Postmodernist texts by non-white authors consistently challenge accepted theoretical discourses with some notion of race or ethnicity. Until recently however, race as a unique category for theoretical investigation has remained largely unexplored. The author here outlines how both a variety of theoretical disscussions about race and ethnicity, about difference, and about experience, have formed the basis of how race is currently talked about in postmodernist discourse and how these various postmodernist discussions about race and difference may both enrich and be enriched by a theoretical examination of French poststructuralist theory. Employing the popular Benetton ads as a vehicle for theorizing a common ground between postmodernist and poststructuralist theory, the author argues that current theoretical discourse must reconceptualize not so much the multiple and varied definitions of "race" by which it has tried to account for the experiences of non-white subjects worldwide, but the very grounds upon which those definitions have been constructed. Race can no longer be thought of as a collective identity predicated on biological similarities but must be re-thought in terms of a transformational metaphor, a multivocal sign for political solidarity and alliance among dispersed groups of people sharing common historical experiences of discrimination and oppression. On this note, the author will herein argue that the naturalized connotations of race must be disarticulated out of racial discourse and rearticulated in such a way as to emphasize race as a contingent, multi-accentual signifier constructed out of varying social and political practices.

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Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-140). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19741

The political climate in America continues to become more polarized each year. The "left" and "right" political parties are locked in near-constant struggle and it is often the people whom they are meant to serve that suffer the harshest effects of this struggle. This mainstream political posturing and hostile behavior has allowed for the continued presence, and some say resurgence, of racially motivated right-wing nationalist groups. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and racist Skinheads have seen periods of strength and decline throughout American history. In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries they have begun to adapt their message to find acceptance in groups outside their own and plant the seeds of racial and ethnic bias and supremacy in minds not yet stricken with the illnesses of hate and bigotry. This research examines the ideological framing of far-right White Supremacist groups in the United States. Discussion of political, nationalist and economic ideologies and the ways these ideologies are framed and presented to wider audiences are described. Using content analysis, more than 50 editorials, articles and other writings from six of the most circulated newsletters produced by American based White Supremacist groups were examined. Thematic analysis and line-by-line coding allowed for the development of various codes related to nationalism, immigration, traditional supremacy and perceived political failure, as well as many others. Findings suggest that many White Supremacist groups and individuals are shifting away from the biological or genetic supremacist beliefs of a previous era. Instead adopting a racially motivated nationalist identity and positioning themselves as being engaged in a struggle for "white civil rights." While still vehemently racist and racially/ethnically biased they seem to have taken up this new position in order to thinly veil their racism behind a guise of nationalist pride and altruism. This is especially troubling when one considers that many hate crimes are committed by individuals with no formal affiliation to organized hate groups. These individuals are often racially radicalized in a slow process that starts with mainstream political beliefs and slowly progresses to more radical beliefs as they struggle to understand the world in which they live.

This dissertation examines the lives of four adolescent Black American boys as they relate to education, media, race, and the law. As a case study using elements of narrative research analysis and portraiture, this research offers an in-depth understanding of the individual journeys of these young men as a way to provide an understanding of their adolescent male urban experience. Thus, in this dissertation, I explore the intersections between media-constructed narratives and my participants’ educational experiences, as I pursue a better understanding of how the participants view themselves within the construction of their own identities. Through conversations, this dissertation offers a platform to empower my participants’ voices and allow them to tell their stories by answering open-ended questions. For this study, I met with each participant on a biweekly basis to have conversations that lasted between 10 and 30 minutes in a New York City coffee shop in Harlem over a winter period of 3 months. This research showed that through intentional and thoughtful conversations, Black American adolescent boys who live in urban settings conveyed exactly what they need not only to survive, but also to thrive in a country that systemically puts them at a disadvantage. Finally, this study was framed by W. E. B. Du Bois’s research on how Black Americans perceive themselves in the United States; this study utilized his double consciousness theory as its theoretical framework.

