Say my name

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-568
Author(s):  
Sonja L. Lanehart
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Women Scholars ◽  
Elder Women ◽  
And Linguistics

This essay is a call out and a roll call of Black women scholars – Black Feminists, Critical Race Theorists, Intersectionality Theorists and co-conspirators – doing the work of the elder women and ancestors whose shoulders we stand on. I frame the research on African American Women’s Language around Hull, Bell-Scott and Smith’s (1982) seminal book All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave to shout out not only how language and linguistics researchers got it twisted and need to reckon with truth and say my (language’s) name: African American Women’s Language. And put some respeck on it while you’re at it.

The Kinkiness of Turquoise

Groove Theory ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 182-223
Author(s):  
Tony Bolden
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Vocal Technique ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Bessie Smith ◽  
Critical Methods

This chapter showcases Betty Davis’s transposition of women’s blues into rock-inflected version of funk. Bolden advances two key arguments. First, Davis reprised the sexual politics and rebellious spirit exemplified by singers Bessie Smith and Ida Cox, for instance, and reinterpreted those principles in modern America. Second, Davis’s eroticism and sui generis style of funk, which she expressed in her recordings and onstage, reflected a sexual politics that served as a counterpart to those of black feminists writers such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and many others who were publishing coextensively. But whereas black feminist writers often wrote about black women in previous generations, Davis not only addressed contradictions that black women encountered in contemporary street culture; she also represented such X-rated sexual desires as sadomasochism in her songwriting. In addition, the chapter provides biographical information that contextualizes Davis’s route to the music industry, and Bolden uses critical methods from scholarship on African American poetry to illuminate Davis’s vocal technique. 

The Racialization of the African-American and Asian-American Citizen: A Comparative Legal Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 30-41
Author(s):  
Mallory Yung
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
American Citizen

The perception of racial tensions in North American settler countries has historically been focused on the Black/White relationship, as has much of the theoretical legal discourse surrounding the concept of “race”. Accordingly, the scope of much critical race scholarship has been restricted such that it rarely acknowledges the racial tensions that persist between different racially-excluded minorities. This paper hopes to expand and integrate the examination of Black and Asian-American racialization that critical race scholars have previously revealed. It will do this by historicizing the respective contours of Black and Asian-American racialization processes through legislation and landmark court cases in a neo-colonial context. The defining features of racialization which have culminated in the ultimate divergence of each group’s racialization will be compared and contrasted. This divergence sees the differential labeling of Asian-Americans as the ‘model minority’ while Blacks continue to be subjugated by modern modalities of exclusionary systems of control. The consequences of this divergence in relation to preserving existing racial and social hierarchies will be discussed in the final sections of this paper.

scholarly journals Intimate Partner Violence and the Role of Child Maltreatment and Neighborhood Violence: A Retrospective Study of African American and US Caribbean Black Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2245
Author(s):  
Krim K. Lacey ◽  
Hira R. Shahid ◽  
Rohan D. Jeremiah
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Violence Exposure ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Moderating Effects

Background: Research suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with childhood maltreatment and violence exposure within the neighborhood context. This study examined the role of child maltreatment and violence exposure on intimate partner violence, with the moderating effects of mental disorders (IPV) among US Black women. Methods: Data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), the largest and most complete sample on the mental health of US Blacks, and the first representative sample of Caribbean Blacks residing in the United States was used to address the study objectives. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test of independence, t-test, and logistic regression procedures were used to analyze the data. Results: Bivariate results indicate an association between child abuse and intimate partner victimization among US Black women. Witnessing violence as a child as well as neighborhood violence exposure was also related to IPV but shown to differ between African American and Caribbean Black women. Multivariate findings confirmed the influence of mental disorders and social conditions on US Black women’s risk for IPV. Moderating effects of child maltreatment and mental disorders in association with adult IPV were not found. Conclusions: The study addressed the short and long-term impact of child maltreatment and the contribution to the cycle of intimate violence among US Black women including African American and Caribbean Blacks. The study suggests the need for prevention and intervention efforts to improve structural conditions for at-risk populations and communities predisposed to violence and other negative outcomes. Possibilities for future research are also discussed.

scholarly journals Feasibility of a Digital Intervention to Promote Healthy Weight Management among Postpartum African American/Black Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 2178
Author(s):  
Melissa A. Napolitano ◽  
Cherise B. Harrington ◽  
Loral Patchen ◽  
Lindsey P. Ellis ◽  
Tony Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Vegetable Intake ◽  
Vigorous Physical Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Healthy Weight ◽  
Weight Outcomes ◽  
Postpartum Weight ◽  
American Black

The study aim was to implement and evaluate the feasibility of a culturally informed (“BeFAB”) app for African American/Black women to address postpartum weight. Women (n = 136; mean age = 27.8 ± 5.4; mean BMI = 32.5 ± 4.3) were recruited from postpartum units, and randomly assigned to receive BeFAB (n = 65) or usual care (n = 71) for 12 weeks. App content included didactic lessons delivered via a virtual coach, app-based messages, goal setting and tracking, and edutainment videos. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment, retention and engagement, and self-reported acceptability. Behavioral (i.e., diet, physical activity), psychosocial (i.e., stress, coping, support, self-efficacy) and weight outcomes were also examined. Recruitment goals were met, but attrition was high, with 56% retention at 12 weeks. Approximately half of participants accessed the app and set a goal ≥one time, but <10% reported achieving a nutrition or activity goal. Among study completers, ≥60% found the app content at least somewhat helpful. Within-group changes for BeFAB among completers were found for increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and decreased fruit/vegetable intake and weight. Findings indicate initial feasibility of recruiting postpartum women to participate in a digital healthy body weight program but limited use, reflecting low acceptability and challenges in engagement and retention. Future research is needed on strategies to engage and retain participants in postpartum interventions.

