Putting Structuralism Back Into Structural Inequality Anders Walker Saint Louis University School of Law
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Perceptual Variation and Structuralism
NOUSˆ 54:2 (2020) 290–326 doi: 10.1111/nous.12245 Perceptual Variation and Structuralism JOHN MORRISON Barnard College, Columbia University Abstract I use an old challenge to motivate a new view. The old challenge is due to variation in our perceptions of secondary qualities. The challenge is to say whose percep- tions are accurate. The new view is about how we manage to perceive secondary qualities, and thus manage to perceive them accurately or inaccurately. I call it perceptual structuralism. I first introduce the challenge and point out drawbacks with traditional responses. I spend the rest of the paper motivating and defending a structuralist response. While I focus on color, both the challenge and the view generalize to the other secondary qualities. 1. Perceptual Variation Our perceptual experiences tell us that lemons are yellow and sour. It’s natural to infer that lemons really are yellow and sour. But perceptions vary, even among ordinary observers. Some perceive lemons as slightly greener and sweeter. This gives rise to a challenge that forces us to rethink the nature of perception and the objectivity of what we perceive. For concreteness, I’ll focus on the perceptions of two ordinary observers, Miriam and Aaron. I’ll also focus on their perceptions of a particular lemon’s color. These restrictions will make the challenge easier to understand and the responses easier to compare. But the challenge and responses are perfectly general. Toward the end of the paper I’ll return to sourness and the other secondary qualities. When Miriam and Aaron look at the same lemon, their perceptions differ. -
The Meanings of Structuralism : Considerations on Structures and Gestalten, with Particular Attention to the Masks of Levi-Strauss
The meanings of structuralism : considerations on structures and Gestalten, with particular attention to the masks of Levi-Strauss Sonesson, Göran Published in: Segni e comprensione 2012 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Sonesson, G. (2012). The meanings of structuralism : considerations on structures and Gestalten, with particular attention to the masks of Levi-Strauss. Segni e comprensione, XXVI(78), 84-101. Total number of authors: 1 General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 International RIVISTA TELEMATICA QUADRIMESTRALE - ANNO XXVI NUOVA SERIE - N. 78 – SETTEMBRE-DICEMBRE 2012 1 This Review is submitted to international peer review Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Segni e comprensione International Pubblicazione promossa nel 1987 dal Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze sociali dell’Università degli Studi di Lecce, oggi Università del Salento, con la collaborazione del “Centro Italiano di Ricerche fenomenologiche” con sede in Roma, diretto da Angela Ales Bello. -
Michelle Alexander Revisioning Justice
Michelle Alexander: “The New Jim Crow.” April 18, 2015. Re-Visioning Justice. - open hearts and minds to think about what we can do to help end the system of mass incarceration - caste system - radical title; how can you say that after electing our first black president? o Wanted to challenge people o Imagine people to understand that we are not yet beyond our system of creating massive social and prison control o 300,000 to over 2 million inmates o most punitive nation in the world o unprecedented in world history o not simply a function of crime rates o crime is not the control; reality is much more disturbing and complex o even in age of “color-blindness,” we have managed to re-create a caste system o if you are born into a p0or community of color, you are born into a system that is under control ▪ your parents most likely have a criminal record ▪ legal discrimination for rest of lives: employment, housing, education, public benefits ▪ targeted by police • no matter what you’re doing • eventually, you will be caught for something • because you’re human, and you make mistakes – like all young people do • once arrested, swept into system from which real escape is only a dim hope • denied meaningful legal representation • threatened with harsh, mandatory, minimum sentences o yes, I’ll just take the plea. o Saddled with record where you are denied basic civil and human rights o Check felony box ▪ Housing ▪ Financial aid ▪ employment o you are trapped; not for a little while; for life - most people return to prison in matter of months/years -
Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow
