The intention of this study is to contribute to research on Black women and to bring awareness to Black women's experiences, as they navigate social institutions. This study examines the perception of the intersectionality of race and gender impacts their awareness of police violence against Black women. Researchers measured respondent's perceptions/attitudes regarding intersectionality and their awareness of people who had been victimized by police violence. The quantitative study is comprised of statements regarding patriarchy and/or sexism and statements concerning racism and/or the lack thereof. The data analysis indicates that respondents' awareness and sensitivity to racism along with their perception of sexism and patriarchy is associated with their awareness of police victims. The researcher's findings found that the intersectionality of race and gender impacts their awareness of police violence against Black women.

The educational quality of Erie County and Buffalo, New York, as represented by school district performance was examined and the relationship between school district performance and the social environment was analyzed. Socioeconomic status, social stability and race were all found to be strongly correlated to school district performance. Within Erie County, Buffalo has the poorest school performance levels while Snyder and Williamsville, two high status suburban districts, have the highest school performance levels. The overall spatial pattern of school district performance based on the PEP test results for 1974 reveal a strong correspondence between school district performance and the social structure of Erie County. The distribution of Regents Scholarship winners within Erie County also straws the strong relationship between social status and school performance. The performance of the Buffalo schools schools a strong relationship to the social structure of the city. The performance of third, sixth and ninth grade pupils on reading and math PEP tests reveals an inner city-periphery contrast in school performance, especially for the elementary schools. The low-achieving schools are located in the inner city, especially the black ghetto, and the high-achieving schools are located on the periphery of the city. Elementary school performance is strongly correlated to income (SES), minority enrollment (race) and the percentage of broken hares (family stability).

In spite of efforts to improve diversity among the United States’ top tier colleges and universities, first-generation students of color continue to be largely underrepresented, one of the factors significantly contributing to this reality is the use of tracking in high schools. Even given the substantial research highlighting the ineffectiveness of ability grouping, the practice continues to be utilized in the majority of U.S. high schools. The findings of past studies reveal higher-track classes provide students with academic advantage while lower-track classes are noted by students’ lower consequent achievement. Attention to the makeup of low and high tracked classes further reveals the reason behind this difference in achievement may lay in that higher-track classes provide students with greater expectations, rigor and support to meet those expectations, and such belief and support likely breeds greater self-efficacy and therefore greater motivation in students. Thus, in order to provide this same uplifting environment to all students, detracking is posed as an alternative. This correlational survey study is intended to examine the effects of high and low educational tracks versus detracking upon the academic achievement of first-generation 9th grade students of color with a particular consideration of the mediating effects of self-efficacy and academic motivation. Student participants will be recruited from the Chaffey Joint Union High School district, completing a self-efficacy survey and an academic motivation survey once during the third week of the school year, and once again during the last week of the academic year. It is expected that the data will demonstrate a significant relationship between track and academic achievement such that those students enrolled in the lowest tracks will demonstrate the lowest achievement whilst no difference will be found in the achievement attained in the higher tracks versus the detracked curriculum. Furthermore, both self-efficacy and academic motivation are expected to mediate this relationship.

For birthing parents, the quality of care falls flat in the United States relative to other developed countries as rates of pregnancy-related deaths (PRD) continue to rise. California has in recent years made extraordinary progress in decreasing birthing parent mortality across the board. Yet, health disparities remain between race/ethnicities as Black birthing parents die at three to four times the rate of white birthing parents. In comparison to white Americans marginalized ethnic/racial groups in the United States have less access to quality care, experience and receive lower quality of health care and have less access to quality care, with few exceptions. Intersecting factors such as education, socioeconomic status and acculturation are investigated. Implicit bias, or racism is often overlooked within the medical professions that has real implications on the above-mentioned sociological factors and in turn birthing mortality rates. Institutional and grassroot methods to bring attention to these factors should be referenced for a more intentional approach to solving this social problem historically engrained in our medical institutions.

This study seeks to understand how local and national newspaper articles and African American residents frame obstacles to returning to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It explores how recovery planning processes and policy changes influenced the decision-making processes of African Americans displaced to Houston through a content analysis of the media and qualitative interviews with displaced and returned residents. The study shows the media and participants framed disaster recovery policies as creating opportunities and gaps in assistance that varied by location. Participants described how policy decisions that created gaps in assistance compounded the difficulty of returning for working- and middle-class African Americans. The findings suggest planners and policy makers need to consider how disaster recovery policy changes may intersect to create obstacles that impede residents' ability to return and rebuild after disasters. Contact Dr. Mosby at kmosby517@gmail.com.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between traditional African-American American parenting and the overrepresentation of African-Americans in America’s jails and prisons. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews of twelve parents who have had a child incarcerated in their adult life to gather data. Study participants were asked their experiences with several traditional happenings, supported by research, in some traditional African-American households. Topics discussed included religion, spanking, and single parenthood. The study found that many of the traditional happenings of African-American parenting occurred within the homes of parents with children who were incarcerated, which supports previous research. Additionally, the study found that negative views of law enforcement officers were held by several participants and passed down to their children. Moreover, the majority of participants believed that race had some bearing on the treatment of their child by law enforcement and the legal system. The findings of the study suggest that there is room for social workers to be more aware of the unique needs of the African-American community and advocacy is necessary for programs and resources to reach this special population. Furthermore, social workers should continue to seek cultural competence and demonstrate racial awareness when working with clients.

Rural communities have, for much of history, been left with inadequate or no water service. This is because the traditional state/private dichotomy of water provision is inadequate for addressing the unique needs of small, isolated communities. Drawing from the Common-Pool Resource literature, co-management arose in recent decades as a solution to address this pandemic of rural water exclusion. In Costa Rica, co-management takes the form of community water associations known as ASADAS. This thesis explores the successes and challenges of ASADAS through the use of three case study communities. Using interviews, surveys, water sampling and national legislation in addition to secondary sources, this thesis seeks to understand the possibilities and limits of employing co-management as a tool for achieving the human right to water in Costa Rica and around the globe.

It has long been acknowledged that housing is essential for access to employment, social services, healthcare, and other forms of assistance that help move people out of poverty. Through identifying dimensions of housing insecurity, policymakers, as well as researchers, will have a better understanding of the protective factors that make families more secure and the risk factors that raise their level of insecurity. These analyses use resident and non-resident, low-income, urban fathers’ responses to the five publicly available waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (n = 4378) dataset to examine the relationship between protective and risk factors and housing insecurity. As access to protective factors increases, fathers’ risk of housing semi-insecurity and insecurity decreases, and as fathers are more exposed to risk factors, both their housing semi-insecurity and insecurity risks increase.

This essay deals with the use of censorship in propaganda in Spain during the reign of Francisco Franco.

In this piece of literature, storytelling is used as a method towards understanding, knowing, and validating the experience of the “other”, in this case Mexican immigrants of all shapes and colors, sexual preferences, and diverse socioeconomic standing. I would like to shift the discourse from their potential as socioeconomic assets towards a recognition of their essence as participating members of our community. Immigrants are artists, they are intellectuals, they are leaders. They are simply not given the space in American society to develop their potential without being chained down to the “immigrant” label. I would like to stress the recognition of fluidity and diversity within this marginalized group, in the sense that to assume a homogeneous experience for this population aggravates the gap of understanding, tolerance, acceptance, and celebration of this rich community. Hegemonic forces have kept immigrants in the shadows, blinded, and hidden from the rest of society. My ultimate goal is to promote an idea of fearless engagement in active, undisciplined, self-determined embracement of the hybrid culture that remains buried under layers of socially constructed self-disciplining forces of domination.