Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'White'

Amas Repertory Theatre was founded in 1969 by Rosetta LeNoire, an African American actress who pursued a mission of developing original musicals while practicing interracial casting. The company's most successful show was Bubbling Brown Sugar (1975). Throughout Amas's history LeNoire's complicated perspective on what constituted discrimination sometimes caused her casting choices to be questioned. LeNoire believed in a colorblind theatre and society, however, as the decades passed, her colorblind perspective was challenged by neo-conservative philosophy which states that in a colorblind society no particular group should receive any more privilege than another. This definition of colorblind is used to justify conservative efforts to eliminate affirmative action and undermine race conscious legislation. In the late 1990s, at her retirement, LeNoire, who always believed that color did not matter, turned her theatre over to white leadership, who still operate Amas today. At that point, Amas changed from a company that had, from its founding, been considered to be a black theatre to one that is now white. As the history of Amas unfolds, my study examines the complex politics surrounding the concept of colorblindness. Efforts by Actors' Equity to promote interracial or, as it is often called, nontraditional casting are also investigated as well as the conservative backlash against race conscious policies, particularly during and after the administration of Ronald Reagan. In the present day Amas practices a multicultural mission, however, as my dissertation examines the company's programming decisions as well as its perspective on race, Amas is revealed to be an example of how white operated theatres, even if unintentionally, through the agency of white power and privilege, are affected by the same institutional racism that permeates American society. My dissertation then challenges Amas and other theatres to take responsibility for staying fully aware of the racially charged issues and tensions that exist in America today. When theatre professionals seek out and are committed to engaging in open dialogue on race they are in a stronger position to make knowledgeable decisions regarding the representation of race on stage.

Over the past decade, the undercurrent of interest in the alt-right and white nationalism – the belief that white people need a unified culture and possible statehood – has grown into a movement worthy of serious academic and political interest. The progressive platform rallying against the history of colonialism, the privileges of men, and the supremacy of whites through identity politics has created new problems with its proposed solutions. White, working-class men feel dispossessed in a world where diversity can be defined by “fewer white men.” The working-class feels no privilege in their race or gender, but rather, frustration. What is privilege if not the comfort of wealth? Due to these political changes, whites, and working-class men in particular are searching for new forms of identity to be able to access influence through identity politics themselves while their grasp on demographic power wanes. White nationalism and Odinism – a modern iteration of Viking religion – progressively are becoming some of the few not-exclusively-Christian options for white male identity. While most do not openly advocate for racialized violence, they do not publicly denounce it either, encouraging traditionally masculine ideals of sexuality and warrior culture. This thesis seeks to provide a snapshot of how white, working-class men are involving themselves in identity-making in a multicultural world through ethnographic analyses of white nationalism and Odinism.

THE DIPLOMA THESIS WHITE CUBE2 DEALS WITH THE ISSUE OF THE INTERIOR OF THE GALLERY. THE AIM OD THE THESIS IS TO DEFINE THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL SPACE OF THE GALLERY AND ITS EXHIBITIONS. THIS PART IS PRECEDED BY A DISCOVERY OF INSTALLATION DISCOURSE AND THE OVERALL CONCEPT OF WHITE CUBE2. THE WORK DEALS WITH THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MODEL GALLERY IN THE GALLERY AND WITH THE CHANGE OF THE USED MODEL OF THE TRADITIONAL ROLE OF THE VIEWER AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE WORK. THE WORK PRESENTS THE SCI-FI IDEA OF THE FUTURE OF THE MALE ELEMENT.

I’ve constructed a narrative thread that connects experiences, events, and artworks made during my time in graduate school. This narrative, which has the perspective of time, betrays the firsthand experience of wayfaring through the projects and places I describe. The narrative loosens as it approaches the present moment. Rather than to arrive at any conclusions, my goal for creating this narrative is to understand a tension between expectations: of systematic rationality and subjective knowledge, of play and display. I understand that my work productively fails to r-r-resolve contradictions about the way things are.

