UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item Black Racial Grievance, Black American Identity, and Black Political Participation(2024) St Sume, Jennifer; Laird, Chryl; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the relationship among Black racial grievance, Black American identity, and Black political participation. Black racial grievance is defined as the extent to which Black individuals believe their racial group is mistreated in the United States. This study is divided into three articles. The first article explores the link between Black racial grievance and Black American identity. Political science research has found that racial discrimination makes Black people feel less American (Huddy and Khatib 2007; Kam and Ramos 2008; Theiss-Morse 2009; Levundusky 2017). However, the consequences of discrimination and how they shape what it means to be a Black American remain underexplored. This paper addresses this critical gap, arguing that Black Americans consider their racial group’s treatment and the consequences of this treatment in their self-conception as Americans. I propose a new six-item measure of Black racial grievance, capturing Black perceptions of unfair treatment regarding their racial group, the current significance of racial grievance, and their awareness of these grievances across social, political, and economic domains. Using two national samples, I find that Black people who score higher on the racial grievance measure—indicative of a belief that the mistreatment of their racial group is a problem to be addressed across American society —feel less American. These findings underscore the importance of institutional inequality in Black politics. The second article examines the relationship between Black racial grievance and Black political participation. Previous research has employed measures such as relative deprivation, group consciousness, politicized collective identity, and linked fate to predict Black political participation. However, these measures fail to explain how individuals define their personal Black racial grievance, overlooking how these grievances shape Black participation. These shortcomings are driven by the assumption that little variation exists in Black political behavior. Accordingly, I argue that Black Americans rely on specific evaluations of racial grievance to determine whether to participate in politics. I develop a refined measure of Black racial grievance that captures the extent to which an individual perceives their racial group as being treated unfairly across various domains. I validate this measure through factor analysis and assess its robustness by comparing it to previous measures. As a proof of concept, I find that Black people who score higher on the racial grievance scale—those who feel their group is treated unfairly in more domains of society—and feel strongly attached to their racial group are more likely to participate in politics. The third article investigates the causal links among Black racial grievance, Black American identity, and Black political participation. Current research suggests that Black participation is motivated by perceptions of discrimination (Klandermans, 2014). To date, scant research has explored the interplay among Black racial grievance, Black American identity, and Black political participation. Therefore, this study addresses this gap by evaluating how Black racial grievance shapes political behavior among Black Americans. Using data from a national survey of 505 Black adults, I introduce a new measure of Black racial grievance and explore its impact on political engagement. The findings reveal that while experiencing racial discrimination increases racial grievance, it also complicates the relationship with political participation. Specifically, elevated levels of racial grievance correlate with decreased political participation in contexts where individuals feel disillusioned with the prospect of systemic changes. Thus, Black people with high Black racial grievance may choose not to vote or engage in political campaigns if they believe these actions will not lead to meaningful change. This article illustrates how Black racial grievance can sometimes hinder political action. Overall, this dissertation offers three significant contributions to the study of Black political behavior. First, it provides a novel framework to explain how Black people process racial mistreatment. Second, it highlights the intricate interplay among racial grievance, identity, and political action. Third, it lays the groundwork for future research on policy interventions tailored to the unique challenges faced by Black Americans. Ultimately, this work enhances the understanding of systemic marginalization and improves the ability to foster a more inclusive and equitable democracy.Item The Shift in News Media Framing of Violence against Asians in America: The Vincent Chin Murder Case and Its Legacy(2024) Browning, Sara Renee; Oates, Sarah A.