phd thesis on racism

This research enquiry is concerned with how racial and ethnic identity is both managed and experienced by individuals within the workplace. This thesis is comprised of three separate and distinct empirical studies conducted with the purpose of uncovering the lived experiences of minority racial and ethnic individuals. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in order to study individual experiences of race and ethnicity from multiple complementary perspectives. Study 1 is a quantitative empirical study that uses biculturalism as a lens to conceptualise the experience of minority racial and ethnic individuals. The key contribution of this study is the establishment of a reliable and valid instrument to measure bicultural identity integration in the workplace.Study 2 is a qualitative empirical study that investigates how minority racial and ethnic individuals experience their ethnic identity in the workplace. The key contribution of this study is the development of a typology that identifies three distinct pathways through which an individual’s heritage culture can intersect with race, class and professional identity to influence their work-based behaviours.Study 3 is a qualitative empirical study that examines how minority racial and ethnic individuals experience their racial identity through the use of employee resource groups. The key contributions of this study are the development of a theoretical framework to conceptualise employee resource groups in general and a typology that identifies five roles that employee resource groups play to enhance the careers of minority racial and ethnic individuals as part of their social identity management processes.

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'Northeastern Delhi': 'Race', space and identity in a postcolonial, globalising city

Student thesis : Phd

• Northeast India
• contemporary India
• Global South
• postcoloniality
• globalising city
• race and space
• Racialisation

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Type : Thesis

Leiden University Student Repository

• Master thesis

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• Literary Studies (MA)

Defining Racism for a White Liberal Audience: Americanah and The Sellout

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Institutional racism, the police and stop and search: a comparative study of stop and search in the UK and USA

Delsol, Rebekah (2006) Institutional racism, the police and stop and search: a comparative study of stop and search in the UK and USA. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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This research examines the utility of the concept of institutional racism in explaining racial disparities in stop and search practice in the UK and US. The concept of institutional racism was introduced in 1960s America. The concept was politically powerful in expanding existing understandings of racial inequalities which focused on individual prejudice and cultural pathology, to showing how racist discourses can become embedded in the structures of social formation. There were a number of analytical weaknesses inherent in the term at its conception. The concept has been utilized at various points of history in the US and UK. The 1999 Macpherson Report brought the concept of institutional racism back to popular usage in the UK, particularly in discussions around discrimination and policing. Macpherson took as evidence of the existence of institutional racism the continued disparities in stop and search use. The power to stop and search people in the street suspected of criminal activity has long been a feature of British and American policing. Research in both countries has continually shown that these powers are being disproportionately exercised against ethnic minorities. Thus this thesis explores whether the concept is useful in explaining disproportionate stop and search outcomes. The research is based on a study of police officers from two forces in the UK and two police departments in the US. It uses semi-structured interviews, observations and draws on official policy documents and statistics. The purpose of the research is to gain an understanding of the circumstances and decision-making by officers as they conduct stop and search and to understand the context in which these decisions take place. The findings reveal that discriminatory outcomes in stop and search are the product of not only the actions of individual officers but also national and local policies and practices. These policies and practices are devised and implemented by social actors. The disproportionate outcomes not only result from racism but also prejudice based on class and gender. The concept of institutional racism reifies individual institutions and obscures the role of social actors in institutions, who shape the policies and practices of an institution. Without an understanding of the contexts in which people draw on race ideas and what features of their social position allows them to assert these ideas into the policies and practices of an institution we are unable to apportion responsibility and build reform agendas. Thus institutional racism fails to explain the disparities in stop and search use in the UK and US.

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Honors Degree Thesis: Racism at the University of Cape Town: Black students experiences 20 years after democracy

2014, University of Cape Town

The University of Cape Town (UCT) prides itself in being a transformed and non-racial institution where many cultures and races are equally valued (www.uct.co.za); however, Black students at the university leave with a different experience. Recent events have pointed to ongoing racism within the university. For example, the Varsity, the UCT student newspaper, published an article just last year about students finding White people as the more attractive race and Black people as the least attractive race (varsitynespaper.co.za). This caused a national outcry in South Africa regarding the university publishing an article that perpetuated racism at the university. Although the conversation around the incident suggested that this was an isolated incident, many Black students at UCT still experience discrimination, exclusion and isolation. The racism that students experience at the university is detrimental to the students in many different ways and that is why this thesis is very important in order to shed light to their painful experiences. Racism at an interpersonal, structural and institutional level affects Black students emotional well-being, mental health and their academic performance (Moodley, n.d.); therefore, it is important for the university to engage with Black students about their experiences in order to seek ways of creating a positive and healthy environment for all its students. Although the increasing number of Black students at the university is seen by the institution as a sign of transformation, the growing Black student population requires an in-depth reading of Black students’ experiences and whether to them transformation is occurring at the university. Such qualitative research is critical to inform transformation policies and programmes at UCT. Taking this into consideration, my research seeks to ask, despite transformation policies at the university, how do Black students experience racism at UCT today? To answer this question I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with six Black students at UCT who come from the townships and documented their experiences. In this thesis I argue that despite many policies to foster transformation, UCT remains untransformed and marginalizes Black students, and is ultimately still a racist institution. I also argue that the racism and institutional exclusion that happens at the university is also indicative of the broader South Africa that remains racist and institutionally untransformed.

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