Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

The White Ally Experience: A Look Into The Impacts Of Being A White Ally, Kristen Maclin

Masters Theses

If an ally knew what they would experience, would they be more willing to stand up? Racism, institutional racism, racial bias, discrimination, and microaggressions have existed in our country since its inception. One way to work to overcome these is by growing allyship and having allies who are willing to speak up and stand beside marginalized groups. This research study addressed what allyship means, the byproducts of racist structures that allies have encountered, ally burnout, and ways to overcome burnout. These were researched through surveys from BIPOCs, named allies, and my school colleague populations. My research found that many White …

Adjustment To Life In America: Black African Graduate Level Students, Denver Daniels

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to examine what challenges Black African graduate students face when adjusting to life in the United States. A secondary concern was to examine what coping strategies were used during the transition. A qualitative approach was used to interview the participants and through coding, develop themes related to their time as graduate students.

This study concluded that there were a number of issues that Black African graduate students face. The students reported that they experienced homesickness, culture shock, and discrimination during their time at school. Specific themes also emerged as to how they coped with …

Book Review: The New Immigrant Whiteness: Race, Neoliberalism, And Post-Soviet Migration To The United States, By Claudia Sadowski-Smith, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Students Reception Of Ethnic Diversity Topics From White And Non-White Faculty, Cobi Christiansen

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study is to investigate the phenomenon of the student population being more ethnically diverse than the teacher population as well as examining student perceptions of ethnic diversity topics based on their perceptions of faculty ethnicity. A quantitative using a survey method was designed to investigate students' reception of ethnic diversity topics from White and Non-white faculty. From three different institutions in Central Illinois, 141 undergraduate education students, which included students who are majoring in early childhood, elementary, or secondary education as well as students who are receiving teaching certificates with their majors, participated in this study. …

Construct Validity Of The Teate Depression Inventory (Tdi) With A Middle Eastern/Arab American Sample, Dalia Bunni

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to examine the construct validity of a newer test used to measure depressive symptoms, the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI). The primary focus of the study was on Middle Eastern/Arab Americans (ME/AA). Previous research has demonstrated that ethnic minority groups may experience and present internalizing disorders, such as depression and anxiety differently than the majority ethnic group, White/Caucasian (W/C) individuals. Further, research suggests that there is a disparity in mental health care among ethnic minority groups, starting with detecting and diagnosing mental health disorders. Inaccurate detection and diagnoses informs inaccurate treatment, further creating a disparity. …

A Photo Illicit Study Of Black Women's Sense Of Belonging At A Predominately White Institution, Kayla Alexandria Slusher

Masters Theses

This qualitative study sought to examine how Black women define and create their sense of belonging while attending a predominately White institution using a photovoice approach. The women took photographs of spaces that they frequently occupy and then engaged in a face-to-face interview to discuss the photographs. The researcher also investigated four Black women, ranging from junior to graduate level, to identify how they developed a sense of belonging at the research site institution. Results of the study showed that a feeling of comfort was most important when identifying belongingness in a space. The participants were able to create a …

Ethnic Identity Development Of 1.5 Generation Filipino American Immigrants: A Qualitative Study, Catherine Welsh

Masters Theses

This qualitative study examines ethnic identity development of 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrants in U.S. The survey methods used in the study were a demographic questionnaire, and semi-structured interview. Two Filipino students, one from the Southwest and the other from the Midwest regions of the U.S. participated in the study. Two research questions guided this study; what factors influence the ethnic identity development of the 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrants, and what strategies educators can use to facilitate 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrant student success. The results of the study revealed six themes. Three themes emerged from research question one …

Race, Identity, And Communication: Experiences Of College Students From Underrepresented Groups, Raya D. Petty

Masters Theses

There is a significant difference of the completion of college between minority students and white students. The achievement gap is influenced by race and socioeconomic status of the students. The purpose of my study was to examine the relationship between academic performance and achievement and sociocultural factors including race and socioeconomic status. My thesis will affirm previous research that recognizes a need for resources specifically dedicated to assist marginalized groups in higher education. It will bring attention to minority students, first-generation college students and students with a low socioeconomic status. The project includes a literature review that explores identity, intersectionality, …

