How To Read A Sociological Journal Article

How to Read a Sociological Journal Article

Professor Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur

When you start reading a scholarly journal article, you should begin by reading the abstract. Almost all scholarly journal articles have abstracts; these are 100-200 word paragraphs at the beginning of the article that will introduce you to the topic, methods, and findings of the article. When you are doing your own research, the abstract will tell you if the article in question is likely to be useful for your project. When the article is assigned reading, the abstract is still worthwhile—it provides signposts for what you will find inside.

When you have completed reading a sociological journal article, you want to be able to answer a set of key questions about the content and findings of the article.

1)    What is the topic of the article? If you were a librarian or a bookstore owner and you had to place this article on the shelf, how would you categorize it?

2)    What is the research question and/or hypothesis? What does the author want to find out, and what does s/he expect to find? There may well be more than one research question or hypothesis—be sure to locate them all.

3)    What have prior researchers said about these questions? How does the author propose to expand or improve on prior research?

4)    What methodological strategies did the author use? There will often be a section called methods, so look at that. In addition, you should identify where the data came from. As you become more skilled in research methodology, you should take the time to consider whether you think the methodology and data used in the article was good, or whether there might have been better sampling strategies, data sources, measurement strategies, or methodologies for the project at hand.

5)    What were the main findings of the research? What was the answer to each research question, and was each hypothesis confirmed or disconfirmed? Based on these findings, what sorts of arguments and conclusions does the author make?

6)    What suggestions does the author make for future research? If you are looking for a research project, this is always a good place to turn for ideas!

7)    What sorts of limitations or shortcomings do you find in the project? These might be methodological problems, ways in which you disagree with the author’s interpretation of the data and findings, areas in which the study could have been expanded, or any other issues. Sometimes the author will even identify some of these limitations her or himself.

8)    What can you take away from this article? How is it connected to the research you are doing? How is it connected to the learning goals for the course you’ve read it in? Why have you read it? How does it contribute to an ongoing scholarly dialogue about a particular topic or issue. Of course, sometimes articles really are not that useful. However, in most cases you should be able to identify why the article matters and how it can be useful to you. In research methods courses, you should particularly focus on what the article can teach you about how to do research.

9)    If you are reading this article as part of a research project, you should be sure to skim through the bibliography, keeping in mind what you read in the literature review. Are there any references that might be worth getting your hands on?

As you read the article, you should take notes on key elements of importance. I recommend that you avoid highlighting—the tendency when students highlight is to highlight almost everything, because it all seems important (or on the other hand to highlight nothing because the article is boring!). Instead, choose one of the strategies below:

s  Take a separate sheet of paper or open a word processing document and keep your notes in that document. Aim to write about one type-written page or two hand-written pages of notes for your typical 20-30 page journal article—the same goes for textbook chapters! In your notes, write a short summary of the article, any key insights the article suggested, ideas about how this article might be useful for your learning or research, and answers to the reading questions listed above.

s  Invest in some sticky notes, preferably the kind you can write on and preferably in a variety of different colors. Flag key insights with sticky notes and use different colors to indicate different sorts of issues in the article. For instance, you might use yellow notes to mark facts and findings, blue notes to mark places where you were confused or want to know more, white notes to indicate main points and research methods, etc. Because you can write on the notes, you can indicate what drew your attention to this particular section, and you can also indicate which of the reading questions this section answers.

s  If you must highlight: invest in a set of 5-6 different colored highlighters. Then, even if you have the tendency to over-highlight, you can still quickly find the material you are looking for. For instance, you might highlight the topic and research question in yellow, the methodological strategies and data sources in green, the findings in blue, connections to past or future research in purple, useful bibliographic sources in orange, and other things worth noting in pink. If you highlight, don’t forget about taking notes! You can write in the margin of the article to remind yourself why you highlighted something, to ask questions or grapple with the text, or to record insights that occurred to you while reading. In addition, you should write a short summary of the article and how it relates to your learning and/or research goals at the end of the article.

s  If you are a more visual learner, you may want to consider making diagrams to help you organize your thoughts, such as venn diagrams, arrow diagrams of theoretical models, maps and timelines, or tables with different categories.