RACIAL CRITIQUES OF MASS INCARCERATION: BEYOND THE NEW JIM CROW JAMES FORMAN, JR.* In the last decade, a number of scholars have called the American criminal justice system a new form of Jim Crow. These writers have effectively drawn attention to the injustices created by a facially race-neutral system that severely ostracizes offenders and stigmatizes young, poor black men as criminals. I argue that despite these important contributions, the Jim Crow analogy leads to a distorted view of mass incarceration. The analogy presents an incomplete account of mass incarceration’s historical origins, fails to consider black attitudes toward crime and punishment, ignores violent crimes while focusing almost exclusively on drug crimes, obscures class distinctions within the African American community, and overlooks the effects of mass incarceration on other racial groups. Finally, the Jim Crow analogy diminishes our collective memory of the Old Jim Crow’s particular harms. INTRODUCTION In the five decades since African Americans won their civil rights, hundreds of thousands have lost their liberty. Blacks now make up a larger portion of the prison population than they did at the time of Brown v. Board of Education, and their lifetime risk of incarceration has doubled. As the United States has become the world’s largest jailerand its prison population has exploded, black men have been particularly affected. Today, black men are imprisoned at 6.5 times the rate of white men. While scholars have long analyzed the connection between race and America’s criminal justice system, an emerging group of scholars and advocates has highlighted the issue with a provocative claim: They argue that our growing penal system, with its black tinge, constitutes nothing less than a new form of Jim Crow. -
Structuralism 1. the Nature of Meaning Or Understanding
Structuralism 1. The nature of meaning or understanding. A. The role of structure as the system of relationships Something can only be understood (i.e., a meaning can be constructed) within a certain system of relationships (or structure). For example, a word which is a linguistic sign (something that stands for something else) can only be understood within a certain conventional system of signs, which is language, and not by itself (cf. the word / sound and “shark” in English and Arabic). A particular relationship within a شرق combination society (e.g., between a male offspring and his maternal uncle) can only be understood in the context of the whole system of kinship (e.g., matrilineal or patrilineal). Structuralism holds that, according to the human way of understanding things, particular elements have no absolute meaning or value: their meaning or value is relative to other elements. Everything makes sense only in relation to something else. An element cannot be perceived by itself. In order to understand a particular element we need to study the whole system of relationships or structure (this approach is also exactly the same as Malinowski’s: one cannot understand particular elements of culture out of the context of that culture). A particular element can only be studied as part of a greater structure. In fact, the only thing that can be studied is not particular elements or objects but relationships within a system. Our human world, so to speak, is made up of relationships, which make up permanent structures of the human mind. B. The role of oppositions / pairs of binary oppositions Structuralism holds that understanding can only happen if clearly defined or “significant” (= essential) differences are present which are called oppositions (or binary oppositions since they come in pairs). -
Michelle Alexander's Operational Whitewash the New Jim Crow Reviewed
Radicalcritique.org Int’J of Radical Critique 1:1 (2012) Black Out: Michelle Alexander's Operational Whitewash The New Jim Crow Reviewed Osel, Joseph, D. Alumnus, Seattle University, Graduate Dept. of Psychology The Evergreen State College, Dept. of Society, Politics, Behavior & Change ______________________________________________________________________________ The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander, The New Press, 1st edition: January 5, 2010; Paperback 2012; IBSN-10: 1595581030; ISBN-13: 978-1595581037 Michelle Alexander's new book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is strange and omnipresent, coming to us under the often co-opted banner of the noble cause. I first stumbled onto Alexander's book by accident, finding a mention of it somewhere and following up to satisfy my own curiosity. After my initial discovery I found the likable, knowledgeable and well-meaning Alexander speaking about her book on various radio and television programs, finding most of her stand-alone statements accurate, important and worthy of discussion. Upon finishing her book I recently attended a rally in Seattle in support of the family of Trayvon Martin where references to "The New Jim Crow" were abundant, the signs and chants of the "No New Jim Crow Coalition" ringing throughout the event -- the strangely backward chant of "no peace, no justice" adopted quickly by the crowd. When visiting the home of a white hippy friend who lives in the city's gentrifying Central District a pristine copy of Alexander's book sat proudly on her living-room bookshelf. During a chance encounter with a local civil rights attorney, upon exposing myself as a sociologist, Alexander's book was recommended right on cue, "The New Jim Crow is our new Bible!" the young lawyer told me. -
Michelle Alexander Found Within Our Legal System
