That negative racial prejudice is learned, that the learning process begins at an early age, and that the behavior can be influenced and changed are generally accepted tenets of modern behavioral science. The present study has attempted to evaluate the effect of the Head Start Child Development Program on the evolution of race prejudice in the disadvantaged preschooler.A sample of 20 Head Start children, ages 4-6s were compared with 20 children of the same age range deriving 10 each from an all black and an all-white low income day care center.Attention was given to an equal male-female distribution in all four groups. Participants were further matched socio-economically to the extent possible.All 40 participants responded to a series of questions, following an exercise involving the placement of a family of white dolls and a family of black dolls in a doll house. The testing situation remained essentially unstructured, to the extent possible, in an effort to elicit spontaneous responses.In all cases, familiarity had been previously established with the writer.Responses were to questions and exercises designed to illuminate on a tendency to physically integrate or segregate (as reflected by actual placement of the dolls in situations of black-black, white-white, or black-white interactions, beyond calculated chance expectation), and to determine relative levels of awareness of color differences in terms of the concept of race and, finally, any preferences for one color over the other.A systematized method for quantifying the results in terms of these factors was subsequently developed.Salient findings indicated that although involvement in the Head Start program had a generally positive effect on the child participants in terms of diminishing racially prejudiced types of behaviors, ultimately the elimination of such behavior will require equality and integration in the total environment.

This PhD thesis explores the role of sympathy in the discursive formation of race in Scottish and American eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. Offering insight into Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments as one paradigm that underpins the philosophical terms of sympathy in the Atlantic world, I argue that sympathy as a mode of control and a mechanism of normalisation played a formative role in the transatlantic history of the literary construction of whiteness. My introductory chapter delineates key debates on sentimental literature and argues that race in general and whiteness in particular have been ignored in revisionist accounts of the genre. My second chapter outlines Smith’s concept of sympathy in the context of Scottish Enlightenment theories of stadial history, suggesting that sympathy is always already bound up with a racial understanding of others in a categorical system of cultural development. I examine this dialectic of race and sympathy in the novels of Henry Mackenzie, which present social inequality, colonial exploitation, and slavery as conditions that the sentimental genre cannot rectify. This discussion is continued in chapter three, which deconstructs Harriet Beecher Stowe’s sentimental rhetoric in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, suggesting that while it is employed to foster fellow-feeling for the black slave, it also reduces others to the terms of the white self. Chapter four demonstrates that Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s philosophy of white sympathy is fully articulated in Stowe’s New York novels, My Wife and I and We and Our Neighbors, as a discourse of affinity, which functions as an advertisement for white bourgeois homogeneity in a developing consumer culture. The concluding chapter explores sympathy in relation to race passing and scientific racism in Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Comedy: American Style, where the passing protagonist embodies the gaze of sympathy that cares for others according to their degree of whiteness. Fauset, I argue, critiques the legacy of nineteenth-century sentimental literature, just as she, along with Du Bois and others, opposes eugenicists’ vision of a ‘White Atlantic’ as a new world order.

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This dissertation examines four novels that specifically and deliberately focus on the perspectives of people of color in the United States in order to explore a gap in the conversations surrounding representation of the Vietnam War. Opening the canon to include more diverse perspectives of the Vietnam War acknowledges how predominantly white representation of the war effaces the experiences of the many soldiers of color, who often fought and died in disproportionately greater numbers than white soldiers, and attempts to redress such erasure. These novels include Arthur R. Flowers's De Mojo Blues, which focuses on African American soldiers’ experience and highlights intra-racial conflicts and Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge, an exploration of Vietnamese American women living as refugees in the United States. Additionally, Alfredo Véa's Gods Go Begging and Linda Hogan's People of the Whale go beyond the Chicano and Native American identities of their respective protagonists by including a diverse range of voices and re-imagining boundaries associated with racial and national identities. Responding to the myth of American exceptionalism, the novels illuminate how the war perpetuated long-standing systems of oppression and interrogate oppositions between self and other, individual and community, and past and present that war often sustains. As such these novels emerge as critical interventions in discourses of race and nation by highlighting and creating space for difference. Ultimately, these novels provide a vision of hope by imagining a world that embraces the complexities of cross-cultural community rather than merely superficial melting pot diversity. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / English / PhD; / Dissertation;

