This study seeks to analyze the performative activism and political performance that took place during the Black Lives Matter protests between May and November of the year 2020. Various points of view perceive such acts as merely reductive or otherwise worthy of disdain, however, this study seeks to analyze these acts to identify different components within each performance. The primary focus is to further understand the advantages and disadvantages of performative activism and political performance. This research concentrates on examining the significant social and political impacts of these performances and their symbolic nature. This study also evaluates how discourse related to marginalized communities enters the public sphere and influences it. This study will include the analysis of performance via social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter during the 2020 resurgence of Black Lives Matter, including performances carried out by political leaders along the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign trail. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Trayvon Martin shooting of 2013 and the Michael Brown shooting of 2014 by a White security guard and White police officer sequentially led to the Black Lives Matter movement which has grown internationally to 40 chapters. Police agencies have responded with active community outreach programs to proactively reduce conflict. The question arises whether a language of peace such as Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication would be an effective tool to be used in instances of conflict similar to the carnage involving Black men and White police officers between 2013-2017. Local members of the Black community, Black Lives Matter, and law enforcement were interviewed asking the efficacy of Rosenberg’s NVC and deliberative dialogue as well. The study showed that since Blacks and Whites view racism differently, a more comprehensive approach is needed to address the challenges of racism and race relations. This thesis describes the possible use of a few models structured to discuss the racial conflict between all parties affected by racism. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, the former starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, unknowingly bartered his athletic aspirations by exercising his First Amendment Right to freedom of expression. Frustrated with what he and many others perceived as pervasive extrajudicial tactics of law enforcement and a seemingly incessant lack of accountability from the American legal system, Kaepernick silently protested by sitting during the playing of the National Anthem. Although, Kaepernick's actions begun as a singular, almost imperceptible act, he has ultimately redefined the significance of taking a knee, and etched his name in a long list of other malcontents in the struggle for racial equality in America. The purpose of this study is to explore in detail one of the most polarizing components of the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) and Black Social Protests in the United States. Analysis of social media content will argue the value of the Kaepernick "Anti Flag/Anthem" Protest, from a communication-cultural perspective. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis advisor: Lyndon Garrett / Coinciding with the upsurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in the Summer of 2020, collegiate and professional sports teams have exhibited increased involvement in social issues. Existing research primarily analyzes the platform and visibility that athletes have to promote social agendas, but there is a gap in knowledge regarding how a sports team forms a collective identity around a social movement. This study seeks to fill this gap in research by utilizing qualitative surveying and interviewing to examine how Boston College athletes engage in the Black Lives Matter Movement. Processes of grounded theory and inductive analysis are used to understand how the Boston College Women’s Rowing Team values contribute to the team’s shared mental model to fulfill the conditions of social movement emergence and further promote team value adoption and team success. Evaluation of student-athletes across different Boston College teams through this study also offers insights to the controversy over sports teams engaging in social issues. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

In the years since the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, American art museums have increased attempts to address the racial inequities that persist in the field. These inequities impact all aspects of museum work, not least of which education. Because museum educators are often seen as the conduit between museum collections and audiences, the work of implementing anti-racist programming often falls to them. However, the museum education field is majority White, and while there is a rich body of literature treating the adverse impacts of Whiteness on classroom teaching practices, very little exists on how Whiteness might manifest in gallery teaching practices specifically for White museum educators. Utilizing participatory action research, practitioner inquiry, and a White affinity group model, this qualitative study explores aspects of Whiteness that impact the gallery teaching practices of four White museum educators. Our research questions seek to understand better how Whiteness manifests in our teaching specifically in the context of single visit field trips, how those impacts might shift depending on the racial demographics of the groups we are teaching, what questions come for us as a White practitioner-researcher group dedicated to undermining Whiteness in our teaching, and how, if at all, does participation in such a study impact how we think about and implement anti-racist teaching in our practice. As per the research traditions guiding this study, I treated myself as a participant alongside three other White museum educators, and together as a practitioner inquiry group we co-generated our research questions and agreed to our research methods. These included the formation of a digital space in which we could communicate with each other, observations of our teaching, reflective writing responding to the observations, and conversations in the digital space based on these writings. This period of data generation was followed by interviews between myself and each participant as well as a focus group with all of us. Findings surfaced various avoidance techniques we each employed in our teaching to avoid race talk or push our anti-racist teaching more deeply. Our avoidance pointed to perceived tensions we felt between our trainings and the demands of anti-racist teaching, as well as the limitations of the single visit field trip model. Findings also surfaced anxiety when discussing Blackness in particular, as well as problematic assumptions about both White students and students of color we work with. Analysis of these findings provide insights into the ways art museum pedagogies in addition to critical emotional pedagogies might be deployed towards anti-racist teaching, as well as the emotional qualities of naming and dismantling Whiteness as White practitioners. While the findings are limited to the four museum educator participants and the specific contexts in which we work, this study points to ways we might begin to develop deeper understandings of how Whiteness might impact gallery teaching practices. More importantly, in the tradition of practitioner inquiry, this study raises important questions around how visitors of color experience Whiteness in museum education programs, how professional development might be reimagined for museum educators, as well as ways to rethink the traditional single visit field trip model to better accommodate anti-racist learning goals.

