Digital Commons Network^™

The Secret Identity Of Race: Exploring Ethnic And Racial Portrayals In Superhero Comic Books, Lowery Anderson Woodall Iii

Dissertations

Does race exist in comics? And if so, what do those characters tell us about how one of the largest fiction producing industries in the country has explained minority relationships to its millions of readers? This study took a close look at three of the most successful comic book characters of all time (Batman, Superman, and The Black Panther) and examines how each exemplifies a position that the comic book industry has taken on race over the years. Using a counter-narrative analysis informed by the strategies of Critical Race Theory and post-modernist thought, the racial messages lying beneath the surface …

President's Message To The Campus Community, August 2010, Janet M. Riggs

Reports from the President’s Office

Over the past year I have been giving a good deal of thought to diversity at Gettysburg College. I have talked with a number of you regarding the Diversity Commission's work and current structure, our institutional goals with regard to diversity, and potential strategies to meet those goals. With this letter I'd like to share a few thoughts with you, none of which are brand new, but which I hope give you a sense of how important I think this topic is for Gettysburg College. [excerpt]

A Different Voice: Nonadopted White Siblings Talk About Their Experiences Growing Up With Black Siblings, Andrea Genice Hardeman

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the notion of racial empathy and whether or not the nonadopted white siblings in transracially adoptive families develop the ability to empathize within the context of race. Specifically, I look at the following three questions: Do white siblings who have black adopted siblings develop racial empathy – the ability for one to personally identify with racially sensitive issues that affect persons of a separate racial category – toward blacks outside of their family by virtue of their interactions with the adoptee? What are the different dimensions of racial empathy? How is racial empathy displayed at each dimension? …

The 2010 Racial And Gender Report Card: National Basketball Association, Richard Lapchick, Christopher Kaiser, Christina Russell, Natalie Welch

Faculty Publications

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida publishes the Racial and Gender Report Card to indicate areas of improvement, stagnation, and regression in the racial and gender composition of professional and college sports personnel and to contribute to the improvement of integration in front office and college athletics department positions. Each year the National Basketball Association (NBA) has made progress in almost all categories examined for both race and gender.

The NBA continues to set the standard for the industry as the leader on issues related to race and gender hiring practices. …

Hands On Hips, Smiles On Lips! Gender, Race, And The Performance Of Spirit In Cheerleading, Laura Grindstaff, Emily West

Emily E. West

Cheerleading has long been synonymous with “spirit” because of its traditional sideline role in supporting school sports programs. In recent decades, however, cheerleading has become more athletic and competitive - even a sport in its own right. This paper is an ethnographic exploration of the emotional dimensions of cheerleading in light of these changes. We argue that spirit is a regulating but also flexible concept that is deployed in order to manage and uphold ideologies of emotion, and that these ideologies are central to how cheerleading reproduces racialized gender difference. On the one hand, the performance guidelines for spirit stabilize …

How Does Race Operate Among Asian Americans In The Labor Market? : Occupational Segregation And Different Rewards By Occupation Among Native-Born Chinese American And Japanese American Male Workers, Chang Won Lee

Ethnic Studies Review

The effect of race in the U.S. labor market has long been controversial. One posits that racial effects have been diminished since the civil rights movement of the 1960s (Alba & Nee, 2003; Sakamoto, Wu, & Tzeng, 2000; Wilson, 1980). Even if some disparities in labor-market outcomes among race groups are found, advocates of this "declining significance of race" thesis do not attribute these disparities to racial discrimination. They, instead, understand the racial gaps as a result of class composition of racial minority groups, classes represented by larger proportions of the working-class population (Wilson, 1980, 1997) as well as unskilled-immigrant …

Chicana/Latina Undergraduate Cultural Capital: Surviving And Thriving In Higher Education, Maricela Demirjyn

Ethnic Studies Review

This study addressed the retention of Chicana/Latina undergraduates. The problem explored was one; how these women perceive campus climate as members of a marginalized student population and two; which strategies are used to "survive the system." As a qualitative study, this work was guided by a confluence of methods including grounded theory, phenomenology and Chicana epistemology using educational narratives as data. The analysis indicated that Chicanas/Latinas do maintain a sense of being "Other" throughout their college experiences and this self-identity is perceived as a "survival strategy" while attending a mainstream campus. Further analysis also showed that Chicanas/Latinas begin their college …

How Are They Racialized? Racial Experiences Of Chinese Graduate Students, Ying Wang

Ethnic Studies Review

The present study explores the lived experiences of Chinese graduate students at a Southwestern University in order to find out how they experience race in daily life, what their interpretations of the racial experience are and how do racialized experiences shape their perceptions of life chances. The results indicate that the racialization process plays an important role in Chinese students' life through their lived experiences. Most Chinese students have noticed race and some of them have experienced racial discrimination. However, Chinese students still hold up the importance of education and believe that education will blunt the racial edge

Immigration And Domestic Politics In South Africa: Contradictions Of The Rainbow Nation, Vernon D. Johnson

Ethnic Studies Review

The region of Southern Africa has been part of the global capitalist system since its inception in the late 15th century, when Portugal incorporated Angola and Mozambique into its empire. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a "refreshment station" at the Cape of Good Hope for ships travelling between Europe and the Far East.1 From that time the region has experienced several periods of deepening incorporation into the global system.

