Dissimulating Blackness: The Degenerative Satires of Paul Beatty and Percival Everett

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American People ◽  
African American People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paul Beatty

This chapter provides a reading of three novels – Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle and Slumberland and Percival Everett’s A History of the African American People [Proposed] by Strom Thurmond as Told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid – that engage in degenerative satire, which complicates the mimetic representation of satiric texts. This chapter argues that these novels satirize not only clichéd tropes of blackness but also the presumption that blackness can or should be represented. Ultimately, this chapter shows how these novels destabilize the very notion of blackness.

On Writing the History of the Body in Pain

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Kathleen Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Bodily Pain ◽  
The Body ◽  
American People ◽  
African American People ◽  
American Slavery ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
History Of The Body ◽  
History Of

This essay makes the case for a cultural history of bodily pain that keeps the problem of representation at the forefront of its analysis. Specifically, it explores how historians have written about bodily pain in relation to American slavery and freedom. It also explores efforts by African American people, free and enslaved, to create counter-discourses that cast them as subjects in the battle over slavery. In doing so, the essay explores the multiple investments in bodily pain and the ethical questions raised when writing about the pain of another.

scholarly journals Resilience as a Form of Contestation in Langston Hughes' Early Poetry

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Alba Fernández Alonso ◽  
María Amor Barros del Río
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Langston Hughes ◽  
American People ◽  
African American Community ◽  
African American People ◽  
Psychological Outcome ◽  
Positive Adaptation ◽  
History Of

The history of the African American community has been inexorably bound to the concepts of oppression, downgrading, racism, hatred and trauma. Although the association between racism and concomitant negative psychological outcome has been widely assessed, little work has been done to study the role of literature as a cultural means to promote resilience among this oppressed group. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) stands out as a novelist, poet and playwright, and is one of the primary contributors to the Harlem Renaissance movement. Following the framework of theories of resilience, this article analyses the representation of adversity and positive adaptation in Langston Hughes’s early stage poetry, and assesses his contribution to resilience among the African American people at a time of hardship and oppression.

Post-Black Satire

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-140
Author(s):  
Yogita Goyal
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American Literature ◽  
African American Literature ◽  
Slave Narratives ◽  
Slave Narrative ◽  
Underground Railroad ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paul Beatty ◽  
Distinct Body

This chapter collides the idiom of post-blackness with the dominant genre of the neo-slave narrative in contemporary African American literature. This distinct body of work—post-black neo-slave narratives—mines the historical scene of slavery in the mode of satire. Through absurd juxtapositions, surreal analogies, and farcical adventures, post-black satirists expose the contradictions of the insistence on the unending history of slavery amid declarations of a break from previous racial regimes. Viewing satire as the lens through which debates about race and postracialism articulate, the chapter explores how fictions by Paul Beatty and Mat Johnson combat the sentimental template of abolition and neo-abolition by refusing to collapse past and present. The chapter concludes with a look at what might be termed a post-black post-satire, as Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016) stretches time and space to transform the slave narrative into a flexible portal to practices of exploitation worldwide.

scholarly journals Comparison of a Collective Intelligence Tailored Messaging System on Smoking Cessation Between African American and White People Who Smoke: Quasi-Experimental Design

