Thesis advisor: David Karp / This thesis focuses on the lived experiences of adolescent Puerto Rican American girls who were born and raised in the United States. In the midst of the social problems and the attention given to these problems, the resilient nature of these young women is often overlooked. The sample consist of 18 young ladies between the ages of 11-15 (M = 12.2 yrs). The data for this research project were collected through two main methods – the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ) and semi-structured interviews. First I utilize social identity theory and the concept of social stigma to detail certain social problems and explain their reactions towards them. I then describe the coping strategies used by these young ladies to survive the social inequality they face on a daily basis. I have used the existing research on the colonialism of Puerto Rico, race/ethnicity, and cultural gender expectations as the foundation for my exploration on the effects of the interconnectedness of all three social processes on the lives of these young girls, and to gain a better understanding on the coping strategies these young women use to deal with these social problems. Although these girls express many ways of dealing with difficult situations, I write on four of the main strategies they utilize. The four coping strategies include: making use of their social capital, distinguishing themselves from others, promoting and preserving cultural pride, and understanding the differences in various social contexts. What has remained virtually unwritten, until now, are the ways young puertorriqueñas have learned to cope with the problems of an oppressive history, race/ethnicity, and gender expectations. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Zine Magubane / Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / In a series of case studies, I problematize the reification of race in the American Sociology of race from a postcolonial perspective. I argue prominent theories within the American sociology of race tend to essentialize race as a cause of racial inequality in the United States. These theories assume the existence of racial categories and then discuss how other entities become racialized into racialized social systems (Bonilla-Silva 1997), or racial projects (Omi & Winant 1994). These theories emphasize national structures, but occlude empire. I argue the occlusion of empire in the American sociology of race, particularly in theorization of racial categorization, is problematic. Empire is the structure that links race to class inequality, and produces race as a social category of exclusion. Therefore, a sociological theory of American racial inequality, which does not analyze imperialism as a structure that produces race, and rather focuses solely on national-structures, or a definition of capitalism severed from imperialism, cannot provide a thoroughly structural explanation for the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Dennis Shirley / Trends in the racial make-up of students attending American schools in large districts showed significant growth in the number of Black and Latino students as far back as 1987. Further, more than half of the students who attend school in these districts were eligible for free or reduced lunch (Planty, 2008). In sum, urban schools are increasingly populated by low-income students of color. Shifts in the urban student population necessitate changes in the way in which teaching and learning are conceptualized. As the population of the nation's urban schools becomes increasingly Black and Hispanic, the need for a teaching force whose racial background matches the student body also increases (B. E. Cross, 2003; Dee, 2005; K. Howey, 1999; Ladson-Billings, 2000a). The suggestion is that teachers who teach children who are like themselves linguistically, culturally, and racially are the most ideal to facilitate learning (Martinez, 1994). Nonetheless, there is little scholarly discourse on the role or impact that socioeconomic class plays in scenarios where teachers and students share the same racial background. Using Ray Rist's (1970) seminal work as an anchor, this study employed a qualitative approach to examine the perceptions of five African American male teachers who identify as middle class and who teach in schools or programs that serve predominantly low-income African American students. Analysis of the interviews led to the following conclusions: the differences in socioeconomic class influenced the teachers' general perception of their students and their capability as learners. Notwithstanding these perceptions, the teachers expressed a profound sense of love and care for their students and believed themselves to be uniquely qualified to provide them with what they need beyond the traditional curriculum. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Diana C. Pullin / The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) increased the role of the federal government in the education of America's children, raising the standards of performance for all children in all schools and holding schools accountable for the achievement of all children. Schools, districts, and states are required under the law to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) not only in the aggregate, but for certain subgroups of students, including racial and linguistic minorities, children with disabilities, and students who are economically disadvantaged. Schools that fail to make the requisite AYP risk exposure to a host of sanctions including: being labeled "in need of improvement," replacing principals, and state take-over. This dissertation argues that, in this demanding context, it is possible that NCLB may actually be increasing the achievement gap between