This dissertation examines the forms of media that are most productive for the formation of social and political movements at their earliest stages. The problem it confronts is a contemporary one: the dominant forms of social media on the internet do not allow for the slow and focused deliberation this is demanded for radical ideas that are attempting to undermine a status quo to begin to take root. Movements rise and fall very quickly, following the metabolism of sites like Facebook and Twitter, without having the long-term impact they seek. By first looking historically at a series of pre-digital case studies – starting with letters before the scientific revolution and moving through petitions, small newspapers, samizdat and all the way to zines in the 1990s – aspects of more effective incubatory media will present themselves. Each chapter in this first half of the book zeroes in on the affordances of these particular forms of communication that made them so useful. After having looked at pre-digital communication, the dissertation will then turn to contemporary case studies and the challenges posed by social media for activists of all stripes looking to incubate their ideas on these platforms. Starting with the Arab Spring in Egypt, which offers a cautionary tale of a movement overtaken by the social media metabolism and moving through the 2010s toward Black Lives Matter, there is a progression of awareness about what tools the internet can provide for communication and which prove most productive for offering sustainability to a movement. The conclusion is one gained from the juxtaposition of the historical and the contemporary, which builds to an awareness of what affordances are required for a radical idea to avoid burning out.

My study documents the formation and impact of the student-led movement of Black Lives Matter in Higher Education (BLMHE) that is housed within Teachers College Higher and Postsecondary Education Program (HPSE). This group consists of HPSE students and faculty that have come together to analyze the effects of systemic societal forces on members of the HPSE community and their broader effects on higher education. BLMHE has since come together to show solidarity and support for students of color at TC through demonstrating their general commitment to social justice in the form of an educational seminar program. This study, which relies on oral history interviews with BLMHE’s three student co-founders, examines the formation and impact of BLMHE, how they analyze the effects of systemic societal forces on members of their community, and their broader effects on higher education. I am interested in learning to what extent BLMHE plays a role in increasing equitable spaces for Black students who identify as scholars on campus because I want to find out how this form of student activism empowers students as agents for change against systemic racism within higher education. This will permit me to understand how this form of student advocacy compares to other forms of advocacy that seeks to address such inequality in higher education. This exploratory oral history study centers on three themes: student advocacy within the realms of equitable epistemological spaces, how BLMHE is distinctive from the Black Studies and Black Lives Matter movements, and the role of Teachers College in supporting equitable epistemological spaces that can combat racism in higher education. BLMHE applies an alternative mode of viable activism beyond rallies and protests. I am interested in exploring the effect that involvement in student-led groups such as BLMHE have on increasing equitable spaces for these students as critical scholars within higher education scholarship, as well as their impact on TC as an institution. This student group is challenging not just the inequities within institutional infrastructures of higher education, but the thought processes behind what frames higher education scholarship itself, and which types of academic spaces for this scholarship need to be created for people of color. Further, their work demonstrates the degree to which marginalized Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) students are not content to sit on the sidelines. This study also goes in-depth in discussing how inclusive archiving that accompanies this research can actively support and empower communities in the collective documentation of their own histories. Study findings will portray how these student members of BLMHE perceived social inequities in higher education, along with their experiences and reflections on microaggressions, diversity and inclusion, have informed their forays with activism. Study findings indicate that in order for higher education to better support these students, it is critical to center them in the process of knowledge creation via educational seminars; this, in turn, can inform change in scholarship. This study concludes that inclusive epistemological spaces created by BLMHE challenge dominant views of power in higher education, validating BIPOC-centered methods and theories while providing resources for scholars of color to thrive in the academy.

Due to high profile police shootings, collective action movements addressing racial bias in policing, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, have come to the forefront of societal concern. Though these movements and actions directly address police use of force against Black people, a number of non-Black racial minority individuals and organizations have declared solidarity and joined in protests with BLM. This study takes an intersectional approach to examine racial intraminority attitudes (i.e., racial minorities' attitudes toward other racial minority outgroups) toward support for and participation in protests against police excessive use of force and the BLM movement, through its relationship with modern racist beliefs and racial centrality. Participants completed a survey assessing perspectives on policing, racial protests, and BLM, along with racial identity measures. Results show significant differences in both support for and participation in protests and BLM, with women and Black people reporting higher in both outcomes than men and other racial groups, respectively. Within some racial groups, women show higher overall support for (Latinx, White) and participation in (Black, White) protests and BLM than men in the same racial group, though these differences were not found for other groups. Within each intersecting race and gender group, these effects were mediated by levels of modern racism, highlighting a common factor between all groups and an important point of possible malleability and intervention. Further, the relationship between race and gender identities and modern racism was moderated by racial centrality for some groups (Black and Latina women), though this relationship was again not universally found. By examining within group differences, this study highlights the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understand intraminority attitudes and relations as they pertain to participation in collective action movements towards social change. This study has implications for the generalizability of a number of social psychological theories on minority-minority intergroup race relations (i.e., Black-Latinx), as much of the past literature focuses on majority-minority intergroup relations (i.e., Black-White). Additionally, results from this study may provide useful information for community organizers and social justice activists in promoting intergroup collaboration and coalition building towards more equitable social change that is both more tailored for specific groups and more generalizable across groups.

