Color-blindness and color-consciousness are two ideologies aiming at prejudice and negative intergroup behavior reduction. Whereas color-blindness emphasizes the importance of breaking down group differences and considering everybody as an individal similar and equal to each other, color-consciousness emphasizes the recognition and appreciation of group differences. This dissertation is about the positive and negative aspects of both ideologies, as well as about their differential effects on emotions, behavior, and prejudice. Furthermore, a longitudinal study between 4 different countries analyzes the differences between minority groups and majority groups in matters of ideology preferences and of their links to prejudice. Finally, some variables are tested as useful predictors of the color-blind and color-conscious ideologies.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine how Greece’s migration system functions and how immigration and asylum policies manifest themselves during the countries current severe economic crisis. More precisely, examining how the regulatory framework and policies regarding refugees' and migrant situation effects practical implementation. The research questions raised are; - How are refugees and other migrants' rights in Greece respected, from a legal, political and moral perspective? What impact can racism have on the treatment of refugees and other migrants? A contextual analysis of ideas through an analysis of the political programs/agendas was used and contrasted, through theories concerning racism, nationalism and globalization to further nuance the situation concerning refugees' rights. Furthermore the study is analyzed through a HR perspective or more precisely through relevant conventions, regulations and EU directives. The conclusions are that Greece has laws and policies regarding migration, however these regulations have major flaws concerning their practical outcome. Improvements have been made to the migration system constituted of new government agencies intended to meet EU-standards, concerning the management of the asylum process. Unfortunately these improvements have been found wanting. Globalization is challenging the national and regional laws. EU and its regulations concerning asylum, does not take into account differentiated contextual realities concerning EU´s member states. People generally intend to travel through Greece and are consequently sent back to Greece by other EU states, without significant support it becomes problematic to handle this volume of people. The European Union’s protectionist policies create barriers and make access to the region more difficult, meanwhile people of other nationalities flee or migrate in hope of a more secure and humane existence. With xenophobia on the rise (both politically and socially) migrants face further difficulties, for instance fear of deportation can make the reporting of hate crimes to the authorities complicated to say the least.

This masters’ thesis is a case study using an antiracist methodology and critical discourse analysis to analyze a popular blog, ‘Stuff White People Like’ and asks the main research question: How is whiteness represented and understood in the satirical blog, ‘Stuff White People Like’? Grounded in theories of representation, discourse, myth and racialization, the thesis looks at two posts, “#1 Coffee” and “#92 Book Deals” and their user comments to investigate the ways whiteness is defined, understood, produced and negotiated. The blog and the comments reveal important discussions of knowledge production strategies of racialization and racism in popular media. Specifically, these negotiations expose three major registers of whiteness that are continually enacted within the discourses of the blog and the comments. These registers encompass understandings of whiteness as biological superiority and heritage; defining whiteness as a performance of privilege; and whiteness as an enactment of dominance and oppression. Sites of antiracist educational pedagogy are also discussed within this study to reveal the importance of investigating everyday discourses and understandings of race for the future.

Crime severity has been found to be one of the best predictors of sentencing decisions (Darley, Carlsmith, & Robinson, 2000). There is however a dearth of research examining the effect of offender and victim ethnicity on perceptions of crime seriousness, and the few studies that do exist have produced equivocal findings. Some studies find an effect of victim ethnicity (e.g., Cohen-Raz, Bozna, & Glicksohn, 1997), some studies find no significant effects of offender nor victim ethnicity (e.g., Benjamin, 1989), and some studies only find effects under certain conditions, such as when the crime is of low seriousness (e.g., Herzog, 2003a). The present study was conducted in an attempt to clarify these convoluted findings by using measures of modern and old-fashioned prejudice. Whereas old-fashioned prejudice refers to the belief that an out group is in someway inferior, modern prejudice refers to the view that a minority group no longer faces discrimination or that the minority group is being too pushy when advocating for equal rights (McConahay, 1983). Using a sample of undergraduate psychology students, it was found that when the crime was perceived as being quite severe, harsher punishments were recommended for the offender. Further to this, participants scoring high in modern prejudice perceived crimes to be more severe and recommended longer sentences in certain offender-victim ethnicity conditions than participants scoring low in modern prejudice. However, contrary to the hypotheses, no significant differences were found between high and low old-fashioned prejudice participants. Perceived offender responsibility and stability were also found to affect perceptions of crime severity and recommended punishment. When an offence was described as being stable (i.e., the offender had committed similar crimes in the past), participants rated the crime as being more severe and recommended a harsher punishment than when it was the offenders first offence. Additionally, when participants attributed responsibility for the crime to the offender, crime severity ratings were higher and recommended punishments were longer. The implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future research are put forward.

