• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.118-130
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• 2002

The frequency of prostate cancer has been increasing (1). Afflicting 10% of men older than the age of 65, it repre-sents the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American men, with an even higher incidence in the African-American population. Many investigators have tried to identify prognostic markers that distinguish indolent versus aggressive forms of prostate cancer, and to understand the genetic factors that evoke prostate cancer initiation and progression (2).(omitted)

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.29-48
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• 2010

This paper is a kind of interdisciplinary studies which connect a Western film criticism with a criticism of minority literature in America. My purpose in this paper is to put on the table such a sensitive issue as racial representation and representativeness in Clint Eastwood's revisionist Western, Unforgiven. We admit generally that Western films have contributed to the white American myth-making of how the West was won. Yet, since the mid-1960s, a growing number of revisionist Westerns were produced so as to raise a question about the conventional way of looking at what happened in the American West. In order to analyze the problem inherent in the way of seeing, I pay attention to how the director Eastwood (re)presents a character named W. W. Beauchamp in the film. Presumably, what the character Beauchamp misses in the West can be overlapped with what ordinary film viewers miss in the genre of Westerns. Given this, interrogating both what Beauchamp sees and what he misses within the movie, I attempt to disclose how much of the West has been unseen from his biased viewpoint. By doing so, I argue why it is important to focus on some passing scenes that touch on the irony of a Native American train passenger, the gaze of the mute Native American housewife, the abrupt disappearance of Asian American men, the lynching of African-American ex-cowboy, and the self-determination of the saloon prostitutes. Then I hope that, conservative and mainstream though the director is, his way of revising the Western is not quite far from my minority-conscious critical position.

• American Studies
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.39-79
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• 2021

This paper examines professional and popular medical discourse on "mongolism" (Down syndrome) in the early twentieth century to delve into the history of mongolism and the "Oriental imaginary" of modern America. The Oriental imaginary is a concept to explore the ways in which Americans, who had heard of mongolism or seen a "Mongol" themselves, imagined and conceptualized the defect in terms of the contemporary race relations. Moving beyond the interests of medical professionals discussed in the previous scholarship, this paper aims to include views and perceptions of the American public. The second section reviews the existing studies of the history of mongolism in the West. The third section discusses the mongolism of Asians and African Americans, among whom it had long been believed not to occur. Lastly, an analysis of American newspaper health advice columns on mongolism sheds light on the public reception and transmission of medical knowledge.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.275-287
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• 2017

The recent Great Recession of 2008 was a period of sharp economic decline throughout the late 2000s. All socio-demographic groups were impacted by the economic downturn, however, Hispanic households were particularly hard hit. It is not a recent phenomenon that minority groups often have greater problems related to credit and debt repayments. A better understanding of these racial/ethnic differences in credit and debt has been hindered by the propensity of many studies to pool all racial/ethnic minorities together and compare them to white households. Using a Heckman-type selection model with a combination of the 2010 and 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances datasets to study household debt repayment problems, we found that racial/ethnic groups have been differently impacted by the recent Great Recession in terms of debt repayment problems. Hispanic households were less likely to hold debt; however, those with debt were just as likely as white households and African American households to be delinquent in repayments. This finding is contrary to prior research that indicated Hispanics with debt were less likely than white and African American households to be delinquent on repayments prior to the Great Recession of 2008. We propose possible explanations for the increase in debt repayment problems, that includes increased assimilation into the U.S. culture of credit use, the circumstance of being more recent home buyers prior to the decline, and living in states that suffered the greatest decline in housing value.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Various probabilistic methods have been proposed for using interpopulation allele frequency differences to infer the ethnic group of a DNA specimen. The selection of the statistical method is critical because the accuracy of the statistical classification results vary. For the ancestry classification, we proposed a new ancestry evaluation method that estimate the combined ethnicity index as well as compared its performance with various classical classification methods using two real data sets. We selected 13 SNPs that are useful for the inference of ethnic origin. These single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed by restriction fragment mass polymorphism assay and followed by classification among ethnic groups. We genotyped 400 individuals from four ethnic groups (100 African-American, 100 Caucasian, 100 Korean, and 100 Mexican-American) for 13 SNPs and allele frequencies that differed among the four ethnic groups. Additionally, we applied our new method to HapMap SNP genotypes for 1,011 samples from 4 populations (African, European, East Asian, and Central-South Asian). Our proposed method yielded the highest accuracy among statistical classification methods. Our ethnic group classification system based on the analysis of ancestry informative SNP markers can provide a useful statistical tool to identify ethnic groups.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.31-63
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitudes and practices of life demanded for authentic existence in adversity, focusing on Toni Morrison's Home which was published in 2012. Home portrays the journey of Frank Money, an African-American veteran of the Korean War who strives to extricate his sister Cee from inhumane violence. Through this work, Morrison criticizes prevalent racism in the 1950s which is regarded as a time of affluence and peace through this sibling's agony. In this paper, firstly I attempt to examine the aspects of racism which Frank and Cee face and their distorted survival strategies. Secondly I try to find the right direction of brother and sister relationship based on Frank and Cee who are compared to Hansel and Gretel. Thirdly I try to point out the importance of self-reflection required for the healing process of Frank and Cee who overcome adversity and restore their identity with the help of Samaritans. And I investigate the possibility of ethical practice going beyond my family to strangers.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.241-267
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• 2014