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Finally, a time-saving tip: be sure to use your first time through to record a complete bibliographic citation to the article. Articles don’t always print out with all the bibliographic material on them, so use this time to find any part of the citation that’s missing. If you take notes on separate paper, include the bibliographic citation on that separate paper so you always have it if you lose track of the original article. If you write down any quotations or paraphrases, be sure to note the page numbers so you can include them in the in-text citations as necessary—this is a key step in avoiding plagiarism!

Assessment 1: The Sociological Perspective

The first part of our class has been learning how sociologists view the world, that is, how to have a sociological perspective.  For our first assessment, you will write an essay that both explains the sociological perspective and applies it to your life.

Since you are all teenagers, I have chosen this reading by Stephanie Coontz for you to analyze.  You should connect the concepts to the reading and then provide your own unique example.


Here is a link to the assignment.

I think it makes sense to write 5 paragraphs:  1 for each concept in the prompt:
structural-functional paradigm
conflict paradigm
symbolic-interactionist paradigm
social construction of reality
sociological imagination

Each paragraph should explain how to examine the Teen-Parent Conflict article using the paradigm/concept. Then, each paragraph should provide an example from your own life.

Don't forget to double space, use a 1 inch margin and standard font.  Spell check and proofread for proper prose.

You should work on this for the e-learning day tomorrow (Wed).  Then on Thursday we will work on it in class and it will be due on friday.  However, if there is another e-learning day on thursday, then we will work on it in class friday and it will be due on monday.

College and Sociological Imagination

Examine the following data sources.  
What does the data reveal?  Thinking with a sociological imagination, how might you be shaped by where you go to college?

Data Source 1: Economic Diversity and College

This NY Times interactive shows how economically diverse a college is:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/

Data Source 2: Where College Grads Move

WSJ data shows where college grads are likely to move after they graduate.

Here is Indiana U and U of I:

 

Try Accessing the data through this link:

Where Graduates Move After College

Try to make your own conclusions about the data:

What does this data say about your life after college?

On a less personal level, what does this data say about the U.S. in general?

If the link above does not work, these might:

Accessible through this facebook link:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/486893378140308/?multi_permalinks=1004035523092755&notif_id=1532189664367938&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

For full access to the WSJ when you're on campus, you need to use the following special link: www.wsj.com/highschool

Once there, the fastest way for you (and your students) to find the article you're looking for is to click the search icon and enter the words  "grads database"

The only result that pops up should be "Where Graduates Move After College" and you should all be able to access it. 

Or the original story here:
https://www.wsj.com/graphics/where-graduates-move-after-college/?mod=e2fb

Data Source 3: Where Tech Firms Hire From:

Wired story shows where the largest tech companies get their grads from:
https://www.wired.com/2014/05/alumni-network-2/

Imagine where...

HW: Be sure that you have read Sociological Mindfulness by Michael Schwalbe.

Applying your sociological imagination to where a person lives

Recall that a sociological imagination is understanding that an individual's experience is shaped by where and when they live.  If you have questions, please consult my post from yesterday and ask a student sitting near you.  Today, I want you to use data to use a sociological imagination to understand how being a student in SHS's district might shape students differently that being a student in North Chicago.  North Chicago is just 10 miles northeast of SHS, but a student's biography might be drastically different if you live there.

Use your sociological imagination to analyze the three data sources below.  Using your sociological imagination, create a hypothesis for each of the three data sources.  Be sure to cite data to support your hypothesis.

1. Compare high school data from Illinois High School Report Card Data here.  Use data from the link to hypothesize how you (and the opportunities presented to you) might be different if you were going to school in North Chicago as opposed to Stevenson.
If you have trouble accessing the website, here is 2018 data for SHS.
Here is 2018 data for North Chicago.

2. Compare the community data from CMAP.  Here are community snapshots for North Chicago and Lincolnshire.  Hypothesize how the data might shape your experience, opportunities, and challenges if you lived in North Chicago as opposed to Lincolnshire.

3. How might this data reveal that some of the private troubles of different students are really public issues:  First, brainstorm with your group, what might be the private troubles of these students?  Then use your soc imagination to think about how living in North Chicago instead of Lincolnshire might be part of the problem.


Another exercise in sociological imagination and college is at this post.  It has some ways of both using data and exploring college and the sociological imagination.

Names, Structural-Functional Perspective and Data

Stanley Lieberson was a respected sociologist from Harvard who studied trends and fashions.  He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity.  His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability.  The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other.  Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data.  If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.

WHATEVER happened to Lisa, Mary, Karen, Susan and Kimberly?

