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White identity development in a sociology class: An inquiry into White students' understanding of racial identity, race, and racismGallagher, Cynthia Ann 01 January 1996 (has links)
Race, one of the most salient qualities by which people determine their social interactions, is a dynamic social construction shaped by racism in which Whites benefit by increased access to social power. Racial identity is defined as one's conscious and unconscious affiliation with one's racial group membership. Theoretical models identify racial identity development to proceed according to three aspects (1) one's sense of self as a member of a racial group, (2) one's attitudes and beliefs about other racial groups, and (3) one's understanding of racism. This study uses these aspects as guides for three research questions, namely (1) "How do traditional-age White college students describe themselves in terms of their White identity?" (2) "How do traditional-age White college students demonstrate and/or describe their attitudes and beliefs about other racial groups?" and (3) "How do traditional-age White college students define and describe racism?" This study includes quantitative and qualitative methods. Data was elicited in two processes. Forty traditional-aged White college students completed a Personal Information sheet, the Conceptualization of Racism Test and the Experience Recall protocol. A subset of ten students participated in in-depth interviews. Twelve variables were identified for a correlation analysis. While there is not a correlation among the variables, patterns related to the two developmental models were identified. Seven theme clusters were identified and include: (1) Definitions of race, ethnicity and self-ascription by race and ethnicity, (2) Recognition of differential treatment based on own racial identity, (3) Characteristics of being White, (4) General beliefs about other racial groups, (5) Identification of external influence, degree of internal agency, stereotypes and feelings, (6) Anecdotes of racial interactions involved in racism, and (7) Perspectives on racism. A developmental analysis using cognitive conceptualization of racism skills and self-knowledge skills illustrates developmental differences in the ways in which the students negotiate each theme cluster. The developmental differences are presented in three composite portraits reflective of the developmental differences in the students' understanding of White identity. These portraits are used to provide answers to the research questions.
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From immigrant Brownsville to the world of the New York Intellectual: A study of Alfred Kazin's autobiographiesBrinker, Ludger 01 January 1991 (has links)
This study examines the autobiographical writings of Alfred Kazin, a member of the New York Intellectuals. It is my contention that Kazin's work cannot be fully understood without an acknowledgment of the profound influence of the Holocaust on his career. He turned from an earlier negation of his Jewishness to a conscious acknowledgment and celebration of the inescapability of his ethnic roots. As a consequence, he constructs himself as an ethnic American whose autobiographical work may be compared to that of Henry Adams as a document of American and Jewish life. Chapter 1 discusses Jewish immigration and the two literary influences for Kazin's autobiographies: Emerson, Whitman, Adams, Cahan, Antin, and Lewisohn. Chapters 2 through 5 discuss Kazin's three autobiographical volumes, A Walker in the City (1951), Starting Out in the Thirties (1965), and New York Jew (1978). Kazin was one of the first American Jewish writers to exploit his family background and his experience as a second-generation American Jew and transformed it into a synthesis of his two cultural allegiances. A Walker in the City is thus a book about healing wounds and legitimizes the immigrant past as part of a Jewish and American heritage. Starting Out in the Thirties, Kazin's second "personal history," provides an account of his literary apprenticeship in the Thirties, when in his view history prepared to come to a boiling point; however, it is not the purifying flames of the workers' revolution but the flames in the gas chambers that ultimately come to represent the age for Kazin. The final and longest of Kazin's personal narratives, New York Jew, documents his increasing concern with matters Jewish from 1942 until 1978. Although the narrative line is not as strong as it was in the previous volumes, Kazin's comments about the contemporary American scene are worth considering. Throughout these volumes, Kazin creates an image of himself to which he remains true: that of the son of poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants who has made it in the literary and intellectual world of America.
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The formation of collective identity in French colonial societies: The case of GuadeloupeAtkinson, Margot Martin 01 January 1996 (has links)
Nationalism is one of the most important political forces in the world today. The essential element of nationalism is in the formation of collective identity. In the French Caribbean, Guadeloupean nationalism of the 1970s and the 1980s has been replaced by Guadeloupeans looking towards continuing integration with France and entry in the European Union. Part of the failure of Guadeloupean nationalism was due to the profound ambivalence that people experience between Guadeloupean identity and French identity. Guadeloupean nationalism did recreate worth and legitimacy in Guadeloupean identity. Yet Guadeloupeans associate modernity, progress, and "grand culture" with French identity, as well as the real economic advantages of French State services. The critical element of collective identity is in the retrieval of a significant past, the hidden history of colonized people, that establishes continuity, originality, solidarity and cultural value. The real struggle for Guadeloupean nationalism is to create solidarity and value in Guadeloupean identity that cuts across pervasive social divisions.
