<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and delinquent behavior among African American youth. First, this study explores whether SES influences parental monitoring, parent-child attachment, deviant peer associations, and strain among African American adolescents from varying socioeconomic status backgrounds. Next an assessment was conducted to decipher whether theoretical construct variables from foundational criminological theories rooted in social control, strain, and social learning are valid predictors of delinquency among African American adolescents from varying SES backgrounds. Finally, a statistical framework was created to test whether parenting, deviant peers, or strain moderates the relationship between SES and delinquency. </p><p> This study uses simple linear and a hierarchical linear regression to examine the relationship between SES and delinquency while taking into account potential interactive effects of parenting practices, deviant peer associations, and strain experienced by African American adolescents. The results from this study reveal that no direct, statistically significant relationship exists between SES and delinquency for African American adolescents. However, SES plays an important role in influencing parental monitoring, parent-child attachment, deviant peer association, and strain variables. In addition, some of the theoretical construct variables from social control, social learning, and strain theories are strong predictors of delinquent behavior among African American adolescents from varying SES backgrounds. These results offer partial support for social control, strain, and social learning theories.</p><p>

<p> This study is an analysis of comments left on the Instagram posts of Black female celebrities, particularly those within Hip-Hop. This analysis put the comments in conversation with Patricia Hill-Collins&rsquo;s theory of the new racism as well as previous scholarship concerning the jezebel stereotype and imagery. Previous research concerning the jezebel stereotype, including Hill-Collins&rsquo;s work Black Sexual Politics, limit their analysis to traditional mass media outlets, including television, news, film, and music. This study was intended to interrogate social media&rsquo;s function as a form of mass media and to analyze how the jezebel stereotype can be seen in interactions therein. A data set of 800 comments, 200 each from four subjects, was created and coded using a grounded theory approach. It was found that all four subjects of the study were associated with the jezebel stereotype, but the commenters&rsquo; responses to the individual women were markedly different along axes of motherhood, class, and status within Hip-Hop. Two significant code families were created through grouping codes together according to place and method of occurrence: Bodily Motherhood and Othering &amp; Affiliation. Within Bodily Motherhood, it was found that pregnancy and motherhood are not only antitheses to the jezebel stereotype, but the subject must be forced back into the jezebel status through regulation of the physical body as well as pejorative acknowledgement of motherhood. The second code family of Othering and Affiliating speaks to the commenters&rsquo; acknowledgement of subjectivity for some of the women, but not all, as well as how the commenters attempted to Affiliate themselves with two of the subjects even though they were relegated to jezebel status. Through these results, this study determined that social media and the interactions within are indicative of the new racism described by Hill-Collins even though they do not function within a traditional mass media platform; the results also show that the jezebel stereotype and those who participate in its evolution work constantly and consistently at all points of a woman&rsquo;s life to relegate her to such status. Through engaging with how the jezebel stereotype, an example of intersectional oppression, functions in current day society, we hope to open possibilities of scholarly thought and actionable change. By acknowledging the methods through which women are successfully fighting or owning the public&rsquo;s perception of them as jezebel, we acknowledge that Black women are neither passive participants in their lives nor passive victims of a racism that attacks their body and attempts to steal their agency.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative study explored African-American women Generation Xers' (ages 35-50) experience with religion and its connection to mental well-being. The purpose of this study was to develop a thorough understanding of the experience of African-American women with religion, and how religion may contribute to mental well-being. Using a phenomenological research design approach, the researcher examined the stories, occurrences, and help-seeking behaviors of African-American women in their day-to-day lives. The sample consisted of 20 women who identified as African-American and were interested in the topics of mental well-being and religion. The analysis of comprehensive semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to generate new insight into the connection between religion and mental well-being. New information will inform social work practice in the development of interventions designed to increase mental well-being of African-American women. The study&rsquo;s theoretical framework emerged from both womanist theology and empowerment theory with the goal of improving the lives of African-American women. The experience of religion and the women&rsquo;s view of this phenomenon had a bearing on the mental well-being of the women in this study. </p><p> Chapter One contains a brief introduction into the topics of religion, African-American women and mental health, the purpose for the study, the rationale for using qualitative research methods, particularly phenomenology, the theoretical framework, a statement of the problem, and the research questions. Chapter Two includes a broad review of the literature. In Chapter Three, the researcher delineates the research methods used in the study, including participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis, approaches taken to increase the validity and reliability of the study, possible ethical issues, and the role and background of the researcher. Chapter Four contains the analysis of each interview, with an emphasis on the emerging patterns and themes. Chapter Five comprises a discussion of the results of the analysis. Chapter Six includes the discussion and implications for public policy, social work practice, future research, strengths, and limitations of the study. Lastly, the appendix includes copies of the internal review board approval from Howard University, consent forms, the well-being scale, the demographic questionnaire, and the flyer with the announcement of the study.</p><p>

