"The Erasure of the Essential Afro Element of Mestizaje in Modern Mexico: The Coding of Visibly Black Mestizos According to a White Aesthetic In and Through the Discourse on Nation During the Cultural Phase of the Mexican Revolution, 1920-1968" examines how the Afro elements of Mexican mestizaje were erased from the ideal image of the Mexican mestizo and how the Afro ethnic contributions were plagiarized in modern Mexico. It explores part of the discourse on nation in the narrative produced by authors who subscribed to the belief that only white was beautiful, between 1920 and 1968, during a period herein identified as the "cultural phase of the Mexican Revolution." It looks at the coding and distortion of the image of visibly black Mexicans in and through literature and film, and unveils how the Afro element "disappeared" from some of the most popular images, tastes in music, dance, song, food, and speech forms viewed as cultural texts that, by way of official intervention, were made "badges" of Mexican national identity. The premise of this study is that the criollo elite and their allies, through government, disenfranchised Mexicans as a whole by institutionalizing a magic mirror—materialized in the narrative of nation—where mestizos can "see" only a partial reflection of themselves. The black African characteristics of Mexican mestizaje were totally removed from the ideal image of "Mexican-ness"1 disseminated in and out of the country. During this period, and in the material selected for study, wherever Afro-Mexicans—visibly Afro or not—are mentioned, they appear as "mestizos" oblivious of their African heritage and willingly moving toward becoming white. The analysis adopts as critical foundation two essays: "Black Phobia and the White Aesthetic in Spanish American Literature," by Richard L. Jackson; and "Mass Visual Productions," by James Snead. In "Black Phobia..." Jackson explains that, to define "superior and inferior as well as the concept of beauty" according to how white a person is perceived to be, is a "tradition dramatized in Hispanic Literature from Lope de Rueda's Eufemia (1576) to the present" (467). For Snead, "the coding of blacks in film, as in the wider society, involves a history of images and signs associating black skin color with servile behavior and marginal status" (142).

In Chile’s neoliberal economy, large-scale timber plantations controlled by national and multinational forest corporations have expanded significantly on traditional indigenous territories. Chile’s forestry sector began to expand rapidly in 1974, the year following the military coup, owing to the privatization of forest lands and the passing of Decree 701. That law continues to provide large subsidies for afforestation, as well as tax exemptions for plantations established after 1974. As a consequence, conflicts have developed between indigenous communities and forestry companies, with the latter actively supported by government policies. The Mapuche people, the largest indigenous group in Chile, have been demanding the right to control their own resources. Meanwhile, they have been bearing the physical and social costs of the forestry sector’s growth. Since democracy returned to Chile in 1990, governments have done little to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples. Government policy in this area is ill-defined; it consists mainly of occasional land restitution and monetary compensation when conflicts with the Mapuche threaten to overheat. This, however, is coupled with heavy-handed actions by the police and the legal system against Mapuche individuals and groups. From a political ecology perspective, this thesis examines how indigenous communities resort to various political strategies to accommodate, resist, and/or negotiate as political-economic processes change, and how these responses in turn shape natural resource management and, it follows, the local environment. My findings are that the environmental and social impacts associated with landscape transformation are shaped not only by structural changes brought about by economic and political forces but also, simultaneously, by smaller acts of political, cultural, and symbolic protest. Emerging forms of political agency are having expected and unexpected consequences that are giving rise to new processes of environmental change. Evidence for my argument is provided by a case study that focuses on the political strategies followed by the Mapuche movement. I analyze the obstacles that are preventing the Chilean government from addressing more effectively the social, economic, and cultural needs of indigenous peoples through resource management policies. Government policies toward the Mapuche have not encompassed various approaches that might facilitate conflict resolution, such as effective participation in land use plans, natural resource management, the protection of the cultural rights of indigenous communities, and the Mapuche people’s right to their own approaches to development. Employing Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I argue that, while the Mapuche have widely contested the state’s neoliberal policies, they have nevertheless been drawn into governing strategies that are fundamentally neoliberal in character. These strategies have reconfigured their relationship with the state, NGOs, and foreign aid donors. Operating at both formal and informal levels of social and political interaction, this new mentality of government employs coercive and co-optive measures to cultivate Mapuche participation in the neoliberal modernization project, while continuing to neglect long-standing relations of inequality and injustice that underpin conflicts over land and resources.

