This project honors and recognizes the art and activism of four Black woman--Nina Simone, Nikki Giovanni, Elizabeth Catlett, and Ntozake Shange that contributed to the revolutionary movements of the 1960s through the early 1980s. This thesis examines the works and political challenges of Black women by asking what elements in their artistry/activism addressed issues specifically related to Black women's unique position in America during the Black Revolution and feminist movements? Both primary and secondary sources such as literature from advocates of the Black Arts Movements and the lyrics, poetry, and visual art of the four Black women artists were used to gain perspectives to answer the thesis major questions. The creative visions and activism of these Black women expressed the dire need for the issues of Black women to be heard and also to address all forms of oppression that Black women experience with race, gender, social or economic status, and even cultural identity. The works of these Black women were radical and were also cultural reflections of Black women embracing their idiosyncratic position as Black women despite the climate of perpetual deceptions used either by White Western ideologies or Black male chauvinism. This thesis concluded that when the concerns of Black women are attended to by their own strengths of character and merits, they are also able in return to contribute to their own self-empowerment as well as to the development of racial, gender, and community uplift.

Educational attainment is a key component of occupational attainment and social mobility in America. Special education is a policy intervention geared toward ensuring equal educational opportunities for students distinctive from the majority. Students labeled with learning disabilities (LDs) comprise about half of the special education population, and are typically assigned the LD label for achievement levels that are lower than would be expected given their IQ. Although they have average or high IQs, students labeled with an LD continue to experience disparities in educational outcomes. In this dissertation, I use sociological perspectives and a large nationally representative dataset, The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, to investigate the social and structural roots of the LD label, and to explore ways in which the LD label produces stigma or stratification during high school. In general, I find that (1) the disproportionate labeling of various status groups is indicative of the social and structural roots of the LD label, and that the process of assigning the LD label may not be uniform across schools; (2) labeled students have poorer educational outcomes than even unlabeled students who achieved at similar levels in early high school; (3) stigma related to the LD label is suggested by parents’ and particularly teachers’ much lower educational expectations for labeled students than for similar students not labeled with disability; (4) stratification related to the LD label is suggested by the placement of labeled students into lower levels of coursework than unlabeled students who performed similarly in a comparable level of coursework during the prior year; and (5) stigma and stratification related to the LD label are magnified among labeled students who are more socially advantaged, or who are higher achieving. Overall, the results suggest that the experiences of students labeled with an LD can be improved by addressing these social and structural factors that differentiate the likelihood of carrying the LD label, and have negative implications for labeled students’ social and academic experiences during high school. / text

Background: Paraben exposure occurs everyday to most people unknowingly. Parabens are present in most personal care products in varying amounts. Presently, parabens are not listed as endocrine disruptors; however, some research has shown parabens associated with decreases in thyroid hormone levels. The chemical and adsorption mechanism for parabens in association with thyroid hormones is not well understood. Determining whether parabens are associated with a change in thyroid hormone levels can help reduce the incidence of possible adverse health effects with exposure to parabens. Methodology: The selected study variables were analyzed using SAS version 9.2. Data were obtained from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Analyses were performed separately for adolescent females (12-19) and adult females (20+). Weighted means were performed for the main independent and dependent variables of interest stratified by race/ethnicity groups and by smoking status. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA was used to test significance of differences of weighted means. Weighted bivariate linear regression was performed for each dependent variable (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone [TSH], Triiodothyronine [T3], and Thyroxine [T4]) regressed on butylparaben. Weighted multiple linear regressions were performed and parameter estimates with 95% confidence intervals were used to ascertain the measure of effect. Separate regression models stratified by age group (adolescent vs. adult) were ran for each dependent variable (TSH, T3, and T4) regressed on butylparaben level and covariates, race/ethnicity and smoking status (ever smoked). Results: Weighted bivariate linear regression showed that among adult females, for each ng/ml increase in butylparaben, there was a -1.07 decrease in ng/dL T3 (p Weighted multiple linear regression showed higher butylparaben levels among adult females were associated with 0.12 ug/dL lower than average T4 levels (p Conclusion: While parabens are currently not considered endocrine disruptors, the human metabolism of and effects from exposure to parabens are not well understood. Results from this study showing decreased levels of some thyroid hormone levels (TSH, T3, and T4) associated with increased levels of butylparaben was found, as well as differences in thyroid hormone levels among racial/ethnic groups. Although not many human studies have found significant results, 10 some rodent studies have found butylparaben associations with thyroid hormone changes.4, 6, 19, 54 The results of this study indicating no statistically significant association between butylparaben and decreases in thyroid hormone levels are consistent with results of some rodent studies.7, 8, 54, 55 In light of these findings, additional human studies with paraben exposure and thyroid hormone levels are needed to increase knowledge of the mechanism and effect of parabens in the human body.

