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The Right To Inequality: Conservative Politics And Precedent Collide, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

The “end of affirmative action” is the beginning of this story. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Supreme Court struck a near fatal blow to race-consciousness. Many institutions have since pivoted to “race neutral alternatives.” This is a natural turn. But one that faces immediate headwinds.

The same entities that demanded Harvard pursue racial diversity through colorblind means have sued public high schools for doing just that. These litigants assert a “right to inequality”—a theory that would pit the equal protection clause against equality itself. Even if normatively jarring, a right to inequality might seem a …

An Analysis Of Relationships Between Demographics In Vermont’S Court Diversion Participants, Jennifer Hill

Student Theses

As solutions to mass incarceration continue to emerge, court diversion programs and specialty courts across the United States have grown as alternative options to the traditional criminal legal system. The State of Vermont has been utilizing court diversion programs for over 50 years to address harm in their communities. Court diversion has proven to be effective in reducing recidivism, improving cost efficiency and connecting individuals to their communities. However, what has gone unexamined are the potential disparities in opportunities for diversion participation along demographic lines. This study utilized a chi-square test of independence to explore the relationships between age, gender, …

Seeing Race & Sexuality: Child Welfare & Forced Labor, Annie Isabel Fukushima, Jens Nilson, Kaden Richards

Arkansas Law Review

This Article examines how child welfare responds to children who are forced to labor through a case study of California. We use an intersectional framework to argue that a

Frameworks That Guide Race And Ethnicity Data Collection Practices In Health Settings: A Scoping Review., Oluwabambi Tinuoye

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There are disparities in the health outcomes of minority populations compared with those of the majority in Canada. Unfortunately, no detailed and representative population-level data document these disparities except for Indigenous populations. This data gap is partly due to a lack of consensus on race and ethnicity data collection standards in healthcare. This scoping review identified and synthesized evidence from frameworks for collecting patient race and ethnicity information in health settings in the US and Canada.

Twenty-three articles met the inclusion criteria. The results show limited stakeholder engagement for many of the frameworks during the development process, and the data …

Oppressive Pushout: Examining Differences In Discipline And “Dropout” By Race, Gender, And Sexual Orientation, Danielle N. Aguilar, Taylor Lewis, Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Pearl Lo, Ángel González, Jason C. Garvey, Mario I. Suárez

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Drawing on well-established insights, our study adds nuance to the discussion regarding school pushout practices by centering race, sexual orientation and gender beyond the binary. By way of descriptive and inferential statistics using the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS:09), our article seeks to disrupt the cisheteronormative discussion regarding exclusionary school discipline and institutionally inflicted pushout that impacts the educational trajectories and opportunities of queer and trans Black, Indigenous, students of color (QT BIPOC). Results from our chi-square analyses revealed significant differences in rates of cutting/skipping class, in-school suspension, suspension or expulsion, and dropping out across our four groups: QT BIPOC …

Empowerment As A Predictor Of System Justification Moderated By Race, Nicole Belcher

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The attitudes people hold about the social structure around them have varying explanations in the field of psychology. System justification represents the idea that people will accept and enforce the social structures that exist because of the underlying need for consistency (Jost et al., 2004). Also central to this theory is the idea that people will legitimize structures because of a desire for the status quo to remain (Jost, 2001). These ideas seek to explain the problematic ideologies that maintain unfair social structures and why people allow them to remain. Studies have found individuals will support unjust systems because either …

Promoting Positive White Racial Identity Development In K-12 Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study, Johnny Cole

Educational Studies Dissertations

The process of racial identity development (RID) is widely agreed to be the process by which an individual comes to understand the role race plays in their sense of self, how it influences their ability to acquire information and reach goals, how it affects their interpersonal interactions with others, and the manner in which it assigns group membership in the larger society. The formative years students spend in K-12 educational environments can play an important role in their RID; thus educators’ awareness of these developmental processes can potentially help dismantle the systems of inequity within a critical race theory framework …

Back To Black: Analyzing The Presence Of White Control Over Black Representations In Media And The Responses Of Black Creators, Serena Smith

Master's Theses

The focus of this thesis largely discusses the perceptions held by White people of Black people and the Black community, and how these discriminatory perceptions have been presented in various forms of consumable media and other societal aspects throughout American history. These racially biased misrepresentations have also negatively affected the progression and internalization of the concept of Black cultural identities for Black people throughout history and how they are able to relate to the rest of American society. I am arguing that contemporary media and films produced by Black creators, such as Cord Jefferson’s 2023 film American Fiction, tend …