<p> Historically Black Colleges and Universities have historically been given less funding than White institutions, a known discrepancy partially rectified by the Civil Rights era desegregation lawsuits. The court-ordered funding, however, came with race-based restrictions for public HBCUs, and many lost academic programs to traditionally White institutions. In numerous situations, Black colleges were closed outright or merged with White institutions. The following study explores the unique case of an HBCU coerced into merging an academic unit with a neighboring historically White university. Using archival data and interviews from the HBCU administrators, the case study presents a narrative of how the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University &ndash; Florida State University partnership was formed, explores the partnership&rsquo;s development over time, and examines differences between the mission and practices of the joint venture from FAMU&rsquo;s perspective.</p><p>

<p> This study explored caregiving among African American women baby boomers, born between 1946-1964, who are caring for older parents and who are working in professional and managerial positions. The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of these caregivers including their perceptions of caregiving, the impact of caregiving on their professional lives, the accommodations they make to balance professional roles and responsibilities, and the supports that are available to them. Utilizing a phenomenological research design approach, this research study explores and describes the intricacies of the lived experience of a purposefully selected sample of 20 African American professional women caring for older parents. The knowledge generated from this research study will provide new insights into caregiving among African American professional women to inform social work practice and to influence the development of culturally appropriate workplace policies to support caregivers.This research study explicates the meaning, structure, and essence of caregiving for African American professional women caring for older family members. The study emerges from the intersection of the life course perspective, stress process perspective, and role theory to create a conceptual framework describing the caregiving experiences of African American professional women baby boomers.The study generates a caregiving perspective for professional African American women and adds to the strength-based and empowerment perspectives of culturally relevant caregiving research.</p><p>

<p> By re-positioning the works of Elaine Showalter, Phyllis Chesler, Sandra Gilbert, and Susan Gubar alongside Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston, reading the literary texts through the feminist theories in order to expand them, this dissertation aims to contribute to an intersectional feminist practice that challenges claims of universality and continues to decolonize the female body and mind. Through an intersectional analysis of narratives written by women of color, applying and re-visioning theories of madness and transgression, this dissertation will present a counter-narrative to the &ldquo;essential womanness&rdquo; developed within and sustained by white feminist practices throughout the 1970s. Each chapter pairs white feminist theorists with an author whose work complicates notions of universal female experience: Dunbar-Nelson/ Showalter, Larsen/ Chesler, Hurston/Gilbert and Gubar. These pairings create tension between theories of universality and the realities of difference. The addition of three different narratives, each representing a broader range of intersectional female experience, enriches the heteroglossia surrounding feminist conceptions of mental illness. The result is a poly-vocal conversation that employs a scaffold of intersectional identity politics in order to (re)consider the relationship between the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and the performativity of gender.</p><p>

<p> The legacy of slavery that included all individuals of African heritage to identify as Black has contributed to centuries of misinformation about the unique experiences of many Black/White biracial individuals. Initial models depicting biracial identity development focused on marginalization and deficit while overlooking the relative privilege many Black/White biracial individuals experienced. As the biracial and multiracial population has grown significantly in the latter half of the 20th century, social scientists have attempted to create a biracial identity development model that focuses on the unique experiences of these individuals. The purpose of this thesis is to provide historical background for the experiences of Black/White biracial Americans and to examine current psychological models depicting to the experiences of this population using a heuristic approach to qualitative research. This thesis also addresses Black/White biracial identities as a metaphor for the transcendent function, a concept integral to the field of depth psychology.</p><p>

