Using an ideological criticism of Hollywood’s Black Panther (2018), this paper analyzes the differing portrayals of the self-Black determination of the film’s main characters, T’Challa and Killmonger, as it relates to their backgrounds, cultural connections, racial identities, power dynamics, and their fights for social justice. Aspects of the film that were analyzed included characters’ actions, dialogue, lore, and presence. Digging deeper into the film’s story once key themes were revealed. This examination included parallels to the real-world, including locations, social movements, and social reformation leaders. The goal of the paper is to show how the film offers insights into broader issues of identity, culture, power, and social justice.

By the early 20th century, in 1920, Black farmers owned 14% of US farmland. Today, in the 21st century, Black farmers own less than 2% of US farmland. The demise of Black farmers and Black farmland in US Agriculture is a direct result of social, political, and racial weaponization against their foodways, culture, and livelihoods. The history concerning the plight of Black farmers goes beyond USDA's historical discrimination but enters a position where racism is embedded and perpetuated within the structure of US agriculture. In effect, Black small-scale farmers have reaped the downfall of this system, enduring racial biases and a complex relationship to the land for future generations. This dissertation examines and investigates the contemporary challenges associated with Mississippi’s small-scale Black farmers and their strategies that resist these challenges to create a self-sufficient agricultural system. Employing a qualitative approach using 31 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus groups discussions, in total of 87 persons, this research studies barriers and resilience strategies by amplifying the voices of small-scale Black farmers across Mississippi. This work draws from previous scholarship in institutional racism, colorblind racism, Black agrarianism, community based organizations, food sovereignty, and Black geographies. Findings indicate that racism still undermines Black farmers in agriculture. Still, they resist and combat these barriers by becoming powerful agents that bring catalyst change in the form of community togetherness and self-sufficiency.

In this paper, I analyze the effectiveness of state level Earned Income Tax Credit programs on improving of poverty levels. I conducted this analysis for the years 1991 through 2011 using a panel data model with fixed effects. The main independent variables of interest were the state and federal EITC rates, minimum wage, gross state product, population, and unemployment all by state. I determined increases to the state EITC rates provided only a slight decrease to both the overall white below-poverty population and the corresponding white childhood population under 18, while both the overall and the under-18 black population for this category realized moderate decreases in their poverty rates for the same time period. I also provide a comparison of the effectiveness of the state level EITCs and minimum wage at the state level over the same time period on these select demographic groups.

This thesis analyzes the colonization and traditional spiritual practices of the Ioway people to show that their traditions have survived the effects of colonization also known as white settlers. I focus on issues of cultural traditional exhibition dance and that complicates the question of the nation-state’s exclusively trying to dissemble the Native Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska of colonization and the effects on the Ioway people past and present. I use personal experience of being a tribal member to discuss how the tribes’ oral history allows for the preservation of Ioway cultural identity and religious traditions.

My study explores the underlying factors that allow systemic structural issues to exist within continuation high schools which result in the low educational performance of low-income Latinx continuation students. My study focuses on educators’ experiences, as I conducted 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Southern California continuation high school teachers. I focused on the following areas of study: the teacher’s career, the teacher’s interactions with students, and the teacher’s opinions regarding their accessibility to funding and resources. My findings indicate that teachers, the outer community, and school-board administrators utilize cultural deficit thinking and stigmatization as tools of total erasure to exchange low-income Latinx students’ social identities with racist and classist stereotypes; in consequence, these mechanisms allow the district to impose invisibility on students’ academic and emotional needs in order to justify the formation and maintenance of institutional challenges for administrators’ fiscal benefit. Overall, these results reaffirm that our educational system reproduces social inequality; the total erasure of low-income Latinx continuation students’ academic and emotional needs permits the persistence of systemic structural issues informed by racist and classist stereotypes. My research calls for avenues of communication between administrators, teachers, and the outer community to address institutional barriers and, subsequently, establish equitable funding distributions to promote continuation high school students’ educational success with an understanding of the increased academic, emotional, and social needs of low-income Latinx students.

