Ireland and immigration: explaining the absence of the far right

Garner seeks to explain the absence of far-right political formations in the history of the Republic of Ireland, especially in relation to immigration. He argues that the ‘mainstream’ nationalist parties have implemented a racialized governance of Ireland via the issue of citizenship (in the referendum of 2004). While hegemonic ideas on the racial purity of indigenous populations and the highly ambivalent attitudes and policies on immigration pursued over the last decade are characteristic of a broader European trend, this has not, in the Republic, been accompanied by meaningful far-right political mobilization. Ireland has frequently been seen as sui generis in political terms, and indeed emerges in some ways as a counter-case: increasing hostility towards Others has been identified in the midst of rapid economic growth and political stability. A variety of issues related to the country’s political development have given rise to an especially small left-wing vote, a nationalist centre ground and longlasting domination by a single populist party, Fianna Fa´ il. This party has been partnered in government since 1997 by a free-market party, the Progressive Democrats, who have contributed to Ireland’s movement towards neo-liberal policies and a highly functional approach to immigration. The transition from country of emigration to country of immigration has thus taken place against an ideological backdrop in which the imperatives of labour demand and consolidating domestic support for reform have made an uneasy match, resulting in the racialization of Irishness. The state has, however, amended the Constitution in order to qualify jus soli citizenship entitlement in the case of particular categories of people: those whose parents are not Irish nationals. The significant stakes of these changes are analysed in the context of state responses to Eire’s transition to a country of immigration, and the role of nationalist-populism in the country’s political culture.

The black middle class: middle class Afro-Caribbeans: a racial fraction of the British middle class or a class fraction of a racial group

This research examines the relationship between 'race' and class in Britain. This is achieved by considering how these two concepts articulate in the overall structuring of class relationships in a society which is typified by the incorporatation of black labour into a majority white society, This relationship is examined through an investigation of those black workers who occupy a position in the objectively defined middle class. The basic theme underlying this research is that 'race, in the form of structural racism, plays a significant role at two levels. Firstly, it serves to structure the class position of black labour in Britain. Secondly, it serves to determine the type of race, class and political consciousness generated by black labour. The study was carried out in the London area. Occupation was used as an indicator of 'objective' class position when selecting respondents to be included in the two survey populations required for the research. A 'network' approach was used to actually locate the respondents. In-depth interviews were carried out with all the respondents. The study concludes that the concepts of 'race' and class are not independent of each other in the overall structuring of class relationships between black and white labour. It is argued that the inter-relationship identified between these two concepts serves to highlight the fact that the structural position of black labour, the type of consciousness generated and the type of decisions taken by those who took part in the research are to a large extent a result of the structural constraints deriving from the effects of structural racism in Britain.

In defence of amateurism:on not professionalizing ethnic and racial studies

This piece suggests that the field of ethnic and racial studies is too diverse in theoretical and methodological approach and subject of study to constitute its own discipline. Instead, ethnic and racial studies remains a loosely defined space of interdisciplinary exchange. There is a sense of community among researchers in this field, but teaching continues to be organized to meet the imperatives of different home disciplines. This article argues that in these times of increasing bureaucracy, standardization and managerial intrusion into academic life, there is a positive benefit in retaining a relatively open space of inquiry where we can consider the construction of contemporary social boundaries.

UK and US board director perceptions of the significance of gender and racial diversity on board governance

This mixed-methods study examines the perceptions and opinions of United Kingdom FTSE 350, and US Fortune 500 board of director members regarding the significance of gender and racial diversity on board governance. Perceptions were gathered from eighty-two directors using self-reported surveys and semi-structured interviews. This thesis provides: (1) an opportunity to investigate the perceptions (opinions) of directors regarding the effects of board gender and racial diversity on new board appointments and on the dynamics of board decision making (2) an opportunity to investigate the perception (opinions) of directors regarding the effects of social capital, new board appointments and the dynamics of board decision making, and (3) an opportunity to investigate comparatively the differences between UK and US director perceptions regarding the effects of board gender and racial diversity on new board appointments and board decision making. My findings indicate that directors believe that expertise and experience are by far the most important attributes when decisions on the selection of new directors are being considered. While US directors report observing tangible benefits to gender and racial diversity, for their firms, as well as a willingness to consider diversity as an attribute in the selection process; most UK directors were strongly opposed to positive discrimination measures.1 A majority of directors do not believe that their own demographic characteristics, such as race or gender were attributes to their being selected to a board position; however white males perceive that these attributes were considered attributes to the appointment of diverse directors. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, male directors reported that they may be at a disadvantage for board selection when compared to their female counterparts, hence advocating for a selection process with minimal considerations of the demographic characteristics of new directors. Directors do not seem to consider diverse social capital of directors when making board appointments. Instead, US directors were more likely to be assisted in board appointments by their having similar social capital, and UK directors indicated that they only consider director expertise, and that expertise is considered to ensure a broad mix of skills and professional experience on the board.

