According to Alphonso Pinkney, religion has been important to black people. He writes: Religion has traditionally played an important role in the life of black Americans. The character of their religion is a reflection of their uncertain status in the larger society. Denied the opportunity to participate as equals in the religious life and other institutions of the larger society, black people organized their own religious denominations as a means of coping with the social isolation which they encountered. As the opportunities for social, economic, and educational advancement became feasible for the black however, he became less satisfied with his religion and began to look in other directions for finding religious satisfaction. It appears that a significant number of blacks who were dissatisfied with their affiliation with the black Protestant denominations turned to Catholicism. For the past quarter of a century, researchers have speculated over the reasons for blacks converting to Catholicism. Except in passing references in larger studies, little research of a sociological nature has been completed on the topic. Daniel F. Collins and Joe R. Feagin provide the two exceptions. Collins studied black converts to Catholicism in Durham, North Carolina; and attempted to understand their conversion through reference to characteristics of the black Protestant churches.2 Feagin traced the historical background of black Catholicism and then presented membership data for the years 19*1-7, 1957, and 196?, indicating dramatic increases in numbers of black Catholics. Lacking attitudinal data, Feagin speculated that four explanations might be employed in understanding black adult conversion: "... the educational, status, ritual, and civil rights attractiveness of the American church ..." Using Feagin1s perspective, the author will attempt to provide a greater understanding of why black conversion to Catholicism occurs. More specifically, the researcher will attempt to determine whether conversion to Catholicism is related to social status strivings, viewing parochial educational systems as being more likely to provide integrated schooling and high quality education, preferring the more formal ritualistic worship service found in the Catholic church, and viewing the Catholic church and clergy as being more helpful in the civil rights cause.

This study examined the role of black-owned banks in facilitating economic emancipation for African Americans in the South from 1888 to 1910. The concept of a separate, but equal America legalized by the United States Supreme court in 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson provided the impetus for a separate economy in the South. As a result, commercial and savings banks emerged as institutions for the economic liberation of African Americans. A case study investigating the efforts of three banks in contributing to the economic development of the African-American community during this era was conducted. The study examined race and empowerment and the role of banks in accommodating thrift, wealth accumulation and investing human and financial capital. The findings determined that commercial and savings banks formed the cornerstone of economic liberation and emancipation for African Americans in the Jim Crow South from 1888 to 1910. It concludes that bank founders embodied a Black Nationalist ideology of self-determination, race pride and economic cooperation when creating these institutions.

For Filipino migrant workers , the journey overseas in search of contractual employment marks a profound turning point in their lives. It registers the crossing of spatial and cultural borders that leads to the shifting of terrains from which they make sense of their selves and the world of ‘others.’ It signifies a rupture in time that alters their sense of history, giving shape to new vantage points from which they reflect on the past and project an imagination of future. This research explores the question of how Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong make sense of their experiences as ‘migrant women’, and how they might articulate a consciousness of themselves as gendered subjects in history. The study begins with a documentation of the personal histories of five Filipina women, as told in their own words and as reconstructed into written text, and offers a reading of the narratives, tracing the ways in which they make sense of their experiences as women migrant workers, wives, mothers, daughters, and diasporic citizens of a nation state. Through this process of reading and narrativizing the life histories of Filipina domestic workers, this thesis hopes to contribute to an understanding of how their gendered subjectivities are formed, shaped and changed over time. The life histories, though diverse, give voice to a shared and collective experience – a familiar story of poverty, family crises, diaspora, encounter with cultural difference and subjection to difficult working conditions. Together they are the hidden threads that form the underside of the grand narratives of ‘nation’, development, modernization, and globalization. It is against this backdrop that family crises would push five women -- Mader Irma, Gina, Esther, Miriam, and Rosario -- to enter a particularly difficult type of employment which would render them as part of Hong Kong’s invisible ‘others.’ While their journey was primarily an act of love/duty to the family, the experience of migration would eventually reinvent the meaning of ‘wife’, ‘mother’‘daughter,’ ‘worker’ ‘subaltern intellectual’ and ‘activist.’ To foreground the narratives of life histories, two chapters in the first part of this thesis are devoted to a brief review of the historical contexts in Hong Kong and the Philippines that gave rise to the current migration phenomenon. The chapters also trace the ways by which the ‘Filipina domestic helper’ is positioned and interpellated in discourse, as ‘ban mui’, ‘new heroes’ and ‘spectral presences’ in the nation. Migrant domestic workers straddle two life/worlds, always the inside-outsider/outside-insider, and in this ambiguous in-between space they carve out new identities and struggle to exercise agency. This research contributes to an understanding of the affective/subjective dimensions of migration by presenting ways of ‘narrating’ and ‘reading’ women’s experiences. It also demonstrates the usefulness of intellectual resources offered by feminist and cultural studies in interrogating the conditions of Hong Kong’s ‘social others’ and identifying issues around which an agenda for transformational politics might be explored.

