The school of thought articulated by critical theorists Giorgio Agamben and Joan Copjec differ from each other in methodology, approach, and language. Yet, both Agamben and Copjec each write to reject positivist notions of ethics, which each theorist identifies as rooted in the same ideological apparatuses that propagate exclusionary and violent actions. By turning away from pre-given ethics and ideology, these writers attempt to delineate why these philosophies have been the vehicle of violence and racial oppression, and reiterate the importance of turning away from such thought in order for the subject to conceptualize a new way of being and relating to others that combats dominant ideology. Agamben's theoretical concept of homo sacer that lies at the center of his philosophical project, and Copjec's Lacanian understanding of the subject as inherently ruptured, both delineate subjectivity, as well as the concepts of race and racism in novel ways. Using these theorists to read Morrison's novels illustrates the critical concepts outlined by these two thinkers. In the first chapter of this thesis, I plan to outline Agamben's notion of homo sacer, and Copjec's theorizing of the subject as inherently ruptured. I employ Morrison's piece of literary criticism, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, to demonstrate how Morrison's literary and intellectual project as a writer also aims to refigure subjectivity, illustrating and expanding upon Agamben and Copjec's work. In the second chapter, I will move on to discuss Agamben's political philosophy and concept of homo sacer, analyzing Morrison's novels, A Mercy, and Home to demonstrate how her work illustrates and expands upon Agamben's analysis of biopolitics. Lastly, in the third chapter of this thesis, I place Morrison in dialogue with Copjec, demonstrating how Morrison's characters illustrate the notion of a ruptured subject, and why it is important to read her work through this lens. I aim to demonstrate how Morrison's characters expand upon the notions of race, femininity, and subjectivity as conceived by Copjec. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to delineate why it is beneficial to place these three writers in dialogue with one another to analyze notions of racial identity, subjectivity, violence, and trauma.

Blank space in western Art History and visual culture is something that has tended to be either explained away, or ignored. Pictures that do not depict challenge the visual basis of the ego and its others, confronting what I call the 'Phallic reader' (who sees according to the logic and rules of the Phallogocentric system he inhabits) and potentially disturbing his sense of the visible. The Phallic reader, the visible and the seeing ego's sense of how to see, meet in what I call the 'psychic surface'. Deploying this notion of a 'psychic surface' allows for readings which move on from the potentially confining logic of the Phallus. Paradoxically, the psychic structure of monochrome's liminal blankness is homologous to the indeterminate Mixed Race subject, whose body transgresses not only the foundational historical binarism of 'Black/White', but also Lacanian psychoanalysis. This thesis aims to concentrate on exploring blank spaces, with particular reference to the monochrome within western Art History. Building on the considerable work since at least the 1960s that critiques the binary logocentrism of Eurocentric, Hegelian-originated Art History, this thesis aims to explore the specific ways monochrome evades, undermines and tricks commonly accepted 'groundrules' of Art History. The Phallic reader is severely restricted in understanding that which falls outside of the signifying logic of a particular system of Art History that follows a binary, teleological and Phallogocentric course. Both monochrome and the Mixed Race subject fall outside of this logic, as both contain the structure of the trick. In each case, the trick is activated in the tension between the prychica nd the opticals urfaces. I suggestt hat monochrome's psychic space is pre-Phallic, a space of eternal deferral of meaning, a space that playfully makes a nonsense of binary structures. Psychoanalysis is largely used here as an analytic tool, but also appears as an object of critique. Art History provides an anchor for the optical surfaces under discussion. Theories of 'radical superficiality' both contradict and complement these ways of theorising the psychic surface. The trick/ster is a significant/signifiant means of deploying interdisciplinary methodologies to negotiate this difficult terrain between Black, White and monochrome. An interdisciplinary approach also enacts the psychic structure of indeterminacy of my objects of study. I hope that by proposing a potential transgressive power for those indeterminate things that continue to confound the binary systems that aim to contextualise and confine them, I will contribute to the areas of Visual Culture and 'Race' Theory.

M.A. / Committed interracial relationships within the South African context have been associated with controversy as these relationships were once considered immoral and illegal. Since the abolishment of the anti-miscegenation and racial segregation laws, committed interracial relationships have slowly increased but are still fraught with difficulties. The experience of discrimination remains a prominent concern for individuals in committed interracial relationships. Black male-white female interracial relationships are considered the most stigmatised form of relationship, and these relationships are at risk of experiencing the severest forms of discrimination. Various studies have examined the phenomenon of interracial relationships, considering these relationships from theoretical perspectives that sought to explain the union between individuals of different races. In addition to seeking causal explanations for the manifestation of committed interracial relationships, perspectives from family members and society as a whole have been investigated. Studies that explore the subjective experiences of individuals in committed interracial relationships are scarce, and research of such a nature is especially limited within the South African context. South African research that seeks to give a voice to white women in committed interracial relationships with black men, and in particular their experience of discrimination, is currently unavailable. Therefore, this study aimed to elicit untainted first-person descriptions of the lived experience and the associated meaning of discrimination experienced by white women in interracial relationships with black men within the South African context. A descriptive phenomenological research paradigm and method were deemed appropriate for the exploration and depiction of the phenomenon. Three white females in committed interracial relationships with black males were sourced and interviewed for the purpose of this study. These women have been in committed relationships with their partners for more than two years, and disclosed the actual experience of discrimination as a result of their relationship. Open-ended interviews were conducted in order to elicit rich and in-depth descriptions of the participants’ lived experiences of discrimination as a result of being in committed interracial relationships. The interviews were transcribed verbatim with the inclusion of non-verbal cues where relevant. The data analysis was conducted using a phenomenological approach, which involved various steps that were followed sequentially. Salient themes that emerged from the individual participant’s interview were integrated to form a structure that communicated the essence of discrimination as experienced by the particular participant. Consequently, the common themes that surfaced transversely from all three participants’ interviews were synthesised and discussed in light of the current literature. The integration and discussion of the salient themes and related literature had the purpose to identify similarities and idiosyncrasies of the lived experience of discrimination by white women in committed interracial relationships with black men within the South African context. The results of this study suggest that the experience of discrimination by white women in committed interracial relationships with black men includes several core aspects. The themes describing the phenomenon may be understood within the following broad terms: discrimination is experienced in various contexts and from various people; discrimination is experienced either directly or indirectly by an individual in an interracial relationship; discrimination manifests in either negative or positive encounters; discrimination evokes various emotional responses and is dealt with in various ways; discrimination, although a personal experience, impacts on the interracial relationship in either a negative or positive manner. Discrimination is thus both an intrapersonal and an interpersonal phenomenon. The research findings are valuable in that existing literature is verified and new insights, with regards to the experience of discrimination by women in committed interracial relationships within the South African context, are provided. Based on the conclusions of this study, several suggestions have been made to encourage further research relating to this area of study.

My Kind of Music: Two New Orleans Stories is written in two parts, a fictional story about Mickey, an eleven year old white girl, growing up in New Orleans in 1954 and a non-fictional story of my experience as a teenager in New Orleans in 1959. Part I is Mickey's personal coming of age story influenced by the forbidden music of rhythm and blues. Since Mickey's story is set in the same year of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, it is also a coming of age story of a new social consciousness. Part II is a non-fiction recounting of an integration incident from my own teen years which serves as a fictional element later in Mickey's story when she is a teenager.

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Thesis advisor: Natalia Sarkisian / In an attempt to address issues with the changing demographics in Major League Baseball, most notably the declining black presence in the game, this study researches the sports media industry and its influence on professional baseball. Using a quantitative content analysis on Sports Illustrated articles, this study is able to find important results regarding the sports media’s coverage of race/ethnicity, specifically in terms of numerical representation. With agenda-setting theory as a foundation, this study converts sports media coverage results into wide-ranging conclusions about the potential benefits of using targeted sports media coverage to extend affirmative action efforts in professional baseball. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This dissertation traces the emergence of the U.S. South and the region's role in primetime television, from the post-World War II era through Reagan's election in 1980. These early years defined, as Herman Gray suggests in Watching Race, all subsequent representations of blackness on television. This defining moment, I argue, is one inextricably tethered to the South and the region's anxiety ridden and complicated relationship with television. This anxiety was rooted in the progress and increasing visibility of the Civil Rights Movement, concern over growing white southern audiences in the wake of the FCC freeze (ended in 1952), and the fear and threat of a southern backlash against racially progressive programming. From the short-lived drama Bourbon Street Beat to the success of Andy Griffith, these concerns structured and policed the content of television, producing puzzling and often contradictory visions of the South. The representational maneuvers enacted by these shows attempted to render that threatening South safe for national consumption, while simultaneously invoking southern manners and downhome southern living as emblematic of all that is good about America. That is, the South was both the threat to the democratic nation and the cure for all that ailed a nation in crisis. In returning to the South during the formative years of primetime and at a moment where the region visibly and visually contested narratives of a democratic nation, my dissertation provides a foundation for thinking through a contemporary landscape saturated in problematically post-racial southern imagery.

Stereotypes surrounding race and socioeconomic status often have overlapping attributes. That is, we tend to stereotypically associate African Americans and poor individuals with being incompetent. Further, people automatically associate African Americans with the concept of poor. The current research examined people’s mental representations of a homeless person, a poor person, and a person with a home, to see if people’s mental representation of a homeless varied from that of a poor person. Results from Study 1 (N = 524), using a bi-racial base image indicate that people, on average, mentally represent the poor and homeless in a similar manner. The results from Study 2 (N = 496), using a White base image, replicate the findings from Study 1, and indicate that the findings from Study 1 were not the result of idiosyncratic features of the original base image. Future directions are discussed.

Harriet Beecher Stowe penned Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was published in 1852. This book exposed and condemned the atrocities of slavery. Her book became a bestseller and is said to be one of the primary reasons why slavery was eventually abolished. Though slavery has been dismantled the system of oppression which allowed the marginalization of others to thrive has never been eliminated. This system established a dominant culture; one which oppresses those of African descent and has endured for centuries. Tommi’s Place retells Uncle Tom’s Cabin in contemporary corporate America. Tommi’s Place reflects that this system of oppression is still alive and well today. It exists in the form of discriminatory practices that thwart, prevent, preclude, and stop the advancement of the marginalized especially those of African descent.

Legal challenges and statewide bans regarding the use of affirmative action as an admissions policy have affected the way higher education administrators must comply with these mandates to receive federal funding. The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives and experiences of college and university administrators at public and private U.S. colleges and universities regarding the implementation of race-based and race-neutral admissions policies. Critical race theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 9 administrators at U.S. institutions of higher education. Data were organized, sorted, and coded to reveal 4 themes: holistic evaluation process, financial aid/scholarships, strategic alliances, and targeted recruitment. Findings may be used to influence programming and policies that lead to higher levels of acceptance and enrollment of racial and ethnic minority students at colleges and universities throughout the United States.