Psychotherapy and social change:utilizing principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy to help develop new prejudice-reduction interventions

We propose that key concepts from clinical psychotherapy can inform science-based initiatives aimed at building tolerance and community cohesion. Commonalities in social and clinical psychology are identified regarding (1) distorted thinking (intergroup bias and cognitive bias), (2) stress and coping (at intergroup level and intrapersonal level), and (3) anxiety (intergroup anxiety and pathological anxiety). On this basis we introduce a new cognitive-behavioral model of social change. Mental imagery is the conceptual point of synthesis, and anxiety is at the core, through which new treatment-based approaches to reducing prejudice can be developed. More generally, we argue that this integration is illustrative of broader potential for cross-disciplinary integration in the social and clinical sciences, and has the potential to open up new possibilities and opportunities for both disciplines.

Responses to racial segregation in a black Miami community

The present study examines the extent to which blacks are segregated in the suburban community of Coconut Grove, Florida. Hypersegregation, or the general tendency for blacks and whites to live apart, was examined in terms of four distinct dimensions: evenness, exposure, clustering, and concentration. Together, these dimensions define the geographic traits of the target area. Alone these indices can not capture the multi-dimensional levels of segregation and, therefore, by themselves underestimate the severity of segregation and isolation in this community. This study takes a contemporary view of segregation in a Dade County community to see if segregation is the catalyst to the sometime cited violent response of blacks. This study yields results that support the information in the literature review and the thesis research questions sections namely, that the blacks within the Grove do respond violently to the negative effects that racial segregation causes. This thesis is unique in two ways. It examines segregation in a suburban environment rather than an urban inner city, and it presents a responsive analysis of the individuals studied, rather than relying only on demographic and statistical data. ^

Clash of identities in South Florida: An examination of the complexity of racial and national identity and their impact on ethnic solidarity between black Americans and Jamaicans

Immigrants from the West Indies and other nations challenge the simple United States dichotomy of blacks versus whites. Many apparently black Caribbean immigrants proclaim that they did not know they were “black” until they arrived in the U.S. They seek to maintain their national identity and resist identity and solidarity with Black Americans. In response, many Black Americans respond that the immigrants are simply being naive, that U.S. society demands simple racial identity. Regardless of one's self-identity and personal history, in the U.S., if you look black, you are black, was their thinking. ^ This study examines the contemporary struggle of identity and solidarity among and between Black Americans and Jamaicans living in South Florida (Broward and Miami-Dade counties). Even though the primary focus of this study is to examine the relationship between Black Americans and Jamaicans, other West Indian nationals will be addressed more generally. The primary research problem of this study is to determine why the existence of common ancestry and physical traits are insufficient for an assumption of ethnic solidarity between Black Americans and Jamaicans. ^ In examining this problem, I felt that depth rather than breadth would provide insight into the current state of polarization between Black Americans and Jamaicans. To this end, a qualitative study was designed. A non-random snowball sample consisting of forty-seven informants was selected for this study. Realizing that such a technique presents problems with generalizations beyond the sample, this approach was, nonetheless, the most suitable for the current research problem. One of the initial challenges of this research was the use of the label “black” in discussing Caribbean immigrants. Unlike America, where distinctions based on skin color were at the bedrock of America's formation, this was not the case in the Caribbean. In the Caribbean skin color was an important marker as an indicator of class, rather than of race. Therefore, I refrained from using the label, “black Jamaicans,” but rather used Jamaicans throughout. ^

Inter-subjective and transnational racial effects: The role of the United States in the formation and evolution of the collective perception and racial relations in Cuba, 1898–1902

