Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "African American Studies / Political Science"

In Pensée 1, “Africa on My Mind,” Mervat Hatem questions the perceived wisdom of creating the African Studies Association (focused on sub-Saharan Africa) and the Middle East Studies Association a decade later, which “institutionalized the political bifurcation of the African continent into two academic fields.” The cleaving of Africa into separate and distinct parts—a North Africa/Middle East and a sub-Saharan Africa—rendered a great disservice to all Africans: it has fractured dialogue, research, and policy while preventing students and scholars of Africa from articulating a coherent understanding of the continent.

AbstractThis article argues that African American hair is a political matter by examining the little-known role of state occupational licensing of African American hair care. By focusing on recent legal challenges and legislative battles over state regulation of hair-care provision for African Americans, the article traces state authorities' responses to struggles over market share between licensed, and often native-born, African American beauticians, and typically unlicensed, and often recent African immigrant, hair braiders. Hair braiders challenged state regulatory oversight by invoking racial deference claims, in which they argued that braiding was a “cultural practice” that should be exempt from state regulation. A statistical analysis of state regulatory decision making revealed that states varied widely in addressing the issue of African American hair care. While racial deference claims, in the form of legal cases, put pressure on states to exempt hair braiders from regulatory oversight, by and large, most states did not choose this path. For states that did choose to address the demands for market protection or market relief, the choices were mostly in the direction of enacting new regulations or actively incorporating hair braiders under existing regulations. Despite the invocation of racial deference claims, African American hair care was not freed from state oversight—state regulators became more flexible in their oversight of Black hair care rooted in their concerns over public safety as well as the demands from a variety of interest groups. The analysis reveals that when race/gender and state regulation intersect, traditional economic theories of occupational licensing are not sufficient; an intersectional approach can better explain policy outcomes.

In the face of its 2012 defeat and looming demographic trends that did not bode well for the party’s future presidential candidates, the Republican National Committee officially declared its intention to recruit more African American candidates for office. But will fielding more African American candidates likely attract more African American votes for Republicans? Here, I employ a field experiment using real candidates and real votes cast in two down-ballot races featuring African American Republican candidates. Among voters who received mailings highlighting both race and party, African American voters responded primarily to party, in the process largely rejecting these two candidates. By contrast, African American voters responded more favorably when they learned the race, but not the party, of these candidates. The results here suggest something of a self-affirming political preference order in which African Americans felt affirmed by voting for a fellow African American, but only when they did not see that candidate as conflicting with a more central aspect of their political identity.

Social justice is amiable formal, informal interaction and the impartial distribution of resources for a community. Nondiscriminatory social practices and equitable resource distribution may minimize the mistreatment of African Americans who have endured the profuseness of social injustices in this country as exemplified by the Trayvon Martin incident and the numerous police killings of unarmed African Americans. Social justice is also the recognition, preservation of an ethnic group’s cultural identity, and it interrelates with the African American liberation tradition. This tradition began on the West African Coast where inhabitants resisted the European captivity system and its repercussions in the Americas that educators describe as Maafa or disaster. The resilience of Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Molefi Asante’s Afrocentric theory characterizes social justice applications of economic, political, cultural strategies within the context of the African American liberation tradition.

AbstractPopular commentary surrounding Michelle Obama focuses on the symbolic importance of her tenure as the nation's first African American first lady. Despite these assertions, relatively few studies have examined public opinion toward Michelle Obama and the extent to which race and gender influenced public evaluations of her. Even fewer studies have examined how the intersection of race and gender influenced political attitudes toward Michelle Obama and her ability to serve as a meaningful political symbol. Using public opinion polls from 2008 to 2017 and data from the Black Women in America survey, we examine public opinion toward Michelle Obama as a function of respondents’ race, gender, and the intersection between the two. We find that African Americans were generally more favorable toward Michelle Obama than white Americans, with minimal differences between men and women. Although white women were no more likely than white men to view Michelle Obama favorably, we find that they were more likely to have information on Michelle Obama's “Let's Move” initiative. Most importantly, we find that Michelle Obama served as a unique political symbol for African American women and that her presence in politics significantly increased black women's evaluation of their race-gender group.

