Regional Oral History Office University of California the Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
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Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Troy Duster AN ORAL HISTORY WITH TROY DUSTER Interviews conducted by Richard Cándida Smith and Nadine Wilmot In 2002 and 2003 Portions of this oral history have been sealed until January 1, 2038. Copyright © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California ii Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Troy Duster, dated August 29, 2002. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/cite.html It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Troy Duster, “An Oral History with Troy Duster,” interview conducted by Richard Cándida Smith and Nadine Wilmot, 2002-2003, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2012. iii TROY DUSTER iv TABLE OF CONTENTS—TROY DUSTER Interview History by Nadine Wilmot Interview 1: August 29, 2002.................................................................................................................................. 1 [Audio File 1] Family background—early education, community, sensibility. Interview 2: August 30, 2002................................................................................................................................. 22 [Audio File 2] Undergraduate school at Northwestern University, social terrain, politics, academics—transition from journalism to sociology—sociology, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, Harold Garfinkel and William Robinson—discourses in sociology around race and racism in the 1950’s—cross country drive to California. Interview 3: November 26, 2002 ........................................................................................................................... 48 [Audio File 3] Ida B. Wells Foundation Awards Ceremony—residential segregation in Los Angeles—colleagues and intellectual environment in graduate school at UCLA’s sociology department—postdoctoral fellowship at Uppsala in Sweden—perspectives on Swedish politics and society—a funny conversation with Gunnar Myrdal—research on cities and higher education—more reflections on Swedish society compared to American society—the study of deviance and The Legislation of Morality—“the drug circuit,” interrogating how deviance and substance abuse was constructed at national policy levels—research at the Norco Corona Rehabilitation Facility—life as a public intellectual in the Civil Rights and Black Power eras. Interview 4: November 27, 2002 ........................................................................................................................... 83 [Audio File 4] Coming to UC Riverside as a junior faculty member—teaching and learning to teach—meeting and becoming friends with Russ Ellis and Thelton Henderson—climate and dynamics of UC Berkeley Department of Sociology in the late sixties—his role in faculty/student/administration tensions—becoming tenured at Berkeley—sponsoring course 139X featuring Eldridge Cleaver. [Audio File 5] Tensions and paradoxes inherent in occupying the position of “black intellectual”—the viability of “mainstreaming” black studies throughout disciplines—black faculty on campus in the late sixties—marriage—feminism and Third World movements hitting the academy and “politicizing the curriculum,” the reactions of his colleagues. v Interview 5: February 14, 2003........................................................................................................................... 113 [Audio File 6] Trends in the discipline of sociology and in Berkeley’s sociology department in the 1970s— dynamics within the sociology department, political stances and factions—theoretical trends in the department and in the field generally, phenomenology, symbolic interaction, quantitative analyses—political splits in the department according to the “internal logic” of the university and the department—serving as chair and hiring faculty for the department, women, minorities— Harry Edwards tenure case—Berkeley’s sociology department and graduate students—discussion of the nature of race and gender discrimination in hiring and tenure cases. Interview 6: February 24, 2003........................................................................................................................... 129 [Audio File 7] Marxist, race-based, and feminist insurgencies in the student body, implications for sociology faculty, the discipline, the canon, the academy—the importance of becoming theoretically grounded enough to mount an insurgent position successfully in the academy—locating himself in the politics of the sociology department—serving as chair of the department. [Audio File 8] Reflections on the function of performance reviews, promotions and tenure review in the academy—the birth of the Institute for the Study of Social Change. Interview 7: March 14, 2003 ............................................................................................................................... 146 [Audio File 9] Institute for the Study of Social Change, institution building across disciplines on campus, developing a focus on methodology—entering the national debate around genetic determinism— developing a cadre of graduate students of color—weathering funding trends—teaching methodology—general commentary on institution building—funds for research versus funds for infrastructure—ethnographic research, going into a community or a corporation—coalition building on campus around research. [Audio File 10] Research and publications in higher education—BART Study, 1974-1977—study of rural community development in Spain with Aaron Cicourel, 1978—reframing research in substance abuse. Interview 8: March 19, 2003 ............................................................................................................................... 168 [Audio File 11] Changing terrain in Department of Sociology—attempting to hire European sociologists, Jürgen Habermas and Pierre Bourdieu—grad student involvement in faculty personnel issues—feminism vi and being an ally—occupying a place of authority in the academy, embracing or transforming the culture and tenets of the academy—working with graduate students—Institute for the Study of Social Change—the limitations of phenomenology, fluidity and contingence with regards to phenomenology and structuralism, and then with regard to race and DNA. [Audio File 12] Scholarship in 1980’s around how the transformation of the U.S. economy from factory system to tertiary sector, post-industrial service sector influenced the situation of black male youth— Whitewashing Race—ethnography. Interview 9: April 30, 2003.................................................................................................................................. 188 [Audio File 13] How researchers are interpreted by their subjects when doing field research—context for Third World Strike—his role as mediator and translator—Third World Liberation Front coalition. [Audio File 14] George Napper, Blacker Than Thou—Black Studies Department—strike at UC Berkeley in relation to San Franscisco State strike—advice to entering faculty in the early seventies. Interview 10: May 29, 2003 ................................................................................................................................. 206 [Audio File 15] Briefing on congressional briefings, context for the briefings, dimensions of the debate around race and genetics—California Racial Privacy Initiative—participants and conveners of the panel—ethnographic survey of scientific establishment—learning about biology and genetics. Interview 11: June 4, 2003 .................................................................................................................................. 220 [Audio File