UNIVERSITY LECTURE SERIES FACULTY SHEET Save the Date: In this moderated question and September 26, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. answer discussion, Alexander will lead conversations on the state of race Lecture: relations in America and injustices An Evening with Michelle Alexander found within our legal system. MICHELLE ALEXANDER Civil rights lawyer, advocate and author of "The New Jim Crow" Legal Scholar Social Justice Advocate “ She is a powerful writer, a fierce advocate RACE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE for a more just world and a deep believer Alexander’s work focuses on the ways in which in open-minded, searching debate over the War on Drugs and other governmental policies have created a New Jim Crow era. As how to achieve it.” Alexander articulates in this lecture at the Union — James Bennet, New York Times editorial page editor Theological Seminary, mass incarceration rates disproportionately affect communities of color and harm these communities with long-lasting impact Michelle Alexander is a legal scholar, social justice advocate, by being branded a felon or criminal. Alexander New York Times columnist and visiting professor at Union also discusses how her view of the issue of mass Theological Seminary. Her work explores the myths surrounding incarceration changed while at the ACLU in this our criminal justice system from a racial and ethical standpoint, TEDxColumbus lecture. and offers solutions to problems stemming from these concerns. Alexander further explores the problems with “e-incarceration” in a November 2018 New York Her New York Times and Washington Post best-selling book, The Times opinion column as an extension of racial New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, was discrimination. -
Teaching Tolerance a Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center Tolerance.Org
TEACHING TOLERANCE A PROJECT OF THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER TOLERANCE.ORG WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT Teaching The New Jim Crow with Michelle Alexander JUNE CHRISTIAN Good evening and welcome to tonight’s webinar, Teaching The New Jim Crow with Mi- chelle Alexander. We’re excited to preview our new teaching guide, Teaching The New Jim Crow, with the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblind- ness, Michelle Alexander. I’d like to welcome Michelle to the webinar. MICHELLE ALEXANDER Thank you so much, June. Go ahead. JUNE CHRISTIAN Okay, before I go into the full introduction of Michelle for those of you who may not be fa- miliar with our esteemed guest this evening, please allow me to share a bit about Teaching Tolerance. We’re a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in 1991 to curtail the recruitment of youth into extremist hate groups. TT’s mission is to reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relationships and to help create equitable school environments. If you have not already yet signed up for our weekly newsletter, please do so at tolerance.org. We have a number of quality anti-bias resources for teachers, counselors and school adminis- trators, including lessons, a variety of publications and film kits. These resources are free of charge and can be downloaded at tolerance.org. We also encourage all K-12 teachers to sign up for our Teaching Tolerance magazine. We publish two print magazines in the fall and spring and an iPad edition in the summer. Please sign up at tolerance.org. -
Combating Habitual Hegemony: Prison Abolitionism
1 Combating Habitual Hegemony: Prison Abolitionism These uses of criminal law administration as a central means of resisting the abolition of slavery, Reconstruction, and desegregation, continue to inform criminal processes and institutions to this day by enabling forms of brutality and disregard that would be unimaginable had they originated in other, more democratic, egalitarian, and racially integrated contexts. (McLeod 2015: 1193) These continued legacies of brutality and disregard not only inform but are integral to our prison system today. In an effort to both move away from relying on respectability politics in the civil rights movement and to challenge these habitual social scripts, leading civil rights activists have proposed prison abolitionism. Prison abolitionism is not born from political naiveté or utopia. In fact, through campaigns of decarceration, decriminalization and excarceration, prison abolitionism is a necessary step in combating the reinvention and even continuance of previous systems of racial brutality, disregard, control, hegemony and oppression. In what follows I will be using “we” and “our” to recognize and acknowledge not only my participation and role in the maintenance of the current status quo but also in hopes that my audience will similarly acknowledge their active part in this maintenance. The words, “we” and “our,” are historically and contemporarily used in ways that erase and make invisible the distinct realities of certain peoples and groups. In an effort to address this legacy, I want to acknowledge their purpose and use in my work. I must also acknowledge that there are many who are working to voice and demonstrate resistance and dissent in an effort to alter these current schemes. -
CTS Selma Conference Partner Chicago Sunday Evening Club Hosts Keynote Speaker Michelle Alexander in Provocative Conversation on “Things Not Seen” Program