In early October 2005, just over a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast region of the United States, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin asked local business leaders how he was to ensure that the city was not overrun by Mexican workers. These remarks vocalized the concerns of many regarding Latino immigrant workers to post-Katrina New Orleans. Likewise, they foreshadowed the obstacles faced by Latino reconstruction workers in the city. This dissertation examines Latino day labor participation in New Orleans, Louisiana by focusing on the racialized experiences of immigrant reconstruction workers. There is an established literature on racial/ethnic immigrant labor market inequality, addressing Latino wage penalties and occupational segregation as well as recent studies focusing on the gendered and racialized experiences of Latina and Chicana domestic workers in the U.S. However, established demographic research on day labor participation in the U.S. has failed to capture fully how day laborers experience "race" and how this has impacted their integration into the labor market. The broad questions guiding this dissertation are: "What are the racialized experiences of day laborers?"; "How does the process of racialization shape the work experiences of day laborers?"; "How do day laborers negotiate these experiences and interactions with co-workers, employers, and their community?" This dissertation focused on a 23 month ethnographic research and 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Latino day laborers in post-Katrina New Orleans. This research underscores the crucial role that Latino day laborers play as non-standard workers in a racialized labor market, historically organized along a black/white continuum. The findings demonstrated day laboring is a process that takes place in racialized spaces, where day laborers exert emotional work. Findings also demonstrated how "race" impacts the day-to-day work experiences of day laborers, and how immigration status is a racialized social characteristic that allows for exploitation of immigrant workers. Finally, this dissertation examined the resistance strategies used by day laborers, and their organizing efforts toward achieving social justice in post-Katrina New Orleans.

The present research explored the effects of Situational Attribution Training (Stewart, Latu, Kawakami, & Myers, 2010) on affective bias utilizing facial electromyography (EMG). Participants viewed a slideshow of randomly presented photographs of both and White and Black American men while rating how “friendly” each individual appeared. Simultaneously, corrugator and zygomaticus region activity, linked with positive and negative affect, respectively, was measured. Of these participants, half were randomly assigned to complete Situational Attribution Training beforehand. Results for EMG activity suggested no significant differences in EMG activity for White compared to Black photographs for either the training or control participants; thus, this study did not find evidence of affective bias by way of corrugator or zygomaticus activity. However, errors in slideshow presentation prevent clear interpretation of these results. Suggestions for future research and ways in which bias errors can be avoided are discussed.

Crime severity has been found to be one of the best predictors of sentencing decisions (Darley, Carlsmith, & Robinson, 2000). There is however a dearth of research examining the effect of offender and victim ethnicity on perceptions of crime seriousness, and the few studies that do exist have produced equivocal findings. Some studies find an effect of victim ethnicity (e.g., Cohen-Raz, Bozna, & Glicksohn, 1997), some studies find no significant effects of offender nor victim ethnicity (e.g., Benjamin, 1989), and some studies only find effects under certain conditions, such as when the crime is of low seriousness (e.g., Herzog, 2003a). The present study was conducted in an attempt to clarify these convoluted findings by using measures of modern and old-fashioned prejudice. Whereas old-fashioned prejudice refers to the belief that an out group is in someway inferior, modern prejudice refers to the view that a minority group no longer faces discrimination or that the minority group is being too pushy when advocating for equal rights (McConahay, 1983). Using a sample of undergraduate psychology students, it was found that when the crime was perceived as being quite severe, harsher punishments were recommended for the offender. Further to this, participants scoring high in modern prejudice perceived crimes to be more severe and recommended longer sentences in certain offender-victim ethnicity conditions than participants scoring low in modern prejudice. However, contrary to the hypotheses, no significant differences were found between high and low old-fashioned prejudice participants. Perceived offender responsibility and stability were also found to affect perceptions of crime severity and recommended punishment. When an offence was described as being stable (i.e., the offender had committed similar crimes in the past), participants rated the crime as being more severe and recommended a harsher punishment than when it was the offenders first offence. Additionally, when participants attributed responsibility for the crime to the offender, crime severity ratings were higher and recommended punishments were longer. The implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future research are put forward.