On top in the 1960's, they've been shoved aside by Emily, Madison, Hannah, Ashley and Alexis. Those were the most popular names for American girls born in 2001, according to data released last week by the Social Security Administration.

As for Michael, David, John, James and Robert -- the top five for boys in the 1960's -- only Michael remains. The others have been replaced by Jacob, Matthew, Joshua, and Christopher. (The lists are at www.ssa .gov/OACT/babynames.)

Nobody runs ads to persuade parents to choose Emily or Joshua for their newborns. No magazine editors dictate that Ryan is the new Michael.

But names still shift according to fashion. Once-popular names seem tired and out of date, new ones exciting. Old-fashioned names, like Emily, take on the allure of vintage clothing. Style revivals happen in names, too.

Contrary to what many critics of markets believe (and many fashion industry executives wish), fashion isn't a predictable commercial phenomenon driven by manipulation and advertising. Fashion -- the process by which form seems exhausted and then refreshed, without regard to functional improvements -- exists even in completely noncommercial ''markets.''

In ''A Matter of Taste'' (Yale University Press, 2000), Stanley Lieberson, a Harvard sociologist, analyzes how tastes in names shift. In the process, he sheds light on how fashion works.

Economists usually assume that tastes don't change. To explain shifts in demand, they look for changing relative prices. That approach imposes disciplinary rigor -- ''tastes changed'' could too easily explain just about anything -- but it makes accounting for fashion hard.

Professor Lieberson offers an explanation even an economist can accept. The taste for names or sounds may change, but those changes reflect underlying preferences for novelty, conformity and divergence.

Name choices, like clothing choices, reflect the desire to be different, but not too different. The ideal balance varies, and new fashions begin with innovators who want to stand out. If the innovations have the right aesthetic appeal, they spread to people who aren't as nonconformist.

''There must have been some people starting off with Madison,'' Professor Lieberson said in an interview. ''That type of person is no longer naming their kid Madison.''

Parents who today pick Madison for their daughter's name, he said, ''would not have given the same name, the same sounds, earlier because it was a weird name.''

Indeed, Madison didn't show up on the lists until the 1980's, when it was the decade's 539th most popular name. Three of last year's top 20 girls' names -- Madison (No. 2), Taylor (No. 12), and Brianna (No. 18) -- weren't in the top 1,000 in the 1960's. (Taylor was 865th for boys.)

Like designers who experiment with new ideas, parents have to choose babies' names without knowing exactly what other parents are choosing. The result is a complex, often surprising, dynamic.

Parents frequently find that the name they ''just liked'' is suddenly common, expressing aesthetic preferences. Professor Lieberson became interested in names after he and his wife named their first daughter Rebecca, only to find there were little Beckys everywhere.

Like hemlines, names don't bounce around randomly. Newly popular names tend to build on what has gone before, exploring the aesthetic possibilities of certain styles. ''People are in effect branching off an existing set of tastes,'' Professor Lieberson says.

Beginning in the late 1960's, for instance, names beginning with La became popular for African-American girls. The first to hit the top 50, Latonya, was a play on the existing name Tonya. Latanya and Latasha similarly built on older names. ''But then the La's developed a life of their own,'' Professor Lieberson notes, leading to brand-new names like Latoya and Latrice.

Although some ethnic names remain distinctive, those differences tend to dissipate over time. Today's list of top boys' names shows the influence of Latino immigrants -- Jose is No. 30, Luis No. 44, Carlos No. 55, Jesus No. 66 -- and the 1960's list reflects earlier Irish and Italian immigrants (and the influence of Catholic saints' names more generally). Over a relatively short period, however, immigrant families begin to select names from the general pool.

Professor Lieberson cites data from Illinois matching mothers' ethnicity with popular names. From 1985 to 1988, Jose was the fifth-most-popular boys' name among Mexican-American mothers. But it followed Michael, Daniel, David and Anthony.

Contrary to common assumptions about how fashion works, names don't simply trickle down from high-income, well-educated parents to lower-income, less-educated parents. Newly popular names tend to catch on with everyone at about the same time, and they spread both up and down.

Whether names or clothes, fashion reflects the primacy of individual taste over inherited custom. The freer people feel to choose names they like, rather than names of relatives or saints, the faster names go through cycles. Boys' names, which tend to be more influenced by custom, change slower.