Thesis (M.F.A.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2004.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Art. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

White Gilt This exhibition is a dissection of American masculinity and institutional oppression. The systematic mistreatment of people within certain social identity groups is supported and perpetuated by society. My work is a personal investigation of this flawed system, my place therein and its ramifications. The fragility of masculinity provokes immeasurable violence. Whiteness can be stereotyped as a toggle switch between bland culture, and self-entitled bigotry. These works are a confrontation with the dark parts of the human psyche, and the fears surrounding vulnerability, power and sexuality. Through discomfort we can deepen empathy and cultivate progress. Daniel Schmidt

The interactions between an optical brightener and surfactants commonly found in laundry detergents were studied. Three techniques were used; fluorescence spectroscopy was used to determine the effect of the addition of surfactants on the rate of brightener deposition, while small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to determine the effect of the brightener on the micellar structure pre-deposition. In addition, the effect of calcium ions on micellar structure was studied using these techniques. The effect of surfactant addition on CaCO3 crystallisation was also studied. It was found that the addition of nonionic surfactants inhibited the deposition of brightener onto fabric surfaces, whereas the addition of anionic surfactants aided this deposition process. This was correlated to the micellar structures found using SAXS and MD simulations; the anionic surfactant system formed ellipsoidal structures, in which the brightener was incorporated onto the surface of the hydrocarbon core, whereas the nonionic surfactant formed spherical structures where the brightener was held within the outer shell, which appeared to hamper its ability to be deposited. In addition, the brightener was shown to affect micellar radius and aggregation number of the nonionic surfactant, in a manner similar to the addition of anionic surfactant to nonionic surfactant. The addition of calcium ions at concentrations up to 0.36 g L-1 Ca2+ (for SAXS) and 0.77 g L-1 Ca2+ (for MD simulations) to nonionic and anionic surfactant systems was not seen to significantly affect their micellar structure, although a greater affinity was seen between the calcium and the anionic surfactant than between the calcium and the nonionic surfactant. The effect of the addition of surfactants on the rate of CaCO3 crystallisation and the polymorphs produced was determined.

This thesis examines the integration experiences of East European migrants to England using the theoretical framework of Critical Whiteness Studies. ‘Whiteness’ in this research is conceptualised as a symbolic boundary that is articulated, redrawn, permeated and negotiated by members of both the ‘white’ English host society and by East European migrants to England. The findings of this thesis challenge the notion of ‘whiteness’ as ‘invisibility’, and contribute to an understanding of ‘whiteness’ as a fragmented identity, not solely tied to phenotype, but also to a set of cultural practices, so called ‘whitely scripts’, that migrants are expected to perform in order to be considered incorporated into white English society. The research comprised a media analysis and in-depth interviews with English respondents and East European migrants in high-migration and low-migration areas in England, namely Manchester, Norwich and Winchester. It reveals how references to culture, behavioural norms and manners inform discursive constructions which simultaneously position East Europeans at the center and at the margins of the symbolic boundary of ‘whiteness’ in the media discourse and individual narratives of English participants. At the same time, the analysis outlines the ways in which East European migrants themselves navigate and articulate this boundary, by constructing sameness with the English mainstream, how they negotiate experiences of racialization and discrimination, as well as the various strategies in terms of ‘passing’ and ‘taking a stance’ that they employ in order to avert or resist these experiences. Moreover, the analysis provides insights into how questions of socio-cultural in/visibility inform the integration experiences of East European migrants and shape their senses of belonging, further informing their understandings of ‘whiteness’. The thesis argues that ‘East European’ has in fact become a ‘boundary term’ in England, with East Europeans being ambivalently and partially incorporated into the mainstream society, featuring in the English imaginary simultaneously as ‘Other Whites’ and ‘White Others’.

