William Julius Wilson Was the First Black Scholar to Identify and Seriously Critique What Issue?
National & Earth Affairs
Symposium celebrates career of William Julius Wilson
William Julius Wilson, a MacArthur Prize Fellow who joined the Harvard faculty in 1996, is honored at a three-solar day symposium.
Photos by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photo
Professor influenced the national conversation on race for half a century
To follow the career of William Julius Wilson is to trace the evolution of the national chat on race and grade in America over the by one-half century.
That was the overarching theme of the starting time full twenty-four hour period of a 3-day symposium celebrating the career of the Lewis P. and Linda Fifty. Geyser University Professor Emeritus at the Knafel Eye on Th.
"One of the dandy functions of the Academy is to be a loving critic of club and of our country. Few people on our faculty have done that better," said Harvard President Larry Bacow of Wilson, a MacArthur Prize Swain who joined the Harvard faculty in 1996. "You have held a mirror up to our lodge. You have asked the toughest questions. You accept challenged united states of america every bit a nation, as a society, as a community to exist meliorate."
Bacow joined Edgerley Family unit Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay and Dean of Social Scientific discipline Lawrence D. Bobo in praising the eminent sociologist before a capacity crowd.
The Thursday-morning program began with a panel on "Race Relations/Inequality in Historical and Gimmicky Perspectives" chaired by Mary C. Waters, the John L. Loeb Professor of Folklore. Panelists began with tributes and personal stories before engaging in a discussion of Wilson's work.
Jennifer Hochschild, the Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Regime and professor of African and African American studies, tackled the questions raised in Wilson's 1978 book, "The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institution." Looking at the book'southward central supposition, Hochschild focused on context, asking, "Compared to what?"
"You take held a mirror up to our society. You have asked the toughest questions. You have challenged us as a nation, as a society, every bit a community to exist better," said Harvard President Larry Bacow, (correct) in praising William Julius Wilson (left).
Hochschild pointed out that in political terms, yes, bug of race appeared to be declining. The number of African Americans in Congress is increasing, every bit is white support for selected principles of racial equality, such as interracial marriage, candidates of color, and job access.
Notwithstanding, she pointed out, in other ways race remains an issue. For example, although the number of Latinx eligible voters is rising, the number of Latinx voters is barely moving. In terms of land and federal incarceration, African Americans make upwards the greatest percentage by far. Although there has been some improvement, she noted that the overwhelming number of prisoners are young, poor African American men.
Hochschild so turned the discussion to perception of race past displaying the results of a survey that asked whether a serial of statements were racist. The respondents, who defined themselves forth a liberal-conservative spectrum, rated comments near a edge wall, integration, and the election of Donald Trump, among others. Hochschild said the results told her that "a large percentage of the American population but doesn't see it." Her decision was that while the importance of race is failing in some ways, largely thanks to demographics, in others it has increased.
Orlando Patterson, the John Cowles Professor of Sociology, focused on 2 of Wilson's books, his first, 1973'southward "Power, Racism and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives," and his most recent, 2009's "More than Just Race: Existence Black and Poor in the Inner City." Patterson said the first "draws brilliantly on history," while the latter "probes deeply into the inner devastations of class and race oppression."
Dean of Social Scientific discipline Lawrence D. Bobo praised the piece of work of William Julius Wilson. Mary C. Waters chaired the panel on "Race Relations/Inequality in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives"
Arguing for the importance of history and historical context, Patterson talked about the dual nature of oppression and racism.
"In that location tin be no serious study of racial oppression and inequality without fully recognizing that oppression works its evil in 2 ways, not one," said Patterson.
"There are the exterior structural brutalities of oppression and racism," he said, naming unemployment and ghettoization as examples. "Just we also know that 250 years of the social death of slavery and another century of the neo-slavery of Jim Crow … leave internal scars," such as the "fragility of social relations," besides as rage, hunger "non only for bread merely for security," and deep mistrust.
Patterson pointed out that Wilson was raised by a single mother in poverty and understands the complex nature of these problems in a fashion that many in the field do non. Just by once again broadening the field to include study of race and class problems in other countries can sociology make itself relevant, he said.
New York Academy historian Thomas Sugrue, Ph.D. '92, began by discussing the narrow-mindedness of his ain field in the 1980s, when he beginning discovered Wilson's work. Historians and so were discouraged from studying sociology, or whatever other seemingly related work. However, Sugrue cruel hard for Wilson's works, which he recalled discovering in a Harvard Foursquare bookstore while pursuing his doctorate here. In particular, he was inspired past Wilson's 1987 "The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy," which he credited with shaping his own writings on work and the changing urban economy.
Sugrue did notation some flaws in the book's approach. While Wilson dismissed simplistic early notions of African American social club, he said, they both accustomed a sexist view of gender roles in work. As a issue, they both missed the importance of the movement of African American women into public service jobs, and how the emptying or downgrading of these jobs would touch society.
"Nosotros need a more comprehensive study of class and race," Sugrue said. But he said that even with its flaws, Wilson'south work laid the groundwork.
Wilson briefly responded at the stop of the session, noting that he agreed with the panelists' major points. Responding straight to Hochschild, he said that his book had anticipated the changes she discussed. Economic form has become more important than race in some ways, he said, while the center of racial conflict has shifted from the economic to the socio-political sector.
While thinking on race and class in American culture has shifted over fourth dimension, the panelists agreed that Wilson's piece of work has both reflected and helped shape it. "Bill always wrote with a public audience in heed," Sugrue said. "He e'er wrote that informed scholarship is necessary to engage on the important issues of our fourth dimension."
The symposium will go along Friday at 8:xxx a.g. with opening remarks past Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Douglas Elmendorf.
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Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/symposium-celebrates-career-of-william-julius-wilson/
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