AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Ethnic Los Angeles by Roger Waldinger ISBN: 0-87154-902-6 Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation Publications Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: To Live and Die in L.A.
Comment: This review is a summarization from a previous review written for one of the book editors. The title refers to Tupac Shakur's song of the same name, which make repeated references to different ethnic backgrounds.

Reader be warned, I write this review after being harshly criticized for my comments by one of the book's very editors.
I only hope that free speech will not prevent my opinions from coming forth.

Ethnic Los Angeles does a fairly good job of analyzing the major races within Los Angeles. Statistics speak frankly about the work force, language differences, education and social mobility toward these major racial groups. The explanations for these statistics are logical as well (i.e. For second generationers, Asians have a much lower ability for bilingualism than Hispanics, probably due to the vicinity of Mexico to Los Angeles as opposed to Asia).

However, there are some blatant and not-so-blatant inconsistencies. For example, the section on Asian Americans entitled, "The Model Minority Deconstructed," uses data that almost supports the status of Asians as a model minority. Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos are the major Asian groups, but the term "Other Asians" is the only thing used to describe Southeast Asians and other Islanders such as Cambodians, Malaysians, etc. I think it would have helped "deconstructing" the model minority myth extremely in showing the statistics for these groups, who have little to no education and are mostly part of the working class. Yet, I suppose I cannot possibly expect every section, which are contributions from different authors working together, to follow the logic of the other. This is a not-so blatant inconsistency.

My major problem with this book: how races are lumped together. Here is the blatant inconsistency. Using the Asian American section again, "Asian Indians" are technically Asians, meaning that racial groups are described through geographics (i.e. India is seen as part of Asia, so Indian immigrants are Asians. I don't think the authors meant to imply that "Asian Indians" look anything like Mongoloids.) I would then assume that other groups would follow this logic. But no. Whites, for example, do not just include English, Germans, and Irish (Anglo-Europeans); but Polish and Russians. But how did Anglo-Europe get so big? Isn't part of Russia in Asia? Don't many Russians have Mongolian features? The section on Whites, appropriately entitled "Anglos: Beyond Ethnicity" makes mention of this fact, but still places Russians as well as others within the "White" race. Perhaps then "Whites" are those with light skin, blue eyes, and blonde or brown hair. So then, why not those who look "White" from Argentina? The authors so conveniently changed groupings from geographics to features that I wondered what they would do next.

So do I think this book fares now? All in all, it's still a good read, even with its problems. I would have liked a section explaining how the separation of the "races" have evolved over the years, but this would involve even more explanation, which would probably double the book's length. Perhaps they thought we wouldn't notice.

Similar Books:

	Title: How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor by Roger Waldinger, Michael I. Lichter ISBN: 0520231627 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 06 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95
	Title: The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles by William B. Fulton ISBN: 0801865069 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.95
	Title: Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 by George Sanchez ISBN: 0195096487 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95