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dissertation research project draws on the events surrounding the murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin on June 19, 1982, to examine changes in news framing of violence targeting Asian Americans from 1982 to the present. This dissertation argues that the Vincent Chin murder case, which lasted from 1982-1987, can be considered a critical turning point in news framing of the criminal motive for violence against Asians in the U.S. as well as framing of the Asian victims of such violence. The dissertation further posits that the case played an important role in drawing attention to anti-Asian racism as a widespread, persistent problem in America, helping to shape news framing of more recent cases of criminalized violence against Asians in the U.S., especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this research is to explore how journalists took notice of Asian Americans’ place in U.S. society as Asians in America transitioned from “fully assimilated model minorities” to racial scapegoats in the public mind. The dissertation accomplishes its purpose using a content analysis of news frames of the Vincent Chin murder case from June 19, 1982, the date of Chin’s death, to December 31, 2022, the last full year of news coverage of the case. The content analysis investigates shifts in news framing of the criminal motive for Vincent Chin’s murder from a random crime unrelated to race to a hate crime. Content analysis also helps to examine shifts in framing of Chin from a hot-tempered young man whose own reckless behavior led to his tragic end to a vulnerable victim worthy of racial justice. Furthermore, the study assesses correlations between key events of the murder case from 1982-1987 and shifts in press framing of the criminal motive and the victim. Lastly, the dissertation uses content analysis to examine similar trends between framing of Chin’s murder and framing of the murders of six Asian women at three separate spas in Georgia on March 16, 2021. This analysis uncovers how the Chin case played a role in more contemporary framing of violence against Asians in America. The research findings inform journalism studies scholarship concerning how news framing of criminalized violence targeting Asian ethnic groups in the U.S. gradually evolved. The study interprets the findings within the context of framing theory and worthy victim theory. Results indicate that although journalists initially both downplayed and ignored anti-Asian racism as a possible motive for Vincent Chin’s slaying, nationwide pan-Asian advocacy group protests played a significant part in drawing news reporters’ attention to the racial aspect of the crime. By the end of the Chin case in 1987, many journalists not only relied on sources to allege a racial motive for Chin’s death, but they also directly condemned anti-Asian racism in their news stories. Thirty-five years following Chin’s death, journalists continued to revive and retell Chin’s story in news reports covering the Georgia murder case. Journalists exhibited little hesitancy in stating directly that the Georgia murders were racial crimes representative of a chronic and intensifying problem.Item Persistence and Resistance: Examining the White Racial Frame in Metal Music(2024) Creek, Meghan J; Lie, Siv B; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation, I examine how systemic racism and white supremacy have shaped the metal scene in the Western World, the ways in which the scene’s white racial frame is maintained, and how scene members are challenging this racial hierarchy. One of the main aims of this dissertation is to bring to the fore the diverse range of political and racial ideologies present in the metal scene. To gain insights into how the metal scene has served as an incubator for neo-Nazism and other white supremacist causes for over thirty years, I designed this project to analyze both the overt and covert ways in which white supremacy affects the metal scene. Chapter One is a case study of one of the most influential metal musicians of all time, Phil Anselmo, whose white supremacist behaviors and rhetoric and simultaneous, continuous popularity and success provide ample evidence of how the metal scene’s white racial frame is constructed and maintained. Chapters Two and Three investigate the metal scene’s opposing and diverse political orientations, drawing mostly on historical and current discourses and events tied to black metal, an extreme metal subgenre with deep-rooted ties to neo-Nazism. I compare the artistic aesthetics and non-musical communicative acts of certain far right and anti-fascist black metal bands to illustrate the ways in which overt and covert white supremacy operate and how some artists are subverting the aesthetic conventions of black metal to contest the scene’s white racial frame. I also discuss the extramusical anti-fascist activism by members of the scene, shining a spotlight on the work of the international Antifascist Black Metal Network, which formed in 2021. This dissertation is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to research. In addition to drawing on frameworks from multiple fields in combination with musicology, such as semiotic anthropology, sociology, and linguistics, I incorporate methodologies from both historical musicology and ethnomusicology. I conducted semi-structured interviews with six individuals, participant observation at live musical performances, virtual fieldwork, and digital archival work. Most of my research is qualitative, but in Chapter Two I rely, in part, on a quantitative approach to gather evidence to support my argument that there are many more white supremacist metal bands than the average person in the scene realizes. My research findings demonstrate that the growing far-right faction within the metal