African Americans continue to experience significant difficulty integrating into mainstream American society. Research literature demonstrates that after decades of legislation designed to address African American socialization issues, African Americans continue to seem to be unable to pull many of their communities out of academic disparities, high unemployment, crippling poverty, and endemic crime. There appears to be historical ramifications and etiological determinants that explicate the challenges that confront African American communities. However, few researchers seem to understand the actual culture of African Americans. As such, counselors, educators, and policymakers are seemingly unable to devise and implement effective intervention strategies that appropriately attend to these endemic challenges. Thereby, explication of the historical “roots” and legacy of African American culture seems critical.

While numerous studies discuss the political implications of class divisions among African-Americans, few analyze gender differences in political participation. This study assesses the extent to which church activity similarly facilitates men's and women's political participation. Employing data from a national cross-sectional survey of 1,205 adult African-American respondents from the 1993 National Black Politics Study, the authors conclude that black church involvement more highly facilitates the political participation of black men than black women. Increasing levels of individual black church involvement and political activity on the part of black churches increases the gender gap in political participation and creates a gender participation gap for some political activities. These findings suggest that while institutional engagement increases political participation, the gendered nature of the institutional context also influences political engagement outcomes.

Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in socioeconomic inequities between Black and White persons in the United States. Some research suggests that political ideology, which in turn impacts political competition levels, may at least partially explain these disparities, though the body of academic literature in this area is sparse. Little is known about how Black political ideology is formed by perceptions of inequality. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of Black political ideology, political competition, and socioeconomic status to determine how political competition relates to social inequities between Blacks and Whites. The theoretical framework of the study was Lockean social contract theory. The overarching question guiding this study explored how competition could better defend natural rights to reduce social disparities and the obligations of government to equally protect, similarly to the protections of government historically extended to Whites. Multiple and multivariate regression models were developed using data from the 2010 General Social Survey, the 2010 American Community Survey, and the presidential election results of 2008. Results showed no significant relationship between Black beliefs of inequality with Black political ideology and that high political competition rates might contribute to the increasing Black/White socioeconomic gaps. Contrary to economic competition models developed through Locke's social contract, there was no evidence that political competition reduces socioeconomic inequities between Blacks and Whites. The implications for positive social change include education of policy makers that higher political competition rates in their states contribute to lower socioeconomic outcomes for Blacks.

This project explores the constructions of gender, intimacy, and race and the ways these issues are informed by history and the law. The idea of consent, while originally described in texts as a legal concept between citizens, transformed into a way to navigate intimate relationships in the private sphere. This muddied the ways women and men were understood to form relationships and the limits of those relationships. In the same ways that gender was arbitrated through legal language, race is often ensnared in the same processes and institutions. Tolerance has been offered as one approach, but instead of mitigating this violence, it has more firmly entrenched it into the democratic process. Hannah Arendt’s description of the social frames an understanding of intimacy and narratives. Arendt’s work critically creates a space for the category of the social, something found around but outside of the public and private. Instead of working to make the private seen as a sphere for political action, I will focus on the potential of the social as a method of political action. While Arendt has obvious racial bias, I will use her own response to anti-semitism to develop a different approach to Black politics that allow for identity-based responses. Lauren Berlant’s Intimate Publics addresses the potential for coalition building in the social. Using the sorority system as a way of teasing out notions of femininity, discipline, sexual violence, and intimacy, I will describe the ways that a woman subject is produced and how this then works to shape our notions of race. Women’s identities, particularly white women, are constructed through an association with race and sexuality, by unpacking this development, its possible to see how this is socially and institutionally enforced. Part of this enforcement will focus on the narratives of sexual violence. Rape is an issue that not only confronts legal questions, but also the nature of a woman’s ability to participate in democracy. Tying this together will be the importance of political theory. This serves to define the contemporary issues, solutions that have been offered and new potential approaches to intimate violence.

