As the current co-editors of The Sociological Quarterly (TSQ), we greatly admire those who have undertaken this role, given the unseen hard work and care it takes to meet deadlines and produce issues. We would like then to remember here James McCartney, one of the superb past editors of TSQ. He took over in a time of crisis and then distinguished himself as an editor, while significantly raising the stature of this journal.
Step back almost fifty years: McCartney, then a young assistant professor at the University of Missouri (UM), is thrust into the editorship of TSQ, when the original editor became incapacitated. Having signed on to be an assistant editor, Jim had to rescue and lead the journal. And rescue it, indeed, he did.
For us at the time (1971–1977), McCartney was the quintessential editor. In those days, there were no processing systems, templates, or reviewer search algorithms. In fact, there was no e-mail or computers, just U.S. Postal Service and typewriters. One of our co-editors, Peter Hall, “apprenticed” under Jim as an associate editor. Another co-editor, Mike Lacy, remembers reading the journal and recognizing its quality when he was entering the discipline. Prabha Unnithan shares the pride of being a fellow Husker with McCartney who had two degrees from the University of Nebraska.
McCartney was a reader, a very careful reader. Never glossing over manuscripts, his pen found awkward phrasing, contradictory logic, and ambiguous assertions. A devotee of The New Yorker and The New York Times Book Review, he knew and valued good prose. He was adept at finding good reviewers as his Rolodex became larger. Jim would read submissions and reviews together, carefully discerning the value of the manuscripts in light of the reviews. His letters were carefully constructed to respond to and to create a coherent, helpful message to the authors. He would also do some editing of articles to improve the writing and focus the message. Even desk rejects drew constructive advice from him with suggestions for the authors about other journal submission options. McCartney encouraged reviewers to be positive, even when critiquing manuscripts. His editorship was marked by civility.
Jim McCartney became a rescuer brought into handle many problematic situations. He rescued a major campus program and brought it to new heights. As Sociology chair at UM he handled two major departmental crises. The American Sociological Association (ASA) also came calling, with a moribund journal needing resuscitation. Knowing his editorial skills, they asked McCartney to edit The American Sociologist (TAS) and get it into shape so the ASA could sell it to a publisher. He agreed and brought TAS back to a robust life. The journal was sold and continues to cover issues important to the sociological profession to this day.
McCartney was president of the Midwest Sociological Society and also served the Society as liaison to the ASA and on important committees. He died in 2012 from a virulent cancer. He led, taught, and mentored by example. His legacy remains in the past and present of the journal.
One of McCartney’s enduring interests was in exploring and understanding social issues internationally (he served for a period of time as director of UM’s International Center). Thus it is fitting that the first three articles of this issue deal with critical sociological topics and draw on data from a number of countries. The first from Towibah Mjdoob and Avihu Shoshana titled “Palatable Arabs: Palestinian Professionals in Work Organizations in Israel,” considers coping strategies Palestinian professionals use in response to racism while working in Israeli organizations including, most importantly, the tactic of “utter silence.” The second article titled “States Shaping Civic Activism: Comparing Animal Rights Activism in Poland and Russia” by Christian Fröhlich and Kerstin Jacobsson compares animal rights activism in the neighboring countries of Poland and Russia. Interestingly, the authors find that although Polish activists operate in a less repressive setting, there is more activity on the “radical flank of the Russian movement.” The last article in this trio, “Has Anti-Americanism Become a “Progressive Prejudice” in Germany? Attitudes of the German Public toward America and Americans,” from Heiko Beyer and Ulf Liebe explores anti-Americanism in Germany and finds its social psychological roots in responses to social change and the projection of suppressed areas of the self.
The five articles that complete this issue focus on divides that continue to roil American society: race, ethnicity, and immigration. These include an article, “Immigration and Violence in Rural versus Urban Communities, 1990–2010” by Brent R. Klein, Kayla Allison, and Casey T. Harris on whether increases in immigration effect violence and crime in rural (and urban) areas. With regional variations, the researchers find that, “immigration has no impact on crime in the most rural communities, but buffers against it in the most urban ones.” Erin Brooks, Kim Ebert, and Tyler Flockhart in “Examining the Reach of Color Blindness: Ideological Flexibility, Frame Alignment, and Legitimacy among Racially Conservative and Extremist Organizations” examine documents produced by right-wing organizations for over two decades to investigate allegiance and framing of ideologies espousing colorblindness in their struggle for public legitimacy. The authors then describe a framing strategy that ensures success in this regard. The ideology of colorblindness is further expanded on in the next article titled “Racing Left and Right: Color-Blind Racism’s Dominance across the U.S. Political Spectrum” by Meghan A. Burke who notes that its adherents can be both from the right and the left and is that it “transcends political party and ideology.” Rather unexpectedly, despite differences in political views between the two, there are similarities in “racial discourse and identities.” The county-level relationship between affiliation to African American Protestant churches and crime is examined by Casey T. Harris and Jeffrey T. Ulmer in the next article titled ““Mighty Like A River”: The Black Protestant Church and Violence in Black Communities.” They provide some striking findings in this regard. Finally, in the last article, “Legal Status, Civic Associations, and Political Participation among Latino Young Adults,” we return to the issue of immigration with a study by Veronica Terriquez on how young Latino adults participate politically. Their immigration status is an important determinant along with the “context of involvement” in such activism.
We began this note with a tribute to our esteemed predecessor, Jim McCartney. We end with the belief that the articles in this issue, where the authors of have considered important sociological topics carefully, rigorously, and intensively, would have met his exacting standards.