Sociology Commons^™

The Opposite Of Subaltern Agency Is Not Agency, It’S Listening: Self-Guided Anti-Racism Investigation For Aspiring White Anti-Racists, Lauren Elaine Specht

Doctoral Dissertations

This research project examines the rhetorical relationship between oppressed and privileged communities, first to look at how oppressed communities can have more success in their outreach to change privileged points of view, then to examine that “success” of social advocacy is as bound up in the listener’s ability to hear as it is in the speaker’s ability to persuade and that the oppressed community is already using the most successful rhetorical tools available—privileged audiences are just not participating. To complete the first process, I used textual analysis to understand how an oppressed rhetor—represented by Toni Morrison—thinks of privileged perspectives in …

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 …

Contemporary Black Civil Rights Activism Strategies In East Tennessee: Gaining Economic And Political Power In The Black Community, Lily Joy Crosby

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the contemporary Black civil rights movement in East Tennessee to gain a better understanding of the strategies being employed to mobilize publics. Though an important aspect of the public relations field, in public relations academia there is a lack of research centering on activism. Little has been explored outside of organizational settings, especially since the rise of technology and increased interconnectedness of the world. To learn more about the movement in East Tennessee, the researcher interviewed eight leaders of the contemporary Black civil rights movement across the East Tennessee region. The researcher …

Policy Of Current Hospital Translation Services And Recommendations For Future Adjustments For Spanish-Speaking Patients, Isidora Rose Beach

Baker Scholar Projects

It is a seldom-discussed fact that English-speakers in America enjoy a quality of health care that is not necessarily afforded to non-native speakers receiving care at the same facilities. Policy regarding what is required of health institutions in terms of translation services is exceedingly vague, and implementation of this policy is inconsistent. This lack of guidance makes it possible for many patients needing interpreters to fall through the cracks. This project will examine current policy guiding interpretive services in the U.S., and will recommend more specific guidelines that would improve quality of care for limited English proficiency individuals. This project …

Color-Blind Stancetaking In Racialized Discourse, Abigail Christine Tobias-Lauerman

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine how language constructs and constrains racialized discourse in post-Jim Crow contemporary America. Drawing on rhetorical and sociolinguistic work set forth by Booth, Shotwell, Bonilla-Silva, Omi and Winant, and others, it is apparent that racial organization— and racial identities and categorization— in the US is reliant upon specific markers that signify racial meaning. Such markers are assimilated into wider, unconscious discourse through what Shotwell and Booth describe as seemingly inherent— yet ultimately constructed— matters of “common sense,” and are expressed through evaluative stance acts. I explore the origins and construction of these markers and the relationship …

Food Justice And Practices In The Five Points Community Of Knoxville, Tennessee: A Survey Of Residents Living In An Urban Food Desert, Sylvia Isabel Duluc-Silva

Masters Theses

This thesis identifies the views related to traditional and alternative food systems and practices among residents living in East Knoxville, Tennessee, which has been designated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a food desert. These views were obtained from a mail survey sent out to adult residents living in the community who were responsible for obtaining food for their household. Its foundation is based on general place-based theory and findings associated with environmental and food justice literature. It builds upon this work by identifying and describing key variables and how they may be related via a theoretical …

Sounding Identity: Soundscapes, Music, And Technoculture In The Chinese Diaspora Of Panama, Corey Michael Blake

Masters Theses

Present in Panama since the 19^th century, the Chinese diaspora in Panama City, Panama represents an empowered community of individuals who identify as both Chinese and Panamanian. These Chinese Panamanian hybrid identities emerge within sonic environments through an engagement with transnational media and digital technologies, notably within retail stores. Specifically, music surfaces as an especially important sonic marker of the Chinese Panamanian hybridity. Within the mall of the Panamanian Chinatown of El Dorado, an interesting mixture of both Chinese and Latin American popular music genres sounds throughout the various stores. This mixture of music genres demonstrates Chinese Panamanian agency …

The Impacts Of Terrorism And Capitalist Incorporation On Indigenous Americans, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