<p> The Great Dismal Swamp, located in Virginia and North Carolina, was a landscape of resistance for enslaved Africans who fled to its interior maronnage settlements. But how did the enslaved workers who were forced to participate in the slavery-based capitalist economy find avenues to perform acts of resistance within these circumstances, and were they able to interact with or facilitate maroons and refugees escaping through the swamp? This research questions the role of material culture consumption as a form of resistance in the Great Dismal Swamp by exploring the historical and archaeological records of Dismal Town, Site 44SK70, and Jericho Ditch Work Camp, Site 44SK506, where enslaved men and women lived and worked during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. The Dismal Swamp Company (1763-1814), headquartered at Dismal Town plantation along the Washington Ditch, was one of the first corporations to exploit the swamp&rsquo;s natural resources. Its successor was the Dismal Swamp Land Company (1810-1871), headquartered at the sawmills at Jericho Town, with work camps spread throughout the swamp including the work camp on the Jericho Ditch. Opportunities for and tactics of resistance changed as the company changed its name and transitioned from a slave-owning, plantation-style labor system of agricultural production to a more industrialized, slave-leasing, task-based system of lumbering and shingle production. Because material culture plays a role in power-laden social relationships, the consumption and use of materials culture can constitute resistance on both an individual and collective level. This <i>resistive consumption</i> can take many forms, self-determination and persistence in expressions of cultural identity, or the ability to legally purchase freedom for one&rsquo;s self or family with saved wages, or even the ability to supply and facilitate fugitives within the GDS through redistribution in an internal economy. This research will prove that resistance can be a pervasive, persistent, and hidden range of practices and tactics used by people in their everyday lives through the seemingly mundane choices of how to cook and serve food, prescribe medical treatments, and acquire clothing and personal items.</p><p>

<p> The Links that Transition Ambition to Action: Analysis of African American Military Officers Transitioning from the Lower Class Louis C. Hare III, B.S., M.A. M.A. Communication, Hawaii Pacific University, Department of Communication May 2017 Thesis Advisor: Dr. John Barnum The notion of &ldquo;The American dream&rdquo; can perhaps be described by one word: &ldquo;opportunity.&rdquo; This study identifies differentiating factors that affect someone&rsquo;s ambition (motivation) as an adolescent and young adult, and what factors drive a person to seek and achieve their piece of the &ldquo;American dream.&rdquo; More importantly, the primary focus is to identify factors that offer an explanation as to why some people can rise from being raised in a state of poverty to eventually be flourishing members of society, while others (given comparable cultural, socioeconomic, religious, and educational backgrounds) have no such success. The results of this discussion allow for a juxtaposition of these factors, and also inform future efforts to bridge the gap between adolescent ambition and prosperity in America. This study gleans feedback primarily from African American United States Service Academy Graduates, of urban upbringing, ranging from recent college graduates to senior citizens and consists of a mixed-method approach.</p><p>

<p> Since 1989, significant mortgage finance innovation and federal policies with the intent of increasing homeownership participation particularly amongst minorities were implemented until the 2007 recession. This paper uses the Survey of Consumer Finances to analyze the lasting effectiveness of the mortgage finance innovations and federal policies on owner-occupancy rates leading up to and after the financial recession in 2007 until 2013. The results indicate that policy and macroeconomic factors offer temporary shifts in homeownership participation while household attribute changes have long lasting impact. Trends in the savings patterns of renters work as an effective measure for transitioning into homeownership. Shift-share analysis reinforces the idea that the model coefficients effectively capture household sentiment and macroeconomic conditions. Homeownership participation, especially amongst minorities, improved in 2013 relative to 1989 but the homeownership gap between minorities and white households has grown.</p><p>