Prior to attacking a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, Patrick Crusius posted a manifesto on the notorious 8chan website in which he justifies his attack as a self-defensive response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” While this manifesto certainly contains the irrationality necessary to justify mass murder, it also repeats and reinforces language and worldviews present in public discourse, especially in discourse from white nationalists. Analyzing the Crusius manifesto in context of this white nationalist public discourse reveals how language used and worldviews perpetuated by white nationalists ultimately construct an apocalyptic meta-narrative that transforms immigrants and refugees into dangerous invaders. By repeatedly telling stories that frame immigrants or refugees as criminals, invaders, and terrorists, white nationalists have constructed a meta-narrative that subsumes localized narratives, which means that any story about an immigrant seeking refuge in the United States becomes a story of an invader and criminal. Crusius repeats and reinforces this meta-narrative in his manifesto, drawing on the foundational white-nationalist French scholar Renaud Camus, whose “Great Replacement” theory claims that non-white populations are systematically replacing white populations, leading to a “white genocide.” Ultimately, the apocalypse in this meta-narrative is not a violent, devastating end to the United States, but rather the end of a structure dominated by whiteness and Western culture. It’s this perceived apocalypse that inspires Crusius’ violent response. Ultimately, this meta-narrative capitalizes on fear to transform genuine love of nation into a volatile xenophobia that can encourage a perceived need for violent self-defense. On the scholarly front, this research may reinforce the suggestion of scholar Dana Cloud, who claims that scholars and rhetors cannot challenge white nationalist irrationality with a rational approach, but rather with localized narratives that ground the experiences of immigrants and refugees in concrete details that foster empathy and understanding.

This study examines White university students' understanding of race. Based in the scholarship on higher education and diversity, and framed in Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study explores the racial awareness of White students. This study contributes to the literature on the racial experience of Whites and an understanding of how White students conceptualize race. Findings from this study can inform college and university educators as they seek to engage the racial majority in a multicultural campus.

Fifteen 18-19 year old White students raised in a predominately White state, and attending their first year at a predominately White university, participated in this qualitative study. Each participant was invited to two interviews and responded twice to the writing prompt 'What is race?' Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Both the transcriptions and free writes were coded for themes and sub themes.

Findings are presented in three categories reflecting the three research questions. These categories are 1) Being White, 2) What is Race, and 3) Experience with Race. Some of the most prominent themes and subthemes are: Learning I am White, Whites are Disadvantaged by Affirmative Action, Race is Skin Color, I am Not Racist, and School Policies about Race.

Findings were analyzed considering White racial identity development, Whiteness, and racial ideologies. Participants appeared to be in the initial statuses of White racial identity development. They had little awareness of themselves as raced and the effect of race; Whiteness was unmarked and invisible in their lives. The White students' narratives revealed a lack of understanding of three key concepts: race, racism, Lid privilege. Their narratives also reflected three racial ideologies: American individualism and meritocracy, Color blind, and Liberal racism.

Participants' narratives revealed students who were ill prepared to engage successfully in a diverse society. However, with a clearer understanding of how these White university students perceive race and Whiteness, educators can develop both formal and informal learning opportunities that will support multiculturalism on their campuses. By ensuring that their graduates understand race and privilege, colleges and universities can play a vital role in addressing racial inequality and securing a thriving multicultural society.

My thesis offers an examination of U.S. policy towards Rhodesia as viewed through the lens of the respective Presidential administrations. The aim of my research is to demonstrate the changing American perspective on the Rhodesian question and how this directly affected the ultimate emergence of an independent Zimbabwe. I discuss the transformation in U.S. policy from the cautious approach of the Johnson White House, the shift towards 'white Africa' during the Nixon years as anticommunism and economic interests took centre stage and the subsequent attempt of the Ford Administration to achieve a peace settlement to prevent further communist expansion into southern Africa. Finally, I will analyse the critical role played by President Carter in bringing an end to UDI. When evaluating U.S. policy I highlight the diverse factors which drove presidential decision making. Anti-communism, trade, strategic interests, the increasing interdependence of the global system, a moral belief in decolonization, the growth of human rights, domestic race relations and the growing importance of the African-American vote all significantly impacted White House actions. On a broader level, I will demonstrate how relations with Salisbury offers an interpretative prism which reveals the evolution of U.S. foreign relations during the Sixties and Seventies.

