http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/race Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:10:34 -0400 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:10:34 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1867/edgar-allan-poe-and-race-analyzing-the-absent-negro-trope-in-gothic-literature By Jennifer Celeste - Edgar Allan Poe is known for writing about a wide variety of controversial topics, such as death, murder, and addiction. However, one topic that his work tends to avoid is race and/or racism. Instead, he often chooses to include marginalized groups of people in tertiary roles, intentionally or unintentionally utilizing stereotypes associated with each marginalized subject to enhance or reveal insights on many of the more overt themes included in his literature. This paper will analyze Pompey, a side character in Poe’s “How to Write a Blackwood Article” in order to assess how... Fri, 22 Jan 2021 09:21 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1867/edgar-allan-poe-and-race-analyzing-the-absent-negro-trope-in-gothic-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1862/the-development-of-the-modern-author-in-horace-walpoles-castle-of-otranto-and-strawberry-hill By Megan E. Ritchie - Much contemporary literary criticism has been devoted to Horace Walpole’s novel, The Castle of Otranto; so, too, has much criticism been directed toward the author’s villa, Strawberry Hill. And yet the conversations surrounding these two entities have largely been kept exclusive. This article seeks to establish a relationship between The Castle of Otranto and Strawberry Hill, given that the latter was constructed at a point in literary history where writing shifts from a private patronage system, heavily linked to the physical manuscript, to a commercial economy... Fri, 15 Jan 2021 12:44 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1862/the-development-of-the-modern-author-in-horace-walpoles-castle-of-otranto-and-strawberry-hill http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1827/exploring-the-role-of-skin-tone-among-low-income-black-college-students By Chelsea G. Gardner - Light-skinned slaves, who were often the children of Black female slaves who were raped by their White masters, received slightly privileged treatment in comparison to their dark-skinned counterparts. For example, light-skinned slaves were allowed to work in the house of the master instead of working on the field. They also had more access to learning trade skills and received some schooling (Hunter 2007). During slavery, there was a small class of freed people who were early business and community leaders; these individuals were more likely to be light-skinned. After slavery, light-skinned Blacks... Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1827/exploring-the-role-of-skin-tone-among-low-income-black-college-students http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1815/racialized-discourse-and-economies-of-female-saracen-bodies-in-the-sultan-of-babylon By Claire Crow - The politics of trade relations between Europe and the East emerge in uncanny fashions in the fifteenth-century Middle English (ME) Charlemagne romance The Sowdone of Babylone (The Sowdone). While no diplomatic transactions between Saracens and Europeans take place, peculiar, hyper-exoticized goods at times do fall into the possession of Charlemagne's men, such as Saracen princess Floripas' magic girdle that nourishes the Twelve Peers in captivity or Ferumbras' healing balm that Oliver throws into the river mid-battle.[1] What Geraldine Heng refers to as the "mercantile imaginary" in the Middle... Mon, 12 Oct 2020 07:47 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1815/racialized-discourse-and-economies-of-female-saracen-bodies-in-the-sultan-of-babylon http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1804/james-e-webb-and-the-grand-strategy-of-the-moon-landing-a-political-administrative-and-contextual-analysis By Charlotte Waldman - The man who powered NASA through the Apollo Era had no background in science or engineering. Rather, NASA achieved one of history’s most thrilling tasks on an ambitious timeline in turbulent political conditions precisely because NASA Administrator James E. Webb operated so successfully as a strategist, not a scientist. The moon landing mapped onto cyclical strategic plans, folding into larger visions of the presidency and splitting into political and technical spheres. Webb formulated tactics for each strategic plan and demonstrated a dynamic perception for the way NASA's political and... Mon, 28 Sep 2020 09:21 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1804/james-e-webb-and-the-grand-strategy-of-the-moon-landing-a-political-administrative-and-contextual-analysis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1722/old-history-in-the-new-cuba-exploring-the-legacy-of-race-and-economic-inequality-on-the-island-today By Elizabeth L. Drake - After the fall of the USSR, the Cuban government implemented temporary economic liberalization policy reforms that remain today.3 Under Raúl Castro's leadership the economy continues to expand.4 However, as the economy broadens by moving towards a free-market model, there is an increase in both economic and social exclusivity stemming from the racist history of slavery on the island. Thus, Afro-Cubans lack the ability to participate in the free market aspect of the Cuban economy, placing them at an economic disadvantage. While current literature discusses Cuba in terms of either economic... Thu, 30 Nov 2017 