The
book argues that the apparently straightforward concept of race is
actually a confused mixture of two different concepts; and the confusion
often leads to miscommunication. The first concept, biological race,
simply doesn’t exist in the human species. All that exists is gradual
variation in what people look like, and in their genes, as you travel
around the planet--with more distant populations appearing more
different than closer ones. If you travel in different directions, the
populations look different in different ways. The second concept, social
race, is a set of cultural categories for labeling people based on how
their ancestors were classified, selected aspects of what they look
like, or various combinations of both. These sets of categories vary
widely from one culture to another, as I documented in my research
comparing the race concept in eight different cultures.
Jefferson M. Fish, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at
St. John's University, New York City, where he served as department
chair and also as director of the PhD Program in clinical psychology. He
is the author or editor of twelve books dealing with race, culture,
therapy, and drug policy.
A Chance to Win: Boyhood, Baseball, and the
Struggle for Redemption in the Inner City
When Rodney
Mason, an ex-con drug dealer from Newark’s rough South Ward, was shot and
paralyzed, he vowed to turn his life around. A former high-school pitching ace,
Mason decided to form a Little League team to help boys avoid the street life
that had claimed his youth and mobility. Through fists and tears, lopsided
losses and rare victories, this bunch of misfits becomes a team, and in doing
so gives the community something to root for. With in-depth reporting,
fascinating characters, and vivid prose, Jonathan Schuppe’s book, which
received the J. Anthony Lukas
Work-in-Progress Award, is both a penetrating, true-to-life
portrait of what’s at stake for kids growing up poor in America’s inner cities
and a portrait of Newark itself, a struggling city that has recently known
great hope as well as failure.
Jonathan
Schuppe is
a reporter specializing in criminal justice and urban issues. He currently
serves as senior correspondent for NBC Universal’s local news websites. In his
previous work for the NJ Star Ledger,
he formed part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team covering the McGreevey resignation.
Jonathan lives with his wife and daughter in New Jersey.
