I show three new ways to use Google search query data. First, I use Google search data to measure racism in the United States and its effect on Obama in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. Second, I use Google search data to predict turnout in different parts of the United States prior to an election. Third, I use Google search data to measure child maltreatment and how maltreatment is affected by economic downturns. / Economics

Ricardo Aldape Guerra was an undocumented Mexican migrant who was wrongfully convicted and given a death sentence for the murder of a white Houston police officer in 1982. In the absence of any physical evidence that implicated Aldape Guerra for the crime, Harris County prosecutors appealed to extreme anti-Mexican immigrant hostility in Houston by repeatedly emphasizing Aldape Guerra’s undocumented immigration status to the jury in order to construct him as a dangerous “illegal alien” deserving of severe punishment. This thesis situates Aldape Guerra’s encounter with the Texas legal system within related histories of social, cultural, economic, political, and legal phenomena in the United States in order to obtain a more complete understanding and to excavate critical lessons about the overall treatment of undocumented Mexican migrants in the U.S. legal system. It argues that the isolation of law from histories of racialization of Mexican migrants renders the U.S. legal system inadequate to protect undocumented Mexican migrants against racial discrimination, even in the court of law. It also argues that the U.S. legal system also cannot account for the material effects of transnational neoliberal capitalism on the cross-border movement of Mexican labor forces. This failure cultivates flawed legal reasoning in immigration jurisprudence that equates “illegality” with danger and criminality. / text

Since the 1970s, racial progress in the United States has stalled and in some ways, even regressed. There continues to be vast disparities between racial groups, pointing to serious inequities and systemic racism within our institutions. White privilege, a product of institutional racism and white supremacy, is a collection of unearned social benefits and courtesies that are bestowed upon a select group of people by virtue of their being white (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). This literature review examines the dynamics of white privilege and power using the tenets of critical race theory to explain how they are both protected and perpetuated by liberal colorblind ideologies, particularly in education. Naming and examining whiteness, as opposed to ignoring and/or denying its significance, is the first step toward transforming the existing racial hierarchies in society. / text

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis explores how the 2003 epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, threw into relief the myriad historical, political and economic factors that shape understandings of and responses to a new disease. The author traces how the historic "othering" of Chinese immigrants and their descendents in the United States was combined with dominant discourses of risk and blame to understand SARS and the potential for a domestic epidemic. Narratives from community members of Manhattan's Chinatown are used to investigate the local impacts of the production of these discourses during the SARS epidemic. Finally, the author explores how these dominant discourses were applied locally within Chinatown understand local and personal risk.

Constructed from a social justice paradigm, the researcher of this study combines historical research methods, case study strategies and the lens of critical race theory (CRT) to investigate the Raza Studies program within the Tucson Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies Department. With equal emphasis, this study has four aims: 1) to provide a deep literature review revealing the historical plight of Latin@ students (Darder, 1997; Valencia, 1991/1997/2002); 2) to explore the maintenance of deficit discourses and subtractive schooling conditions in relation to Latin@ students (Ogbu, 1998; Solórzano and Yosso, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999); 3) to offer a counter discourse based on an exploration of alternative critical pedagogies (Cammarota and Romero, 2006/2009; Freire, 1970/1973; Giroux; 1988; Kincheloe; 2004; McLaren, 1997/2003) and; 4) to tell the story of Raza Studies primarily using newspaper articles, letters to the editor and editorials written in response to four major events that occurred from 2007-2010. Within this study, CRT is the most effective theoretical framework to uncover the malignant schooling conditions and practices imposed on Latin@ youth because it allows the researcher to examine how racial stereotyping might contribute to the continued marginalization and subordination of Latin@ students. In turn, the investigation into the conditions and events surrounding La Raza Studies suggests that implicit (and explicit) racist attitudes, within the public discourse, not only impede Latin@ student success but that they also intend to. (Solórzano and Yosso 2001; Giroux 2005). Additionally, this historical descriptive account is further developed and magnified by a critical analysis of the data (58 opinion-based responses retrieved from a local newspaper). Coding for indicators of a deficit discourse (stereotypes, prejudice, xenophobia, etc.), a critical reflection and discussion of these texts is considered within the larger themes of power, ideology, and hegemony. (Apple, 1979/1995; Fairclough, 1995/2001; Giroux, 2004/2005; Giroux and McLaren, 1989; Gramsci, 1971; van Dijk, 1987/1998; Wodak, 1989). In consideration of the four aims of this study combined with the researcher’s theoretical framework and bias, she believes the reader will gain a more empathetic, even if only a more informed, perspective regarding the educational plight of Latin@ students.