scene do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, I argue that overt manifestations of white supremacy are but one effect of the metal scene’s white racial frame. By drawing attention to the less visible and unrecognized manifestations of white supremacist ideologies, my work emphasizes the significant effects of white supremacy still inherent to the scene today, adding to and expanding the ways in which those who study and participate in this genre think about and discuss these important issues.Item PREDICTING POLICY: EXAMINING PERCEPTIONS OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, COLOR-EVASIVE RACIAL ATTITUDES, AND BELIEFS ABOUT CAPITALISM(2022) Sharma, Rajni; Kivlighan, Dennis; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines how beliefs about capitalism, color-evasive racial attitudes, and perceptions about wealth distribution predict redistributive economic policy preferences. I hypothesized that beliefs about capitalism, perceptions of wealth distribution, and color-evasiveness predict policy preferences when controlling for Satisfaction With Life (SWLS) and that critical consciousness action (CA) will moderate this relationship. Approximately 510 individuals completed the Costs of United States Corporate Capitalism (CCC) scale, Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (COBRAS), the Critical Action subscale of the Critical Consciousness Scale, ratings of wealth distribution, and questions about their policy preferences through an online survey distributed through MTurk. Results indicated that the CCC and COBRAS subscales predicted policy preferences, over and above demographic variables. Findings from this project may inform how individuals make decisions about policy preferences and on a broader scale, inform solutions for decreasing inequity in the U.S. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.Item Exploring complexity in well-being: A mixed methods examination of the Black women’s well-being paradox(2021) Ford, Tiffany N; Graham, Carol; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the complexity of Black women’s well-being and policy experience along the income distribution. This dissertation consists of three separate but related essays. Chapter 1 argues for the active inclusion of intersectionality theory in social and economic policy work. I rely on the literature to draw clear links between the intersectionality theoretical framework, the study of subjective well-being, and the development of equitable public policy to support well-being. In chapter 2, I explore an intracategorical complexity approach to intersectionality, focusing on unpacking the layers of difference among Black middle-class women and investigating how they relate to well-being. Using qualitative focus group data, I uncover the key factors shaping well-being for 22 Black middle-class women in Wichita, KS and Las Vegas, NV and discuss what a policy agenda might look like to support their well-being. Results of this transformative exploratory sequential mixed methods design suggested health, money, and social support, like friendships, family, and romantic partnerships, were core determinants of well-being for Black middle-class women. Quantitatively, Black middle-class women’s well-being and determinants differed significantly by their level of education and by a combination of their parenthood and marital status. This work revealed that structural oppression may be influencing Black middle-class women’s well-being by the shaping of the distribution of their determinants of well-being. In chapter 3, I focus on subjective well-being at the intersection of race, gender, and class through an intentional focus on Black women in different income classes. Relying on Gallup Daily data from 2010-2016, I explore both intracategorical and intercategorical complexity, comparing well-being and its determinants within race-gender and across it. This work reveals a paradox of well-being for Black women: in every income class, Black women are more optimistic and less stressed than white people, despite having less of the objective factors known to contribute to that well-being. I offer potential explanations for this paradox. Through an intentional focus on Black women, this work takes an early step in unpacking the relationship between policy-relevant objective factors (like financial security surrounding food and healthcare access and relative health status) and subjective well-being in the lives of an American public imbued with racial and gender diversity. The overall results of this study illustrate the importance of qualitative and mixed methods inquiry into the economic, health, and social position of Black women in the U.S. in order to yield further lessons for policies that could benefit this group.Item BLACK MADONNA AND MISS AMERICA: IN THE STREETS, ON THE STAGE AND IN THE CHURCH(2020) Anderson, Ronya-Lee; Keefe, Maura; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The black female body is a political body that inhabits the collective imagination of a nation. This body constantly negotiates a multiplicity of meanings that have life and death consequences and in turn teach America about herself. What does it look like for this body to take up space? As the black female body navigates the streets, the stage, the church, both private and public space, what concessions must be made? Black Madonna and Miss America is