Latino im/migrants are often portrayed in negative and stereotypical ways in mainstream U.S. media. This dissertation utilizes Ethnographic Content Analysis to analyze news segments about Latino im/migrants from Fox News, MSNBC and Univisión between 2010 and 2012 and digital storytelling with a group of Latino im/migrant parents in central Florida. First, I questioned if a Spanish-language news media source constructed Latino im/migrant family-focused stories differently than mainstream English-language sources. Utilizing Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, I conclude that English and Spanish-language news stations portray Latino im/migrants in different ways. Fox News portrays Latino im/migrants in a generally neutral or negative tone, MSNBC offers a generally neutral or positive tone, and Univisión offers a generally positive tone. Moreover, Fox News generally frames Latino im/migrants as a “problem to be solved” with the implied solution almost always being deportation or exclusion. Univisión generally framed the global, neoliberal, capitalist system that creates the need for mass migration as the “problem” and identified activism and social change as the “solution.” These analyses are supported with evidence from stock video footage from segments that often dehumanizes im/migrants as well as use of rhetoric during segments (namely phrases like “illegal” and “anchor baby”). Second, I questioned if, when offered the opportunity to represent themselves, would Latino im/migrant parents construct images of parenthood that both acknowledge and transcend the mainstream news media discourse? I conclude that the digital stories Latino im/migrant parents created in 2009 represent a broader, fuller picture of Latino im/migrant parenthood and that these stories rely more heavily on lived, narrative experience even after considering the change in format from news segment to digital story. Digital stories provide an effective vehicle for conducting participant observation and ethnography. Moreover, I argue that digital storytelling has the potential to be effective in increasing voice and building capacity for positive social change.

This thesis extrapolates upon theoretical examinations of meat consumption as linked to masculinity in order to consider how meat consumption may also be connected to dominant themes in Canada’s national foundation as marked by whiteness, multiculturalism, and post-coloniality. I investigate two sets of advertisements – Maple Leaf Canada’s “Feeding the Country” commercial, and Alberta Beef Producer’s Raised Right online campaign – through employing multimodal critical discourse analysis and tenets of Stuart Hall’s theories of representations. In doing so, I argue that meat consumption is depicted in advertising as an ideologically and symbolically loaded practice that seizes upon and re-articulates greater themes of Canadian national identity in a way that denotes the nation as having overcome its racial tensions and colonial history.

Canada established its National DNA Data Bank (NDDB) in 2000. Since that time, the NDDB has assisted in the solving of numerous criminal investigations. The NDDB has two indexes: the convicted offender index, which holds the identifiable DNA of persons convicted of designated crimes, and the anonymous crime scene index, which holds anonymous DNA collected from crime scenes. A match to a crime scene profile provides criminal investigators with extremely valuable evidence linking a suspect to a crime scene and the NDDB has been used to identify perpetrators in thousands of crimes in Canada. By limiting the identifiable DNA in the NDDB to convicted offenders, Canada has aimed to balance the crime-solving benefits of the data bank with competing rights issues, particularly the individual right to privacy. Some have encouraged expansions to the NDDB scheme in order to increase the number of crimes that can be resolved through the use of DNA evidence. One possible expansion is to introduce familial searching, a technique in DNA analysis that enables suspect identification based on the existence of a partial match between an identifiable DNA profile and an anonymous profile retrieved from the scene of a crime. Where closely matching profiles indicate that a close genetic relationship likely exists between the identifiable offender and an anonymous perpetrator, police will have a useful lead for follow-up and may be able to locate a suspect by testing the DNA of the identified offender’s close relatives. The use of familial searching is controversial. As a crime-solving tool, it has helped solve crimes in other jurisdictions in which it is currently used. At the same time, it introduces legal and ethical questions that have not been fully explored in Canada. One of the crucial questions is whether and to what extent familial searching may discriminate against Canada’s Aboriginal peoples, who suffer the effects of systemic bias in the criminal justice system generally and who are likely to be overrepresented in the NDDB. Applied in an inherently unequal system, familial searching would disproportionately impact Aboriginal peoples and perpetuate or possibly worsen this existing inequality. To help inform Canada’s decision about the use of familial searching as part of NDDB operations, this dissertation examines the issue from a Critical Race Theory perspective. It outlines the various ways in which familial searching would disproportionately impact Aboriginal peoples. The dissertation further examines international approaches to familial searching and evaluates the extent to which these policies protect against racial inequality concerns relating to the use of familial searching in each jurisdiction considered. It argues that Canada should prohibit familial searching of NDDB data in order to avoid a situation in which the technique would perpetuate or worsen systemic bias against Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system.

