The United States has a troubled history with race relations. African Americans have immeasurably experienced racism and racial oppression in various forms and in many sectors of the American society. One of the sectors that the racial inequalities of our past have affected is the employment sector. Many Americans experience the workplace on a daily basis and therefore experience the inequities that persist in such environments. This study explores African American experiences with race in the workplace and the way that race shapes today's workplace. Specifically, this study analyzes the experiences of African American professionals working at for-profit organizations and their perceptions of the way that race shapes their organization's culture. This study employs a constant comparative analysis of qualitative interviews using Critical Race Theory as a guide. The interviews explored the manner in which race, Diversity and Inclusion (DandI) programs, and communication affect organizational culture. The thesis further questions if and how organizations are working to create and sustain a more equitable workplace for all employees. The findings suggest that African American professionals perceive that their organizations are welcoming and inclusive of all minority groups. They also perceive the organizational culture to be friendly and family-oriented where open, positive, and encouraging communication exists. The professionals feel that their organizations are generally interested in diversity, however they feel the organization's engagement with diversity practices is not sufficient. The findings of this study could be used as a tool for organizations to reevaluate their diversity practices and to ensure that they are creating an equitable workplace. / Master of Arts / The inequalities caused by racism and the systematic oppression of African Americans in the United States are present in many areas of contemporary American life. African Americans are still faced with problems that stem from the country’s past with race and are affected by these problems in many ways. One area that African Americans must deal with race is the workplace. The inequalities that were created in the past have caused race to play a significant role in the way that African Americans experience the workplace. This study explored the experiences of African American professionals in the workplace and the way they perceive race to play a role in shaping their organization’s culture. The findings of the study explain that African American professionals perceive that race has a definite effect on their organization’s culture. The professionals believe that their organizations have a general interest for diversity, but they have not adequately addressed the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. They reported that the organizations are inclusive and provide an environment where they can be productive and develop professionally. Today’s organizations have made a step in the right direction of diversity, but there is much work left to do.

Thesis advisor: Ana M. Martinez-Aleman / More than 98 percent of college-aged students use social media and social media usage has increased nationally by almost 1000 percent since 2007 (Griffin, 2015). College students’ social media profiles can be understood as cultural performances and narratives of identity that possess aspects of both fiction and real life (Martínez Alemán & Wartmann, 2008). According to Dalton & Crosby (2013), social media have and will continue to transform the experiences and objectives of colleges and universities and the ways in which students choose to share components of their experience and identity must be examined. This dissertation uses a critical race theory framework to examine how African American college women perform race and gender on social media. This dissertation addresses the following questions: • How do black college women construct identity on social media? • How do black college women perform race and gender on social media? 15 participants from three predominately white institutions (Oxford, Cambridge, Kings College) engaged in individual interviews, participant observations, artifact collection and focus groups as a part of this study. The findings suggest that in person experiences inform what is presented and performed on social media and social media experiences enhance participants lives as college students on their campuses. Black women respond to and are affected by the campus environment in which they routinely encounter racial stress and stereotypes and choose to share some of these experiences on social media. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

abstract: Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribCrit) as a theoretical framework, this dissertation analyzes a contemporary cinematic film directed by an American Indian filmmaker about American Indians and answers the question of whether the visual texts are unmasking, critiquing, confronting, and/or reinforcing reductive and stereotypical images of American Indians. Using Critical Thematic Analysis as a process, this dissertation interrogates Drunktown’s Finest (2014) to understand ways a contemporary American Indian filmmaker engages in counterstorying as a sovereignist action and simultaneously investigates ways the visual narrative and imagery in the film contributes to the reinforcement of hegemonic representations—the static, constrained, White-generated images and narratives that have been sustained in the hegemonic culture for over a century. With an increase in the number of American Indian filmmakers entering into the cultural elitist territory of Hollywood, moving from the margins to the center, I believe Natives are now in a better position to apprehend and reconstruct a multidimensional and complex American Indian identity. I posit that the reshaping of these mass-mediated images can only be countered through the collective and sustained fostering of a more complex imagery of the American Indian and that authorship of the representation is crucial to changing the hegemonic imagery of American Indians. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2017