Bibliography: leaves 286-321.
This dissertation examines resistant whiteness in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. Situating white South Africans as part of the powerful racial dispersal of Europe formed as a result of colonial expansion, it argues that since democracy, which has placed white South Africans in a weak position to the immediate centres of state power, white South Africans are constructing typically diasporic dimensions to the way in which they operate. Utilizing insights from the Discourse Theory of Laclau and Mouffe, and based on four studies which range across a period of a decade and incorporate large samples of different forms of publicly available everyday discourse, the thesis traces the pervasive and resilient discursive formation that it calls white talk: a resistant and flexible set of ideologically-charged discursive strategies which attempt to perpetuate privilege into the new dispensation while paying careful attention to self-presentation. While the dynamics for English and Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans are not identical, the manipulative power of white talk is shown to depend on its ability to leverage the intersections within the social space that whites in South Africa occupy. This space incorporates elements of whiteness, the powerfully centred social positionality, and diaspora, which is usually theorized as a marginalized and weak positionality. The dissertation confirms the importance of understanding whiteness in both its global and local dimensions, and of recognizing how these interact and bolster each other to perpetuate seemingly innocent, but in fact reactive, sites in which racial advantage is normalized.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Sociology.
"May 2007." Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 29, 2007). Thesis adviser: David W. Wright. Includes bibliographic references (leaves 34-39).