Adding something new to the understanding of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which is considered a twentieth-century classic, would be nearly impossible if not for the outlook of new historicism. Through a new historicist analysis of Harper Lee’s literary text parallel to non-fictional texts relating to the American justice system and civil rights, this essay explores how race affects U.S. institutions and society. Lee’s novel is contextualized by delving into the American South of the 1930s, American society and politics in the1960s and the racial landscape in America today, connecting them through the experiences of racial bias within the justice system and the civil rights movement. The essay explores the racial and cultural norms that governed the American justice system at the set time of the story. It analyzes the time of publication and the American society in which the novel made such an impact on the racial debate. Finally, it looks at the impact of the novel and its connection to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Black Lives Matter movement and readers today. In the spirit of new historicism, the mechanisms of racism and how they affect the population, both the oppressors and the oppressed, is highlighted showing parallels between Lee’s fictional world and American society over time. Through the experiences of the characters, the structures of racism translate to a time and place where the Black Lives Matter movement has infused new life to the civil rights movement worldwide. Looking at retellings of the historical Scottsboro trials, which inspired the story unfolding in To Kill a Mockingbird in light of the justice system, Maycomb county and its inhabitants serves as guides into the racial norms that is ingrained in American society and politics. The results reveal a society where racial segregation is constantly reinforced by legal, economical, and social barriers, despite constitutional efforts to level the playing field for all American citizens.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, voodoo is omnipresent. There is voodoo in a more religious sense, that is generally more secretive, and there is a highly visible side to voodoo, that is shown in the many references to voodoo in a commercial or political sense throughout the city.Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation demonstrates that the criteria that define the boundaries of what is voodoo are debated by the practitioners and the authenticity of certain events or practices is often internally contested. To include all these debates, the broader concept of ‘voodooscape’ is introduced in this dissertation.The concept of voodooscape is a useful tool for the analysis of voodoo in New Orleans, because it includes these debates and the large domain where negotiations on voodoo take place. This dissertation contains ethnographic descriptions of these negotiations, with a focus on the ways in which the ‘voodooscape’ embodies memories of the history of slavery and the ways of coping with these memories. The voodooscape both mobilizes these memories and how to cope with these memories at the same time. In a similar way, the voodooscape mobilizes the memories of more recent events, of which hurricane Katrina and the current violence that caused the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement are the most important ones in New Orleans. The theoretical contribution of this work lies in the introduction of the concept of voodooscape, that allows a nuanced analysis and understanding of voodoo, through which several socially relevant dimensions are displayed and connected, namely: race, politics, music, art, heritage, tourism and commerce. / À la Nouvelle-Orléans, en Louisiane, le Vaudou est omniprésent. On y trouve le Vaudou dans sa signification religieuse, qui est généralement plutôt secrète, et son visage plus visible, qui s'illustre à travers la ville dans les nombreuses références aux incarnations commerciales ou politiques du Vaudou. À l'appui d'une enquête ethnographique, cette thèse démontre que les critères qui définissent les frontières de ce qui relève du Vaudou sont débattues par ses différents praticiens, de même qu'ils débattent fréquemment entre eux de l'authenticité de certaines pratiques ou événements. Pour rendre compte de tous ces débats, on a introduit le concept plus large de « Vaudousphère » [voodooscape]. Le concept de Vaudousphère est utile à l'analyse du Vaudou à la Nouvelle-Orléans en ce qu'il incorpore ces débats et les nombreux espaces où prennent place ces négociations sur le Vaudou. Cette thèse inclut des descriptions ethnographiques de ces négociations, en se focalisant sur la manière dont la « Vaudousphère » incarne la mémoire collective de l'histoire de l'esclavage et les stratégies d’accommodation avec cette mémoire. De même, la Vaudousphère mobilise les souvenirs d'événements plus récents, dont les plus importants à la Nouvelle-Orléans sont l'ouragan Katrina et la violence contemporaine qui a conduit à l'émergence du mouvement «Black Lives Matter». L'apport théorique de ce travail repose sur l'introduction du concept de Vaudousphère qui permet de conduire une analyse nuancée et compréhensive du Vadou, et à travers lequel plusieurs dimensions sociales pertinentes sont mises en évidence et en connexion, telles que: la race, la politique, la musique, l'art, l'héritage, le tourisme et le commerce. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished