Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

What Works? Teaching African American Students In Urban Schools, Shawn Renee Forman

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The academic achievement gap for African American students compared to their White counterparts has historically and currently remained significant. Many researchers have been prompted to address this issue by examining the practices utilized to teach African American students. The findings from this study suggest that when teachers move away from the traditional methods of teaching and move toward teaching practices that take into consideration the individual student, motivation and academic performance can be achieved. This research presents a general literature review, interviews from four urban elementary school principals, and the stories of five African American urban elementary teachers who were …

Stories Of Strength: Chicago Latin@S' Navigation Of Health, Well-Being, And Chronic Disease, Lilian L. Milanés

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Health inequalities take many forms related to race, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic, language and many other axes throughout communities around the world. Type two diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are examples of conditions (among many others) that disproportionately affect Latino@s in the U.S.. The research of this dissertation is based on fieldwork conducted throughout several predominantly Latin@ neighborhoods in Chicago, IL. This dissertation examines how Latin@s in Chicago navigate health and well-being, and how they engage in agentive strategies in the face of chronic disease. I recorded individual life histories and semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation …

Evangelizing Neoliberalism Through Megachurches In Latin America And The United States, William O. Collazo

Dissertations and Theses

The most prominent and influential feature of worldwide Evangelicalism, is the megachurch. In Latin America megachurches have proliferated and grown in political influence when they first came into contact with neoliberalism during Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile. As Latin America's poor first migrated out of rural areas into Latin American cities, then north, to the United States, they have brought with them their religion. Increasingly, this religion is Protestant, evangelical, and for many, it is Pentecostalism. Misunderstood by the early literature on Pentecostalism, is the strain of neoliberalism that has become infused in the religion's most powerful institution - the megachurch. …

Parker, William, Bronx African American History Project, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Interview: William Parker

Interviewer: Mark Naison

Date of Interview: December 8, 2018

Summary by Bailey Barnett

William Parker was born in the Bronx in 1952. As a child, Parker had the opportunity to play several different instruments before ultimately settling on the bass. Parker not only discusses some of the teachers who influenced him but also explains what he believes distinguished people who were truly "from the Bronx." He spent many years working various odd jobs until, during the 1980s, he was able to support himself by traveling and sharing his music with others. The belief that music has the …

Historical Consciousness, The Cultural Imaginary And Postcolonial Subjectivity In Ruth Ozeki's A Tale For The Time Being, Cassandra S. Curatolo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project fuses personal narrative and literary criticism, as it excavates Ruth Ozeki’s representations of Japanese culture in the novel A Tale for the Time Being. I argue that her use of stereotype unsettles popular images of Japan by constructing characters who challenge the hegemonic gaze of the Western cultural imaginary. My reading connects continuing investment in these stereotypical representations to the postmodern epoch, where individuals and society as a whole have become incapable of dealing with the past. I explore the links between postmodern amnesia, the disappearance of a multiplicity of perspectives in history and the inclination of …

Promoting Equity For Black Males: A Master Gardener’S Narrative For School Change, Antoinette R. Hudson

Higher Education: Doctoral Research Projects

This doctoral research praxis project discusses the status of Black males in education, provides explanations on the educational disparities that exist for Black male students, and defines possible strategies to remedy the persistent and chronic problem of Black male underachievement in schools. Racism is viewed as one of the factors that contributes to the dilemma of Black male students’ underachievement in school. To better understand the educational disparities, Jones’s conceptual framework, three levels of racism: “A Gardener’s Tale,” was discussed to deconstruct the ways racism may possibly occur within the educational system. Autoethnography was used as the most appropriate mode …

Hip Hop Hermeneutics: How The Culture Influences Preachers, Dwight A. Radcliff Jr.

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

"Hip Hop Hermeneutics" essay lays out findings of current research into how Hip Hop culture has been formational for African American preachers, and how that culture informs their preaching. There is a generation of preachers leading congregations today that have grown up with Hip Hop. Hip Hop culture has left an indelible mark upon them; just as the church has. How does the cultural influence of Hip Hop affect their preaching? Hip Hop hermeneutics is the response put forth by this article. This article traces the practice and theology of early African American preachers, the work of James Cone in …

From Yeezus To Pablo: An Existential Theology Between God, Blackness, And Being, Shea Watts

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Kanye West has transformed and transfigured from a young rapper representing the Southside of Chicago, to an icon, a rap genius, a god. His persona has continually evolved from his arrival on the Hip Hop scene, leading to his emergence as, "Yeezus." This essay argues for an investigation of Kanye’s theological claims through the lens of his own body, particularly the balance between how he conveys what it is like to be a black man in an American culture plagued by racism and the potential of the black body to assert its incarnate godlikeness in his music. In addition, this …

The Messianic Zeal: A Case Of Radical Aesthetics In Black Cultural Production, Daniel L. Williams

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This essay examines artwork by popular artists D’Angelo, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and 2pac Shakur and compares their articulations to a larger discourse of messianic symbolism in (black) American popular culture. In this paper, messianic symbolism is a discursive chain of symbols that invoke the Black experience. Artists extend the legacy of earlier representations of black messianism by similarly representing themselves as Jews, saviors or folk heroes with a specific mission to save a world burdened by racial strife and oppression. These qualities manifest in lyrics, album covers, and other late 20th century rhetoric.

Contributors

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

List of contributors.