The turnover, Professor Lieberson says, ''is much faster now than it used to be,'' and a smaller proportion of all names are concentrated among the most popular. So there's a constant need for new names, as formerly unusual ones become too common.

''It will become apparent in a few years that there are tons of Madisons, and people will act accordingly,'' he says.

Maybe Saige (No. 939) or Ximena (No. 894) will be the next Madison. Or maybe Virginia, No. 391 today but No. 7 in the 1920's, is due for a revival.

(S1) 2.1  What are some of the claims that Lieberson made?  What was his reasoning?

Now, examine the data that Lieberson used.  Go to the SSA Baby Name Database[iv]. 

(S2) 2.2  Choose one of his claims and see if you can find data to support it.  Explain your findings below.

(S2) 2.3 Now search the database for a different patterns.  Try to identify at least one pattern.  Some ideas you might consider:  choose a name and analyze it over time, can compare different years, compare different genders, etc...  Explain your findings and the supporting data below.

---

[i]Palmer, Nathan.  Teaching Social Forces With Baby Name.  Sociology Source. The Society Pages.  September 19, 2011.  https://thesocietypages.org/sociologysource/2011/09/19/teaching-social-forces-with-baby-names/

[ii]Kremer, William.  Does A Baby’s Name Affect It’s Chances in Life?  BBC News Magazine.  April 11, 2014.  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26634477

[iii] Postrel, Virginia.  Economic Scene; How Can the Marketplace Gauge Fashions?  Consider What to Name the Baby.  NY Times, 2002.  https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/23/business/economic-scene-can-marketplace-gauge-fashions-consider-what-name-baby.html

[iv] Social Security Administration. Get Ready For Baby. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

[v] Mitchell, Corey.  A Teacher Mispronouncing a Student’s Name Can Have a Lasting Impact. Education Week.  PBS Newshour.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/a-teacher-mispronouncing-a-students-name-can-have-a-lasting-impact?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=newshour

[vi] A Declaration of Self.  Santa Clara County Office of Education https://www.mynamemyidentity.org/

Day 1 - Welcome to Sociology!

As the first day began, I said, "Let's get started."
Then, we sat in silence.  Sitting in silence was awkward and unusual for most of us. Some students felt the need to fill the silence with a comment or a joke.  Clearly, this is not the way most of us are used to beginning a class, especially the first one of the semester.

What’s happening here? What are all of the thoughts that came to mind as you sat in silence?  Why did you think these things?


Silence and thinking sociologically
I like beginning the semester like this for two reasons.  First, I use this to show that most students already think sociologically, albeit in a simplified manner.  Sociologists analyze groups of people and how the people are shaped by the groups of which they are a part.  You have been a part of dozens of classes over the years.  You have seen firsthand how these classes begin every semester.  Nearly every class you have been in has started with the teacher standing in front of you and saying this is what you should or shouldn't do, etc... From participating in all of these first classes, you have begun to expect certain things from them. That is, loosely, what sociologists do; analyze people in groups and look for patterns of behavior and then analyze how those patterns affect people.


Silence and education as a social institution
Secondly, the silence is also a critique of modern education.  Education is a social institution.  Sociologists study institutions and how they affect people.  Education as an institution has trained students to be passive and sit back and wait for a teacher.  Students want to know only what is necessary for a "good" grade.  It is not about learning; instead, it is about schooling.

This critique of education came to me from Bernard McGrane's Book The Un-TV and the 10MPH Car.  McGrane makes the case that students have been trained to follow and become good at school - but not good at learning. Their curiosity and excitement for learning has been squashed by a system that rewards docility and conformity. Rather than taking initiative for their own learning, students expect the teacher to provide them with exactly what they need - "Just tell me what to do," is the attitude.  Institutions perpetuate the norms.  The way we have done something often gets passed down from generation to generation.  This creates expectations that we do not even question.  In a sense we silently comply with what we have unconsciously learned.

Our class will ask students to engage in the learning; to take part in the process and become conscious of it.  Our class will also ask students to share their own experiences and relate them to sociology.  We all learn from each other. We are all both teacher and student.  Be open to understanding things you thought you knew from a new perspective.  Be open to understanding your classmates insights.  Keep a beginner's mind, an empty cup.

Listen for the silence.

What is sociology? How does the silence experience exemplify what sociological thinking is?

What am I trying to reveal about the institution of education by doing the silence experiment?

Other impacts of silence.