Every employee embodies manifestations of every demographic that attach to him or her different minority and majority statuses at the same time. As these statuses are often related to organizational hierarchies, employees frequently hold positions of dominance and subordination at the same time. Thus, a given individual's coping strategies (or coping behavior) in terms of minority stress due to organizational processes of hierarchization, marginalization and discrimination, are very often a simultaneous coping in terms of more than one demographic. Research on minority stress mostly focuses on single demographics representing only single facets of workforce diversity. By integrating the demographics of age, disability status, nationality, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and religion into one framework, the intersectional model proposed in this article broadens the perspective on minorities and related minority stress in the workplace. It is shown that coping with minority stress because of one demographic must always be interpreted in relation to the other demographics. The manifestation of one demographic can limit or broaden one's coping resources for coping with minority stress because of another dimension. Thus the manifestation of one demographic can determine the coping opportunities and coping behavior one applies to situations because of the minority status of another demographic. This coping behavior can include disclosure decisions about invisible demographics. Therefore organizational interventions aiming to create a supportive workplace environment and equal opportunities for every employee (e.g. diversity management approaches) should include more demographics instead of focusing only on few. (author's abstract)

This thesis is an anthropological and historical exploration of Singapore's emergence as a nation state and determines what it means to have a Singaporean national identity today. As a relatively new country, Singapore and its government has worked to carefully construct its national identity in the past fifty years after independence from the British in 1965. This thesis will show Singapore as a distinctive entity in the study of nationalism and nation building, especially in comparison to the decolonization efforts of other countries in the region and throughout the world in the twentieth century. It is a carefully constructed nation state, and its distinctiveness lies in the authoritarian government's neo-colonial policies, its economic success due to its capitalist system, semi-democratic political environment, and its multiethnic population.

This cultural research explores the relation between racial representation and emotions/affects as part of the struggle for racial minorities’ visibility. It is informed by conjunctural theory in cultural studies, with the use of textual narrative and affective analysis. It focuses on Hong Kong’s television culture as a site for context configuration, or conjuncture, for constructing the inter- and intra-ethnic relations between the dominant ethnic Chinese and ethnic minorities (EMs), via the production of emotions. Chapter One introduces a conjunctural understanding of the construction of EMs in Hong Kong through revisiting some of the most prominent theoretical works that explore the transformation of Hong Kong identity, in order to point out an underlying Hong Kong-Chineseness as a cultural center, and to argue that the demand of the present conjuncture is to respond to the necessity of generating an alternative “EM-context” suitable for reimagining Hong Kong identity. Chapter Two attempts to map out this “EM-context” by reviewing the major popular non-Chinese figures on TV, namely Louie Castro, Gregory Rivers (known as “Ho Kwok-wing”) and Gill Mohinderpaul Singh (known as “QBoBo”) in order to study how their particular cultural visibility can open up ways to rethink the problems surrounding visibility. The narrative affective approach to study racial relations is applied to the reading of No Good Either Way (TVB) in Chapter Three and Rooms To Let (RTHK) in Chapter Four. Together, these two core chapters explore the affective configuration of “anxieties” and “shame” in the two TV programmes. It is suggested that these affective landscapes help position EMs as either a “sweetened trouble-maker” (in the work place) or “assimilating neighbor” (in the domestic sphere), both of which fall short of being able to construct a new context/conjuncture for understanding the cultural presence of EMs. This research rejects the study of race/ethnicity through content analysis of stereotype, and opts for an approach that reads affects and narratives in the search not for representational visibility, but for what is termed “conjunctural visibility.” Ultimately, Chapter Five concludes with a discussion of the dynamics of “soft” and “hard” representations of the ethnic other: the former in the mode of “sugarcoated racism” which involves the figure of EM as the sweetened troublemaker appealing for audience’s sympathy, and the latter in the form of public pedagogy aimed at educating the audience (through shaming) to treat their EM neighbor as the assimilated other. This research study aims at making a small contribution to the understanding of the struggle for conjunctural visibility among EMs in Hong Kong.

