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Societies go through complex challenges in the face of the vertiginous increase in disasters, mostly produced by the effects of extreme events. The lack of capacity to deal with disasters is evident, especially in developing countries, as in the case of Peru. Under such a premise, this paper contributes to strengthening the country’s capacities, through an evaluation of national disaster resilience to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation-driven hazards caused by the El Niño disaster event between 2016 and 2017 on the Peruvian coast.

By reviewing the literature, various hazards were identified, such as heavy rainfalls and cascading hazards, such as floods and landslides. Even though risk assessments were carried out, 169 people died and essential infrastructure was severely impacted and lost. Through a 12-criteria resilience assessment framework sub-divided into sustainable development and disaster risk reduction, a diagnosis of national disaster resilience was carried out, along with a disaster risk management evaluation. Under such assessments, strategic recommendations were proposed to enhance the resilience of the country.

The lack of resilience of the country is reflected in the evaluated criteria, the most negative being the built environment due to infrastructure system’s vulnerability to hazards, and the lack of social development, despite national economic growth in Peru.

The research is extremely valuable because it bridges the knowledge gap on disaster resilience in Peru. In addition, the methodology, as well as the multi-topic assessment framework, can be used for other analyses, which are key to building greater capacity in nations around the globe.

Researcher Highlight: Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950)

ADVERSE WEATHER conditions greatly reduced the number of members attending the February Council especially those resident in parts east. Everyone who had made it seemed to take a while to warm to their task and passed the report of the Executive Co‐ordinating Committee like lambs. With mild interest they heard that the Secretary had recommended to the General Purposes Committee that the old Council Chamber should not after all, be divided into offices but instead be made into a joint members' and staff common room. ‘More modest extensions to the toilet accommodation’ (the imagination boggles!) are part of this reduced package which saves half the projected £40,000. For council meetings a platform with furniture suitable to the dignity of the association will be provided.

This essay tackles the Obama “phenomenon,” from his candidacy to his election, as a manifestation of the new “color-blind racism” that has characterized U.S. racial politics in the post-civil rights era. Rather than symbolizing the “end of race,” or indeed a “miracle,” Obama's election is a predictable result of contemporary U.S. electoral politics. In fact, Obama is a middle-of-the-road Democrat whose policies since taking office have been almost perfectly in line with his predecessors, especially in terms of his failure to improve the lot of blacks and other minorities. In this essay, I review the concept of color-blind racism and its application to the Obama phenomenon. I also revisit some of my past predictions for Obama's presidency and evaluate their accuracy halfway through his term. Finally, I offer suggestions for constructing a genuine social movement to push Obama and future politicians to provide real, progressive “change we can believe in.”

This chapter is based on a chapter I added for the third edition of my book, Racism without Racists. Louise Seamster, a wonderful graduate student at Duke, helped me update some material, locate new sources, and rework some sections, as well as abridge some of the many footnotes (interested readers can consult the chapter). I kept the first person to maintain the more direct and engaged tone of the original piece and because the ideas (the good, the bad, and the ugly ones) in the chapter are mine, and thus, I wish to remain entirely responsible for them.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

Homelessness in Greater Boston has been a recurring issue since the 1980s. Massachusetts is the only right to shelter state in the nation, which theoretically guarantees that families with children under the age of 21 must be offered a place to sleep every night. However, research shows that among the various obstacles case managers encounter when trying to assist the homeless, the fragmentation of services and initiatives is one of the most persistent limitations to their actions. At the state and local levels, coordination between service providers has repeatedly proved uncertain. These providers point to an ongoing, unhealthy competition to get funding for their shelters or service centers, which has devastating repercussions on the people they serve. Boston officials hold a difficult position, as the state capital city draws many homeless families and individuals hoping for better support, thus putting pressure on local shelters to provide more beds every night. Unsurprisingly, the onset of the pandemic worsened an already strained homeless assistance network, by forcing clients to seek shelter elsewhere due to reduced capacity and creating a new type of fragmentation. In the context of limited space, where zoning laws have relentlessly favored single-family homes in wealthy neighborhoods, Greater Boston is now facing a dire shortage of housing, while migrants from abroad continue to be drawn to its progressive social policies, hoping to find shelter from poverty and war.

Numerous commentators have suggested that Barack Obama represents a new “post-racial” politics in the United States, distinct from a pre-existing contentious form that originated with the civil rights era. Drawing on secondary historical data, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign speeches, and county-level electoral returns from Indiana and North Carolina, I argue in contrast to such claims that post-racial politics comprise the latest in a line of successive attempts by the Democratic Party to articulate the New Deal voting bloc, in which the white suburban middle class is the primary constituency while African Americans are of secondary importance. By addressing the question of “Obama and the Politics of Race” in this way, this chapter seeks to integrate political parties into the study of racial ideologies. Specifically, it suggests that the latter may originate and subsequently develop in the context of partisan struggle.