This study investigates the treatment of race biology and related subjects in Swedish schoolbooks from 1873 to 1994, with special emphasis on the “gymnasium”-level. The concept of race biology has several connotations: it is at one hand related to physical anthropology and at the other to eugenics. Like in Germany the latter was in Sweden first called “racial hygiene”. After an introduction giving the historical background the books are reviewed for their content on this matter. The conclusions drawn are as follows:<br /><br />1. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, mental, cultural and physical appearances of peoples from various parts of the world are discussed with little emphasis on the distinction between race (as a biological concept) and culture.<br /><br />2. Finns and Lapps are in early books considered as belonging to the Mongolian race. This may be understood in terms of the confusion between classification of race and language but also of at the time prevailing theories of Sweden’s racial history.<br /><br />3. Around 1930 a distinction between race, as a biological concept, and people, as a linguistic and cultural concept is pronounced. Personality characteristics are attributed to biological races.<br /><br />4. The dark-skinned African and Australian populations are treated with special disrespect, whereas the lighter-skinned Polynesians are discussed with high esteem.<br /><br />5. The teachings of the Nazi racialist H. F. K. Günther have a decisive impact on the treatment of in particular European ”races” and their mental characters on at least one author. Even the word “master-race” is used for the Nordic race. The most controversial parts of this teaching are removed in 1945.<br /><br />6. From the 1950’s onward the interest in races is diminished in books in geography, and in the biology books racism is generally condemned.<br /><br />7. Eugenics (racial hygiene) is advocated in biology books into the 1970’s, in a manner close enough to be called political propaganda. The low efficiency of sterilisation against Mendelian recessives is generally presented. The Swedish sterilisation policies at the time are presented in detail in the biology books.<br /><br />8. Traditional race classification is present still in the 1980’s, even with regard to the European “racial types”. Much attention is given to the “extreme” racial crossing between Europeans and Hottentots.<br /><br />9. In a biology book from 1967, control of the third world population explosion (in itself a theme from the 1950’s onward) is explicitly discussed in the context of eugenics.<br /><br />10. When modern in utero diagnostic methods are discussed in the 1990’s, eugenics is not concerned.

The main objectives of the study have been to investigate the welfare policy in South Africa as it relates to childcare, compile the profile of trans-racial families, to examine the socialisation processes within trans-racial families. To compile a profile of people who give away their children for adoption or foster care, identify the needs and challenges confronting trans - racial families, as well as establish the support networks available to trans-racial families. The study has therefore established that the childcare policy of the Department of Welfare is based on the concept of permanency planning. The premise is that a child's most important bonds are those made with his parents and that they should take care of him or her. Preventive services aimed at preserving the family unit must be emphasised. The family is the institution in which the basic moral and social being of the individual personality is formed. It is here that the child learns that he is dependent on the co-operation of others for the satisfaction of his own needs and for the realisation of his own goals. However, when the social and living conditions in a family are poor, other alternatives have to be considered. In South Africa, like in other countries the first alternative is to place the children in care. There are various places of care. In South Africa, children in need of care can either be placed for adoption in a residential care or in a foster home. Adoption is a permanent arrangement, whereby a married or single parent places a child in their care permanently. There is a legal binding. Alternatively a child can be placed with a family of a different race. This is another way of providing a child or an infant of a different race or/and culture with new legal parents. The study has also established that all adoptive parents who participated in this particular study were white, mostly females. The majority of the parents were married. Most of them have also acquired tertiary education. Most of them were also employed, and they live in racially integrated communities. Of all the twenty families that were interviewed twelve of them had no children of their own. Most of the families reported to be Christians. There were thirty-five children amongst the families that participated in the study. There were eighteen females and seventeen males Nineteen children were African, twelve were coloured, three were Indian and only one child was half-Indian and half coloured. Most families reported that their children were outgoing, but shy. Most of the children attend integrated schools, and there are other adopted children at the school. Most of the children are comfortable with blacks and whites. Six of the parents who gave away their children for adoption and foster care were in their late twenties. Whereas three were still teenagers. One was in her early twenties, five were in their mid twenties and only two were in their early thirties. Seven of the birth parents were blacks, another seven coloureds, two Indians and only one was white. The main reason for giving their children away for adoption and foster care was due to financial constraints. Support networks are very essential for adoptive families to function properly and this give them an opportunity to share their burdens with other parents. Many adoptive parents who participated in this study belong to the Rainbow Support Group in Johannesburg, and most adoptive families also rely on the support of their families and friends. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

This meta-analytic study analyses the relationship between racial prejudice and racial policy attitudes. Specifically, it examines the effects of race attitudes (i.e., symbolic racism, oldfashioned racism, racial affect and stereotypes) on attitudes towards racial policies such as affirmative action, busing and fair housing laws, among others. Furthermore, the effects of specific policy types (i.e., preferential treatment, compensatory programmes, desegregation and general legal policies) on racial policy attitudes were also examined. Finally, as a matter of interest, a racial attitude by racial policy type interaction was also analysed. 28 studies (N = 187 191,216 effect sizes) were collected for analyses. Overall, results indicate that there is in fact a statistically significant correlation between race prejudice and racial policy attitudes. In terms of racial attitudes, all four dimensions of racial attitude types were significantly correlated with racial policy opinions, with symbolic racism presenting the strongest relationship. All four racial policy types were also significantly correlated with the four racial attitudes. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006

A controversial party’s entry into parliament - a review of Expressen’s depiction of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) The purpose of this essay was to study how Expressen presents the Sweden Democrats, as well as reasoning about the effects this depiction could have on the citizens’ opinion. Using a quantitative method I studied 122 articles, and through a qualitative method four of these could be further analyzed to reach a deeper result. The theoretical perspective that was applied in this study was primary agenda-setting and framing theory, to illuminate the power of media. The result showed that a prominent theme was to present Sweden Democrats as racists. Other recurring themes were to include the party misfortunate-, successful, crime-related scandals and as victims. It also showed that the Sweden Democrats rarely gets to speak in the articles and that the headlines and events are angled in an unfavorable way for the party.