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1722/old-history-in-the-new-cuba-exploring-the-legacy-of-race-and-economic-inequality-on-the-island-today http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture By Conner R. Hayes - Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko offers a complex representation of the semiotic and socio-political meaning of seventeenth-century torture and death and the intersectional manner in which physical agony coincides with authoritative colonial politics. The novella’s protagonist, Oroonoko, is hyperbolically described in terms of his Eurocentric physicality and aristocratic traits; this descriptive treatment reinforces his singularity from his slave peers and objectifies him as the subject of their mass spectatorship. His sharp physical, cultural, and ideological divergence from the collective slave... Tue, 30 May 2017 09:28 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1564/belonging-in-a-new-home-discursive-othering-of-latin-american-immigrants-in-us-print-media By Bill Kakenmaster - The year 2015 saw heightened racial and ethnic tension in the United States, with particular regard to Latin American immigrants and the U.S. presidential election. Discourse theory assumes that identity (re)production serves to legitimize, institutionalize, and eventually internalize hegemonic and resistant discursive portrayals of political actors and actor groups. Some discourse analysts attempts to "reveal racism" in society and combat that racism. Yet, to the extent that "racism" represents a series of systemic and systematically oppressive power structures, highlighting racist prejudices... Sat, 31 Dec 2016 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1564/belonging-in-a-new-home-discursive-othering-of-latin-american-immigrants-in-us-print-media http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly By Miriam Cummins - This article contributes to the debate as to whether Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill and M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang are ultimately essentialist or anti-essentialist, accentuating or disavowing difference. It argues that both plays are successfully anti-essentialist by examining the discursive relationship between categories of gendered, racial and national identity. For both Churchill and Hwang, categories of gender, race and nation can be mutually deconstructed in the same way that they are mutually constructed because their foundation in discourse is fundamentally unstable. Thus, when fluid... Tue, 25 Oct 2016 09:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1467/intersections-of-gender-race-and-nation-in-cloud-nine-and-m-butterfly http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1443/the-colonial-subject-seeing-the-unseen-and-the-construction-of-subjectivity-in-apocalypse-now-and-la-noire-de By Eric N. Hahn - The complex and multifaceted nature of cinema is further complicated by the unmistakable tension between the quasi-objective potential inherent in the medium—the camera merely operating as an observer—versus the unrestricted camera which functions as a metaphysical transport to the psychological and even physical experience of a distinct body. Upon close examination, it can be said that both of these modes of address are unique to cinema and arguing for the significance of one over the other is a fool’s errand. As such, this paper does not address this arguably problematic dichotomy... Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:04 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1443/the-colonial-subject-seeing-the-unseen-and-the-construction-of-subjectivity-in-apocalypse-now-and-la-noire-de http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1573/the-american-dream-discourses-of-equality-and-achievability-for-black-americans By Emily Dalgo - What is the meaning of the American Dream for educated black Americans? How do perceptions of the equality and the achievability of the American Dream among educated black Americans correlate with the dominant discourse on the subject? This research project determines the dominant discourses of perceived equality and opportunity on the American Dream for educated black Americans, taking into account the current context and historical context of black Americans. Throughout history, the American Dream has been central to the American value system and has helped to define the essence of American... Tue, 31 May 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1573/the-american-dream-discourses-of-equality-and-achievability-for-black-americans http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1139/a-framing-analysis-of-media-coverage-of-the-rodney-king-incident-and-ferguson-missouri-conflicts By Sarah Bowen - This study explored how news organizations presented the Ferguson, Missouri, story in comparison with a similar Rodney King incident that happened two decades ago. The purpose of this study was to analyze if and how the mainstream news media have progressed in covering racially sensitive news stories. Background research on the concept of media frames enabled the author to conduct a comparative analysis on eight newspaper articles, two broadcast segments, and two magazine covers. Overarching frames focused on the conflict between the public and authorities, black hardship, and black male youth... Sun, 31 May 2015 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1139/a-framing-analysis-of-media-coverage-of-the-rodney-king-incident-and-ferguson-missouri-conflicts