Using the film La Haine (1995), directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, as an object of analysis, this paper explores culture as a tool of exclusion in France through sociological, architectural, and political contexts. It investigates La Haine as one of the first representations of the banlieue to mainstream French audiences, as well as the ways in which the film reveals how immigrants and children of immigrants struggle to find personal, cultural, and national identity in France.

The problems focused on in this study are to determine (1) if racial differences exist when American College Testing Program (ACT) scores are used to predict Grade Point Average (GPA); (2) how placement decisions may be affected if differences do exist; (3) and what guidelines or recommendations can be formulated to avoid possible test bias and discrimination in placement procedures. Subjects consisted of the total population of 139 Black freshman students and a sample of 139 White freshman students entering a Southeastern regional university in the fall of 1970. Separate regression analyses were performed for Black, White and combined (total) groups on several sets of data. Regression analyses consisted of English GPA on English ACT scores, Math GPA on Math ACT scores, Psychology GPA on Social Studies ACT scores. Analyses were also performed for first semester GPA on Composite ACT scores, and second and fourth year GPA on Composite ACT scores. Based on Cleary’s (1968) definition of test bias, the results indicate that a single regression plane cannot be used to predict grades for Blacks and Whites, Current University placement guidelines were found to place Blacks in courses where their probabilities of success are lower than that of their White counterparts. It is recommended that a more flexible placement policy be instituted in order to avoid challenges of bias and/or discriminatory placement practices. It is recommended that individual students decide whether or not to enroll in a particular course. This decision is to be aided by updated University placement guidelines (based on regression equations) issued to faculty advisors, along with reference to updated expectancy tables.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

In modern historiography, Henri Christophe, king of northern Haiti from 1816-1820, is generally given a negative persona due to his controlling nature and his absolutist regime, but in his correspondence, he engages in diplomatic collaborations with two British abolitionists, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, in order to improve his new policies and obtain international recognition. This paper argues that the Haitian king and the abolitionists engaged in a mutual collaboration in which each party benefitted from the correspondence. Christophe used the advice of the British abolitionists in order to increase the power of Haiti into a powerful black state, and Wilberforce and Clarkson helped the king position Haiti as a self-sufficient nation to fuel their abolitionist argument of the potential of post-emancipation societies.

Colonization adversely impacts the psychological health of the colonized. To heal psychologically, economically, and culturally and break chains of colonization in a post-colonial society, the colonized must be grounded in understanding and embrace of their cultural and historical heritage. This embrace and remembrance of the ancestors will inspire and create a spiritual and mental revolution. Prominent literary works from 16th to 20th century, such as Charles Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition and "Dave’s Neckliss", William Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" and Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, explore the psychological and cultural demise of people of African descent due to colonization and racial oppression. While these works give voice to spiritual leaders, ancestors, and bondaged individuals who strive to overcome and survive adverse circumstances Eurocentric society has imposed upon them, these texts also explore characters who kneel at the altar of White hegemony and embrace Whiteness as the Ark of God, even to the characters’ and their community’s safety and well-being. These I term Black Eurocentric Saviors, characters who sacrifice themselves and their community for safety and saving of Whites. Through application of French West Indian psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's theories of colonization which posits that imposed psychological domination of the colonized by Europeans cultivated the belief in White superiority and the subsequent desire for White approval and blessings by any means necessary, including worshipping Whiteness, betraying other persons of African descent, and/or willing to kill self or other Blacks for both the continued prosperity of White societies and gained prosperity for self. Chesnutt, Shakespeare, and Behn depict oppressed people who (un)consciously appear to embrace with open arms historical narratives and cultural traditions that relegate them to second-class citizens and are thus unable to nurture mythical origins and pride in their ancestral history and legacy. When they seek to conjure their African ancestors, they do so, not for their freedom or elevation, but for betterment of White society. Through the application of Fanon's theories on colonization to select literary works of Chesnutt, Shakespeare, and Behn's, this dissertation asserts that the diasporic African’s embrace of White superiority resulted and continues today in both real life and literature.