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Political discourse in exile: Karl Marx and the Jewish question of our timesFischman, Dennis K 01 January 1988 (has links)
Karl Marx's philosophy of writing demands his readers help develop his theory by questioning its gaps and contradictions. A crucial question concerns Marx's relation to his Jewishness. In "On the Jewish Question," Judaism stands for civil society and the transformative power of practical need, Christianity for the "political state" and spiritual solutions to material problems. Human emancipation will spring not from politics but "the negation of Judaism": recognizing and overcoming barriers to fully human existence. Marx thus endorses a "Jewish" viewpoint which senses reality as the Hebrew bible does. The Torah conceives human beings in dialogue with God as indispensible partners in creating the world. We are called to act; our action matters. Marx criticizes the Greeks and most Western philosophers for their static, contemplative view of reality. Any ontology which imposes a truth beyond social relations privileges some people and needs, excluding others. By rejecting God, Marx discredits the God's-eye view that leads to false universals. He retains the structure of dialogue between the species and its evolving needs. Hegel had offered the young Marx a dialectical approach to reality, but Marx eventually found Hegel's ontology too Greek. Rather than simply reversing Hegel, though, Marx corrects him as though he were subject to a Jewish worldview. Marx's method resembles the traditional Jewish style of hermeneutics called midrash. It performs the same function: restoring sense to a chaotic world as glimpsed from a particular tradition. The breakdown of social meaning is central to Marx's theory of alienation. The Jewish theme of exile explains Marx's urgency. A group is exiled when society constructs reality to preclude it from expressing or acting upon the needs that constitute its identity. A society in exile frustrates the realization of human purposes. Both workers and capitalist society are exiled. To return, they must believe the world can become human--as their experience under capitalism shows it cannot. Marx's personal exile is that his audience lacks the Jewish context to recognize his theory of how we become free. Theorists continue his work by listening to people in exile and working out different roads to emancipation.
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Effects of values clarification methodology on self-concept of selected group of second generation Armenian-American womenSetian, Shirley Yaylaian 01 January 1990 (has links)
The purpose of this study was (a) to examine how participants define themselves-particpants were children of survivors of the 1915 genocide by the Ottoman Turk, and (b) to examine the effects of values clarification methodology on their self-concept. This was a two-part study which consisted of interviews with four participants in Part 1, and an educational intervention in Part 2 which consisted of values clarification workshops involving 16 participants. Data from the interviews in Part 1 were used to design the educational intervention in Part 2. Workshop participants were involved in a one-month period of values clarification activities: a day-long workshop at the beginning of the month; another at the end of the month; and a take-home values clarification workbook requiring entries every other day between workshops. Interview data revealed underlying themes concerning fusion of personal identity to Armeniam heritage and tension in finding a suitable balance between Armenian and American values and lifestyles. Major issues that emerged from interviews and which formed the basis for values clarification workshop strategies were: Armenian heritage, genocide, suppression of feelings, choices, self-blame and self-minimization, avoidance, reactivity/passivity, and sadness and regretfulness. These issues were discussed in terms of women's identity formation as related to human development theories, feminist literature, and Armenian heritage. Results from Part 2 of the study were discussed in the same context. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used in Part 2 of the study. Qualitative measures used were On-sight Surveys, Participant Observation and Workshop Evaluation. Quantitative measures used were the Participant Profile Questionnaire (PPQ), which provided in-depth descriptive data, and the Self Perception Inventory (SPI) which was used in a one-group pretest-posttest design. Four traits moved in a negative direction at a significance level of.05. No statistically significant differences were found in a positive direction; however, data indicated differences in self-concept which suggested the following model of change: values queries $>$ $>$ psychological tension $>$ $>$ critical thinking skills $>$ $>$ understanding $>$ $>$ clearer reality $>$ $>$ self re-definition.