African American Students’ Attitudes And Beliefs About Ethnic And Racial Diversity At A Predominantly White Public University In The Mid-West, James Ochwa-Echel, Krishna Thomas

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Following an incident which involved gunshots and fighting at a private party in a Mid-Western city, where a predominantly white public university is located, several discussions were held at various fora on campus on the issue of race. During the discussions, many African American students complained that they were not being treated fairly at the university. The purpose of this study was to assess the cultural attitudes and climate at the Mid-Western University (abbreviated in this paper as MWU). The research question examined is: What are the attitudes and beliefs of African American students about racial and ethnic diversity at …

A Qualitative Exploration Of African American Students' Perceptions Of And Experiences With On-Campus Police, Rishawnda Lenett Archie

Masters Theses

This study examined African American students' perceptions of and experiences with police officers with particular emphasis on campus police in order to determine whether these perceptions and experiences could impact their college experience. Participants were seven African American students from urban areas who attended a midsize university in the rural Midwest during the fall 2017 semester, and who had some interaction with law enforcement. Data was collected from one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Questions were structured to elicit participants' direct or indirect prior experiences with police officers, their perceptions of police officers and campus police, and tacit impact that these experiences and …

Construct Validity Of The Teate Depression Inventory With A Black African American Sample, Samantha Rushworth

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess the construct validity of a new measure of depression, the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI), with primary focus on the Black/African American participants. Research has demonstrated that Black/African Americans experience disparity in receiving mental health care for internalizing disorders, partially due to under-detection of symptoms. Detection of internalizing disorders is an important step in receiving appropriate treatment. This research is essential to benefit mental health practices, addressing the need for professionals to be culturally competent and aware of the appropriate assessment tools available. In order to best serve ethnic minorities, validity of measurements …

Microaggression In The College Environment: Narratives Of African American Students At A Predominantly White Institution, Courtney Lynette Jones

Masters Theses

The study examined narrative experiences of microaggression from African American college students attending a Predominately White institution (PWI). Participants consisted of a combination of undergraduate and graduate students from a mid-size Midwestern institution of higher education. A qualitative approach was taken through a two-step series, first an email was sent to participants to obtain experiences of microaggression. After, a semi-formal follow-up interview was conducted to collect data for the research. The findings reported all six participants' experienced intentional and unintentional microaggression on various places of the college campus such as, the classroom, campus offices, campus police department, and campus-events. Microaggression …

Understanding Mentoring Relationships: The Black Male Graduate Student Perspective, Kwame R. Patterson Jr.

Masters Theses

Black males face many obstacles in higher education. They are disproportionately represented among students who are forced to withdraw, underperform academically, and report negative experiences. Despite the negative experiences Black males may encounter, many still have a strong interest in education, and mentoring plays a role in that interest. The purpose of this study was to explore the mentoring relationships and influence on the Black male graduate students experience. A qualitative study was conducted with Black males who received their master's degrees from a regional Midwestern institution. Research revealed that mentoring played a major role in Black male's graduate experience …

Review Of Jon Stratton And Nabeel Zuberi's Black Popular Music In Britain Since 1945 (2014), Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

A review of Jon Stratton and Nabeel Zuberi's book Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945.

Separating The Whites From The Chaff: Whiteness, Blackness, Racial Exclusion In The Midwest Agrarian Mind, Philip Mohr

Masters Theses

This thesis approaches the construction of race through the vantage of one agrarian magazine, the Prairie Farmer. It analyzes the rhetoric of the people who wrote for this magazine to distinguish changing attitudes toward whiteness and blackness in the rural and agricultural Midwest from the end of the Civil War to the Great Migration. While whiteness was equated with what the Prairie Farmer saw as the active, progressive farmer, blackness was associated with stupidity, laziness, and threat to property. From this, the thesis argues we can build a base of knowledge from which to analyze the roots of racism …

Towards A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Tim Engles

As the title implies, this book offers a multi-disciplinary overview of the explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. The contributing bibliographers acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously provided by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. Each section provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices regarding whiteness in a particular field, including: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, the visual arts, psychology, education, media studies, qualitative inquiry, personal narratives, and international and comparative approaches.

