Too often the acknowledgment that race is a social construction ignores exactly how this construction occurs. By illuminating the way in which the category of blackness and black individuals are made, we can better see how race matters in America. Antidiscrimination policy, social science research, and the state's support of its citizens can all be improved by an accurate and concrete definition of blackness. Making Blackness, Making Policy argues that blackness and black people are literally made rather than discovered. The social construction of blackness involves the naming of individuals as black, and the subsequent interaction between this naming and racial projects. The process of naming involves an intersubjective dialogue in which racial self-identification and ascription by others lead to a consensus on an individual's race. These third parties include an individual's community, the media, and, crucially, the state. Following Ian Hacking, this process is most properly termed the dynamic nominalism of blackness. My dissertation uses analytic philosophy, qualitative and quantitative research, and historical analysis to defend this conception. The dynamic nominalist process is illustrated through the media's contribution to the making of Barack Obama's blackness, and the state's creation and maintenance of racial categories through law, policy, and enumeration. I then argue that the state's dominant role in creating blackness, and the vital role that a black identity plays in millions' sense of self, requires the United States Government to support a politics of recognition. The state's antidiscrimination efforts would also improve through the adoption of a dynamic nominalism of blackness. Replacing the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission's inconsistent and contradictory definitions of race with the dynamic nominalism of blackness would clarify when and how racial discrimination occurs. / African and African American Studies

This dissertation examines interpretation of congregational traditions, present missional needs, and the role of the senior minister in presenting a vision for the future. This case study involves congregational self-appraisal, interpretation of data, goal setting, program and ministry development, lay leadership empowerment, and the importance of educational ministries in bringing about transformation. The findings of this study revealed that strategies for change take place through a combination of factors. Chief among these are trust, effective communication, agreed upon strategies for change, an understanding of conflict management, and the role of the senior minister in creating an atmosphere for change. The purpose of this study is to examine strategies for change in the life of an urban African-American, mainline denomination congregation. This study was prompted by the discovery of the lack of available information regarding the African-American church's struggle to respond to present and future missional needs. Chapter I outlines the purpose of the study and states the need for additional research particularly as it relates to the impact of tradition on decision making, the planning process for creating an environment for change, and the role of senior minister in presenting a vision for change. Chapter II discusses the current available literature on church growth, the Black Church, and the relationship of the African-American Church to the United Methodist Church. Chapter III examines the ministry issues that bring about the need for change. Congregational self-analysis is utilized to identify available options for change and the process of decision making is illustrated through a series of strategies for change. Chapter IV is a description of the process of implementation through several existing component elements and structures. The fifth and final chapter records the findings of the study. Among the key findings---the pastor as an agent for change must assume multiple roles: visionary, interpreter, enabler, spiritual guide, preacher, teacher, and umpire. The Council on Ministries must understand its role in the planning, organizing, coordinating, staffing and evaluation process. Finally, the policy-making body of the local church must be willing to implement the recommendations for change and transformation.

