Race in Texts

Our experience mirrors that of the writer praised in the last paragraph of the story. Although not in Poli Sci, our text integrated race and gender throughout the book (everyone in my field talks about class), making it an integral part of most chapters. We were trashed by the internal reviewers, who demanded that we pull the material out and ghettoize it, including by our minority reviewers. We refused to do a second edition. Other text authors have published articles (e.g., Joe Feagan at Florida) on the enormous pressure on intro book authors to make their books look exactly like everyone else.

Author, at 8:35 am EST on January 25, 2008

blacks in textbooks

I wrote an American government textbook published my two major publishers some decades back. Many of the decisions regarding what to cover, including a chapter on blacks, was strongly suggested by the marketing people. Sort of, “if you want to sell, you’ll need a chapter on,,,,” My sense is that this remains valid—space allocations reflect market considerations, not some Platonic reality. My own inclination was to integrate blacks into the text, giving more attention here, less attention there, but this is not what would sell books. I also suspect that many who teach this Introductory course want this special focus, and given the competition, the lack of a separate chapter would be interpreted as a slight, and thus the book would not get adopted. The ideology of the professor assigning the book, not the author is decisive, in my estimation.

Bob Weissberg, at 9:55 am EST on January 25, 2008

Re: Ghettoized Poli Sci Textbooks

Let me get this straight. Are they saying to eliminate chapters on civil rights, for the sake of “integrating” blacks into the rest of the text? How about we approach this like Dr. King — colorblind — and just include whoever needs to be included based on what topic or issue is being looked at right at that time. Red or yellow, black or white; Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, whatever; just put the dang information in the text book, at the appropriate time and place.

Here are the facts: It doesn’t matter what the textbook says. What is taught in the class will be reflective of the instructor’s presuppositions, biases and ideologies. Period.

B, at 10:40 am EST on January 25, 2008

The findings aren’t suprising. I don’t think we need a study of any sorts to reinforce the fact that, throughout the landscape, we’ve remained invisible. Simply talk to many Black folks in America. We’ve remained an inconvenient truth. Now what happens when information is made known to the masses is the key. And what’s up with the title? To equate Black folks with ghettos is highly offensive. If you wanted to capture the attention of readers, I’m sure you could have come up with something a bit more clever.

Jennifer, And the Title Says What...., at 11:15 am EST on January 25, 2008

Ghettoized Pol Sci Textbooks

I am the co- author of the non-ghettoized textbook, Balancing Democracy and Rights, mentioned at the end of the article. I am happy to say that the book is now in a new edition with a different publisher, Cambridge U. Press. I would like to encourage all those who object to limiting discussion of race in America to single chapter obtain a copy of Landy/Milkis from Cambridge. We are deeply committed to giving full consideration to questions of race throughout the book. If you teach an intro American course you can obtain a free copy by emailing Jamie Zuccaro at jzuccaro@cambridge.org

Marc Landy, Professor at Boston College, at 2:10 pm EST on January 25, 2008

Poly Sci Texts and Race

Political science is a discipline concerned with the explication of political behavior and its consequences.The factors which influence behavior are culture,political institutions,religion the socialization process and the process of evolution by natural selection. (Please know that all such concepts are interwoven and we label them to help organize thought processes.)

Evolution is the missing link in our field.We have been stuck with moderate to low correlation coefficients for decades and will be until we avail ourselves to the revolutionary discoveries of evolutionary theory. Otherwise among innumerable other common nonsense conclusions we will attribute things like higher rates of early onset heart disease,strokes,and diabetes among African Americans soley to racism induced stress and poverty while totally overlooking the fact that West Africans long ago developed salt retention genes as their environment was lacking in that important nutrient and when they were dragged to the “New World” salt was everywhere.My opening class sessions always began with my definition: “Politics is the pursuit of fitness by various means.”

Tom P. in Kona

tom payette, Pol. Sci Prof retired at HFCC, at 4:10 pm EST on January 25, 2008

GHETTOIZED POLI SCI TEXTBOOKS

I would like to say what is the purpose of the title of the book? I take offense to it because once again your mention the BLACK race and what comes to mind is “GHETTO". I find it hard to believe that there wasn’t a more appropriate title that could have been used to get your point a cross and portray African Americans in a more positive light. We are trying to put avross the positiveness of blacks contribution to the world and there are far more than we’ve been acknowledge for, but a title such as that once again"to me” only characterizes a particular lifestyle.Some of us were blessed not to have been born or raised in the ghetto, and that not putting down our brothers if they were. You can live in the ghetto without being apart of the enviroment. Maybe next time when trying to get a point across rethink the title something that will glamourize and uplift so to encourage people to take notice of POSITIVE, contributions from African Americans.

vickie brown, at 7:35 am EST on January 26, 2008

Ghettoized Pol Sci Textbooks

Perhaps the problem is in the preparation of political scientists. How much historical depth and diversity is offered? Is the operating assumption that only a few Europeans made politics a science while the rest of the world blundered through the creation of three- and four-thousand year old polities? Is the other assumption that the black and white television world of 1957 accurately reflects American political history? Does anyone mention the legislation drafted by persons of color and of different genders? Or that African Americans with property in New York and other New England states had voting rights in the early nineteenth century? My reference point is the introductory course I took as an undergraduate during the Reagan era in Washington, DC. What do other experience?

Marsha R. Robinson, Assistant Professor at Otterbein College, at 2:30 pm EST on February 6, 2008

Scholarship as political activism

This reminds me of the books about “how the Irish saved the world” or “how Shakespeare created the world". Now it is “how blacks made America". I suppose every special interest group will want to rewrite history to show that they are the central theme, just as the Berkeley prof of “ethnic studies” mentioned wants to put ethnicity at the center of everything. The liberal arts are indeed in a sorry state when scholarship becomes a victim of political activism. No wonder so few academics are read by the popular reader.

Bruce Gilley, Assistant Professor at Portland State University, at 9:00 am EDT on April 13, 2008