For those of you who’ve wondered why I haven’t posted anything about the class action sex discrimination suit against Wal-Mart, I think it’s some combination of d
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Michael Buroway, the current president of the American Sociological Association, has an agenda of “public sociology,” which can uncharitably be described as an attempt to convert the ASA from a professional society to a political party. In his essay/manifesto on the subject in the current issue of Social Forces, he refers to the Sears case in footnote 3, and gets it totally wrong, assuming that disparate outcomes can only indicate an employer decision to deny not only fairness, but even “access.” “Ranged against [Kessler-Harris’] argument of equal treatment for men and women was the expert testimony of Rosalind Rosenberg who argued that women are different from men and, therefore, should not be automatically allowed access to men’s jobs.” The mischaracterization of Rosenberg’s position in this sentence is indicative of the great structural flaw of sociology — that implicit imperative to bend the truth to meet the interests of whoever one is championing.
correction: in the last sentence i meant to say flaw of public sociology, not sociology as a whole.
The upper-middle class shops at Costco, and looks down at Wal-Mart like Nascar and Country music.