This qualitative arts-based narrative inquiry explored and analyzed the experiences of five Black women dance educators who teach with micro-interventions of care, love, and mentorship toward racial uplift in Black youth. This inquiry’s data collection included participants’ journal entries, sent weekly via email; one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with the women; and roundtable sista’ circles convened within community dialogues. Participants were prompted to share stories of their lived experiences as community members, artists, educators, and scholars. The collected data was analyzed using thematic and narrative methods, beginning with deductive coding and continuing with chunked comparisons of the women’s narratives. This study’s findings revealed that the women’s narratives as educators, persons, and community leaders, centered Blackness, care and love for themselves and their community, and Afrofuturity extant in their dance education practices. The narratives themselves revealed anecdotes of community, artistry, spirituality, culture, and healing, told and retold in the form of storytelling and poetry. This study sheds light on the unique experiences and perspectives of Black women dance educators, highlighting the importance of their contributions to the field. This study also proposes future considerations for research and practice in unearthing more stories of dance education as a micro-intervention of care, love, and mentorship toward racial uplift in Black youth. The inquiry and its results hold ramifications for and suggest a new vision for Black youth as well as educators that is a joyful Afrofuturistic dance education praxis rooted in peace, love, harmony, and #JOY.

The purpose of my research was to co-design and test a Race Equity Assessment for Leaders (REAL) 360 tool, which is a tool that supports organizational leaders in developing self-awareness of racial equity. This tool provides a ‘360-degree’ view of each leaders’ racial equity leadership through multi-directional perspectives through a: 1) self-assessment, which I co-designed and is the survey data that I collected for my research; and 2) a rater assessment of feedback from a peer colleague, a direct report, and a supervisor, which I co-designed. However, I did not collect or report on the rater survey data as my focus was on whether or not, and how, the tool helped leaders to develop self-awareness. This tool was designed in collaboration with ProInspire, a consultancy which supports social impact leaders and organizations to advance equity. This research fills a gap in the field and literature by contributing an assessment tool and implementing it in an organizational context to gain insight into leaders' self-awareness and acquisition of feedback on racially equitable leadership in their organization. In my role, I served as a researcher and engaged in the following three research phases: 1. Phase I: Co-Development (Research and Design); 2. Phase II: Implementation (Testing and Revisions); and Phase III: Outcomes (Data Collection and Analysis). In Phase I, using an action research approach, I contributed to the iterative and collaborative process of co-designing the REAL 360. In Phase II, the tool was administered to leaders in non-profit, corporate, or higher education organizations. In Phase III, using a mixed methods approach, I collected quantitative data (pre-beliefs survey, demographics survey, and REAL 360 survey) and qualitative data (cognitive interviews with affinity focus groups and individuals and post-beliefs survey). My goal was to identify: 1) the perceived impact of the tool on race equity beliefs ; 2) areas where the tool could be impactful on race equity; and 3) how the tool may benefit from revision. The quantitative findings suggest to me that racial equity beliefs and practices differ based on participants' racial identity (1. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, BIPOC; 2.White) and age grouping (1. under 45; 2. 45 and over). Across both groupings, participants expressed a commitment to racial equity in their personal and professional lives. Participants 45 and over with more leadership experience, emphasized listening and aligning racial equity beliefs with organizational values to cultivate an inclusive workplace culture. Those under 45 who have exposure to social justice movements more recently in their adulthood, appeared more comfortable in expressing their racial identities. BIPOC participants rated themselves higher than White participants in advocating for racial equity policies and addressing advancement opportunities, which may reflect their lived experiences with workplace discrimination. The qualitative findings reveal to me that the REAL 360 survey serves as an effective self-reflective tool. It encouraged participants to critically examine racial equity leadership practices and develop an awareness of beliefs and actions that contribute to more racially equitable outcomes in both their personal and professional lives. Also, participants revealed that learning should extend beyond the tool to include professional development. Thus, the findings from this mixed methods action research study indicate to me that race and age contribute to leaders racial equity beliefs and practices. Also, these findings suggest to me that the tool can be supported with additional learning such as coaching sessions for leaders to interpret the tool’s feedback data and develop an action plan for more racially equitable practices. For future research to broaden the use of the tool to different organizations and to navigate potential resistance, organizations can highlight how inclusive leadership contributes to business outcomes like innovation, employee engagement, and overall performance.