A third reason why I like beginning the year with the silence is because it is uncomfortable.  Sociology will make you aware of issues in society that are uncomfortable.  Sociology will sometimes talk about topics like suicide, racism, sexism, hatred, rape and violence.  Ignoring these issues does not make them go away.  In fact, our silence in their presence allows them to quietly be accepted in society.

Checkout teacher Clint Smith speaking at a TED Talk about silence.  It is often our own silences that speak louder than our words.  This is especially true in a culture that teaches you to be a follower; to sit down and shut up and conform.  Watch that video.  
Think about the speaker's message.  I want you to find your voice.  To learn who you are as a person and to learn to speak up for what you believe in in an educated and meaningful way.  Silence can reinforce oppression.  Silence can maintain institutional order. If you are going to study sociology, you must be open to learning about these uncomfortable topics.  Moving out of our comfort zones can make us stronger and more confident people.  Ultimately, this will result in our growth as scholars and human beings.  The end result of sociology can be to make us more compassionate people who live a more meaningful existence.

Besides being open, there are a few other non-negotiable details for class.  You can download the course syllabus here.  Note these important aspects of the syllabus:

• Be open, present and prepared.  
• There is a mandatory final research paper regardless of whether you have an A- or not.
• You will be expected to be an active learner - not a passive learner or simply a test taker;  this will require participation, discussion and classwork.
• Grading will be based on three goals or standards: Participation, Application and Research.

If you can agree to this, I will ask you "Are you fired up?" And, you should answer, "Ready to go."

I will do this each day to check in with you.

1.  Bookmark my blogpage or add it to your homescreen:
https://sociologysal.blogspot.com/

2.  Be sure your iPad is up to date.  See the helpdesk in the link if it is glitchy.

3.  If you have text ability, join the Remind account for your class:

• Per 4:  text @g9k4eb to the number 81010
• Per 6:  text @76g63 to the number 81010
• Per 7:  text @2h9226 to the number 81010

A Little boy and an Old Man.

Finally, let me tell you a story about a little boy and an old man.  That story, adapted from a Nepalese tale is here.

HW: 

1.  Please read through the syllabus and let me know if you have any questions.

2. Create a Google document.  Save it as:
Last Name,  First Name Period  
For example, if I was in period 4 it would look like this:
Salituro Chris 4

3.  Share it with me.  

Then - answer the questions in this Student Survey.

4.  Please interview some family members: How and why you have the name that you have.  How did you get your legal name?  If you prefer being called a nickname, then ask about that as well.  How did you get that nickname?

About me.

Data USA

Data USA provides county level data on:

https://datausa.io/

About Data USA:

In 2014, Deloitte, Datawheel, and Cesar Hidalgo, Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Director of Collective Learning, came together to embark on an ambitious journey -- to understand and visualize the critical issues facing the United States in areas like jobs, skills and education across industry and geography. And, to use this knowledge to inform decision making among executives, policymakers and citizens.

Our team, comprised of economists, data scientists, designers, researchers and business executives, worked for over a year with input from policymakers, government officials and everyday citizens to develop Data USA, the most comprehensive website and visualization engine of public US Government data. Data USA tells millions of stories about America. Through advanced data analytics and visualization, it tells stories about: places in America—towns, cities and states; occupations, from teachers to welders to web developers; industries--where they are thriving, where they are declining and their interconnectedness to each other; and education and skills, from where is the best place to live if you’re a computer science major to the key skills needed to be an accountant.

Data USA puts public US Government data in your hands. Instead of searching through multiple data sources that are often incomplete and difficult to access, you can simply point to Data USA to answer your questions. Data USA provides an open, easy-to-use platform that turns data into knowledge. It allows millions of people to conduct their own analyses and create their own stories about America – its people, places, industries, skill sets and educational institutions. Ultimately, accelerating society’s ability to learn and better understand itself.

How can Data USA be useful? If you are an executive, it can help you better understand your customers and talent pool. It can inform decisions on where to open or relocate your business or plant. You may also want to build on the Data USA platform using the API and integrate additional data. If you are a recent college graduate, Data USA can help you find locations with the greatest opportunities for the job you want and the major you have. If you are a policymaker, Data USA can be a powerful input to economic and workforce development programs. Or, you may be a public health professional and want to dive into behavioral disease patterns across the country. These are just a few examples of how an open data platform like Data USA can benefit everyday citizens, business and government.

