Psychology 12: Introduction to African American Psychology
S/R Paper for April 26, 2007
By
Halford H. Fairchild
Fairchild, H.H.
(1989, December 19). A whole
community faces a lifetime of neglect.
Stimulus: This is an op-ed piece that critiques 3-strikes laws (25 years to life for third felony convictions).
Responses: It is crucial that we accurately identify the causes to problems if we wish to solve them.
Misguided solutions exacerbate the problems by diverting attention from the true causes.
Every solution implies a theory as to the causes. If 25 years to life is the solution, then what is the cause? (The pathological individual.)
The article places proper attention on military spending as a contributing factor to the despair and decay in inner cities.
Emphasis should be on equal achievement; not just “equal opportunity.”
Incarceration contributes to urban problems.
Fairchild, H.H.
(1993). The
fires this time: Lessons from
Stimulus: This article assesses the causes – and potential solutions – to the urban conflagration of 1992 (following the “not guilty” verdicts in the Rodney King beating). It debunks the myths that proliferated (thugs, hoodlums and arsonists), slow police response, revolution). It identifies alternative causal factors (a society in distress, ideological underpinnings – freedom and democracy hypocrisies and racism)
Responses: I liked the highlighting of the myth of Babe Ruth and the Hearst family.
Peggy McIntosh wrote the classic piece, “Unpacking the invisible knapsack” of white privilege. What are they? What are the male privileges?
What are our racial scripts?
Note the author’s recurrent emphasis on solutions.