Minority Viewpoint: Capturing Ethnic Minority Voices in Renfrewshire

The research reported in this paper is an abridged version of a study exploring the views of ethnic minority communities in Renfrewshire. The study provided a voice to these communities in relation to their awareness of Renfrewshire Council's services and initiatives targeting ethnic minority groups. The study also surveyed the extent to which ethnic minorities engage with ethnic minority organisations designed to support their needs, the challenges they face and how they feel they are viewed by the indigenous ‘white’ community. Based on a series of focus groups, the findings reveal a lack of awareness among participants of Council services and initiatives aimed at ethnic minority communities. There is a varied level of engagement with ethnic minority voluntary and third sector organisations, a range of challenges including language barriers, perceived and actual racism, and some apprehension as to how ethnic minority groups are perceived by the indigenous white community. There are implications for key stakeholders such as the Council and others who should review their policies and practices to ensure that the needs and concerns of ethnically diverse communities in Renfrewshire are being addressed.

A Stylistic Investigation of the Act of Murder in Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing

This paper is a functional stylistic study of a selected passage from Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass is Singing. In the novel The Grass is Singing, a white woman in Rhodesia is killed by her black servant but surprisingly the murder instead of bringing a stir spreads a silence in the local white community. Further, the text on an intuitive reading seems to absolve the murderer of the crime which forms the research question of the paper. Thus, close and systematic textual analysis of the text representing the murder scene was conducted and it was found that the linguistic choices of the text does create a semantic universe where the murder and the murdered are allegorical figures representing nature and nurture in a mutual conflict. The methodology for linguistic analysis of the selected text is borrowed from Michael Halliday’s theoretical system Systemic Functional Linguistics. The text is analysed by means of transitivity system which provides the investigative tools to study the representational choices of the text.

Missing and Misrepresented: Portrayals of Other Ethnic and Racialized Groups in a Greater Toronto Area Ethnocultural Newspaper

The vibrant ethnocultural press in the Greater Toronto Area is a testament to the multicultural reality of a metropolitan area where visible minorities are expected to be the majority by 2031. The GTA’s ethnocultural and racialized communities are served by more than 200 newspapers, many of them published in languages other than English or French. What role do these publications play in shaping how ethnic and racialized groups “see” each other? This case study examines how other groups are portrayed in the Chinese-language daily newspaper Ming Pao. With the exception of members of the White community, it concludes that other racial and ethnic groups are represented only to a limited extent and that, in some cases, they are also misrepresented.

Missing and Misrepresented: Portrayals of Other Ethnic and Racialized Groups in a Greater Toronto Area Ethnocultural Newspaper

The vibrant ethnocultural press in the Greater Toronto Area is a testament to the multicultural reality of a metropolitan area where visible minorities are expected to be the majority by 2031. The GTA’s ethnocultural and racialized communities are served by more than 200 newspapers, many of them published in languages other than English or French. What role do these publications play in shaping how ethnic and racialized groups “see” each other? This case study examines how other groups are portrayed in the Chinese-language daily newspaper Ming Pao. With the exception of members of the White community, it concludes that other racial and ethnic groups are represented only to a limited extent and that, in some cases, they are also misrepresented.

Archiving white community historical manuscripts in postcolonial Zimbabwe

This paper is premised on the observation that mainstream archival activities are the main cause and source of the “absences and silences” of the voices of the minority and the underrepresented in the archives. The aim of the study is to explain the context and documentation strategies of archiving and preservation of Historical Manuscripts (HM) of the white community in post-colonial Zimbabwe. In particular, the study seeks to: (a) Determine the legislative, regulatory framework for the management of HM in selected cultural heritage institutions in Zimbabwe; (b) Assess the acquisition policies and practices of mainstream cultural heritage institutions in Zimbabwe; (c) Describe the usage, purposes, and accessibility of both pre-archival and archival HM of the white community. The findings of the study revealed adequate provisions in the National Archives of Zimbabwe Act (2001) for the archiving of HM of the white community in Zimbabwe, although there were limitations of outdated policies for the institutions studied. The study also addressed the issue of limited funding and shrinking budgets which impeded on the operations of both selected cultural heritage institutions and white community associations. This resulted in failure to adhere to archiving/records management standards, and the upgrading of equipment and facilities, as well as the recruitment and retention of requisite and qualified staff. Overall, this endangers the HM collections to neglect and decay. HM were migrated from Zimbabwe to other countries regionally and abroad into private hands, and their extent, nature, condition of storage and status of preservation are undetermined.