Poverty

Defining Poverty

Experts talk about poverty in various ways. This post explains some of the most common terms used to describe poverty in the United States today; official poverty measure and the supplemental poverty measure, extreme poverty, low income, concentrated poverty.

The Loaded and Offensive Use of the N-word

Trigger Warning - Whites often have difficulty discussing racism.  This is a well documented reality especially by Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility.  Additionally, racists may find this particularly offensive.  However, please note that this post is not accusing anyone, especially white students, in my classroom of racism.  Instead it is simply explaining the history of racism and the loaded language of the N-word.  If you start to have defensive feelings as you read this, please check yourself.  Remind yourself that this is not about you.  Take a deep breath and try to listen and understand.

This video excerpt is from Ta-Nahisi Coates speaking at Evanston High School.  He explains that language has context.




Pamela Oliver, a professor from UW Madison has made a list of terms that explain the history and nature of racially-based terminology.  Her post is continually updated here.  It is really informative and a recommended read, but below is an excerpt specifically about the "N-word".

“People of color” (often abbreviated POC in certain circles) may sound the same as colored, but has a different history and meaning. It is the political term signifying pan-racial unity among people who are not White and is often used in political or activist circles. While it may seem to some students illogical that two phrases, “colored” and “people of color,” that both refer to people who are not white, should have very different political meanings, this is how language works. A not-Black person using “colored” signifies that one is at best ignorant and probably racist, while a not-Black person using “person of color” signifies that one is a political activist who is trying to respect and form alliances with people of color. (Note that White political activists who use “people of color” or POC may still be criticized for their implicit White supremacy, but the term itself does not signify this. See the discussion of “minority” below for more on pan-racial terms.)
The big insult word is “nigger” and its variant “nigga.” This is the n-word. There are many people who believe I should not write that word even in an informative essay like this one, and I hesitate as I do it. I have written the word on PowerPoint slides (as in “nigger – always an insult”) so people know what we are talking about, but have been persuaded by Black sociologists that there is too much risk that even that pedagogic purpose can be experienced as a micro-aggression by students. I am hoping that in this context, buried in an article that builds up to it, the usage is acceptable. There are many people who view this word as vulgar and unspeakable and offensive. In the United States, it is the most loaded word one can utter, it is the nuclear weapon of racial epithets. There is no other word that comes even close in its explosive power. It is always insulting when said by a non-Black. It is the word that is linked with degradation and violence. It is the word linked to lynching and murder as in “die n-“  It is the word White people use today when they want to wound Black people. A Black woman I know went into the post office in Madison and asked for the Martin Luther King commemorative stamps; the clerk said, “I’m not giving out any of those n- stamps.” That’s how the word is used: to insult somebody as they are going about their daily business, to make them feel like they don’t belong. It ruined her week and made her not want to have anything to do with White people for a while.
There was never a positive or even neutral public use of the word historically. No political movement ever formed around the identity n-. Under slavery and segregation Black people sometimes used the word themselves because they had no other word and you will often see the word used in literary fiction by Black people to convey the culture of a past period. None of that makes the word acceptable by non-Black people in modern usage.
What is confusing to young non-Black people is that they hear Black people using the term often among themselves, especially in rap music, and think they ought to be able to use it. The “rule” here is actually easy: you can insult yourself or your group in ways that others cannot. It is like the rule that I may insult my brother or sister, but if you do it I’m going to punch you.
Students also bring up singing along with rap music. I’ll just say that the context of singing along isn’t the same, although how people experience your choice of music is probably worthy of another conversation I’m not prepared to facilitate. When the topic was brought up, at least one minority student talked about being appalled at groups of White people listening to rap and singing the n-word together.
There is also a phenomenon in which a negative word gets turned positive by a radical or “edgy” movement. This has happened with the word Chicano (to refer to a Mexican American) or the words “dyke,” or “faggot,” insult terms for lesbians and gay men which are sometimes picked up and used by members of the group for radical effect. There are arguments among Black people about whether they should be able to use the n-word for this kind of edgy radical effect. Many Black political writers use the n- word in this way.  I have read things written by Black people on both sides of this debate, some saying that they should be able to use the word and that avoiding it just gives it power, and others saying it just gives White people the idea it is OK to use the word. But these are debates about whether Black people should ever use the word, not debates about whether White people should be allowed to call Black people the n-word.
Non-Black students who have attended majority-Black schools and non-Black athletes on mixed-race teams may talk about context, and the subtleties of using racial insults with each other as a way of declaring friendship across boundaries. What I say about this is, first, yes this does happen, especially among men, and there are some subtle rules about this. Second, lots of times the it is the White people have initiated this; Black people put up with it, even though they don’t like it and feel that it is a microaggression, because they do understand the rules of bonding through insult and don’t want to rock the boat. Third, just because you have one relationship in which you use the n-word appropriately as insult bonding definitely does not give you the permission to go around insulting any other Black people you happen to meet. You do not get any kind of pass at all just because you happen to know a Black person who let you call them n-.
I have also heard some discussion of the difference between n-r and n-a, and all I can say is that this isn’t White folks’ business. If Black people want to make these distinctions, that is their business.
Randall Kennedy’s book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word traces the origins of the word, the history of its usage among Blacks, controversies about it, and how context affects the word. He argues that there are usages among Blacks that are entirely positive. He even argues that there are rare circumstances in which the n-word may be appropriately used by White people, but his examples convinced me that even when such usage is appropriate when you know the context, there will be plenty of people who are offended anyway. For example, there are people who believe the n-word should not be spelled out in this essay, even for the purpose of explaining why not to use it.
If you search the Internet a little, you can find dozens of articles and blog posts mocking White people for whining about not being allowed to say the n-word when Black people can use it. This is viewed as the ultimate example of White privilege in action: White people are so privileged they think there should not be even one word that somebody else can use that they can’t.
There are dozens of other words that have been used historically and in the present to insult Black people that can generally be written without the same level of pain as the n-word but you should assume that if you use them you will be considered a racist, and I cannot imagine any way in which you would use these words except with insulting intent. The ones that come to my mind are shade, spook, darkie, coon, ghetto, jigaboo, welfare queen. I’m sure there are dozens of others. There are also dozens of racist stereotyped images that are considered insulting.

