I develop a feminist critique of three features in contemporary views of race: the meaning of race is essentially biological; each of us has exactly one kind of racial identity; and our racial identities are permanent. Having revealed each of these features to be confusions about the language of racial identification, I contend that our racial concepts currently permit a wider range of racial identifications than we currently acknowledge. Finally, I critically evaluate the political and ethical ramifications of treating race as a unified, permanent identity. Resistance to systems of racial and gendered oppression should challenge our identities as unified and permanent. / text

Encountering institutionalized forms of racism during high school in Saskatchewan, immigrant Black African female students experiences in dealing with assimilatory and hegemonic in kind learning environment have not been well understood or even explored. Having moved from Ghana as a young learner, this researcher discloses the processes of being silenced in classrooms incent on Euro-Canadian learning and the indifference to unique cultural contributions that “othered” learners could offer. Addressing the lack of acknowledgment, this researcher sought to find five kindred female learners to explore how each relied on her resilience to develop social resistance to hegemonic practices. While informed by regular treatise of individual interviews, this researcher employed Seidman’s (2006) interview method, Deka Wɔ Wɔ focus group discussion and Riessman’s (1987) core narrative research analysis. Furthermore, while grounding the research in antiracism theory and Black feminist thought, this researcher offers collective analysis that arrived at cultural foundation that spoke to strength and aspiration. Sankofa is an Akan culturally valued notion that allows individuals to take on cultural identity to take on responsibility to understand one’s past. The latter allowed the knowledge keepers to identify strength, and insights to resist the assimilatory measures while learning in largely Euro-Canadian context. Ultimately, this thesis used a strength based approach in exploring the students’ experiences, and introduces Sankofa as a theoretical concept that evokes resilience and social resistance. Such findings may well be one of the first ones in Canadian educational context. This researcher believes that discovery and unfolding strategies in developing resilience and social resistance are essential in diversifying the learning environment in Saskatchewan and elsewhere beyond the much favoured Euro-Canadian context.

Narratives of resisting the Trujillo regime are so prevalent in Dominican-American literature that it seems Dominican-American authors must write about Trujillo to be deemed authentically Dominican-American. Within these Trujillo narratives there seems to be two main ways to talk about resistance. “The resistance,” an organized entity that actively and consciously opposes the Trujillo regime, can be seen in stories like those told about the Mirabal sisters. The other resistance narrates how characters capitalize on opportunities to disrupt business or political functions, thus disrupting the Trujillo machine. This resistance works much like Ben Highmore's explanation of de Certeau's resistance in that “it limits flows and dissipates energies” (104). Characters from the socio-economic lower-class typically use this type of resistance because they are not recognized by nor allowed direct access to the regime. My thesis focuses on the latter type of resistance through my study of Angie Cruz's Let It Rain Coffee and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Both authors narrate instances of unrecognized resistance against Trujillo, but they also articulate modern resistance to economic, racial, and gender pressures, such as materialism and hyper-masculinity, through Trujillo narratives. While these narratives create a space for Dominican-Americans of different gender, class, and race, they also create Trujillo as a marker of Dominican literature, perpetuating the idea of Trujillo as inextricably connected to Dominican identity and obfuscating more complex issues of race and gender in Dominican culture.

[pt] A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar o processo de mercantilização da cidade do Rio de Janeiro e suas implicações na gestão e uso dos espaços turísticos do Setor Paineiras/Corcovado do Parque Nacional da Tijuca, e seus efeitos no trabalho dos moradores de favelas do Cerro Corá e Guararapes. Admitimos como referencial teórico a concepção marxista dos campos da geografia, sociologia urbana e serviço social, segundo a qual, os setores dominantes exercem um processo de exploração econômica, bem como exclusão política, cultural e social dos outros segmentos sociais, aplicando-a aos espaços urbanos, no contexto dos parques nacionais e seus trabalhadores e, sobretudo, os que habitam em favelas, os quais são considerados espoliados pelo sistema capitalista. Adotamos como estratégia metodológica a realização de entrevistas, análises de livros, artigos e teses, bem como documentos, jornais impressos/eletrônicos e vídeos na internet. A pesquisa demostrou que o planejamento estratégico presente nas cidades brasileiras, com os papéis definidos pelo mercado empresarial, é amostra das modificações ocorridas dentro do Estado, na população urbana, nas organizações sociais e na configuração de poder em torno do direito aos espaços públicos. Estas alterações receberam consideráveis contribuições para sua consolidação como projeto político e econômico, com a inserção dos parques nacionais no circuito de promoção da imagem e negócios das cidades, sobretudo, modificando sua forma de gestão e uso a partir de concessões que antes não existiam. Demostrou, também, todo o processo que originou a mercantilização da cidade do Rio de Janeiro na gestão e uso do Setor Corcovado/Paineiras, em áreas do Parque Nacional da Tijuca e, consequentemente, suas implicações na prestação de serviços turísticos realizadas por favelados do Cerro Corá e do Guararapes, indicando a necessidade de uma releitura do papel do Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação frente à sustentação de terceirizações e concessões em parques nacionais, considerando as experiências de trabalho realizadas por moradores de favelas junto a turistas como forma de resistência social à mercantilização dos espaços públicos e exclusão. / [en] This research aims to analyze the process of the commodification of the city of Rio de Janeiro and the implications on the management and the use of touristic spaces of Paineiras/Corcovado sector of Tijuca National Park. Also, the research analyses the effects on the work of the residents of Cerro Cora and Guararapes slums. This dissertation adopts the Marxist conception on the geography, urban sociology and social service fields, that understands that urban spaces, national parks, their workers and the slums residents are considered exploited by capitalism system. As methodological strategy this work carried out interviews and analyses articles, books and thesis, as well documents, news on printed newspaper and news and videos published on the internet. The research demonstrates that the cities strategical planning in Brazil has their role defined by business market and is a sample of the changes occurred inside the State management, and also on urban citizens, social organizations and on the configuration of the power of the public spaces rights. These changes received considerable contributions for their consolidation as a political and economic project with the insertion of national parks in the promotion of the image and business of the cities, by modifying their management and the public use by adopting the concessions which did not exist before. The research also demonstrates all the process that origins the commodification of the city of Rio de Janeiro on the management and use of Corcovado/Paineiras sector, in Tijuca National Park areas and the implications on the touristic services taken by slum residents. This indicates that is important to do a new reading on the role of Protected Areas National System of Brazil facing the maintenance of the outsourcing and concessions in national parks and considering the experiences and the work done by slum residents for tourists as a social resistance way of the commodification of public space and exclusion.