This dissertation examines how poor black South African women in rural areas organize themselves to address their poverty situations and meet their practical needs – those that pertain to their responsibilities as grandmothers, mothers, and community members – and assesses their organizations' effectiveness for meeting women's goals. My research is based on two groups that are members of the South African Rural Women's Movement. They are the Sisonke Women's Club Group (SSWCG) and the Siyabonga Women's Club Group (SBWCG). A majority of these women are illiterate and were de jure or de facto heads of households. Based on interviews and participant observation, I describe and analyze the strategies that these women employ in an attempt to alleviate poverty, better their lives, and assist in the survival of their families, each other, and the most vulnerable members of their community. Their strategies involve organizing in groups to support each other's income-generating activities and to help each other in times of emergency. Their activities include making floor mats, beading, sewing, baking, and providing caregiving for members who are sick and for orphans. I conclude that, although their organizing helps meet practical needs based on their traditional roles as women, it has not contributed to meeting strategic needs – to their empowerment as citizens or as heads of households.

Understanding how race shapes the lives of individuals and transforms institutions is central to social science. Yet, for many scholars, race is widely understood as a fixed and monolithic category that is resistant to manipulation. As a result, making causal claims about ``immutable characteristics'' such as race or ethnicity has been strongly discouraged by statisticians and experts of causal inference. In contrast to previous literature, I propose a different framework that, in some cases, reconciles race and causation. Using a lab experiment and observational data about the urban uprisings of the 1960s, I test whether racialized and politicized cues from a subordinate group (in this case, blacks) can change psychological, behavioral and attitudinal measures among a dominant group (in this case, whites).

Looking at more than 750 violent protests that flared up in black neighborhoods across the United States, I examine whether increased exposure to signals of black unrest is associated with decreased support for the Democratic party. In the 1964, 1968 and 1972 presidential elections, I find a strong negative relationship between exposure to civil unrest and the county-level Democratic vote share. I find a similar negative relationship between exposure to violent protests and Democratic vote share in congressional elections between 1968 and 1972. Finally, I find that in counterfactual scenarios of fewer violent protests the Democratic presidential nominee, Hubert Humphrey, would have beaten the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon, in the 1968 election.

In the lab experiment, I test how exposure to images of politicized and armed white and black men changes psychological, behavioral and attitudinal measures among subjects in the dominant (white) group. Methodologically, this study investigates the degree to which at least some aspects of race are better operationalized as variable, divisible, continuous and responsive to manipulation. Substantively, this experiment also attempts to assess the degree to which media representations of violence and politics might increase the salience of ethnic/racial identities, particularly in a dominant group. In the context of the 1960s urban uprisings, such a result might help explain why a significant subset of white voters switched away from the Democratic party, that had become identified with black interests, and towards candidates promising ``law and order.'.

This dissertation examines the influence of donor-driven and recipient-driven interests on foreign aid allocation.

Chapter 1 examines how the donor's trade interests together with elections and the political competitiveness of electoral processes in recipient countries are associated with bilateral foreign aid flows. US gives more aid to its non-competitive larger trade partners, but cuts their aid ahead of elections. It substitutes aid with market access for non-competitive countries for which it is an important export market, but not during election years. Germany, Japan and UK give more aid to countries with competitive electoral systems, but for these countries Japan and UK substitute aid with trade. The substitution disappears for UK during election years. Japan and UK also reward countries for which they are important export markets with more aid, but only during non-election years for Japan. During election years, Germany cuts aid to non-competitive countries, but gives more aid to non-competitive countries for which it is an export destination. There is weak evidence that France substitutes aid with market access for politically competitive countries.

Chapter 2 focuses on recipient incentives. I extend the Grossman and Helpman (1996) model of elections and special interests by adding foreign aid. I show that with conditional aid when the preferred policy of the donor and that of the special interest group are not aligned, the latter has an incentive to alter election probabilities so that the opposition party wins and implements the lobby's preferred policy. Under these circumstances, the government has an incentive to substitute away from conditional foreign aid. Furthermore, if the government has a higher probability of winning under unconditional aid, the lobby succeeds in asking the government to deviate the most in its policy stance.

In Chapter 3 I examine how China's growing importance as an export destination is related to countries' UN voting alignment with the US, and whether this relationship is different if the countries export oil and mineral resources that China. I find regional differences in UN voting alignment response. Latin American countries and Sub-Saharan African countries not heavily reliant on exports of oil and minerals show decreased political alignment with increased export dependence on China. UN voting alignment for the resource exporters from Sub-Saharan Africa do not vary with export dependence on China. Instead, they have a lower level of UN alignment with the US.