a choreographic and critical investigation of socio-political happenings in conversation with the positioning of the black female icon in the streets, on the stage and in the church. It is cinematic in nature, employing a familiar series of still and moving images tied to a complex historical canon. Black Madonna and Miss America tackles the tension between the public and private; the doing and being of the black female iconic body. The work confronts the worship of the black female body in popular culture; worship undone in the political and economic treatment of that same body. In the making of the work, theory and practice have been lovers, sometimes in harmony, other times, at odds. The practice of making the work in the body challenged and was challenged by the theoretical work of thinking through and researching related issues; some tangental and others glaringly present. What does the performance protest of Colin Rand Kaepernick have in common with black female bodies engaged in their own political and social choreography on stage? How does #BlackGirlMagic both illuminate the work and threaten its potential potency? What does the work borrow from the Black Church and the Black Lives Matter Movement?Item Race, Politics, and Structural Diversity: How Hate Crimes, Discrimination, White Supremacy, and Art Shape Social Identities During College(2020) Buck-Coleman, Audra; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation offers a longitudinal in-depth view into how students respond to a structurally diverse campus, a series of hate crimes and incidents of racial discrimination and bias, and a distinct set of creative engagement diversity activities. With a focus on racial and political identity differences, I employ social identity theory and symbolic interactionism to look at how these three aspects shape their social identities, their opinions of diverse others, and their opinions of diversity in general during their undergraduate career. To explore this, I engage members of the 2015 incoming freshman class and then analyze results from three data sources administered to them: a four-year online survey (n=170), a paper questionnaire (n=537), and two sets of in-depth interviews (n=62). My findings run counter to those of Pettigrew with and Tropp and others (2015, 2011, 2000, 2006): for this cohort intergroup contact does not reduce prejudice. Students in this study are on the leading end of Generation Z, which looks to be the most accepting of diverse others generation to date. Although this cohort and this campus satisfy Allport’s (1954) conditions for prejudice reduction, this does not occur based on my data. Further, a series of distinct creative engagement diversity training activities has no long-term positive effect on their opinions of diversity and diverse others. Diversity and inclusion endeavors without multifaceted, dedicated efforts do not necessarily lead to positive changes in students' attitudes, identities, behaviors, and experiences. This research holds potential to contribute to the canon of social psychology and diversity training practices.Item I Am But I Do Not See: Color-Blind Racial Ideology in College Millennials(2017) Cox, Jonathan; Ray, Rashawn; Marsh, Kris; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research suggests that in the midst of pervasive claims of a post-racial society, it is mostly whites who ascribe to color-blind ideology, while people of color still point to the significance of race. However, we know relatively little about the views of young adults, who have largely come of age during the time of the U.S.’ first black-identifying president. Building upon research done by Bonilla-Silva (2003), and drawing upon from literature on racial ideology and racial identity, my research primarily addresses the following question: In what ways do the racial identities of Millennials impact their utilization or rejection of a color-blind racial ideology? To answer my research question, I conducted a study involving 70 racially diverse college students from four schools in the Washington, D.C. area. Students kept weekly journals about race in their lives for a period of time between 3-12 weeks (n = 65), and I interviewed about half individually following the journaling period (n = 35), with questions focusing on racial identity and racial attitudes. My findings suggest that white college Millennials still utilize the frames and styles of color-blind racism in largely the same ways as the individuals in Bonilla-Silva’s work. Millennials of color use color-blind racism, but typically in more nuanced and even contradictory ways. Millennials of color across all races use color-blindness at similar rates, although some differences emerged across ethnicity. Additional emergent themes include that whites often demonstrate a disconnect between their beliefs about living a diverse life and their actual lives, experience white guilt, and are impacted in complex ways by colorblindness. People of color live more diverse lives than their white peers, believe that race and discrimination are still significant factors in their lives, and may use colorblindness as a coping mechanism. My research brings people of color into conversations about colorblindness in ways that have not been done before. Further, it has implications for understanding racial ideology within the emerging tri-racial system in the U.S., suggesting that the