scholarly journals Apartheid's Immorality Act and the fiction of heteronormative whiteness

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Carolin
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Sexual Desire ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Novels ◽  
History Of ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Political Turmoil

This article traces both the centrality and fragility of the figure of the heterosexual white male to the moral and ideological core of the apartheid regime. Through a comparative reading of Zakes Mda's The Madonna of Excelsior (2002) and Gerald Kraak's Ice in the Lungs (2006), the article examines how apartheid's Immorality Act functioned as the legislative mechanism to produce and police heteronormative whiteness. The randomness and unpredictability of sexual desire in both historical novels expose the tenuousness of this idealised heteronormative whiteness that lay at the centre of the apartheid project. Situated within the moral panic and political turmoil of the 1970s, the novels identify sex as a powerful lens through which to read the history of apartheid. While Mda's satirical novel focuses on transgressive interracial sexual desire, Kraak's realist text explores same-sex desire and intimacy. My reading of the two novels engages with the political history of apartheid's sexual policing and insists on the inextricable entanglement of its heteronormative and racial supremacist provisions. The traditional ideological centrality of the vulnerable white woman is displaced in the novels by white men whose transgressive sexual desires for black women (in Mda's novel) and other white men (in Kraak's) refuse the certainty and naturalness of heteronormative whiteness. 

Sex and the Devil: Homosexuality, Satanism, and Moral Panic in Late Apartheid South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Falkof
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Male Homosexuals

This article discusses the discursive and narrative intersections between two moral panics that appeared in the white South African press in the last years of apartheid: the first around the claimed danger posed by white male homosexuals, the second around the alleged incursion of a criminal cult of white Satanists. This connection was sometimes implicit, when the rhetoric attached to one was repeated with reference to the other, and sometimes explicit, when journalists and moral entrepreneurs conflated the two in public dialogue. Both Satanists and gay white men were characterized as indulging in abnormal practices that were dangerous to the health of the nation, using a long-standing colonial metaphor of sanitation and hygiene. I argue that fears of homosexuality and beliefs in Satanism operated as social control measures for disciplining potentially unruly groups whose sexual or personal practices were not admissible within apartheid’s injunctions on homogenous conformity among whites. The connection between homosexuality and Satanism, like the connection between homosexuality and communism, served to pathologize whites whose disobedient bodies and beliefs were considered treacherous.

‘Rituals of reclaiming lost artefacts, refusing oppression and looking for ancestors’ in Heroes and Heroines (1984)

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-88
Author(s):  
Celeste-Marie Bernier ◽  
Alan Rice ◽  
Lubaina Himid ◽  
Hannah Durkin
Keyword(s):  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
The Political ◽  
Absent Presence

All too aware of the political and cultural minefields generated by memorialisations of white men as icons of racist hate in her Cut-Out Men series, however much she was ‘trying to laugh at them, to sneer, and to jibe, to expose them as liars and cheats’, this chapter discusses Himid’s body of work titled Heroes and Heroines which she decided to create in 1984 in recognition of her realisation that ‘I have since decided that they are best left well alone, ignored’. Visualising Black to white male oppression in this series, Himid re-presents, re-creates and re-imagines the lives of African diasporic women and men, iconic and invisibilised, as they engage in ‘the rituals of reclaiming lost artefacts, refusing oppression and looking for ancestors’. Dramatically to the fore is Himid’s vindication of the absent-presence and present-absence of missing genealogies of Black artistry and activism.

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Tunisia

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-198
Author(s):  
Alessandra Bonci ◽  
Francesco Cavatorta
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Political History ◽  
Term Limits ◽  
The Political ◽  
System P ◽  
Presidential System ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Democratic Constitution ◽  
Do So

This chapter discusses the evolution of the politics of term limits in Tunisia, from independence in 1956 until the approval of the 2014 democratic constitution. Through the observation of the manipulation of term limits, we can retrace the political history of the country. It is interesting to examine how Bourguiba and Ben Ali managed to achieve their goals by stretching term limits, how and in which conditions they were prevented to do so and finally, whether there are some recurring patterns. This study then places in historical perspective the analysis on how term limits in Tunisia today have been discussed and implemented. Tunisians today are still coping with the recent political turmoil, which may lead them not to pay attention to creeping but substantial constitutional changes that might occur in light of the return to presidential practices in what is a semi-presidential system.

