African American Studies Commons^™

Indoctrination Into Hate: The Development Of Racial Neuroses Resulting From Racist Socialization Under White Supremacy, Aliya Kathryn Benabderrazak

Haslam Scholars Projects

Racial-ethnic socialization is critical to our unique and individual conceptualization of reality. This socialization occurs explicitly and implicitly across the lifespan and has significant implications for one’s behavior, social relationships, and ideological beliefs. Two of the most notable and impactful spheres in which racial-ethnic socialization occurs are within the family unit and schooling contexts. The treatment and teachings within these two spaces shape our social and psychological development. The first part of my project considers the neurosis of Whiteness as a psychological consequence of racist socialization within school settings and primarily White communities—as a macro example of the family unit—to …

Believe It Or Not: Discovering The Role Of Marketplace Ministry In Reconciling Race And Religion In The African American Church, Shawn Burgs

DMin Project Theses

This Doctor of Ministry Project explores the experiences of African Americans as faith holders in the crux of race, religion, and marketplace and how the interconnectedness of these facets can lend to reconciliation. The purpose of exploring how African American believers experience race and religious reconciliation is a noble goal that seeks to address the challenges faced by many African American believers in navigating their faith and cultural engagement. By examining their experiences, insights, and perspectives, we can learn more about the unique challenges they face and the strategies they employ to overcome them. This information can help us develop …

How Do You Vote? Breaking Down Party Identification By Racial Resentment, Stellarose B. Emery

Student Publications

Racial resentment has long existed in the United States, with the idea that Black people receive unfair advantages by exploiting their race thus negatively affecting White people. In a time in which politics is drastically polarized, a focus is put onto an individual's political identity. The purpose of this research is to determine under what conditions does race influence vote choice by examining how racial bias influences political affiliation. Using data from the 2012 and 2016 National Election Study, the results revealed that ideological thoughts do have an impact on a person’s political party identity as individuals with a higher …

Willingness To Engage In Collective Action After The Killing Of An Unarmed Black Man: Differential Pathways For Black And White Individuals, Brynn E. Sheehan, Valerian J. Derlega, Ralitsa S. Maduro, Delaram A. Totonchi

Psychology Faculty Publications

This cross-sectional survey study examined the underlying psychosocial constructs of Black (n = 163) and White (n = 246) university students' willingness to endorse racially motivated collective action. Consistent with the defensive motivation system model, we expected the police shooting of an unarmed Black American to activate concerns about personal safety, thereby eliciting negative affect, lack of forgiveness of the perpetrator, and motivation to engage in collective action. This path model was expected for both Black and White participants, with stronger associations among Black participants. In the full model, Black participants identified more with the victim and indicated greater personal …

Black Feminist Citational Praxis And Disciplinary Belonging, Bianca C. Williams

Publications and Research

What does a Black feminist citational practice look and feel like? This contribution to the #CiteBlackWomen colloquy focuses on two arguments: First, that Black feminist citational praxis is one of the major interventions Black women scholars contribute to the academy; and second, that anthropology’s neglect and erasure of Black feminist anthropologists relates to disciplinary (un)belonging. I explore how citation and “disciplinary belonging” influence hiring practices, doctoral training, intellectual genealogies, and what is valued as anthropological knowledge.

Reframing Leadership Narratives Through The African American Lens, Marion Missy Mcgee

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Reframing Leadership Narratives through the African American Lens explores the context-rich experiences of Black Museum executives to challenge dominant cultural perspectives of what constitutes a leader. Using critical narrative discourse analysis, this research foregrounds under-told narratives and reveals the leadership practices used to proliferate Black Museums to contrast the lack of racially diverse perspectives in the pedagogy of leadership studies. This was accomplished by investigating the origin stories of African American executives using organizational leadership and social movement theories as analytical lenses for making sense of leaders’ tactics and strategies. Commentary from Black Museum leaders were interspersed with sentiments of …

Towards A Psychological Science Of Abolition Democracy: Insights For Improving Theory And Research On Race And Public Safety, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Phillip Atiba Goff

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We call for psychologists to expand their thinking on fair and just public safety by engaging with the “Abolition Democracy” framework that Du Bois (1935) articulated as the need to dissolve slavery while simultaneously taking affirmative steps to rid its toxic consequences from the body politic. Because the legacies of slavery continue to produce disparities in public safety in the U.S, both harming Black people and the institutions that could keep them safe, psychologists must take seriously questions of history and structure in addition to immediate situations. In the present article, we consider the state of knowledge regarding psychological processes …

