Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

Fearless: Emily Cranfill, Emily J. Cranfill

SURGE

Emily Cranfill ’15 has been getting a lot of attention recently, but not necessarily for all of the volunteering, organizations, and groups with which she’s normally involved. Since first hearing last week about the Ku Klux Klan’s (KKK) plans to come protest in the town of Gettysburg, Emily has been inspired to take action by organizing a Rally for Unity Against Hate on campus this Saturday afternoon while the KKK will be protesting. And the responses to her fearless ideas, enthusiasm, and initiative have been staggering. [excerpt]

A Christian Understanding Of Aesthetic Agency: A Theological Framework Of Resistance To Cultural Imperialism, Elise Edwards

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Aesthetic agency refers to conditions, capacities, and states that inform artistic forms of acting and exerting power on social structures. In resistance to the marginalization of women of color, aesthetic agency is exercised through creative acts of culture-making and critique of such practices to challenge domination and representation of the oppressed other. To support this work as a feminist Christian ethicist, I construct a theological framework for aesthetic agency. This paper proposes a theological understanding of transformative aesthetics and then describes the exercise of aesthetic agency for Christian communities by using a television special, Black Girls Rock! as an example.

That Awkward Moment When I Accidentally Internalized Racism, Rashida Aluko-Roberts

SURGE

I recently attended a conference about the importance of Africana Studies (AFS) and it had a panel of visiting professors that consisted of mostly black men and women. I was beyond impressed by their achievements and found myself engaged and excited by their discussions. My admiration for these scholars only grew exponentially when I learned that one of the female professors was from Sierra Leone, just like me! [excerpt]

A Developmental Approach To Civility And Bystander Intervention, Jennifer Q. Mccary

College Life Publications

The students of color in your classroom experience discrimination every day, in small and large ways. They don’t often see themselves represented in their textbooks, and encounter hostility in school, and outside. For them race is a constant reality, and an issue they need, and want, to discuss. Failure to do so can inhibit their academic performance.

Failure to discuss race prevents White students from getting a real, critical and deep understanding of our society and their place in it. It is essential for the well-being of all students that they learn to have constructive conversations about the history of …

[Introduction To] Racism In The Nation's Service: Government Workers And The Color Line In Woodrow Wilson's America, Eric S. Yellin

Bookshelf

Between the 1880s and 1910s, thousands of African Americans passed civil service exams and became employed in the executive offices of the federal government. However, by 1920, promotions to well-paying federal jobs had nearly vanished for black workers. Eric S. Yellin argues that the Wilson administration's successful 1913 drive to segregate the federal government was a pivotal episode in the age of progressive politics. Yellin investigates how the enactment of this policy, based on Progressives' demands for whiteness in government, imposed a color line on American opportunity and implicated Washington in the economic limitation of African Americans for decades to …

Postcolonial Incorporation Of The Different Other, Jane S. Ku

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology Publications

This article approaches the study of incorporation of ‘visible minority’ immigrants in Peterborough, Canada by insisting on framing their experiences in the legacies of colonialism, racial and ethnic formations, and processes that spill over nation-bound discourses. It attempts to understand the postcolonial condition from the perspective of migrants inserting themselves in the West. Using a postcolonial lens on difference, immigrant narratives about experience of becoming settled in Canada are analysed as constructions of ethnic postcolonial resistance and accommodation. The article reveals how immigrants negotiate with being stigmatized as different. The agency of migrants is emphasized while paying attention to the …

Postcolonial Incorporation Of The Different Other, Jane S. Ku

Jane S Ku

This article approaches the study of incorporation of ‘visible minority’ immigrants in Peterborough, Canada by insisting on framing their experiences in the legacies of colonialism, racial and ethnic formations, and processes that spill over nation-bound discourses. It attempts to understand the postcolonial condition from the perspective of migrants inserting themselves in the West. Using a postcolonial lens on difference, immigrant narratives about experience of becoming settled in Canada are analysed as constructions of ethnic postcolonial resistance and accommodation. The article reveals how immigrants negotiate with being stigmatized as different. The agency of migrants is emphasized while paying attention to the …