This thesis examines the first Citizenship School, its location, participants, and success. Johns Islanders, Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, Myles Horton, Bernice Robinson, and the Highlander Folk School all collaborated to create this school. Why and how this success was reached is the main scope of this manuscript. Emphasis is also placed on the school's impact upon the modern Civil Rights Movement. Primary sources such as personal accounts, manuscripts, and archive collections were examined. Secondary sources were also researched for this manuscript. The conclusion reached from these sources is that faith was the driving force behind the success of the Citizenship School. The schools unlocked the chains of political, social, and economic disenfranchisement for Gullah Islanders and African Americans all over the South, greatly affecting the outcome of the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans, who had once been forced into second-class citizenship, now through faith and the vote, obtained first-class citizenship.

Zara Neale Purston has re-emerged as an author of promise due to the re-appraisal of her works led by Alice Walker and Robert Hemenway. In both literary and folklore academic circles, Hurston's work has been reclaimed by African-American female scholars and writers, but still a significant study has yet to be done about her ethnographic contributions to folklore and her farsightedness in fieldwork methodology. This thesis seeks to validate her work as a folklorist, thereby dismissing the charges of popularization and amateurishness by re-examining her work. Mules and Men and Jonah's Gourd Vine are Hurston's two most influential folklore texts and will be evaluated for their approach and contribution to the study of ethnography.

This study examined the predictive validity of the WAIS in an academic setting. Traditional WAIS IQ scores and subtests of 127 male and 163 female college students were correlated with Grade Point Averages at the end of four semesters and within five academic areas. Five groups were examined including the total group, male group, female group, black group, and white group. The academic University's general and Communication of areas investigated corresponded to the education requirements; Organization Ideas, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Studies, Natural Science and Mathematics, and Physical Development. Results indicated that dictor of both semester GPA and five groups. Full Scale IQ was Verbal IQ was the best preacademic area GPA for the the second best overall indicator. Verbal IQ for blacks was a better predictor of success in college than it was for whites. Verbal abilities appeared more important for blacks than whites in terms of how well they did in school. WAIS IQ tended to best predict first semester GPA and the areas of Social and Behavioral Studies, Organization and Communication of Ideas, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Humanities and Physical Development, in that order. WAIS Verbal subtests were more efficient predictors than were the Performance subtests. The Digit Span and Arithmetic subtests of the Verbal scale and all five of the Performance subtests appeared to be of negligible value in predicting academic achievement. The highest correlations were found in the Vocabulary subtest, then Similarities and Information, and finally Comprehension. The female group had consistently higher correlation coefficients in every Performance subtest across all semesters and in each of the five academic areas.

The educational quality of Erie County and Buffalo, New York, as represented by school district performance was examined and the relationship between school district performance and the social environment was analyzed. Socioeconomic status, social stability and race were all found to be strongly correlated to school district performance. Within Erie County, Buffalo has the poorest school performance levels while Snyder and Williamsville, two high status suburban districts, have the highest school performance levels. The overall spatial pattern of school district performance based on the PEP test results for 1974 reveal a strong correspondence between school district performance and the social structure of Erie County. The distribution of Regents Scholarship winners within Erie County also straws the strong relationship between social status and school performance. The performance of the Buffalo schools schools a strong relationship to the social structure of the city. The performance of third, sixth and ninth grade pupils on reading and math PEP tests reveals an inner city-periphery contrast in school performance, especially for the elementary schools. The low-achieving schools are located in the inner city, especially the black ghetto, and the high-achieving schools are located on the periphery of the city. Elementary school performance is strongly correlated to income (SES), minority enrollment (race) and the percentage of broken hares (family stability).

The purpose of this study is to examine attitude change toward a particularly salient political and social issue "over time." A second purpose is the examination of the perception of party differences in their positions toward the aforementioned issues "over time."