Toward A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

As the title of this list implies, the following is a sampling of works that could serve as an initiation to the recent explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. Like many of these writers, we acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously written by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. For an extensive sampling of such earlier work, see David Roediger’s anthology listed below, Black on White (and for discussion of such analysis as conducted by other racialized minorities, see Stephen Knadler’s The Fugitive Race: …

Towards A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

As the title implies, this book offers a multi-disciplinary sampling of works that could serve as an initiation to the explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. The contributing bibliographers acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously provided by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. Each section provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices regarding whiteness in a particular field, including: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, the visual arts, psychology, education, media studies, qualitative inquiry, personal narratives, and international and comparative approaches.

Towards A Bibliography Of Critical Whiteness Studies, Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

As the title implies, this book offers a multi-disciplinary overview of the explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. The contributing bibliographers acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously provided by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. Each section provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices regarding whiteness in a particular field, including: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, the visual arts, psychology, education, media studies, qualitative inquiry, personal narratives, and international and comparative approaches.

Students' Perceptions Of Instructors' Identities: Effects And Interventions, Jeannie Ludlow, Laurie Rodgers, Mary Wrighten

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This study resulted from the authors' interest in how students' perceptions of faculty identity (primarily race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, and academic rank) influence students' learning and instructors' classroom experiences. We focused on courses that fulfill the "cultural diversity" general education requirements at Bowling Green State University. The three courses that most students in the College of Arts and Sciences take to fulfill this requirement are ACS 250 Cultural Pluralism in the U.S., ETHN 101 Introduction to Ethnic Studies, and WS 200 Introduction to Women's Studies. Combined, these courses serve approximately 1400 students each semester.

"Visions Of Me In The Whitest Raw Light": Assimilation And Doxic Whiteness In Chang-Rae Lee's 'Native Speaker', Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In Chang-rae Lee's first novel, 'Native Speaker,' the protagonist is jolted by the death of his son and the subsequent departure of his wife into intensification of a lifelong identity crisis. The book's guiding metaphor, figured in Henry Park's job as a spy, cleverly elucidates the immigrant's stance as a watchful outsider in American society, but Henry's double life also figures largely in his equally representative struggles to decide for himself what kind of person he is. As a child of immigrant parents, Henry is, in Pierre Bourdieu's useful terms, endowed with a bifurcated "habitus," two sets of culturally induced …

"Visions Of Me In The Whitest Raw Light": Assimilation And Doxic Whiteness In Chang-Rae Lee's 'Native Speaker', Tim Engles

Tim Engles

In Chang-rae Lee's first novel, 'Native Speaker,' the protagonist is jolted by the death of his son and the subsequent departure of his wife into intensification of a lifelong identity crisis. The book's guiding metaphor, figured in Henry Park's job as a spy, cleverly elucidates the immigrant's stance as a watchful outsider in American society, but Henry's double life also figures largely in his equally representative struggles to decide for himself what kind of person he is. As a child of immigrant parents, Henry is, in Pierre Bourdieu's useful terms, endowed with a bifurcated "habitus," two sets of culturally induced …

"Visions Of Me In The Whitest Raw Light": Assimilation And Doxic Whiteness In Chang-Rae Lee's 'Native Speaker', Tim Engles

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In Chang-rae Lee's first novel, 'Native Speaker,' the protagonist is jolted by the death of his son and the subsequent departure of his wife into intensification of a lifelong identity crisis. The book's guiding metaphor, figured in Henry Park's job as a spy, cleverly elucidates the immigrant's stance as a watchful outsider in American society, but Henry's double life also figures largely in his equally representative struggles to decide for himself what kind of person he is. As a child of immigrant parents, Henry is, in Pierre Bourdieu's useful terms, endowed with a bifurcated "habitus," two sets of culturally induced …

An Investigation Of Affirmative Action Policies And Practices Of Recruiting, Hiring, Mentoring And Retention Of African American Teachers And Administrators, U. S. Davidson Jr.

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the affirmative action policies and practices of recruiting, hiring, mentoring and retention of African American teachers and administrators throughout the State of Illinois. Since public elementary and secondary school systems provide numerous and varied jobs in virtually every community in the nation, it is assumed that if a quality education is to be attained, students must be exposed to the variety of cultural perspectives that represent the nation at large (American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, 1990).

This study examined policies and practices of districts throughout the State of Illinois inquiring …

African American Self-Esteem: Racial Ideology And Racial Identity, Carrie Wilson-Brown

Masters Theses

This study empirically investigated the relationships among global self-esteem and racial self-esteem, ethnic and racial ideology, cultural identity, and anti-white sentiment in a sample of 109 African-American students enrolled in the Partnership for Excellence program at Eastern Illinois University. The findings suggest that these dimensions are interrelated and anchored in the relationships with family and friends in the black community. Self-esteem is strongly correlated with racial self-esteem, cultural knowledge, and black separatism. The data do not support a relationship between self-esteem and system-blame, anti-white sentiment, and interracial contact. Implications of this study are that black self-esteem is insulated from systems …

Changes In The Black/White Income Ratio, 1939-87, Melvin Keys

Masters Theses

The Black/white income ratio (BWIR) has increased steadily from 1939-87 for families with two incomes. Early-on, the income disparity was greatest for black females compared to black males. Because of race and sex discrimination, black females were lagging far behind society in wage differences. Today, the opposite is true, black males lag far behind black females in income: compared to their white counterparts. One of the reasons for such a large reversal in income differences maybe the opportunities that were available to black females in such occupations as teaching and nursing from 1940-75.

Migration, which looks at regional composition, was …

The Development Of A Program For Minority Dropout Prevention In The Decatur, Illinois Public School District #61, Priscilla Marjorie Palmer

Masters Theses

The purpose of this field study was to identify the need and present a workable model designed to address minority dropout prevention for the Decatur, Illinois, Public School District #61. The overall district dropout rate at the time this field study commenced was 26.6 percent. However, the dropout rate for minority (Black) males was 43.1 percent and 24.9 percent for minority (Black) females. The data shows that a problem of minority dropouts did exist in Decatur School District #61 and that a preventive program was needed to address this problem.The Program to Improve Student Attendance (PISA), was designed for use …

The Free Negro In Illinois Prior To The Civil War, 1818-1860, Steven J. Savery

Masters Theses

Free Negroes embodied one of the great dilemmas in the ante-bellum history of the state of Illinois. Nominally a free state, Illinois endeavored mightily to suppress, exclude, and dispose of a class of people who were the ultimate result of the anti-slavery movement. While a majority of Illinoisans deemed the peculiar institution undesirable, they had no intention of accepting free Negroes as equal citizens. Free blacks were often regarded as dangerous and a menace to the well-being of the entire society. Yet, Illinois reconciled its apparently contradictory views on slavery and the free Negro to a remarkable degree.

The reconciliation …

Understanding Needs And Concerns Of Black Students In Pursuit Of Higher Education, Thomas M. Caulfield

Masters Theses

The problem of this study was to increase the general publics' awareness of the difficulties Black Americans faced in pursuit of higher education.

The procedure was a twofold process. First, the writer reviewed some of the pre-college variables that affected the Black student. Second, the needs and concerns of the Black student at a predominantly White University were studied by the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to three groups on the Eastern Illinois University Campus. The first group was comprised of twenty-five Black students that were currently enrolled in the University. The second group was twenty Black …

Black Attitudes Towards Social Affiliation With Whites And Its Influence On Academic Achievement, Alvin Finderson

Masters Theses

If blacks are to compete successfully in white academia, they must be able to communicate and interact with white students and professors. Acceptance of middle-class white students with an academic achievement orientation, as friends and equals, should enable or assist blacks in developing positive attitudes toward academic achievement. This in turn should positively affect scholastic performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between black attitudes toward social affiliation with whites and successful academic performance on integrated campuses.

This hypothesis was tested by measuring the association between black self-reported grade point averages and their responses to an …