This memoir is about community, family and race relations as the author experiences them in New Jersey, where she grew up, at University of Maryland, where she went to college, in Washington, D.C., during Barack Obama’s presidency, and in New Orleans, where she lands in her late twenties. It is meant to shed light on the possibilities and beauty to be found in diverse, close-knit communities, where people share in each other’s joys and sorrows. It also speaks to the importance of romantic partnerships in which both people share the same values, and explore and grow together.

This paper explores execution rates among states where the death penalty is legal. Following the Supreme Court ruling in 1972 (Furman v. Georgia) which categorized the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment due to arbitrary sentencing, this paper looks at whether or not executions are arbitrarily conducted by states. By taking into account race of the defendant, race of the victim, heinousness of crime, quality of defense, and public support for the death penalty, this paper seeks answers to the varying rates of executions across the United States. It was however, unable to find causal reasons for differences in execution rates. It did find though, that in some states, a black defendant had a higher likelihood of being executed during 2008-2012. This finding is important because it shows that race matters in some states if you are a defendant on a capital case.

Examining the place of immigrants in French society between 1950 and 1990, this dissertation traces both official policies and public reactions toward immigration, and immigrant responses to their treatment. Increased negative perceptions of North Africans during the 1970s and 80s, and escalating acts of violence and discrimination against them, sparked a national debate on the compatibility of Islam with French identity. North Africans’ presence in France seemed to throw into question common notions of “Frenchness” because the practices that characterized Islamic culture differentiated Muslims from other ethnic and religious minorities. I investigated North African, West African, and Antillean immigrant communities in Paris through the intersection of race, religion, and culture in order to explore changing French attitudes toward ethnic minorities and their cultural identities. My dissertation focuses on how these communities were or were not accepted into the French “nation,” and what their integration or lack thereof said about conceptions of what it meant to be “French.” In addition to offering a study of the government’s role in establishing or modifying perceptions about French identity, I also evaluate race and culture from the perspective of the immigrants themselves. This project thus offers an analysis of immigrants of color and the discourses and policies of the institutions that helped define certain ethnic groups encoded as “racially other” as also culturally inassimilable. The dissertation argues that the state’s construction of racially distinct citizens and immigrant communities as different limited their access to the nation and their acceptance by the general public. In the 1980s, the growing popularity of extreme right political rhetoric glorifying the nation and its supposed heritage gave voice to racism and fears of losing a uniquely French culture. An implicit racial hierarchy prevented immigrant groups and ethnic minorities from fully integrating into the nation. At the same time, ethnic groups from North Africa, West Africa, and the Antilles worked to redefine “Frenchness” along more inclusive lines in order to minimize tensions and improve relations between these groups and those who seemed more unquestionably “French.”

The Romani are a group of individuals that have been acknowledged in newspapers, television, movies and other forms of media but remain invisible as a people world-wide. Through the use of qualitative interviews, content analysis and qualitative synthesis, this study investigates why this phenomenon occurs in the United States as well as Europe. Overall, it was found that media portrayals negatively impact the Romani’s ability to successfully acculturate, increases their experiences of prejudice and discrimination and negatively impacts their social, physical and mental health. Romani media portrayals also appropriate the Romani’s ability to define themselves to mainstream society and impacts their identity development.

Racism damages all of us. It degrades the lives of some, it diminishes the integrity of others, and it saps our resources and threatens our peace as a nation. Racism in the United States takes place on multiple levels: within and between individuals, in our cultural milieu, and in our social institutions. In this dissertation, I describe ways in which I have both encountered and perpetrated racism personally and professionally as an educator. I then explore ways in which racism can be unlearned by individuals and dismantled institutionally, particularly in the arena of education, so that our nation can be liberated from this most crippling disease. As a European American woman raised in affluence, my story is about unearned privilege on several levels, and my research asks the question of what I can responsibly do about that. However, my upbringing and the ongoing influences of mainstream America ask very different questions about dominant status; namely, what can one do with it? And how can one get more? This tension between power and responsibility forms the context for an examination of privilege in this scholarly personal narrative about unlearning racism.

A long standing program of research has found consistent and substantial evidence of the underrepresentation of people of color in national parks and has identified potential reasons for this underrepresentation and barriers to participation. However, little research has examined cases where the National Park Service (NPS) has begun to successfully address diversity issues and engage diverse audiences. Through exploration of programs that successfully engage diverse youth, this study identifies promising practices that can be incorporated into NPS diversity programs across the national park system. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one examined the current state of knowledge and learning needs of the NPS related to relevancy among new and diverse audiences through the use of qualitative interviews with NPS staff and select individuals outside the NPS. The findings from the interviews were used to develop a conceptual model based on key themes for successful engagement. The model was then applied in phase two of the study through the examination of relevancy programs within the NPS. Phase two used case study research techniques to explore programs designed to engage youth of color at two NPS units, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. This research examined how programs at the two study areas were successful at engaging youth of color. A model of deep engagement was developed, building on the model developed in phase one. The model of deep engagement highlights six processes through which parks can more effectively engage diverse and traditionally underserved audiences.

Cyberbullying has become an issue of concern during the past decade for schools, parents, students, and communities. Media attention to extreme instances of cyberbullying has resulted in misinformation. Myths abound about cyberbullying and accurate information can be hard to find. This study attempts to shed light on this controversial issue. Using the National Crime Victimization Survey: Student Crime Supplement, 2009, this research focuses on the cyberbullying victimization of Black students and White students in specific conditions. These include racial and gender differences, grades, attendance, school environment, and student perception of teacher attitudes towards them.

<p>Problem gambling, a fairly recent addition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is estimated to affect between two and five percent of the US adult population (Volberg 2001). While present in all racial groups, this disorder is not evenly distributed, as Blacks are more likely than any other group to become problem gamblers (Welte et al. 2006). And while this pattern is consistent with those found with other disorders (Black 1984; Ford and Widiger 1989; Strakowski et al. 1993), it is important to note that thirty years ago, when the first study of problem gambling prevalence was conducted and the disease had only recently been institutionalized, there was no difference in rate of illness by race (Kallick et al. 1979). This dissertation aims to explore this phenomenon: the role of race in the making of problem of gambling. </p><p>Through a multi-site and multi-method approach, this study examines the assumed race neutrality of gambling addiction. By tracing the history of gambling policy and North Carolina's adoption of a lottery program, this study explores how the state further defined problem gambling as a mental illness. Following this, participant observation of state-sponsored problem gambling counselor training workshops provides insight into the ways racialized understandings of behavior are constructed and maintained through counselor education. To gain a sense of how gambling is lived, this study involves participant observation of lottery gambling in convenience stores to interrogate racialized conceptions of behavior and reveal how financial gain motivates gambling across groups.</p> / Dissertation

Race and Equality from the Perspective of Law In this thesis, the author deals with the phenomenon of racial discrimination from the perspective of law. In order to understand the issue, it is necessary to set discrimination in a broader socio-scientific context. Therefore, the author draws not only from legal sources, but also from other social sciences. Other important sources of information were the reports and recommendations of non-governmental organisations, which play an important and irreplaceable role in the area of anti-discrimination policy and its implementation. The main focus of this thesis, therefore, is comprehensive treatment of the issue, taking into account its interdisciplinary context. The content of the thesis is divided into four parts. The purpose of the first part is to introduce the reader to the issue of discrimination and explain the basic concepts of the theory of race, equality and discrimination. The second part details the international mechanisms of protection against racial discrimination - in the framework of the United Nations organization, International Labour Organization, Council of Europe and the European Union. The third part describes the national system of protection against racial discrimination according to the hierarchy of national sources of law, i.e....

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