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Afro-American biohistory: Theoretical and methodological considerationsRankin-Hill, Lesley Marguerite 01 January 1990 (has links)
The dissertation research addresses questions and issues concerning the study of Afro-American biohistory. Afro-American health and lifestyles were investigated from an integrative bio-cultural framework that interrelates demographical, historical, socio-cultural, and biological factors. The central focus of the dissertation research was the bio-social experiences and conditions of free, urban dwelling Afro-Americans in 19th century Philadelphia. The First African Baptist Church cemetery population, interred circa 1823-1841, studied represents a sample of that Afro-American community. Theoretical considerations centered around the questions and approaches to the study of health and disease patterns in historical Afro-American populations in the Americas. Methodological considerations centered on the contributions of physical anthropological methods (skeletal biology, paleodemography, paleopathology, histology and bio-cultural modeling) in assessing the health of historical Afro-American populations. Skeletal biological methods included paleodemographic and paleopathologic (including histologic) assessment of health and disease status. The objectives of the research were to: (1) provide a synthesis of the relevant questions and issues regarding Afro-American health and illness prior to the twentieth century; (2) propose a protocol and framework for studying Afro-American health and lifestyles in the Americas; (3) begin to reconstruct the lifestyle(s) of 19th century urban Philadelphia Afro-Americans and of the First African Baptist Church (FABC) cemetery population in particular; (4) undertake a comprehensive health status assessment of the FABC skeletal material. All adult (100%) FABC dentition (n = 51) available for study exhibited enamel defects; of these 84.3% had multiple defects. The peak period of onset of hypoplasias was ages 2.0-4.0 years, most probably associated with the weaning period and infectious disease. Infectious disease rates (25.3%) were lower than other Afro-American skeletal series. The incidence of trauma in the FABC population was low (17.3%), with the majority occurring in older males. The highest mortality (25%) was for infants ($<$1 year). Life expectancy at age twenty was 24.7 years. FABC skeletal population, as representative of the FABC congregation members and free Philadelphia Afro-Americans, were generally healthier than their slave or emancipated counterparts. Stress indicators point to episodes of nutritional and disease stress which affected fetal growth, infants and younger children, reproductive age females and young adult males who may have been at greater risk due to early entry into the labor force.
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New immigrants and their health: Southeastern Asian refugees in Western MassachusettsMuldoon, Jeannine Dumont 01 January 1990 (has links)
Approximately one million Southeast Asian refugees have resettled in the United States since 1975. Health policy and programs directed toward these refugees have evolved serendipitously; a response to crisis rather than to thoughtful planning. The purpose of this study was to apply the Andersen and Aday access to health care framework to guide the collection of information about how varied ethnic groups of Southeast Asian refugees (Cambodian, Vietnamese, Lao, and Hmong), living in a low-impact area, experience and interact with the health care system. The goal of this process was to suggest effective program strategies and health policies to better serve this population. Using a method of secondary analysis, a post hoc application of elected elements of the Andersen and Aday framework were studied in relation to data collected in a needs assessment study conducted in Western Massachusetts. In addition, patterns of health service utilization were analyzed using Refugee Medical Assistance/Medicaid expenditure data with comparison to findings from the present study and others reported in the literature. Major findings suggested the usefulness of the framework for planners and policy makers as they consider intervention strategies for culturally diverse populations like the varied Southeast Asian groups in this study. The model did point to the influence of predisposing variables as being of extreme importance in influencing care seeking and use suggesting a heavier weighting of this element in the equation. Perceived need, unmet needs, and identified problems, while identified and acknowledged by the refugee groups, did not increase use of health services and appeared to have less influence than one's health beliefs and attitudes as determined by ethnicity. Other findings suggest that access and utilization of health services by Southeast Asian refugees in a low-impact area such as Western Massachusetts is similar to patterns noted in high-density areas. However, the process of accessing a smaller array of services may be more complex. Recommendations for program planning, policy development and future research are offered.
