This study examines the ethnic identity development process of second-generation Indian Americans, the first sizeable cohort of Indian Americans to come of age in the United States, and identifies major factors involved, exploring the salience of each across the lifespan. The inquiry included a detailed look at the role of religion and the impact of racial and religious discrimination in ethnic identity development. This study is predominantly qualitative in methodology, employing a semi-structured interview protocol with 41 research participants. Research participants were also asked to rank the salience of eleven predetermined factors using a modified Likert Scale. Research participants were young professionals and graduate students, aged 22–32, residing in Atlanta and Boston. The research findings reveal the most salient factors affecting second-generation Indian American ethnic identity development to be the presence or absence of an ethnoreligious community and the individual's sense of (dis)connection with such a community; “dimensions of culture,” including food, ethnoreligious celebrations, clothing and Hindi popular films; trips to India; knowledge of the family language and participation in the family religion, or the lack of such knowledge or participation; and experiences of racial and religious discrimination. While the salience of each factor alone and in relation to others changes over the lifespan, the experiences of most research participants mapped four specific trajectories of ethnic identity development. This study pays particularly close attention to the role of religion. Research participants self-identified as Atheist, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, Ismaili, Jain, Methodist, Muslim and Sikh. Religion—experienced as community, culture, family, belief and ritual, and knowledge—has a multidimensional role in second-generation Indian American ethnic identity development. The context, content and intensity of “religious” experience varied across the lifespan. Whether social, spiritual or “symbolic,” religion is omnipresent in the lives of research participants, even those who do not consider themselves “religious.” Experiences of racial and religious discrimination also affected ethnic identity development. Research participants reported covert and overt experiences of racial and religious discrimination at all life stages. They experienced religious discrimination in the form of direct insults, Christian proselytization, and inaccurate depictions of their religion in the media and popular culture.

This study examined the various ways in which Ashkenazi Jewish undergraduate anti-racism peer educators understood and used their Jewish identity in their work with non-Jewish people of color and white Christians. Ashkenazi Jews, who are Jews of Central European heritage, often find themselves questioning the racial space they occupy. The ways in which students of Ashkenazi Jewish identification compare or contrast their historical and current social position with that of communities of color can either facilitate or disrupt their efforts to be effective anti-racist educators. Fifteen Ashkenazi Jews who are peer facilitators in a nationally-recognized social justice program at a university in the Midwest were interviewed. Three data gathering techniques were utilized: demographic intake form, individual interview, and focus group interview. Participants articulated a complex understanding of the position of Ashkenazi Jews in U.S.-based systems of ethnicity, religion, race and class. Based on these systems, the students claimed that Jews are both insiders and outsiders in American society, targeted and privileged simultaneously in their ethno-religious and class identities. Findings reveal that being Jewish is salient and a distinct identity for this generation of college students; the history of Jewish oppression continues to inform Jewish identity; Jewish students continues to describe a connection with Blacks; and distinctive processes of ethnic and ethno-religious identity development take place for Jewish undergraduates. Findings suggest the need for a new social identity model that addresses the unique racial, ethnic and ethno-religious positionality of Ashkenazi Jewish undergraduates. The author presents a Jewish ethno-religious target development model, along with implications for anti-racism and social justice education and suggestions for further research.

This dissertation employs an ethnographic perspective to describe and interpret the communicative practices of a speech community of Jewish immigrant elders on South Miami Beach. Fieldwork conducted from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s with a daily gathering that met by the oceanside offers the basis for analysis of the meanings of sociability and Yiddish linguistic and musical performance. Indepth interviews with gathering participants indicate distinctive ways in which these communicative practices displayed and affirmed a sense of shared cultural identity, an accomplishment underscored by the marginal status of this speech community. Practices of sociability and Yiddish cultural performance were understood as countering conditions of cultural invisiblity, social isolation and the abandonment of Yiddish culture. Issues of communal space, a public sphere, collective memory, mutual aid, and life storying in relationship to the Holocaust are discussed. The meanings of folksong performance are elaborated as a cultural norm and ritual form that perpetuated a long-term, diasporic cultural tradition.

Globalizing processes of late capitalism shape local cultures in complex and contradictory ways, exacerbating assimilation and alienation in geographically and culturally marginalized communities and, paradoxically, empowering disenfranchised groups by facilitating communication between diasporic populations and providing access to information, images, and commodities. This dissertation explores the ways in which linguistic difference, geographic isolation, and cultural marginalization have contributed to collective consciousness and feelings of distinctiveness in Chéticamp, an Acadian community in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. I examine forms of cultural work—such as genealogical research, community museums, and cooperative associations—as cultural performances in which community members envision and enact their Acadian identities. Performed identities are inauthentic in the sense that they are actively negotiated and subject to ongoing adaptation and transformation; yet they are also authentic in the sense that they are deeply felt and central to understandings of our experiences, our relationships, and our place in the world. Examining Acadian ethnic and linguistic identities through a performance lens thus illuminates possibilities for cultural survival in contexts of uncertainty and change.

Historically, throughout the world, Indigenous nations have been subject to colonial policies and practices which deliberately seek to obliterate the way of life of Indigenous societies. The Kanienkehaka nation is but one of the thousands of such nations struggling to survive and resist against state invasions within traditional national territories. This study examines the current conflict-relationship between the Kanienkehaka nation and the State (U.S./Canada) from a historical/cultural/political framework. The Oka crisis of July 11, 1990 will serve as a case study. This study also constructs pedagogy that examines both U.S./Canadian governmental policies towards Indigenous nations, specifically the Kanienkehaka nation. This curriculum is designed to assist teachers place each chapter in an educational context by specifying central themes that revolve around the historical/contemporary relationship existing between the Kanienkehaka nation and the State.