A myriad of issues face the rural and small membership A.M.E. churches, such as lack of long-range planning, high denominational assessments, recurring financial problems, inadequately trained pastors, frequent pastoral movement, and acceptance versus adoption, making survivorship difficult. Therefore, the EMPRO Model (i.e., The Empowerment Project) is an instrument that will positively impact the A.M.E. Church and its treatment of the rural and small membership churches. To be sure, the Empowerment Project is capable of delivering the necessary tools and skills (planning, budget preparation, polity, calendar preparation, church history, stewardship and tithing) to the leadership (clergy and laity) of rural and small membership churches which will enable them to perform at a much higher level. Succinctly, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate vehicle that enables the Empowerment Project to move forth. It was the invisible presence of the Holy Spirit that empowered the Fairfield A.M.E. Church to exhibit an outward resolve to keep hope alive. Empowerment is the enhanced ability to accomplish clearly identified goals and objectives. The procedure was to select five A.M.E. churches from the Atlanta/North Georgia Conference of the Sixth Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church to participate in the Empowerment Project. Each church fits the definition of either rural or small membership, or both. Four of the five churches selected were actually located in rural areas. The other church is located in the city of Atlanta. The churches selected have experienced similar struggles and difficulties. The findings of the study showed that the training seminar forum is a powerful tool for imparting information. Other results were: (1) The topics offered during the seminar sessions strengthened the participants' knowledge and understanding of the A.M.E. Church in general. (2) The information relating to budget preparation and church planning provided additional insights into how the congregation would better be able to meet its goals because of better planning. (3) The session relating to the need for the local church to develop a mission statement that clearly outlined what it saw as its own identifiable mission caused the participants to be better able to identify 'do-able' local goals and objectives. (4) The seminar sessions provided an opportunity for useful dialogue to be exchanged between the key officers of the church concerning the mission and purpose of the local church. (5) The seminars provided the 'how to' for all of the participants involved. (6) Pastors viewed the training as an enormous help to their local church ministry. A more informed pastorate and a more informed laity bring about a much higher level of local church performance, i.e., empowerment . When folks know what to do and how to do it, the overall functioning of the church is enhanced and, thus, empowered.

This dissertation, entitled 'Educating for Christian Discipleship: A Comparative Approach to Contextual Planning and Implementation,' examines the role and importance of Christian education in African-American churches. Included in the dissertation are results of a comparative study, which tested the transferability of the concept and strategies of Christian discipling from a mega-urban African-American congregation to a mid-size suburban African-American congregation. The study resulted in a model for Christian discipleship that includes various theological and practical methods for planning and implementing a Christian discipleship model in a church, Future implications and applications of the model in different church environments are also included. It is proposed that the theological and practical applications of the model may be useful not only in African-American churches, but also in any church that endeavors to make Christian discipleship their primary task.

In today's times, research and common knowledge have substantiated that pastors and clergy persons experience an alarming rate of divorce, substance abuse, and other related issues resulting in mental and emotional burn-outs. This rate can be attributed among clergy to many factors, and these factors may continue to rise unless effective corrective actions are taken to include pastoral care and counseling as an instructional component to the teaching and assessment process for new persons entering the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Ministry in Southwest Georgia. As a whole, empirical research has proven that clergy stress and burnout are multiphasic because of the spiritual and secular demands and expectations from others. The primary purpose of this project is to enhance the present Board of Examiner's process in southwest Georgia to include a pastoral care and counseling component in its teaching and assessment process for new persons entering the A.M.E. ministry because the current Board of Examiner's process does not include the benefits and use of Pastoral Care and Counseling in its seventeen week training program in the preparation of ministry to men and women for ministry. This project has created a Demographic, Pre and Post Test Survey of new persons entering the A.M.E. ministry in Southwest Georgia, developed a Teacher's Instructional and Lesson Plan which includes the history of Pastoral Care and Counseling, various Vignette Case Studies, and most importantly this project developed a method of approaching a parishioner/client in an attitude and modality of acceptance. The emphasis will be on the need to take care of oneself in the ministry and to recognize when there is a need to solicit professional help from a specialist. Plans, after this project, will also include a 'new persons' psychological assessment test for incoming ministers with a continued efforts to reduce or avert the ever-increasing rate of divorce, substance abuse, and mental and emotional burnout among clergy. The methods used in this project will be qualitative and quantitative in a case study format. This project did impact and produce the following results: (1) It did permit a pastoral care and counseling component in the teaching and assessment process for new persons entering the A.M.E. ministry. (2) The Bishop, the Dean, and the Board of Examiners realized the benefits of Pastoral Care and Counseling as an 'equipping tool' for persons entering the ministry and included it in their lesson plans for 2004. (3) New persons in ministry learned about Pastoral Care and Counseling and were more appreciative of a time for renewal, reflections. Lastly, they were instructed to be better prepared to identify the needs for more specialized professional help during their ministerial career in order to maintain a well-balanced mental healthiness.