En France, entre les années 70 et fin 90, alors que la notion de crime raciste occupait fréquemment la sphère militante et médiatique, elle ne constituait pas une catégorie juridique dans la sphère judiciaire. La mésentente concernant le traitement des crimes racistes semble trouver son origine dans le fait que deux conceptions d’une même réalité ont pu coexister pendant une trentaine d’années : la réalité du groupe concerné par ces violences d’une part et celle émanant du droit étatique d’autre part. Alors que pour les premiers, le caractère raciste des violences ne faisait aucun doute, pour les parlementaires l’idée même d’un mobile raciste a régulièrement été rejetée. D’un point de vue législatif, il a fallu attendre l’année 2003 pour que la France adopte une loi permettant de prendre en compte l’intention raciste d’un crime. Depuis cette date, sous certaines conditions, le mobile raciste peut constituer une circonstance aggravante dans les infractions de type criminel. Cette thèse s’intéresse à ces deux vérités et aux circonstances qui ont déterminé leur existence. Elle vise notamment à interroger le rôle joué par le droit étatique dans la production et le maintien des catégories ethnoraciales par delà la politisation des violences qui en résultent. D’un point de vue empirique, l’enquête a consisté à confronter la parole des militants ayant dénoncé une double violence, celle provoquée par les agressions d’une part et celle induite par leur traitement pénal d’autre part, à un ensemble de sources archivistiques émanant des services du ministère de l’Intérieur et du Parlement. D’un point de vue théorique, les apports de la sociologie et de l’histoire de l’immigration ont été complétés en intégrant les réflexions des théories de l’ethnicité et de la Critical Race Theory. En définitive, cette recherche met en évidence le fait que l’universalisme républicain fait partie intégrante du processus de racialisation. En revenant sur les dispositions majeures de la politique d’immigration et sur la figure stigmatique de l’homme arabe, un premier axe s’intéresse à la manière dont le droit étatique a particularisé une catégorie d’individus en participant à la production des catégories ethnoraciales. Un deuxième axe vise à caractériser les crimes racistes qui ont été dénoncés entre les années 70 et fin 90. Un dernier axe enfin étudie la carrière juridique du mobile raciste durant cette même période. Il expose la manière dont la législation antiraciste a invisibilisé la question des crimes racistes et maintenu les catégories ethnoraciales en appliquant des règles universelles à des groupes qui ont auparavant été différenciés. / In France between the 1970s and the 1990s, while the notion of racist crime was frequently brought up in the activist and media fields, it was not a legal category in the field of justice. The disagreement regarding the treatment of racist crimes seems to find its roots in the fact that two different conceptions of a same reality could coexist for thirty years: thereality of the group that was primarily concerned by such violence on the first hand, and that flowing from the State law on the other hand. Whereas for the former, the racist component of the violence was out of doubt, the members of the Parliament regularly rejected the mere idea of racist motive. In legal terms, it was not until 2003 that France adopted a law allowing toconsider the racist motive of a crime. Since then, and only under certain circumstances, the racist motive can constitute an aggravating factor for criminal offenses. This dissertation investigates these two truths and the circumstances that led to their existence. In particular, this research seeks to interrogate the role that the State law played in the production andconservation of ethnoracial categories, beyond the politicization of the violence flowing from such categories. In empirical terms, the study compared the discourses of the activists that denounced this dual violence, that provoked by the aggressions and that of their penal treatment, to an array of archival sources from the Interior Ministry’s services and theParliament. In theoretical terms, this research completes the contributions made by the sociology and history of immigration by integrating the theories of ethnicity and Critical Race Theory. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on the fact that Republican universalism is an integral part of the process of racialization. Through the study of the main dispositions of theimmigration policy and of the stigmatic figure of the Arab man, a first part investigates the way the State law particularized a category of people by taking part in the production of ethnoracial categories. A second part seeks to characterize the racist crimes that were denounced between the 1970s and 1990s. A last part investigates the judicial career of theracist motive. It shows how the anti-racist legislation blinded the question of racist crimes and maintained the ethnoracial categories by enforcing universal rules to groups that were formerly differentiated.