Associations of Cytomegalovirus Infection With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Multiple Observational Cohort Studies of Older Adults

Background Whether latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in older adults has any substantial health consequences is unclear. Here, we sought associations between CMV-seropositivity and IgG titer with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in 5 longitudinal cohorts. Methods Leiden Longevity Study, Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk, Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins, and Leiden 85-plus Study were assessed at median (2.8–11.4 years) follow-up . Cox regression and random effects meta-analysis were used to estimate mortality risk dependent on CMV serostatus and/or IgG antibody titer, in quartiles after adjusting for confounders. Results CMV-seropositivity was seen in 47%–79% of 10 122 white community-dwelling adults aged 59–93 years. Of these, 3519 had died on follow-up (579 from cardiovascular disease). CMV seropositivity was not associated with all-cause (hazard ratio [HR], 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], .97–1.14) or cardiovascular mortality (HR, 0.97; 95% CI, .83–1.13). Subjects in the highest CMV IgG quartile group had increased all-cause mortality relative to CMV-seronegatives (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.04–1.29) but this association lost significance after adjustment for confounders (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, .99–1.29). The lack of increased mortality risk was confirmed in subanalyses. Conclusions CMV infection is not associated with all-cause or cardiovascular mortality in white community-dwelling older adults.

Sartre’s Existentialism for Grant and Jefferson’s Educational Commitment in Ernest J. Gaines’s Novel: A Lesson Before Dying Lord of the Flies

Racism and Injustice have put Jefferson, a poor young black man, into an electrocution for murder and burglary that he has never done. As a coloured, he cannot do anything than accept the defense attorney verdict – white American Supreme Court’s desegregation – who addresses him as a “hog.” It leaves an inferior feeling that he is nothing but a hog. Comparing him to a hog attracts Miss Emma’s protest that she would like him walking to the electric chair as a human. Therefore, to get Jefferson understands that he is worth a man, she asks Grant Wiggins – an educated black teacher to educate him so he could die a man. In fact, the biggest challenge Grant faces when he looks at Jefferson is his feeling of looking at himself as a man experiencing the same type of racism and discrimination at the oppressive white community. Whereas, educating Jefferson to be a man is difficult as he has to make himself confident with his existence before determining ways of assuring Jefferson as an existing man who will walk to the electric chair on two feet, not a hog. Educating is underpinning people to have great control over lives and surroundings. Its importance deals with functioning the knowledge significant to empower. This is convincing that Jefferson should be educated so that he will not degrade himself as coloured because of his inability to say even a word to defend himself. Using the existentialism philosophy, Grant and Jefferson’s educational commitment in A Lesson Before Dying is discussed based on five themes of Sartre’s existentialism. It reveals that Grant does not get any positive response once he starts teaching. Gradually, Jefferson speaks to him after being attracted by his personal feelings. Grant’s ultimate achievement is when he can make Jefferson writes a diary, to portray some individual matters. What Grant has accomplished is his ability to link the themes, relevant to the philosophy of education. Grant succeeds in transforming Jefferson as a man who has dignity.

The significance of truth and love in authentic racial reconciliation: A black evangelical’s appreciation of the theological contributions of James Cone

Racial reconciliation, far from being about civil conversation, requires whites to listen to the painful truths blacks have to tell about race in the United States. James Cone’s critique of the white church is held up as a truth that the white community must embrace even if it has substantial objections to the rest of Cone’s theology. Reconciliation means listening to the kind of hard truths Cone has to offer.