Now, there are more options than ever for racial identity. Identities such as Black, White, Native, Asian, and Latino have put into contention how past racial boundaries and definitions interact with newer racial color lines. Racial passing is one concept that captures both older and newer forms of identity maintenance. Racial passing refers to when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or perceived as a member of another. In this thesis, I review the literature on racial passing to understand its history and theoretical explanations. Based on the review, I examine a convenience sample of research participants to examine their views on racial passing, if they believe claims of white-passing black people claiming blackness, and their opinions on the consequences or benefits of white-passing black people choosing to claim blackness or whiteness. I utilize qualitative methods to understand the participant's perceptions of racial passing. The analyses yielded several themes, including results of white passers' claims of blackness being believed if people believed they were claiming blackness for the right reasons and that people generally understood material reasons for white passers claiming whiteness. The themes support previous racial passing literature findings and provide insights into how racial identity continues to be fluid and ever-changing.

In the wake of the renewed sense of powerlessness felt in the Black community, "The Talk" (Snell,2016) is primarily considered an essential rite of passage in Black families in preparing Black children how to engage with police when faced with microaggressions of racism. The awareness that the rules are different based on the color of your skin reinforces the narrative that for Blacks, most will face law enforcement that functions to protect and serve Whiteness (Burton, 2015). The purpose of this research was to examine the cultural significance of Racial Socialization and the use of "The Talk" within the Black family as a tool to address the effects of systemic racism within law enforcement. specifically, interactions between Black youth and the police. Through the lens of critical race theory, racial socialization, and discourse analysis, the research will answer (1) In what ways is Black socialized racial behavior demonstrated by Blacks when interacting with law enforcement? (2) What is the cultural significance of "The Talk" within the Black Family? (3) Is it time for "The Talk" to move from being pre-emptive to a solution-based tool? Through qualitative research, specific constructs and attributes of each theory will be used to interpret meanings, concepts, behaviors, and attitudes of awareness on the use of The Talk and how the social capital of the Black family, Black socialization of racial behavior, the impact of gender and race and exposure to racism influence these interpretations. Participants of the study included: Black parents of Black children, Black children ages 10-17, and Black adult drivers. The current research addresses the need for the use of The Talk as a pre-emptive tool to address crucial issues of racism and discrimination between the Black community and law enforcement. In addition, this study has expanded on the current research and focused on the more difficult question of why the use of "The Talk" has not moved into a more solution-based versus a pre-emptive response. As a solution-based response, The Talk is guided by how to stop, not just anticipate, and mitigate, these problems—shifting the focus to finding solutions to eliminate the perceived threat felt by both the police and Blacks from each other. Further questioning: If "The Talks" fails to shift into a more solution-based response, will it become the catalyst of the same evils "The Talk" was created to avoid?

