in the likelihood of receiving a death sentence between the most disparate victim race–gender groups. In particular, it seems that black male victim cases are set apart from all others in terms of leniency afforded to defendants. We also show that the effect of victim gender is explained largely by gender differences in the sexual nature of some homicides. An examination of prosecutorial and jury decision making reveals that although victim gender has little impact on prosecutorial decisions, it has a meaningful impact on jury decisions.     

Youth violence at school and the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity

Purpose

Research has revealed that school-based activities are related to youth violence at school; however, the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in this relationship remains uncertain.

Methods

This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel modeling techniques to examine the intersectionality of gender, race, and ethnicity in the relationship between school-based activities and youth victimization at school.

Results

Racial and ethnic minority male involvement in school sports is linked to an increase in school-based victimization, while White American male involvement in school sports is associated with a decrease in school-based victimization. On the other hand, school sports appears to be an insulating factor against victimization for girls regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Conclusions

This research underscores the importance of understanding the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity when examining youth violence.     

Producing race disparities: A study of drug arrests across place and race*

In studies of race disparities in policing, scholars generally employ quantitative methodologies with the goal of determining whether race disparities exist or, in fewer instances, of ruling out correlates. Yet, lacking from theoretical and empirical efforts is an elucidation of how and why on‐the‐ground policing produces race disparities that are justified in legal, race‐neutral terms. To address this knowledge gap, I analyze officers’ self‐reported accounts of their enforcement activities, justifications, and decision‐making in a representative sample of 300 official reports of drug arrests made in St. Louis from 2009 to 2013. These accounts are analyzed across neighborhood racial contexts and arrestee race, revealing important differences that help illuminate the race disparity problem. Unlike drug arrests in White neighborhoods or of White citizens that primarily stem from reactive policing, drug arrests in Black and racially mixed neighborhoods and of Black citizens result from officers’ greater use of discretionary stops based on neighborhood conditions, suspicion of ambiguous demeanor, or minor infractions. During such stops, officers’ discovery of drug possession often results from discretionary Terry frisks or searches incident to arrests for outstanding bench warrants. These findings fill important theoretical and empirical gaps and have implications for reforms toward racially just policing.     

‘Not always logical’: binational/biracial marriages in Britain, 1900–1940

ABSTRACT

This essay explores the intersection of race, religion, and nationality in marriage by concentrating on unions between Britons and ‘Arabs’ (those from North Africa and the Middle East) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Focusing on this area, most of which was not in the British Empire, allows an analysis of the intersection between the empire and the larger world. Marriage was a nexus in the intertwined prejudices of race, empire, class, and religion. Though the British primarily blamed polygamy for any marital problems, their own gendered law of nationality was equally at fault. Indeed, the centrality of gender was clearest in three circumstances. First, many women refused to be ‘white women in peril,’ instead exercising agency in their relationships. Second, British men who moved to the Middle East, converted to Islam, and married Muslim women, became legal hybrids who struggled to pass on British nationality to their wives and children. Third, British-born women married to Middle Eastern Christians faced similar problems, despite marrying other monogamists. In the 1930s, the British government formed a committee to address these issues, but the committee failed to find solutions, in part because the members, like the British state, supported racial/national coverture for women and thus refused to consider granting women equal rights in nationality. As a result, women married to men of different races and nations remained vulnerable to desertion and divorce in the interwar period. Such issues both confirmed the importance of an imperial frame of mind, but also the fact that the dilemmas went well beyond the formal empire.     

Women Prisoners at the Dawn of the 21st Century

Abstract

The contemporary experiences of women in prison at the beginning of the 21st century must be understood within the context of the monumental increase in incarceration of specific U.S. populations in the last three decades of the 20th century, a truly unique period in history. How race and class impact on the increase of women in U.S. prisons attests to the importance of an intersectional and structural analysis (of race, class, and gender) in explaining the huge number of poor, heavily Black and Latina women incarcerated today. Women are criminalized for the same kinds of crimes today as in the past (nonviolent larceny-theft, forgery, and prostitution)-with the critical addition of drugs (and the “net widening” of previously noncriminal or nonviolent behaviors). And with drugs, the racialized impacts are even more profound. The socially structured conditions of class, race, and gender in the context of globalization, unemployment, and the prison industrial complex help to explain these findings.     

DOING GENDER: SORTING OUT THE CASTE AND CRIME CONUNDRUM*

Theories that examine the relationship between inequality and crime typically privilege one system of stratification over others. In criminology, the system most often assumed to be primary is social class, but other approaches may emphasize gender or racial oppression to account for observed differences in offending patterns. Few, however, systematically link gender and race oppression as moderating etiological variables in the study of crime. From the theoretical and empirical literature on this subject, we discuss (1) how “hegemonic” masculinities and femininities are framed within social institutions such as work, the family, peer group, and schools; (2) how “doing gender” within these sites is modified by race; and (3) anticipated relationships among social structure, social action, and delinquency. Self-report data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to test research hypotheses. Chow interaction tests and comparisons of slope coefficients reveal that gender and race modify independent-variable effects on property and violent delinquency.     

Citizens’ perceptions of the courts: The impact of race, gender, and recent experience

This study examined the influences of race, gender, and recent court experience on citizens’ perceptions of the courts in their communities. Using national survey data collected in 2000, this research assessed variation in perceptions of the courts along four dimensions: differential treatment, fair procedure and outcome, concern and respect, and overall evaluation. The results showed that racial minorities, including Blacks and Latinos, were more likely than Whites to have negative attitudes toward the courts. While race is generally a better predictor than gender, the interaction between gender and race is important in understanding citizen’s perceptions of the courts. Citizens who have recent personal contact with the courts tend to rate the courts less favorable than those who have no recent contact. Citizens’ opinions of the police and equal opportunity are also significantly related to their perceptions of the courts. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Contextualizing the Different Voice: Women,Occupational Goals,and Legal Education*

Essentialist views reporting the existence of distinct gender differences have received much criticism. Despite these critiques, there is little empirical research on the limitations of these approaches in institutions such as law schools. While studies of legal education have been informed by gender difference theory, few have sought to contextualize difference. This study examines gender difference among students attending Harvard Law School. Using survey and interview data, this study demonstrates that difference is mediated by such variables as occupational goals, social class, and race. Implications of differences among women are discussed as they relate to reforms in legal education.     

Resisting the Enforcement of Sexual Harassment Law

Most people in the United States believe that sexual harassment should be illegal and that enforcement is necessary. In spite of such widespread support for antiharassment regulations, sexual harassment policy training provokes backlash and has been shown to activate traditional gender stereotypes. Using in‐depth interviews and participant observations of sexual harassment policy training sessions, this study uncovers the micro‐level mechanisms that underlie ambivalence about the enforcement of sexual harassment law. I find that while the different locations of men and women in the status hierarchy lead to different manifestations of resistance, gender stereotypes are used to buttress perceptions that sexual harassment laws threaten norms of interaction and status positions that men and women have an interest in maintaining. The research has implications for understanding the role of law in social change, legal compliance, and the potential/limits of law for reducing inequality.