Another unarmed Black man died at the hands of law enforcement on Thursday night. The NYC Police Commissioner was quick in calling the incident an “unfortunate tragedy” at the same time that the mainstream press has included that the officer was a “rookie” in most of their headlines. Akai Gurley, the 28-year old Brooklyn victim and his girlfriend were leaving her apartment via the stairwell when they ran into two officer’s who were in the midst of conducting a vertical patrol and had just entered the stairwell on the floor above.…
Searching for Answers: Retracing a Hmong Heritage
Today’s post comes from Guest Ethnographer Dee Thao. This is a beautiful and honest film Dee directed and edited about her search for information and connection to her Hmong heritage and identity. Her “advisor extraordinaire” (and co-star) on this project was ethnography.com’s Tony Waters.
Dee Thao is a documentarian based out of northern California. Click this link to read her bio and view her most recent work.
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Privilege In Life, Privilege In Death
By: Tony Waters
To provide some broader context about Marc Thompson’s murder…Julie and I talked on the phone last night about two different cases that have been in the newspapers of Butte County, California, recently, where we live. Two years ago, a young man was tragically lost during the annual Labor Day river float–a fun-filled day of drinking and floating by privileged students and their friends from out-of-town, who celebrate the beginning of the school year in Chico. …
Resources, Resources, Resources!
We are updating our links and resources here on ethnography.com. Give this link a click, and check out what’s new. I’ve added some sociology into the mix but we’d love to hear from you, our readers. What kind of resources are you looking for on our website? Please give us your feedback and your links! Many thanks, Julie…
If These Halls Could Talk
In spring 2010 director Lee Mun Wah asked me to co-facilitate a documentary he was shooting that summer titled, If These Halls Could Talk. I remember the day well, it was spring break and I was at home, a tired teacher sitting in the sun outside when the phone rang. I was a fan of Mun Wah’s work, I showed his film The Color of Fear in my sociology classes each semester.…
La Crueldad del Hombre
Is art ethnographic? Art and visual representation cut across the disciplines but is especially suited for sociological and anthropological inquiry. Art tells us a story about our practices and beliefs and we find ourselves in what we and others create. It also reflects us back to ourselves, sometimes we like it but if it’s really good, we feel it and in that brief, aesthetic moment in time we change.
I saw this video by Steve Cutts yesterday, shared by a friend on facebook the day after the mid-term elections in the U.S.…
Researching Around the Surveillance State
Last month in the New York Review of Books, historian Natalie Zemon Davis wrote a short essay about her experience with the FBI in late 1952. Upon returning from France, where she was conducting archive research for her PhD thesis, this happened:
…Not long after my return, two gentlemen from the US State Department arrived at our apartment to pick up my passport and that of my husband. A publication event had brought them to our door.
Is Your Class in the Way?
By: N. Jeanne Burns
A few weeks ago at the YWCA Midtown I sat outside the gate to cool down from my run. I scrolled through Twitter posts about the Dunn trial and read about whites fearing blacks. Then I heard the desk clerk say, “You can only use your driver’s license three times. After the next two times, you won’t be admitted until you get a new YWCA ID.”…
Anthropological Fieldwork by Daiva Repeckaite
Dollhouses of Doom
Happy Halloween from ethnography.com! Nothing says Halloween like this series of photos featuring post-apocalyptic dioramas by photographer Lori Nix. My favorites are the library (of course) and the laundromat at night.…
As Americans Go to the Polls, Here is a Little Wisdom about Voting Cows from Max Weber
As Americans get ready to vote on November 2 for all range of important stuff, it may help to ruminate a bit on Max Weber’s incisive word “Voting Cows,” Stimmvieh. As you go to the polls, please don’t be like me–…
How Working at a Community College is Like Working Retail
Originally published at classism.org in October 2011
Expectations are a pain in the ass. There’s an old saying, “plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.” Yep I did it, planted and am now disappointed. I teach Sociology at a rural community college; I love teaching, but I don’t love that adjunct teachers like me are temporary, at-will employees.
Who knew that the working conditions at a community college would be the same as they were when I was a bookseller, housekeeper, caregiver, fast food worker, and waitress?…