American Political Thought has presented somewhat of a challenge to many because of the conflict between the ideals found within the "American Creed" and the reality of America's treatment of ethnic and social minorities. The various forms of marginalization and oppression facing women, blacks, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans have been as much a part of the story of America as have been natural rights and the Constitution. Taking this into account, this thesis is an effort to argue that the radicalism on display in the Black Panther Party, a group that emerged in the turmoil of the 1960' s, was a direct descendant of the ideas found within the Black Power movement. It will be argued that these militant critiques of American society were radical, but were not so radical as to be viewed as outside of the context provided by the ideals found in the American Creed. In order to do so, it will be necessary first to present and analyze the various approaches toward explaining the content and nature of the American Creed. The Creed will be presented as separate from American political reality, as an ideal type. As a result it appears to be a rather amorphous tool which can be used both by supporters of a more robust realization of the Creed's ideals and those who wish to limit the scope of these ideals. Having discussed these approaches toward the American Creed, a discussion of radical political ideas will serve to introduce the Black Power movement and the later Black Panther Party. It will be argued that the radical ideas on display were born out of a frustration with American society, but were at the same time an endorsement of the American Creed. It will be concluded that the American Creed is a powerful force acting upon American political thought, so powerful that even those who should rationally reject the Creed forcefully embrace it.

African American English (AAE) is among the most studied dialects of American English (Gollan & Ferreira, 2009), and is spoken by most, but not all, African American people in the United States. It is a source of pride and identity within the community, unifying its speakers socially and linguistically. Outside of the community, however, AAE has a long and complicated history that is inexplicably entangled with race politics. By most accounts, AAE is regarded as a low status, stigmatized variety and as such has not been without controversy in social, political and educational circles. Its status, and the often controversial nature of AAE, has significantly impacted attempts to introduce it into educational settings, and has hindered its use by educators and child speakers as an accepted way to bootstrap language and literacy learning. This, despite mounting evidence of the impact of AAE on outcomes of language-supported academic skills, such as reading, writing and spelling (Brown et al., 2015; Craig et al., 2003; Puranik et al., 2020; Thomas-Tate et al., 2004; Thompson et al., 2004; Washington et al., 2019; Washington et al., 2018; Patton-Terry & Connor, 2010; Terry, 2006; Charity et al., 2004). The sections that follow present an overview of the history and origins of AAE, the pitfalls, promises, and potential future directions for the use of AAE in the classroom.

AbstractBreast cancer is the most common cancer among US Hispanics/Latinas; however, Hispanic/Latina women in the United States have historically shown a relatively low breast cancer incidence compared to non-Hispanic White or African American/Black women. Hispanics/Latinos are genetically diverse, with varying proportions of European, Indigenous American, African, and to a lesser extent, Asian continental genetic ancestry. This heterogeneous group has often been treated as a monolithic unit in cancer epidemiology, due to small sample sizes and the concomitant limitations in statistical power. Only a few breast cancer studies including Hispanics/Latinas have analyzed the correlation between individual genetic ancestry proportion and tumor subtype. Most of these studies were unable to provide conclusive evidence due to the reduced number of patients with available tumor subtype information (either from immunohistochemical markers or gene expression data). This chapter provides a brief description of results reported from breast cancer studies including US Hispanic/Latina or Latin American patients assessing the association/correlation between genetic ancestry and breast cancer subtype. Also discussed are possible explanations for reported findings and a perspective on how further studies could lead to more precise tumor subtype-specific risk assessment, treatment efficacy, and outcome prognosis in US Hispanics/Latinas and Latin American women.