Since the arrival of the first African slaves to Cuba in 1524, the issue of race has had a long-lived presence in the Cuban national discourse. However, despite Cuba’s colonial history, it has often been maintained by some historians that race relations in Cuba were congenial with racism and racial discrimination never existing as deep or widespread in Cuba as in the United States (Cannon, 1983, p. 113). In fact, it has been argued that institutionalized racism was introduced into Cuban society with the first U.S. occupation, during 1898–1902 (Cannon, 1983, p. 113). This study of Cuba investigates the influence of the United States on the development of race relations and racial perceptions in post-independent Cuba, specifically from 1898-1902. These years comprise the time period immediately following the final fight for Cuban Independence, culminating with the Cuban-Spanish-American War and the first U.S. occupation of Cuba. By this time, the Cuban population comprised Africans as well as descendants of Africans, White Spanish people, indigenous Cubans, and offspring of the intermixing of the groups. This research studies whether the United States’ own race relations and racial perceptions influenced the initial conflicting race relations and racial perceptions in early and post-U.S. occupation Cuba. This study uses a collective interpretative framework that incorporates a national level of analysis with a race relations and racial perceptions focus. This framework reaches beyond the traditionally utilized perspectives when interpreting the impact of the United States during and following its intervention in Cuba. Attention is given to the role of the existing social, political climate within the United States as a driving influence of the United States’ involvement with Cuba. This study reveals that emphasis on the role of the United States as critical to the development of Cuba’s race relations and racial perceptions is credible given the extensive involvement of the U.S. in the building of the early Cuban Republic and U.S. structures serving as models for reconstruction. U.S. government formation in Cuba aligned with a governing system reflecting the existing governing codes of the U.S. during that time period.

Navigating racial boundaries: The one-drop rule and mixed-race Jamaicans in South Florida

Like many West Indians, mixed-race Jamaican immigrants enter the United States with fluid notions about race and racial identifications that reflect socio-political events in their home country and that conflict with the more rigid constructions of race they encounter in the U.S. This dissertation explores the experiences of racially mixed Jamaicans in South Florida and the impact of those experiences on their racial self-characterizations through the boundary-work theoretical framework. Specifically, the study examines the impact of participants’ exposure to the one-drop rule in the U.S., by which racial identification has been historically determined by the existence or non-existence of black forebears. Employing qualitative data collected through both focus group and face-to-face semi-structured interviews, the study analyzes mixed-race Jamaicans’ encounters in the U.S. with racial boundaries, and the boundary-work that reinforces them, as well their response to these encounters. Through their stories, the dissertation examines participants’ efforts to navigate racial boundaries through choices of various racial identifications. Further, it discusses the ways in which structural forces and individual agency have interacted in the formation of these identifications. The study finds that in spite of participants’ expressed preference for non-racialism, and despite their objections to rigid racial categories, in seeking to carve out alternative identities, they are participating in the boundary-making of which they are so critical.^

Decreasing Law Enforcement Applicants and Racial Profiling – Reversing the Trends

Valuing Polyrhythmic Realities and Critical Theories, specifically Critical Race Theory, is facilitated by Interdisciplinary inquiry. Racial Profiling will be utilized to demonstrate how acknowledging the lived experiences of individuals and viewing situations from the oppressed viewpoint will positively impact the number of Blacks in law enforcement.

A phenomenological exploration of Black male law enforcement officers' perspectives of racial profiling and their law enforcement career exploration and commitment

This phenomenological study explored Black male law enforcement officers' perspectives of how racial profiling shaped their decisions to explore and commit to a law enforcement career. Criterion and snow ball sampling was used to obtain the 17 participants for this study. Super's (1990) archway model was used as the theoretical framework. The archway model "is designed to bring out the segmented but unified and developmental nature of career development, to highlight the segments, and to make their origin clear" (Super, 1990, p. 201). Interview data were analyzed using inductive, deductive, and comparative analyses. Three themes emerged from the inductive analysis of the data: (a) color and/or race does matter, (b) putting on the badge, and (c) too black to be blue and too blue to be black. The deductive analysis used a priori coding that was based on Super's (1990) archway model. The deductive analysis revealed the participants' career exploration was influenced by their knowledge of racial profiling and how others view them. The comparative analysis between the inductive themes and deductive findings found the theme "color and/or race does matter" was present in the relationships between and within all segments of Super's (1990) model. The comparative analysis also revealed an expanded notion of self-concept for Black males – marginalized and/or oppressed individuals. Self-concepts, "such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and role self-concepts, being combinations of traits ascribed to oneself" (Super, 1990, p. 202) do not completely address the self-concept of marginalized and/or oppressed individuals. The self-concept of marginalized and/or oppressed individuals is self-efficacy, self-esteem, traits ascribed to oneself expanded by their awareness of how others view them. (DuBois, 1995; Freire, 1970; Sheared, 1990; Super, 1990; Young, 1990). Ultimately, self-concept is utilized to make career and life decisions. Current human resource policies and practices do not take into consideration that negative police contact could be the result of racial profiling. Current human resource hiring guidelines penalize individuals who have had negative police contact. Therefore, racial profiling is a discriminatory act that can effectively circumvent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission laws and serve as a boundary mechanism to employment (Rocco & Gallagher, 2004).

