Discusses methodology to examine the problem of spatial mismatch of jobs, showing how the simple accessibility measures used by Daniel Immergluck (1998) are poor reflections of the availability of jobs to an individual and explaining why a gravity model is a favorable alternative. Also discusses the unsuitability of aggregate data for testing the…

Discusses the methodology used to analyze the availability of jobs for residents of a particular neighborhood, examining the spatial mismatch hypothesis in the context of jobs available to young minority males in cities. Considers the use of gravity models and the importance of large-scale data sets. (SLD)

"Creating the Dropout" traces the history of school leaving and the concept of the dropout. The dropout was invented, not discovered, only being explicitly recognized after 1960. Inventing the dropout became a way to channel general concerns about the condition of cities, identifying dropouts as authors of their own troubles. (SLD)

"Do the Right Thing" leaves the viewer with contradictory and confused messages that suggest that the film has no clear view of racial relations in a city. The film is examined as an ideological statement. It deconstructs contemporary African-American ideologies but does not replace them with new visions. (SLD)

Mike Davis's book presents a history and current sociology of Los Angeles from a socialist perspective, arguing that inequalities in the distribution of power and wealth underlie the area's serious, growing problems: ethnic fear and discrimination, social disinvestment and withdrawal by the "haves," and an epidemic of youth violence. (SV)

Reviews "Understanding Black Adolescent Male Violence" (Amos N. Wilson, 1991). Violence among young African-American males is explored, with a comprehensive analysis of causes of violence in the inner-city and suggested remediation and preventive methods for solving the violence problem. Theories of male development and the role of an…

Examines research on racial bias, focusing on the discretionary decision-making junctures of the juvenile court system. Research and statistics continue to suggest that the public, the police, the prosecution, and the jury all treat blacks more unfairly based to a large extent on race. (SLD)

Reviews "The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy," by William Julius Wilson. Criticizes Wilson's analysis of the rising number of out-of-wedlock births and female-headed households among Blacks. (FMW)

This document reviews the following books on urban and minority education: (1) "Communicating Racism: Ethnic Prejudice in Thought and Talk" (Teun A. van Dijk), which discusses the ways that prejudice and negative stereotypes are conveyed in discourse and then socially reproduced in everyday thought, talk, and action; (2) "American Business and the…