Manipulation of stories and events expose issues of false representation and stereotyping within the mainstream media. This research examined the media’s role in shaping the behaviors and experiences of African American male athletes while using Critical Race Theory as the framework in conducting research. A focus group consisting of six former African American male student athletes was conducted. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in order to allow for open discussion. The Constant Comparison Method was instrumental in thematizing the data while QDA Miner software was used to analyze the data. The findings suggested that African American male athletes feel they are portrayed negatively in relation to leadership abilities as well as being portrayed as thugs and rappers. African American male athletes do feel pressured to challenge certain stereotypes presented by the media in order to become better role models for the African American community. Future research should explore the media’s impact on younger generations of African American male athletes as well as African American female athletes to compare whether similarities exists between the groups.

This text provides an environmental justice analysis of the stories of the people who lived in the Owens Valley, who watered its land and cultivated its crops—pine trees, apple trees, and kabocha alike. Telling the personal stories of challenge and resistance that manifested alongside the oppressive forces of military and state domination provides the opportunity to align forcibly relocated, exploited and incarcerated people’s struggles throughout time. This text starts with The Nü’ma Peoples who were the first humans to live in the Owens Valley and continues with the struggle for empire between rival colonial empires of agriculture and distant urban cities. Its final chapters end with an in-depth and personal exploration of the unconstitutional incarceration of 117,000 people of Japanese ancestry in the United States during World War II. All the while it weaves in poetry, art and grassroots stories of resistance. It is a call to action for Environmental Studies and Ethnic Studies Departments to link the critical analysis within their disciplines to tell more accurate histories.

This dissertation focuses on the living arrangements of multi-generational households among ten biggest immigrant groups in the United States. Specifically, it examines whether the husband's or the wife's older parents were more likely to be present. Co-residence patterns were taken as a proxy that reflected relative decision-making power in the family. A number of factors hypothesized to be associated with the outcome were examined to explore the effect of immigration on gender role ideology and gender relations in the post-1965 immigrant family. More than 102,000 multi-generational households from the 2000 U.S. Census were included in the analyses. Results suggested that while there were positive signs for women's increasing status and relative decision-making power, the influence of original sending culture where immigrants have come from proved to be strong and persistent. Those from more patriarchal sending cultures, represented by India, Korea, and China, were more likely to have the husband's parents co-residing; while those from less patriarchal sending cultures, represented by Jamaica, Cuba, and El Salvador, were more likely to have the wife's parents present in the household. These findings illustrate the complex nature of gender relations in the immigrant family whereby the effect of assimilation is found in some domains, while the influence of sending culture is enduring or even reinforced in other domains. Results of this research contribute to the better understanding of the diversity of changes in gender relations that accompany immigration.

The rise of “zero tolerance” discipline practices in US primary and secondary schools has become increasingly well documented by the media and empirical studies. Despite the extensive scholarship that has emerged from these conversations, many of these analyses are limited in their scope and do not connect the phenomena of zero tolerance in schools to the diverse, shifting forces at play within American politics and policy today. As such, the goal of this work is to synthesize ideas about zero tolerance across disciplines by integrating historical thought, philosophical frameworks of punishment, shifting policy goals within the US education system, the sociological constructions of “deviance” and “disorder” in the context of the US criminal justice system, and empirical data directly from a school district to develop particular policy recommendations accordingly. The primary research question of this analysis is: What are the effects of zero tolerance discipline policies on educational outcomes? To answer this question, Chicago Public Schools will be employed as a case study from which lessons for the nation at large will be drawn. Ultimately, this analysis ends up revealing the ways in which zero tolerance policies stem from much deeper forces at play between dominant and marginal groups, and what comes to be defined as “deviance” in relation to a socially constructed system of “order.”

This dissertation analyzes the representations of immigrants from North Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe in Spain. As engaged scholarship, it seeks to better the portrayal of immigrants in the mass media through the study of literature, film, and music about immigration spanning from the year 2000 to 2016. Because misconceptions continue to propagate in the media, this dissertation works to counteract anti-immigrant, xenophobic representations as well as balance out overly positive and orientalized portrayal of immigrants with a call to recognize immigrants as human beings who deserve the same respect, dignity, and rights as any other citizen. Chapter 1 examines and analyzes the background to immigration in Spain by covering demographics, the mass media, and political theories related to immigration. Chapter 2 analyzes Spanish music about immigration through Richard Rorty’s social theory of ‘sentimental education’ as a meaningful way to redescribe marginalized minorities as full persons worthy of rights and dignity. Chapter 3 investigates the representation of immigrants in Spanish filmic shorts and cinema. Lastly, Chapter 4 demonstrates how literary portrayals of immigrants written by undocumented immigrants can give rise to strong characters that avoid victimization and rear empathy in their readers in order to affect a social change that minimizes cruelty.

This thesis uses transnational and Black feminist frameworks to analyze Buddhist nationalist discourses of gender and violence against religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar. Burmese Buddhist nationalists’ marginalization of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority is inextricably linked to their attempts to control Buddhist women. Research includes interviews with U Ashin Wirathu, the leader of the monastic-led nationalist group, the 969 Movement, and with other monks of the organization, as well as with non-nationalist monks, nuns and laywomen. I also analyze Theravada textual discourse as read by my subjects in light of the history of Myanmar to understand the ways the local Theravada tradition has marginalized women and non-Buddhists. By connecting the lack of bhikkhuni ordination and laws hindering Buddhist women from marrying non-Buddhist men with the portrayal of the Rohingya as a threat to the nation, I show how Buddhist nationalists attempt to consolidate power and forestall the democratization process.