Media representations of race have attempted to contain blackness by packaging and commodifying it to reflect and affect preconceptions and prejudices of dominant culture. From the early beginnings of blackface minstrelsy as entertainment form in the $19^{th}$ century, representations of African Americans in popular culture and mainstream media have been closely associated with the notion of performance. The performative nature of racial representations is situated within the discursive struggle over what it meant to be Black, or what it meant to be labeled and portrayed as Black in American culture. This essay discusses four films that contain performances of "blackness" that assemble race and gender in complex configurations: Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000), Girl 6 (Spike Lee, 1996), Big Momma's House (Raja Gosnell, 2000), and White Chicks (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2004). I explore how the performative nature of "blackness" is emphasized, thematized, and problematized in these films through the physicality of corporeal figures that embody the close link between race and gender identities. Once we are cognizant of the fact that race and gender are fabricated cultural constructs and performative acts, we can recognize that notions of "blackness" and "femininity" are not naturalized or essentialist, but open to recontextualization and revision.

• American Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.35-65
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• 2021

U.S. lawmakers tend to organize sub-party groups focusing on regions, ideologies, policies, and foreign affairs. Examples include the conservative Freedom Caucus loyal to Trump and the Congressional Black Caucus promoting the interests of African Americans. Then how do these legislative groups affect the making of U.S. foreign policy? Paying special attention to the Korea caucus in U.S. Congress, we have analyzed the sources and processes of congressional caucus and foreign policy and have learned that structures and activities of the caucuses differ from one another. The Korea caucus seems to be a bipartisan group that focuses on issues such as trade, travel, and troubles provoked by Pyongyang. However, the Korea caucus is not really a solid voting bloc for policy alternatives; it is instead more of a constituency-oriented legislative group that prioritizes local interests. This research underscores the need for systematic and comprehensive study of U.S. legislative politics and foreign policy.

• American Studies
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.111-136
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• 2020

This paper aims to reveal how the fundamental assumptions informing race and gender issues in contemporary society have remained relatively unchanged by examining how such issues pervade Octavia Butler's Kindred. By exploring the protagonist of the novel, Dana's actions in her present (1976 Los Angeles) and the antebellum past in addition to her maternal ancestor, Alice's actions, a clear picture of contemporary and antebellum views of race and gender is provided. Particularly interesting are the reactions of the characters to Dana's and Alice's interracial relationships and the circumstances on the Weylin plantation. By juxtaposing the two times, a deeper commentary on the lack of fundamental change in the present treatment of such issues is then revealed. Furthermore, a potential path to addressing this lack of change is suggested by Butler through Dana and Kevin's successful interracial relationship.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1211-1234
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• 2010

Mule Bone (1931), Zora Neale Hurston's collaboration with Langston Hughes, has been credited as the 'first' attempted by African Americans to create black folk comedy. The proposed research is driven from a question to the recent scholarship's tacit consent on such historic importance imposed on the play. This paper suggests a possibility that De Turkey and De Law (1930), Hurston's edition of the collaboration work, could be the truly first attempt in the tradition of American black folk comedy. By illuminating a series of historical moments in which Hurston first expressed her dream for writing a real black folk comedy that would be a really new departure in the African American drama, then collaborated with Hughes on the dream play project, and eventually quit the collaborationship due to artistic dispute with Hughes, this paper explains why Hughes edition Mule Bone came to remain 'unfinished' and, more importantly, fall short of Hurston's original goal and expectation from the collaboration. On the other hand, this paper sheds light on the significance of often-ignored Hurston's edition De Turkey and De Law by demonstrating how this play, compared to Mule Bone, fulfills her original idea of black folk comedy in terms of contents and themes compared with Mule Bone. Adding to the knowledge about little known behind story related to the Mule Bone controversy and the subsequent birth of the two different editions of the Hurston-Hushes collaboration project, supplementing the dearth of the related research with a critical comparison of the two editions, and discussing the validity of Hurston's edition as the real sense of black folk comedy, this paper argues for the necessity of reconsidering the origin of the mentioned genre. This paper finally concludes that De Turkey and De Law, replacing Mule Bone, deserves a right to be truly the first American black folk comedy genre in the sense that it was completed and copyrighted three months earlier than Mule Bone and that, more importantly, it cherished the original aim and artistic vision of black folk comedy Hurston first planned and expected through the collaboration with Hughes.