Disparity in sentencing felons based on racial considerations has long has been considered a problem for civil libertarians and scholars alike. Examining data gathered in Kentucky, this thesis addresses this issue through the application of recently developed methodological techniques. Utilizing an index of sentencing equality, this study shows that while differences do exist in black and white offender offense characteristics, these differences do not account for the variations in sentences rendered in cases of white as opposed to black felons. This exploratory research reviews and critiques previous research and provides evidence which should prove useful in resolving the problem of racial-based sentencing disparity.

Wandering Sagebrush is a collection of eight unified short stories. The main themes of the thesis include: the struggle of identity and how one finds the people and places to call family and home. The stories focus on family we make, family we lose, family we choose, and the decisions one makes in the name of family.

En tant qu'acteur important de la vie politique québécoise, le mouvement des femmes a réussi à garantir de nouveaux droits pour les femmes et a fortement contribué à améliorer leurs conditions de vie. Cependant, son incapacité à reconnaître et à prendre en compte les expériences particulières des femmes qui vivent de multiple discriminations a été critiquée entre autres par les femmes autochtones, les femmes de couleur, les femmes immigrantes, les lesbiennes et les femmes handicapées. Par exemple, dans les 40 dernières années, un nombre croissant de femmes immigrantes et racisées se sont organisées en parallèle au mouvement pour défendre leurs intérêts spécifiques. Dans ce mémoire, je me penche sur la façon dont le mouvement des femmes québécois a répondu à leurs demandes de reconnaissance et adapté ses pratiques pour inclure les femmes de groupes ethniques et raciaux minoritaires. Bien que la littérature sur l'intersectionalité ait fourni de nombreuses critiques des tentatives des mouvements sociaux d'inclure la diversité, seulement quelques recherches se sont penchées sur la façon dont les organisations tiennent compte, dans leurs pratiques et discours, des identités et intérêts particuliers des groupes qui sont intersectionnellement marginalisés. En me basant sur la littérature sur l'instersectionnalité et les mouvements sociaux, j'analyse un corpus de 24 entretiens effectués auprès d'activistes travaillant dans des associations de femmes au Québec afin d'observer comment elles comprennent et conceptualisent les différences ethniques et raciales et comment cela influence en retour leurs stratégies d'inclusion. Je constate que la façon dont les activistes conceptualisent l'interconnexion des rapports de genre et de race/ethnicité en tant qu'axes d'oppression des femmes a un impact sur les plateformes politiques des organisations, sur les stratégies qu'elles mettent de l'avant pour favoriser l'inclusion et l'intégration des femmes immigrantes et racisées et sur leur capacité à travailler en coalition. / As an important actor in Québécois political life, the women's movement has been successful at obtaining new rights for women and ameliorating their life conditions. However, its inability to recognize and take into account the particular experiences of women who are discriminated on more than one basis has been criticized by Aboriginal women, women of color, immigrant women, lesbians and women with disabilities, among others. For instance, in the last decades, an increasing number of immigrant and racialized women have organized separately to defend their specific interests. In this thesis, I explore the way in which the Québécois women's movement has responded to their struggles for recognition and adapted its practices to include women from ethnic and racial minority groups. Although intersectionality theory has provided numerous critiques of social movements' attempts at being inclusive of diversity, only a few researches have examined how organizations take into account the specific identities and interests of intersectionally marginalized groups in their practices and discourses. Drawing on intersectionality theory and social movements literature, I analyze a set of 24 interviews conducted with activists working in women's organizations in Quebec to look at how they understand and conceptualize ethnic and racial differences and how this shapes their strategies for inclusion. I find that the way in which activists conceptualize the interconnected character of gender and race/ethnicity as axes that create women's experiences of oppression shapes organizations' political platforms, the strategies they put forth to foster the inclusion and integration of immigrant and racialized women and their capacity to engage in coalition work.

The study of African American Reconstruction leadership has presented a variety of unique challenges for modern historians who struggle to piece together the lives of men, who prior to the Civil War, had little political identity. The scant amounts of primary source data in regard to these leaders’ lives before the war, the destruction of many documents in regard to their leadership following the Reconstruction Era, and the treatment of these figures by historians prior to the Revisionist movement have left this body of extremely important political figures largely unexplored. This dissertation will examine the life of one of Louisiana’s foremost leaders, Lt. Governor Oscar James Dunn, the United States’ first African American executive officeholder. Using previously overlooked papers, Masonic records, Senate journals, newspaper articles and government documents, the dissertation explores Dunn’s role in Louisiana politics and chronicles the factionalization of the Republican Party in Reconstruction New Orleans. Born a slave and released from bondage at an early age, Oscar J. Dunn was able to transcend the stigma which was often attached to those who had been held in slavery. A native of New Orleans, born to Anglo-African parents, he was also able to transcend the language barrier that often excluded Anglo-Africans from social acceptability in Afro-Creole society. Although illiterate, Dunn’s parents made critical strides in securing his social mobility by providing him with both a formal education and a trade apprenticeship. Those skills propelled Dunn forward within his Anglo-African community wherein he became a key figure in the community’s two most important institutions, the York Rite Masonic Lodge and the African Methodist Episcopal church. This dissertation argues that Dunn’s political ascent was linked to the political enfranchisement of antebellum Anglo-Africans in Louisiana, Dunn’s involvement in Anglo-African institutions (particularly the York Rite Masonic Lodge and the African Methodist Episcopal church) and Dunn’s ability to find middle ground in the racially charged arguments that engulfed Reconstruction New Orleans’s political arena. Keywords: Oscar Dunn, Reconstruction, New Orleans, Republican, Louisiana, African American, Politics