This article demonstrates the connections between terrorism , colonial state formation, and the development of the capitalist world system, or globalization, exploring theconsequences of colonial terrorism on indigenous American peoples. First, the piece introduces the central argument and conceptualizes and theorizes terrorism. Second, it examines the structural aspects of colonial terrorism by connecting it to specific colonial policies and practices. Third, it explain the ideological justifications tha Euro-American colonial settlers and their descendants used In committing crimes against humanity and dispossessing the homelands of indigenous Americans, as well as in amassing wealth/capital by ignoring moral, ethical ,and philosophical issues and …

Promoting And Developing Oromummaa (Power Point), Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Promoting And Developing Oromummaa, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

As any concept, Oromummaa has different meanings on conventional, theoretical, and political, and ideological levels. Although the colonizers of the Oromo deny, most Oromos know their linguistic, cultural, historical, political, and behavioral patterns that have closely connect together all of their sub-identities to the Oromo nation. There is a clear conventional understanding among all Oromo branches and individuals on these issues. The Oromo national movement has gradually expanded the essence and meaning of Oromummaa. The colonization of the Oromo and the disruption of their collective identity and the repression and exploitation of Oromo society have increased the commitment of some …

Gather At The Table: The Healing Journey Of A Daughter Of Slavery And A Son Of The Slave Trade, Thomas Norman Dewolf, Sharon Leslie Morgan

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

ABSTRACT

Two people from diverse backgrounds — a black woman and a white man — embarked upon a three-year “healing journey” to attempt to overcome the trauma of historic harms brought on by America’s legacy of slavery and the lingering effects of present-day racism. Illustrated through the stories of their lives—and those of their ancestors — Gather at the Table is informed by trauma healing, restorative justice, and peacebuilding skills the authors learned through their work at Eastern Mennonite University and its STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) and Coming to the Table programs. EMU is an acclaimed resource …

Race, Memory, And Historical Responsibility: What Do Southerners Do With A Difficult Past?, Larry J. Griffin, Peggy G. Hargis

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

Newly emerging, transitional societies –– that is, societies that traded dictatorial or authoritarian rule for some form of open or liberal polity –– face at least three interdependent problems of what is called in legal scholarship and social science “transitional justice”: the first is how (if at all) to hold the old regime’s autocratic, often violence-laden leadership responsible for its wrongdoings while in power; the second is what (if anything) to do with thousands upon thousands of ordinary folk whose participation in, or compliance with, the old regime helped legitimate and thus perpetuate the wrongdoing; and the third task how …

The Oromo: Toward A Psychology Of Liberation And Oromo Empowerment, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Gadaa (Oromo Democracy): An Example Of Classical African Civilization, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

The paper briefly introduces and explains the essence of indigenous Oromo democracy and its main characteristics that are relevant for the current condition of Africa in general and Oromo society in particular. It also illustrates how Oromo democracy had functioned as a socio-political institution by preventing oppression and exploitation and by promoting relative peace, security, sustainable development, and political sovereignty, and how the gadaa system organized Oromo society around economic, cultural and religious institutions. Finally, the paper explores how the Oromo movement for national self-determination and multinational democracy struggles to revive and revitalize the Oromo democratic tradition.

Content Analysis Of Social Tags On Intersectionality For Works On Asian Women: An Exploratory Study Of Librarything, Sheetija Kathuria

Masters Theses

This study explores how the social tags are employed by users of LibraryThing, a popular web 2.0 social networking site for cataloging books, to describe works on Asian women in representing themes within the context of intersectionality. Background literature in the domain of subject description of works has focused on race and gender representation within traditional controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This study explores themes related to intersectionality in order to analyze how users construct meaning in their social tags. The collection of works used to search for social tags came from the Association …

Indigenous Peoples In The Capitalist World System: Researching, Knowing, And Promoting Social Justice, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

The paper critically examines how indigenous peoples all over the world have been terrorized, exterminated, abused, and misused by those ethnonations that control nation-states in the capitalist world system. The homelands, economic and natural resources of indigenous peoples were expropriated and transferred to colonial settlers and their descendants and collaborators that have no interest to protect the political, economic, civil, and social rights that are articulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since the indigenous peoples are not represented in academia and media institutions, their voices are muzzled and hidden and …

