as black as we wish to be

Hear a fascinating audio documentary about a county in Ohio where racial identity has been historically defined by place of residence and exceptionally ambiguous for generations. This State of the Re:Union story is comprised of interviews about local racial formation practices and attitudes, where physical features and ethnic identity often do not match. The interviews are set within a historical narrative on racism within the locale. In this area
"...residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white. Racial lines have been blurred to invisibility, and people inside the same family can vehemently disagree about whether they are black or white. It can be tense and confusing. As a result, everyone’s choosing: Am I black? Am I mixed race? Or, am I white?"

you know you're wealthy when...

Talk over the past year or so about the "1%" and increasing taxes on high-income earners has generated considerable public interest in defining who is wealthy. See, hear, and read responses from various Americans to the prompt "You know you're wealthy when..." in this recent article in Marketplace's Wealth & Poverty blog. See also this related piece addressing if the objectively rich perceive themselves as being wealthy.

plight of the part-time worker

This post was contributed by Marta Gordon, student in Miller's SOC 3013 class.

Everyone agrees we need more jobs, but is part-time employment the answer? Some people may just need extra money for a short time, or can only work part time due to other responsibilities, and for them it is a boon. However, for many other workers, part-time jobs are a trap. In fact, a growing employer practice is to require part-time workers to have around-the-clock availability. And if such workers cannot report for duty when called, or are even found to have another job, they then may be terminated. This recent On Point panel interview, Stuck in Part Time, examines these pitfalls and other problems with part-time employment.

One of the biggest financial problems with part-time jobs is that such workers not only may make less, but they also may not qualify for benefits. And with the new health-care provisions that will be enacted, there appear to be clear incentives for employers to increasingly transform jobs from full-time to part-time status. Indeed, a recent article by Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute suggests that employers could theoretically reduce their cost-per-labor-hour by half should they go to an all part-time work force in order to minimize mandate penalties.

However, there is already evidence that shifting to part-time workers may generate backlash. For example, in anticipation of health-care insurance changes which become effective January 1, Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, announced in October that it would be moving even more of its 185,000 employees over to part-time status, despite the fact that about 70 percent were already part time. However, citing adverse public reaction leading to lower sales in test market areas, Darden just announced that it was suspending such efforts for now.

TAL: red state / blue state

Mike Daisey's Foxconn story retracted

The popular NPR series, This American Life, has retracted the Mike Daisey episode aired in early January. The March 16, 2012 episode of TAL was devoted to examining the misinformation and inaccuracies reported by Daisey about Apple's major fabricator, Foxconn. Daisey's major defense for wrongdoing is that he is a showman, rather than a journalist. (Needless to say, all stories posted on this blog about Daisey's work should likewise be reassessed.)

For reportage on what went on in terms of TAL's retraction, see the bottom segment of CNN's Reliable Sources in which commentators take to task the uncritical ease by which many members of big media, including CNN itself, accepted Daisey's stories at face value without fact-checking efforts.

the road back to work

NPR has created a multi-part audio documentary that follows six St. Louis residents who were unemployed at the beginning of 2011. The subjects were given audio recorders to provide ongoing diaries of their experiences during the period. While some became re-employed, none found jobs that were comparable to those they had lost. The series gives insights into the difficulties of finding jobs in today's economy, and coping with the various stressors that come with being jobless. An interview with the series creator is available in a recent episode of Talk of the Nation.

self-deportation and generalized oppression in Alabama

Alabama lawmakers may have done better had they consulted the work of the late sociologist, Robert K. Merton, before enacting recent law against undocumented workers and their families. Specifically, Merton emphasized the fact that intentional change often carries latent dysfunctional consequences, i.e., serious, unintended, undesirable outcomes. The law was supposed to make life so difficult for immigrants without papers that they would simply leave the state. However, as Jack Hitt explains in Alien Experiment, Act One of this This American Life episode, it has made living and working in Alabama far more difficult for many others, in addition to those initially targeted.

who makes your iStuff?

This recent This American Life segment looks at the workplace context in which Apple products, such as iPads, iPhones, and Macs, are made. Mike Daisey, storyteller extraordinaire, talks about his findings upon visiting China's biggest electronics manufacturer, Foxconn.