My dissertation is motivated by two general problems within contemporary North American racial politics. First, the increasing ideological impetus of a “post-racist” society contradicts a spate of events that are symptomatic and constitutive of racial and ethnic essentialisms. Second, the logic of multiculturalism and antiracism has often been expressed in a language of race and identity rooted in a rigid system of immutable differences (Hall, 1997; Ang, 2001). The challenge is to deconstruct race and ethnicity in a language that is critical of new racisms as well as the ways in which racial and ethnic difference is seized and diffused by market multiculturalism. While some theorists have used elements of postmodern theory to develop a “resistance multiculturalism” sensitive to shifting social meanings and floating racial signifiers (see McLaren, 1994), they have rarely explored the political possibilities of “ludic postmodernism” (parody, pastiche, irony) as a critical response to multicultural ideologies. If part of postmodernism as an intellectual movement includes self-reflexivity, self-parody, and the rejection of a foundational “truth,” for example, the various racial and ethnic categories reified under multiculturalism are perhaps open to revision and contestation (Hutcheon, 1989). To develop this particular postmodern critique of multiculturalism, I draw on three case studies concerned with identity and representation in North American popular media. The first case considers vocal impersonation as a disruption to the visual primacy of race by examining the stand-up comedy films of Dave Chappelle, Russell Peters, and Margaret Cho. The second case turns to the postmodern bodies of cyborgs and humanoid robots in the science fiction film I, Robot (2004) as a racial metaphor at the crossroads of whiteness, inhumanity, and redemption. The final case discusses the politics of irony in relation to ethnolinguistic identity and debates surrounding sports mascots. Each case study recycles racial and ethnic stereotypes for a variety of political purposes, drawing out the connections and tensions between postmodernism and multiculturalism. A postmodern critique of multiculturalism may offer antiracist politics an understanding of race and ethnicity rooted in a strategic indeterminacy, which allows for multidimensional political coalitions directed against wider socioeconomic inequalities.

The gay male community has traditionally been a marginalized population struggling for acceptance within the larger international frame. However since the development of gay magazine publications in the 1990s images of the gay male have been more widely spread throughout mainstream society. This study explores how race, age, body image, and sexuality are stereotyped to represent one standard image of the gay male as found in Western gay magazine publications. This is a quantitative media analysis, examining images, covers and advertisements in gay male magazines over a period of four years. By engaging in relevant theoretical discourses, empirical evidence, and scholarly research, this study critically analyzes how the gay identity is mediated by both the mainstream and gay publications. Results from the analysis points to wide spread discrimination within gay publications targeted at all gay minorities, which could have detrimental effects on the gay community.

Between the years 1840 and 1860, white prejudice played an important role in shaping blacks’ experiences in Upper Canada. This thesis explores and analyzes the history of black anti-slavery, whites’ attitudes toward blacks and the development of mandatory and free public schooling in Upper Canada during the nineteenth century, in order to demonstrate that race-relations between blacks and whites were worst both after 1850 in general, and over issues of schooling in particular.

Between the years 1840 and 1860, white prejudice played an important role in shaping blacks’ experiences in Upper Canada. This thesis explores and analyzes the history of black anti-slavery, whites’ attitudes toward blacks and the development of mandatory and free public schooling in Upper Canada during the nineteenth century, in order to demonstrate that race-relations between blacks and whites were worst both after 1850 in general, and over issues of schooling in particular.

