Talk given at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.

Historically, blacks have viewed their lower socioeconomic status, relative to whites, as a result of structural limitations of society. People, white and black, have accepted that blacks have had more difficulty in making economic advancement due to societal barriers such as discrimination. As structural barriers have come down and it has become easier for blacks to move into the economic mainstream, it may be that those blacks who are moving upward no longer see structural limitations as the reason for economic inequality.Recent research distinguishes between two types of explanations for the gap. Theindividual explanation asserts that blacks' lower socioeconomic status is due to a lack of will power or effort on the part of blacks. In contrast, the structural explanation states that institutional barriers such as discrimination are to blame for the black-white socioeconomic gap. This study laid a solid foundation for an analysis of explanations for the black-white socioeconomic gap. However, it failed to investigate the relative proportion of blacks who adopt these explanations.It is the purpose of this paper to determine whether the individual and structural explanations for economic inequality is the same for blacks and whites.The most recent data from the General Social Survey is used to investigate this possibility. The sample and sub-sample sizes are 1517 and 1024, respectfully. / Department of Sociology

The purpose of this research study was to determine what effect, if any, the role of parental divorce would have on African Americans' ability to form satisfying adult romantic relationships and on their socioeconomic status. The groups were divided into those who had experienced parental divorce prior to age thirteen (adult children of divorce) and those whose parents were still married when the respondent was thirteen (intact families). Respondents were recruited via online postings, correspondence with organizations and word of mouth.A survey packet was created to measure relationship satisfaction, reactions to conflict in relationships and demographic data to ascertain how similar or dissimilar the respondents were as well as their self-reported income level. Surveys were made available in paper format before being placed on an online university sponsored survey site where the majority of surveys were completed. The data were analyzed using a one way multiple analysis of variance to assess for differences in relationship satisfaction and conflict response and a chi square test of significance to assess for differences in socioeconomic status.The results showed that there was little difference between ACOD and respondents from intact families on relationship satisfaction or how they responded to conflict. Respondents from intact homes showed significantly higher scores on two of the survey subscales, investment (Multiple Determinants of Relationship Quality Inventory) and passion (Perceived Relationship Quality Components Inventory). This group also indicated that they handled conflict in their relationships better and their partners used more positive means to deal with conflict in their relationships than did the ACOD group. The ACOD respondents, however, had significantly higher income levels, which amounted to approximately two thousand dollars in salary per year.While the differences were minor, the similarity between group mean and responses would indicate that for this sample the experience of parental divorce did not create a permanent adverse effect on their SES or their ability to form healthy adult romantic relationships. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Using data from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, the relationship between socioeconomic status and residential distribution was examined for the black population in four Virginia cities, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Norfolk, and Richmond. Three indexes were employed to measure degrees of segregation at the census tract level. These indexes were, dissimilarity, interaction, and isolation. The dissimilarity index is a measure of the evenness of residential distribution of minority members. The interaction index is a measure of the probability of minority residential contact with majority members. The isolation index is a measure of the probability of residential isolation of minority members. Census tracts were classified according to the extent of racial changes that took place in these tracts. Socioeconomic status of black residents was measured over two dimensions: education and income. The association between minority socioeconomic achievement and degrees of segregation was estimated with multiple regression. A majority of the regression results supported the human ecology theory that minority spatial assimilation is an outcome of socioeconomic achievements. Findings also suggested that the relationship between minority socioeconomic status and degrees of segregation did not vary in strength in the hierarchical pattern predicted by previous human ecology studies of segregation. The findings provide a minor departure from the traditional theory of human ecology. The regression models estimating the effects of socioeconomic variables on residential dissimilarity and residential isolation showed statistical significance. The regression models estimating the effects of socioeconomic variables on residential contact did not show statistical significance. This might suggest that present measures of residential segregation and socioeconomic status need to improved. / Master of Science

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Yeung, Ion Lam. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

This Project involves looking at African American culture as it relates to swimming, water safety awareness, and water skills. The paper explores the myths and cultural norms associated with drowning phobias in African Americans to discover the root causes. Through historic accounts of African American culture one begins to uncover reasons why this culture became, in a sense aqua phobic. The paper will show what water sport professionals are up against, when working with a culture that is several generations removed from the water and their water skills. The ultimate goal is to draw attention to the importance of water safety and the ability to swim as a life skill. / by Jon Eric Groover. / Vita. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

"This research study shall be the advancement of the Negro within business and professional enterprises in Texas since 1900. The objective is to discover if and where the colored people have made progress. If progress has been made, it must be due to some prevailing influence, and if no progress has been made, there has evidently been some hindering cause. This research shall try to discover these factors and record the results as they affected the progress of these people. It is the intention of this writer to race the educational, economic, and social advancement of these people and to show in what fields of endeavor they have advanced and in which fields they have failed. This advancement shall be traced from the year 1900 to the year 1950, showing the progress in ten year intervals."-- leaf 1.