Contact: Susan Cusick, Director of Communications Phone: 773.896.2435 Email: [email protected] CTS Selma Conference Partner Chicago Sunday Evening Club Hosts Keynote Speaker Michelle Alexander in Provocative Conversation on “Things Not Seen” Program CHICAGO, April 20, 2015 – Award winning author Michelle Alexander was featured on the Chicago Sunday Evening Club (CSEC) radio program “Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith,” in anticipation of her plenary address at “Selma at 50: Still Marching,” Chicago Theological Seminary’s spring 2015 Conference. CSEC President and CEO David Dault interviewed Ms. Alexander for the program. “Michelle Alexander is a wonderful guest, and we covered a lot of ground in the conversation, including theological angles that she doesn’t normally get into,” Dault said. Their conversation explored Alexander’s argument, put forth in her 2010 book The New Jim Crow, that mass incarceration in America has been used as a tool to create a permanent, disenfranchised underclass, consisting primarily of persons of color. Listen to the complete interview at the Things Not Seen website (http://www.thingsnotseenradio.com). Alexander, a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar, will address conference participants on Saturday, April 25 in a town hall style discussion. Onsite audience members and participants following CTS social media channels can interact with Alexander on topics exploring the intersection of racial justice, civil rights, and faith. Participants may offer questions and commentary via social media by following the hashtag #CTSSelma and “liking” CTS’s Facebook page (https:// www.facebook.com/CTSChicago?fref=ts). “Selma at 50: Still Marching” is a two-day conference taking place on the CTS campus Friday, April 24th and Saturday, April 25th that will encourage attendees to examine the systemic causes of social issues, including the prison industrial complex and militarize policing, violence, racism, income inequality, and poverty to create actionable strategies leading to change. -
What Is Structuralism?
What Is Structuralism? M. S. Lourenço LanCog, Universidade de Lisboa Disputatio Vol. 3, No. 27 November 2009 DOI: 10.2478/disp-2009-0012 ISSN: 0873-626X © 2009 Lourenço. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License What is structuralism?* M. S. Lourenço University of Lisbon I. Introduction Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start by saying how I interpret this meeting, because that does determine what I am going to say next. I think about this meeting as a kind of technology fair, where products are for the first time shown and tested. The purpose of this meeting, as I see it, is to bring together professional philoso- phers doing analytic philosophy and ask them to show their products, so that hopefully we end up not only with a map of who is doing what but also with an increased pride in having given an old profession a distinctly new profile. I would like to say why I think this is important and for that purpose I will revert to my technology metaphor. The practice of analytic philosophy requires such an intensive training and such a peculiar skill that each philosopher becomes by its practice a specialist, in Taylor’s sense of the word. This is a reversal of a long-standing tradition of the philosopher as a generalist and, as we all know, anybody who wants to do analytic philosophy has to give up any claims to being a generalist. However, this is not to be seen as unfortunate in any way, because it is simply a by-product, on one hand, of the size of the literature in each of the traditional philosophical domains and, on the other, of the modern diversity of methods used in each of them. -
A Bookish Affair's Anti-Racism Resource List
A BOOKISH AFFAIR’S ANTIRACIST RESOURCE LIST A Bookish Affair, Lake Oswego Public Library’s romance book club, meets monthly to discuss the diverse, inclusive world of romance novels. This list was compiled by Shannon ([email protected]) and Shandy ([email protected]). The More You Know Statement by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice Anti-racism resources Things you can do to support the Black community and anti-racist efforts (Portland Mercury) Figure Out How To Help, Portland (Portland Monthly) If You’re Saying To Yourself, “Black Lives Matter, But What Can I Do?” Here’s the Answer (Shondaland) Oregon Historical Society Blog Antiracism and Social Justice in Romance 15 Must-Read Black-Authored Historical Romance Novels of the Last 25 Years (Book Riot) Black Romance Novels Matter Too (Shondaland) 73 Black Romance Novels Published in 2019 That You Should Read in 2020 (The Sistah Girl Next Door) WOC In Romance Inclusive Romance Project POC Queer Romance Authors Rebel Carter: Why I Write Historical Romance -- My Ancestors Deserved Better The Ripped Bodice: State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Decades: A Journey of African American Romance Romances Celebrating Black Love (Bawdy Bookworms) #BlackRomanceMatters (Lit-erally Black) RWA Announces The Vivian -- and Cans the RITAs Queer Romance Novels About Social Justice (Book Riot) Antiracist Books To Read: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That A Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X.