This study analyzed how the most partisan cable news networks, FOX News and MSNBC, framed victims and officers in their coverage of cases where officers murder Black victims. In addition, this work investigated how these networks discussed systemic racism within their reports. Using Feagin's white racial frame as a framework, the findings suggest that both networks exhibited anti-black and pro-white framing within their reports, although the frequency and the severity varied across networks. Results also show when counter framing was present, MSNBC still perpetuated the anti-black and pro-white frames. These results have implications for how media should improve their coverage of these cases to prevent the spread of harmful ideologies to their audiences.

Historically, the Black church has been seen as the leader in the movement for racial progress and civil rights in the United States. On the other hand, White churches have largely been seen as perpetuators of racial oppression undergirded by a theology which supports liberation of the soul and subjugation of the body. What then is the role of multi-racial churches? These churches have the unique ability to bridge the difference between Black and White churches and help bring about progress for non-Whites. However, questions have been raised by past research, which implies that multi-racial churches may in fact reproduce the status quo. Accordingly, this dissertation seeks to understand if and how such churches 1) produce and reproduce racial ideology and 2) how organizational practices contribute to the problem. To answer my research questions, I conducted a study which included participant observation, content analysis, and an interview sample of 21. The data was collected at Without Walls Church (WWC), a multi-racial and multi-site church located in south Florida. My findings indicate that church leaders, staff, and volunteers of all races utilize all the frames and many of the styles of color-blind ideology, thereby reproducing the dominant racial ideology. Furthermore, WWC developed additional socio-theological colorblind frames that minimize social justice as a counter frame. Finally, although WWC celebrates its diversity, research found that WWC is a racialized organization which restricts agency of Blacks and distributes resources in ways that suit the interests of Whites through organizational practices. However, the murder of George Floyd, Jr. may have served as an external source of change, challenging the ways in which WWC reproduces the dominant racial ideology.

The main concepts addressed within this study are neighborhood security, culture in cities, immigration, White flight, and gentrification. Although Whites originally settled in cities, an influx of foreigners encouraged racial dispersion and seclusion. Ultimately, Whites fled to suburban and rural areas while racial minorities remained in the city. The historic relocation of Whites led to the neglect of the city and its occupants, Thus, the motivation for this study revolves around the idea that race-related exclusion influences quality of life and residential satisfaction in cities. Data were obtained from the General Social Survey to examine the relationship between quality of life and the presence of multiracial neighbors. Conflict theory guided the analysis under the assumption that residential segregation persists through White avoidance of minority neighbors. Various statistical methods were performed to confirm this speculation including frequencies, Pearson correlations, crosstabulations, chi-square tests, and multiple linear regressions. The findings reflect a precise association among life satisfaction and homogeneous communities. Variables such as race, class, wealth, and willingness to live alongside Black inhabitants structured the argument regarding neighborhood integration or lack thereof.

The emboldening of white supremacist groups, as well as their increased mainstream presence in online circles, necessitates the creation of studies that dissect their tactics and rhetoric, while offering platform-specific insights. This study seeks to address these needs by analyzing white supremacist content and framing devices on the video hosting website, YouTube. Data were collected through a multi-stage sampling technique, designed to capture a 'snapshot' of white supremacist content on the platform during a 45-day period in 2019. After line-by-line coding and qualitative thematic analysis, results showed that sampled channels varied between different levels of color-blindness and overt racialization in their framing. Furthermore, channels containing more color-blind approaches yielded higher subscriber counts than their counterparts. What this indicates is that sampled channels use framing to both activate racial threat and minimize race, attempting to reproduce racism while avoiding coming off as racist in the color-blind, mainstream political climate. Secondary findings also show how sampled channels (a) rhetorically bridge the gap between fascism, nationalism, hegemonic gender roles, and mainstream conservative thought; (b) reconcile the idea of political action within a perilous and conspiratorial worldview; (c) leverage interactive, visual media to engage, manage, and collect funding from their audiences. This study is unique because it unpacks the discursive intricacies of white supremacist messaging, while showing the processes by which a racist society is reproduced in the cosmopolitan, digital hub that is YouTube. It sets precedent and opens doors for future inquiry into how social media platforms are used as tools to mainstream white supremacist ideas.

