Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

An Investigation Of The Help-Seeking Attitudes Of African American Christian Churchgoers, Kristi Madison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Black Church has been a powerful support system for African Americans, providing economic, and psychological support in addition to meeting spiritual and religious needs. African American church leaders continue to provide a multitude of services to the community; however, research has shown that African American Protestant Christian churchgoers'€™ preference for informal supports may exacerbate some symptoms of mental illness as people may postpone seeking formal help. Utilizing a nonexperimental, cross-€sectional design, this study examined the relationship between these churchgoers'€™ attitudes toward religious help-€seeking and attitudes toward professional help-€seeking. One hundred four African American Protestant Christian churchgoers in the mid-Atlantic …

Experiences Of African American Lesbians Who Attended A Historically Black College Or University, Lee Kimball Outlaw Barmore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The lived experiences of African American lesbians who attended historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have not received sufficient empirical attention; therefore, this study was conducted to understand and describe their experiences. The study followed a qualitative phenomenological approach. The multidimensional identity model, developed by Reyolds and Pope, was used as the framework through which to understand the participants' experiences. Semistructured, 40 to 60-minute interviews were conducted with 6 women who identified as African American lesbians and attended HBCUs. Initial hand and subsequent NVivo coding of interview data led to the development of the following 7 themes: (a) either African …

Perception Of Self-Worth In African-American Adult Female Children Of Alcoholic Parents, Tahira Lodge

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parental alcoholism is a major risk factor for their children's future alcohol abuse and dependence during adulthood. Thus, the purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to understand African-American adult female children's perceptions of self-worth, their lived experiences, and their quality of life as it relates to parental alcoholism. The research focus and questions were addressed by applying the conceptual framework of Bowen's family systems and Covington's self-worth theories. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 8 African-American adult female children of alcoholics. Subsequent data analysis and thematic coding were employed by using Colazzi's 7-step method to ensure rigor. …

“I’Ve Known Rivers:” Representations Of The Mississippi River In African American Literature And Culture, Catherine Gooch

Theses and Dissertations--English

My dissertation, titled “I’ve Known Rivers”: Representations of the Mississippi River in African American Literature and Culture, uncovers the impact of the Mississippi River as a powerful, recurring geographical feature in twentieth-century African American literature that conveys the consequences of capitalist expansion on the individual and communal lives of Black Americans. Recent scholarship on the Mississippi River theorizes the relationship between capitalism, geography, and slavery. Walter Johnson’s River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom, Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton: A Global History, and Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the …

Modern Charity: Morality, Politics, And Mid-Twentieth Century Us Writing, Matt Bryant Cheney

Theses and Dissertations--English

Scholars over the past two decades (Denning, Szalay, Edmunds, Robbins) have theorized the different ways literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century reflects the dawn of the liberal US welfare state. While these studies elaborate on the effect rapidly expanding public aid had on literary production of the period, many have tended to undervalue the lingering influence on midcentury storytelling of private charity and philanthropy, those traditional aid institutions fundamentally challenged by the Great Depression and historically championed by conservatives. If the welfare state had an indelible impact on US literatures, so did the moral complexity of the systems of charity and …

But What Has Helga Crane To Do With The West Indies? Plantation Afterlives In The Black Atlantic, Rachel Mckenzie Carr

Theses and Dissertations--English

“But What Has Helga Crane to Do with the West Indies? Plantation Afterlives in the Black Atlantic” situates the emergence of the southern gothic in modernist American and Caribbean works as a response to the shifting cultural narrative of the plantation in the twentieth century. In this project, I argue that the plantation seeps out of its place and time to haunt landscapes it may never have touched and times in which slavery is long over. While the plantation system is broadly recognized as a literary, political, and cultural force in nineteenth-century literary studies, I conceive it is also a …

In Black And White: Richmond’S Monument Avenue Recontextualized Through The Photographic Archive, Charlsa Anne Hensley

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

The release of the Monument Avenue Commission Report in July, 2018 was the culmination of over one year of research and collaboration with community members of Richmond, Virginia on how the city should approach the contentious history of Monument Avenue’s five Confederate centerpieces. What the monuments have symbolized within the predominately rich, white neighborhood and outside of its confines has been a matter of debate ever since they were unveiled, but the recent publicity accorded to Confederate monuments has led to considerations by historians, city leaders, and the public regarding recontextualization of Confederate monuments.

Recontextualization of the monuments should not …

African American Women's Perceptions Of Self-Value In The Transition To Natural Hair, Tekeilla Darden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Scholars have reported on the upsurge of African American women wearing their kinky, or natural, hair and the issues surrounding their choices. The wearing of natural African American hair has not been fully accepted in mainstream society. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how African American women understand self-value in the process of wearing their natural hair. The ethnic and racial identity model, critical race theory, and the strong Black woman collection were the conceptual frameworks used to connect identity, race and racism, and a collective vulnerability to the African American woman's hair journey. The study included …

A Phenomenological Approach To Understanding Consensual Nonmonogamy Among African-American Couples, Krishna Jones Clanton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Monogamy is recognized as a singularly accepted relationship construct within the United States. As a result, little is understood about alternative relationship constructs and those who choose them. Even less is understood regarding these practices among members of marginalized communities. Despite this lack of knowledge, there is evidence to suggest that approximately 4-5% of the United States population is engaged in some form of consensually nonmonogamous relationship pairing (a percentage comparable to the LGBTQAI community), and an estimated 25% of the population will engage in some form of consensual nonmonogamy over the course of their lifespan. This study looked to …

Strategies To Obtain Loans For Black-Owned Small Businesses, Trenessa Baker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Less than 30% of Black business owners successfully obtain small business loans to sustain their businesses longer than 5 years when compared to evidence that shows that more than 65% of White small business owners obtain small business loans to sustain their businesses longer than 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the experiences of 3 Black owners of small businesses who successfully obtained small business loans and maintained operations longer than 5 years in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. The conceptual framework for this study was systems theory and contingency theory. …

The Multicultural Center's Role In Black Male Success At A Predominantly White Institution, Stephan Tramaine Moore

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Many scholarly works have focused on the problems that Black males face in higher education at predominantly White institutions (PWI). However, few have explored specific factors that lead to the success of Black males. This study focuses on the Multicultural Center’s role in Black male success a PWI. There are a myriad of issues that Black men face when pursuing higher education ranging from a lack of financial resources to “invisibility” in the collegial environment. These challenges are further exacerbated for Black men who are enrolled at a PWI. The Multicultural Center (MC) is among the essential modalities that can …

The Diversion Of Diversity: Uncovering The Antiblackness Of Diversity Initiatives, M. Jordan Alexander

Honors Theses

In more recent years, Diversity has been a driving force in universities across the country. As underrepresented groups in the United States have gained more traction in the political and legal realms, they have gained the agency and the ability to advocate for their inclusion in institutions and structures that previously denied their access. This gaining of agency within these public realms is what has fueled higher education institutions across the country to really push for diversity, in both their faculty and student populations. The ideology behind this push is multiculturalism or multiracialism; this idea by its premise, the inclusion …

Religious Coping And Ptsd Symptom Management Among African Americans: A Clergy Perspective, Barbra Talley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Data indicated that although African Americans reported fewer occurrences of traumatic events than that of their racial/ethnic counterparts, however, the degree of traumatic events experienced by African Americans tends to be more serious and violent in nature. More so, lower recovery outcomes associated with PTSD among African Americans have been attributed to varying factors, such as financial restrictions, strained health care access, ineffective coping strategies as well as a mistrust of medical and clinical approaches, thus leading African Americans to seek faith-based approaches. This phenomenological study investigated clergy perspectives on religious coping constructs relative to the management of PTSD symptoms. …

"A Dark, Abiding, Signing Africanist Presence" In Walker Percy’S Dr. Tom More Novels, David Withun

The Coastal Review

Many of the tropes, commonplaces, symbols, and values used and reflected by American literary works written by white authors, as Toni Morrison writes, are “in fact responses to a dark, abiding, signing Africanist presence.” The black/white racial binary and racial différance that mark this presence inform the use of racialized characters as signifiers in the novels of Walker Percy. In the Dr. Tom More novels Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome, Percy adopts racial symbolism as a means toward his critique of the American notion of “the pursuit of happiness.” In Love in the Ruins, Percy …

African American Male Veterans' Perceptions Regarding Factors That Influence Community College Completion, Author Edward Solomon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American, male, veteran (AAMV) students are not completing their degrees at a

local community college. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine veteran student perspectives regarding factors that influence community college completion to better understand their unique needs as veteran students. The conceptual framework was Bean and Metzner's model of nontraditional student attrition. The Schlossberg situation, self, support, and strategies transition model served as a foundation to examine each veteran student's personal experience of navigating available community college services to reach their educational goals. Data were collected from interviews with 10 AAMV students. Interview transcripts were …

African American Fathers Raising An Autistic Child, Shannon Latoya Burns-Darden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parents of a child diagnosed with autism have a high risk for physical and emotional stress with mental health difficulties. Little research exists regarding fathers with an autistic child, and less information exists on African American fathers who struggle with coping and finding appropriate interventions and resources for raising an autistic child. The purpose of this interpretative, phenomenological study was to analyze the lived experiences of 12 African American fathers raising their child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This study's theoretical lens was Bowen's family systems theory. The data from this study consisted of 12 interviews with African American fathers …

Recruitment Strategies For A Sustainable Pipeline Of African American College Graduates As Civil Servants, Owen Wilbert Muldrow, Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Government leaders have not been successful in their strategies for developing a pipeline of African American college students to address the absence of African American representation in civil service management positions. Increasing African American representation among civil service personnel may produce a government workforce that reflects American society, which may promote equitable and responsive solutions in serving public interests. The purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to build consensus among a nationwide expert panel of government-affiliated talent managers as to strategies for creating a sustainable civil service pipeline of annual graduating classes of African American collegians. The research …

Substance Use And Romantic Attachment Among African American And Black Caribbean Adult Males, Shaun Faith Hutton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Individuals from unfavorable environments tend to carry maladaptive patterns of attachment from infancy through adulthood. Empirically, these styles have been shown to be intergenerational. Substance use disorder has been linked to maladaptive patterns of attachment among adults. However, limited data exists regarding this phenomenon with African American and Black Caribbean males. Bowlby's attachment theory and Ainsworth's patterns of attachment were the theoretical frameworks applied to this quantitative study. The purpose was to determine the effect of ethnicity and alcohol use on anxious and avoidant attachment patterns among a sample of 151 adult males. Using the Experience in Close Relationship and …

Improving Hypertensive Therapy Outcomes Among African Americans, Tanya Sullivan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The effects of nonadherence to prescribed blood pressure medication adversely impacts

African Americans (AA) in comparison to their European American counterparts. The

associated health consequences of uncontrolled hypertension include heart failure, stroke,

and renal dysfunction. And the treatment of the complications negatively impacts quality

of life and contributes to increased health care costs. To address the problem at 1 clinic, a

quality improvement (QI) project was developed by the clinic nursing staff, but the

project had never been evaluated. The project included blood pressure measurements

assessed among AA patients before and after implementation of a 4-item Morisky

Medication-Taking Adherence Scale …

Social And Cultural Factors Influencing The Management Of Type 2 Diabetes Among African American Men, Lavetta W. Lopez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American men are more likely to have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes than non-Hispanic White Americans and are less likely to adhere to treatment. Culture in the African American community plays a key role in how this community copes with illness and the health care system. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of social and cultural determinants of Type 2 diabetes self-management among African American men. Bandura's social cognitive theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. The research question sought to identify cultural and social factors that contribute or protect how African American men …

The Interplay Of Racial Identity Attitude And Religious Orientation On The Social Integration Experiences Of Black African College Students And African American College Students Attending Predominantly White Institutions In The United States, Christina Miattamengie Johnson

Dissertations

Problem

Not much attention has been devoted to the academic experiences of Black African college students, the latter being typically categorized with those of African Americans (Kim, 2014). While research has effectively documented the social challenges that African American college students experience at (Predominantly White Institutions (PWI). much less research has been conducted on the social experiences of subcategories within the Black population, specifically, Black Africans. Though researchers have speculated on the potential differences between the social integration experiences of Black Africans and African American college students as these relate to religious orientation and racial identity attitude, no empirical studies …

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

The Successful Transition Of Black Men At Historically White Universities, Regina M. George

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is something going on with Black men in America who go to college. As university enrollment has become more diverse with all ethnic and economic groups attending in greater numbers, as Black women are graduating at unprecedented rates, as postsecondary education becomes an increasingly significant employment requirement, the persistence to graduation rate of Black men as a group is among the lowest. Historically White institutions of higher education seek to ensure academic success and increase 4-6 year graduation rates for all students. Perhaps Black men can inform the process and lift everyone with their knowledge. This is a qualitative …

