Racial Codes Research Articles

Real Imaginary Lines in "The Secret Integration"

In "The Secret Integration" (1964), some middleclass white boys find themselves one night in the hotel room of a black man, the first they have ever met. Carl McAfee is a homeless jazz musician, alcoholic and broke – an exemplary figure of Beat mythology. The stories he tells them about his life and loves, his travels and adventures, his anguish and fear reveal to these kids from secure homes the outer limits of a world whose existence they had never suspected. "Tim's foot felt the edge of a certain abyss which he had been walking close to–for who knew how long? – without knowing. He looked over it, got afraid, and shied away" (SL 183). In his relation to these white boys, McAfee evokes a literary legacy traceable back to Huck's Jim and further. Exploration along the edges of America's racial boundaries has long been accepted as a part of white male coming of age; indeed, its ritualized function was clear to Leslie Fiedler, who observed that, "Born theoretically white, we are permitted to pass our childhood as imaginary Indians, our adolescence as imaginary Negroes, and only then are expected to settle down to being what we are told we really are: white once more" (134). Pynchon's story does more, however, than simply rehearse this quintessential American white male imagery as part of a coming-of-age tale. "The Secret Integration" calls attention to the racial taxonomy that makes this trope possible, examines the enculturation process by which this racial coding is inscribed as part of growing up white, and situates it at a historical moment when its conditions of possibility are being challenged.

Intellectual Freedom Lectures and the Dilemma of Offense-Free Teaching

Teaching intellectual freedom concepts to library and information science students has become increasingly problematic due to faculty, university administration, and student confusion about what constitutes sexual harassment and racial discrimination, and what the boundaries of academic freedom may be. Discussion of intellectual freedom issues often centers on issues such as homosexuality and racial hatred which may cause student discomfort and embarrassment. Disagreement about the parameters of university racial and sexual harassment codes and ambiguity of language within these codes can lead to students misinterpreting intellectual uneasiness as harassment. An examination of codes from universities with ALA-accredited library and information science programs reveals the weaknesses in these codes and the lack of protection afforded to those teaching controversial topics.

The Fact(s) of Michael Jordan’s Blackness: Excavating a Floating Racial Signifier

This genealogical examination of Michael Jordan’s popular signification reveals a complex narrative that incorporates many of the historically grounded racial codes that continue to structure the racial formation of the United States. Borrowing judiciously from cultural studies, poststructuralist, and postmodern theorizing, this paper critically analyzes the imaged persona of Michael Jordan as an important site of mediated popular culture, at which specific racial ideologies are publicized and authorized in support of the reactionary agenda of the post-Reaganite American imaginary. As such, this paper attempts to develop a critical media literacy that encourages readers to interrogate their engagement with the racially oppressive discursive tracts circulated by the popular media.

Correctness of Racial Coding of American Indians and Alaska Natives on the Washington State Death Certificate

Underestimation of death rates for specific races can obscure health problems and impair the ability of public programs to prevent premature death and disability. For accurate race-specific death rates, the racial classification of both the population at risk and the decreased population must be accurately ascertained. However, studies suggest that the American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) races may be not be accurately recorded on the death certificate. We performed a computerized linkage between the Indian Health Service (IHS) patient registry and the 1985-1990 computerized Washington State death certificate data. The deceased was correctly identified as AI or AN on the death certificate for 1,088 (87.2%) of 1,248 matched deaths. The majority (93%) of deceased persons identified on the death certificate as not AI or AN were listed as white. The percentage of American Indian ancestry was strongly associated with correct racial classification on the death certificate (P < .001). Birth in Washington State, membership in a large Washington State tribe, and death from an alcohol condition independently added to the likelihood of correct AI or AN racial classification. Persons who died from cancer were significantly less likely to be correctly coded as AI or AN on the death certificate.

The effect of racial misclassification on estimates of end-stage renal disease among American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Pacific Northwest, 1988 through 1990.

Although several recent studies have documented a high incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) among American Indians (AI) and Alaska Natives (AN), racial misclassification of AI/AN as members of other races on disease registries has not been accounted for. We conducted a study to link the Northwest Renal Network (NRN) ESRD database, which includes persons known to have begun dialysis in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and the Indian Health Service (IHS) patient registration file, which includes AI/AN enrolled for health care provided or paid for by IHS in the same states, for the period January 1, 1988 to December 31, 1990. Among the 3,356 persons included on the NRN ESRD database, 68 (2.0%) were coded as AI/AN. Of the 68 listed as AI/AN, 54 (79.4%) were identified on the IHS patient registration file. In addition to the 68 cases coded on the NRN as AI/AN, we identified 12 cases that were definitively matched to the IHS patient registration file but not coded AI/AN on the NRN. The age-adjusted annual incidence of ESRD treatment initiation among AI/AN in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington was 267.5 per million according to original racial coding on the NRN, but it increased to 311.6 per million after correction for racial misclassification. Among IHS-registered AI/AN, the annual incidence increased from 394.1 per million to 474.3 per million. Racial misclassification of AI/AN in ESRD registries may result in underestimates of AI/AN ESRD incidence for the United States.