Professor Oliver said above that "It is the word that is linked with degradation and violence."   I want to add that this history of racism includes:

12 million African people forcibly removed from their country and enslaved in the U.S.

2 million African people who died from the horrific conditions of just the journey to the U.S.

The original Constitution which declared that people from Africa were only 3/5 of a person and they were considered property and not people.

There were over 4000 public killings/lynchings of African-American people from 1830-1950.  See the interactive map available here.

This includes the lynching of Emmett Till whose pictures appeared in JET magazine and circulated among the black community in the 1950s.

The Jim Crow laws of the post-slavery era detailed here.

The era of mass-incarceration detailed in Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow and also the subject of Ava Duvernay's documentary 13th.

Ibram Kendi's book, Stamped From the Beginning is an extraordinary work that details the history of racism in the U.S.

All of that is just the history of racism in the U.S.  It doesn't even mention the enormous scholarly work that has researched racism from our current generation.  A quick search of sociology articles about racism on JSTOR reveals 12,572 articles published since the year 2000 about racism.

This includes:
Racism in the criminal justice system and in the prison system.
Racism in medicine.
Racism in politics.
Racism in city planning and policy.
Racism in the media.
Racism in academia.

All of the above is the context behind the N-word.  By using the N-word it displays ignorance at best, but more likely a cold-hearted anger that excuses the centuries of violence and oppression.

Despite all this, some whites were so angered and afraid at the election of a black man for President of the United States that there has been a feeling among whites that somehow they are oppressed.  Michael Tesler explains in his book that rather than the Obama era ushering in a post racial society, the U.S. has actually become more racial as a result of it.  Mostly, this is a misplaced fear because some whites think racism is a zero sum game and so any advances for Americans who are not white means that whites are being oppressed.  Chris Boeskool explains that when you are used to being privileged, equality feels like oppression.

There is a really ignorant notion in some circles about an idea of "black privilege".
This critique explains it.

Some people even post online about why white people feel discriminated against.  Here is an explanation of that.

This NPR story explains that a majority of whites in 2017 believe that whites face discrimination.

Stereotypes against whites are a problem, but as this psychologist explains, they are a problem in creating a barrier in communicating between different groups.  So, like I said at the beginning of this lesson, if you are white like me, check your attitudes.  Realize that when people talk about racism and privilege they are not saying that you did something wrong.  Understand the history.  Don't feel the need to be defensive.

This Harvard extension class looks like a good resource for understanding racism.