10.2196/18064 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e18064
Author(s):  
Jamie M Faro ◽  
Catherine S Nagawa ◽  
Jeroan A Allison ◽  
Stephenie C Lemon ◽  
Kathleen M Mazor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Recommender System ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
American People ◽  
African American People ◽  
White People ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Background The Patient Experience Recommender System for Persuasive Communication Tailoring (PERSPeCT) is a machine learning recommender system with a database of messages to motivate smoking cessation. PERSPeCT uses the collective intelligence of users (ie, preferences and feedback) and demographic and smoking profiles to select motivating messages. PERSPeCT may be more beneficial for tailoring content to minority groups influenced by complex, personally relevant factors. Objective The objective of this study was to describe and evaluate the use of PERSPeCT in African American people who smoke compared with white people who smoke. Methods Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared African American people who smoke with a historical cohort of white people who smoke, who both received up to 30 emailed tailored messages over 65 days. People who smoke rated the daily message in terms of perceived influence on quitting smoking for 30 days. Our primary analysis compared daily message ratings between the two groups using a t test. We used a logistic model to compare 30-day cessation between the two groups and adjusted for covariates. Results The study included 119 people who smoke (African Americans, 55/119; whites, 64/119). At baseline, African American people who smoke were significantly more likely to report allowing smoking in the home (P=.002); all other characteristics were not significantly different between groups. Daily mean ratings were higher for African American than white people who smoke on 26 of the 30 days (P<.001). Odds of quitting as measured by 30-day cessation were significantly higher for African Americans (odds ratio 2.3, 95% CI 1.04-5.53; P=.03) and did not change after adjusting for allowing smoking at home. Conclusions Our study highlighted the potential of using a recommender system to personalize for African American people who smoke. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02200432; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02200432 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.2196/jmir.6465

scholarly journals Zooming Towards Better Health: Participant Experience in a Web-Based Group Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannat Saini ◽  
Ashley Owen ◽  
Anna Hammer ◽  
William Brown ◽  
Ambar Kulshreshtha
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
American People ◽  
Physical Interaction ◽  
African American People ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Healthy Behaviors ◽  
The Web ◽  
Group Cbt

BACKGROUND Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is effective in the management of several medical conditions such as anxiety and depression. The CBT method addresses the interaction between people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and has also been shown to be an effective strategy for patients with dementia and comorbid anxiety. However, no study has evaluated an internet-based group CBT for prevention of dementia in high risk patient groups such as African American people. African American people have twice the risk of developing dementia compared to white people. Therefore, more targeted and easy-to-access interventions are urgently needed in this group. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to survey participant evaluation of the Web-based CBT program for African American people with mild cognitive impairment. METHODS The LIGHT (Lifestyle Intervention Guidance for a Healthier Tomorrow) study program is a six-month pilot study that aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of CBT in African American people with a diagnosis of MCI through group video conferencing compared with in-person group CBT sessions. Ten participants were randomized to each study arm. An anonymous online survey using Likert scales was administered to study participants to measure the acceptability and feasibility of CBT using Web-based video conferencing via the Zoom application after each session. The survey also included open-ended questions to gauge additional feedback from the participants. RESULTS Eighty-three percent of participants (5 out of 6 respondents) in the Web-based arm rated the ease of use of the Zoom technology positively (ie, either very easy or easy to use on a Likert scale). Sixty-seven percent of participants (4 out of 6 respondents) rated that the computerized CBT can be an effective medium to improve health and healthy behaviors. All respondents rated the helpfulness of the online sessions as “most helpful” (50%), “helpful” (33%), or “neutral” (17%). In response to open-ended questions, participants stated that the online sessions were “on spot, in the moment counseling,” provided “the ability to interact with others of varied backgrounds, experiencing similar issues,” “convenience of being at home versus traveling to a particular location is a tremendous plus,” and that “(the sessions) afford the group a certain level of anonymity with the choice of when and/or whether or not to share in the discussions.” Other key phrases that were stated included saving travel expenses, time, being cost efficient but at the same time allowing a diverse population to participate. Participants mentioned having the occasional technical difficulty, and one respondent mentioned the lack of physical interaction as a disadvantage. Four participants did not complete the survey. CONCLUSIONS African American participants with MCI rated Web-based group CBT interventions as helpful to improve healthy behaviors. Participants noted that that Web sessions are easy to use, as they can interact with each other in a group setting from their own homes. Our survey provides preliminary evidence regarding the potential for a Web-based group CBT protocol as a useful modality for interventions designed to improve lifestyle and reduce the risk of dementia in African American people. Ongoing research will further test the effectiveness of the Web-method of treatment delivery.

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