Merging white dwarfs is a promising channel to trigger Type Ia supernovae, known as the double degenerate scenario. Supernovae are stellar explosions that radiate as much energy as any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, outshining briefly the whole hosting galaxy. They enrich the interstellar medium with higher mass elements and trigger the formation of new stars by the produced expanding shock. Additionally, Type Ia supernovae have been used as standard candles and have allowed the discovery that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate. Despite the important role that Type Ia supernovae play in Astrophysics, we still do not know what stellar systems give rise to them. There are approximately a few hundred million double white dwarf systems in the Milky Way alone and their study would help to establish whether one can produce sufficient Type Ia explosions via this route. Nevertheless, even if a white dwarf merger does not succeed in exploding as a Type Ia supernova, other interesting phenomena might result. R Coronae Borealis, magnetars and high-field magnetic white dwarfs, or at least some of them, could be the product of some white dwarf mergers. In this thesis we study first two different scenarios which involve two interacting white dwarfs. They differ from the classical double degenerate scenario in the mechanism which makes both stars interact. First we consider the core degenerate scenario. In this case the merger of both white dwarfs is triggered by the interaction with a circumbinary disk. This disk is made up of the material that falls back after the ejection of the common envelope, at the final stages of the common envelope phase which precedes the formation of the white dwarf binary system. As the binary system transfers angular momentum to the circumbinary disk, the separation of the pair decreases and the eccentricity of the system increases while the core of the post-AGB star, the proto-white dwarf, is still hot. For massive enough disks the decrease of the orbital separation is enough to drive a merger before the disk is ejected. Then, the merger occurs in an eccentric orbit with a hot binary component, in contrast to the conditions found in the classical double degenerate scenario, which is driven by gravitational radiation. Otherwise, if the disk is not massive enough, the merger is driven by gravitational wave emission and the orbit is nearly circular, while the core of the AGB star is cold. Secondly, we studied different white dwarf close encounters. These interactions occur in dense and old stellar systems, as globular clusters and galactic nuclei, or in multiple stellar systems, where a white dwarf binary is perturbed by a third star. We perform several simulations of close encounters of white dwarfs with different masses and compositions, and obtain three different outcomes. Either an eccentric binary is formed, or a lateral or a direct collision occur. We compute when detonation conditions are met and when one or both white dwarfs are disrupted. Furthermore, we compute the observational signatures of these interactions. These include the emission of gravitational waves, X-ray luminosities, thermal neutrino emission and bolometric light curves. Finally, we analyze two possible outcomes of a white dwarf merger. We start studying the formation of a dynamo in the outer layers of the compact merger remnant. Then, we prove that the generated magnetic fields are confined in the outer layers of the remnant and can reach high magnitudes, showing that the remnants of some white dwarf binary mergers can explain some observed high-field magnetic white dwarfs. To conclude, we study if the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 has observational characteristics which fit the properties of the white dwarf merger remnant composed of the high-field magnetic white dwarf surrounded by a rapidly rotating disk.
La coalescència de nanes blanques és un dels possibles escenaris que podrien originar una supernova del tipus Ia, i es conegut com l'escenari doble degenerat. Les supernoves són explosions estel·lars que irradien tanta energia com la que un estel ordinari emet durant tota la seva vida, eclipsant breumente tota la galàxia que habita. Aquestes explosions enriqueixen el mitjà interestel·lar amb elements pesants i afavoreixen la creació de nous estels en produir un xoc en expansió. A , les supernoves del tipus Ia han sigut utilitzades com a candeles estàndard, ajudant a descobrir que l'univers s'està expandint a un ritme accelerat. Malgrat la seva importància, seguim sense saber quins sistemes generen aquest tipus d'explosions. Hi ha aproximadament uns centenars de milions de sistemes binaris de nanes blanques a la Via Làctia, i el seu estudi ajudaria a establir si la seva coalescència pot produir el suficient nombre de supernovae tipus Ia. No obstant això, encara que la coalescència no produexi una explosió de aquest tipus, aquestes interaccions podríen donar lloc a d'altres fenòmens interessants, com ara els estels R Coronae Borealis, els magnetars i les nanes blanques amb camps magnétics elevats. En aquesta tesi estudiem primer dos escenaris diferents que involucren dues nanes blanques que interactuen. Aquests difereixen del clàssic escenari doble degenerat en el mecanisme que provoca la seva interacció. Primer considerem l'escenari anomenat "core degenerate". En aquest, la coalescència es produeix a causa de la interacció posterior a la fase d'embolcall comú del sistema binari. Aquest disc està compost pel material que torna a caure després de l'expulsió de l'embolcall comú que envolta el sistema, en les últimes etapes de la fase que precedeix a la formació del sistema de dues nanes blanques. Com que el sistema binari transfereix moment angular al disc, la separació entre els estels decreix i l'excentricitat de la seva òrbita augmenta, a més el nucli de l'estel post-AGB, la proto-nana blanca, está calent. Quan el disc és massiu, la coalescència del sistema abans de que el disc sigui expulsat. Aleshores, la coalescència es produeix en una òrbita excèntrica amb una component calent, al contrari que en l'escenari doble degenerat clàssic, el qual és desenvolupat degut a l¿emissió d¿ones gravitatòries. Si, pel contrari, el disc es poc massiu, la interacció es produeix per emissió d'ones gravitatòries i la órbita excèntrica i el nucli de l'estel post-AGB es fred. També hem estudiat encontres propers entre nanes blanques. Aquestes interaccions poden succeir en sistemes estel·lars vells i densos, com ara els cúmuls globulars o els nuclis galàctics, o en un sistema estel·lar múltiple, on el sistema binari de nanes blanques és pertorbat per un tercer estel. Hem realitzat vàries simulacions de trobades entre nanes blanques amb òrbites excèntriques i amb diferents masses i composicions, i obtenim tres resultats diferents. O bé es forma un sistema binari excèntric, o bé es produeix una col·lisió lateral o una directa. Els nostres càlculs especifiquen quan s¿arriba a condicions de detonació i quan aquestes resulten en la disrupció d'un o tots dos estels. També calculem l'emissió d'ones gravitatòries, la luminositat de raigs X, les emissions de neutrins tèrmics i les corbes de llum bolométriques. Finalment, analitzem dos possibles fenòmens que poden succeir després de la coalescència. Un d'ells es la formació d'una dinamo en les capes externes del romanent compacte. Demostrem que el camp magnètic generat es queda limitat en aquesta regió i pot assolir magnituds altes. Així, provem que les nanes blanques resultants d'una coalescència poden donar lloc a algunes de les nanes blanques altament magnètiques observades. Per finalitzar, estudiem si el púlsar de raigs X anòmal 4U 0142+61 té característiques que poden ser explicades a partir del romanent obtingut, format per la nana blanca magnètica envoltada per un disc