The racial wealth gap is a deeply inexorable indicator of inequality. Today the average family of color holds only six cents of wealth for every dollar owned by whites. What accounts for such stubborn inequality in an era lauded as racially progressive? Intergenerational family links suggest a major linchpin. In this dissertation I work toward a race critical theory of social reproduction, drawing on 156 family histories of intergenerational wealth transfer. These data were categorically coded for instances of wealth and capital acquisition and transfer, as well as qualitatively analyzed for thematic patterns using the extended case method. My analysis targets specific social mechanisms that differentially promote the transmission of wealth and other forms of capital (e.g., social networks, educational credentials) across racial groups over time. I isolate racial patterns in the mobility trajectories of families through an original construct, inheritance pathways – instances involving the transfer and/or interconvertiblity of wealth/capital between two or more generations. Among my sample, inheritance pathways were regularly traceable from ancestors living during legal slavery and segregation. My analysis reveals that the wealth and capital acquired by white families regularly works in interlocking, supportive ways to “pave” pathways of protected, intergenerational mobility over time. In contrast, though families of color evidence many efforts to build upwardly mobile pathways, they are frequently divested of their capital through both explicitly and subtly racist means. Moreover, the value of their capital is often diminished, making it less useful in launching and sustaining mobility pathways. My analysis hones in on the recursive relationship between micro level family actions and the racial state, which is regularly implicated in these processes. I draw on these data to additionally expand the concept racial capital – a type of “currency” that intersects with other forms of capital for individuals, families and groups. Collectively, the inheritance pathways of families suggest that whiteness often intervenes to (1) “unlock” forms of capital for some individuals/families/groups; and, (2) enhance the value of other forms of capital. Ultimately I argue that inheritance pathways and racial capital serve as primary means for reproducing conditions and meanings that sustain systemic racism over time.

Within the past decade, two major events raised the national profile of the experiences of black youth and the realities of racism in the city of Kingston, Ontario. The first event occurred in the spring of 2001 and involved the dramatic “high-risk takedown” by Kingston Police of two innocent black male youths who were wrongly profiled as suspects in an assault case. The second event involved the subsequent release of a report commissioned by Kingston Police which confirmed that black male youth in Kingston were almost four times more likely to be stopped and questioned by Kingston police than any other racial group (Wortley and Marshall, 2005). This research, while not addressed to the specifics of racial profiling and policing in Kingston, focuses on the marginalized voices of male and female black youth in Kingston. Eight youth volunteered to participate in this study. Participants took part in one-on-one interviews with the researcher and three participated in a follow-up focus group session. Themes explored in the one-on-one interview and focus group sessions included factors influencing the construction of black identities within a predominantly white city, the negotiation of friendships and relationships, and interactions with public authorities such as teachers and the police. This study addresses the various ways in which black youth, male and female, experience life in their city – at home, at school, and in the community – and how they feel their blackness affects these experiences. It highlights the perspectives and insights of black Kingston youth. The findings of this research can help us better understand how black identities develop in small Canadian cities, how blackness is policed, and the internal and external “regimes of power” that govern these relations. (Foucault, 1977, p.112). The study offers a medium by which these voices may be heard and may contribute to long-term community-based anti-racism work in Kingston. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-12-30 23:08:45.145

Stress is inherent in our daily lives and it is debilitating to our mental health. My assumption is that racism and stress are intertwined. The purpose of this research is to explore the narratives of Black social service workers who are working in mainstream social service agencies. I will explore whether, and how, they experience racism and how their experiences might result in a range of stressors in the workplace. This paper is based on the premise that the amount of stress Black social workers are subjected to is directly related to the social and structural forces within the agencies, in terms of racism, sexism and domination. / In particular, I am arguing that it is stressful for Black social workers to work in an agency that perpetuates and condones racism and this may bring about added tension to the working environment. By focusing on everyday forms of racism and its' impact on the mental health of Black social workers, the analysis will also reflect my experiences of personal and institutional racism, the effects of internalized racism and coping strategies aimed at retaining a mental stability and competency on the job. Exploratory interviews were conducted with six social workers, five of whom were front-line workers and one manager, in three social services agencies in Canada, to examine their experiences of racism, their responses and coping strategies which they have adopted to deal with the day-to-day stressors in their jobs. In addition, an examination of current policies, practices and procedures will be interpreted within the organizational structure of the agencies.

This thesis argues that Charles W. Chesnutt's writings challenged the central assumptions of his America's racial thinking. An important part of this challenge is the difference between the two discourses which dominate The Conjure Woman. The first uses ethnographic discourse to create "the Other;" the second effaces the differences between himself and other Americans. Unlike most of the other writers of his period, Chesnutt shows African-American men and women to be fully developed moral, ethical and emotional individuals; in his works slave-holders and those who sought to "redeem" the South were morally and ethically underdeveloped. Both his writings and his career demonstrate that African-Americans were capable of prospering as independent actors in a free labor market. While critical of the actions of America's legal system, unlike many of his contemporaries, Chesnutt believed that injustice began when racial thinking led legal actors to deviate from the established rules of common law.