AbstractThe ecological perspective of unequal exchange between core and peripheral countries or regions has been discussed at least since the 1980s, when Stephen Bunker analysed how the lack of political power in the Brazilian Amazon extractivist areas led to an unequal distribution of extraction costs and benefits, favouring central importing regions. Subsequent contributions are based on different theoretical perspectives, from Marxist and world-system approaches to thermodynamics and Odum’s energy framework. In Barcelona School of Environmental Social Science, researchers and students led by Joan Martínez-Alier have contributed empirically and theoretically to the ecologically unequal exchange approach advancement since the mid-1990s. This chapter analyses those contributions, highlighting their original interpretation of Latin American debates and theories. I discuss how the debate over the external debt in Latin America – which seriously affected these countries in the 1980s – and the main theories of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), have decisively influenced the unequal trade theoretical and empirical works developed at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB). Firstly, these works reinforced the Latin American environmental justice organizations’ claim for the recognition of an ecological debt from Global North to Global South. Secondly, they provided a renewed interpretation of ECLAC economist Raúl Prebisch’s hypothesis that trade terms are structurally unfavourable to peripheral countries.

AbstractWhile the media predominantly focuses on African migration to Europe, some scholars have noticed that African migrants are also undertaking longer and riskier journeys in search of better opportunities in destinations such as Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. In the presence of such an increase of African migrants in the continent, this chapter examines the growing phenomenon of African migration to Latin America in various aspects. Firstly, it offers an African migration literature review and explains the reasons why African migrants are choosing Latin American host or transit countries, offering a refutation of classical “push–pull” models and instead, proposing that Africans migrate for a variety of reasons including personal aspirations. Secondly, it provides an empirical exploration of patterns of African asylum seekers and refugees in the continent. Finally, the chapter explores the socio-political reception of these migrants in three main receiving countries: Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. In so doing, the chapter aims to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of African migration to non-traditional destinations, and highlight avenues for further research in the field of African migration studies. It also emphasises the need to move away from simplistic explanations based on push–pull models and to recognise the agency and diversity of African migrants.

AbstractThis chapter studies the influence of Western archaeological organisations on scientific and diplomatic issues in interwar Palestine. It analyses their role on a local scale and the establishment of a scientific network of archaeologists in Palestine from 1918 to 1938. The analysis from the archives of six schools and societies founded by Western powers in Jerusalem revealing the increasing influence of American scholars in the archaeological field. It asks what motivated American actors to invest in the archaeological field and related diplomatic issues, as the US government did not have direct political power in the Middle East at that time. It ultimately demonstrates the presence of informal American imperialism in scientific and diplomatic issues in relation to the British authorities during the Mandate period.