Two Tales Of A City: Nineteenth-Century Black Philadelphia, Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] In the tension between Forging Freedom and Roots of Violence certain themes present themselves for further research and thought. Neither volume successfully analyzes the historical roots of the African-American class structure. This is especially evident in each book's treatment of the black middling orders. While neither defines the category with clarity, their basic assumption that small shopkeepers and regularly employed workers were critical to the community's ability to withstand some of the worst shocks of racism is important. The clash between these books also raises questions concerning the role of pre-industrial cultural values in the transition to industrial capitalism. …

Ron Paul + Potheads = Racist Dopes, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Ron Paul’s popularity, given his history of racism, is troubling. More troubling, however, is the willingness of his supporters, an odd coalition of one-percenter corporatists and anti-war pothead libertarians, to ignore or excuse these views. Read more: http://artvoice.com/issues/v11n5/getting_a_grip

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

Critical Race Theory As Theoretical Framework And Analysis Tool For Population Health Research, Louis Graham, Shelly Brown-Jeffy, Robert Aronson, Charles Stephens

Louis F Graham

In population health research, it is important to consider socioecological perspectives that include cultural attitudes and beliefs which permeate all levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional/community, and structural/ policy). Given the specificity of target populations centered on identity – ethnic and others – it is appropriate and warranted to centralize cultural studies theories into health determinant investigations. Cultural studies, which focus explicitly on identity exploration and impacts, have much to contribute to health research. In accordance with the transdisciplinary nature of population health and bearing in mind the significant role of ethnic identity in health outcomes, it is beneficial to utilize critical …

Church Burnings, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

On 15 September 1963 a bomb exploded in the basement of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. The ensuing fire and death of four little girls placed the violence of white supremacy on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. It also entered the 16^th Street Church into a long history of attacks against houses of worship in the American South. Though churches burn for any number of reasons, including accident and insurance fraud, church arson in southern culture has frequently been associated with a symbolic assault on a community’s core institution.

Ua37/31 Faculty Personal Papers John Oldham, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about John Oldham.

Ua1b1/5 Martin Luther King Forum, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding the Martin Luther King Forum.

Racism, Eugenics, And Ernst Mayr’S Account Of Species, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

At his death at age one hundred in 2005, Ernst Mayr was hailed as the greatest evolutionary biologist of the twentieth century. His definition of species, published in 1942 in Systematics and the Origin of Species and known as the “biological species concept,” is familiar to every tenth grader: “Species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.” That definition, together with Mayr’s and Theodosius Dobzhansky’s theory of speciation, enabled the integration of modern genetics and Darwinian evolutionary theory. In this paper I will argue that it imported racism into the heart of modern …

Madre Patria (Mother Country): Latino Identity And Rejections Of Blackness, Marta I. Cruz-Janzen

Trotter Review

When I was in third grade, in Puerto Rico, I wanted to be the Virgin Mary for the community Christmas celebration. A teacher promptly informed me that the mother of Christ could not be black. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes was selected for the role, and I was given the role of a shepherd. In middle school, also in Puerto Rico, I played a house servant for a school play. Only children of black heritage played the slaves and servants. A white student with a painted face portrayed the only significant black character. All the other characters …

"I'M Not A Racist, But...": The Moral Quandary Of Race, Lawrence Blum

Lawrence Blum

Not all racial incidents are racist incidents, Lawrence Blum says. "We need a more varied and nuanced moral vocabulary for talking about the arena of race. We should not be faced with a choice of 'racism' or nothing." Use of the word "racism" is pervasive: An article about the NAACP's criticism of television networks for casting too few "minority" actors in lead roles asks, "Is television a racist institution?" A white girl in Virginia says it is racist for her African-American teacher to wear African attire.Blum argues that a growing tendency to castigate as "racism" everything that goes wrong in …

Recognize Martin Luther King Day, Kathleen March

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Each academic year as January nears the University of Maine begins to think again about Martin Luther King, about the day officially designated to honor his life and teachings. Like several other national holidays, this one currently does not bring with it a day off from classes at this university. Several reasons have been cited for this: one is the academic year is already too short.

