Many Black scholars have researched and written about their experiences as Black students at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). Most of their successes were built on the support they received from their families and friends. More importantly, their personal commitment to being numbered as successful Black students was the impetus for which they were willing to challenge the paradigm that Blacks can indeed succeed in higher education. As a Black Caribbean Diaspora student enrolled at a PWI, I have experienced what it is like to be Black through purposeful living, education, leadership and a divine plan. I have also utilized my Black identity as a vehicle to garner success amidst the challenges I faced being the only Black in academia, readjusting to college life and discovering my own Blackness. It is with this backdrop that I use the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) methodology to write this dissertation and highlight my experience as a Black Caribbean student at a PWI. The research and stories explored during this dissertation were examined through several questions: What is the experience of a Black Caribbean Diaspora student who carries multiple identities at a PWI? What differs, separates, divides, as well as unites, the Black Diaspora students from a racial perspective? How can PWIs communicate confidence in the ability of Black students and engage them in the campus and its academic life regardless of their racial identity? How can Black Diaspora students be retained to successfully achieve a college degree? Additionally, this dissertation focuses on a myriad of experiences and stories from other Black Diaspora students who are from different ethnic backgrounds. This helps to support and answer some of the posed research questions. This SPN methodology includes a literature review on topics of Black Identity Development (Cross, 1978, 1972, 1971), Colorism (Harris, 2009; Reid-Salmon, 2008), and Critical Race Theory (Cole, 2009; Collins, 2007; Roithmayr 1999; West, 1993). Several themes emerged that aligned with my personal narrative and that of my Black Diaspora peers. These included parental involvement, integrative model of parenting (Darling and Steinberg‟s 1993), leadership supported by the African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and purposeful living where faith for a Black Diaspora student is central to their survival. A number of recommendations for how faculty and staff at PWIs can support Black Diaspora students in their educational attainment emerged: recognizing and acknowledging the differences among Black students; supporting, imparting, accepting and encouraging Black students in their education; and reorienting faculty and administrators in matters of race so as to understand Black Diaspora students. My personal narrative further elucidates and universalizes the notion that Black students can be successful in higher education despite the odds that are sometimes against them.

Diverse Expressions of the Black Identity in Jackson, Mississippi: Stories is a collection of short stories that seeks to focus on the outsiders, the pariahs, and the social outcasts of Black society in Mississippi throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. By way of emigrations and immigrations, a race of people of multiple cultures that do not necessarily identify with the ethno-racial term "African-American" has emerged in the city of Jackson. Through the exploration of historically significant events, including America's involvement in WWI, the legislation surrounding Black History Month and the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, this collection represents a variety of Black backgrounds in an attempt to do justice to their beauty and diversity.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2672. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-216).

This dissertation explores the identity formation of Ethiopian and Nigerian immigrants, their second generation children, and native born African Americans who reside in the Seattle metropolitan area. Using boundary formation theory, I argue that African immigrants and their second generation children are developing a shared sense of Black identity and racial solidarity (linked fate) with native born African Americans. This shared Black identity is illustrated through both Africans and African Americans’ recognition of one another as racial group members, the constraints on their Black identities, and their navigation of similar institutional and political contexts. I argue that this is highly suggestive of an expansion of the Black racial boundary, and the reconstitution of Black identity in the post-Civil Rights Era. Despite some boundary contraction within the Black racial category by some 1st generation Africans, the African 1.5 and second generation are engaging in boundary crossing particularly with African Americans through their bicultural identities. This process appears to be leading to the blurring of boundaries between the children of African immigrants and native born African Americans, especially through the 1.5 and second generations involvement and integration into African American social and professional organizations. Evidence presented in this dissertation suggests that there is a weakening of ethnic identity among the African 1.5 and second generation. This weakening of ethnic identity among the children of Ethiopians and Nigerians suggest subsequent generations of Africans born here in the United States will eventually be absorbed into an undifferentiated African American/Black category. Keywords: Ethiopians, Nigerians, African Americans, linked fate, Black identity, Africans