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Beginning in the 1850s, California became a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society where many cultures met and engaged in a struggle for wealth and cultural dominance. This study documents such an encounter between two of those groups, Anglo Americans and Indians, in the Northern California county of Mendocino. It argues that race was the most crucial element underlying the development of the society in Mendocino County from the frontier era to the Great Depression. Anglo American settlers brought with them to California clearly defined ideas about race that helped them justify conquest of the Indians. Greed for land combined with the racial ideology of the era to create a frontier society where race largely determined the control of land, resources, and power. Indians and other people Anglos defined as nonwhite became a cheap workforce with limited access to the promise of California. Geographically isolated rural counties like Mendocino tended to be narrow and provincial. In such regions race was an even more potent force than in more cosmopolitan parts of the state. In spite of racial divisions, some white reformers and employees of the federal government worked on behalf of the Indians. Although well meaning, they often acted as agents of assimilation policies that undermined and disrupted native cultures. At times, however, some of them became agents of change, helping the Indians find ways to resist and survive attacks on them. And against all odds, Indian people did find ways to survive, most often from their own efforts, not those of reformers. Using complex strategies of accommodation and resistance, they adapted to a changed world by drawing on traditions of community and spirituality inherent in California Indian village life. New leaders emerged and in concert with white reformers, some Indians began to actively organize, first around issues of education and land, and later for an end to segregation and the right to vote. But in spite of many gains, racial divisions on the local level remained strong, indicating that in a region with such a history, reform without attention to the importance of race is unlikely to create fundamental change.

For the first time in recent history, Somali society has experienced the plight of a mass exodus. Millions have been displaced by civil war and have sought refuge in places thousands of miles away from their homelands. There are tens of thousands of Somali refugees in Canada; the majority settled in Metropolitan Toronto. Upon arrival, Somalis, still suffering from the trauma of war and uprooting, face the challenges of adapting to life in the post-modern Canadian society. Adaptation implies bridging the cultural differences between Somalia and Canada. This study, using ethnographic methods such as in-depth interviewing and participant observations, explores the socio-cultural experiences of Somali refugees in Toronto during the process of adaptation. The research questions focus on challenges Somalis face during the adaptation process, and the coping mechanisms they employ in response to the challenges they face. The study finds that, as recent migrants, Somali refugees have not achieved significant structural integration into the social, economic, and political structures of Canadian society. Dependence on social welfare assistance, a high rate of unemployment, limited educational pursuits, and social and residential segregation are features common among Somali refugees in Toronto. Factors that hinder their effective integration include lack of access to critical initial resettlement services; limited length of residence; limited proficiency in official languages of Canada; and prejudice, discrimination, and racism directed against them as Blacks and as Muslims. Internally, Somalis are making significant cultural adaptations by synthesizing elements of the two cultures. Younger Somalis are acquiring the values of their peers, which create intergenerational conflicts within the family. Religiosity among the adults and some youngsters is also on the rise. Somalis have created their own ethnic institutions such as businesses and community organizations to provide critical services. However, considering the salience of racism in Canada and the exclusion of Black ethnic groups from the economic, social, and political structures, it is unlikely that the experience of the Somalis in Canada would be significantly different than that of other Blacks. Most Somalis identify themselves first as Muslims, and second as Somalis, but others see them just as Blacks.

Identity and specifically American Indian identity is frequently established by tribal enrollment base on blood quantum or percentage of Indian blood from a specific Indian nation. Here I demonstrate how American Indian identity of individuals from the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin has been formed by experiences rooted in a historical context shaped by contemporary issues. From the treaty period in the 19th Century through Termination and Restoration in the 20th Century, pressure to assimilate into the non-Indian community failed and instead fostered a strong Menominee identity. Blood quantum plays a political and social role determining who is accepted on the tribal roll. Language and cultural expressions and traditional ceremony reinforce identity. However, Menominee connection to their land and the interaction of the land and people provides the foundation for their identity and creates an unbroken bond to their ancestors and a responsibility to the Menominee of the future.

This dissertation introduces four studies targeting a central question in discrimination research: What is the relationship between ethnic identification and perceived discrimination? The studies support conclusions that, among minority populations, the same, ambiguous, discrimination-relevant feedback will tend to be interpreted by the highly identified as more biased than it is by the weakly identified, since identification makes ethnic self-schemas chronically accessible—and hence, central guides in the interpretation of discrimination-relevant feedback. Moreover, manipulations that make ethnic self-schemas temporarily accessible can increase attributions of ambiguous feedback to bias. Study 1 establishes some predicted links among ethnic identification, perceived discrimination, and self-schema accessibility; Study 2 demonstrates that manipulating schema accessibility can influence estimates of past, present, and future discrimination. Study 3, focusing on Asian Americans, suggests that ethnic self-schemas, when accessible, bias online information-processing. Conclusions regarding how ethnic identification operates in Whites remain less clear. Although Studies 1 and 2 suggest that the accessibility of ethnic self-schemas influences perceived bias among Whites, Study 4 produces only weak evidence that priming ethnic self-schemas in Whites increases their tendency to perceive ambiguous feedback from an Asian experimenter as biased. Ethnic self-schemas may motivate information-processing in Whites, but it is not yet clear how.