Dreaming Of Home: Youth Researchers Of Color Address Nyc’S Housing Crisis, Samuel Finesurrey, Waleska Cabrera, Meldis Jimenez, Brittiny Ando, Alanna Garcia, Alexander Garcia, Jayden Johnstone, Abdul Mohammed, Sheylany Paulino, Edwin Reed, Emelyn Saavedra, Gisselle Saavedra, Rajendra Singh, Aysia Smith, Marlena Syriaque

Publications and Research

New Yorkers are facing a housing crisis. Long-standing disparities of race and class in New York City have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus and the looming eviction crisis threaten working-class communities, immigrant families and youth searching for housing stability throughout the city. This report is a call to action demanding that city and state elected officials, along with civic leaders, address the housing crisis that youth are inheriting. A team of youth housing fellows, housing organizers from the Broadway Housing Communities, and CUNY academics shaped this project around the ethos, “No research about us, without us.” The work …

African Americans Accused Of “Acting White”: The Impacts On Their Selves And Identities, Brett S. Anderson

Student Publications

A majority of the research on the accusation of acting white focuses on whether it is responsible for creating the wide achievement gap between white and Black people in America (Tyson, Darity, and Castellino 2005). However, there is little research that has looked into the potentially damaging effects that this accusation can have on the selves and identities of Black students. Through the analysis of classical and contemporary sociological theories and studies, it is determined that African Americans’ selves and identities are negatively impacted when they are accused of “acting white.” The suggested impacts are negative social reflection and the …

Neighborhood Change Within New Jersey: The Evolutionary History That Led To The New Newark, David Medina

Student Publications

As Newark lies 10 miles west of Manhattan, there is an increased encroachment from investors and gentrifies as surrounding cities such as Hoboken and Jersey City become too expensive and overcrowded. Known as the “Brick City”, Newark has history dating back to 1666. Leading up to World War II Newark was thriving, until an increase in suburban development and white flight that altered the race demographic. After years of racial stigma, the history of Newark is at risk as gentrification and neighborhood change looms over the city and its 282,862 residents, many of which are minorities.

Foreword: Abolition Constitutionalism, Dorothy E. Roberts

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Foreword, I make the case for an abolition constitutionalism that attends to the theorizing of prison abolitionists. In Part I, I provide a summary of prison abolition theory and highlight its foundational tenets that engage with the institution of slavery and its eradication. I discuss how abolition theorists view the current prison industrial complex as originating in, though distinct from, racialized chattel slavery and the racial capitalist regime that relied on and sustained it, and their movement as completing the “unfinished liberation” sought by slavery abolitionists in the past. Part II considers whether the U.S. Constitution is an …

Developing And Sustaining Political Citizenship For Poor And Marginalized People: The Evelyn T. Butts Story, Kenneth Cooper Alexander

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study tells the deep, rich story of Evelyn T. Butts, a grassroots civil rights champion in Norfolk, Virginia, whose bridge leadership style can teach and inspire new generations about political, community, and social change. Butts used neighbor-to-neighbor skills to keep her community connected with the national civil rights movement, which had heavily relied on grassroots leaders—especially women—for much of its success in overthrowing America’s Jim Crow system of segregation and suppression. She is best-known for her 1963 lawsuit that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1966 decision to ban poll taxes for state and local elections, a democratizing event …

The Effects Of Abuse For African Americans Using Critical Autobiographical Analysis, Shelby Carmichael

Psychology Summer Fellows

This analysis looks into the effects of sexual and physical abuse on the social outcomes and behavior of black children into adulthood. Incorporating current research findings on the effects of abuse on childhood development, an autobiographical analysis is conducted through the lens of critical theory to see the direct impact abuse has on an individual’s behavior and their social outcomes. Specifically this analysis will investigate the factors of socio-economic background, race, culture, community response to admitting abuse, access to therapeutic resources, externalized behavior, internalized behavior, and adulthood outcomes for African American abuse victims. This research contributes to the sparse literature …

The Exceptional Negro: Racism, White Privilege And The Lie Of Respectability Politics, Traci Ellis

Publications & Research

Overwhelmingly, black folks have close encounters on a regular basis with being marginalized, insulted, dismissed and discriminated against. It is the natural consequence of still being considered little more than a Negro in this country. Especially for the “Exceptional Negroes.” But, as we will see, the truth is that even with our exceptionalism, we are still just “Negroes” to white America and in case we forget that, they will swiftly remind us.