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:16:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eliana Aparecida Francisco.pdf: 689094 bytes, checksum: cbf5382a4fb666a28214be0963b80eb2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-31 / This dissertation aims the study of the trajectory of the construction of Fersol s Gender Equality Policy and Race/Ethnicity in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility between 1996-2010, as well as the changes occurred during this period. The guiding question of the research was: What are the meanings, from the perspective of the subjects speeches, of the experience of a Gender Equality Policy and Race/Ethnicity developed by the Company in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility? The hypothesis is that the experience turned out to be a viable alternative to a proposal for Corporate Citizenship and inclusion in the labor market, with advances of limits and possibilities, the prospect of a continuous realization process. The terms of reference were: the issue of gender, ethnicity/race and corporate social responsibility, based on contemporary writers in the areas of Social Sciences and Social Work. The methodology adopted was qualitative research, a case study including literature, documentary and field researches. 08 semistructured interviews were conducted with the following subjects: Fersol s President and employees. The survey results pointed to confirm the primary hypothesis, the meanings analysis revealed the materiality of a Corporate Social Responsibility action, peculiar to the institutional history and the social and political position of Fersol s President with boundaries, advances and contradictions / A presente dissertação tem por objeto de estudo a trajetória da construção da Política de Equidade de Gênero e de Raça/Etnia na Empresa Fersol, na área da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial, no período de 1996-2010, bem como das mudanças ocorridas nesse período. A pergunta norteadora da pesquisa foi: Quais os significados, a partir das falas dos sujeitos da pesquisa, da experiência de uma Política de Equidade de Gênero e de Raça/Etnia desenvolvida pela Empresa Fersol, na área da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial? A hipótese formulada é que a experiência da Política de Gênero e de Raça/Etnia desenvolvida pela Fersol, na área da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial, expressa ser uma alternativa viável de uma proposta de Empresa Cidadã e de inclusão no mercado de trabalho, com limites e possibilidades de avanços, na perspectiva de um processo contínuo de efetivação. Os conceitos de referência foram: questão de gênero, questão étnico/racial e responsabilidade social empresarial, com base em autores contemporâneos das áreas de Ciências Sociais e de Serviço Social. A metodologia de pesquisa adotada foi a qualitativa, um estudo de caso compreendendo a pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Foram realizadas 08 entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os sujeitos da pesquisa a saber: o Presidente e os/as funcionários(as). Os resultados da pesquisa apontaram a confirmação da hipótese levantada, na medida em que a análise dos significados desvelou a materialidade de uma ação de Responsabilidade Social Empresarial, muito peculiar à história institucional e à postura política e social do Presidente da Fersol, com limites, possibilidades, avanços e contradições

