This study focuses on how minorities are stigmatized in the French media. It limits itself to the case of the proposal of the denaturalization law and the consequent discourse about it. The subject is introduced through a short background on the law and its relevance to the possible racist nature of the debate, followed by some background on racism in France, an overview of the theory on new racism and how it can explain stigmatizating discourses. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as the method to uncover said discourses as it is a method related to the in-depth analysis of implicit dominant ideologies and power-structures. The study analyzes twenty articles from two French newspapers in order to determine how stigmatizing discourses are expressed. The results in the discussion show recurrent racist narratives that systematically denigrate and stereotype Muslims and immigrants. They also show a pattern of the dominant culture negating space to minorities.

More people than ever before are living significant portions of their social lives online due to advancements in internet technology. Over the last few years, we have begun to see the most public discussions of racism increasingly occur online, to be later embedded in the public’s consciousness. It is therefore important for race critical scholars to observe how digital spaces affect racial discourse in the United States. Utilizing a race critical perspective, I explore comment section reactions to counter-framing articles to examine contemporary racial discourse. Through a discourse analysis, I find that counter-framing articles initiate the racial dialectic by inviting white racial frames, thereby structuring contemporary racial discourse. My research suggests race critical scholars should explore the internet as a racialized institution and a site of racial contestation. Race critical theorist must begin to grapple with how such a racialized institution will alter the experiences of racism in social life.

Films are a reflection of their time, and portrayals of the Vietnamese in film are reflective of the attitudes of American culture and society toward Vietnamese people. Films are particularly important because for many viewers, all they know about Vietnam and the Vietnamese is what they have seen on screen. This is why it is so important to examine the racist portrayals of the Vietnamese that have been presented, where they come from, and how and why they have changed. The significance of this study is that it combines historical studies of issues such as immigration, race relations, and cultural history with literary narratives of these films to explore the reasons why the Vietnamese have been portrayed initially so negatively and why that portrayal is only recently beginning to become more positive. I use six major Hollywood films and three recurring images to explore the ways that the portrayal of the Vietnamese has changed over time. Through a study of the images of the dehumanized enemy, the Vietnamese woman as prostitute, and Vietnamese civilians as backward peasants, the changing nature of racism in the films becomes evident. Blatant racism is found in the films of the 1960s and 1970s due to a long history of racism toward Asians and Asian Americans and the nature of the war itself. The films of the 1980s and beyond, coupled with the waves of refugees and opening of relations with Vietnam begin to show the Vietnamese as human beings. The most recent film of the twenty-first century honors the former enemy. There have been vast improvements, but other advancements remain to be made in race relations on screen and in real life.

Although the number of HIV infected peaked in the late 1980’s, HIV remains a major concern within the African American community (CDC, 2008). African Americans are disproportionately affected, comprising 14% of the U.S. population but representing 44% of new HIV infections in 2009 (CDC, 2011). It is vital to identify barriers to positive health behaviors like consistent condom use and HIV testing. This study focus on factors impacting attitudes towards HIV testing, including mistrust of the healthcare system, measured by support for HIV conspiracy theories (Thomas & Quinn, 1991). It also examined the prevalence of HIV conspiracy beliefs among African American college students, along with their perceptions of racism. The first goal of this study was to determine if perceived racism and HIV conspiracy theories are predictors of HIV testing attitudes. The second goal was to examine if perceived racism moderates the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and HIV testing attitudes. The findings indicated that higher levels of HIV conspiracy beliefs were associated with more negative attitudes towards HIV testing. The association between perceived racism and testing attitudes was marginally significant, while the interaction between perceived racism and testing was not significant. Implications for research and HIV interventions are discussed.

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Spencer D. Wood / In the wake of Barack Obama becoming the first nonwhite President of the United States and the diminishing instances of explicit racism, a number of Americans believe that the United States has surpassed race and therefore racism (Neville et al. 2000; Nayak 2006; Brayboy et al. 2007; Gawronski 2008; Quillian 2008; Wise 2009; Bonilla-Silva 2010; Gusa 2010; Ikuenobe 2010; Moras 2010; Gainous 2012). On the surface, the problem of overt racial discrimination has dramatically declined, yet, there are key studies that argue that new and subtler forms of racism are still prevalent (Feagin 2000; Krysan 2000; Sydell and Nelson 2000; Swim et al. 2003; Leach 2005; Henkel et al. 2006; Williams and Land 2006; Anderson 2007; D’Andrea and Daniels 2007; Sue et al. 2007; Gawronski et al. 2008; Wise 2009; Gainous 2012; Torres-Harding et al. 2012). This thesis will focus on assessing the dimensions of present-day racism and racial prejudice by replicating and updating Forman’s (2004) study of racial apathy. Using data from 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, I explore the persistence of racial apathy, which proposes that the blatant racial discrimination of the past has manifested into racial indifference and lack of caring for existing racial inequalities (Perry and Shotwell 2009; Forman 2004; Forman and Lewis 2006; Gafford 2010; Maly et al. 2012). Consistent with previous research, this study finds that the expression of racial apathy has continued to increase, but also that political preference, gender, father’s education level and religiosity affect one’s level of racial apathy.

This thesis will examine the effects of residential segregation, exclusionary zoning, and gentrification on low-income minorities in inner cities. The research will show the relationship between housing inequalities and institutional classism and racism. In addition, the research will examine the use of public policies and regulations that maintain the existing isolation and concentration of minorities and low-income families through disinvestment.

