Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-156). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 336-351). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-202). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ43413.

For decades now researchers and clinicians have exhibited mounting interest in understanding the mental health status of Black Americans and the socio-cultural resources that influence it. Due to its historic and continued importance in the lives of African Americans, evidence suggests that the patterns of religious expression among Black Americans have a measurable impact on a variety of physical and mental health outcomes. Nevertheless, this work is not without its limitations, including its limited focus on just the additive effects of religion on health as well as ignoring the issue of ethnic heterogeneity among Blacks in the U.S. Specifically, this work consists of three discrete chapters examining the multifaceted influence of religious involvement and stress on three dimensions of psychological well-being among Black Americans. Using two conceptual models from the life stress paradigm, this work addresses two research questions: (a) Does religion involvement offset, either partly or entirely, the effect of stress on the psychological well-being of Black Americans?, and (b) Does religious involvement buffer (or mitigate) the deleterious effects of stress on the psychological well-being of Black Americans? The questions are assessed using multiple methodologies and data from two large-scale surveys with nationally representative samples of Black Americans. The results reveal that religion plays a unique role in fostering the psychological well-being of Black Americans and may be particularly salient in the face of stress. Specifically, in the first study, religious attendance and religious support are positively associated with the life satisfaction of African Americans, while subjective religiosity was found to buffer the harmful effects of family-work conflict on life satisfaction. The second study examines the interplay of religious involvement, childhood adversity, and self-perception. The results reveal that religious attendance and subjective religiousness do indeed protect against deleterious effects childhood adversity on psychological well-being. However, other aspects of religious involvement, specifically religious upbringing, exude the opposite effect. The final chapter, on religion, racial discrimination and substance abuse, finds religious involvement deters substance abuse among Black Americans, however little support was found for religion in mitigating the effects of discrimination on substance abuse. Study implications and future directions are discussed. / text

Affirmative action for blacks has been implemented in recent years mainly as racial quota system at public universities in Brazil. The topic became nationally debated when the racial quota system of the University of Brasilia was adopted. Racial quotas were questioned in the Brazilian Supreme Court with the argument that they were unconstitutional. At the same time, the previous governments has been favorable of inclusive policies and extended the scope of affirmative action adoption. However, why the conservative reaction to racial quotas continued to socially and institutionally expand in spite of their implementation in many universities? The focus of this thesis was to frame these reactions in an institutional perspective by hypothesizing in this research that institutional racism could be addressed as non-recognition of black Brazilians as full subjects of rights considering their identity fragmentation due to the processes of racial formation that undermined racial solidarity, identification, and political participation through miscegenation. In order to investigate the identity framing of institutional racism, the racial quotas system at the University of Brasilia was chosen for policy process analysis. The Advocacy Coalition Framework was the choice of analysis because it permits to observe the policy process since the discussions that aimed to insert the problem of black exclusion in the higher education subsystem to the evaluation of policy implementation based on the approved documents to the broad implications considering the scope of actions from those who shared the beliefs by which coalitions are motivated to act. The results point to the maintenance of racial democracy in the coalition actors’ beliefs that affirm the non-existence of race, the impossibility of black identity, and advocate for the no-racist character of Brazilian identity due to its population racial mixing. Therefore, the hypothesis presented indications of being politically relevant since this research found indications that institutional racism can be framed as non-recognition of black identity by those responsible for its implementation, consciously or not led by individuals through the institutional gaps that do not present any mechanism of coercion or reward for managers to be interested in the full development of affirmative action. / text

Educational Administration / This study analyzes the effects race-neutral admissions policies have on a large predominantly white law school through the lens of its administrators and alumni. Previously, this law school relied on race conscious admissions policies to help it increase and maintain diversity. Utilizing historical documents and relevant stakeholder interviews from prominent former students and staff, in addition to current faculty and staff, I hope to provide a blueprint for other law schools to follow during a race-neutral admissions environment. This is especially relevant with affirmative action policies threatened by state voter referendums, executive orders, and legislation. / text

This study examined the role of black-owned banks in facilitating economic emancipation for African Americans in the South from 1888 to 1910. The concept of a separate, but equal America legalized by the United States Supreme court in 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson provided the impetus for a separate economy in the South. As a result, commercial and savings banks emerged as institutions for the economic liberation of African Americans. A case study investigating the efforts of three banks in contributing to the economic development of the African-American community during this era was conducted. The study examined race and empowerment and the role of banks in accommodating thrift, wealth accumulation and investing human and financial capital. The findings determined that commercial and savings banks formed the cornerstone of economic liberation and emancipation for African Americans in the Jim Crow South from 1888 to 1910. It concludes that bank founders embodied a Black Nationalist ideology of self-determination, race pride and economic cooperation when creating these institutions.

No description available.

This dissertation examines some of the ongoing debates about American citizenship in the context of new school development in the small, desert town of Tucson, Arizona, between 1870 and the late 1920s. Arizona officials were actively in pursuit of statehood during most of this period; bringing citizenship to the forefront of public discussion. New schools were one vital resource in the efforts to "civilize" Arizona to meet national expectations for statehood. It was in the fundraising and organizing of these new schools that Arizonans often voiced their expectations about who could and should be a fully active American citizen. Beginning with the development of the first school, in the 1870s, Tucson private and public schools became spaces for educators, state officials, missionaries, and parents to assert their interpretation of the good American citizen. The term cultural citizenship is used to describe the process of social debate and enactment of various interpretations of American citizenship. Tucson's first school, a Catholic girl's academy, at first united the town and territorial boosters who saw the school as an orderly influence on the roughness of the desert settlement. The later creation of local public or common schools led to polarization between Catholics and Protestants as they debated the connections between citizenship and religion. A series of public and private schools opened to segregate Native American, African American, and Mexican American children from the general school population. Each of these schools promoted an agenda about preparing a population of students for American citizenship--often envisioned as necessitating a complete adoption of Anglo-American behaviors and standards--as well as continued segregation. Students in these schools, however, pushed with their words and actions for a wider vision of a more multicultural American citizenship. Rather than adopting Anglo-American mission teachings in their entirety, Native-American and Mexican-American mission school students mixed and adapted traditional culture, mission teachings, and popular culture in ways that had particular meaning in their own lives. Students who attended Tucson schools recognized the benefits of educational opportunities, but almost always adapted that education to meet the needs of their more expansive visions of American citizenship.

No description available.