AbstractMost of Eriksen’s research over the years has somehow or other dealt with the local implications of globalization. He has looked at ethnic dynamics, the challenges of forging national identities, creolization and cosmopolitanism, the legacies of plantation societies and, more recently, climate change in the era of ‘accelerated acceleration’. Here we want to talk not just about cultural diversity and not just look at biological diversity, but both, because he believes that there are some important pattern resemblances between biological and cultural diversity. And many of the same forces militate against that and threaten to create a flattened world with less diversity, less difference. And, obviously, there is a concern for the future. We need to have an open ended future with different options, maximum flexibility and the current situation with more homogenization. We live in a time when there are important events taking place, too, from climate change to environmental destruction, and we need to do something about that. In order to show options and possibilities for the future, we have to focus on diversity because complex problems need diverse answers.Martina: I would like to start with a passion of mine to get into one of your main research themes: diversity. I’m a Marvel fan and, what is emerging, is a reduction of what Marvel has always been about: diversity in comics. There seems to be a standardization that reduces the specificity of each superhero and so it seems that everyone is the same in a kind of indifference of difference. So in this hyper-diversity, I think there is also a reduction of diversity. Do you see something similar in your studies as well?Thomas: It’s a great example, and it could be useful to look briefly at the history of thought about diversity and the way in which it’s suddenly come onto the agenda in a huge way. If you take a look at the number of journal articles about diversity and related concepts, the result is stunning. Before 1990, the concept was not much used. In the last 30 years or so, it’s positively exploded. You now find massive research on biodiversity, cultural diversity, agro-biodiversity, biocultural diversity, indigenous diversity and so on. You’ll also notice that the growth curve has this ‘overheating shape’ indicating exponential growth in the use of the terms. And why is this? Well, I think this has something to do with what Hegel described when he said that ‘the owl of Minerva flies at dusk,’ which is to say that it is only when a phenomenon is being threatened or even gone that it catches widespread attention. Regarding diversity, we may be witnessing this mechanism. The extreme interest in diversity talk since around 1990 is largely a result of its loss which became increasingly noticeable since the beginning of the overheating years in the early 1990s. So many things happened at the same time, more or less. I was just reminded yesterday of the fact that Nelson Mandela was released almost exactly a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There were many major events taking place, seemingly independently of each other, in different parts of the world. This has something to do with what you’re talking about, because yes, I think you’re right, there has been a reduction of many kinds of diversity.So when we speak of superdiversity, which we do sometimes in migration studies (Vertovec, 2023), we’re really mainly talking about people who are diverse in the same ways, or rather people who are diverse in compatible ways. They all fit into the template of modernity. So the big paradox here of identity politics is that it expresses similarity more than difference. It’s not really about cultural difference because they rely on a shared language for talking about cultural difference. So in other words, in order to show how different you are from everybody else, you first have to become quite similar. Otherwise, there is a real risk that we’d end up like Ludwig Wittgenstein’s lion. In Philosophical Investigations (Wittgenstein, 1983), he remarks that if a lion could talk, we wouldn’t understand what it was saying. Lévi-Strauss actually says something similar in Tristes Tropiques (Lévi-Strauss, 1976) where he describes meeting an Amazonian people, I think it was the Nambikwara, who are so close that he could touch them, and yet it is as though there were a glass wall between them. That’s real diversity. It’s different in a way that makes translation difficult. And it’s another world. It’s a different ontology.These days, I’m reading a book by Leslie Bank and Nellie Sharpley about the Coronavirus pandemic in South Africa (Bank & Sharpley, 2022), and there are rural communities in the Eastern Cape which don’t trust biomedicine, so many refuse vaccinations. They resist it. They don’t trust it. Perhaps they trust traditional remedies slightly more. This was and is the situation with HIV-AIDS as well. This is a kind of diversity which is understandable and translateable, yet fundamental. You know, there are really different ways in which we see the Cosmos and the universe. So if you take the Marvel films, they’ve really sort of renovated and renewed the superhero phenomenon, which was almost dead when they began to revive it. As a kid around 1970, I was an avid reader of Superman and Batman. I also read a lot of Donald Duck and incidentally, a passion for i paperi and the Donald/Paperino universe is one curious commonality between Italy and Norway. Anyway, with the superheroes, everybody was very white. They represented a the white, conservative version of America. In the renewed Marvel universe, there are lots of literally very strong women, who are independent agents and not just pretty appendages to the men as they had often been in the past. You also had people with different cultural and racial identities. The Black Panther of Wakanda and all the mythology which went with it are very popular in many African countries. It’s huge in Nigeria, for example, and seems to add to the existing diversity. But then again, as we were saying and as you observed, these characters are diverse in comparable within a uniform framework, a pretty rigid cultural grammar which presupposes individualism: there are no very deep cultural differences in the way they see the world. So that’s the new kind of diversity, which really consists more of talking about diversity than being diverse. I should add that the superdiversity perspective is very useful, and I have often drawn on it myself in research on cultural complexity. But it remains framed within the language of modernity.Martina: What you just said makes me think of contradictory dimensions that are, however, held together by the same gaze. How is it that your approach helps hold together processes that nevertheless tell us the same thing about the concept of diversity?Thomas: When we talk about diversity, it may be fruitful to look at it from a different angle. We could look at traditional knowledge and bodily skills among indigenous peoples, for example, and ideas about nature and the afterlife. Typically, some would immediately object that this is wrong and we are right and they should learn science and should go to school, period. But that’s not the point when we approach them as scholars, because then we try to understand their worlds from within and you realize that this world is experienced and perceived in ways which are quite different from ours. One of the big debates in anthropology for a number of years now has concerned the relationship between culture and nature after Lévi-Strauss, the greatest anthropological theorist of the last century. His view was that all cultures have a clear distinction between culture and nature, which is allegedly a universal way of creating order. This view has been challenged by people who have done serious ethnographic work on the issue, from my Oslo colleague Signe Howell’s work in Malaysia to studies in Melanesia, but perhaps mainly in the Amazon, where anthropologists argue that there are many ways of conceptualising the relationship between humans and everything else. Many of these world-views are quite ecological in character. They see us as participants in the same universe as other animals, plants and even rocks and rivers, and might point out that ‘the land does not belong to us – we belong to the land’. That makes for a very different relationship to nature than the predatory, exploitative form typical of capitalist modernity. In other words, in these cultural worlds, there is no clear boundary between us humans and non-humans. If you go in that direction, you will discover that in fact, cultural diversity is about much more than giving rights to minorities and celebrating National Day in different ethnic costumes, or even establishing religious tolerance. That way of talking about diversity is useful, but it should not detract attention from deeper and older forms of diversity.