Amid the 2020 call to action to expand the sociological canon, sociologists have been encouraged to engage the contributions of diverse theorists in their courses. Extant research on graduate-level classical theory courses has explored the absence of early women theorists from these courses at elite institutions. This dissertation advanced the literature by 1) analyzing the diffusion of classical Black women theorists in graduate-level classical theory syllabi, 2) analyzing the discursive constructions of classical theorists in the syllabi, and 3) investigating the factors that influenced which classical theorists are included in these courses. Data consisted of 50 graduate classical theory syllabi from doctoral-granting institutions and in-depth qualitative interviews with 10 faculty members who teach the courses. The findings demonstrate that Black women do not have the same representation as other groups in these courses. Additionally, a critical discourse analysis revealed that theorists were constructed as Hierarchical – which valued a small collection of theorists – or Corrective – which valued the contributions of diverse theorists, including Black women. Interview data revealed that faculty developed their classical theory courses using materials from their graduate training, and research expectations limited the time they had to engage with unfamiliar theorists. Faculty were encouraged by graduate students to include diverse theorists, although some expressed concerns about including diverse theorists meaningfully. This study illustrates that systemic gendered racism underscores how classical Black women theorists are conceptualized and that their scholarship is not valued as a form of cultural capital that will translate into social mobility for graduate students

Structural and systemic mechanisms reinforce institutionalized racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in the United States. These mechanisms prove adaptable and resilient, shifting and changing to continuously restructure and reinforce the material reality that people experience within a racialized social order. White people's incomprehension of complicity in racism and privilege, along with color-blind ideologies, perpetuate racialized disparities resulting from this social order and render white superiority as "normal" and "universal." This underlies an often internalized sense of normative, white American identity interconnected with racism and white supremacy. In a society where many white Americans remain sheltered from and/or resistant to acknowledging the material realities of institutionalized racism and white supremacy, how and why do some white people become racially aware and take action in favor of equity? That was the focus of this research project. In applying a multifaceted theoretical and methodological framework rooted in critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, grounded theory, and narrative approaches to the analysis of 33 interviews of white Americans, it emerged that the process of becoming racially aware is a complex process of ongoing identity (re)construction. Participants actively push against a normalized white identity to (re)construct an alternative white, racially aware identity, making sense of this identity (re)construction through three components of this process: (1) becoming aware through several stages; (2) making sense of the meaning of being racially aware; and (3) engaging in social action. Together, these components formulate this process of identity work and expand existing critical whiteness studies scholarship by deepening our understanding of how some white Americans attempt to deconstruct systemic inequities through their own identity (re)construction. Such understandings inform potential interventions that could be utilized for collective social change.

In 2019, for the first time in history, Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe were all Black women. However, in Texas pageantry, where 12 former state titleholders have become Miss America or Miss USA are from, racial representation is scant. Since their inception in 1937 and 1952, only three Black women have won title of Miss Texas America and two Black women have been crowned Miss Texas USA. This study analyzes the motives for competing in Texas beauty pageants, experiences of preparing and competing, and the perceptions of race and racial inequalities among racially and ethnically diverse contestants and titleholders in two mainstream pageant circuits in Texas, Miss Texas America and Miss Texas USA. Data consist of semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of 37 beauty pageant contestants from the state of Texas, including former Miss Texas titleholders. Interviews focused on participants' experiences preparing and competing in beauty pageants, their motives for competing, their perceptions of race and racial inequalities in pageants, and their views on how race operates within the current system. Findings revealed significant patterns in participants' motives for competing, preparation for competitions, and perceptions of race within pageantry. The main findings of this study suggest that Black participants' motives to compete were often more focused on collective goals (e.g., serving as role models for other Black girls) whereas white and Hispanic participants' motives were more individualistic (e.g., personal growth), managing racial embodiment by training or undoing certain aspects of their identity (e.g., accent) and features such as negotiating their hair textures and styles to meet dominant white aesthetics, and differences observed among contestant preparation based on the pageant circuit they compete in (e.g., the bikini line). This research aims to add to the already scant literature on how race operations within the current system in Western beauty pageants especially in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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.