By Diane Harriford, Becky Thompson
During this energetic and provocative ebook, feminist public sociologists flip to classical social thinkers--W. E. B. Du Bois, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Émile Durkheim--to comprehend a chain of twenty-first century social traumas, together with the bloodbath at Columbine highschool, the Sep 11 assaults, the torture at Abu Ghraib felony, and storm Katrina. each one occasion used to be overwhelming in its personal correct, whereas the relentless speed at which they happened made it approximately very unlikely to take in and interpret them in any however the such a lot superficial methods. but, each one exposed social difficulties that cry out for our knowing and remediation. In while the guts Is on fireplace, Becky Thompson and Diane Harriford assert that classical social theorists grappled with the human situation in ways in which stay profoundly appropriate. They convey, for instance, that the lack of ''double consciousness'' that Du Bois pointed out in African american citizens enabled political elites to show a blind eye to the poverty and vulnerability of a lot of New Orleans's electorate. The authors' compelling, occasionally irreverent, usually searing interpretations make this booklet crucial interpreting for college kids, activists, generations X, Y, and Z, and everyone bored through the 6 o'clock information.
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Additional info for When the Center Is on Fire: Passionate Social Theory for Our Times
Example text
It meant dreaming of editing an encyclopedia of black life across the diaspora and never being granted funding in the United States to bring this vital project to fruition. These two warring ideals manifested themselves in a personality that made it hard for him to work with others over extended periods and a deep frustration with compromises that he believed ultimately demeaned black people. The burden of double consciousness includes the need to build moats around oneself—to create defenses—in order not to internalize the barrage against one’s sensibilities.
B. 8 To what extent is double consciousness, first articulated in 1903, relevant in helping us understand black conservative leadership now? Might Du Bois show us how the individualism espoused by black conservatives of the post–civil rights era maintains white supremacy? While the Bush administration and others tried to cover up the racism and classism at the foundation of the response to Katrina, the victims of the hurricane spoke in multiple ways about the injustice aimed at entire groups and about survival based on group recognition.
38 As Du Bois was recreating himself, he was using history and his interactions with people globally as sources of inspiration. 39 Ultimately, Du Bois was able to live and work amid many obstacles because of his expansive mind and his commitment to black people. ”41 The book opens with a rhetorical question: How does it feel to be a problem? This question situates the rest of the book that seeks to move away from the portrayal of blacks as problems to recognizing them as human beings with their own genius and contributions.