Politics can be defined as the art of gaining, maintaining, and using power. Whether one employs a system-oriented approach or a study of revolutionary processes and structures, the focus still is on the concept of power, the process of its acquisition, as well as the maintenance and utilization of it. The essence of politics also can be denoted as power that can be defined as the social capacity of an individual, group, institution, or organization to impose its will, even in opposition, to another individual, group, institution, or organization. Historically, especially based on a Eurocentric perspective, politics (or political science) can be traced to the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome. Many scholars have proclaimed that "Plato" was the father of "political theory" and "Aristotle" was the parent of "political science." For Black Americans, the enslavement period, racial segregation, and the overall oppression of African Americans excluded most Black Americans from the political process and politics before the American Civil War. However, from the Reconstruction Era to the 1930s, a segment of the African American community did make great strides in the political arena in the United States. This chapter discusses both the highs and lows of this journey.

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world. A global language communication is inherent in him. This language is also distinguished by a significant diversity of dialects and speech. It appeared in the early Middle Ages as the spoken language of the Anglo-Saxons. The formation of the British Empire and its expansion led to the widespread English language in Asia, Africa, North America and Australia. As a result, the Metropolitan language became the main communication language in the English colonies, and after independence it became State (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and official (India, Nigeria, Singapore). Being one of the 6 Official Languages of the UN, it is studied as a foreign language in educational institutions of many countries in the modern time [1, 2, s. 12-14]. Despite the dozens of varieties of English, the American (American English) version, which appeared on the territory of the United States, is one of the most widespread. More than 80 per cent of the population in this country knows the American version of the British language as its native language. Although the American version of the British language is not defined as the official language in the US Federal Constitution, it acts with features and standards reinforced in the lexical sphere, the media and the education system. The growing political and economic power of the United States after World War II also had a significant impact on the expansion of the American version of the British language [3]. Currently, this language version has become one of the main topics of scientific research in the field of linguistics, philology and other similar spheres. It should also be emphasized that the American version of the British language paved the way for the creation of thousands of words and expressions, took its place in the general language of English and the world lexicon. “Okay”, “teenager”, “hitchhike”, “landslide” and other words can be shown in this row. The impact of differences in the life and life of colonists in the United States and Great Britain on this language was not significant either. The role of Nature, Climate, Environment and lifestyle should also be appreciated here. There is no officially confirmed language accent in the United States. However, most speakers of national media and, first of all, the CNN channel use the dialect “general American accent”. Here, the main accent of “mid Pppemestern” has been guided. It should also be noted that this accent is inherent in a very small part of the U.S. population, especially in Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. But now all Americans easily understand and speak about it. As for the current state of the American version of the British language, we can say that there are some hypotheses in this area. A number of researchers perceive it as an independent language, others-as an English variant. The founder of American spelling, American and British lexicographer, linguist Noah Pondebster treats him as an independent language. He also tried to justify this in his work “the American Dictionary of English” written in 1828 [4]. This position was expressed by a Scottish-born English philologist, one of the authors of the “American English Dictionary”Sir Alexander Craigie, American linguist Raven ioor McDavid Jr. and others also confirm [5]. The second is the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield, one of the creators of the descriptive direction of structural linguistics, and other American linguists Edward Sapir and Charles Francis Hockett. There is also another group of “third parties” that accept American English as a regional dialect [5, 6]. A number of researchers [2] have shown that the accent or dialect in the US on the person contains significantly less data in itself than in the UK. In Great Britain, a dialect speaker is viewed as a person with a low social environment or a low education. It is difficult to perceive this reality in the US environment. That is, a person's speech in the American version of the British language makes it difficult to express his social background. On the other hand, the American version of the British language is distinguished by its faster pace [7, 8]. One of the main characteristic features of the American language array is associated with the emphasis on a number of letters and, in particular, the pronunciation of the letter “R”. Thus, in British English words like “port”, “more”, “dinner” the letter “R” is not pronounced at all. Another trend is related to the clear pronunciation of individual syllables in American English. Unlike them, the Britons “absorb”such syllables in a number of similar words [8]. Despite all these differences, an analysis of facts and theoretical knowledge shows that the emergence and formation of the American version of the British language was not an accidental and chaotic process. The reality is that the life of the colonialists had a huge impact on American English. These processes were further deepened by the growing migration trends at the later historical stage. Thus, the language of the English-speaking migrants in America has been developed due to historical conditions, adapted to the existing living environment and new life realities. On the other hand, the formation of this independent language was also reflected in the purposeful policy of the newly formed US state. Thus, the original British words were modified and acquired a fundamentally new meaning. Another point here was that the British acharism, which had long been out of use, gained a new breath and actively entered the speech circulation in the United States. Thus, the analysis shows that the American version of the British language has specific features. It was formed and developed as a result of colonization and expansion. This development is still ongoing and is one of the languages of millions of US states and people, as well as audiences of millions of people. Keywords: American English, English, linguistics, accent.