scholarly journals Sassy Sasha?: The intersectionality of (im)politeness and sociolinguistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Troutman
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Online Assessments ◽  
General Linguistic

Abstract This article focuses on intersections of race, gender, class, and (im)politeness within the African American speech community (AASC). Although general linguistic theorizing aims at universalizing (im)politeness, ultimately identifying common components within human (im)politeness systems worldwide, African American perspectives have not been interjected within that broader theorizing. Thus, I examine (im)politeness from the perspective of African Americans with a focus on females’ linguistic and nonlinguistic behaviors. A plethora of work examines, challenges, and refutes stereotypical gender. I explore facets of the stereotypical, particularly as applied to Black females with the aim of broadening understandings of (im)politeness based on cultural variation. Specifically, I examine sassy as a social construct when applied to Black women in U.S. contexts, especially two Black women’s online assessments of sassy performativity by Sasha Obama, as a vehicle for allowing Black women’s voices and experiences to enter into theory-making. The analysis is interpretative and idiographic. The two African American women bloggers’ words and meanings suggest that (im)politeness within the AASC resides in sociolinguistics, not pragmatics. As a result of the analysis, I suggest that (im)politeness theorizing could pay attention to the social embodiedness of human polite and impolite behaviors. This, in part, constitutes the sociolinguistics of (im)politeness.

Counterlanguage powermoves in African American women’s language practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcyliena H. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Language Practice ◽  
The Status ◽  
Linguistic Power ◽  
The Many

This essay considers some of the insight we have gathered about language, feminism, racism and power. In many respects, it celebrates the linguistic power of the many theories about how Black women navigate intersectionality where racism and sexism intermingle, suggesting that our analyses should always recognise that a lethal combination of factors are in play. Black women, in particular, actively insist on forms of language and discourse that both represent and create their world through words, expressions and verbal routines that are created within and outside of the African American speech community to confront injustice. One example involves the verb ‘play,’ which I argue often functions as a power statement or ‘powermove’ that demands respect while presenting a threat to the status quo. This use of ‘play’ is the opposite of inconsequential games of play or joking.

“An Inside Thing to Live by”: Refusal, Conjure, and Black Feminist Imaginaries among Granny Midwives

Hypatia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Lindsey Stewart
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Politics Of Recognition ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Conjure Woman ◽  
Birthing Practices ◽  
American Thought

Abstract “Granny midwives” often based their authority to practice midwifery on the spiritual traditions of rootwork or conjure passed down by the foremothers who trained them. However, granny midwives were compelled to give up their conjure-infused methods of birthing if they wanted to become licensed (that is, to get a “permit”) or be authorized by the state to continue their practice of midwifery. In response, some granny midwives refused to recognize the authority of the state in the birthing realm, willfully retaining rootwork in their birthing practices. In this article, I contrast the response of granny midwives, a politics of refusal, with another major tradition in African American thought, a politics of recognition, such as gaining citizenship and rights, permits, and licenses from the state. Due to the political stakes of the granny midwife's conflict with the state, I argue that black feminists often endow the figure of the granny midwife (or more broadly, the conjure woman) with the political significance of refusal in our emancipatory imaginaries. To demonstrate this, I will analyze the interventions in black liberation politics that two black feminist writers make through their invocation of granny midwives: Zora Neale Hurston's essay, “High John de Conquer,” and Toni Morrison's novel, Paradise.

To Make the Wounded Whole

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Royles
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Nation Of Islam ◽  
Black America ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Aids Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Work ◽  
Hiv Aids

In the decades since it was identified in 1981, HIV/AIDS has devastated African American communities. Members of those communities mobilized to fight the epidemic and its consequences from the beginning of the AIDS activist movement. They struggled not only to overcome the stigma and denial surrounding a “white gay disease” in Black America, but also to bring resources to struggling communities that were often dismissed as too “hard to reach.” To Make the Wounded Whole offers the first history of African American AIDS activism in all of its depth and breadth. Dan Royles introduces a diverse constellation of activists, including medical professionals, Black gay intellectuals, church pastors, Nation of Islam leaders, recovering drug users, and Black feminists who pursued a wide array of grassroots approaches to slow the epidemic's spread and address its impacts. Through interlinked stories from Philadelphia and Atlanta to South Africa and back again, Royles documents the diverse, creative, and global work of African American activists in the decades-long battle against HIV/AIDS.

scholarly journals Critical Race Theory and Caring as Channels for Transcending Borders between an African American Professor and Her Latina/o Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline B. Koonce
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Reflective Essay

This reflective essay uncovers ways in which critical race theory and caring are key to crossing racial, cultural, and linguistic borders between professors and their students. Many scholars have noted how critical reflection relates to effective teaching, especially when taking into account student learning. Reflecting upon archival data and participant observation, the author describes, through various stories, how she uses critical race theory and caring to connect with her students in spite of their differences. The author also provides examples of how her students reciprocate her care in extravagant ways.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document