The purpose of this study is to determine the possibility of the occupational interview utilizing tests that prove to be bias towards one particular race or another. This study is a pilot study and represents the first step in developing a more extensive research design to examine testing bias within the occupational employment interview setting. Ten black students and ten white students are asked to complete two types of occupational interview samples. Those samples are then reviewed by two black hiring managers and two white hiring managers. The results are examined to determine if one test had a greater impact on the manager's hiring decisions. The findings indicate that when compared to the unstructured interview, the structured interview was associated with less bias in the hiring selection. From the data reviewed, possible limitations and future research was discussed.

This dissertation questions: How is the social imaginary about the meaning of being white in Mexico produced, reproduced, and problematized in Twitter Discourse? How is the social imaginary about the meaning of being white in Argentina produced, reproduced, and problematized in Twitter Discourse? How are the social imaginaries in Twitter Discourse in Mexico and Argentina related to the cultural and symbolic power exercised by the United States, and does US power influence the structure of privileges built around Whiteness? For doing that, I collected up to 10K tweets using two keywords to identify discourses surrounding Whiteness in tweets from users in Mexico and Argentina and analyzed up to 300 tweets per keyword using Critical Discourse Analysis tools. The findings demonstrate that research on Twitter is valid to explore communities from inside and interpret problems that go beyond digital environments. Furthermore, Twitter provides a unique opportunity to review Whiteness and question its privilege structures. In addition, the tweets operate as a cultural manifestation of the latent social unrest gruesomely exposing racism, dehumanization, eliminationism, and contempt for otherness favored by the affordances of the medium. My approach focused on Argentina and Mexico tweets as selected cases able to reflect the reality of the region in order to explore the function of Whiteness in everyday conversations, considering the impact of digital technologies in society. Both countries represent well-differentiated social structures, and embody particular ways of living ethnicity, cultural capitalism, and globalization. Although to be considered 'white' in Argentina is not the same as in Mexico, they also retain certain identity features related to conceptions of Whiteness that allow its study. Even more interesting, I found that studying Whiteness in these two countries also illustrated the influence of the United States as a cultural and symbolic power in the development of white supremacist ideas.

This thesis will determine the validity of the claim made by Joseph Califano, an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, that the film Selma is not historically accurate, especially regarding the Johnson character. This topic was picked to critique historical accuracy in the film and provide a framework to determine if the film would be suitable for use in an educational setting. This thesis used multiple academic monographs, telephone conversations, interviews, and presidential archives to come to a conclusion. After thorough research, it has been determined that Selma can be used as an educational resource with appropriate cautions stated beforehand regarding President Johnson. This thesis is important as it may help ease the load on educators when trying to find suitable materials to teach the complicated subject of civil rights.

In U.S. society, the systems of gender and race operate to privilege and oppress individuals based on their location within these systems. All of the interactions an individual experiences as they go about their day-to-day lives are shaped by these interlocking systems. As a result, there is an extensive body of sociological literature addressing how individuals in U.S. society are privileged and oppressed on the basis of their perceived membership in gender and race categories; however, relatively little research exists examining how individuals come to be seen by others as members of gender and race categories in the first place. In order to address this gap in the existent literature, this thesis asked 354 participants to perform gender and race categorizations for 28 target individuals of various gender and race category memberships. Participants were asked to make a categorization, rate how confident they were in that categorizations accuracy, and then explain why they made the gender or race categorization that they did. In analyzing these categorizations, this thesis produced three important findings about the process of gender and race categorization. First, this thesis identified two gender categories ("female" and "male") and eight race categories ("White," " Black," "Latino," "Asian," "Southeast Asian," "South Asian/Indian," "Middle Eastern," and "Mixed Race") used in gender and race categorization. Second, particularly in the common usage of the biologically-based concepts of "sex" and "race," rather than the socially-based concepts of "gender" and "ethnicity." Third, this thesis found interactions between the gender and race systems in categorization, finding that White individuals and male individuals are gender categorized more easily than Black individuals or female individuals, and individuals will less "ambiguous" skin coloration are more easily categorized than others.

A rise in racial disparities in maternal health has become an ongoing issue in the United States. This study uses a scoping literature review method to examine the effect of implicit bias on racial disparities in maternal healthcare. Multiple articles in this study provide sufficient evidence to prove that implicit bias is a contributing factor to the alarming rise of racial disparities in maternal health outcomes. The study revealed two distinct categories that elaborate on the health crisis that has been a continuation of practices traced backed to slavery. The analysis for this research is grounded in lack of quality care and socioeconomic factors. The thesis demonstrates the underlying issues in maternity care. Black women are the core group represented in this research because of an increase in premature births, maternal mortality, and morbidity rates. Prevention strategies are elaborated in the study to reduce racial inequality.

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