Everyday Sociology Blog

Racism on College Campuses

By Peter Kaufman

 A few weeks ago there was a racist incident on my campus. In one of the resident halls, a message was written on a whiteboard that said, “Emmett Till Deserved to Die.” After the message was removed a new message appeared shortly thereafter that said, “You Can’t Erase the Truth.”

Unless you know the story of Emmett Till, you are probably unaware of how hateful and threatening this racist message is. For those who didn’t learn this story in history class (which is probably most of us), Emmett Till was  fourteen years old when he was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly talking to a white woman.

Redskins, Blackskins, Brownskins, Whiteskins: Race and Team Mascots

By Peter Kaufman 

This is a busy and stressful time to be President of the United States: The government was until recently shutdown, he’s facing an impasse with Congressional Republicans, the on-going violence in Syria (not to mention the rest of the Middle East), the recent commando raids in Libya and Somalia, the early snags of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare), and the naming of the new chief of the Federal Reserve. Despite all of this, President Obama found time recently to weigh in on a matter that many Americans are probably more familiar with than most of these other current events: The Washington Redskins football team mascot.  

Constructing Deviance: A-Rod, Drugs, and Cheating

By Peter Kaufman

“Is Calling Cheating Cheating, Cheating?” This was the title of a paper I wrote back in graduate school for a class on the sociology of deviance. This playful (or confusing) use of words was my attempt at getting at the uncertainty that sometimes surrounds actions that we deem improper. The point I was trying to make with this title is that it seems wrong to call some acts of inappropriate behavior inappropriate. A particular act might be referred to as cheating but upon closer inspection we may realize that it’s not entirely accurate to label this act as wrong.

When Men Get All the Credit: Gender and the Construction of Knowledge

By Peter Kaufman

There is a common theme that often plays out in television sitcoms and movies that goes something like this: A wife and husband are trying to accomplish a task—maybe trying to put something together or convey a life-lesson to their children. The husband takes first crack at the task and fails miserably. Next, the wife tries and is eventually or even immediately successful. Despite her prowess in accomplishing the task the husband finds a way to butt in and somehow take all of the credit. The woman often gives a knowing look to her husband (or the audience) and laughs it off (along with the audience) as typical male behavior.

Living in the Land of Excessive Choices (sort of)

By Peter Kaufman

 When I was in college I practically lived on cereal. It was the 1980s, I had just became a vegetarian, and I was attending a college in the Midwest that had not really mastered the culinary arts for the non-meat-eating student. They tried, but a slab of warm, unseas oned tofu swimming in oil just didn’t cut it.

With limited options, the cereal bar became my best friend. Although some students might bemoan having breakfast for three meals a day I literally ate it up. What I liked best was that I had six different types of cereal from which to choose. As someone who grew up on Cheerios and Wheaties, having three times as many choices—much less having them available all day long—was cereal heaven. I loved mixing and matching flavors and with only 120 combinations (5! for you mathletes out there—I never included Raisin Bran in the mix), I was able to try every conceivable mixture in a year.

Two-Wheeled Revolutions

By Peter Kaufman

 This year the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) will take place in New York City. As much as I’m looking forward to spending a long weekend with thousands of sociologists from around the world talking about all things sociological, what I’m really excited about is not taking place within the confines of the conference.

Poetic Sociology

By Peter Kaufman

I would like to begin this post with a poem:

 Capitalist History

The capitalist has to create:

the material basis

universal intercourse

mutual dependency

the development of productive powers

the transformation of material production

into a scientific domination of nature.

Material conditions of a new world

created in the same way

as geological revolutions created the surface of the earth.

 

What we call history

is     but     the history of successive intruders.

The profound hypocrisy

inherent barbarism

of capitalist civilization

lies

unveiled before our eyes.

 

When a great social revolution

masters the results of the capitalist epoch—

the market of the world, the modern powers of production—

and subjected them

to the common control of the most advanced peoples

then, only

will human progress . . . cease

to resemble that hideous, pagan idol

who would not drink the nectar

but from the skulls of the slain.

Learning to be Human (From My Dog)

By Peter Kaufman

The other day I was out walking my dog, Emma, and we ran into Archie. Archie is a gentle old soul who lives around the corner. He is always eager to see Emma and usually goes out of his way to come over and say hello.

I’ve known Archie for a few years and have come to learn quite a bit about him: his favorite places to walk around town, what he likes to eat, his low tolerance for hot and humid weather, his dislike of cats and squirrels, and even where he likes to take a poop. In case you haven’t realized, Archie is dog, a black lab to be exact. Despite all that I know about Archie there is one thing I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know:  the name of his owner, much less anything about her.

The Myth of the Self-Made Person

By Peter Kaufman

What do the alleged Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have in common with Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, J.K. Rowling, Jimi Hendrix, and Ben Franklin?

The answer: All of these individuals are said to have become who they are by their own individual means.

Violence and the Need to Be Imaginatively Aware

By Peter Kaufman

“It’s always one damn thing after another.” This was a favorite phrase of my advisor in graduate school. He was referring both to the relatively minor irritations of grad school—getting papers rejected, having data troubles, worrying about qualifying exams—as well as the daily annoyances of life—finding a parking ticket on your car, getting into an argument with a friend, having a long wait at the doctor’s office. 

I’ve thought of this phrase quite a bit lately as I followed the tragic events in Boston. It wasn’t so much the bombing at the Boston Marathon that brought these words back to me as much as it was the cumulative effect of recent events: Boston, Sandy Hook, Hurricane Sandy, Aurora, Penn State, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and the list could go on.