Recent years have seen an explosion in the number of eclipsing binaries containing white dwarfs. In the last few years the number of systems has increased from 7 to over 40, thanks mainly to large surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Catalina Sky Survey. Many of these systems are survivors of the common envelope phase during which the two stars orbit within a single envelope which is rapidly thrown off through loss of energy and angular momentum. Detailed analysis of these systems can yield extremely precise physical parameters for both the white dwarf primary and its companion star. Stellar masses and radii are some of the most fundamental parameters in astronomy and can be used to test models of stellar structure and evolution. They can also be used to constrain the evolutionary history of the binary system offering us the chance to better understand the common envelope phase itself. In this thesis I present high-precision studies of several eclipsing post common envelope binaries. I use a combination of high-speed photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy to measure the masses and radii of both stars in each system. I compare these results to evolutionary models and theoretical mass-radius relations and find that, on the whole, the measured masses and radii agree well with models. However, the main-sequence companion stars are generally oversized compared to evolutionary models, although this deviation is much less severe at very low masses (< ∼ 0.1M⊙). I also find that the measured masses and radii of carbon-oxygen core white dwarfs are in excellent agreement with theoretical models. Conversely, the first ever precision mass-radius measurement of a low-mass helium core white dwarf appears undersized compared to models. Large scale surveys have also begun to identify double white dwarf eclipsing binaries. In this thesis I present a study of one of these systems and show the potential, as a double-lined spectroscopic binary, of measuring precise parameters for both stars in the future. Finally, I show that the mid-eclipse times of eclipsing binaries containing white dwarfs can be measured to a high enough precision that we can monitor them for evidence of period changes. I find that many systems show complex variations in their eclipse times and in many cases the only mechanism able to produce these changes is one or more sub-stellar objects in orbit around the binary. However, I show that care must be taken when attempting to detect planets in binary systems using eclipse timings.

This thesis addresses the ambiguous role of Malmö’s latest megaproject in the context of the city’s racializing urban development trajectory. The project is a public/private congress center, concert hall and hotel complex called Malmö Live. Malmö Live is problematized as the height of spectacle and challenge as it is expected to be the city’s most prominent cultural and social meeting place. The inquiry is directed to how its expectation of relevancy came about and utilizes a Foucauldian inspired genealogical methodology. The result stems from an investigation of the historical, present, local and global conditions that constitutes the expectancy of its relevancy. The investigation notes the divisiveness of tourism and how it affects ways of thinking and doing government on multiple scales, and in particular how it motivates the case in question. The result shows that there are affinities between tourism- during-colonialism and the contemporary tourism industry. Where the former was appropriated by colonialism and overtly racializing, the latter is allowed appropriacy by a currency ascribed to selected geographies and histories. By describing the becoming of this megaproject and the use of tourism knowledge and technology, the how-question about the expectation of Malmö Live’s relevancy leads to a genealogical reconstruction of Malmö Live as a wager on whiteness. The wager on whiteness hold no guarantees, but the power of it is the ability to be persuasive and believed, and the currency it holds for those who perform it. The thesis ends with a discussion on what is at stake with Malmö Live, i.e. Malmö’s whiteness.

The aim of this project was to find a recycling route for Prussian white. During the experimental part, one recycling method was tested using sodium hydroxide and from this a method for re-synthesis of Prussian white was conducted as well as a method for re-crystallisation of sodium ferrocyanide. The method that proved most successful was the re-crystallisation of sodium ferrocyanide. Furthermore, the conditions needed to conduct a proper re-synthesis of Prussian white was not available during this research. Therefore, it was not possible to produce Prussian white of the right structure. The analysis was performed through XRD analysis and it was concluded that it is possible to re-crystallise sodium ferrocyanide from Prussian white.

The White Album Restaurant occupies the old WRVA Radio Station in Church Hill. The building site provides exclusive views across downtown Richmond. The restaurant's interior design is a response to the obviously attractive exterior views of the site. Through the placement of paneled walls, views of the interior space are choreographed to create an engaging environment from any seat in the restaurant.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009.
Additional advisors: Daniel Anderson, Mary Flowers Braswell, Diane Wakoski. Description based on contents viewed June 4, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-60).

