“We Don’t Play”

2020 ◽  
pp. 260-290
Author(s):  
Marcyliena Morgan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Gender Oppression ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender

The notion that black women know of and must confront offensive assumptions about their character and identity is often an unspoken truth visible in sociolinguistic research. How we understand and view black women in ways that may be outside the purview of traditional sociolinguistic analysis, how they are viewed within their community and how they are represented in wider society is necessarily embedded in their presentation of self and especially in their language and discourse. This chapter directly engages this observation by framing African American women’s language research and analysis within black women’s social, political and cultural worlds and highlights their use of intentionality and agency to represent and at times assert black women’s importance in society. It addresses how the language and discourse of black women in particular works to reveal the politics of intersectionality, where race, class, sexuality and gender oppression interrelate for some women and may be invisible or acceptable to others.

THOSE SEGREGATED AND SACRED HOURS: New Perspectives on Religion, Race, and Gender in America

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-331
Author(s):  
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
American Women ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender

Mark Chaves, Congregations in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, 291 pages, ISBN 0-674-01284-4, Cloth, $29.95.Marla F. Frederick, Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003, 263 pages, ISBN 0-520-23394-8, Cloth, $50.00, Paper, $19.95.Carolyn Moxley Rouse, Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004, 271 pages, ISBN 0-520-23795-1, Cloth, $50.00, Paper, $19.95.

Michelle Obama as a Political Symbol: Race, Gender, and Public Opinion toward the First Lady

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 431-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Badas ◽  
Katelyn E. Stauffer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
First Lady ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Michelle Obama ◽  
Political Symbol ◽  
And Gender

AbstractPopular commentary surrounding Michelle Obama focuses on the symbolic importance of her tenure as the nation's first African American first lady. Despite these assertions, relatively few studies have examined public opinion toward Michelle Obama and the extent to which race and gender influenced public evaluations of her. Even fewer studies have examined how the intersection of race and gender influenced political attitudes toward Michelle Obama and her ability to serve as a meaningful political symbol. Using public opinion polls from 2008 to 2017 and data from the Black Women in America survey, we examine public opinion toward Michelle Obama as a function of respondents’ race, gender, and the intersection between the two. We find that African Americans were generally more favorable toward Michelle Obama than white Americans, with minimal differences between men and women. Although white women were no more likely than white men to view Michelle Obama favorably, we find that they were more likely to have information on Michelle Obama's “Let's Move” initiative. Most importantly, we find that Michelle Obama served as a unique political symbol for African American women and that her presence in politics significantly increased black women's evaluation of their race-gender group.

scholarly journals Gender and racial trauma in Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ramesh Prasad Adhikary
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Cultural Trauma ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Racial Trauma ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Voice

This paper analyses racial and gender trauma evoking the tormented state of the narrator, Maya in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Based on the cultural trauma, the researcher analyses the experiences of depressed African American women without identities. The narrator struggles to develop her dignified self and nonconformist outlook comes to block her after she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend Mr. Freeeman. The mysterious murder of her rapist creates the guilt, shame in her psychic as she thinks that she is responsible for his murder. The narrator suffering from the guilt and self-loathing results in her psychic turmoil. She stops speaking to people except her brother, Bailey. In the novel, Angelou tries to raise the voice of Black women to achieve dignified identity in the white racist and sexist America looking back on her childhood experiences. In this regard, this research aims to show reasons that cause the traumatic situation in the narrator due to several events that erupt in African American societies. Not only this, this research work explores issues related to the cause of racial and gender trauma and discusses how the narrator succeeds in working through trauma while in some cases the narrator just acts out it. Key Words: Race, Gender, Cultural trauma, Psychic turmoil, identity, self

Reversal of Stereotypes in Alice Walker's The Color Purple: God, Gender, Narrative and Sexuality

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Morshedul Arifin ◽  
◽  
Shah Ahmed ◽  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Color Purple ◽  
African American Authors ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Color Purple ◽  
American Authors

