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Revisiting the Black Struggle: Lesson for the 21st Century
Asafa Jalata
Journal of Black Studies (2002) 33, p. 86 (26 pages)

This article examines the successes and failures of African Americans in achieving equality in the United States. Specifically, it looks at why the Black movement was able to legally eliminate direct institutional racism, but why it was unable to eliminate indirect institutional racism.

''Presidents of Color,'' Globalization, and Social Inequality
Felix Germain
Journal of Black Studies 2010 40: 445 (18 pages)

This article highlights the persistence of racism and social inequality, despite global trends of racial and/or ethnic diversity in leadership in many nations that contain populations that are racially and ethnically dissimilar.  A central feature of the contemporary global racial/ethnic landscape investigated by the author is “the transnational discourses of reverse discrimination that result from the election of ‘presidents of color’” (445).  He argues that accomplishing the goals of reducing social inequalities and racism in modern societies, as promised by “presidents of color” such as Barack Obama and other leaders from racially underrepresented groups, involves working counter to the logics of globalization.  His central goal is to examine the presidency of Barak Obama from a global perspective as a phenomena produced by the context of the reproduction of racism and social inequality in the United States.

Muslims in America
Jen'nan Ghazal Read
Contexts 2008 7: 39 (6 pages)

This article documents changes in the public perception of and expression of anti-Muslim sentiment since September of 2001.  The author points to the ungrounded nature of these prejudices and stereotypes, demonstrating that most Americans actually know very little about Islam and have very little interaction, even of a superficial nature, with American Muslims. 

Barack Obama and the Politics of Race:  The Myth of Postracism in America
Martell Teasley and David Ikard
Journal of Black Studies 2010 40: 411 (15 pages)

This article examines the perception that the election of Barack Obama represents the “dawning of a postracial era” in the United States, arguing that despite this historic event, “there seems to be a glaring ideological disconnect between the desire and reality of a race-free society” (411).  Using the framework of “hope” as constituted by the Obama electoral campaign, the authors argue that there are many problems with a total investment in postracial thinking.  “Chief among the questions that the authors ask is how African Americans can productively address the continuing challenges of race-centric oppression under an Obama administration that is itself an embodiment of this postrace thinking” (411).

Poverty, minority economic discrimination, and domestic terrorism
James A Piazza
Journal of Peace Research 2011 48: 339 (16 pages)

This study examines the relationship between poverty and terrorism, arguing that a central explanatory factor of domestic terrorism in minority economic discrimination.  Thus, the author argues, the economic status of politically, socially, and economically marginalized groups is a crucial potential predictor of terrorist activities.