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More people than ever before are living significant portions of their social lives online due to advancements in internet technology. Over the last few years, we have begun to see the most public discussions of racism increasingly occur online, to be later embedded in the public’s consciousness. It is therefore important for race critical scholars to observe how digital spaces affect racial discourse in the United States. Utilizing a race critical perspective, I explore comment section reactions to counter-framing articles to examine contemporary racial discourse. Through a discourse analysis, I find that counter-framing articles initiate the racial dialectic by inviting white racial frames, thereby structuring contemporary racial discourse. My research suggests race critical scholars should explore the internet as a racialized institution and a site of racial contestation. Race critical theorist must begin to grapple with how such a racialized institution will alter the experiences of racism in social life.

This paper begins by establishing a theory of systemic racism that has three aspects: a genetic, functional, and ontological aspect. I aim to show the anti-black racism meets all of these three aspects of systemic racism. I base my conception of systemic racism in the theories of Joe Feagin, Cheryl Harris, Christopher Lebron, Charles Mills, and Tommie Shelby. I understand anti-black racism to be pervasive amongst U.S institutions and the ideologies of citizens in a way that facilitates the school-to-prison pipeline. I present evidence of anti-black racism in the education system, the policing of Blacks, and the sentencing of Blacks. I ultimately propose a partial remedy to systemic racism through a change in the history curricula across American schools.

Through this study, I aim to expand the body of knowledge related to Black counter-framing strategies employed in the United States. In this extended case study, I examine the ways in which young Black cis-hetero male creators living in Atlanta, Georgia employ the use of counter-frames to navigate and resist the dominant white racial frame. Specifically, I analyze their use of double consciousness, freedom, and alchemical capitalism as counter-frames as resistance. I advocate for a nuanced approach to examining resistance strategies that includes embracing imperfect and incomplete acts of resistance. By examining these resistance strategies, despite their faults, perhaps we can continue working toward a more complete eradication of oppression.

In this qualitative study, I examine the experiences of African American pilots and flight attendants with emotional labor. Integral to existing theories of emotional labor is the incorporation of voices of color and their contemporary movement into professional industries. Essentially, most all theories of emotional labor were built through the examination of low-wage service workers in gendered or racially segregated occupations, with only recent incorporations of gendered occupations within professional settings. Using the theoretical concept of emotional labor, or the labor required to reduce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others, I argue that emotional labor is much more than labor produced within the confines of a job, but is also based on identity characteristics that directly influence interactions in the workplace. Therefore, I qualitatively examine, through in-depth interviews with more than thirty African American flight crew members, how emotional labor is influenced and performed when people of color are introduced to professional settings. The results of this study show that there are multiple dimensions of emotional labor that should be added to existing theory. Primarily, existing standards of emotional labor in the airline industry are a direct result of institutional structures and cultures created during a period of systematic exclusion that do not account for contemporary racism and sexism. Thus, performing emotional labor in this industry is unequally placed on those white women and people of color that had no input into its creation. The results of this study suggest that emotional labor should be inclusive of systemic racism perspectives as a method of understanding how salient identity characteristics, such as gender, race, and class, are directly connected to preconceived ideologies that influence interactions that call for emotional labor. Moreover, because African American men and women in this industry are underrepresented, emotional labor becomes a necessity in their interactions with coworkers, consumers, and management. In addition, African Americans experience highly regulated emotional labor that influence how they perform their jobs, interact with others, and formulate appropriate counter-narratives.

Racial inequality within the juvenile justice system has been cited by numerous studies. This racial inequality is generally referred to as disproportionate minority contact (DMC), and the causes have been debated in the literature for decades. Using a relatively unique methodology for DMC literature, this study incorporated in-depth interview data from thirty male juveniles residing in a private correctional facility to elucidate possible causes of DMC. By analyzing and comparing the experiences of incarcerated juveniles, support for theories of systemic racism, Donald Black’s self-help or the community justice theory, and Agnew’s general strain theory was found. Themes that emerged from the qualitative data include differences in neighborhood and family contexts for minorities compared to whites, variations in motivations for engagement in criminal activity, and differences in the interactions with police officers and perceptions of the police based on race. Specifically, major findings show minority participants were more likely to describe anger and revenge as the most common reason for committing crimes compared to whites, who frequently cited boredom as their primary reason for engaging in criminal activity. Furthermore, black, Latino, and Native American participants were more likely to report growing up in dangerous neighborhoods than whites. Police interactions also showed a racial discrepancy, with whites receiving more chances from the police, and minorities being repeatedly arrested by the same officer slightly more frequently than whites. Overall, findings suggest that disproportionate minority contact is a result of disproportionate levels of strain and injustice experienced by minorities compared to whites.