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:32:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Jose de Jesus Alves Cordeiro.pdf: 1375343 bytes, checksum: f64001e46d3d539156e81270579f71f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-14 / Brazil has an image of a tolerant and democratic nation that doesn't practice racial segregation. The ideology of miscegenation has been reproduced through repetition, generation after generation, using mainly the education system as vehicle, and the curriculum. The affirmative actions, in this case the policy of quotas, are questioning that image and making Brazilians think more critically about ethnic and racial justice and equity. The quotas are considered instruments for repairing, compensation and sociocultural inclusion. At UEMS, the quotas were established by the Law no. 2.589, of December 26, 2002, that reserves vacancies for indigenes and the Law no. 2.605, of January 6, 2003, that reserves 20% of the vacancies for blacks. They were regulated after debate with leaderships of the black movement, indigenes and the academic community. To follow up and evaluate the process of their implementation and their results, as the responsible manager for their implantation in UEMS, I accomplished this research as thesis of my doctorate in Education-Curriculum at PUC/SP, aiming to identify and to analyze to what or whom is attributed the success or academic failure of the students admitted in the quota system, from their admittance to graduation. It´s a qualitative research, that uses the case study methodology, but also quantitative data. Thirty seven (37) courses of the university were focus of the investigation. I analyzed and compared the performance of whites, blacks and indigenes from their admittance tests on December 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, to the final averages of their school years of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, when the first students under the quota system concluded the four year courses. There were also applied questionnaires to identify the profile of those students. The results demonstrate that there isn t any significant difference between white and black students' academic performance under quota system. That conclusion disassembles the nucl / O Brasil tem uma imagem de nação tolerante e democrática que não pratica segregação racial. A ideologia da mestiçagem vem sendo reproduzida no sentido da repetição, geração após geração, usando principalmente como veículo de transmissão/reprodução o sistema de educação e dentro deste o currículo. As ações afirmativas, neste caso a política de cotas, vêm questionando essa imagem e fazendo com que os brasileiros pensem mais criticamente em justiça e eqüidade étnica e racial. As cotas são consideradas medidas de reparação, compensação e de inclusão sócio-cultural. Na UEMS, as cotas chegaram por meio da Lei nº. 2.589, de 26/12/2002, que dispõe sobre a reserva de vagas para indígenas, e a de nº. 2.605, de 06/01/2003, que dispõe sobre a reserva de 20% das vagas para negros. Foram regulamentadas mediante discussão com lideranças do movimento negro, indígenas e comunidade acadêmica. Para acompanhar e avaliar o processo de sua implementação e seus resultados, tendo sido eu a gestora responsável por sua implantação na UEMS, realizei esta pesquisa no doutorado em Educação-Currículo da PUC/SP, tendo como objetivo identificar e analisar o que ou a quem se atribui o sucesso ou insucesso acadêmico dos cotistas, do ingresso à formatura. É uma pesquisa qualitativa, que utiliza o estudo de caso como metodologia e também dados de natureza quantitativa. Foram pesquisados os trinta e sete (37) cursos da universidade, analisando-se e comparando-se o desempenho de brancos, negros e indígenas desde os dados dos vestibulares realizados no mês de dezembro dos anos de 2003, 2004, 2005 e 2006, bem como todas as médias finais dos anos letivos de 2004, 2005, 2006 e 2007, ano em que os primeiros cotistas concluíram os cursos de quatro anos. Também foram aplicados questionários para identificação do perfil dos cotistas. Os resultados apurados demonstram que não existem diferenças dignas de destaque entre o desempenho de brancos e negros cotistas. Essa conclusão desmonta o núcleo do argumento da meritocracia, demonstrando ademais que, diferentemente do que muitos apregoaram em tom de alerta e ameaça, o desempenho dos negros cotistas foi inteiramente satisfatório na média dos cursos, tendo sido superior ao dos brancos em vários deles. Quanto aos indígenas, o alto índice de abandono dos cursos é o que mais sobressai na pesquisa e se sobrepõe em importância aos resultados do seu desempenho acadêmico, que se mostrou insatisfatório. De modo geral, os resultados da pesquisa também mostram que a permanência no sistema de ensino superior é o maior desafio para brancos pobres, negros e indígenas

The effects of the colonial project in Kenya created multi-faceted damages to the land and indigenous people-groups. Using the lens of ecofeminism, this study examines the undergirding structures that produce systems such as colonization that oppress and destroy land, people, and other beings. By highlighting the experience of the Kikuyu people within the Kenyan colonial program, the innovative and ingenious response of Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement proves to be a relevant and effective counter to women's disempowerment and environmental devastation in a post-colonial nation. The approach of the Green Belt Movement offers a unique and accessible method for empowering women, restoring the land, and addressing loss of cultural identity, while also contributing a theoretical template for addressing climate change.

This study documents the lifestyle on a small, prosperous black farmstead in the Richland community of Butler County, Kentucky. It is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted with Percy Beeson, owner of the farm for aver fifty years. The result of the fieldwork and interviews was the documentation of how this farmstead, maintained without mechanical farm equipment, worked as a functional unit on a year-round basis. As a functional unit, the Beeson farmstead is described in terms of the Beeson family and their ownership of the farm and the breakdown of the property into two dependent units. In the first area, the Family Unit, the food supply and home industries were prepared and supervised by the women of the household. These activities are discussed according to the seasons of the year, beginning with spring and ending with winter. The second area, the Farm Unit, was run by the Beeson men and contained the major crops and farm animals. This area is also described according to the seasons of the year. The results of this study clearly portray this non-mechanized, small black farmstead as a functional and traditional economic enterprise for Percy Beeson.

This study was initiated to demonstrate how declining neighborhoods can be revitalized through the cooperation and Partnership of local residents, financial institutions, and local government. The Neighborhood II Conservation Plan assumes that interested and informed residents can plan their own environment just as they plan their own family affairs and budget their incomes. The plan further assumes that residents working together as a team can revitalize their neighborhood at the point of decline. This study pursues various approaches to neighborhood preservation which may be useful to other cities.

According to Matthew Arnold an open mind is one of the chief essentials for true literary criticism. One is impressed by the truthfulness of this statement when he seeks to evaluate Negro poetry. The term, Negro poetry, has several interpretations. In its most general sense, the one in which it is used in this paper, it means poetry written by Negroes on any subject. In a more restricted sense it refers to poetry that contains allusions, rhythms, sentiments and idioms more or less peculiar to the Negro. In its narrowest meaning it refers to poetry of racial protest and self-exhortation. It is the undue publicity of poetry of protest and race pride that has displeased many readers. As far as most Americans are concerned, the Negro has been appropriately called "the great American taboo." It is this race prejudice that confronts the critic. A Negro is inclined to praise too highly or, to avoid the accusation of favoritism, to condemn unjustly. The white critic is unconsciously influenced by a feeling of superiority. One of mixed blood is prejudiced toward one side or the other. An honest attempt, however, has been made in this paper to judge fairly the Negro poetry of the twentieth century.