Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

Playing The Way To Equality In The Civil Rights, Feminism, And Lgbtq Movements, Lauren Mcdonough

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

Music culture is where a group of people share a common involvement, or interest, in music. This culture spans across time and area as music evolves. Whether it be rap or country, classical or punk, people have found their niches in the world of music. People relate to music, and it makes them feel good. Music comes with an emotional attachment in this way. This bond is seen between listeners and performers, as well as the listeners themselves. This common love of music is seen very blatantly, as it’s played on every kind of social media, and is seen in …

Teaching Progress: A Critique Of The Grand Narrative Of Human Rights As Pedagogy For Marginalized Students, Robyn Linde, Mikaila M. L. Arthur

Faculty Publications

With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, education about human rights became an important focus of the new human rights regime and a core method of spreading its values throughout the world. This story of human rights is consistently presented as a progressive teleology that contextualizes the expansion of rights within a larger grand narrative of liberalization, emancipation, and social justice. This paper examines the disjuncture between the grand narrative on international movements for human rights and social justice and the lived experiences of marginalized students in urban environments in the United States. Drawing on …

Biased Visual Attention To Out-Group Members' Skin Tone Does Not Lead To Discriminatory Behavior, Sathiarith Chau

Honors Projects

According to the racial phenotype theory, the extent to which members resemble or depart from the physical prototype of a particular race will determine how strongly the perceiver associates them with preconceived racial stereotypes. For Blacks, skin color was predicted to be a primary feature attended to and those with dark skin were more negatively stereotyped. The current study aimed to explicitly measure visual attention during judgment of faces through the use of eye-tracking. Past methodologies measuring the attention to skin tone and its relationship to stereotype judgment were not directly measured. The study used a mixed model design: Label …

Beyond The Black Horizon, Aaron Bruce

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Although U.S. colleges and universities continue to discuss creative ways to increase the number of African American collegians participating in study abroad, this research is limited when revealing the unique perspectives of African American collegians who have studied abroad. Traditionally an emphasis on program success has been placed on the quantity of study abroad participants rather than the quality of African American student support and engagement; the personal reflections through the lens of African American race and identity are often overlooked. A series of culturally responsive, guided interviews were conducted with African American collegians from a variety of institutions across …

Analysis Of 45 Nahua/Mexica/Aztec Children's Books, Yaocihuatzin

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Given the legacy of 500 years of colonization and miseducation of Indigenous peoples, how can Nahua/Mexica/Aztec children's books be decolonized and made appropriate to the twenty first century?

Apartheid Transition: Assessing A Black Township Education In South Africa's Disparate Social System, Adrienne Gerard

Honors Projects

An analysis of township education in South Africa and why outcomes are still so poor despite varied attempts y the post-Apartheid government to elevate these previously disadvantaged schools to the level of the country's primarily white schools. This paper looks into financial reason as well as policies, teacher qualification and domestic culture.

A Person Of Interest, Jesse Lepre

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Presents a drama-based screenplay which explores the stereotyping of the modern Italian-American male in contemporary American society.

Race, Class, And Herman Melville, Joan A. De Santis

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes two of the short stories in Herman Melville's The Piazza Tales, "Bartleby the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno" and argues that these stories are highly critical of the bourgeois class structure of American society that inform Wall Street, as well as the slave trade, in mid-Nineteenth-Century America. Posits that in these works Melville addresses the questions of hierarchical power in the workplace and the effects of racism and slavery in the colonization of America.

Careers In Corrections: Perceptions From The Inside, Kelsey A. Kanoff

Honors Projects

Examines the perceptions of correctional officers on recruitment, retention, and promotion processes within the Rhode island Department of Corrections. Studies the extent to which gender, and to a lesser extent, race, impact officers at all three stages of their careers.

The Face Of Society, Roger D. Clark, Alex Nunes

Faculty Publications

We have updated Ferree and Hall's (1990) study of the way gender and race are constructed through pictures in introductory sociology textbooks. Ferree and Hall looked at 33 textbooks published between 1982 and 1988. We replicated their study by examining 3,085 illustrations in a sample of 27 textbooks, most of which were published between 2002 and 2006. We found important areas of progress in the presentation of both gender and race as well as significant areas of stasis. The face of society we found depicted in contemporary textbooks was distinctly less likely to be that of a white man, very …

Language, Gender And Identity In The Works Of Louise Bennett And Michelle Cliff, Nicole Branca

Honors Projects

Examines the writings of two female, Jamaican authors, Louise Bennett and Michelle Cliff. Bennett flourished during the period of de-colonization and independence for Jamaica, while Cliff came into prominence after Jamaican independence. Shows how both writers played an important role in helping Jamaica establish a national identity by focusing on multiple dimensions of what it means to be Jamaican, including issues of language, gender, and identity.

Isolation And Community In Short Story Collections By Z.Z. Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, And Mary Gaitskill, Katy A. Howe

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Looking at short story collections by Z.Z. Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Mary Gaitskill, this work explores the protagonists' development of identity in relation to others. Using relational psychoanalysis as a theoretical base, this thesis probes the tension between involvement in community and maintaining individuality.

Becoming White: Contested History, Armenian American Women, And Racialized Bodies, Janice Okoomian

Faculty Publications

This essay traces the historical process by which Armenians became legally white in the United States, demonstrating how arguments for Armenian whiteness were used as part of a larger strategy to exclude other Asian immigrants from nationalization in the early twentieth century. For late twentieth-century Armenian Americans, the conditions of racial whiteness include the erasure of Armenian history and the assimilation of Armenian bodies into European gender norms. Through a reading of Carol Edgarian’s Rise, the Euphrates, the essay argues for an Armenian American female subject that resists race and gender assimilation as well as historical erasure.