The United States is a nation of peoples with highly stratified degrees of healthcare access and coverage, including many individuals with none at all. Exacerbating the problem of widespread health disparities is a persistent shortage of physicians over recent decades. Of most urgency is the need for doctors within already underserved minority communities. Extant research demonstrates that a more racially diverse student body can effectively address the nation's physician shortage and gross health disparities. Yet, the pool of future physicians of color relative to the increasingly racially diverse U.S. population remains incongruent. For medical school admissions committees, this is a formidable challenge, made ever more difficult by legal affronts to affirmative action in postsecondary admissions. Accordingly, the "disadvantaged status" prompt was inserted into the U.S. medical school application as a race-neutral mechanism with potential to help cull a more racially diverse medical student body. This project addresses the interface of minorities with the "disadvantaged status" essay, as there is a relative paucity of literature on the point of entry to medical school, particularly exploring the voices of applicants of color. Utilizing a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework, this study expands the existing literature involving: (a) the history of minorities in U.S. medical school and the medical community's response to the stark and persistent absence of diversity among medical students and practitioners; (b) affirmative action in higher education and the race-neutral admissions trend; and (c) the enduring construct of "disadvantage" in regard to minorities within the U.S. education system.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand how community members within a segregated school district approached racial inequities. I conducted a ¬nineteen-month-long ethnography using a critical Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to explore how members in a community activist group called Eliminate Racism interacted and worked with school district officials. My goal was to identify and examine how community members addressed racially inequitable policies and practices in the Midwestern city of Pinecreek (pseudonym) in the context of a school district that had undergone two school desegregation lawsuits. I conducted 32 interviews with 24 individuals, including teachers and school leaders, parents, and community members. This study answers three research questions: (1) What strategies did the community activist group use to influence local education policy for addressing racism in the schools? (2) How did community participation influence local education policy? (3) What were the motivating factors for individuals’ involvement in issues of local school segregation? To answer these questions, I used concepts from Critical Race Theory and Social Capital Theory. I employ Putnam’s and Putnam and Campbell’s social capital, Warren’s civic participation, Bonilla-Silva’s color-blind racism, Yosso’s community cultural wealth and religio-civics. My analysis shows that the community group used the social capital and community cultural wealth of its members to create partnerships with district officials. Although Eliminate Racism did not meet its goals, it established itself as a legitimate organization within the community, successfully drawing together residents throughout the city to bring attention to racism in the schools. The study’s results encourage school and district leaders to constantly bring race to the forefront of their decision-making processes and to question how policy implementation affects minoritized students. This research also suggests that strategies from this community group can be adopted or avoided by other antiracist groups undertaking similar work. Finally, it provides an example of how to employ critical PAR methods into ethnography, as it notes the ways that researcher positionality and status can be leveraged by community groups to support the legitimacy of their mission and work. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2020

abstract: There has been a robust and ongoing investment in demystifying the discursive and material conditions of neoliberalism. Scholars in communication have done much work to explore the various rhetorical effects and processes of neoliberal discourses and practices. Many of these case studies have tethered their concerns of neoliberalism to the conceptualization of the public sphere. However, most of this research rests on the absence of those that try to “make do.” By privileging rhetoric after the fact, such studies tend to provide more agency to ideology than everyday bodies that engage in their own rhetorical judgments and discernments. In addition, scholarship across the board tends to treat neoliberalism as something dangerously and uniquely new. This framing effectively serves to ignore the longer history of liberalism and liberal thought that paved the path of neoliberalism the United States is now on. With these two broad concerns in mind, this study centers a case study of a charter school in South Phoenix to focus on the vernacular rhetorics of those on the ground. Guided by public sphere theory, critical race theory, and intersectionality, I take up rhetorical field methods to explore how those involved with this charter school navigate and make sense of school choice and charter schools in the age of neoliberalism. Within this context, field methods permit me to locate the various discourses, practices, and material constraints that shape running, being educated at, and selecting a charter school. These various rhetorical practices brought to the forefront an interest and concern with the school’s whole child approach as it is rooted within Stephen Covey’s (1989) seven habits. Additional qualitative data analysis brings about two new concepts of neoliberal scapegoating and dialectical vernacular complicity. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings as they speak to how rhetorical field methods, supported by intersectionality and critical race theory, invites critics to center more agency on people rather than ideas, and how that makes for a more complicated and nuanced neoliberal reality and modes of resistance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2020

