Why is black partisan identification so one-sidedly Democratic forty years past the Civil Rights movement? A black/non-black political dichotomy manifests itself through one-sided African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness and Republican hostility is the basis of the black/non-black political dichotomy, which manifests through African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness forced blacks to take a unique and somewhat jaundiced approach to politics and Republican hostility to black inclusion in the political process in the 1960s followed by antagonism toward public policy contribute to overwhelming black Democratic partisanship. Results shown in this dissertation demonstrate that variables representing economic issues, socioeconomic status and religiosity fail to explain partisan identification to the extent that Hostility-Consciousness explains party identification.

Not available / text

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Framing theory is one of the most used theories in the discussion of media effects on how people make sense of issues, especially in the political environment. Although it is majorly used for the discussion of news media, framing theory can also be applied in other areas surrounding media production. This thesis uses this theory to discuss how presidents are framed in fiction and implications of race and gender in the assessment of presidential characters by analyzing Fox’s fictional drama 24. Although at first the show seems to bring new options for the presidency, the analysis points Presidents Palmer and Taylor as unfit for office and President Logan as unethical and power-hungry. Following Entman’s (1993) process for analyzing frames in media, embedded white male hegemony was identified in the show. As the show presented a postfeminist and postracial world, it continued to frame femininity and blackness as the opposite to effective executive leadership. Further, white masculinity was associated with power, ambition and ultimately corruption. As other races and gender were pointed as unfit, the status quo was questioned as being corrupt. The show both increases the cynicism that people may develop against politics and damages a more proper consideration of women and people of color to be elected president.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Grounded in leadership, cultural, communication, and gender studies, this dissertation investigates the challenges African-American women executives in the philanthropic foundation sector faced as they strive to have their culture legitimated within the culture of the workplace. Through the use of case study methodology, I examined the experiences of participants by conducting oral history interviews that traced their critical path to leadership. I also incorporated my own experiences in the field to further explore the connections between race, gender, and leadership styles in philanthropic organizations. The interviews and my own auto-ethnographic research explored the possible consequences of black executive women in the foundation world not being able to share aspects of their cultural lives in workplace networks and the impact of the critical exclusion of who they really are as whole human beings on the quality of their careers. An analysis of data collected from the interviews revealed key factors critical to the success of study participants. First was the presence of familial or close adults actively engaged in philanthropic activity during the participants’ formative years. Second was a strong influence of a faith tradition. Additionally, the date revealed that participants’ involvement in outside leadership roles, often tied to their racial and gender identities, were not capitalized on by employers. This study achieved several key outcomes. First, it afforded participants an opportunity to develop the personal satisfaction of expanding the body of knowledge related to leadership development within the philanthropic foundation sector. Additionally, by sharing their stories, these individuals were able to develop or strengthen mentorship relationships. Lastly, this study has the potential of being of significant benefit to the greater philanthropic foundation sector, since it worked towards the expansion of the body of knowledge specific to the issues of gender and cultural differences within the foundation sector.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Undocumented immigration from Latin America is a heated and divisive topic in United States' politics. Politicians in Washington, D.C. are debating new legislation which would provide a pathway to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants. While several federal immigration reform bills were debated in the early 2000s, each one failed in either the House of Representatives or in the Senate. The Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (IndyCAN), a grassroots activist group in Indianapolis, is organizing the Latino community through faith and shared political goals. Undocumented Latino immigrants are utilizing IndyCAN as a method to influence progressive policy change. However, anti-immigrant groups challenge these efforts by attempting to define who can be considered an "American" and are attempting to block legislation due to their negative perceptions of Latinos. Debates about citizenship have racial discourses and reveal the embeddedness of race and ethnicity. Despite this, many Latino immigrants are forging their own identities in the United States and are engaging in a political system that refuses to grant them a legal status. Through an enactment of activism called la fe en acción [faith in action], these immigrants ground their political organizing with IndyCAN and attempt to appeal to the religious faith of politicians. I explore issues of race, political engagement, and religion in the lives of Indianapolis’ Latino community. In this case study, I demonstrate that IndyCAN is acting as a vehicle through which undocumented Latino immigrants are engaging in the political process. This political involvement occurs through religious strategies that seem apolitical yet are implicitly an enactment of activism. Ultimately, I reveal how undocumented Latino immigrants in Indianapolis are impacting the political process regardless of their legal status.