Shut Up And Dribble: The Political Contradictions Of Black Masculinity In Sports, Isaiah Rogers

Master's Theses

"Shut Up and Dribble: The Political Contradictions of Black Masculinity in Sports" is a comprehensive analysis of literature and case studies that explore the regulation and representation of the black masculine body within sports. This thesis investigates three primary themes—sport, protest, and black masculinity—and seeks to uncover the evolution of various black masculine figures and their endeavors toward racial inclusivity. By analyzing sports literature, this work examines the experiences of five significant black athletes, including Jack Johnson, Ron Artest, and Colin Kaepernick, to illustrate how sports environments police the black body. Additionally, this thesis emphasizes two archetypes of black masculinity: …

Race, Severe Mental Illness, And Crime: An Intersectional Look Into Stigma And Policy Implications, Elena Therese Vaudreuil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Criminal behavior has been a long-discussed topic in the United States and often is tied to characteristics such as race and mental illness. The presumed connection between criminal behavior and being a member of a racial minority group or having a mental illness have been researched for years, however few researchers have sought to take an intersectional approach to investigate the unique experiences of people belonging to both groups in the criminal legal system. Using the lenses of attribution and intersectionality theories, the proposed studies sought to understand the effect of race that influences policy support of justice-involved people with …

The Perception Of Children As Reliable Eyewitnesses, Shelby Mcdonald

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Eyewitness accounts have been integral to the criminal justice system. However, given that not every criminal case has forensic evidence that is available or admissible, the reliance on eyewitness accounts conjures questions about believability. This is an important area of research because the over-belief of witnesses may lead to wrongful convictions, yet under-belief may leave the victim without justice. The current study investigated how child-witness age, race, role as a witness (bystander versus victim), and the gender of the juror influenced the perception of child eyewitnesses through the lens of the Witness Credibility Model. Participants were presented with the testimony …

Police Brutality: The Nexus Between Historical Injustices, Police Culture And The African American Experience, Claude M. Rhone

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study focused on the harassment, maltreatment, and brutality of African Americans by police officers. The recent widespread condemnation and social justice protests in response to incidents of police brutality point to historical injustices inherent to the culture of policing. Slavery provides the overarching backdrop; however, Jim Crow laws cultivated the structural adaptations necessary to fulfill segregation between African Americans and Whites. The American policing model, which evolved from slave patrols to public entities, continued as an apparatus in the marginalization and disenfranchisement of African Americans. The narrative of “defunding the police” suggests that the past’s cultural proximity renders the …

School-To-Prison Pipeline, Samuel S. Honas, April Terry

SACAD: John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activity Days

Kindergarten through grade 12 schools are institutions where youth go to learn, grow, and sculpt their minds for their future. For some youth, schools do not present a warm and welcoming environment, and instead, respond in ways that create negative outcomes for certain youth. Factors like bullying, poor student-to-teacher interactions, and negative parental attachment can cause youth to have problems in school. Minority youth are also more likely to get in trouble in school for the same behaviors as their white counterparts. The school-to-prison pipeline is a pathway that begins in the school system that operates under the notion of …

The Anti-Racist Imperative Of Infancy, Laura Cohen

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 2019, a widely disseminated video of the arrest of a six-year-old girl in her Florida elementary school provoked outrage across the country. The footage shows the girl sobbing as an armed police officer in full uniform and bullet-proof vest handcuffs and leads her from the principal’s office to a waiting patrol car. Her crime was having a temper tantrum in class after a sleepless night. When it was revealed that another six-year-old was arrested at the same school by the same officer on the same day and for similar reasons, media pundits and the general public debated questions of …

Bearing The Benefit: An Evolution Of Passing To Trespassing & How We Got Here, Kennedi J. Williams

Honors College Theses

In recent years, we have seen a shift in the social treatment of white people in America. The desire to be politically correct at all times, in hopes of avoiding becoming the next viral “Karen” or racist has become imperative. The following thesis will explore the latest trend of white women buying racial capital by producing mixed-race children. At first glance, this idea can be a bit problematic. How can we assume the reasoning behind a woman choosing to bear a child? With this in mind, I would like to emphasize that individuals do not have to consciously be racist …

The Perception Of Children As Reliable Eyewitnesses, Shelby Mcdonald

Psychology Student Papers and Posters

Eyewitness accounts have been integral to the criminal justice system. However, given that not every criminal case has forensic evidence that is available or admissible, the reliance on eyewitness accounts conjures questions about believability. This is an important area of research because the over-belief of witnesses may lead to wrongful convictions, yet under-belief may leave the victim without justice. The current study investigated how child-witness age, race, role as a witness (bystander versus victim), and the gender of the juror influenced the perception of child eyewitnesses through the lens of the Witness Credibility Model. Participants were presented with the testimony …