Toward A Theology Of Transformation, Hannah Kathleen Griggs

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Black liberation theologians come to terms with white supremacy by collectively remembering the story of the Exodus and Jesus' crucifixion--affirming God's preference for freedom and in-the-world salvation. The particular history of white American Christianity requires a different story to provide the foundation for our social memory. As white American Christians, we have certain blind spots—blind spots created by historical and social privileges that have given white people unequal access to power and resources. The story of Zacchaeus has the potential to help reframe white Christianity’s conception of race relations in the United States, shifting from a reconciliation paradigm to a …

Course Syllabus (Su17) Coli 331: “‘World-Traveling’: Alterity And Liminality In Spike Lee’S Do The Right Thing And Amiri Baraka’S Dutchman”, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty Scholarship

Course Description:

This semester, we’ll view Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing and Shirley Knight’s 1966 cinematic production of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman through the critical lenses of Maria Lugones’ notions of ‘worlds’ and ‘world-traveling,’[1] which she develops in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions. Our task is to analyze a number of the problematics addressed in these visual works as discernible ‘world(s)’ of meaning and experience constituted by the libidinous investments, concrete practices, and ideological convictions of the human subjects who bear and circulate them.

[1] Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, …

All Men Created Equal: Flannery O'Connor Responds Communism, Nina Hefner

English Class Publications

From her mother’s farm, Andalusia in Milledgeville, Georgia, Flannery O’Connor found her writing inspiration by observing the ways of the South. Naturally, a pervasive motif in her works is racism. For instance, in “Revelation” Ruby Turpin spends a good portion of the short story thanking God that she is neither white trash nor black. In her essay “Aligning the Psychological with the Theological: Doubling and Race in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction,” Doreen Fowler points out that “[Ruby’s] insistence on setting racial boundaries has been an attempt to distinguish a white, superior identity” (81), equality with African Americans being Ruby Turpin’s ultimate …

Salvation Through Community And Protest, Hannah K. Griggs

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay examines the theodicies of Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Dorothee Soelle to strategize ways for Christians to combat rising threats to marginalized communities. Synthesizing the arguments of these three feminist Christians, I argue that only a theodicy of protest succeeds in accounting for structural injustice caused by kyriarchal relationships. As Christians come to terms with America’s current political situation, I call for a reimagining of Anselm’s salvation narrative. My protest theodicy theorizes a new Christian narrative that strives to alleviate this-worldly suffering in order to produce salvation through radical community, by “signifyin’” to disrupt power, and using …

Black Americans And The South African Anti-Apartheid Campaign In Portland, Oregon, Ethan Johnson

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper argues that in order to understand the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland, Oregon it must be located within the particular socio-historical context of race and racism in the city and state. Thus, Black people living in Portland had good reason to compare the Apartheid system in South Africa to their own experience. Therefore, the confluence of national and local issues that move the local anti-Apartheid campaign forward is examined; the paper documents the rise and development of critical organizations in the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland; the paper focus on the closure of the Honorary South Africa Consulate in downtown …

(Un)Making The Food Desert: Food, Race, And Redevelopment In Miami's Overtown Community, William Hall

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, efforts to transform food environments have played a key role in urban revitalization strategies. On one hand, concerns over urban food deserts have spurred efforts to attract supermarkets to places where access to healthy food is difficult for lower income residents. On the other, the creation of new spaces of consumption, such as trendy restaurants and food retail, has helped cities rebrand low-income communities as cultural destinations of leisure and tourism. In cities around the US, these processes often overlap, converting poorer neighborhoods into places more desirable for the middle-class. My dissertation research examines the social and …

Fearless Friday: Jeffrey White, Jeffrey M. White

SURGE

In today’s edition of Fearless Friday, Surge is thrilled to honor the work of the incomparable Jeffrey White ’17. Jeffrey is a junior from Baltimore, Maryland, who is majoring in Religious Studies and minoring in Music. As an incredibly active member of the campus community, he is involved in leadership roles in many facets of campus life. He works as a Resident Assistant (RA), serves as the Program Organizer for the Office of Intercultural Advancement, the Live Music Chair of the Campus Activities Board (CAB), and devotes time to being a Peer Learning Assistant for Anthropology 103 as well. [ …

Whose Story? His-Story., Meghan E. O'Donnell

SURGE

The essay instructions finally landed in front of me. I passed the extra sheets on and quickly glanced over the page, hoping that the prompt would be inspiring. There were two open-ended options from which to choose: military and social/political aspects of the war. My eyes first fell upon the social option and I pondered using this opportunity to shed light on the experiences of women during the war. I’d done this before – used assignments to explore history’s untold stories – and found it interesting. Then, in a fit of frustration that erupted out of nowhere, I thought to …