The right to non-discrimination is a fundamental part of human rights. Sweden has enacted legislation which prohibits employers from discriminating or harassing employees and job seekers. Swedish authorities also receive a substantial amount of complaints concerning ethnic discrimination in the workplace every year and there are volumes of research showing structural injustices related to discrimination. Despite these facts few employers have so far been found guilty of discrimination on ethnic grounds in Swedish courts. This thesis aims to shed lights on and analyse how the Swedish anti-discrimination legislation is utilised in the Swedish Labour Court regarding discrimination and harassment on ethnic grounds. On the basis that very few lawsuits brought on behalf of employees/job seekers have been successful it is hypothesized that there are problems either with the form of the legislation or the assessment of the court. Firstly the shape of statutes, their legislative history and preparatory works are illustrated to create an understanding for the legal pre-conditions, thereafter the judgements of the Labour Court are analysed within the theoretical framework of the thesis – composed of Critical Race Theory and Sociology of Law. The study has shown problems concerning both the legislation and the assessment of the Labour Court. The legislation does not seem to embody the awareness of discriminating structures shown by the works of the preparatory committees. Further the assessments of the Court suggest a lack of understanding of the interaction between different pre-conditions and how these create a disadvantage for people of a minority standing which affects them both in the workplace and in the judgments of the Court.

This qualitative dissertation study examined the ways that nine gifted, bilingual Mexican/Mexican-American students negotiated paradoxes in their academic, linguistic, and cultural identities in a public high school in a large, south central Texas city. One theoretical lens, Critical Race Theory/Latino Critical Race Theory (CRT/LatCrit) was combined with phenomenological research methods to privilege the students' perspectives during the data collection process. An additional theoretical lens, the concept of Figured Worlds, was used to contextualize the setting, Chase High School. Both CRT/LatCrit and Figured Worlds were used to analyze interview, classroom and field observation, participant, school, and district artifacts, federal, state and local data collected over ten months of study. The investigation revealed that the participants braided the domains of community cultural wealth -- aspirational, navigational, linguistic, social, resistance, and familial capital -- into practices that grounded them in their bilingual, bicultural Mexican/Mexican-American identities as successful students. / text

Cette thèse applique le concept analytique d’ « inégalité intersectionnelle des genres » à l’analyse des implications du développement du secteur privé du care sur les inégalités structurelles fondées sur le genre, la classe et la race en France et en Allemagne. Je pose la question suivante : les politiques publiques régissant le secteur du care renforcent-elles les inégalités intersectionnelles par leur manque de compréhension des phénomènes de discrimination intersectionnelle ? Dans quelle mesure les politiques publiques dans les domaines de l’immigration, de l’emploi, de la famille et de l’égalité professionnelle entre hommes et femmes prennent-elles en compte l’intersection des désavantages structurels ? J’aborde la notion d’ « égalité des genres » d’un point de vue intersectionnel dans le sens où la catégorie « femme » est envisagée comme un groupe hétérogène et non universel. Les inégalités au sein de cette catégorie sont donc au centre de l’attention. Le transfert du travail reproductif des femmes employées sur le marché du travail formel à d’autres femmes en situation marginale pose des questions de hiérarchie basée sur la classe et sur la race à l’intérieur de la catégorie ‘femmes’. Ma problématique pourrait donc être reformulée comme suit : Comment les politiques promouvant le développement des services de care privés influencent-elles l’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes, et l’égalité entre les femmes ? Une analyse approfondie des politiques discursives et des cadres politiques liés aux problèmes du care et de l’égalité des genres a permis de comprendre les diverses représentations et constructions de ces questions politiques. La recherche conclut que les divers cadres discursifs des problèmes politiques de l’égalité des genres, de l’immigration et de l’emploi dans le secteur du care ont un impact direct sur la formulation des politiques publiques se rapportant au travail du care, ce qui perpétue un processus de discrimination que je décrit en conceptualise comme inégalité intersectionnelle des genres. / This dissertation applies the analytical concept of “intersectional gender inequality” to the analysis of the implications of the development of private care for gender, class and racial structural inequalities in France and Germany. I ask: how do public policies pertaining to social care – in their current formulation – reinforce intersectional inequalities because of their disregard or lack of understanding of intersectional discrimination? To what extent do migration, labor market, family, and gender equality policies frame and address intersectional disadvantage? The transfer of reproductive work from women employed on the formal labor market to other marginalized women poses questions of hierarchy based on racism and classism within the group “women.” My research question could be reformulated as: How do policies promoting the development of personal care services influence equality between men and women, and equality between women? I undertook an in-depth analysis of the intricate relationships between white supremacy, class exploitation and patriarchy and examined how these systems of domination impact on gender inequality. The analysis of discursive politics and policy frames related to the issue of care and gender equality allowed an understanding of the various representations and constructions of the political issues and of the people affected by it.The discourses developed in relation to the above-mentioned policies reflect particular representations of the interrelated problems of gender inequality, labor shortages in the care sector, and immigration, as well as the solutions brought forward to solve them. Using critical frame analysis, this dissertation addresses the intersectional representation (or lack thereof) of racialized women in policies, laws and discourses pertaining to social care. Drawing from this, the specific structural discrimination of racialized women on the labor market will be analyzed.The research reveals that the discursive framing of the policy issues of gender inequality, immigration and employment in care impact on the formulation of policies pertaining to care work, which in turn sustain a discrimination pattern that I describe and conceptualize as intersectional gender inequality.

