This dissertation examines how marginalized subjects have altered rigid structures of class, race, sexuality and gender in American culture during the fifty-year period from 1940 to1990. This research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach that sources literature, film, historical documents, government statistics, sociological studies, and urban history. These varied resources provide insight about subject identities that exist outside the social and cultural mainstream. Some examples include the sexual outlaw, the racial transgressor, and men who have sex with men but identify as heterosexual. This work explores how the marginalized subject has been a dynamic locus for social and cultural changes. The literary works selected examine the marginalized subject through the lenses of sexuality, race, class, and gender. Furthermore, the works expose how the marginalized subject and the social practices in which these individuals engage often serve as transgressive acts that dismantle the categories of race, class, gender and sexuality. The hyper-masculine "pimp persona" is one example where the paradoxes and interstitial spaces between male and female gender performance become blurred. Additionally, this work examines masculine subjectivity through film and television, with particular analysis given to the persona of the sexual outlaw, the "magical Negro and white working-class male subject.

This study investigated African American males' perceptions and attitudes toward women and rap music. One hundred males between the ages of 13–25 were given a survey to assess their perceptions of women and rap music. Upon completion of the survey, five participants were randomly chosen to be interviewed. Four research questions guided the analysis: (1) How do young African American males respond to the images of women in rap music? (2) How do young African American males perceive manhood? (3) How do young African American males perceive heterosexual relationships? (4) How do young African American males perceive rap music and their relationship with women? The major findings of this study offered a complex, multi-faceted view of the role of rap music in the lives of young African American males including its impact on their attitudes toward women. Despite images of violence and sexual conquest in many popular rap songs, participants in the study affirmed a personal view of manhood that includes a rejection of violence against women. Participants also rejected a view of male-female relationships built on sexual relations in favor of more mutually supportive relationships with women. Participants also overwhelmingly rejected views of women as “gold diggers” interested in men for material gains. Participants further rejected a view of rap music as a form of personal and social control. They viewed it as a form of entertainment and escapism that offers African Americans opportunities for expression that are necessary to resist influences of a larger racist society.

The period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is one of the darkest epochs in American race relations. During the ‘nadir,’ African Americans responded to their conditions in numerous ways, including among others the promotion of self-help, racial solidarity, economic nationalism, political agitation, and emigration. This dissertation focuses on the various organizational responses of African Americans to the rise of racial segregation and violence, from the 1880s through the first decade of the twentieth century. In particular it examines the activities of the Afro-American League, the National Afro-American Council, the Constitution League, the Committee of Twelve and the Niagara Movement, demonstrating how these organizations' platforms and activities foreshadowed the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Shifting attention away from the leadership role of W. E. B. Du Bois and his involvement in the Niagara Movement, a secondary aim of this dissertation is to highlight the roles of intellectuals and activists such as T. Thomas Fortune, Bishop Alexander Walters, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, Jesse Lawson, Lewis G. Jordan, Kelly Miller, Archibald Grimké, Booker T. Washington and John E. Milholland. The dissertation explores the way in which their participation in the organizations mentioned above contribute to the foundation of the NAACP. The ideas and the activities of the Afro-American League and the National Afro-American Council antedated those of the Niagara Movement, and much of the leadership of the aforementioned groups brought their experiences together to create the NAACP.

This study examined whether commonly used social class indicators (occupational prestige, education, and income) had direct or indirect effects on mental health, and whether these relationships varied by gender, race, or family structure. To this end, 597 working-class participants were interviewed in the months before they had a child. Findings indicated that income, and not occupational prestige or education, had a direct effect on mental health, in that it was related to fewer depressive symptoms. Additionally, education and race interacted, such that for People of Color, more education was related to more depressive symptoms. Furthermore, occupational prestige and education, and not income, had indirect effects on mental health through job autonomy, such that higher prestige and education were related to more job autonomy, which in turn was related to fewer depressive symptoms. However, after examining the moderating influence of race and family structure, these indirect effects were only significant for Whites and married participants, with null or opposite effects for People of Color, cohabiters, and single participants. The findings highlight the importance that social divisions play in creating disparate experiences in society.

abstract: Pew Research Center reported in 2015 that already one-in-seven infants born in the United States are Multiracial (Livingston, 2017). Therefore, the number of Multiracial families is growing, and there is a need to understand how parents are engaging in racial-ethnic socialization, or the transmission of messages to Multiracial children about race, ethnicity, and culture (Atkin & Yoo, 2019; Hughes et al., 2006). I conducted a qualitative interview study with 20 Multiracial emerging adults to understand the types of racial-ethnic socialization messages Multiracial youth receive from their parents, and used these themes to inform the development and validation of the first measure of racial-ethnic socialization for Multiracial youth, the Multiracial Youth Socialization (MY-Soc) Scale. Study 1 identified nine themes of racial-ethnic socialization content: cultural socialization, racial identity socialization, preparation for bias socialization, colorblind socialization, race conscious socialization, cultural diversity appreciation socialization, negative socialization, exposure to diversity socialization, and silent socialization. Study 2 utilized a sample of 902 Multiracial emerging adults to develop and validate the MY-Soc scale. Items were written to assess all of the themes identified in Study 1, with the exception of exposure to diversity socialization, and the survey was designed to collect responses regarding the socialization practices of two of the youths’ primary caregivers. The sample was split to run exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, finding support for a 62-item scale measuring all eight themes. The MY-Soc Scale was also supported by validity and reliability tests. The two studies advance the literature by increasing understanding of the racial-ethnic socialization experiences of Multiracial youth of diverse racial backgrounds. The MY-Soc Scale contributes an important tool for scholars and practitioners to learn which racial-ethnic socialization messages are promotive for Multiracial youth development in different contexts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2020