Early Observations On The 2000 Census, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The 281.4 million residents of our country counted in 2000 exceeded census estimates of 274.5 by nearly seven million and 13.2 percent, was the largest numeric gain for a decade in the history of census taking, dating back to 1790 when the first one was taken. Swelled by immigrant numbers and holding a steady birth rate, this increase topped the previously highest increase of 28 million of the baby boom years of the 1950s."

Tiger Woods, A Herald For The Blending Of The Races In U.S., Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Tiger Woods, perennial winner of gold tournaments, has a unique way of describing his ancestry. When asked his background, e claims to be a "Caublasin," i.e., Caucasoid, Black, Asian and Indian. But, in reality, the Tiger may not be unique in a country that is now moving toward becoming a blended multiracial society."

John H. Bracey, Jr.: The Cost Of Racism To White America (1999), John H. Bracey

Rhode Island College Audio Video collection

No abstract provided.

Armenian American Women Inhabiting Our Bodies: Gendered And Embodied Ethnicity In Carol Edgarian's Rise The Euphrates, Janice Okoomian

Faculty Publications

The subject of my paper is Carol Edgarian's recent novel, Rise the Euphrates, which I believe can tell us much about the current condition of Armenian-American women... In keeping with literary and cultural theory of the past twenty years, I favor a more complex model, in which the text and the culture in which it is written are part of a larger system of knowledge called a "discourse." I am using a Michel Foucault's widely known definition of discourse here: a set of rules, conventions, and practices which both enable and set limits upon knowledge and which permeate a …

Time To Learn Spanish?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Americans don't take well to foreign languages.

But there is a change taking place in the nation that should cause us to question this reliance on English. the change is in the increasing numbers of new people coming into the United States who continue to speak their own languages."

Armenian Women In A Changing World: Papers Presented At The First International Conference Of The Armenian International Women's Association, Janice Okoomian

Faculty Publications

We live in the age of what is called "multiculturalism" in the United States. To be white and ethnic, sometimes even to be a person of color, is fashionable. This is true not only in the culture at large, but also in the academic fields of American literary and cultural studies, where the intersection between race/ethnicity and the female body is a popular subject for research. Most scholars who write about this topic, however, have focussed on what it means to be a woman of color in the United States. It is only recently that research is beginning to pay …

Ethnic Mix Enriches Culture, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Rhode Island is unique. It is the smallest state in the country, has a different religious majority, has one of the oldest populations and has one of the largest varieties of ethnic groups in the country."

Japanese-Americans Still Waiting For Payment, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The Victory Day holiday, or 'V-J Day' as it's still called, was recently enjoyed as a long weekend in Rhode Island. It is the only state to recognize the end of World War II in this manner, and the practice still raises questions about its validity 44 years after the fact."

Color It Ethnically Diverse, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The recent Rhode Island Heritage Festival held on the State House lawn is a good reminder of our immigrant legacy in this country. The hundreds of people who came to sample the food from 24 countries and to see dances from around the world also experienced a small United Nations of language and attire."

The Cities Do Need Help, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The lead editorial in the Providence Sunday Journal of December 7, 1986 is completely off the mark and deserves to be answered. The attitude expressed by the writer conveys the specious view that because our nation's cities are not being burned down or torn apart by race riots at the present time then things are not really all that bad in our urban centers."

30 Years After ... (Invitation), Rhode Island College

30 Years After ... Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

No abstract provided.

Minorities, Cities To Bear Brunt Of Federal Cutbacks, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The sad story of the 4,500 Rhode Island families whose welfare benefits will be reduced or ended with this current 1982 fiscal year should make us profoundly aware of the plight of the poor. In the next few months government-mandated action will bring the federal budget closer to balance. Not yet noticed but soon to be realized, will be the impact on minority poor, and on the place where most of them live--the city."

Immigrants Can Contribute More Than Mere Numbers, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The job advertisement might read like this: Waned -- married couple to operate a market in a neighborhood subject to arson and robbery. Hours 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, with no vacations. Must know various languages to serve customers of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Benefits include satisfaction of knowing you are meeting needs of immigrants, poor and elderly in neighborhood and, maybe, earn enough money to pay for children's education. Investment of $60,000 required."

Roger Williams Project-Potential Industrial Site?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"In a neighborhood analysis done in 1969, the Providence Department of Planning and Urban Development stated it succintly: "The Roger Williams public housing project contains some of the poorest quality housing in the area."

Tel Aviv--A Triumph Over Adversity, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"In March, the sun is still not too high, and under a clear blue Mediterranean sky in this seaside city, the daytime temperatures are int he comfortable 75-degree range. This is not the case in the summer when temperatures may go over 100 degrees, humidity is overpowering, and most activity stops during the heat of the midafternoon. The intense heat not only debilitates the body, but surprisingly, affects suburban development, concentrated within 15 miles of the city center. To drive more than a half-hour in the oven-like heat of a car's interior is too uncomfortable for long-distance commuting."

Glorious Pre-Industrial City, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

""There is Jerusalem" was the shout of joy as the convoy drivers crossed a low rise of the Judean Hills and saw ahead the outline of their destination. Bringing supplies into the city after independance in 1948 was a hazardous undertaking because snipers along the route were constant threats to the convoys that supplied this divided city, occupied by both the Jordanian army and the Jews. The stark reminder of that time is today memorialized by the numerous truck chassis found along the side of the highway and at which ceremonies are held to honor those drivers who died so …

The Most Disheartening Example Of City Decay, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It has to be seen to be believed. And yet, two days after viewing it, one wonders if it were just a terrible dream that will somehow disappear with time. Is the South Bronx, that most devastated area of New York City, really as bad as they say it is?"