The wide and enduring educational disparities between European and Asian heritage New Zealanders on the one hand, and indigenous Māori and Pacific Islanders on the other, have been a national education policy priority for some time. Such is the degree of focus on ethnic inequalities that very little attention is devoted to sources of privilege and disadvantage related to socio-economic status (SES) and gender, despite international scholarship showing that both of these profoundly influence experiences of schooling. The current study explores the ways in which SES, ethnicity, and gender influence students’ experiences of learning mathematics in New Zealand schools. Mathematics is a ‘gatekeeper’ subject for a range of highly lucrative career pathways dominated by European and Asian heritage men, making access to mathematical success a social justice issue with powerful material consequences. This thesis describes a mixed methods study of 425 Year Nine (age 13-14) students in three New Zealand state secondary schools, which investigated • the relationships between SES, ethnicity, gender, and success in mathematics, • cultural ideas about what types of people have mathematical ability, and • the effect of ability grouping on attainment disparities. European and Asian students had higher mathematics attainment than Māori and Pacific students. Pacific students reported enjoying mathematics despite their low attainment, whereas Māori students had very negative attitudes towards mathematics. Consistent with international studies, girls had lower confidence than boys in their mathematical abilities, despite having equal attainment. Interview data suggested that these differences in perceptions of mathematics were related to cultural ideas of mathematics as a ‘brain’ activity and therefore a natural fit for socially privileged men. Such ideas were further reinforced by ability grouping, which provided successful students with additional enrichment and withheld from low-attaining students the intellectual challenges that could have facilitated a shift to more successful learning trajectories.