This work focuses on Chican@ identity in academia and uses CRT counterstory to address topics of cultural displacement, assimilation, the American Dream, and ethnic studies. This research considers where the field of rhetoric and composition currently stands in terms of preparedness to serve a growing Chican@ undergraduate and graduate student population. Through counterstory, I offer strategies that more effectively serve students from non-traditional backgrounds in various spaces and practices such as the composition classroom, faculty mentoring, and programmatic requirements such as second language proficiency exams. Since rhetoric and composition can confront structurally and historically specific racisms--e.g., segregation, lack of access for the racial minority to higher education, ethnocentric curricula--embedded in our field, then we, as teachers, students, and administrators, can strategize ways to achieve social justice in academia for historically marginalized groups. My dissertation is focused on Chican@ undergraduate and graduate students because this is the fastest growing population in the academy and is a group with which I feel I can draw upon my cultural intuition; however, the critical race theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological strategies I make use of in my project can be adapted to assist other historically marginalized groups in academia.

The issue of special education in the United States has been a contentious issue, at best, for the past 40 years. In Ontario, to a lesser extent, there have been issues of equal access to education for minoritized and racialized students. Special education in the Toronto area has not been without its issues surrounding parental advocacy, the use of assessments, and disproportionate number of English Language Learners in special education. This project examines how racialized and minoritized families understand special education practices and policies, specifically within the Toronto, York, Peel, and Halton Regions. The investigation is informed by nine interviews with students in grades 7 to 12, their respective mothers, and five special education administrators and educators. Students and parents identified themselves as Black, Latino/a, and South Asian. Within these categories, parents identified themselves as Somali, Trinidadian, Jamaican, and Punjabi-Sikh. Students were identified with a range of disabilities including learning, behavioural, and/or intellectual. This research focuses on ways to interrogate and examine the experiences of minoritized students and their parents by bringing forward otherwise silenced voices and understanding what it means to “speak out” against the process of identification and placement in special education. The findings of this investigation suggest a disconnect how policies and practices are implemented, and how, parents’ rights are understood. In particular, policies are inconsistently applied and are subject to the interpretation of educators and administrators, especially in relation to parental involvement and how much information should be released to families. The issue of language acquisition being read as a disability was also a noted concern. This investigation points to implications for teacher education programs, gaps in parental advocacy and notions of parental participation within schools, and re-examining special education assessments, practices, and policies.

The issue of special education in the United States has been a contentious issue, at best, for the past 40 years. In Ontario, to a lesser extent, there have been issues of equal access to education for minoritized and racialized students. Special education in the Toronto area has not been without its issues surrounding parental advocacy, the use of assessments, and disproportionate number of English Language Learners in special education. This project examines how racialized and minoritized families understand special education practices and policies, specifically within the Toronto, York, Peel, and Halton Regions. The investigation is informed by nine interviews with students in grades 7 to 12, their respective mothers, and five special education administrators and educators. Students and parents identified themselves as Black, Latino/a, and South Asian. Within these categories, parents identified themselves as Somali, Trinidadian, Jamaican, and Punjabi-Sikh. Students were identified with a range of disabilities including learning, behavioural, and/or intellectual. This research focuses on ways to interrogate and examine the experiences of minoritized students and their parents by bringing forward otherwise silenced voices and understanding what it means to “speak out” against the process of identification and placement in special education. The findings of this investigation suggest a disconnect how policies and practices are implemented, and how, parents’ rights are understood. In particular, policies are inconsistently applied and are subject to the interpretation of educators and administrators, especially in relation to parental involvement and how much information should be released to families. The issue of language acquisition being read as a disability was also a noted concern. This investigation points to implications for teacher education programs, gaps in parental advocacy and notions of parental participation within schools, and re-examining special education assessments, practices, and policies.