The purpose of this qualitative research study employing a cross-case analysis on previous case studies is to better understand the engagement of Latino students in a small number of cultural sensitivity programs and the teaching practices that are factors in the development of their academic achievement. In the traditional infrastructure of public schools, assimilation is built on fundamental values aligned with the U.S. political establishment rather than on the value of adaptation to the demands and conflicts of other cultures. Thus, less-empowered groups are at a disadvantage resulting in subgroups abandoning their ideas and reducing their contributions to human capital. In this study, the focus is alternative programs, specifically programs in which a there is a balance in the learning process between the teacher and student emphasizing the development of enhanced understanding of the cultural contexts an integral part of academic learning for Mexican American students. Also included in the case studies are innovative intervention programs that specifically help students improve academic achievement in Grades 9-12, especially those for students who are Mexican immigrants or of Mexican American ancestry in the state of California. The literature discusses concepts of assimilation, enculturation, oppression, culture capital, and the high and low contexts within the theoretical framework. Empirical literature revealed a deeper understanding of the relationship between Latino student learning styles and the dominant Eurocentric traditional academic culture within classroom practices. In sum, in the cross-case analysis of the 21 case studies, various features emerged across the cases that were categorized into three general themes: (a) alternative interventions, (b) caring, and (c) culturally responsive teaching/pedagogy.

This dissertation study was conducted in order to examine and gain an insight on two topics that are considered to be highly under researched: American historically black fraternities and sororities and colorism within the back American community. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact that colorism has had on black American collegiate Greek letter organizations. Using the qualitative phenomenological approach, 18 graduate or alumni members, two from each of the nine historically black Greek letter organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellanic Council were interviewed using open ended questions to see what impact (if any) colorism has had on historically black fraternities and sororities. During the interviews the following five major themes emerged: discriminatory practices between black Americans, stereotyping black Greek letter organizations, stereotyping skin tones, colorism as a part of American history, and colorism as being permanently a part of the black American community. The following theories were also explored during the study: Social Identity Theory, Double Consciousness, Primary Identification Theory, and Conflict Caused by Colorism, to further see what impact colorism had on historically black fraternities and sororities. Through these five themes and theories, it was found that colorism has had and continues to have a significant impact on not only members of historically black fraternities and sororities, but also that of members of the black American community as a whole.

This dissertation is an Investigation into the Tuareg involvement in violent conflict in the Sahara and the Sahel of North Africa from a sociological psychological perspective of unmet human needs. The research begins by establishing the structure and texture of the sociological, psychological, and emotional life patterns of their existence when not involved in violent conflict. This is followed by an examination of the pathology of Tuareg social structures that are engaged in intra and inter communal violence as perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. The first part of the research establishes normal conditions of the sociological life cycle and highlights natural areas of conflict that arise from exposure to rapid and/or external changes to their physical and social environment. The second part establishes parameters of expected damage from trauma, extended conflict, and failure to adapt to rapid environmental, social and political changes. The research methodology relies on a case study format that uses collaborative ethnography and phenomenological inquiry to answer the research questions and validate propositions made from existing literature and pre]existing research. The research questions focus on aspects of the sociological structure and failing psychological and emotional needs that are relevant to the subjectfs involvement in violent conflict. The research propositions are in part shaped from existing knowledge of tribal sociological structures that are related to the Tuareg by ethnicity, environment, and shared psycho]cultural attributes. The expected contribution of this research is the development of an alternative praxis for tribal engagement and village stability operations conducted by the United States Special Operations Command.

This study explores the relationship between Black police officers, Black citizens, and their external environment using a group of 30 police officers and citizens to establish the connection between police officer race and perceptions by same race citizens within the context of police use of force. I use the term Black to be inclusive of African Americans as well as others of African descent without regard to their ethnicity or national origin. Criminal justice means system application whereas criminology is the study of criminal behavior. In America, there exists a history of volatility between the police and Black communities. While I recognize that many Blacks may have no direct interaction with police, in order to facilitate this research, I rely on a well-known and controversial topic, which is the use of police force within Black communities. The participants involved in the study are employees of one of three large municipal police agencies or enrolled in an institution of higher education within a southwestern state. All participants self-identify as Black or African American. I employ qualitative methods by incorporating in-depth interviews in my research approach. At the conclusion of the study, the two groups’ perception about race, police use of force, and policing are compared, using common themes to develop a shared phenomenon of what it means to be a Black police officer and the Black officer’s relationship with the Black community. I suggest that because Black police officers experience a racial/professional dynamic; their twin identification causes them to believe that the Black community and non-Black officers question their racial and professional loyalty. I also suggest that the perception of Black police officers and Black citizens and the degree of support they enjoy or lack within their respective departments and communities affects their disposition regarding race and policing. Typically, researchers treat police as a homogenous racial group. This study is important because Black officers are neglected within the literature on police use of force and Black citizens are seldom asked about citizen-police relations involving Black officers. In addition, this project examines how the roles of professional and racial subcultures influence perceptions.