Thesis advisor: Usha Tummala-Narra / Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / In 2015, one-in-seven U.S. infants was Multiracial, nearly triple the amount in 1980, and one of the fastest growing subgroups of this population is Black/White Multiracial people (Pew Research Center, 2015). Black/White Multiracial emerging adult women have not received adequate attention in research, despite the growing population. Black/White Multiracial women receive implicit and explicit messages about their racialized physical features including skin color, hair, and body size from family members and peers (Root, 1998; Kelch-Oliver & Leslie, 2007; Buckley & Carter, 2008). Additionally, remnants of racist and sexist stereotypes of Black women such as the Jezebel, a hypersexualized archetype of a light-skinned Black woman, still permeate U.S. culture and impact Black women (Watson et al., 2012). However, there is no research that explores how such interactions with family members, peers, and the larger social context impact Black/White women’s perceptions of themselves and relationships with others. The present study conducted semi-structured interviews of 10 Black/White Multiracial emerging adult women to explore the socialization messages that they receive around race, gender, and body, and how those messages influence their self-perceptions and relationships. Through conventional content analysis, the findings of the present study revealed themes including a lack of discussion about race within families, gendered, racialized messages, often rooted in anti-Blackness, about the bodies of Black/White Multiracial women within families and peer groups, intrapsychic conflict to make meaning of conflicting messages, authentic relationships, and the expression of identity. Implications for clinical practice, community level interventions and research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Esta pesquisa analisa o modo como as notícias e imagens de experiências negras dos Estados Unidos e da África foram utilizadas no jornal O Clarim da Alvorada (1924- 1932) para a criação de um projeto de ascensão social para a população negra de São Paulo. Este periódico, que tinha grande notoriedade entre a imprensa negra paulista, se preocupou em entender o lugar do negro na sociedade brasileira. O caminho adotado para alcançar o significado das notícias sobre os negros norte-americanos e africanos esteve vinculado à compreensão do projeto do jornal para a inclusão social dos negros no Brasil. As informações sobre os países estrangeiros chegavam aos jornalistas através de duas publicações da imprensa negra norte-americana, Chicago Defender e Negro World. A autodeterminação dos negros norte-americanos e a luta pela descolonização das nações africanas eram tomadas como exemplos para a ação dos negros em São Paulo. Por outro lado, as políticas de segregação racial nos Estados Unidos eram reprovadas, o que valorizava o projeto dos jornalistas de O Clarim da Alvorada de luta pela assimilação da população negra pela sociedade brasileira. / This research analyzes the ways the black newspaper O Clarim da Alvorada (1924- 1932) used the images and news on United States and Africa from African-American press to propose social uplift plan for blacks in São Paulo. This publication, one of greatest among São Paulo city black press, was concerned with social place of black population in Brazilian society. The way applied to comprehend the meaning of the news on African-American and African experiences was related to the understanding of the newspapers social integration plan for blacks in Brazil. The information from others countries came to Brazilian journalists through the newspapers Chicago Defender and Negro World. The self-determination of African-Americans and the African struggles against imperialism were taken as examples of black political action by O Clarim da Alvorada. On the other hand, the Brazilian newspaper refused the United States segregationist policies as a mean to value the idea of black population assimilation into Brazilian society.

The research presented in “Creating Identity” investigates Black identity formation within the Steve Biko Cultural Institute (Biko) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, a pre-vestibular – or college entrance exam preparation course – for Afro-Brazilian high school and aspiring college students. The curriculum, Cidadania e Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness and Citizenship; abbreviated CCN) serves as a vital pillar to the institutional approach to Black identity. In a Eurocentric society like Brazil and a world where Black identity is largely discriminated against including in educational spaces, Biko represents a movement to combat the exclusion of Afro-descendant youth from university, improve self-esteem and perceptions of the value of Black identity, and change who graduates from Bahia state universities. Over the course of nine months, in 2015 and 2016, field data were collected in the city of Salvador, Brazil and at the Biko institute. Since the research was cross-linguistic, cross-cultural, and hosted internationally, I assumed a methodologically narrative approach. The research design incorporated a survey, interviews, observations, and document analysis. Forty-two students completed surveys, twenty-six Biko students, staff and alumni participated in interviews, and well over 400 hours of participatory field observation were completed. Policy, demographic and curricular documents were also analyzed. CCN heavily influenced participants’ identity development through student and teacher discourse. The institution is a center of critical activism in the community. Aside from being a major part of the instructional approach to preparation for the college entrance exam, CCN heavily influenced the relationships between participants and their families and friends over newly affirmed Black identities. Although Biko students and alumni became more socially alert to the racial issues in their communities, they remain at risk of being racially profiled. Additionally, understanding blackness through the eyes of participants required an understanding of class and gender structures in Brazil. One major implication of the research for the participants is: blackness is CCN is Biko. Thereby, knowledge production and interaction with universities by Biko students are heavily influenced by Biko tenets and ideologies discussing race and racism, prejudice, discrimination, women’s rights, and economic development.

The present study explored private regard and public regard, two subcomponents of racial identity, as mediators of the association between critical consciousness and appropriated racial oppression. In a sample of 75 Black emerging adults, ages 18-25, the current study examined (1) the relationships between critical consciousness, racial identity, and appropriated racial oppression and (2) whether racial identity mediates the relationship between critical consciousness and appropriated racial oppression. Relationships in the expected direction were evident between private regard and both critical consciousness and appropriated racial oppression. Relationships in the expected direction were evident between public regard and critical consciousness. Further, mediation analyses indicated that the relationship between critical consciousness and appropriated racial oppression was mediated by private regard. These findings indicate how critical consciousness and private regard may play a significant role in influencing appropriated racial oppression in Black emerging adults.

The interdisciplinary field of Dance Studies as a separate arena focusing on the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of human movement and dance emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dance criticism integrated Dance Studies into the academy as critics addressed the social and cultural significance of dance. In particular, Jane Desmond created an integrated approach engaging dance history and cultural studies; in the framework of her findings, dance is read as a primary social text. She emphasizes that movement style is an important mode of distinction between social groups, serving as a marker for the production of gender, racial, ethnic, and national identities. In my work, I examined the ways in which the African American identity articulates and constructs itself through dance. Norman Bryson, an art historian, suggests that approaches from art history, film and comparative literature are as well applicable to the field of dance research. Therefore, as my main critical lens and a theoretical foundation, I adopt the analytical approach developed by Erwin Panofsky, an art historian and a proponent of integrated critical approach, much like the one suggested by Bryson; specifically, his three-tiered method of analysis (iconology). I demonstrate that Erwin Panofsky's iconology, when applied as a research method, can make valuable contributions to the field of Dance Studies. This method was originally developed as a tool to analyze static art pieces; I explore to which extent this method is applicable to doing a close reading of dance by testing the method as an instrument and discovering its limitations. As primary sources, I used Katherine Dunham's original recordings of diaspora dances of the Caribbean and her modern dance choreography titled L'Ag'Ya to look for evidence for the paradigm shift from "primitive" to "diaspora" in representation of Black identity in dance also with the aim of detecting the elements that produce cultural difference in dance.