racial groups in America rather than reducing it. The use of standardized assessments to measure student progress may be causing detrimental effects on students in racial minority groups. These effects may be further compounded in states like Massachusetts where regulations designed to implement NCLB impose additional mandates, such as requiring students to pass a test for graduation. Through an analysis of school profile data reported by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, a review of district documents, and interviews with teachers and administrators at one high school that has been identified as in need of improvement, this dissertation examines the intersection between high stakes testing and retention in light of the system of rewards and sanctions imposed by NCLB, paying particular attention to the disparate impact this phenomenon may be having on students of color in urban schools. This study illuminates the challenges faced by policymakers in their attempts to reduce the achievement gap faced by students in this country as well as the impact such policies have on the practice of teaching and learning. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: William A. Gamson / Taking an intersectional approach, I show how news media portrayals of neoliberal welfare reform and welfare rights movements are rooted in culture-specific racial and gendered ideologies. Using critical discourse analysis in combination with frame analysis, I analyze 462 articles published in two central newspapers in Massachusetts (The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald) and in Israel (Haaretz and Yediot Achronot) during the public debates on welfare reform in 1995 and 2003 respectively. I trace the surprising discursive success of the Israeli welfare rights movement in the news media, and compare it with the failure of their American counterparts. At the conclusion of the dissertation, I offer an intersectional cultural explanation for this phenomenon. My findings are twofold: on the one hand, I find that the news media and elite actors used culturally-hegemonic sexist, racist, and classist discourses to stigmatize and silence welfare mothers and to justify neoliberal policies. Both the American and the Israeli news media tapped into readily available gender-specific racial discourses to discredit welfare recipients and welfare activists and to silence them. On the other hand, I demonstrate that the Israeli case is nevertheless quite distinct. The Israeli movement was more successful in discursively challenging the neoliberal welfare discourse than its counterparts in the U.S. I argue that what accounts for this difference are three unique cultural features of Israeli society: First, (1), a nationalist fertility discourse that served as a value system alternative to the neoliberal logic; second, (2), related to this, a strong "heroic mother" ethos that is a part of the Zionist nation-building project, which valorizes Jewish motherhood and thus provided an ambiguous entry point to the public sphere for Jewish mothers; and third, (3), a nationalist tension between Jewish-Israelis and Palestinian-Israelis that stimulates perceptions of Mizrahi women (i.e. Jewish women of North African and Middle Eastern descent) as a part of the imagined national collectivity, thus lessening their stigmatization and exclusion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This thesis examines the history of Black representation on British television from 1936 to the present day. Through archival research, it traces Black people's involvement in British television, both on and off screen. The study involves a detailed review of various debates around the history and future of race and representation on television. It also focuses on various issues related to British race relations, the structure of British broadcasting, television policy and the ideological and social construction of 'race'. Although the project is a historical survey with a social and cultural emphasis, it also considers the future of television images of Blackness within the context of deregulation, globalisation and the move towards a federal Europe. As such, the thesis brings us up to date and intersects with aspects of sociology, cultural and media studies and studies of race and ethnicity. The project draws, in part, on a number of original interviews conducted by the author with key Black people involved in the British television industry (actors, commissioning editors, producers, academics, film-makers). It also provides a number of detailed case studies of selected television programmes. The genres discussed include documentary, news, comedy, sport, variety, drama and film. The central thesis suggests that the portrayal of Black people on-screen has been marginalised and confined to a narrow repertoire of (stereo)types underpinned by popular assumptions of what 'Blackness' or 'Black-Britishness' constitute. It argues that the programmes in which Black people have appeared, have signified key moments in the 'racialisation' of British society; moments when the presence of 'race' itself has been realised. But it also argues that, far from being passive to these exclusionary and limiting processes, Black people in Britain have actively mounted a series of individual and collective strategic interventions in order to tackle institutional discrimination and gain media representation, employment and access. The project has been supervised by Professor Stuart Hall (formerly of the Open University's Sociology department) and June Givanni (former Head of the African-Caribbean Unit at the British Film Institute). It draws on, and is an extension of, earlier research conducted as part of the British Film Institute's 'Black and White in Colour' Project in 1992.