This study was designed to explore the experiences of Black women who attended predominantly White nursing schools. A phenomenological design was used to investigate eight nurses who persisted through to graduation from their nursing programs in the 21st century. The study examined persistence through the lens of academic involvement, alienation, loneliness and isolation, culture, identity and fit, self-concept, and institutional climate and racism. In-depth interviews were conducted to answer the following questions: (1) What does it mean to be Black in a PWI? What are Black nurses' perceptions of the nursing school experience, (2) How did the Black culture fit in with the nursing education culture, (3) What factors influenced your persistence to completion of the program? van Manen's qualitative methods were used for data analysis. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and analyzed exegetically (test is organized around the literature review using the concepts that have already been identified) and thematically. The six themes that emerged were (1) Dealing with stress and nobody cares, (2) Indifference and the need for recognition, (3) Do they even know I am here, (4) Invisibility vs. Visibility, (5) Differentness, unfairness, and condescension, (6) Yes, I am Black and a Woman and I am moving on. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Black nurses who graduated from predominantly White nursing schools by using stories told by those nurses. This study sought to add to the dearth of literature available on Black's experiences in PWIs which would increase awareness and understanding of Black nurses' experiences. Educators and nursing schools can then prepare programs to recruit and retain students of color.

La percepción racial, definida como la forma en que una persona interpreta a otra de una diferente etnia racial, nos ayuda a entender el aprendizaje sobre las diferentes razas que los niños tienen a corta edad y saber si sobre ésta predominan aspectos positivos o negativos en su expresión. Los participantes (n= 65; 33 mujeres y 32 hombres), de edades entre 6 y 7 años, de primer grado de primaria de dos centros educativos diferentes (estatal y particular), fueron expuestos a la presencia de dos muñecos de diferente etnia racial (raza blanca y raza negra) y a preguntas para poder determinar sus preferencias sobre estos. Resultados obtenidos reflejan que hay una alta preferencia de los participantes hacia el muñeco de raza blanca, además de una alta identificación con su color a pesar de los participantes ser de raza mestiza, además hay tendencia de atribuir al muñeco de raza negra aspectos negativos. La percepción de los participantes hacia el muñeco negro corresponde el ser feo, ser malo, pobre, poco estudioso, mientras que por el blanco corresponde el ser bueno, bonito, millonario, estudioso. Por lo que se puede discutir en los resultados, es que se observa que la percepción racial a esta edad ya es inadecuada debido a la atribución negativa que se hace sobre los muñecos de raza negra, lo que puede condicionar las actitudes que se tengan sobre esta raza. The racial perception, defined as the way a person interprets another of a different racial ethnicity, helps us to understand learning about the different races that children are at a young age and whether this expression are predominantly positive or negative. Participants (n = 65; 33 women and 32 men) aged between 6 and 7 years, from first grade of two different schools (public and private), were exposed to the presence of two dolls of different racial ethnicity (white and black) and questioned to determine their preference over them. Results show that there is a high preference of participants to the white doll, along with a high identification with their color despite the participants being of mixed race; in addition, there is a tendency to attribute negatives concepts to the black doll. The perception of the participants on the black doll corresponds being ugly, bad, poor, little studious, while to the white doll corresponds being good, beautiful, millionaire, studious. As can be discuss in the results, it is shows that the racial perception at this age is already inadequate by negative attribution on the black dolls, which can influence the attitudes on this race.

In this essay, the Harry Potter series will be analyzed in three different sections. I will use African American criticism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the discussion of ‘race’ and segregation that occurs between three different groups. This section will explain along what lines the world of Harry Potter is segregated and to what extent. Further, it will contain a case-study of house-elves through the lens of postcolonial criticism, that shows how certain groups are relegated to the status of “subaltern”, what form their oppression take and how they respond to it. I have chosen the elves, who are at the very bottom of the social ladder, because the extent of their oppression has been cut out from movie adaptions, and Rowling herself has liquidated the house-elf plot from the last novels. They provide the clearest example of differentiation between the groups of magical creatures, even though as a group they do not play an important part the series. The main concepts that will be used in this section are the issues of subaltern, mimicry and anticolonialist resistance. Finally, I will look at the novels through a multicultural perspective to see how Rowling has portrayed contemporary multicultural England and how it connects to the racial divisions in the magical world.

This study is about the manner in which ‘ethnicity’, ‘race’, ‘racism’ and ‘anti-racism’ are understood in contemporary France and how this affects the ways in which racialized young adults experience their schooling and early working lives. I explore the ways in which young people living and working in Paris and its surrounding suburbs understand the opportunities and barriers they face. I ground these narratives in an historicized account of the emergence of recent formulations of debates about the appropriate place of immigrants and racialized communities in public political culture in France. I do this through both an examination of the controversy surrounding the use of the categories ethnicity and ‘race’ for the purpose of monitoring discrimination as well as an analysis of a recently inaugurated national museum dedicated to the contribution of immigrants to the French nation. I argue that highly mediatised discussions in France revolving around the meaning of the French national identity, immigration and integration, youth unrest in the banlieues and the place of religion in French society are all implicitly discourses of ‘race’ and racism, despite the concerted and explicit avoidance of the deployment of racial terminology. I draw together an analysis of racialization processes as they take place at different scales and arenas from the denial of the significance of racialization in intellectual milieus, to the process of invisibilisation of racialization and colonialism at work in museum displays and memory narratives to the individual and collective everyday lived experience of racism of relatively high achieving young racialized adults. While rooted in human geography, I rely on a variety of qualitative methods and contribute to a range of academic fields, including the study of racism and anti-racism, the sociology of statistics, museum studies and political science.