This thesis paper, Black Things, White Spaces, offers an in depth look into my journey as an artist and how my artistic practice has evolved over the years. Throughout this time of self-exploration, I have developed an interest in themes of racism, structures of power, representation and stereotypes. In my artistic work, I explore how these themes affect the African American community, as well as myself, as an African American woman. This paper utilizes the creative and theoretical frameworks by artists and scholars like, Bill Viola, Adrian Piper, bell hooks, and Franz Fanon to support the intentions of my work. This thesis illustrates for the reader how my work approaches these themes through certain methodologies, such as: tactical media, blurring the lines between art and life, and the manipulation of time and space. In this paper, I argue the importance of placing my work within the context of African American experiences throughout history. By doing this, my work is able to reference several events throughout history, while addressing our current moment in time. Included in this manuscript are detailed descriptions and analyses of each piece in the thesis exhibition. It is important to speak about the development and the intentions of my art. While speaking about the work, I compare and contrast my thesis work to previous artworks I’ve done, as well as other artists works, in order to place these pieces within an art-historical framework. Finally, this thesis, also addresses how my current work presented in the thesis exhibition will inform my future artistic practice. I believe that my contributions to the African American media arts practice creates spaces to celebrate diversity, empower the voiceless, but most importantly, creates new avenues for change.

A poetic examination of the self as well as cycles of trauma and recovery. This manuscript explores poetry's ability to transform one's experiences by re-engaging with them in the realm of the imagination.