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abstract: Blalock’s (1967) minority threat perspective is one of the most empirically investigated theories of crime control in criminological literature. A large body of research has tested this perspective and established a link between minority context and increased criminal justice controls. The perceived threat mechanisms hypothesized to facilitate this link, however, have received relatively scant attention. In addition, no multidimensional scale of perceived minority threat has been developed. These oversights have significantly impeded the advancement of research testing the empirical validity and generalizability of Blalock’s premises across racial and ethnic groups. Against this backdrop, this dissertation extends prior work by conducting three separate but interrelated studies. The first study focuses on the development and validation of a multidimensional Perceived Latino Threat Scale (PLTS). The second study investigates how the PLTS can inform the relationship between Latino context and punitive border control sentiment. The third and final study assesses the psychometrics of another multidimensional scale of perceived threat—the Perceived Black Threat Scale (PBTS), and examines the structural invariance and distinctness of the PBTS and PLTS. Using data collected from two college samples, I relied on a variety of different methods across the three empirical studies, including confirmatory factor analyses, bivariate and partial correlation analyses, and ordinary least squares regression. Overall, the findings suggest that both the PLTS and PBTS are multidimensional constructs that are structurally invariant and empirically distinct. In addition, perceived Latino threat significantly influenced punitive border control sentiment, but did not surface as a mediating mechanism linking ethnic context to immigration attitudes. Furthermore, whereas objective Latino population context did not demonstrate significant effects on either perceived Latino threat or punitive border control sentiment, the results emphasized perceived Latino context as a key moderator in the relationship between perceived Latino threat and punitive border control sentiment. Thus, the findings support the multidimensionality of perceived threat, as well as the hypothesized link between perceived threat and punitive controls, but raises key concerns about the generalizability of Blalock’s perspective to explain the threat-control process of Latinos. Implications for theory and research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2020

<p>  </p> <p>A key aspect of postcoloniality and works that deal with migration is the forever-present questioning of home and belonging. Migration frequently involves a negotiation between adapting to a place where policymaking often represses, oppresses, and/or colonizes the country migrants come from and often have left family behind. It may also involve returning to the motherland—a decision associated with the level of participation or belonging to the adopted country. Calling attention to the suffix “mother” appertaining to “native” land and its connotation to familial relations shows the intrinsic relationship between motherhood, familial bonds, and the construction of a hybrid identity. In the context of the diaspora and its feelings of absence, developing a sense of kinship might be the difference between establishing or not strong associations with the geographical space. This dissertation aims to unveil how migration affects mother-daughter affairs, highlighting how maintaining healthy mother-daughter relationships assists in constructing diasporic black identities. This process, experienced mainly by second-generational migrants and solo travelers, involves dislocations, displacement, and the acceptance of a transversal hybridity pivotal to empowerment. By discussing mother-daughter relationships in light of migration, this dissertation reveals how language, storytelling, and memory in contemporary post-colonial novels from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America perform double resistance and contribute to a new decolonized literary tradition.</p>

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate whether perceived autonomy and intimacy in family of origin experiences contributed to the retention of an individual's ethnic identity. The hypothesis under investigation focused on the predictive relationship of these variables with a sample of 195 Roman Catholic parishioners representing the following ethnic groups: Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, Polish and French. The sample included 43 Irish Americans, 35 Italian Americans, 36 Puerto Rican Americans, 41 Polish Americans and 40 French Americans. The subjects completed a mailed questionnaire packet concerning family of origin and ethnic identity characteristics and experiences. The findings indicated that autonomy and intimacy were significant in predicting the retention of an individual's ethnic identity in varying degrees and within specific populations. Positive intimacy and negative autonomy were found to be significant in predicting the retention of ethnic identity for the entire sample group. Autonomy and intimacy were found to be significant in predicting the retention of ethnic identity for the Polish sample group. Positive intimacy and positive autonomy were found to be significant in predicting the retention of ethnic identity for the men in the sample. In conclusion, the findings suggest that perceived autonomy and intimacy in family of origin experiences contribute to the retention of an individual's ethnic identity in varying degrees and in different populations. Implications for future research are also discussed.