This thesis examines religiosity in the U.S. military and at the U.S. Naval Academy. More specifically, this qualitative study briefly explores whether belief in and practice of religion affects the overall adjustment and experience of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Data were collected through focus groups with first and second class midshipmen (seniors and juniors, respectively) in the Classes of 2006 and 2007. Content coding revealed current issues of tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and understanding between midshipmen with differing religious beliefs and the in-group/out-group phenomenon that occurs between the religious majority and minority of the institution. Research into minority and diversity issues are compared to focus group data about minority versus majority religious groups and beliefs. Focus group respondents did not uncover or suggest any serious or egregious affronts to religious tolerance. However, there is anecdotal evidence that biases and prejudices remain especially with regard to atypical or unusual groups. Respondents spoke of racism, homophobia, and specifically, intolerance towards religious minorities. The message of tolerance has not penetrated some emotional reactions and there exists undertones of intolerance regarding certain diversity issues. Recommendations include individual and group counseling and development of a structured diversity and acceptance education curriculum. / US Navy (USN) author.

Internet-based celebrity gossip blog site, TMZ, is a growing cultural force. Employing critical rhetorical analytics, the author examines the TMZ coverage of Chris Brown's assault on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. This project explicates TMZ's enthymematic invocation of dominant cultural ideologies surrounding race, sex, and domestic violence. Chapter 1 demonstrates the theoretical importance of both celebrities and gossip blogs, signaling the ideological importance of each. Chapter 2 critiques TMZ's reliance on historic myths regarding sex and race in their reporting on this case. Chapter 3 analyzes TMZ's humorous and affective strategies that bolster broader investments in colorblind ideologies. Chapter 4 concludes by examining the interplay of formal rhetorical elements that inform the project's findings. This research reveals that TMZ utilizes affective, enthymematic strategies that camouflage broader racist and sexist ideological impulses that perpetuate domestic violence myths.

Academics have raised questions concerning racial imaging in the popular children’s book Curious George. Many of these scholars utilize symbolism to warn readers of hidden messages in the book that negatively affect black children. One of the most prominent images includes the capture of an African monkey by a white man, which academics believe reflects American slave history. These arguments, however, fail to address three important issues this research project emphasizes to properly reinterpret an image. First, one must properly outline a historically racist image such as the American Sambo in order to determine who created the image, what messages are being portrayed by it, and why these messages are important to the image’s creator and audience. Following the outline of a racial image, the next step is to view the rise and fall of another popular children’s book in order to determine how society interprets books over time. The rise in popularity to the outright banning of Helen Bannerman’s The Story of Little Black Sambo in the twentieth century fits this requirement because an extensive academic and social archive detailing the book’s racial debate exists in newspaper articles, editorials, and academic journals. Lastly, this project examines personal and business correspondence of Curious George’s authors, Margret and Hans Rey, and reinterprets the Curious George stories as a mirror of the Reys’ immigration history.

Utilizing data from the United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (SISCF) 2004, this research investigates the possibility that African American drug offenders receive lengthier prison sentences and are imposed more range of time or indeterminate sentences as opposed to flat sentences based on race and/or non-racial characteristics; specifically parole status prior to sentencing, plea agreement status, prior criminal history, education status prior to arrest, employment status prior to arrest, and parental incarceration. While regression analysis revealed racial sentencing disparity for length of sentence and type of sentence (p< .05 and p< .001 respectively), among non-racial characteristics, only education status prior to arrest proved a significant predictor for length of sentence (p≤ .001). African American drug offenders were more likely sentenced to indeterminate sentences as opposed to flat sentences and were less likely to receive short sentences of 0 to 4 years or medium sentences of 4 to 10 years as compared to long sentences of 10 or more years. Potential research implications include the necessity for additional research regarding racial sentencing disparity as length or type of sentences as opposed to disparity as a numerical or a percentage difference between racial groups as well as the utilizing of inmate data that encompasses recent changes in drug sentencing laws, e.g. crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Future research might also consider the evolution of marijuana laws in the United States and the potential impact on racial sentencing disparity.

The contemporary United States is at a crossroads with race: some believe achieving political equality rests in the ability to wilfully ignore race, while others assess colorblindness is a racial frame that only serves to prolong and irritate inequalities. Higher ed institutions have become involved in this conversation due to critiques of higher ed devaluing racial minorities both in the curriculum and in hiring practices. As a response, higher ed has promised to restructure their institution with diversity and PoC in mind. This research study seeks to understand if higher ed has maintained this promise. Twelve participants were qualitatively interviewed to assess their satisfaction with higher ed and the curriculum as it pertains to race. It was found that students were generally heavily critical of their education, particularly in the “diversity” claims made by the school. Their narratives additionally highlight the importance of sociological spaces within a neoliberal university.

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