This dissertation is an historic, ethnographical case study of Dunbar School, a segregated elementary and junior high school in Tucson, Arizona, established in 1913 in accordance with de jure segregation policies in the United States. It comprehensively examines the school's organizational culture and leadership from 1940-1951 through the voices of former teachers and students supported by scholarly literature. Educational philosophies that impacted the segregated school, the sociopolitical climate that ushered it into being, and the impact of desegregation on Black education are also addressed. The purpose of the study was to uncover Dunbar's inner culture and tap into contributing factors that led to its success. The gap in the research on the school called for an integration of empirical data with scholarly research. Answers about perceptions and characteristics of the school's membership and the leadership philosophy that guided Dunbar are sought principally by drawing from the theoretical lens of organizational culture. Three other theoretical frameworks are also used to understand the school's inner workings: code, resiliency, and leadership theories. The underlying themes of this study are: the critical importance of demonstrable care in schools, the need to invest in students' cultural capital, the value of congruency among faculty, and an emphasis on academic excellence. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Open-ended and semi-structured questions characterized the interviewing methodology, and governed the data collection process. A review of newspaper articles, published and unpublished archival sources, and current school documentation unearthed the historical development. With remarkable consistency, findings reveal that Dunbar was a close-knit segregated school characterized by caring, qualified teachers who held high expectations, strong moral values, and an unwavering sense of resilience. Dunbar's administration thrived on a vibrant school culture, invested in Afrocentric cultural capital, and practiced proactive, resilient leadership. These factors helped produce success. This study also makes known that school desegregation, in some instances, has produced a feeling of alienation among Black students, a loss of Afrocentric cultural connections, and that many students today lack a caring, highly-motivating, educational experience that encourages excellence. This dissertation adds to the genre of highly successful segregated schools, now obsolete.

<p> Gifted programs in the United States under-represent African American (Black) children (Phi Delta Kappan, 1992). In 1993, African-American students were under-represented by 50% in gifted education, and 60% in 1998 (Grantham &amp; Ford, 2003). Further, some speculate that gifted education programs are the most segregated educational programs in the nation (Ford, 1995). This proves especially true for Black gifted girl in urban educational arenas, where gifted Black girls are rarely recognized. The purpose of this research was to examine the circumstances surrounding how urban black girls&mdash;identified as showing academic promise&mdash;come either to be overlooked as qualified for gifted education or seem not to take up a sense of themselves as gifted, that is they see themselves as not fitting among those who are in gifted education. Three scholarly arenas frame this study: Feminist thought and theory, with an emphasis on Black feminist thought, notions of "giftedness" and gifted education, and policies and processes for identification of gifted Black girls. Eight gifted Black girls were individually interviewed twice, three teachers were individually interviewed, and three parents were interviewed in a focus group session. Four interview guides were constructed to focus on students' perspectives of GS1 (pseudonym) and gifted education, parent strategies, and teachers' roles in the identification of these gifted Black girls. Qualitative analysis strategies (Spradley1980) were utilized for data analysis. The curriculum of the gifted programming at GS1 (pseudonym) ultimately contributed greatly not only to how girls saw themselves as gifted, but also how they understood stereotypes about young Black women. The feminist curriculum and the "feminist lens" provided in the gifted programming at GS1 provided outlets for girls' voices. Teachers interviewed not only understood the gifted Black girls' culture, but also strengthened their relationships with the girls and with their parents by presenting and enforcing clear expectations for the gifted programming. Parents interviewed not only understood their gifted daughters' uniqueness, but also the importance of their independence and security as young Black women.</p>