On the developmental continuity /discontinuity of early adolescent patterns of racial identity salience: Relations with later identities and psychosocial adjustment

Given the significant amount of attention placed upon race within our society, racial identity long has been nominated as a meaningful influence upon human development (Cross, 1971; Sellers et al., 1998). Scholars investigating aspects of racial identity have largely pursued one of two lines of research: (a) describing factors and processes that contribute to the development of racial identities, or (b) empirically documenting associations between particular racial identities and key adjustment outcomes. However, few studies have integrated these two approaches to simultaneously evaluate developmental and related adjustment aspects of racial identity among minority youth. Consequently, relations between early racial identity developmental processes and correlated adjustment outcomes remain ambiguous. Even less is known regarding the direction and function of these relationships during adolescence. To address this gap, the present study examined key multivariate associations between (a) distinct profiles of racial identity salience and (b) adjustment outcomes within a community sample of African-American youth. Specifically, a person-centered analytic approach (i.e., cluster analysis) was employed to conduct a secondary analysis of two archived databases containing longitudinal data measuring levels of racial identity salience and indices of psychosocial adjustment among youth at four different measurement occasions.^ Four separate groups of analyses were conducted to investigate (a) the existence of within-group differences in levels of racial identity salience, (b) shifts among distinct racial identity types between contiguous times of measurement, (c) adjustment correlates of racial identity types at each time of measurement, and (d) predictive relations between racial identity clusters and adjustment outcomes, respectively. Results indicated significant heterogeneity in patterns of racial identity salience among these African-American youth as well as significant discontinuity in the patterns of shifts among identity profiles between contiguous measurement occasions. In addition, within developmental stages, levels of racial identity salience were associated with several adjustment outcomes, suggesting the protective value of high levels of endorsement or internalization of racial identity among the sampled youth. Collectively, these results illustrated the significance of racial identity salience as a meaningful developmental construct in the lives of African-American adolescents, the implications of which are discussed for racial identity and practice-related research literatures. ^

Treatment attrition among racial /ethnic minority adolescents participating in a brief motivational intervention for substance use problems: The influence of individual, social, cultural, and treatment factors

The present study has the primary aim of examining the predictors of treatment attrition among racial/ethnic minority adolescents with substance use problems. This study explores the potential differential influence of specific individual, social, cultural, and treatment factors on treatment attrition within three racial/ethnic subgroups of adolescents. Participants: A unique feature of the study is the use of a racial/ethnic minority sample (N=453), [U.S.-born Hispanics (n = 262), Foreign-born Hispanics (n = 117), and African-Americans (n = 74)]. Multivariate logit analyses were used to examine the influence of specific factors on treatment attrition among the full sample of adolescents, as well as within each racial/ethnic subgroup. Consistent with expectations, multivariate logit analyses reveal that, the specific factors associated with attrition varied across the three racial/ethnic subgroups. Having parents with problem substance use, being on the waitlist, and being court mandated to treatment emerged as predictors of attrition among the US-born Hispanics, while only Conduct Disorder was significantly associated with greater attrition among foreign-born Hispanics. Finally, among African-Americans, parental crack/cocaine use, parental abstinence from alcohol, and being on the waitlist were predictive of attrition. Multiple factors were associated with treatment attrition among racial/ethnic minority adolescents with specific factors differentially predicting attrition within each racial/ethnic subgroup. African-American youth were more than twice as likely as their Hispanic counterparts to leave treatment prematurely. It is critically important to understand the predictors of attrition among racial/ethnic minority youth in order to better meet the needs of youth most at risk of dropping out. ^