intersection of racial identity and racial ideology within this emerging system may be just as complex as identification itself in the system.Item NAVIGATING RACISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF BLACK MALE ADMINISTRATORS(2017) Rollins, Domonic A.; Fries-Britt, Sharon; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the United States, racism is alive and well, and the lives of Black men are a complete paradox (Jenkins, 2006). At the same time that the person holding the highest political office in the United States of America is a Black man, Black men are slain in the streets every day. Curiously, in a historic moment more than eight years ago, the United States, a nation founded on prejudice and racial discrimination, elected its first Black man to the presidency. And, in a historic moment less than six months ago, the United States elected the most racist and ethnocentric politician to the presidency in the last half-century. For many people, the election, and subsequent reelection of President Barack Obama signified the end of racism in the United States. Simultaneously, the election of the new president indicates that racism is thriving in the United States. In this Black men are suspended in “dueling realities of history — steady progress and devastating setbacks” (Merida, 2007, p.4). Resultantly, it is commonplace for Black men, regardless of age, socioeconomic class, or location, to wonder whether their life is at risk because they are Black. Simply stated, in an Obama era there was a widely held belief that the United States was post-racial society (Bonilla-Silva & Dietrich, 2011); the subsequent 2016 election indicated this is not that case, and the lives of Black men are in danger (Sanneh, 2015). What’s more is that higher education, an institution founded on inequity, has long harbored institutional racism making it difficult for Black male administrators to achieve equitable outcomes with their White peers. In higher education, there is an extant body of research identifying the barriers that impact the success and progression of underrepresented racial minority students and faculty, including Black people (Baez, 2000; Chesler, Lewis, & Crowfoot, 2005; Christian, 2012; Patitu & Hinton, 2003; Stanley, 2006). Yet, very little is known about the experiences of underrepresented racial minority administrators (Chun & Evans, 2012; McCurtis, Jackson, & O’Callaghan, 2008; Stanley, 2006). Specifically, most research on Black males in the academy focuses on students and faculty, with little research on the experiences of Black male administrators (Jackson, 2003; Patitu & Hinton, 2003; Perna, Gerald, Baum, & Milem, 2006). Using a constructivist grounded theory approach; this dissertation shares and analyzes findings from interview data to unearth the process by which Black male administrators navigate racism. Through this grounded theory investigation, a model for navigating racism for Black male administrators emerged, which illustrates the iterative and contextual nature of navigating racism. The result is that the way one navigates racism in higher education is dependent on major contextual and shaping forces in their life. Further, one learns how to navigate racism early in life, well before one enters higher education. Specific decisions about how to navigate racism also involve an internal and external assessment of the racist incident, current context in which one is steeped, and desired or anticipated outcomes of navigating or managing the incident. Finally, this research, through the creation of a model, moved from the descriptive analysis of what racism is, towards the practical implications of having to navigate racism in higher education. By integrating the identified racist incidents, shaping contexts, and the navigation model together, applications were created for individuals, institutions, and future research. The resulting implications focused primarily on critical self-reflection for individuals, an increase in reflection and audits for institutions, and a new direction for race and racism research to explore the primary learning sites of how to manage racism in one’s life.Item NINETEENTH-CENTURY BANJOS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: CUSTOM AND TRADITION IN A MODERN EARLY BANJO REVIVAL(2012) Adams, Greg C.; Witzleben, J. Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis demonstrates how members of a modern music revival use the banjo to create a counter narrative to America's whiteness. Within this revival, nineteenth-century banjos are central to a growing interest in antebellum, early minstrel, and Civil War era music and culture. As researchers, collectors, musicians, and instrument builders pursue this interest, they explore the dissonances of the legacies surrounding slavery, blackface minstrelsy, and the traumas of the American Civil War. Framing this phenomenon within Eric Hobsbawm's theories of custom and tradition and Thomas Turino's concepts of habits, socialization, and cultural cohort relationships, I argue that this modern revival supports a form of critical ethnography aimed for advocacy on three fronts--advocacy that challenges marginalizing stereotypes, promotes opportunities to rethink the banjo's cultural significance as a national instrument of whiteness, and creates greater infrastructure for the knowledge and material culture amassed by members of the banjo community.