This qualitative mixed methods study examines how six participants- three Black college-level art students and three accomplished Black artists-educators, respond to curated installations designed to probe their understandings of and reactions to depictions of Black Americans in examples of visual culture from the United States of America (US), namely early film and television. The participants viewed and responded to two presentations designed from two contextual analyses. Exhibition Part 1 featured popular early US American films, animated movies, and a television sitcom from 1915 to 1979. Exhibition Part 2 displayed artistic, historical, and scholarly materials from 1903 to the present, which related to the content in Exhibition Part 1 to examine the enduring presence and implications of the famous media. Specifically, this study addressed the following questions: Given that stereotypical depictions of Black people in popular American visual culture have historically influenced societal perceptions of Black people and how these stereotypes can manifest into racial propaganda for capitalist means, what might we learn about the enduring nature of racial stereotypes from the responses of six Black participants to a curated visual arts exhibition based on the theme racial stereotyping? Given a specifically created visual arts exhibition embedding several racist tropes, how do three Black college art educators and three Black college art students recognize the stereotypes embedded in the exhibition and know anything about their origins and histories? What have participants' experiences been with the stereotypes they recognize, and in what different forms and settings? If some of the racial stereotypes embedded in the visual installation are unrecognized, how do participants account for this? The data analysis, especially cross-examinations, revealed participants' assessments of the exhibitions, which centered on their observances of media created by White US American artists that spotlighted fictional Black characters in creative storylines and how these endeavors sought to control and define Black Americans. When discussing Exhibition Part 1, participants had unfavorable reactions to the content and witnessed unfavorable depictions that reminded them of unfavorable lived experiences. When answering questions about Exhibition Part 2, their remarks primarily cited control, gains, and trauma as examples of racial propaganda for capitalist means. The concluding discussion of the significant takeaways from this study centered on six salient implications for art and art education: 1. Artistic Racism and Art as Racial Capitalism in popular American visual culture 2. Action-oriented, racially conscious educational practices 3. The fundamental need for Black Intellectual Thought 4. Subsequent scholarly work for the researcher 5. Black Research Throughout this study, I evoked the Black gaze, meaning I approached and tackled this scholarly work from my perspective as a Black queen, a proud descendant of and advocate for African people and the Black Race. I lead with a culturally informed Black stance and dare to do so in academia. It is for readers who are the same. Despite identifying differently, it is also for those who can decenter themselves to acknowledge and consider information about African Americans, the Black Race, and viewpoints of Black individuals to appreciate this study and its suggestions. KEYWORDS:artistic racism, the Black gaze, the Black Race, Blackness, depictions, education, film, media, lived experiences, perceptions, Race, racial bias, racial capitalism, racial gaslighting, racial propaganda, racial stereotypes, racism, representations in early US media, research, social and racial implications, social assumptions, teaching, visual art, visual culture, US American history

The cultural and historical construction of African American identity in the United States has been closely tied to the dialectical relationship formed between sound and silence. This thesis examines the modernist and postmodernist representation of sound and silence in the African American novels Passing (1929), by Nella Larsen, and Jazz (1992), by Toni Morrison, as indicators of African American identity and racial oppression during the Harlem Renaissance. I analyze the soundscapes of both texts to expose the mobility of language, power, and space, especially as these soundscapes relate to the production of sound (both musical and non-musical) by African Americans, and the surveillance of these sounds by white audiences. Through my analysis of repetitive sound-images and embodied silence in Passing and Jazz, as well as textual representations of oral performance, I argue that there is harm in restricting African American voices to approved modes of audibility and/or limiting African American voices to one a singular narrative. This thesis introduces critics and theories from the disciplines of sound studies and African American studies, and applies the widely known theory of double consciousness, established by critic and author W.E.B. Du Bois, as the foundation for my literary and cultural analysis of sound in print. / Graduation date: 2013

This dissertation reviewed extant literature about McGuire’s distinctiveness theory, the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, in-group bias theory, racial identity, race source effects, and cultural cues pertaining to targeting African American and Latino consumer markets. Mexican and African American informants were interviewed after viewing magazine advertisements targeted to the other group to determine if distinctiveness to the other’s images and cultural cues occurred. Observations were also reported from ethnographic excursions across Des Moines, Iowa, a city and state where African Americans and Mexicans are numerical rarities or minorities. Results revealed that the majority of informants spontaneously delivered responses that reflected salience with the other group. In fact, both groups saw themselves as a part of a greater people of color community--extending their ethnic identities. Furthermore, informants exhibited a provisional ethnic backlash against viewing Anglos in product advertisements in their ethnic magazines. However, when ads presented a message about diversity, informants thought Anglo images should be included. Both groups said they valued the use of people of color and socially responsible messages in ads for high involvement and low involvement products, however, these images and cultural cues would not lead to purchases of new brands because informants were weary about wasting money on unfamiliar brands in a stressed economy. Consumers also scanned ads for models’ races, and paid attention to how their ethnic group and other people of color were treated in ads. Also, informants reported discussing racial issues often in social circles. A black-brown racial divide was expressed when there was a perceived scarcity of resources and when one group discussed how they felt the other group perceived their race. Finally, class and having on-going personal relationships with members of the other group affected responses. This study offers many academic, managerial, practitioner, social and political implications and recommendations. / text

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This study focuses on dark-skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. Through a mixed-methods use of a comparative textual analysis and focus group, the content and context of episodes from A Different World and Dear White People are explored to illustrate portrayals of dark-skinned, Black women and how these portrayals affect dark-skinned, Black women's self-esteem. Its findings contribute to colorism research by exploring colorism in Black sitcoms. Because this topic is largely unexplored, this study seeks to begin a conversation about dark skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. The main objective is to ultimately improve their depictions and roles in Black sitcoms and hold Black creatives responsible for the role they play in promoting colorism and its ultimate effect on Black women's self esteem.

Why is black partisan identification so one-sidedly Democratic forty years past the Civil Rights movement? A black/non-black political dichotomy manifests itself through one-sided African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness and Republican hostility is the basis of the black/non-black political dichotomy, which manifests through African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness forced blacks to take a unique and somewhat jaundiced approach to politics and Republican hostility to black inclusion in the political process in the 1960s followed by antagonism toward public policy contribute to overwhelming black Democratic partisanship. Results shown in this dissertation demonstrate that variables representing economic issues, socioeconomic status and religiosity fail to explain partisan identification to the extent that Hostility-Consciousness explains party identification.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)