ABSTRACT
This fi nal subsection emphasizes the continued paradoxes of race in the American 1990s academy, as legal Jim Crow has died though cultural and emotional Jim Crow continues to linger onwith focus on Blacks in sociological thought as researchers, intellectuals and subjects of study. At the same time, besides the continued and the changing traditions of racial prejudice in the academy there remains during the post-1970s into the present age the diffi culties black and other scholars of color have navigating the waters of the cultures and communities of what used to be exclusively white universities and colleges due to a systemic lack of power and privilege oriented mentorship and friendship access resulting too often in a “sociology of lack of understanding” regarding the subtle rules and expectations of the crystal stair cases in higher education they attempt to climb. All the essays in this subdivision are a blend of autoethnographical observation commentary as well as some referral to empirical studies, of which there are so few since the study of race from personal experiences is a matter which even the most distinguished sociologists of color on racial studies in off-campus society and world affairs are reluctant to be equally if not more publicly expressive about what happens in their own campus front and back yard and up and down the hallway from their cozy faculty offi ces.
