No abstract

Significance This study uses large-scale news media and social media data to show that nationwide Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests occur concurrently with sharp increases in public attention to components of the BLM agenda. We also show that attention to BLM and related concepts is not limited to these brief periods of protest but is sustained after protest has ceased. This suggests that protest events incited a change in public awareness of BLM’s vision of social change and the dissemination of antiracist ideas into popular discourse.

Sociologists have written surprisingly little about the role of social interactions in facilitating the success of racial diversity initiatives in contemporary organizations. The push for racial inclusion across multiple institutions illustrates that racial diversity is a widespread cultural mythology. However, social interactions are living component of cultural ideals, and successful interracial interactions are necessary to pull off diversity. In this article, I use ethnographic data gathered from parishioners of an interracial religious organization to look beyond “happy talk” and toward the tangible effort that is required to accomplish racial diversity on the ground. Specifically, I advance the concept of the diversity demeanor: racialized interaction rituals that smooth social interactions in interracial settings. Using the contributions of symbolic interactionism to examine race as a social relationship mediated through formal organizations offers a number of advantages. It reveals how the burden of making diversity happen falls on the shoulders of racial minorities who must “save” interactions and develop White actors’ understandings when they “mess up.” By developing the concept of the diversity demeanor, I bring attention to how macrolevel systems of stratification manifest within microlevel practices in the meso space of a religious organization.

This article reviews scholarship on college campus activism in the U.S. We use ideology as a lens with which to examine and discuss college protest. Specifically, we distinguish between right‐wing and left‐wing college campus movements and examine recent developments. We begin with a discussion of basic concepts from social movement theory and provide an overview of the theoretical differences between right‐ and left‐wing movements. Then, we provide a historical overview of college protest and discuss future directions for sociological inquiry into contemporary campus activism. Our discussion is motivated by recent examples of progressive movements such as the “Mizzou protests” and the campus chapters of Black Lives Matter, and alt‐right groups such as Identity Evropa.

No abstract