Magister Artium - MA / In this paper I attempt to look critically at the literary construction of one particular 'race', namely the 'Coloureds', in Sarah Gertrude Millin's God's Stepchildren. To this end, the paper draws on the historical background of Millin, and investigates the way in which Millin has consciously and strategically formed, as it were, a 'unique' Coloured identity. Furthermore, the paper explores the proximity or tension between author and narrator in the novel. This tension, I suggest, emerges in response to various pressures in the novel which in turn are based upon the author's social, political and economic background. Evidence to this effect is derived from Millin's biography and other sources. What emerges from the paper is that the concepts 'race' and 'Coloured', as they are employed in this novel, are equally elusive. In attempting to piece together a 'race', the novel communicates Millin's aversion to miscegenation, and discloses characteristics of her 'self'. Ironically, I conclude, she falls prey to the same kinds of prejudices that she projects onto her literary subjects.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

This dissertation examines sound, and its embodied articulation through music and movement, as I consider pivotal ways in which race has been constructed through the history of blackface minstrelsy in the United States. I contend that the racialized sounds developed out of early blackface performance have both persisted and shifted throughout the history of American popular music, even after the disappearance of the blackface mask. I have neologized the concept of Blacksound to denote the racially coded sonic scripts that have developed out of the history of blackface performance. Blacksound refers to the histories and movements of the African American bodies, both real and imagined, on which its performance is based. The concept also suggests the scripting, manipulation, and absorption of these sonic performances by both black and non-black bodies as vehicles for imagining and self-expression, understood in relation to how ideals of citizenship vis-a-vis whiteness developed along the emerging color line throughout the long nineteenth century. Because Blacksound emerges out of the contexts of chattel slavery and minstrelsy, its commodified nature is always central to understanding how it sonically functions within the construction of identity in U.S. history. I examine how the masked receding of the sonic and corporeal tropes of blackface into Blacksound became the basis of contemporary popular sound and central to constructions of civic and racial identity in the United States. This approach is primarily developed through a comparative analysis of sheet music, imagery, and primary and secondary accounts of blackface performance rituals throughout the long nineteenth century.

<p>Chronic pain is a costly health problem that affects more than 100 million people in the United States. Race differences exist in the way that pain is experienced and in how it is treated. Many biopsychosocial factors contribute to race differences in pain tolerance. Beliefs about race differences in pain sensitivity may be one of these factors. Previous research has identified that individuals’ explicit beliefs about their gender group influence their own pain tolerance on a cold pressor task. Explicit beliefs about race and pain sensitivity have also been identified but have yet to be linked to actual pain tolerance. Implicit beliefs about race are well documented; however, little is known about the extent to which individuals hold implicit beliefs about race differences in pain sensitivity or whether these beliefs contribute to actual race differences in pain. My thesis examined explicit and implicit beliefs about race and pain and explored whether these beliefs moderated race differences in pain tolerance. I found that White participants had a higher pain tolerance than Black participants on the cold pressor task, <i>U</i>=1165.50, <i>p</i><.01. Participants held the explicit, <i>t</i>(131)=-6.83, <i>p</i><.01, and implicit, <i>t</i>(131)=6.35, <i>p</i><.01, belief that White people are more pain sensitive than Black people. Both explicit, <i>b</i>=-0.37, <i>p</i>=.71, and implicit, <i>b</i>=-21.87, <i>p</i>=.65, beliefs failed to moderate the relationship between race and pain tolerance. Further exploration indicated that participants’ comparisons of their own pain sensitivity to that of their race group moderated the relationship between race and pain tolerance, ⍵=4.40, <i>p</i>=.04. These results provide further insight into race differences in pain tolerance. Researchers may consider examining explicit and implicit beliefs about race differences in pain in health care providers to better understand disparities in pain related recommendations.</p>