http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1031/survival-and-morality-in-cormac-mccarthys-the-road-exploring-aquinian-grace-and-the-boy-as-messiah By Carla M. Sanchez - In the first scene of The Road (2006), Cormac McCarthy encapsulates the bleak psychology of his post-apocalyptic novel with a metaphor of blindness that symbolically translates the confusion and hopelessness of his desolate world. In a normal setting, the father’s moment of awakening would mean a return to consciousness and the certainty of reality, a relief from the hauntingly cryptic realm of dreams. But in this landscape, where gloom corrupts the days like “the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world,” the clarity of waking is negated by a fear that only the refuge... Fri, 01 May 2015 06:41 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1031/survival-and-morality-in-cormac-mccarthys-the-road-exploring-aquinian-grace-and-the-boy-as-messiah http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1025/the-medicalization-of-blackness-rashid-johnson-and-the-diseased-connotations-of-race By Danielle Wu - "Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks" was a solo exhibition on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum from September 20, 2013 to January 6, 2014. The gestural painting Antibiotic (pictured below) differed from neighboring works because of its massive size, minimalist approach, and seemingly arbitrary title. This case study on Johnson's use of medium and semiotics reveals how the artist explores the parallels between germaphobia and xenophobia. Although he is often identified as "post-black" artist, Johnson refuses to allow the contemporary era pass as “post-racial,” emphasizing... Fri, 10 Apr 2015 08:30 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1025/the-medicalization-of-blackness-rashid-johnson-and-the-diseased-connotations-of-race http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1014/international-travel-nation-branding-and-orientalism-conflicting-portrayals-of-americanism-in-the-amazing-race By Elizabeth A. Montroy - Beyond merely claiming to represent 'reality,' reality television shows also inherently operate as “powerful ideological source[s] containing multiple sites of meaning... that help viewers to make sense of their social, political, economic and cultural worlds” (Winslow, 2010, p. 268). One of the ways this is done is by “taking people out of their own environment and placing them in one which is organised around values different from those they have previously expressed” (Lyle, 2008, p. 319). This is effectively demonstrated in The Amazing Race (CBS, 2001-present), which... Tue, 17 Mar 2015 04:49 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1014/international-travel-nation-branding-and-orientalism-conflicting-portrayals-of-americanism-in-the-amazing-race http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1001/the-double-victory-campaign-and-the-black-press-a-conservative-approach-to-victory-at-home-and-abroad By Haley D. O'Shaughnessy - During World War II, the black press and several prominent black leaders called for a “Double V” victory against fascism abroad and against Jim Crow at home. With such a slogan, many historians regarded this campaign as the groundwork for the black revolts that characterized the civil rights movement. While there is ample evidence that the readers of the black press were receptive to a more militant approach, black newspapers themselves undertook a conservative effort to channel black militancy into nationalistic ends. By seeking government concessions rather than supporting militant... Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:29 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1001/the-double-victory-campaign-and-the-black-press-a-conservative-approach-to-victory-at-home-and-abroad http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/988/the-myth-of-obamas-post-racial-presidency-why-barack-obamas-election-didnt-end-racial-inequality-in-america By Breanna M. Bacon - The presidential campaign of Barack Obama was met with enthusiasm and controversy. If you were alive and cognizant at the time, you understood the importance and historic value of the 2008 election no matter your position. Barack Obama, the Hawaii-born Senator representing the state of Illinois, was the first black[1] candidate nominated by one of the two major political parties. Never before had there been a black candidate as viable to win the presidential election. The uniqueness of the Obama campaign led apolitical groups to actually get out and participate in the political process. The fervor... Sat, 07 Feb 2015 12:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/988/the-myth-of-obamas-post-racial-presidency-why-barack-obamas-election-didnt-end-racial-inequality-in-america http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/846/race-as-a-material-ideology By Jason Walsh - The persistence of racism within the working class is a fundamental problem for any Marxist analysis of race, and there have been several attempts to solve this problem within the Marxist tradition. Most traditional understandings, however, turn out to be theoretically inconsistent and lacking in terms of explanatory power when confronted with the historical realities of Italian, Irish, and African-American labor relations in the early 20th century. I will argue that bringing Louis Althusser's theories of the state and ideology to bear on the problem of working-class racism can offer a better... Sat, 21 Dec 2013 02:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/846/race-as-a-material-ideology http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/802/social-support-in-ptsd-an-analysis-of-gender-race-and-trauma-type By Hannah DeLong - The current study discusses social support systems and the ways in which they impact persons diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study analyzes three different variables (race/ethnicity, gender, and trauma type) in a group of 200 adults diagnosed with PTSD. Three measures, the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ), the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB), and the Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ) will be utilized to compare differences in the three variables: race/ ethnicity, gender, and trauma type. These variables will be analyzed using means-descriptive analysis... Thu, 21 Nov 2013 12:12 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/802/social-support-in-ptsd-an-analysis-of-gender-race-and-trauma-type http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/774/controversial-kin-transracial-adoption-in-hope-leslie-and-ramona By Melissa N. Gilstrap - Critics often ignore transracial adoption as a literary theme in both Catharine Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie; Or, Early Times in Massachusetts (1827) and Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, A Story (1884), as these two texts’ portrayals of the occurrence are often complicated and particularly ambiguous. Yet, understanding these two authors’ depictions of same-race and transracial adoptions is crucial to realizing they were imagining a new ethical paradigm for contact between whites and Native Americans — that of cross-racial care instead of cross-racial violence. This paper argues... Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:31 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/774/controversial-kin-transracial-adoption-in-hope-leslie-and-ramona http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1674/sexual-relations-between-elite-white-women-and-enslaved-men-in-the-antebellum-south-a-socio-historical-analysis By Anon S. Anon - There is ample evidence of sexual relations, from rapes to what appear to be relatively symbiotic romantic partnerships, between white slave masters and black women in the Antebellum South. Much rarer were sexual relations between white women and black slave men, yet they too occurred. Using an intersectional socio-historical analysis, this paper explores the factors that contributed or may have contributed to the incidence of sexual encounters between elite white women and slave men, the power dynamics embedded in them, and their implications in terms of sexual consent. The paper demonstrates... Sun, 18 Aug 2013 04:44 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1674/sexual-relations-between-elite-white-women-and-enslaved-men-in-the-antebellum-south-a-socio-historical-analysis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/730/the-apparition-of-fading-apartheid-racialized-vision-khaya-mthethwa-and-idols-sa By David W. Synyard - This essay examines the first black winner in 2012 on Idols SA, Khaya Mthethwa (Appendix 1), the TV format of the Idol brand, and the social construction of racialized vision in the context of South Africa as a post-colonial nation from a visual culture perspective. Theoretically, this essay presents an interdisciplinary approach of Marxist political economy, Debord’s concept of the spectacle (1983, p. 13), and Foucauldian biopower (2013, p. 134). Although somewhat contradictory, these theories present a nuanced understanding of how Mthethwa’s spectacle is encased in a racialized form... Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:40 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/730/the-apparition-of-fading-apartheid-racialized-vision-khaya-mthethwa-and-idols-sa http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/726/race-in-elite-american-universities-diversity-as-distraction By Katherine J. Wolfenden - From elite universities’ admissions publications and demographic data, an otherwise uninformed observer might conclude that race is now a problem of the past.[1] And because these institutions are considered to be ‘gatekeepers’ of economic mobility and cultural capital, their multicolored compositions are often viewed as evidence of the equality of opportunity supposedly available in the United States. Unfortunately, if we dig a little deeper, we find that racism has not disappeared, but has simply taken on a new form. An analysis of higher education reveals a larger truth about... Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/726/race-in-elite-american-universities-diversity-as-distraction http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/679/dialogic-conflict-and-speech-identity-in-jean-rhys-let-them-call-it-jazz By Grace E. Afsari-Mamagani - The books at her disposal, about murder and ghosts, speak to society’s understanding of crime, punishment, and the afterlife. But, for Selina, it is not “at all like those books tell you”: the stories offered within their pages do not apply to her, are not written in the language through which she understands herself. By presenting the narrative in the patois of the West Indian immigrant to Britain, Rhys produces both interior and exterior dialogic conflict. The narrator’s vernacular serves as one within a series of signifying systems, or, as Mikhail Bakhtin posited, speech... Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/679/dialogic-conflict-and-speech-identity-in-jean-rhys-let-them-call-it-jazz http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/675/john-temple-graves-and-the-lost-tribe-an-analysis-of-the-big-world-at-last-reaches-gees-bend By Mary A. Caple - An exhibition entitled “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in November, 2002 (McGee), bringing worldwide attention to a secluded hamlet in a curve of the Alabama River. Unbeknownst to many of the admirers of these brightly patterned blankets was that the national spotlight had once before been shone on the town. That time was sixty five years previous, in a feature article in The New York Times by prominent journalist John Temple Graves II. The contextual complexities of the article, “The Big World At Last Reaches Gee&rsquo... Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/675/john-temple-graves-and-the-lost-tribe-an-analysis-of-the-big-world-at-last-reaches-gees-bend http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/668/good-girls-gone-bad-race-and-gender-in-oxygens-the-bad-girls-club By Elijah Mercer - “Reality television” programs attempt to portray normal people in everyday situations. In recent years, the genre has boomed and essentially changed the landscape of television networks.[1] As reality programming continues to dominate television ratings, it has become increasingly commercialized both domestically and abroad. Meanwhile, many reality shows continue to reinforce traditional race and gender based stereotypes. Oxygen Network’s new hit reality show The Bad Girls Club (2006-present) is a product of this distorted format that supports profit-making and negative stereotypes... Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/668/good-girls-gone-bad-race-and-gender-in-oxygens-the-bad-girls-club http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/588/racial-uplift-acculturation-to-the-dominant-culture-in-contending-forces-by-pauline-e-hopkins By Aisha Rees - Domestic fiction reigned in women’s literature during the nineteenth-century. These narratives defined ”True Womanhood,” where the female exemplified four pillars: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. They are meant to reject the public sphere for more spiritual gains: true women were the moral compasses of society. Their influence in the home was supposed to project outward into society because of the true woman’s role as a wife, a mother, and a teacher. Amy Kaplan, in her work “Manifest Domesticity,” denotes that the “private feminized space... Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/588/racial-uplift-acculturation-to-the-dominant-culture-in-contending-forces-by-pauline-e-hopkins http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/417/examining-intersectionality-the-conflation-of-race-gender-and-class-in-individual-and-collective-identities By Chloe A. Diggins - Furthermore, hegemonic, hetero-normative discourse positions us (vis-à-vis one another) in a symbolic hierarchy that reflects and evaluates race, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Though we are all subjectified by the power of discourse, resistance may be found in deconstructing and interrogating the articulation between our various subjectivities. Intersectionality, for many theorists (see Brah, 1996; Brah and Phoenix, 2004; Lewis, 2006), is a way to challenge subjectification based on gendered assumptions, essentialized difference, racialization, and other post-colonial regimes... Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/417/examining-intersectionality-the-conflation-of-race-gender-and-class-in-individual-and-collective-identities http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/401/identity-in-conflict-race-and-violent-crime-in-south-africa-in-the-context-of-contemporary-insurgencies By Ethan D. Steyn - The issue of violence and ethnicity in criminal and war environments has many facets, and this article attempts to contextualize forms of violent crime in South Africa that involve identities within the theoretical discourse on contemporary warfare, with a specific focus on the functioning of white and black identities. Comparing crime with war is a familiar analogy in South Africa: from Koos Kombuis in the song “Reconciliation Day” (Bloedrivier, 2008) to J.M. Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace (1999), to Etienne van Heerden’s 30 Nagte in Amsterdam (2008), many artists have likened... Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:42 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/401/identity-in-conflict-race-and-violent-crime-in-south-africa-in-the-context-of-contemporary-insurgencies http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1689/race-class-and-oppression-solutions-for-active-learning-and-literacy-in-the-classroom By Steven A. Carbone II - Oppression tends to exist in compartmentalized, clearly labeled categories of race, social class, gender, or sexual preference. While these rigidly defined categories may have been applied to allow for rational discussion of problems and solutions, the truth is that they are inherently oppressive themselves. Hatt-Echeverria and Urrieta (2003) indicate that the oppression of class and race tend to intersect, creating a grey area of overlapping categorizations. They further assert that this “compartmentalization of oppression arises from imperialistic and institutionalized motivation to quantify... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:01 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1689/race-class-and-oppression-solutions-for-active-learning-and-literacy-in-the-classroom