Pocahontas Looks Back And Then Looks Elsewhere: The Entangled Gaze In Contemporary Indigenous Art, Monika Siebert

English Faculty Publications

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, various genres of visual art in North America feature Indigenous subjects looking from the canvas or the screen at the viewers to interpellate them as implicated in the gaze framing the artwork. In this article, I provide an historical genealogy of this returned gaze, starting with Simon van de Passe’s 1616 engraving, Matoaka als Lady Rebecca. I show how subsequent depictions of Pocahontas depart from the reciprocal gaze of de Passe’s portrait and how contemporary art returns to this theme of the returned gaze, using Shelley Niro’s video work The Shirt (2003) …

Facilitating Factors And Positive Reasons African American Men Attend Psychotherapy, Taia Willis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found that African American men are one of the most marginalized, targeted, and disenfranchised groups of people. In the past, African American men were less likely to attend psychotherapy compared to other ethnicities. Barriers to treatment includes the following: distrust in the mental health system, self-reliant behaviors, religious ideologies, cultural stigmas, and the ideology of what it means to be a man and an African American man in America. This study addressed the lack of qualitative studies on the experiences of African American men who attend psychotherapy by exploring the lived experiences of 10 African American men who …

Geografía Abolicionista Y El Problema De La Inocencia, Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Publications and Research

Resumen:

En el presente artículo se analizan las geografías carcelarias en los Estados Unidos, desde el despliegue del capitalismo racial. La geógrafa afroamericana parte de la tesis de que las prisiones contemporáneas son extractivas, es decir, extraen personas y, cuando, en el mejor de los casos, no hacen parte de los altos índices de las muertes prematuras, las expulsan al mundo sin el derecho a ser ellas, dinámica que estimula la circulación rápida de flujos de dinero. Frente a esta topografía anuladora de la vida, la también activista afroamericana reflexiona sobre su experiencia en contra del complejo militar carcelario, el …

Latino Parents With Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Children And The Catholic Doctrine Towards Homosexuality, Axel Monroig

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parents who experience their children's coming out encounter emotional reactions that could compromise their ability to function, particularly when challenged by the Catholic doctrine towards homosexuality. It is not well known how Latino parents experience their children's coming out and how they mediate their Catholic identity. The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of these parents considering phenomenology as the method of inquiry. The theoretical lens was based on the parental acceptance-rejection theory. The research questions addressed how Latinos experienced the coming out of their children and how they mediated their identities as Catholics and as parents …

Impact Of Acculturation On Body Mass Index In Haitians, Nirva Berthold

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Longer-term immigrants residing in the United States exhibit physical health decline related to higher body mass index (BMI). Theories on immigrant acculturation have been used to examine health patterns by length of stay in the United States. The purpose of this cross-sectional study, guided by the Schwartz model of acculturation, was to examine the effect of acculturation and length of stay in the United States on BMI in a sample of Haitian immigrants living in the Northeast Metropolitan area. The research question was used to examine the effects of acculturation and length of stay on BMI in the convenience sample …

Exploring Ethnic Diversity On Managerial Choices In Nigeria., Henry Odiri Imoni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Nigeria, most citizens between the ages of 20-60 believe that ethnicity is the leading cause of discrimination. The central problem addressed in this study was how ethnic diversity influenced managerial choices in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the role of ethnicity in managerial choices in a Nigerian federal traffic management agency to gain an understanding of how ethnicity influenced managers' recruitment, placement, and promotion of employees. Complexity theory and a consideration of African management practices constituted the conceptual framework. Participants were 11 managers who were recruited from a Nigerian government agency using a …

Policy Implications And Perceptions Of African American Men Who Used Ritalin As Children, Divine Ayivor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Even though there are high diagnosis rates of ADHD among young African American

men, policy makers and parents have largely viewed the use of Ritalin as a psychotrop

ic

drug that raises public health concerns. African American parents may be reluctant to

treat their children pharmacologically. Very few studies have fully explored the

perceptions of African American men

about the consequences of their

Ritalin

use

as

chi

ldren. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of African

American men who used Ritalin as children

so that

policy makers

and

parents of children

with ADHD

might

better …

Llevo Resilencia En La Frente: The Influence Of Community On The Thriving Of Latinas In College, Clarisse Salazar

Scripps Senior Theses

Latinas in college are systematically disadvantaged and face many unique stressors and adversities such as race-related discrimination and family stress; however, perceived availability of social support has been shown to have positive effects on students, such as positively influencing adjustment and academic persistence. In an effort to determine what factors help Latinas thrive in college, an experimental study with a 2x2 factorial design is proposed to investigate if in the face of adversity, does peer support/community preserve the thriving of Latinas in college. Community is defined by sense of membership and validation, and both will be manipulated in the in-lab …

“An Awakening Of Critical Consciousness: Unfurlings Of (Re)Memory, Resistance And Resiliency”, Prisma L. Herrera

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis does not adhere to “traditional” academic criteria which I feel tends to be rigid, constrained ways of regurgitating knowledge. It is not easily digestible, nor is it something that offers concrete answers. Rather it is a critical understanding of many of my experiences in the last four years of education, with a specific focus on the most recent events that have unfolded in my personal and academic life. This thesis is a journey. It is by witnessing communities in New York City, Bolivia, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, Chiapas and Southern California that continue to struggle and hope in the …

Representing Wilderness In The Shaping Of America's National Parks: Aesthetics, Boundaries, And Cultures In The Works Of James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, And Their Artistic Contemporaries, Alana Jajko

Master’s Theses

This project studies the works of James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, and their artistic contemporaries in relation to the shaping of America’s national parks and what it means for the parks and their attending wilderness to be symbolic of the nation. It seeks to reveal the national parks as artistic representations of a constructed wilderness, while also emphasizing the physical experience of the natural world as a means of supplementing our subjective views. Through the lenses of aesthetics, boundaries, and cultures, I narrow my study to focus on three distinct perspectives by which we can understand the national parks and …