Black Coffee

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-433
Author(s):  
Daicia Price
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Core Components

Thirty-five years of formal education has left me feeling isolated. Daily encounters of racism, sexism, and microaggressions have led to difficulty with academic and professional achievement. All of these matters have affected me as a person who identifies as a Black female/woman in academic settings. In this autoethnography, I engage symbolic narrative prose and core components of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to provide an analysis of my personal experiences in educational settings across my lifespan. I bring forth my individual perspective and analysis that encompasses emotional and physical responses that occur while in academic settings as a Black female. Reflective autoethnography offers an opportunity to explore key themes, potential challenges, strengths, and future strategies for creating spaces in education that are supportive and encourage growth while also nurturing Black women to remain grounded in what feels natural and intrinsic to their cultural heritage and identity and expression of self. “Black coffee with no sugar and no cream” is a colloquial phrase used to describe a Black woman who exudes her individual persona without apologies. Positive development of Black females who present as “Black coffee with no sugar and no cream” is unpropitious without intentional culturally responsive interventions. The addition of strong Black coffee to academic settings is crucial to continue efforts in creating a socially just educational system and society. Using reflexivity and metaphors, I describe my matriculation process in the Midwest region of the United States of America within a dichotomy of African-centered and Eurocentric education practices. Providing concepts to promote efficacious attainment of education, I hope to connect with readers who may have similar experiences or be in a position to reduce the adverse encounters a Black woman has in an academic environment at various levels.

Counting Frequency

Social Text ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-49
Author(s):  
Christen A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Body Counting

Abstract Examining Black women's experiences with policing, this article argues that police terror is not predicated upon gender; rather, it enacts gender by undoing gender. Thus, it requires a new arithmetic of time and space in order to read beyond normative, hypermasculine narratives of police violence. While the dominant discourse of race and policing asserts that police terror disproportionately affects Black men, the frequency of Black women's experiences with police terror attunes to a lingering yet deadly impact beyond the linear, Cartesian dimensions of body counting, a frequency the article terms sequelae. Policing stretches and bends time and space as part of its (un)gendering practice. Through a brief survey of cases in Brazil and the United States, this article considers sequelae as a new arithmetic for calculating the multiple frequencies of police terror against Black women. Specifically, the article examines the case of Luana Barbosa dos Reis, a Black lesbian mother who was beaten to death by police officers in São Paulo in 2016. The article argues that her beating was an act of (un)gendering—a desire to both discipline her as a Black female/mother and erase her potential humanity by denying her desired gender identification (female). In this sense, her death was an act of anti-Black terror “in the wake.” Through a close reading of the police ledger, the police report, and the physical violence she endured, the article argues that her story teaches us the need for a new way of counting the frequency of police terror in relationship to time, space, and the Black female/mother body.

“I Just Wanted a World That Looked Like the One I Know”

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Ralina L. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Black Female ◽  
First Century ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
The Press ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The One

Chapter 3 examines showrunner Shonda Rhimes’ twenty-first century Black respectability politics through the form of strategic ambiguity. Joseph traces Rhimes’ performance of strategic ambiguity first in the pre-Obama era when she stuck to a script of colorblindness, and a second in the #BlackLivesMatter moment when she called out racialized sexism and redefined Black female respectability. In the shift from the pre-Obama era to the #BlackLivesMatter era, this chapter asks: how did Rhimes’ careful negotiation of the press demonstrate that, in the former moment, to be a respectable Black woman was to perform strategic ambiguity, or not speak frankly about race, while in the latter, respectable Black women could and must engage in racialized self-expression, and redefine the bounds of respectability?

Being a Black Woman Philosopher: Reflections on Founding the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers

Hypatia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn T. Gines
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Philosophical Association ◽  
Philosophy Department ◽  
Women Philosophers

Although the American Philosophical Association has more than 11,000 members, there are still fewer than 125 Black philosophers in the United States, including fewer than thirty Black women holding a PhD in philosophy and working in a philosophy department in the academy.1The following is a “musing” about how I became one of them and how I have sought to create a positive philosophical space for all of us.

On Anger

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Female Subjectivity

This chapter takes up the position of the infamous “angry black woman” by avoiding righteous, revisionist, or reactionary arguments about black women and anger and instead considering black women’s anger as critical posture. The argument neither begins nor ends with the stereotype, but with the supposition that representational discourse has been largely unable to account for anger as an aspect of black female subjectivity. The case is therefore made that anger is inherently bound up with the notion of claim for black women, and accounting for this interaction requires an interrogation into the most intimate of black female spaces. The chapter ultimately turns to a discussion of reality television, Claudia Rankine’s discussion of Serena Williams, and a brief analysis of Toni Morrison’s Sula.

BLACK MALE EXCEPTIONALISM?