The Impacts Of Capitalist Incorporation And Terrorism On Indigenous Americans, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

This article critically explores the essence of colonial terrorism and its consequences on the indigenous American peoples during their colonization and incorporation into the European-dominated racialized capitalist world system between the late 15th and 19th century. It employs multidimensional, comparative methods, and critical approaches to explain the dynamic interplay among social structures, human agency, and terrorism to explain the connection between terrorism and the emergence of the capitalist world system or globalization. Raising some complex moral, intellectual, philosophical, ethical, and political questions, this paper explores the essence, roles, and impacts of colonial terrorism on the indigenous Americans. First, the paper …

Imperfections In U. S. Foreign Policy Toward Oromia And Ethiopia: Will The Obama Administration Introduce Change?, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

This paper argues that because of its perceived strategic national interest and the wrong advice it received from experts and racist assumptions about the Oromo, the U.S. government has allied with the Tigrayan minority elites to form a colonial government and to suppress the Oromo national movement. Thus, the major question becomes will the Obama administration respect the rights of African peoples in general and that of the Oromo in particular?

Terrorism From Above And Below In The Age Of Globalization, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

This paper explains how the intensification of globalization as the modern world system has increased the oc- currence of terrorism from above (i.e. state actors) and from below (i.e. non-state actors). We cannot adequately grasp the essence and characteristics of modern terrorism without understanding the larger cultural, social, eco- nomic, and political contexts in which it takes place. Since terrorism has been conceptualized, defined, and theo- rized by those who have contradictory interests and objectives and since the subject matter of terrorism is com- plex, difficult, and elusive, there is a wide gap in establishing a common understanding among the …

“Holla If You Hear Me”: A Conversation With Black, Inner-City Youth On Career Preparedness Programs, Theressa N. Cooper

Doctoral Dissertations

This research study specifically addressed; how vocational preparedness programs effect the career aspirations of Black youth, within the context of the Middle Tennessee Council Boy Scouts of America’s Exploring program. The goal of this research is to represent Black youth participating in a vocational preparedness program. Interviews, journals, and rich, thick descriptions are utilized in this work.

Using the lens of narrative inquiry and cultural studies, I hoped to further the field of career development through the experiences of some of its key players, African American youth. Within the context of their stories five major themes surfaced around the ideas: …

The Impacts Of European Colonial Terrorism On Africans, Asafa Jalata

Social Work Publications and Other Works

This article critically explores the essence and characters of European colonial terrorism and its main consequences on various African peoples during racial slavery, colonization, and incorporation into the European-dominated capitalist world system between the late 15th and 20th centuries. It employs multidimensional, comparative methods, and critical approaches to explain the dynamic interplay among social structures, human agency, and terrorism to critically understand the connections among terrorism, the emergence of globalization, and African underdevelopment. The piece focuses on four central issues: First, it conceptualizes and theorizes terrorism to clarify its roles in creating and maintaining the global system. Second, it focuses …

European Colonial Terrorism And The Incorporation Of Africa Into The Capitalist World System, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

This article critically explores the essence and characters of European colonial terrorism and its main consequences on various African peoples during racial slavery, colonization, and incorporation into the European-dominated capitalist world system between the late 15th and 20th centuries. It employs multidimensional, comparative methods, and critical approaches to explain the dynamic interplay among social structures, human agency, and terrorism to critically understand the connections among terrorism, the emergence of globalization, and African underdevelopment. The piece focuses on four central issues: First, it conceptualizes and theorizes terrorism to clarify its roles in creating and maintaining the global system. Second, it focuses …

I Am Not My Hair...Or Am I?: Exploring The Minority Swimming Gap, Dawn M. Norwood

Doctoral Dissertations

A review of literature has revealed a dearth of research on leisure swimming patterns of Black females. Black youth, both male and female, have a higher rate of drowning than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States (“Water‐related injuries: Fact sheet”, 2005). Two known studies produced by (Irwin et al., 2009; 2010) examining hair as a constraint to swimming for African American youth produced conflicting results. In order to comprehensively examine hair as a constraint to African American female participation in swimming, the current study adopted a qualitative approach which allowed exploration of the cultural background and experiences of …

Counselor Preferences Of White University Students: Ethnicity And Other Important Characteristics, Yi-Ying Lin

Masters Theses

In the last several decades, multiculturalism has became the one of the most popular research topics in psychology and counseling, and the counselor preferences of ethnic minority clients has been well researched. However, in the history of research on counselor preferences, the needs and preferences of ethnic majority clients have been neglected. This study investigated the counselor preferences of White university students.