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The limitations of racial democracy: The politics of the Chicago Urban League, 1916-1940Smith, Preston Howard 01 January 1990 (has links)
This study is an examination of the social basis of the Chicago Urban League's politics from its origins to the eve of World War II. The League is an interracial organization with a black professional staff serving a black clientele. It sought to mitigate against the hardships caused by the dislocations of internal migration and settlement of black Southerners. While it is hard to argue against the ministration of black material needs, the process of coordination implied a socialization that needs more explicit examination. The basic thesis of the study is that the Urban League actively sought to "remake" the migrant in the organization's effort to engineer race relations in Chicago. In Chapter One, I provide a social and intellectual backdrop to origins of the Chicago branch of the National Urban League during the Great Migration and the nascent growth of an administrative state and corporate economy. The League's officials overstated the helplessness of Southern black migrants in order to legitimize its role as interpreter of their needs. In Chapter Two, I discuss the Chicago Urban League's policy on strikebreaking and unionization as an attempt to evaluate their congruence with black workers' interests. I find a complex and uneven record with regard to supporting black labor activity during this time period. The organizations' efforts to socialize black newcomers both at the workplace and at home was more a testimony to a division of interests. The League sought to organize neighborhoods and communities, and spoke in terms of a unitary black community, masking ambiguous but nonetheless real social divisions. In Chapter Three, I examine the rationale and methods of race relations engineering. The attempt at engineering was not necessarily a success, but its attempt was anti-democratic in conception and practice. The omnipresent notion of "adjustment" suggested the manipulation of social policy by black and white social technicians in the name of serving black migrants. In conclusion, I argue that racial democracy narrowly conceived as racial parity limited the Urban League's social horizons and ignored the real structure of racial inequality in the United States. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
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Environmental racism and labor market discrimination: Residential location and industrial endogeneitiesDavidson, Pamela Renee 01 January 2002 (has links)
The socio-spatial distribution of hazardous waste sites in the United States closely resembles the distribution of industry more generally. An understanding of these spatial patterns requires considering the positive and negative externalities of residence near noxious industrial locations and variations across social groups in the ability to externalize costs. In contrast to the central thesis of the environmental justice framework, there is no evidence of a widespread, inequitable distribution of hazardous waste sites that disproportionately burdens poor and minority neighborhoods. Tract level analysis of national data and data on large metropolitan areas for various types of industrial and environmentally sensitive land uses provides consistent evidence that hazardous waste sites are located in industrial areas. As a general trend, hazardous waste sites tend to be located in white, working class neighborhoods in which larger percentages of persons with lower skills and persons employed in industrial jobs and industries reside, and in which access to modes of mass transportation is readily available. Differences between Hispanics and blacks in the empirical findings in which Hispanics are disproportionately represented in tracts hosting certain types of hazardous waste sites, particularly in metropolitan settings, are attributed to their different migratory histories and experiences with residential segregation and labor market discrimination. The dense residential concentration of blacks in areas with little or diminishing economic activity and blacks' less successful competition with Hispanics over the shrinking base of manufacturing jobs are factors considered to contribute to the lower representation of blacks in noxious industrial locations. The more frequent incidence of Hispanic proximity to noxious industrial locations is described as being reflective of the greater integration of Hispanics in the industrial labor market. The heterogeneity of sites proved to be a salient factor with distributional effects across regions and across different racial and ethnic categories. Older abandoned sites were found in larger numbers in older Northern MSAs. Abandoned sites appeared to be more readily avoided by non-minority whites, particularly when these sites were not the only locations of industrial employment in the larger area.
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Social justice and mediationWing, A. Leah 01 January 2002 (has links)
This study examines how racial oppression is challenged and reconstituted through the narrative process of a mediation. Qualitative research methods are used to identify, describe and analyze themes in the mediation discourse and the narrative strategies employed by the participants, mediators, and coordinator in this case study. Each person in this multi-racial and multi-ethnic group is interviewed twice and their interpretations are used in both the data collection and data analysis phases. In this way, this research project responds to a gap in the literature by including the voices and insights of the mediation service providers and participants in the research process. The theoretical foundations of this study are based in several literatures: mediation scholarship, social justice literature, critical race theory, and narrative theory. The findings are analyzed using narrative theory and interrogated from a critical race perspective. They demonstrate that the use of narrative strategies based on the U.S. mediation field's core values of neutrality and symmetry result in the reconstitution of racial oppression in this mediation. The narrative analysis reveals that the story of the negative racialization of one of the participants is underconstructed and that the stories about rules told during the mediation are fully elaborated upon and serve as the basis for the agreement. The analysis from a critical race perspective offers that the colorblind grand narrative of rules in society provides cultural resonance for the stories of rules and for the narrative strategies based in neutrality and symmetry; however, not for the story of negative racialization. The cumulative effect is the domination by the rules stories of the story of negative racialization. This domination is only briefly challenged through several strategies periodically employed by a participant of color and a mediator of color. The results are that racial oppression is perpetuated both procedurally and substantively in this case. It is hoped that this study will stimulate further research on how racial oppression can manifest in mediation as well as encouraging the exploration of new strategies for narrative facilitation to prevent this from occurring.
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