Doctor Educationis / All employees aspire to work at a place of employment which is free from racial discrimination, where equal opportunity and fair treatment are not merely principles that are promoted and encouraged, but implemented actively by their employers. For a number of black professional employees in South Africa, however, currently this is merely an aspiration. Evidence suggests that black people are still subjected to racial discrimination and that their growth into the ownership and management structures of the enterprises that employ them, is insignificant in comparison to their white counterparts, despite the progressive legislative measures enacted by the legislature to ensure otherwise. The Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, as amended, was promulgated in order to promote equal opportunities and fair treatment in employment, through the elimination of unfair discrimination and to implement affirmative action measures to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003, as amended, was enacted to promote the economic participation of black people in South Africa. The objective of this thesis is to examine the relevant provisions of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, as amended, its Regulations, the Codes of Good Practice enacted in terms thereof, as well as the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003, as amended, together with its Codes of Good of Practice to determine whether this equality legislation is the appropriate vehicle to address the challenges experienced by black professional employees in the private sector. The stories of black professional employees’ experiences obtained from academic literature available insofar as it relates to racial discrimination, affirmative action and black economic empowerment is discussed through the lens of Critical Race Theory. This is done with a view to determining whether the slow pace of racial transformation when it comes to black professional employees employed in the private sector is an issue that the law can address. Particular reference is made to two professions: the legal profession and the financial professions. This thesis examines the difference between the minimalist and maximalist approaches to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). The thesis reveals the limits to the incentive structure that does not place a premium on black ownership and that allows enterprises to benefit from BEE while not really changing management structures. It argues that seen through the lens of critical race theory the current equality legislation discussed in this thesis is based on including black people in a system where privilege and power are asymmetrically distributed. It also argues that legislation in itself is unable to rectify racial injustices. It therefore demonstrates the limitations of the current equality legislation as a vehicle to address the challenges faced by black professional employees in the private sector.

Human Security and Police Brutality via the Lens of Critical Race Theory Leah Gideon Kuttu 47472109 'Equality' and 'dignity of persons' are common language in the legal lingo on rights and freedoms of all men. However there seems to exist, a large magnitude in discrepancy with the actuality of these ideals in the way that all people are treated, particularly in this work, in the American society. The death of George Floyd was momentous in refocusing light on the issue of police brutality and seemingly, institutionalized racism in America. That one post showing how Floyd was killed by Police, showed just how much Black America was treated in contrast to the stipulated rights for all persons noted in America's legal apparatus. There began for international security a marked turning point in the pivot with the human being- as opposed to the state- becoming the core object for security and protection. This new turn is pointed to the 1990s in the aftermath of the Cold war. Human-centric occupations in security connote that threats to international security begin with the individual and so the individual must first be prioritized when assessing threats to security in the state and the international system. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR, 1948) is the foremost pillar on which human security is...

Sundown towns are communities with a history of excluding African Americans and that are predominantly White on purpose. Although sundown towns have inevitably changed over time, a number of them continue to be alarmingly White, and their reputations continue to persist. Sundown towns are widespread across the U.S. and despite their prevalence, very little research exists on the topic. Furthermore, sundown towns were largely maintained through oral tradition. In this dissertation, I explore oral history interviews with community residents about the history of sundown towns in southern Illinois. Based on over two years of fieldwork, I examine how community narratives construct present realities of sundown towns in new and nuanced ways. I am also interested in how these narratives function. I argue that race is central to investigating the history of sundown towns and use performance as an analytical tool to understand racial dimensions in community members' stories. I examine how everyday community narratives reveal racialized performances and construct current manifestations of sundown towns. I further examine the process of translating these narratives into a staged performance. Ultimately, I argue that exploring everyday community narratives from the field to the stage allows a heuristic view of the living history of sundown towns. My approach to this study is deeply informed by critical performance ethnography and Critical Race Theory. These methods work together as modes of inquiry that enable analysis of community narratives as well as my role as a researcher, with the aspiration of social change. I enter this research with the agenda to deconstruct racist structures and add to social justice discourses. In this dissertation, I strive to create space for dialogue about sundown towns, race, and racism with various audiences and create possibilities for disrupting this history.

African American men’s graduation rates from institutions of higher education are among the lowest of any demographic group in the United States. I interviewed African American men who shared their narratives on how they lived out their manhood on a mid-western public regional four-year university campus. The purpose of the study was to garner insights from their stories, and to see how the lessons learned from their lived experiences could be applied to improve the first year experience for this segment of the student population. The combination of phenomenological and grounded theory research paradigms helped me to analyze the lived experiences of African American men in an institution of higher education milieu. The main themes that I identified after analyzing the collected data, using critical race theory as a key theoretical lens, were Black Masculinity, Being Seen, Brotherhood, Support Groups, and Ideations of Success. African American men’s complex and multi-dimensional masculinities called for a sense of commitment and responsibility to community, family, and brotherhood. The respondents’ goals of graduating are similar to all other student groups, and they are most likely to thrive in their first year of college if their Black masculinities are centered; they most likely will seek assistance when made to feel valued and seen by institutional and familial support systems. Keywords: Black Masculinity, Progressive masculinities, African American college men, African American men’s first year experience, critical race theory, regional campus, PWI