The idea that theories of race, racial segregation and racism have played a central role in the development of sociology and that black and white sociologies have formed because of this condition is not new and has been in circulation among sociologists for some time. While a number of sociologists have examined how race has shaped the discipline, only a few have attempted to examine and define black sociology and white sociology. Despite the initial efforts of some, the two sociologies remain vague, undeveloped concepts, and thus open to skepticism and denunciation. No systematic historical-intellectual investigation of black sociology or white sociology exists and, subsequently, no in-depth comparative analysis of the two exists. Therefore, through a comparative-historical analysis and exercise in the sociology of knowledge, this work seeks to provide a more precise history and theory of black sociology and white sociology. This study argues that black sociology and white sociology represent two distinct intellectual perspectives---sets of ideas---and social practices shaped by past perspectives and practices and social-historical contexts, which are largely racially- defined. More specifically, I will demonstrate that black sociology and white sociology develop out of two approaches of thought and action primarily influenced by race, a black tradition of ideas and practices and a white tradition of thought and practices. To map these two traditions, I begin with a review and analysis of works that have discussed (directly or indirectly) black and white sociology and black and white sociologists. Next, I turn to a more focused analysis on the sociological perspectives and practices of W.E.B. Du Bois and Robert Park, examining the ideas and practices that shape each sociologist's thought and actions. I identify ways that Park incorporates and advances earlier ideas and practices of whites, and, conversely, how Du Bois incorporates and advances earlier perspectives and practices of blacks. Lastly, I point out how Du Bois' ideas and methods, shaped by an earlier black tradition, now informs what is described as black sociology, and how Park's ideas and methods, shaped by an earlier white tradition, now informs what is described as white sociology.

In this study, I specify the reasons why racial minority undergraduate students choose to pursue higher education studies at historically White colleges/universities, despite the schools' potential for diversity controversies. Rather than looking at why students do not attend historically White institutions, I investigate what characteristics of both the educational institutions and the students contribute to students' decisions to stay at historically White institutions despite perceived hostile environments. I also examine students' experiences at historically White institutions, including attitudes toward diversity and any discrimination that they may experience. In doing so, this study adds a fresh yet central perspective to the complex issue of diversity: the opinions of students of color themselves. Doing so may lead to more positive answers and propositions for what administrations can do to increase the percentage of racial minority students. The study is a mixed-methods approach, including 17 semi-structured interviews with Latina/o students and a sample of 287 students who self-identify as racial minorities, including Latina/os, African Americans, and Asian Americans, at a historically White southern university. From these mixed-method results, the following themes were found: 1) The size of a hometown has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 2) Self-identifying as Black has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 3) Latina/o students choose to attend SCU because of university affordability, proximity to their home towns, and the university's academic reputation, 4) Latina/o students experience racial oppression at SCU because of the lack of campus diversity, direct racist acts toward themselves and friends, and they consider transferring to more diverse educational institutions, and 5) Latina/o students remain at SCU because they want to make a difference at the university for themselves and others, certain characteristics of the university are appealing, and because of professorial mentors.

The present study examines the evolution of the definitions of 31 terms having to do with three prominent religions in Spain: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The definitions are analyzed for racism and religious bias in reference to the cultural and ideological periods of Spanish society throughout history. Each word is studied from the earliest date of appearance in a Spanish language dictionary. The database used is the Nuevo Tesoro Lexicográfico de la Lengua Española (NTLLE), published by the Real Academia Española (RAE) in 2001, which includes 70 dictionaries, 37 of which are written by authors not connected with the RAE. In an attempt to broaden the historical point of view, as many entries from dictionaries as possible are used in this analysis. Racist definitions are defined as containing abusive or pejorative language that insinuates that one race, or religion, is superior to another. Biased definitions use language that inhibits neutrality in the descriptions. It is shown that Christian terms are generally associated with positive concepts. Terms related to Judaism suffer much racism and religious bias through pejorative language and direct comparison to Christianity. Islamic terms reveal less racism in their entries and fall more often under neutral descriptions. That fewer biased entries exist for Islamic terms may be related to their status as a majority in Spain during large periods of history, whereas Jews suffered more racism because they were consistently the minority. The role of the Spanish Inquisition in the persecution of Jews will is shown to have heavy influence in the entries for several Jewish terms. While the item judío suffers the most extensive use of pejorative language, moro is the only term for which negative language endures to the present.