Beyond Beyoncé’S Halftime Show, Rebecca S. Duffy

SURGE

In the weeks following the Super Bowl there has been quite an uproar regarding the halftime show featuring Beyoncé, Coldplay and Bruno Mars. All over Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news outlets, and in political commentary we were faced with the argument, “It’s wrong that Beyoncé used the Super Bowl to advance her own political agenda.” But to all those angry/hurt/confused about Beyoncé and her “right” to interrupt the Super Bowl with commentary on race relations, consider this: Is football, or any form of entertainment for that matter really independent of political, economic and racial issues? Is the NFL immune to the …

Education, Crystal C. Gray

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Education is a spoken word poem that explores many aspects of the African American struggle within (self-knowledge). It starts with an African American college student who is disappointed with the lack of courses about her culture. Most curricula in the United States tend to be from a Eurocentric perspective, leaving out a multitude of information about people of color. All groups of people of color have unique experiences, however, African Americans have the most known (or perhaps I should say, unknown) history. The standard explanation of their existence is often limited to the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, when …

Respiration: Breathing Between The Stacks, Jerome D. Clarke

SURGE

How rare are we, who brandish Black and Male identity, in Academia?

In the past two weeks, I have been reminded of my Black maleness in a multitude of ways. I sat alone, subordinate in number, in a dialogue about Internalized Oppression at Diaspora House. Strong women of color discuss this issue while I work to stay respectful and non-oppressive in this space. I sat alone, subordinate in number, in each of my classes, where I am often the only one of my race and class. My race-gender circumstance is a matter of fact to me. How does this Black …

“I’M Trying To Get My A”: Black Male Achievers Talk About Race, School And Achievement, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study seeks to challenge deficit views on Black male education by highlighting the perspectives of academically successful Black males in a secondary school setting. Employing interpretive qualitative methods, I present the narratives of academically successful Black males, emphasizing their reflections on race, school and academic achievement. In particular, this study highlights the educational dispositions and expectations of Black males, including the influences of their support systems on their academic trajectories. One support system comprised of parents, including the academic expectations held of their sons as well as their racial socializing practices. Another support system included their teachers, particularly those …

“El No Murio, El Se Multiplico!” Hugo Chávez : The Leadership And The Legacy On Race, Cynthia Ann Mckinney

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

“Chávez, Chávez, Chávez: Chávez no murio, se multiplico!” was the chant outside the National Assembly building after several days of mourning the death of the first President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This study investigates the leadership of Hugo Chávez and his legacy on race as seen through the eyes and experiences of selected interviewees and his legacy on race. The interviewees were selected based on familiarity with the person and policies of the leadership of Hugo Chávez and his legacy on race. Unfortunately, not much has been written about this aspect of Hugo Chávez despite the myriad attempts …

Wanted More From Moore, Rashida Aluko-Roberts

SURGE

I was very excited when I first picked up Wes Moore’s book The Other Wes Moore. After hearing that it was chosen as the common reading text for the incoming class, and also being given the opportunity to co-facilitate a discussion based on the book, I was even more excited.

However, as I read the book, I found myself more frustrated than fulfilled. [excerpt]

Throwing The Switch: Eisenhower, Stevenson And The African-American Vote In The 1956 Election, Lincoln M. Fitch

Student Publications

This paper seeks to contextualize the 1956 election by providing a summary of the African American political alignment during the preceding half-century. Winning a greater portion of the black vote was a central tenant of the 1956 Eisenhower Campaign strategy. In the 1956 election a substantial shift occurred among the historically democratic black electorate. The vote shifted because of disillusionment with the Democrats and Eisenhower’s civil rights record. The swing however, was less pronounced for Republican congressional candidates. This paper draws upon extensive primary material, including countless newspapers, magazines, the NAACP Papers, and published primary sources to form the core …

Musical Influence On Apartheid And The Civil Rights Movement, Katherine D. Power

Student Publications

Black South Africans and African Americans not only share similar identities, but also share similar historical struggles. Apartheid and the Civil Rights Movement were two movements on two separate continents in which black South Africans and African Americans resisted against deep injustice and defied oppression. This paper sets out to demonstrate the key role that music played, through factors of globalization, in influencing mass resistance and raising global awareness. As an elemental form of creative expression, music enables many of the vital tools needed to overcome hatred and violence. Jazz and Freedom songs were two of the most influential genres, …