American response to New Orleans was viewed through an exceedingly narrow lens. White America was shocked. Black responses were embedded within an understanding of what social theorists call structural racism.
A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because the division in the military reflects the division in high schools. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook.
People say they are surprised to see the U.S. looking so "Third World." [Their] surprise is often deep and very genuine. This is...troubling. The research exists...Is there little or no audience?
MySpace users often from immigrant, Latino and Hispanic families, the teens not part of the "dominant high school popularity paradigm...ostracised...as geeks, freaks, or queers." Facebook users "are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom"...
As David K. Shipler makes clear in this study, the invisible poor are engaged in the activity most respected in American ideology - hard, honest work. But their version of the American Dream is a nightmare: low paying, dead-end jobs; the profound failure