African American Aged Adults' Attitudes And Perceptions About Assisted Living Facilities, Delois Ann Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In comparison with the national U.S. population, African American aged adults are less likely to reside in assisted living facilities (ALFs). At present, little qualitative data exist concerning how African American aged adults perceive living at home as opposed to living in an ALF. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explored how African American aged adults who live at home feel about residing in ALFs. The research questions focused on aged adults' perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about ALFs and the conditions that may prevent African American aged adults from living in ALFs. A conceptual framework based on the Purnell Model …

Self-Defined: A Womanist Exploration Of Michelle Obama, Viola Davis, And Beyonce Knowles, Idrissa Nichelle Snider

Wayne State University Dissertations

Intersectional research that focuses on the experiences and representations of Black women should place emphasis on examining the communication of resistance. This dissertation builds upon the work of Womanist (Walker, 1983) and Black Feminist scholars (Collins, 1991; Harris-Perry, 2011) in order to identify and interrogate the harmful systemic nature of various stereotypes and controlling images of Black women. These controlling images historically include representations such as the Mammie, Sapphire, Jezebel, tragic mulatto, and even newer images like the angry black woman. Through a close reading of Josephine Baker’s “Danse Sauvage" performance, the research points to modern day examples of when …

Rambling Blues: Mapping Contemporary North American Blues Literature, Josh-Wade Ferguson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Rambling Blues: Mapping Contemporary North American Blues Literature” revises the methodological assumptions that have underwritten our understanding of blues literature and the politics of race and region that surround it. Where previous commentators have defined blues literature primarily through its formal and thematic connections with blues music and with the sociohistorical contours of black southern life more generally this dissertation expands the boundaries of how we conceive blues literature by examining Langston Hughes’ poems “The Weary Blues” (1925) and “Po Boy Blues” (1926) August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2011) James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods …

“Voodoo” In The Black Atlantic: Haiti And New Orleans Compared, 1791-1915, Susan L. Kwosek

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a comparative study of religious development, resilience, and sustainability in Haiti and New Orleans between 1804 and 1915. In each location, a new religion developed from the spiritual practices of enslaved Africans: Haitian Vodou and New Orleanian Voodoo. This study asks key questions about religious development, resilience, and overall sustainability in the Black Atlantic. How did Haitian Vodou mature into a national religion and resist challenges to its legitimacy from Haitian elites and Euro-Americans throughout the Atlantic World? How were whites in the U.S. able to usurp the identity of New Orleanian ceremonial Voodoo and transform it …

"Protest Literature" Or Race As A Social Construction: An Analysis Of Baldwin's Blues For Mister Charlie, Sonia Potter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This article discusses James Baldwin's 1964 play Blues for Mister Charlie as it functions as a form of protest literature that aims to portray race as a social construction. It contextualizes itself with background on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till as it applies to the plot of the play, and it explores subjects of miscegenation, interracial mixing, and the role of the press in evoking societal change during the Civil Rights Movement.

Contesting Slavery In The Global Market: John Brown’S Slave Life In Georgia, Michael Drexler, Stephanie Scherer

Faculty Journal Articles

John Brown, author of Slave Life in Georgia, published in London in 1854, proffered a radical approach to ending slavery in the USA in step with Marxian economics. In this paper, we will explain how Brown’s representation of subjectivity may have caused critics to neglect it. Brown treats freedom as something foreign and external. He has to learn what freedom means, first through exposure to a model of liberal citizenship and then through the experience of several modulations of fugitive liberty. Brown’s social world is wholly determined by external forces. Whether slave or freeman, he faces ambiguous situations. Is …

Reframing As Reclamation: Trauma Theory, African Spiritualism, And Ecocriticism In Jesmyn Ward’S Sing, Unburied, Sing, Alexandra Cohl Ms.

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores how ecocriticism and trauma theory intersect within Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) to tackle the complex act of collective healing. Trauma, and its subset transgenerational trauma, have often been a focal point for critical analysis of other African American texts that engage with ghosts and hauntings, such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). Often, these ghosts are symbolic of transgenerational trauma in fictional works. While this association is apparent in Ward’s novel, this thesis applies the aforementioned modes of scholarship alongside African-based spiritualism to investigate further the inclusion of ghosts. To accomplish this approach, this thesis …