My project explores the role of teachers at Southern California continuation high schools as it relates to serving low-income students of color in the face of the institutional barriers within alternative education. My study focuses on the teachers’ career, interactions with students, and opinions on accessibility to resources and funding. I have examined their experiences through twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with teachers from three districts. My findings indicate that district members’ misconceptions of Latinx students as inherently deviant and academically unengaged drive institutional issues creating financial burden for which teachers are forced to compensate. My study highlights that continuation high schools implement unjust policies, limit teaching materials and resources, reduce funding, and restrict the hiring of ancillary staff. My research pushes for more avenues of communication between the district and teachers to fulfill students’ needs through adequate funding allocation. These results extend existing literature in revealing the untold narratives of California continuation high school teachers, the structural issues within alternative education, and the needs of Latinx continuation high school students.

In the context of Chicanx experiences in the United States, where varying generations of Chicanxs experience bicultural realities, this study shows how embodied knowledge performed through the body’s movements in folklórico dance by Chicanx youth from multiple generations, acts as a mechanism for reconnecting youth to cultural ties, reevaluating educational practices, and emplacing within youth, the ability to foster the confidence to express and create imagined futures. Data collection incorporated a series of interviews with eight Chicanx youth and adults who have either taught or danced folklórico in the Phoenix, Los Angeles, or Coachella Valley areas. Interview participants revealed a strong sense of cultural orgullo that acts as a bedrock for their cultural identity affirmation and reclamation. This orgullo and other cultural knowledges such as familismo and collective consciousness were emphasized through pedagogies of embodiment. Dancers described learning these cultural knowledges not just through the embodiment of physical dance steps but through the embodiment of social customs honored by their folklórico communities. Much of these social customs centered around fostering and maintaining relationships of genuine, holistic caring. These relationships were foundational for personal, mental, and emotional growth of dancers. Through these relationships, individual identities found the support to thrive within collective communities. Given the influx of educational pedagogies that attempt to depersonalize, depoliticize, and de-emotionalize the education through the implementation of tracking systems, standardized tests, and culturally inaccessible curriculums, these stories suggest alternate forms of learning that may account for students’ entire well-being. While this project is very much about reclaiming historical pasts, it is also about re-envisioning educational possibilities, discovering inner potentials and building collective communities that recognize and rejoice in those potentials. Through this study, a deeper understanding of the functions of movement and dance will strengthen platforms that push arts education and ethnic studies to greater educationalist agendas.

When reviewing the entire project from start to completion, I can honestly say, Through the Eyes of the Homeless is a play about ten women and their plight. It illustrates their dealings with everyday issues of hurt, disappointment, abuse, love, and hope. I believe the true impact of this play is the undeniable prayer for help and hope within each monologue. Despite the horrors that are unveiled and released through hidden secrets, the undertone of betterment is truly resonating. My own expectation for this play is simply to strike awareness and understanding in the eyes of the people. It is my objective to have each audience member leave the show with a completely different perspective on homelessness. Homelessness seems to be one of those taboo societal problems the world chooses to turn away from because of lack of awareness. I believe it is fear of the unknown that keeps us blind, deaf, and dumb about certain issues. After all is said and done, I am simply asking anyone who reads this play, watches it, or hears it to listen to each voice carefully and the message it conveys.

The problem presented in a Program of Improvement for Union County Schools deals primarily with future school buildings. The problem is threefold: The location of future school buildings must be determined in the light of population trends and economic developments. The size of the buildings must be determined. A plan to finance the program must be developed.

Being one of the largest and most influential ethnic groups in Southern California, Mexican and Latinx communities have continuously played a significant role in the shaping of major cities. Despite the history of racist and exclusionary urban planning and policy, Latinxs have persevered through adaptive and creative methods of creating space and reusing resources. Such strength, creativity, and resourcefulness are assets within Latinx communities and are also ways that they practice sustainability, thus having the potential to play a significant role in the development of sustainable cities. Therefore, by focusing local solutions and development projects on community assets as opposed to just community need, voice, autonomy, and inclusion are given to Latinx communities, where they not only participate in the development projects that affect them but are the drivers of the solutions and positive changes they see in their communities. I will be doing two case studies on two non-profit community-based organizations, Huerta del Valle and East LA Community Corporation, who practice this form of asset-based community development. Being situated in two of the most population dense areas in Southern California with the highest concentrations of Mexican and Latinx people, East Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, both organizations serve predominantly Mexican and Latinx communities. By practicing asset-based community development through their programming, Huerta del Valle and East LA Community Corporation are connecting their local communities to decision-making spaces, socially and economically empowering their communities, and overseeing green communal urban spaces. Thus, through asset-based community development, these two organizations are able to uplift and meet the needs of both human ecosystems and the natural ecosystems, creating socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable cities, especially for historically marginalized urban communities.