This thesis traces the mechanisms and sources responsible for the generation of civic social capital (a set of shared norms and values that promote cooperation between groups, enabling them to participate in the political process) by black churches in West Perrine, Florida. Data for this thesis includes over fifty interviews and participant observations, archival records, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. Despite the institutional racism of the first half of the twentieth century, many blacks and whites in Perrine developed levels of trust significant enough to form an integrated local governing body, evidence of high levels of csc. At mid-century, when black and white interactions ceased, Perrine's csc decreased, leading to the deterioration of Perrine's social and physical conditions. Perrine's csc increased in the1980s by way of broad-based coalitions as Perrine's churches invested their csc in an effort to eradicate crime, clean up its neighborhood, and win back its youth.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / The study investigates ethnic-racial relations in the teaching of African culture and african-Brazilian from the perspective of childhood cultures in the context of early childhood education. It takes into account on the one hand, the historical moment of tackling racism in Brazil, translated into affirmative action policies, most notably education Law 10,639, and on the other hand the methodological discussion on research with children emphasizing the seizure child view. As a general objective aims to understand how children mean the knowledge on African history and culture and african-Brazilian school. Specifically, it aim to discuss the role of the early childhood school as a mediator of knowledge on African and african-Brazilian culture; to understand the movement of meanings attributed by children to ethnic and racial relations in schools rites and to thematize the experience of racial relations in the school context from the perspective of childhood cultures The theoretical perspectives adopted are the Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies and South Epistemologies Studies and the Sociology of Childhood and the Historical-Cultural Psychology. It's ethnographic case study carried out in a private school in kindergarten and elementary school in Fortaleza-CE. The corpus consisted of field diaries and video recordings of the activities performed by children as well as transcribed interviews (families and school staff). With regard to children, peerâs culture category allowed the understanding of the training criteria, maintenance and dynamics of their groups: previous cohabitation, gender and presence of disability. The ethnic and racial identity was taken by children as a control strategy in the peer group, which was neutralized by the school, and as identification of self and other. The significance of African history and culture and african-Brazilian is marked by dialogued heteroglossia and selective invisibility, organizing itself as a performative and paradoxical way. It is concluded that the placements of children ranged from positive identification with the indigenous and European culture at the expense of black/African culture, reproducing interpretively the paradoxes perceived in how African culture is transmitted in school and in Brazilian society. Finally, the thesis is that the meanings expressed by the children are organized around paradoxes that brings out the tensions, dilemmas and conflicts within an anti-racist education in Brazilian society. / O estudo investiga as relaÃÃes Ãtnico-raciais na transmissÃo da histÃria e cultura africana e afro-brasileira na perspectiva das culturas da infÃncia no contexto da educaÃÃo infantil. Tem em conta, de um lado, o momento histÃrico de combate ao racismo no Brasil, traduzido em polÃticas de aÃÃo afirmativa, de maior destaque para a educaÃÃo a Lei 10.639, e de outro lado, o debate metodolÃgico sobre as pesquisas com crianÃas enfatizando a apreensÃo do ponto de vista infantil. Como objetivo geral visa-se compreender, como as crianÃas significam os saberes sobre a histÃria e cultura africana e afro-brasileira na escola. Especificamente, discutir o papel da escola de educaÃÃo infantil como mediadora dos saberes sobre a cultura africana e afro-brasileira; compreender a circulaÃÃo dos sentidos atribuÃdos pelas crianÃas Ãs relaÃÃes Ãtnico-raciais nos ritos escolares e entÃo problematizar a vivÃncia das relaÃÃes Ãtnico-raciais no contexto escolar, na perspectiva das culturas da infÃncia. As perspectivas teÃricas adotadas sÃo os Estudos Culturais, os Estudos PÃs-coloniais e as Epistemologias do Sul, bem como a Sociologia da InfÃncia e a Psicologia HistÃrico-Cultural. Trata-se de estudo de caso de cunho etnogrÃfico realizado em uma escola particular de educaÃÃo infantil e ensino fundamental da cidade de Fortaleza-CE. O corpus foi constituÃdo dos diÃrios de campo e videogravaÃÃes das atividades lÃdicas e pedagÃgicas realizadas pelas crianÃas, bem como de entrevistas transcritas (famÃlias e funcionÃrios da escola). A significaÃÃo das crianÃas a respeito da histÃria e cultura africana e afro-brasileira à marcada pela Heteroglossia Dialogizada e pela Invisibilidade Seletiva, organizando-se como de modo performativo e paradoxal. A categoria cultura de pares compreende os critÃrios de formaÃÃo, manutenÃÃo e dinamicidade dos grupos de crianÃas: convivÃncia anterior, gÃnero e presenÃa de deficiÃncia. A identificaÃÃo entorracial foi tomada pelas crianÃas como identificaÃÃo de si e do outro, e quando utilizada como estratÃgia de controle no grupo de pares, foi neutralizada pela escola. Conclui-se que os posicionamentos das crianÃas variaram entre a identificaÃÃo positiva com a cultura indÃgena e europÃia em detrimento da cultura negra/africana, reproduzindo interpretativamente os paradoxos percebidos no modo como a cultura africana à transmitida na escola e na sociedade brasileira. Por fim, a tese à de que os sentidos expressos pelas crianÃas se organizam em torno de paradoxos que permitem problematizar as tensÃes, impasses e conflitos no Ãmbito de uma educaÃÃo antirracista na sociedade brasileira.

The Farming of Bones is Edwidge Danticat’s novel about Amabelle Desir, a Haitian migrant in the Dominican Republic during the 1937 Haitian massacre. The Massacre is a historical fact presented through a fictional text that acts as a testimonial. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Danticat, in her role as an activist, urges readers to become social justice seekers and enter the discourse of race. Through an examination of Carl Jung’s and Vodou’s shadow theories in regards to the construction of a racial identity by Haitians and Dominicans, I uncover the racial narratives in place from Haiti’s colonization and independence to our current time. Danticat, through the novel, moves the reigning racial paradigm out of the shadow and thus allows readers to reflect on its effects. Thus it is not only the characters in the novel that must confront the shadow, but the readers themselves.