Omari L. Dyson

Bio: Omari L. Dyson is an academic researcher from Guilford College. The author has contributed to research in topics: Constitution & Place-based education. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 7 publications receiving 116 citations. Previous affiliations of Omari L. Dyson include South Carolina State University.

Making daddies into fathers: community-based fatherhood programs and the construction of masculinities for low-income African American men.

Abstract: In this analysis, we explore how low-income African American fathers build understandings of successful manhood in the context of community-based responsible fatherhood programs. Drawing on life history interviews with 75 men in Illinois and Indiana, we explore men’s attempts to fulfill normative expectations of fatherhood while living in communities with limited resources. We examine the efforts of community-based fatherhood programs to shape alternative African American masculinities through facilitation of personal turning points and “breaks with the past,” use of social support and institutional interventions, and the reframing of provision as a priority of successful fatherhood. We refer to Connell’s hegemonic masculinity framework (Connell in Masculinities, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995) and discuss how both men and programs borrow from hegemonic and street masculinities to develop alternative approaches to paternal involvement for marginalized men.

The Journey into an Unfamiliar and Uncomfortable Territory: Exploring the Role and Approaches of Race in PR Education

Abstract: Race has been, and continues to be, one of those topics that is timely, current, and highly relevant in contemporary society; however, discussion and problematizing of race in public relations (PR) scholarship has been mostly absent (Edwards, 2010; Pompper, 2005). This study continues to address this void by exploring how some faculty perceive the role of race in PR, as well as how they approach race in their curriculum. This article, using a mixed-method design of the e-mail interview method (Hunt & McHale, 2007) and an autoethnographic analysis (Ellis & Bochner, 2000) of the first author's PR experiences, demonstrates the challenges that some faculty members face, as well as the opportunities that they have undertaken to integrate race into the PR curriculum in meaningful ways.

Nobody Knows My Name: The Marginalization of Mark Clark in America's Collective Consciousness

Abstract: Introduction For many Americans, the 1960s began with tremendous promise as Senator John F Kennedy (D-MA) was elected to serve as the thirty-fifth president of the United States Those Americans, especially among America's youth, viewed Kennedy's triumph as a symbol of hope for a better future Sadly, the decade ended as tragically as it euphorically began In the summer of 1963, Medgar Evers, a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was gunned down in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi Five months later, President Kennedy's life was cut short by a sniper's bullet in Dallas, Texas In 1965, Malcolm X, a Muslim religious leader and black nationalist, was killed following a dispute over the leadership and direction of the Nation of Islam Then, in the spring of 1968, the assassinations of civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, and Democratic presidential hopeful Robert E Kennedy contributed to the demise of domestic liberalism by the end of that turbulent decade The violence that shattered America's hope for a better future in the 1960s included instances of police brutality against leaders of the Black Panther Party (BPP) (1) On December 4, 1969, members of a special unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's office staged a pre-dawn raid on a Black Panther residence on Chicago's Westside based on intelligence claiming that "a cache of illegal weapons, including sawed-off shotguns and riot guns stolen from the Chicago police, was stored in the Panther apartment at 2337 West Monroe Street" (2) As law enforcement officials stormed the apartment, Mark Clark, Defense Captain of the Peoria Branch of the BPR and Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Illinois State Chapter of the BPP, were fatally shot Photographers for the Chicago Tribune took pictures of police officers removing the bodies of Clark and Hampton from the apartment Although pictures of police officers carrying out the dead following a violent confrontation are not altogether rare, what is noteworthy about the photograph is the expression worn by one of the officers, who seemed to savor the moment by smiling perversely as he looked squarely into the camera (3) Within hours of the incident, rumors and varying accounts of the raid spread like wildfire In a preemptive move, police officials issued a statement declaring that Clark and Hampton died during a shoot-out that they themselves initiated Representatives of the BPP countered this claim by describing what occurred that morning as a 'shoot-at' rather than a shoot-out Indeed, a ballistics analysis of the nearly one hundred shots fired during the raid proved that only one came from inside the apartment--a single shot fired from Clark's shotgun BPP officials further noted that one of the officers shot Hampton in the head at point-blank range while he slept, an assertion supported by the coroner's report (4) In essence, according to the Panthers' version of the incident, Clark and Hampton never stood a chance of coming out of the raid alive To support their claims, the Panthers provided tours of the bullet-riddled residence to anyone who expressed an interest to view it Hundreds braved the wintry conditions over the next several days to get a sense of what occurred at 2337 West Monroe Street on the morning of December 4, 1969 Community residents, reporters, filmmakers, elected officials, clergy, and civic leaders visited the apartment According to some accounts, what many witnessed sickened them Richard G Stern, an English professor at the University of Chicago, vividly recalled: Me and three other colleagues stood in line with about 100 other people waiting to enter the apartment When we finally entered, it was clear that something very bad, very ugly had taken place there; the place smelled of death? Charles P Henry, a professor of African American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley who was then a graduate student at the University of Chicago, remembered anxiously waiting in the cold to view the apartment: " …

Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives

Abstract: Introduction - after the science question in feminism. Part 1 Science: feminism confronts the sciences how the women's movement benefits science - two views why \"physics\" is a bad model for physics. Part 2 Epistemology: what is feminist epistemology \"strong objectivity\" and socially situated knowledge feminist epistemology in and after the enlightenment. Part 3 \"Others\": \"...and race?\" - the science question in global feminism common histories, common destinies - science in the first and third worlds \"real science\" thinking from the perspective of lesbian lives reinventing ourselves as other Conclusion - what is a feminist science.

Understanding the curriculum

Abstract: The curriculum is crucial to every educational setting At first glance, the official curriculum, which usually comes packaged in a formidable array of official documents, might seem dry or boring but in reality it is a springboard to powerful and effective classroom teaching Understanding the basic principles of curriculum design is an important first step for a preservice teacher, towards making sense of curriculum documents and creating engaging units and lessons for children and young people This chapter is limited to the discussion of a handful of key topics, with a view to equipping you for further specialised reading at a later stage These topics are: the curriculum stakeholders, national and state curricula, constructing local curricula at the level of the school and the classroom, understanding that the curriculum constantly changes and examining student-centred approaches to curriculum design and construction

A Community Psychology of Men and Masculinity: Historical and Conceptual Review

Abstract: This paper introduces the special section by presenting a historical and conceptual review of theory and research on the psychology of men and masculinity and then introducing the section’s papers. Men have power because of their gender, but differ in access to power based on other individual characteristics such as social class, income, education, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or physical strength. Men typically have been studied as generic rather than gendered beings in psychology. In contrast, a gendered analysis of men highlights the ways in which men’s experience, masculinity, and behavior contribute to health and social problems and to resources commonly addressed by community psychologists. Our gendered analysis suggests ways of working with men in group, organizational, and community settings to create positive individual and social change. Crucial to this analysis is the paradox that enacting masculinity both privileges and damages men. A second paradox stems from men having power as a group over women while individual men feel powerless or victimized by women as a group. The papers in this volume illustrate key themes of our historical and conceptual review through studies of adolescent and adult men as fathers, patients, partner abusers, support group participants and community members, and through examination of the impact of their gendered identities and behavior on health, well being, and justice.