Orientals Need Apply: Gender-Based Asylum In The U.S., Midori Takagi

Ethnic Studies Review

Every other year I teach a course entitled "The History of Asian Women in America," which focuses on the experiences of East, South and Southeast Asian women as they journey to these shores and resettle. Using autobiographies, poetry, journal writings, interviews and academic texts, the students learn from the women what political, social, cultural, economic and ecological conditions prompted them to leave their homelands and why they chose the United States. We learn of their rich cultural backgrounds, their struggles to create a subculture based on their home and host experiences, and the cultural gaps that often appear between the …

Alcohol Problems In Young Adults Transitioning From Adolescence To Adulthood: The Association With Race And Gender, Karen G. Chartier, Michie N. Hesselbrock, Victor M. Hesselbrock

Social Work Publications

Race and gender may be important considerations for recognizing alcohol related problems in Black and White young adults. This study examined the prevalence and age of onset of individual alcohol problems and alcohol problem severity across race and gender subgroups from a longitudinal study of a community sample of adolescents followed into young adulthood (N = 166; 23–29 yrs. old who were drinkers). All alcohol problems examined first occurred when subjects were in their late teens and early 20s. Drinking in hazardous situations, blackouts, and tolerance were the most common reported alcohol problems. In race and gender comparisons, more …

A Wink Or A Nod, Mr. President? A Call For The President’S Consideration Of Race, Lilia D. Monzó, Suzanne Soohoo

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"Dear Mr. President... We ask now that you pour some attention to race and racism in America, and we submit that your leadership in this area is critically important for people of all colors."

The Spot Program: Hello Racial Profiling, Goodbye Fourth Amendment?, Deborah L. Meyer

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Valuing Difference, Exercising Care In Oz: The Shaggy Man's Welcome, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

“…and he sighed with contentment to realize that he could now be finely dressed and still be the shaggy man.”

One cannot say that the people of Oz valued difference or valued the diversity of its people. Because in Oz, difference and diversity simply was; difference in OZ simply existed. Rather, it might be more accurate to say that the people in the Fairy Land of Oz had a practice of difference in which different people or beings of all sorts were simply accepted and embraced. Not just accepted, as in tolerated in the way someone from Kansas or the …

Splitting The Academy: The Emotions Of Intersectionality At Work, Helen A. Moore, Katherine Acosta, Gary Perry, Crystal Edwards

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using labor market theory, we assess how we have constructed the teaching of required courses on diversity, with the potential splitting of the academy into distinctive labor markets. In-depth interviews with instructors of color and nonminorities who teach required diversity-education courses at a predominately white university are qualitatively assessed and describe the differences in the emotional labor attached to this segmented academic market.We identify specific dimensions of diversity teaching that attach to the job conditions of secondary labor markets, including the distortion of work loads and evidence of differential barriers in the emotional labor attached. These labor market conditions may …

The Feminization Of Private Investigation: A Sociological Analysis, Jessica Simpson Pearce

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation outlines the occupation of private investigation and the role that females play within that profession. The difficulties women experience in male-oriented occupations remains noteworthy in sociological research today. Progress has been made, yet many barriers still exist for women. These include structural, social, and cultural factors that influence women and/or the jobs that they hold. With the completion of interviews with twenty-six female private investigators, I was able to analyze the existing structural, interactional, and gender barriers which moderate the number of women that work as private investigators. Few studies have examined this occupation and this gap may …

Do Ugly Criminals Receive Harsher Sentences? An Analysis Of Lookism In The Criminal Justice System, Kelly Beck

Business and Economics Honors Papers

For many years, researchers have attempted to find a link between beauty and labor market outcomes. Although many important findings have been noted in these studies, the beauty analysis utilized was a subjective measurement. This subjective method, while important, may have external factors creating bias in the rating itself. In this study, the impact of beauty is applied to criminals and their sentences. Using a computer based symmetry measurement tool, an objective beauty measurement will be utilized. This study will seek to uncover whether or not criminals who are less attractive, measured through facial symmetry, receive harsher prison sentences than …

Cross-Race Relationships As Sites Of Transformation: Navigating The Protective Shell And The Insular Bubble, Karen Audrey Geiger

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The context of leadership has evolved to incorporate greater social identity differences. Therefore, learning ways to navigate differences in social identity becomes important work leaders must now do. Because these differences surface in relationship with others, examining a relational framework helps us understand the nature of what happens between people (Ely & Roberts, 2008). This study explored the processes by which Black African American and White European American women enact leadership by creating and sustaining cross-race relationships as they work to change unjust systems around them. Using grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006; Strauss & Corbin, 1990), a model was developed …

Does Whitening Happen? Distinguishing Between Race And Color Labels In An African-Descended Community In Peru, Tanya Golash-Boza

tanya golash-boza

This article explores how race and color labels are used to describe people in an Afro-Peruvian community. This article is based on analyses of 88 interviews and 18 months of fieldwork in an African-descended community in Peru. The analyses of these data reveal that, if we consider race and color to be conceptually distinct, there is no “mulatto escape hatch,” no social or cultural whitening, and no continuum of racial categories in the black Peruvian community under study. This article considers the implications of drawing a conceptual distinction between race and color for research on racial classifications in Latin America. …

Is “Race-Neutral” Really Race- Neutral?: Adverse Impact Towards Underrepresented Minorities In The Uc System., Jose Luis Santos, Nolan L. Cabrera, Kevin J. Fosnacht

Nolan L. Cabrera

Authors examine the proportion of undergraduate applications, admissions, and enrollments preceding, during, and after Proposition 209 while accounting for the relative growth in University of California eligibility for underrepresented minorities (URMs). They employed standard deviation analyses to measure dispersion of the URMs to non-URMs. Results suggest that "disparate impact" towards URMs persists, the magnitude is large, and affirmative action alone is insufficient to ensure an equitable admissions process.