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In spite of attempts to destigmatize themselves with the "black is beautiful" rhetoric, efforts by Americans of African descent to disavow their imputed inferiority have not been successful. The black is reacted to as a handicapped person by the white American. Whites look with disdain on black-white sexual relationships, black language, and culture. They discriminate against blacks in housing, education, employment, religion, and criminal justice. The effect of these responses on the self-concept of the rejected black person is self-hatred, because consciously and unconsciously the dominant person's acceptance means so much to him. The most direct way to remove self-hatred in black Americans is to excise racism in the society at large. (Author/DE)

In order to examine jury deliberations, researchers simulated and videotaped court proceedings and jury deliberations based upon an actual civil court case. Special care was taken to make the simulated trial as authentic as the original trial. College students and the general public provided the jurors, which were then divided into twelve separate juries and provided with various kinds and amounts of information and instructions concerning their role as a jury. Results indicate that six-man juries do not differ in any significant way from twelve-man juries. A jury watching a videotape trial will arrive at a verdict similar to a jury watching an actual trial. There is a tendency for juries to consider the cost of living in awarding damages to the plaintiff. College student jurors return verdicts similar to non-student jurors. Lawyer and witness credibility, appearance, and personality influence jury decision-making. There is a consistency in the decision-making process among juries. When an individual holdout occurs, he is persuaded to join the majority through a one-to-one discussion with the other jurors. Overall, juries tend to make rational decisions based upon the witnesses, exhibits, and the arguments of the attorneys. (Author/DE)

Focusing on the processes involved in making formal bureaucracies responsive, the study examined: the structure of formal grievance and redress procedures within the criminal justice system in San Jose, California; and the informal strategies used by politically active members of the Chicano community to extend and strengthen these channels. The primary channel for complaints against individual police officers was a two-man Internal Affairs Investigative Unit within the police department. However, claiming that their work involved confidential personnel matters, the department refused to release any information on how many complaints were received or how they were resolved. Two years ago, in response to continuing pressure, the municipal government hired an ombudsman to serve as an advocate/investigator for citizens with grievances against any city agency. However, his effectiveness was doubtful. Although there were several channels of informal support for grievances, the most these groups did was provide moral support and skills in filing a complaint through the Internal Affairs unit. The Chicano community had three possible strategies for maximizing their influence on the grievance and redress procedures: to strengthen the existing avenues for registering grievances and obtaining redress; to utilize legal strategies for making the agencies responsive to community needs through individual and class action lawsuits; and to use community political influence and pressure to redefine police policies. Of these, political strategies appeared the more promising. (NQ)

A Spanish American village economy as influenced by changes in its land base, land rights, and the introduction of mercantile capitalism during the U.S. Territorial period in New Mexico was analyzed. Attention was given to differences in village land tenure and exploitative patterns from those imposed with the advent of Anglo American political control and the long-term conflict that resulted. This conflict was first approached in terms of the contrast between ideal legal systems and beliefs regarding land, landholding, and land use and actual cultural practices in both Spanish American and Anglo American societies; thus, the jural rules were seen as they were practiced in this particular environmental setting. The process of accommodation was explored through detailed analysis of the mediating roles played by Spanish American patrons, Anglo American merchants and attorneys, and the functioning of the most important territorial governmental institutions, which were the Surveyor General's Office and the civil courts of law. (Author)