This study examined three primary research questions: whether counselor ethnicity influenced White university students’ initial counselor preferences, what were White university students’ preferences for various counselor characteristics, and whether White university students preferred specific counseling styles for different …

Celebrating Oromo Heroism And Commemorating The Oromo Marytrs' Day (Guyya Gootota Oromiyaa), Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

Oromo history demonstrates that the Oromo people had been heroic when they were organized under the gadaa system of government. Between the third and fourth gadaa grades (i.e., from 16 to 32 years), Oromo boys became adolescent and initiated into taking serious responsibilities, including protecting the security of the Oromo country. The ruling group had responsibility to assign senior leaders and experts to instruct and advise these young men in the importance of leadership, organization, and warfare.

Oromummaa: National Identity And Politics Of Liberation, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

Local and fragmented Oromummaa and national Oromummaa are interconnected, but not necessarily one and the same. For instance, if you were born into an Oromo family in an area where the Oromo language is widely spoken, you automatically learn this language without relating it to Oromo national culture and liberation politics. In several Oromia regions, under Ethiopian colonialism, there are Oromos who speak Afaan Oromoo and express local culture without comprehending Oromo national culture and politics. Such Oromos may claim that they were born with Oromummaa. But this kind of Oromummaa is local and fragmented and little to do with …

What Is Next For The Oromo People?, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

Thank you for inviting me to give a talk on the future of the Oromo people. To try to speculate on the future of the Oromo people is a very challenging task. Nevertheless, I try my best depending on my knowledge of the Oromo colonial history and national struggle in relation to the Ethiopian colonial state. Currently, the Oromo people and their national struggle are at a crossroads because of three major reasons. First, since the Oromo people are engaged in national struggle for self-determination, statehood, sovereignty, and democracy, the Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government is systematically attacking and terrorizing them. Second, …

Oromo Peoplehood: Historical And Cultural Overview, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

The study of the historical, cultural, religious, linguistic, geographical and civilizational foundations of Oromo society is essential to understand the differences between the Oromo and Ethiopian peoples. The study of these differences is important in properly addressing historical contradictions which have emerged since the colonization of Oromia. First, we introduce Oromia and explain the process of its establishment. Second, we discuss the origin and branches of the Oromo and their modes of livelihoods, the gada system (Oromo democracy), world views, philosophy, and religion. Third, we explore the processes of class differentiation and kingdom formation in northern and western Oromia.

The Ethiopian State: Authoritarianism, Violence And Clandestine Genocide, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

“Modern” Ethiopia has been created and maintained through the achievement of external legitimacy. As the European colonial powers such as Great Britain, France, and Italy enabled the Abyssinian (Amhara-­Tigray) warlords to create the modern Ethiopian Empire during the last decades of the nineteenth century, successive hegemonic world powers, namely England, the former USSR, and the United States, has maintained the existence of various Ethiopian government until now. At the same time, the successive Amhara-­Tigray regimes have failed to achieve internal legitimacy among the more colonized peoples while maintaining some degree of legitimacy among the minority Abyssinian population. While authoritarian rule …

The Tigrayan-Led The Ethiopian State, Repression, Terrorism, And Gross Human Rights Violations In Oromia And Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

The Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government has engaged in state terrorism and genocide with the support of global powers, including the US, countries of emerging economy like China and India, global institutions like the World Bank and the IMF; it has massacred, assassinated, imprisoned, and tortured millions of Oromos and members other colonized peoples. Millions of Oromos have been also evicted and replaced by thugs and thieves who have no morality and conscience.