Unlike most African-American authors, who constantly mirror the repressive effects of racism, classicism and gender discrimination, Alice Walker (1944–) in her The Color Purple (1982) compulsively deals with sexism that was still pervasive within African American communities during the early twentieth century. She argues that just as black groups are relegated to an underclass due to the colour of their skin in a wider milieu of white society, in the same way the black women are reduced to a more inferior class due to their sex in their own community. For women’s self-emancipation from such an inhibitory patriarchy, the novel gives an overarching emphasis on the formation of language, execution of voice, review of sexual preference and redefinition of identity of her female characters, the protagonist Celie in particular. This paper examines how, by a fusion of the bildungsroman and epistolary conventions, the novelist melds a unique way for her women creating a God for their own and carving out a niche in social and economic concerns. It assesses the strategic reversal of gender stereotype as well as sexual orientation in order to establish the independence and equality of women on a par with men. The paper ends up with the claim that the novel is predicated upon the theoretical prism of womanism, previously premised by Walker herself, which puts extensive emphasis on a deeper, empathetic relationship and camaraderie of women.

scholarly journals The Hunter and the Farmer: Jean Toomer’s Depression-Era Masculinist Writings

AmeriQuests ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia C. Curwood
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Jean Toomer ◽  
Social Experiment ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Depression Era

In 1937, after he had written the novel Cane, left the African-American culture of Harlem, studied under the mystic Georges Gurdjieff in France, lost his wife to childbirth, and married for the second time, Jean Toomer sought to publish a series of essays. The subjects varied, but the most common theme was masculinity—men’s prerogatives, natures, and responsibilities. He theorized women’s temperaments as well, but it was clearly the study of maleness that captured his attention. Toomer’s interest was noteworthy given the fact that he became ever more concerned with sexuality and gender as he left behind his African-American identity. Toomer did not intend to “pass,” as is commonly assumed—he actually wanted to be raceless, or of the “American” race. In his adopted home in the Pennsylvania countryside, Toomer attempted to construct his life based entirely on his masculinity. In Toomer’s opinion, his entire household-- his white wife, his light-skinned daughter, and various temporary occupants—was a social experiment in supporting his masculine genius and creativity. This essay is an intellectual history of Toomer’s self-construction. Using his diaries and published and unpublished writings, I will explain how Toomer saw his own male identity and how, although he had renounced his blackness, his racial identity mediated his ideal of his gender.

scholarly journals Cheryl Wall, In Memoriam

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-244
Author(s):  
Cora Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Associate Editor ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Black Women Writers ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
Literary Achievement ◽  
And Gender

The distinguished critic Professor Cheryl A. Wall (1948–2020) was the Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her path-breaking scholarship in two highly influential monographs, Women of the Harlem Renaissance (1995) and Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition (2005), helped to ensure that twentieth-century Black women writers were recognized and valued for their power, genius, and complexity. Her most recent book, On Freedom and the Will to Adorn: The Art of the African American Essay (2018), places the essay form at the center of African American literary achievement. Throughout her long career she supported and enabled Black students, and championed racial diversity and gender equality at every level of the university. An Associate Editor of James Baldwin Review, she was the most generous and astute of readers, as well as a wise editor. In this memorial section, fifteen colleagues, former students, and interlocutors share their remembrances and honor her legacy.

INTERSECTIONAL PRESENTATIONS

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia E. Brown ◽  
Sarah Allen Gershon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Minority Women ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Public Office ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
And Gender

AbstractIn recent decades the number of women and minorities elected to public office has increased significantly, prompting a wealth of studies examining the ways these different gender and racial identities shape elected officials’ appeals to constituents. However, much previous research focuses on representational differences among either men and women or Anglos and minorities, neglecting the intersection of race and gender. We seek to fill this void by examining differences in presentation styles among Latina and African American congresswomen, their Anglo female counterparts, and minority male peers. Relying on a detailed content analysis of the biographical pages available on U.S. Representatives’ websites, we conduct an exploratory examination of the differences in representatives’ presentation of self. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative analysis, this paper identifies the unique ways minority congresswomen present themselves and issue positions to constituents. We conclude by considering the implications of our results for minority women holding and seeking public office.

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