Prior Racist Acts And The Character Evidence Ban In Hate Crime Prosecutions, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The killing of unarmed African-American Ahmaud Arbery and others ignited a wave of public outrage and re-focused attention on race and the criminal justice system. During the recent federal hate crimes proceedings for Arbery’s death, the prosecution introduced evidence relating to the alleged past racist acts of the defendants. This type of evidence may be seen as highly probative and desperately needed to do justice in hate crimes cases. On its face, however, such type of evidence appears to be inadmissible owing to the well-known—but little understood— evidentiary ban on character evidence prescribed in Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) and …

We(Ed) Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident: All Things Cannabis Are Inequitable, Garrett I. Halydier

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Current approaches to social equity in the cannabis industry continue to fail to promote racial equity while simultaneously exacerbating gender, environmental, and other inequities. To better understand the structural dynamics underlying this phenomenon, I first present a multi-disciplinary recounting of not only the racial inequities, but also the stigma, business, research, energy, sex and gender, hemp, and international inequities of the War on Drugs. This serves as the foundation for a compilation of the structural and theoretical reasons for how current social equity policies, whether targeting the cannabis industry, community reinvestment, social justice, or access equity, will only continue to …

The Black Arts And Black Power Movements In The Artwork Of John T. Riddle, Jr., Isabella Vitti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the under-studied work of the Black sculptor John T. Riddle, Jr. and how he was influenced by the politics of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Police brutality, the Vietnam War, the Black Power Movement, and the Watts uprising had a major impact on Riddle’s work.

Sexual Assault Disclosure: The Role Of Survivor And Disclosure Recipient Race & Ethnicity, Nola J.A. Browne

Honors Undergraduate Theses

To date, most research on sexual assault disclosure has utilized samples composed predominately of White women (Fedina et al., 2018). As a result, there is a need for research that examines sexual assault disclosure within racially and ethnically diverse samples. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether survivors’ race/ethnicity is related to whether they disclose their sexual assault to others of the same and different races and ethnicities. The study recruited undergraduate college students from the UCF Psychology Department Sona System to complete an online survey that assessed history of sexual assault and disclosure of sexual assault …

The Lived Experience Of African American Women Leaders In Georgia Law Enforcement: Advances, Barriers, And Impact On Performance, Juantisa X. Hughes

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Law enforcement is a male-dominated field that has been slow to accept and promote African American women to positions of authority. As of 2016, there were only 3.1% Lieutenants and Sergeants, along with 1.6% Captains or higher that were African American women in the United States (Gomez, 2016). More recently, there has not been much change, as women are reportedly only 12% of the sworn officers and 3% of law enforcement leadership in the United States (Tumulty, 2023). Of that number, only 1% of African American women hold the position of Lieutenant or higher (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and …

A Fourth Amendment Pathfinder: Stop-And-Frisk And Race, Emily Pratt

Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

No abstract provided.

An Exploratory Study Of Anti-Black Racism In Social Media Behavior Intentions: Effects Of Political Orientation And Motivation To Control Prejudice, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Samantha A. Wilcox, Justine K. Brace, Melissa Anderson

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Considering the widespread prevalence of racist content and opinions on social media, there is a pressing need to understand how users react to such content in ways that might lead them to be drawn into echo chambers of racism, hate speech, and potentially even violence. We conducted an online study to investigate how two individual differences—political orientation and motivation to control prejudice (MCP)—may predispose people to accept anti-Black racism expressed in social media messages. Non-Black participants viewed racist and egalitarian mock social media posts and reported how likely they would be to respond favorably and/or engage in supportive social media …

White Victims, White Villains: True Crime Podcasts, The 'Ideal Victim,' And The Demarcation Of A 'White Criminal' Stereotype, Meghan Hessler

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the overrepresentation of white male criminals in true crime podcasts, contrasting with the disproportionate focus on Black male criminals in the mainstream media. Despite the prevalence of ‘white-on-white’ crime in true crime narratives, the stereotype of the Black man as the archetypal criminal persists in the American imagination. This paradox raises questions about the influence of true crime consumption on racial stereotypes regarding ‘criminality.’ Through demographic profiling and qualitative analysis of top true crime podcasts Morbid, Crime Junkie, Dateline, and My Favorite Murder, this study aims to elucidate this discrepancy. By examining approximately 160 podcast episodes and …