Suppressing Minorities With Religion, Hillary Montgomery

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

While perusing the discussion folders in my FirstClass account recently, I happened upon the gender folder. For some odd reason, a number of files pertained to the subject of God and religion. Whatever the reason for using this folder to discuss such debated issues is no matter, rather the content of these messages really got me thinking.

Crime, Drugs, And Race, Wornie L. Reed

Trotter Review

The crime and criminal record statistics of black Americans are frightening; and they keep getting worse. These figures, of course, give us pause. Yet, it must be kept in mind that none of these figures demonstrates that blacks as a race are more prone to crime. Rather, the figures show that the average black person in the United States is more likely than the average white person to be so situated in the social structure that he or she is more likely to be involved in crime, with an even higher likelihood of being arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

The Foundation Of American Racism: Defining Bigotry, Racism, And Racial Hierarchy, James Jennings

Trotter Review

Despite the fact that current surveys reveal a decline in the level of white prejudice towards blacks, however, the number of hate groups and incidents of racial harassment and violence is rapidly increasing. In addition, while black and white Americans seem to be interacting more in the work place, residential segregation continues to be a major problem. Furthermore, there are indications that the political attitudes of blacks and whites are not only different on many philosophical and economic issues, but are becoming increasingly divergent.

Scientific Racism: Persistence And Change, William Edwards

Trotter Review

In the United States, World War II was hailed as the “war to end all wars.” The war itself was considered a classic confrontation between the forces of liberal democracy and those of German fascism. Inherent in the ideology of nazism was Adolf Hitler’s “final solution,” the specter of rule by a nation committed to genocide. The Third Reich was dedicated to the proposition of “Aryan superiority.” The Allied Forces, dedicated to the principles of democracy and freedom (though there were inconsistencies between principle and practice), vigorously opposed the geopolitical intentions of Hitler’s regime and its pronounced policy of racial …

A Comparative Study Of The Intelligence Quotient Of The Negro, Patricia L. Greene

Honors Theses

Extending beyond health, white supremacists maintain that Negroes are innately less intelligent than Caucasians. In a statement remarkably comparable to those made two centuries ago by advocates of the theory of American degeneration, one modern-day racist phrases the claim in these words:

Any man with two eyes in his head can observe a Negro settlement in the Congo, can study the pure-blood African in his native habitat as he exists when left on his own resources, can compare this settlement with London or Paris, and can draw hos own conclusions regarding relative levels of character and intelligence.... Finally, he can …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 49, No. 12, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Mcdaniel, Mike. Open (Closed?) Housing Affects WKU
• Wilkerson, Larry. Political Independents Vie for City Commission Seats
• Irving Levine to Speak Here on Europe of 1970’s
• National Ballet Company to Perform Here Tonight
• Wilkerson, Larry. John Cooper May be Campaigning for Governorship After All
• Catacombs Hosts Halloween Bash
• High Court Hits School Stalling - Desegregation
• UNICEF Spooks College to Help Less Fortunate
• United Givers Fund Effort Deserves Community Support
• Sullivan, Marta. Nixon Calls for Revamping of Draft, Drug Laws
• McDaniel, Mike. Judge Judged as Rushee
• UNICEF …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 47, No. 15, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Miss Carmen Willoughby Named Top Scholar
• Soul Concert Tonight Stars Wilson Pickett
• Korb, Carolyn. Alumni Group to Present Cash Stipend to Scholar
• WKU Receives Grants for Summer Institutes
• Protest Fails as Students Chant Carols
• Zeh, John. Future for Education Unclear
• Outstanding Cadet Named for ROTC – Edwin Phelps
• Chaney, Joanne & Ron Neafus. Journalist of Varied Talents, Jerry Drury Directs Circulation
• Turner, Charlene. Vietnam Discussion Set for International Club
• Club News – Geography & Geology, Alpha Kappa Psi, Baptist Student Union, Alpha Kappa Omega, Alpha …