My aim in this dissertation is to analyze Black oppression and White domination. I attempt to show how social systems unjustly diminish Black Americans’ opportunities to form and pursue their conceptions of good lives and unjustly strengthen White Americans’ opportunities for the same. I believe that the accounts of Black oppression and White domination I offer are more adept at identifying the expansive and varied wrongs of Black oppression in America, analyzing the relationship between theorizing oppression and addressing oppression through social and political change in America, and demonstrating the ways that Whites benefit from and are incentivized to maintain oppressive systems in America, than the accounts put forward by other theorists. In Chapter 1, I begin by discussing why I frame my project in terms of oppressive “wrongs” rather than “harms”. I worry the term ‘harm’ may be taken to imply that one has experienced subjective suffering or a measurable loss, whereas I am concerned with instantiations of oppressive systems even when they don’t cause the person subject to the oppressive system to experience a measurable loss or subjective suffering. In an effort to describe how I identify wrongs, I then argue that in virtue of the deep importance of freely pursuing one’s chosen life plan, any barriers one faces in pursuing his or her life plan must be justifiable. Barriers one experiences in virtue of his or her race are typically not justifiable. On this basis, I argue for my principle of racial injustice, which states that individuals are prima facie wronged by socially constructed barriers to their abilities to form and seek their conception of a good life if those barriers exist in virtue of their race. The “prima facie” nature of the wrongness is significant, I argue, because correcting the injustices of Black oppression will require that Whites face some barriers to pursuing our life plans that we do not currently face; it is not the case, then, that every race-based barrier is truly wrongful. I then discuss my understanding of race, arguing that race’s mutability across contexts and how one’s race is intimately tied to systems of subordination and domination support my view that race is socially constructed. I end with a brief history of White domination and Black subordination in the U.S. In Chapter 2, I outline general experiences of racism as espoused by Black writers and the statistical data that support these accounts. I then take a deep look at mass incarceration, including a history of the system, its disproportional impact on Black Americans, and the many resulting injustices inflicted largely on incarcerated Black Americans, their families, and their communities. I specifically highlight the recognition-wrongs inflicted on Black Americans through mass incarceration, where recognition-wrongs are acts that function primarily as a mode of dehumanizing individuals. Recognition-wrongs include verbal degradation through things like slurs, but also epistemic injustices, a concept developed by Miranda Fricker and others to identify injustices that wrong individuals in virtue of their status as knowers and communicators of knowledge. I then discuss kinship-wrongs, a concept I develop to identify wrongs that impact people’s ability to form and maintain relationships. I highlight and conceptualize these wrongs in an attempt to draw attention to their significance in racial subordination. In Chapter 3, I develop an account of oppression that is particularly responsive to race-based wrongs. I begin by showing why the influential accounts authored by Iris Marion Young and Ann Cudd are unsatisfactory for capturing Black oppression. I attempt to develop an account that is sensitive to the experiences of subordination detailed by Black Americans, equipped to address the material harms of oppression, and also able to make sense of the recognition- and kinship-wrongs raised in Chapter 2. I ultimately determine that a member of a c-group is subject to an oppressive wrong when, in virtue of his or her or their membership in that c-group, he or she or they suffer wrongs that are systematically perpetrated through social, political, or legal norms, conventions, or practices. A c-group is any collection of persons who share (or would share in similar circumstances) some set of constraints, incentives, penalties, and the like. I end the chapter by carefully describing my commitments to each clause of the definition of oppression, beginning by analyzing c-groups, describing systematically perpetrated wrongs, explaining what it means to be wronged in virtue of one’s c-group membership, and showing that my account of oppression is sensitive to both material and recognition-wrongs. In Chapter 4, I argue that we ought to understand oppression in the framework of a capabilities approach. I begin by explaining the concept of capabilities, which are real opportunities to function in particular ways. I then argue that securing capabilities is a better aim for justice than ensuring that people function in certain valuable ways because a focus on capabilities protects people’s opportunities to pursue the kinds of lives they want to live, respecting their interest in freely determining their life goals, while a focus on protecting valuable functionings inappropriately prescribes life goals to them. I show how capabilities can be utilized as part of a theory of justice, and argue that my utilization of capabilities, combined with the other moral commitments I defend throughout the dissertation, comprises a rectificatory theory of racial justice aimed at eliminating Black oppression (i.e. a theory that analyzes the current racial injustices of oppression and offers guidance on how we should approach redressing these injustices). I argue that through the framework of capabilities, I can analyze both the material and recognition-wrongs of oppression, avoid the kinds of bad idealizations that often skew our understanding of oppressive systems and their impact, and make judgments about modern day society without developing an account of perfect justice. I next show that to avoid inflicting further recognition-wrongs, it is essential that oppressed peoples are the primary arbiters of which capabilities and oppressive systems should be prioritized in policy and advocacy. I conclude Chapter 4 with a brief sketch of how we can turn the priorities of the oppressed into public policy, moving from the prioritization process, to policy development, to implementing policies, and finally to monitoring and revising them. My final chapter, Chapter 5, shows how my account can also be used to analyze the norms of White domination that coincide with Black oppression. I begin by discussing “correlative capabilities,” which are those capabilities that are strengthened for Whites in virtue of the fact that Whites are not subject to oppression as Black Americans are. My discussion of correlative capabilities maps closely onto the advantages typically described as White privilege. I then turn to more insidious advantages Whites gain from Black oppression. I argue that oppressive norms advantage Whites by creating a social structure that empowers us with the capabilities to dominate racial narratives and ignore our racialized identities. The capability to dominate racial narratives consists in Whites’ abilities to pontificate on racialized events without justification for our views and still have our perspectives treated as mainstream, worthy of debate, and often as nearly definitive. I demonstrate this capability in action by examining Colin Kaepernick’s protest in the NFL, the coverage it received, and his resulting treatment. I then discuss Whites’ capability to ignore our racialized identities, showing how we establish Whiteness as a central, unconditioned perspective. Whites see ourselves as “simply people,” while seeing non-Whites as raced. This leads to Whites promoting color-blind conceptions of justice, which move us farther from true justice by ignoring social norms’ impact on policy development and implementation. I then show how Whites may go one step further and argue that we are victimized by “reverse racism” when efforts are made to eliminate oppressive systems. Finally, I end Chapter 5 with a discussion of how Whites are also disadvantaged by Black oppression, particularly in our capabilities to perform our jobs well, live morally, and establish and maintain relationships. I then conclude the dissertation by discussing how we might teach race-sensitive virtues in an effort to change White-favorable social norms.