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Butler
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Males ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
African American Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Male Achievement

Abstract“Black male exceptionalism” is the premise that African American men fare more poorly than any other group in the United States. The discourse of Black male exceptionalism presents African American men as an “endangered species.” Some government agencies, foundations, and activists have responded by creating “Black male achievement” programs. There are almost no corresponding “Black female achievement” programs. Yet empirical data does not support the claim that Black males are burdened more than Black females. Without attention to intersectionality, Black male achievement programs risk obscuring Black females and advancing patriarchal values. Black male achievement programs also risk reinforcing stereotypes that African American males are violent and dangerous. An intersectional approach would create space for Black male focused interventions, but require parity for Black female programs.

scholarly journals I Am Not a Thief: Retelling My Story to Understand a Racist Encounter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicia Stewart
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Attribution Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory

In the United States, acts of prejudice occur in many situations and spaces. Scholars and researchers hypothesize that these acts are often due to the racism that permeates our country. When seemingly racist acts occur, they are sometimes unreported, misunderstood or simply not addressed. As a Black woman falsely accused of theft, I endured assumptions made about me, and I made assumptions about my accuser. We are often left to speculate as to what fuels acts of racism, whether in the form of microaggressions or overt acts. As we try to assign reasons for others’ behaviors, we must also inspect the conditioning of our own thinking. In this study, I utilize both Critical Race Theory and Attribution theory while employing an autoethnographical approach to dissect an unexpected racial encounter. Racism is a palpable subject, and in re-telling the event, I uncover assumptions, locate structured biases and find an empowering voice that allows my perceived racist encounter to be addressed.

scholarly journals The Coach’s Journal: Experiences of Black Female Assistant Coaches in NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Larsen ◽  
Leslee Fisher ◽  
Lauren Moret
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Ncaa Division I ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Student Athletes ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Division I ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Assistant Coaches ◽  
Women's Basketball ◽  
Female Coaches

In NCAA Division I women’s basketball, Black female coaches make up only a small percentage of the total number of coaches (i.e., 26%; NCAA, 2016) even though the majority of student-athletes are Black (i.e., 51%). Although these discrepancies have recently been recognized in sport studies literature (Borland & Bruening, 2010; LaVoi & Dutove, 2012), sport psychology researchers have yet to explore the underlying structural and psychological issues that lead to the underrepresentation of Black female coaches in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. To this end, we utilized narrative inquiry (Smith & Sparkes, 2009a) in the current study to explore the stories of eight NCAA Division I women’s basketball assistant coaches who identify as Black females. During face-to-face interviews, participants described the roles they are asked to fill and the ways they cope with the multiple oppressions they experience as Black women in coaching. The first and second authors co-constructed four themes, (a) Pregame: Learning to coach; (b) First half: Experiences from the first 10 years; (c) Second half: Experiences from the last five years; and (d) Overtime: Thinking about the future, throughout their thematic analysis of these narratives (Braun & Clark, 2006). It is hoped that these findings will lead to the development of interventions that can empower NCAA Division I Black female coaches as well as challenge current structural ideologies that disadvantage Black female coaches in this context. Further, creating a more inclusive environment at NCAA Division I institutions could enhance the experiences and coaching career aspirations of Black female student-athletes by allowing them to see empowered Black female role models in coaching positions. Implications for certified mental performance consultants (CMPCs) working within NCAA Division I women’s basketball, who are well positioned to contribute to these efforts, are also discussed.

The Color of Kink

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Black Sexuality ◽  
Racialized Sexuality ◽  
Sexual Cultures

The Color of Kink explores black women's representations and performances within American pornography and BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism) from the 1930s to the present, revealing the ways in which they illustrate a complex and contradictory negotiation of pain, pleasure, and power for black women. Based on personal interviews conducted with pornography performers, producers, and professional dominatrices, visual and textual analysis, and extensive archival research, Ariane Cruz reveals BDSM and pornography as critical sites from which to rethink the formative links between Black female sexuality and violence. She explores how violence becomes not just a vehicle of pleasure but also a mode of accessing and contesting power. Drawing on feminist and queer theory, critical race theory, and media studies, Cruz argues that BDSM is a productive space from which to consider the complexity and diverseness of black women's sexual practice and the mutability of black female sexuality. Illuminating the cross-pollination of black sexuality and BDSM, The Color of Kink makes a unique contribution to the growing scholarship on racialized sexuality, pornography, and sexual cultures.

Explaining Post-1964 Earnings Gains by Black Women: Race or Sex?

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustin Kwasi Fosu
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Occupational Mobility ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Black Females ◽  
White Males ◽  
Female Relative

This article examines the earnings position of black females relative to white males for the post-1964 period. It finds that over 70 percent of the 1965–78 growth in black female relative median earnings remains after controlling for previous trends, education, and cyclical and labor supply changes. For full-time, year-round workers, the post-1964 trend independently implies a growth rate about 50 percent higher than that actually observed. Approximately one-half of the gains are attributable to race and the rest to the interaction of race and sex. The study finds no support for the censoring hypothesis that allocates a substantial portion of the growth to labor supply decreases. While it suggests occupational mobility to be nonextraneous in the earnings equation, the author argues that the black female now faces a mobility constraint more formidable than previously.

scholarly journals Unearthing New Dimensions of Black “Womanism”: Poetic Resistance and the Journey from Absence to Self-Representation

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Mounir Ben Zid
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology ◽  
Female Deities ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Western Hegemony ◽  
Made In

Significant headway has been made in investigating white feminist monolithic strategies and exploring how black females have suffered from patriarchal ideology and stereotyping, and how they were placed in an inferior position and treated as slaves and sexual machines. In research conducted on women of color, however, little attention is paid to black females’ new vision of black “womanism” and its means of struggle. With this in mind, the aim of this study is twofold. First, the goal is to elucidate why black women were victims of white prejudice, despotism, and patriarchal practices. Second, we wish to demonstrate how black females set themselves free from racial ideology and Western hegemony by opting for poetic resistance to achieve hypervisibility, seek their own spirituality, worship their black female deities, restore the joy of their motherhood, and assert their identity. The findings yielded by this research provide support for the key argument that black "womanism" and poetic resistance are the means of self-representation and liberation from Eurocentric, dehumanizing, and exclusionary ideology to repossess one's erased self.

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