<p> Hip-hop producers rely on several specific formulas to create sample-based hip-hop. Developed with a combination of analysis and ethnography, this typology of sampling is a systematic terminological and conceptual approach to this repertoire. There are three main types of samples: structural samples, surface samples, and lyric samples. Each of these types has a distinct function in a sample-based track: structural samples create the rhythmic foundation, surface samples overlay or decorate the foundation, and lyric samples provide words or phrases of text. </p><p> The typology offers a consistent approach to identifying the sounds in sample-based music, allowing recognition of historical trends and generalization about musical style. For example, hip-hop producers have sampled lyrics from Public Enemy's 1987 "Bring the Noise" over 100 times, and those samples show striking similarities both in the material sampled (Flavor Flav's "yeah, boy" and Chuck D's "bass" are favorites) and how the sampled sounds are treated in new tracks. The typology is a way to differentiate producers' treatments of sampled sounds. Additionally, the typology is a tool for distinguishing the musical styles of artists. Released within a year of each other, Public Enemy's <i>Fear of a Black Planet</i> and the Beastie Boys' <i> Paul's Boutique</i> each contain over 100 samples. The typology offers a way to describe the groups' sampling styles. Further, while hip-hop artists and scholars agree that sampling changed after the 1991 lawsuit involving Biz Markie's "Alone Again," until now, there has been no way to quantify these changes. The typology is a concrete way to demonstrate how hip-hop groups such as The Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Salt 'n' Pepa, and A Tribe Called Quest modified their approaches to sampling when samples became difficult to license. Ultimately, a typology is a systematic analytical approach to the genre of sample-based hip-hop.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the relationship of the American publishing industry to Black American writers, with special focus on the re-emergence of the street lit sub-genre. Understanding this much maligned sub-genre is necessary if we are to understand the evolution of African-American literature, especially into the current era. Literature is best understood as a combinative process, produced not only by writers but various mediating figures and processes besides, at the combined levels of content, commercial production and distribution, and social and literary context. Therefore, offered here is a critical intervention into what has until now largely been a moralistic and polarizing high art/low art argument by considering street lit within the vast flows of literature by and about Black Americans, writing about urban areas, the market forces at work within the publishing industry and the writer's place in the midst of it all.</p>

This dissertation investigates key similarities between l9th-century slave accounts and what I call "hip-hop captivity narratives." As a corrective to the negative attention accorded hip-hop, in general, my project identifies particular aspects of slave authors' literary strategies that urban hip-hop artists reinvent in their own music and filmmaking works. My primary goal is to position hip-hop texts as the most recent arrivals in a long-standing African American tradition of instructional, survivalist literature. Such a goal closes two gulfs: one, between "the literary academy" and "the street," and two, between hip-hop generationers' and their Black Civil Rights forbearers' perceptions of social and/or communal progress. The Introduction situates my work within African American Studies and argues a New Historicist approach for the study of hip-hop culture. Chapter One, "The Education of Hip-Hop," argues that more than a form of entertainment, hip-hop is an educational project. I delineate elements that contemporary rap music and film borrow from the slave narrative tradition. Chapter Two, "Sounds from the Underground: The Pedagogy of Survival in Rap Texts," argues that the music of underground and mainstream rappers publicly and privately demonstrates Black youth's cultural ties to one another and to their history, reinforcing the bonds of shared political objectives, such as unity and liberation. Examining Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) through the lens of DuBoisian double consciousness, Chapter Three, "Be a Man!, Get a Job! Stay Black: Dangerous Ghetto Manifestoes in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing," provides a novel reading of some challenges young men experience as they attempt to simultaneously actualize manhood, Blackness, and socio-economic mobility in a post-modern, post-Civil Rights era still fraught with vestiges of the period of slavery. Finally, Chapter Four, "We Ride Together; We Die Together: Thug Misses, Gangsta Bytches, and 'Ryde-or-Die Chicks'," discusses the lyrics and images of female rappers and reads Black female characters in the hip-hop filmic text, Set it Off (1996). Such an exercise highlights key ways young urban women publicly support the actuation of Black manhood within the boundaries of male-dominated popular cultural forms.