Government figures put the current indigenous unemployment rate at around 23%, 3 times the unemployment rate for other Australians. This thesis aims to assess whether Australian indirect discrimination legislation can provide a remedy for one of the causes of indigenous unemployment - the systemic discrimination which can result from the mere operation of established procedures of recruitment and hiring. The impact of those practices on indigenous people is examined in the context of an analysis of anti-discrimination legislation and cases from all Australian jurisdictions from the time of the passing of the Racial Discrimination Act by the Commonwealth in 1975 to the present. The thesis finds a number of reasons why the legislation fails to provide equality of opportunity for indigenous people seeking to enter the workforce. In nearly all jurisdictions it is obscurely drafted, used mainly by educated middle class white women, and provides remedies which tend to be compensatory damages rather than change to recruitment policy. White dominance of the legal process has produced legislative and judicial definitions of "race" and "Aboriginality" which focus on biology rather than cultural difference. In the commissions and tribunals complaints of racial discrimination are often rejected on the grounds of being "vexatious" or "frivolous", not reaching the required standard of proof, or not showing a causal connection between race and the conduct complained of. In all jurisdictions the cornerstone of liability is whether a particular employment term, condition or practice is reasonable. The thesis evaluates the approaches taken by appellate courts, including the High Court, and concludes that there is a trend towards an interpretation of reasonableness which favours employer arguments such as economic rationalism, the maintenance of good industrial relations, managerial prerogative to hire and fire, and the protection of majority rights. The thesis recommends that separate, clearly drafted legislation should be passed to address indigenous disadvantage and that indigenous people should be involved in all stages of the process.

This study examines the ways in which a formerly incarcerated U.S. born Africana man age 47 perceives, interprets, and copes with being criminalized and disenfranchised by interacting institutions which support white domination and black subordination. The focal point of inquiry is an analysis of the reverberating mental health impacts of structural racism via the criminal justice system. Utilizing portraiture and person-environment fit theory, this study presents a multivocal portrait of a man, his life, his family, and his community impacted by the stress/strain of navigating environments characterized by structural racism and inequality. The study seeks to add to the relevant bodies of knowledge a more nuanced and contextual examination of the negative mental health impacts of structural racism via the criminal justice system, which will inform policy and advocacy issues, as well as future interventions designed to empower historically marginalized populations in the U.S.

Data have consistently revealed a major problem with disproportionality in several academic and social climate measures for African American students compared to their White counterparts. Black students tend to have lower end-of-course (EOC) testing scores in mathematics and reading, a greater tendency to be suspended from school, lower average on-time graduation rates, and higher rates of absenteeism. The current investigative study examined the role of same race administrators and performance indicators among African American students. The findings demonstrated that significant differences between Black and White students existed in end-of-course testing in reading and math. The research also indicated significant relationships between race, school suspension, and attendance in schools with a Black administrative presence. Further qualitative and quantitative research investigating the variables that significantly indicate academic and social climate performance improvements, particularly among marginalized student groups, could be beneficial to students and education leaders alike. Data from this research study showed that student economic status predicted academic and social climate performance between Black and White students, regardless of the race of administrators. However, Black students in non-impoverished settings with a Black administrative presence outperformed their White counterparts in academic and social climate measures. This study could be a precursor to more expansive research on the ways in which improving economic conditions could improve Black student performance, especially with a more diverse administrative school presence.

Black women face barriers to higher education that include systemic racism and sexism that lead to self–doubt, discrimination, and familial and community support. They battle barriers to and within academia through the intersectionality of their sex and racial identity groups. As a response to the barriers they face in higher education, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Black women navigating a doctoral program in education at a California State University. To explore the experiences of the participants, I used a qualitative study with a Heideggerian phenomenological approach and a Black feminist lens. A three­–question interview, which asked about the application process, admissions process, and first–year experience was used to explore the experiences of five Black women at two California State University campuses. The results of this study could be used to address the racial and gender equity gaps within the California State University system.