[This Proceedings paper was revised and published in the 2019 issue of the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Volume 16] Aim/Purpose: Little is known of the cultural competence or leadership styles of a minority owned newspaper. This autoethnography serves to benchmark one early 1990s example. Background: I focused on a series of flashbacks to observe an African American weekly newspaper editor-in-chief for whom I reported to 25 years ago. In my reflections I sought to answer these questions: How do minorities in entrepreneurial organizations view their own identity, their cultural competence? What degree of this perception is conveyed fairly and equitably in the community they serve? Methodology: Autoethnography using both flashbacks and article artifacts applied to the leadership of an early 1990s African American weekly newspaper. Contribution: Since a literature gap of minority newspaper cultural competence examples is apparent, this observation can serve as a benchmark to springboard off older studies like that of Barbarin (1978) and that by examining the leadership styles and editorial authenticity as noted by The Chicago School of Media Theory (2018), these results can be used for comparison to other such minority owned publications. Findings: By bringing people together, mixing them up, and conducting business any other way than routine helped the Afro-American Gazette, Grand Rapids, proudly display a confidence sense of cultural competence. The result was a potentiating leadership style, and this style positively changed the perception of culture, a social theory change example. Recommendations for Practitioners: For the minority leaders of such publications, this example demonstrates effective use of potentiating leadership to positively change the perception of the quality of such minority owned newspapers. Recommendations for Researchers: Such an autoethnography could be used by others to help document other examples of cultural competence in other minority owned newspapers. Impact on Society: The overall impact shows that leadership at such minority owned publications can influence the community into a positive social change example. Future Research: Research in the areas of culture competence, leadership, within minority owned newspapers as well as other minority alternative publications and websites can be observed with a focus on what works right as well as examples that might show little social change model influence. The suggestion is to conduct the research while employed if possible, instead of relying on flashbacks.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

The Association of American Universities, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of University Presses have published a final report assessing the success of their five-year pilot project to encourage sustainable digital publication of and public access to scholarly books. The associations launched the Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) project in 2018 to publish humanities and social science scholarship on the internet, where these peer-reviewed works can be fully integrated into the larger network of scholarly and scientific research. The project engaged a network of more than 60 university presses and ultimately produced more than 150 open-access scholarly works. The books cover a wide range of topics in many disciplines, including philosophy, history, political science, sociology, and gender and ethnic studies. The pilot was designed to last five years, and the sponsoring associations committed to assessing its value to its target audience at the end of that period. The report analyzes whether the community of authors, institutions, libraries, and presses that participated in the pilot found it helpful. Author Nancy Maron of BlueSky to BluePrint surveyed and interviewed authors and TOME contacts at participating institutions to assess how each benefited from the pilot—from increased global readership to stronger relationships among libraries, research deans, and faculty.