This research examines how racism is hidden and denied by the press, and how blame is attributed to individuals in crime news stories. This research heavily relies of van Dijk's (2015) six discursive strategies to reveal how racism is hidden and denied in the press: positive self-presentation, denial and counter-attack, moral blackmail, subtle denials, mitigation, and defense and offense. Specifically, the Chapel Hill shooting is used as an example of a crime news story for my case study. This study will use framing as the primary method, and critical discourse analysis will be used to guide my interpretations of the frames. Frames are defined by Entman (1993) as texts that select "some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient" in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described. I will examine words and phrases used when referring to the perpetrator and the victims in the crime story, and examine manifest frames. I begin by explicating terms that my research is founded upon: ideology, critical discourse analysis, race and racism, blame, and framing. Newspaper articles are collected and analyzed for van Dijk's six discursive strategies. The difference between national and regional news coverage is also examined. My findings suggest there are two gaps in van Dijk's six discursive strategies. I propose the addition of two discursive strategies that the press use to deny racism: negative self-presentation and contradiction.

When a young white man from the small town of Swartruggens chose the informal settlement of Skierlik to go on a killing spree, this was labelled racist by the media. Only black people lived in Skierlik, and small towns in the North West province had a reputation for being racially divided. This study examined the impact of this event on residents’ identities, specifically because it was widely publicised and discrediting to the town. Problematised places potentially threaten residents’ sense of self. The concept of place-identity was used here from a discursive psychological framework, arguing that self-in-relation-to-place is socially constructed in the conversational space of human dialogue. Thus, this analysis exposed the spoken discourses that maintain and reproduce racialised constructions of place-identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Forty two semi-structured interviews were conducted in either English, Afrikaans or Setswana, during a two-week stay in the town. Despite the literature showing that place-identity threat in problematised places result in residents trying to preserve a positive place-identity, the data in this study shows a different trend. The central argument is that discourses of victimhood are constructed by both black and white residents, but for divergent purposes. White residents argue against negative media versions of Swartruggens, while black residents amplify disadvantage and promote media versions. Indian residents, largely omitted from media reports, maintain a positive place-identity by constructing an ambivalent third space of participant-observer in the town, geographically and socially separate in a black/white divide. The analysis is situated in relevant broader pre- and post-apartheid ideologies. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Ted Chiricos, Florida State University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 06, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-02T11:16:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-21Bitstream added on 2014-12-02T11:21:00Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000796893.pdf: 1448215 bytes, checksum: ae3c8ed6b4ff25747138f1550ddf4954 (MD5) / Esta dissertação apresenta a televisão digital n Brasil como um componente comunicacional de intervenção pedagógica para a educação conscientizadora das relações étnico-raciais positivas. A pesquisa contempla o estudo sobre as relações étnico-raciais no Brasil: o mito da democracia racial, os conceitos de preconceito, discriminação racial e racismo, a construção da identidade afrodescendente; a educação libertadora; as Africanidades Brasileiras; a relação entre TV digital e educação democrática. Através do estudo de caso, identifica-se a concepção de educação como prática da liberdade, bem como a presença das categorias de análise Africanidades brasileiras - representadas pelos valores civilizatórios afro-brasileiros: Ancestralidade, Oralidade, Comunitarismo/Circularidade, Força Vital e Corporeidade - na produção de conteúdo educativo do programa Salto para o Futuro - TV Escola, o canal do Ministério da Educação / Resumen: Este trabajo presenta la TV digital en Brasil como un componente de comunicación y intervención pedagógica para la educación de la conciencia de las relaciones étnico-raciales positivas. La investigación se centra en el estudio de las relaciones étnicas y raciales en Brasil: el mito de la democracia racial, los conceptos de prejuicio, la discriminación racial y el racismo, la construcción de la identidad de ascendencia africana, una educación liberadora, el Africanidades brasileiras, la relación entre la televisión digital y la educación democrática. A través del estudio de caso, identifica la concepción de la educación como práctica de la liberdad, asi como la presencia de categorías de análisis Africanidades Brasileiras - representado por los valores de la civilización africana - brasileira: Ancestralidade, Oralidade, Comunitarismo Circularidade, Força Vital, Corporeidade - en la producción de contenidos educativos del programa Salto para o Futuro - TV Escola, el canal del Ministerio de Educación