Different Worlds and Divergent Paths: Academic Careers Defined by Race and Gender

2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUANITA JOHNSON-BAILEY ◽  
RONALD CERVERO
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Research University ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Faculty Interactions ◽  
Disparate Treatment ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Academic Lives

In this article, Juanita Johnson-Bailey, a Black female professor, and Ronald M. Cervero, a White male professor, examine and contrast their academic lives by exploring how race and gender have influenced their journeys and their experiences. Using journal excerpts, personal examples, and a comparative list of privileges, the authors present a picture of their different realities at a research university. The depiction of their collective forty years in academia reveals that White men and Black women are regarded and treated differently by colleagues and students. Manifestations of this disparate treatment are evident primarily in classroom and faculty interactions. An examination of the professors' relationships with people and with their institution illustrates that, overall, the Black woman is often relegated to a second-class existence characterized by hostility, isolation, and lack of respect, while the White man lives an ideal academic life as a respected scholar who disseminates knowledge, understands complexity, and embodies objectivity.

“Even The Black Women Wear Strands of Pearls”

2018 ◽  
pp. 78-127
Author(s):  
Molly A. Warsh
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Early History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Union ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pearl Fishing ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Black Pearl

This chapter considers the enduring significance of the Caribbean pearl-fishing settlements in the second half of the sixteenth century. In the wake of a devastating tsunami in 1541, the Pearl Coast never again reached the pearl-producing heights of the 1520s and 1530s, yet its complex political economy demanded constant crown attention and recognition of the centrality of black pearl divers to the region’s identity, as evidenced by the royal coat of arms granted to Margarita Island in 1600. This era coincided with the political merger of Portugal and Spain, a contentious political union with profound repercussions for the rules governing the movement of people and products within and beyond Iberian realms. Pearls and pearl fishing, meanwhile, continued to evoke maritime wealth and power beyond Spain, explored in art by painters charged with conveying the wonders of a world in transformation. As royal chroniclers reflected on the early history of the American pearl fisheries with an eye to assessing the errors and accomplishments of the past, crown officials sought to improve their management of these unruly settlements. Meanwhile, enslaved laborers in Venezuela and diplomats in England and Italy continued to use pearls to navigate the changing parameters of their lives.

Prestige or Profit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Early National Period ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Racial Barriers ◽  
Early National ◽  
Economic Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Period

Although investors in the early national period originally hoped to build a sporting culture that granted them both profit and prestige, the demand for profit-seeking created by the economic culture of the post-Revolutionary years ultimately forced them to decide whether to maximize revenue by appealing to the largest possible audience or craft prestige for themselves by making sure that venues and content emphasized exclusivity and celebrated the elite. The social history of attending sporting events in the early national period reveals how demands from nonelite audiences pushed investors and professionals to prioritize profit over prestige. It then concludes by detailing how white men united to limit the confrontation that resulted from broader accessibility by erecting gender and racial barriers to full participation, and how politicians then borrowed from sport to construct a white male republic rooted in the pursuit of manhood and profit. In sum, then, this chapter highlights how elites and investors responded to popular opposition to exclusive elitism by conceding their desire for social and cultural authority and focusing on deference earned through wealth and white male brotherhood.

Hobos in Heaven

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Convict Labor ◽  
Local Jail ◽  
History Of ◽  
Poor White ◽  
The City ◽  
Male Incarceration

Chapter 2 moves deeper into the U.S. era, chronicling how, between the 1880s and 1910s, authorities in Los Angeles redirected and expanded the city’s carceral capacity. They did so while targeting a particular population: poor white men, namely those popularly disparaged as “tramps” and “hobos” for migrating constantly, working little, and living and loving beyond the bounds of the nuclear family ideal. By 1910, when white men comprised nearly 100 percent of the local jail population, Los Angeles operated one of the largest jail systems in the country. And, as the city rapidly grew during these years, Los Angeles authorities operated a large convict labor program. In turn, white men sentenced to the chain gang cut roads, beautified parks, built schools, and so on. Chapter 2 details the rise of white male incarceration at the turn of the twentieth century and unveils the little-known history of how incarcerated white men built the infrastructure of the growing city. From Sunset Boulevard to the paths winding around Dodger Stadium, city residents still walk, ride, and run on the imprint of their labors.

Racist Attachments: Dakko-chan, Black Kitsch, and Kawaii Culture

2022 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-187
Author(s):  
Erica Kanesaka
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
Security Treaty ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Turmoil

Abstract This article explores the ties between anti-Black racist kitsch and kawaii culture through the history of the Dakko-chan doll. In what came to be called the “Dakko-chan boom” of 1960, tens of thousands of Japanese people lined up to purchase an inflatable blackface doll with a circular red mouth, grass skirt, and winking hologram eyes. Dakko means “to hug,” and Dakko-chan's astronomical popularity resulted in part from the way the doll could be worn as an accessory, attached to the body by its hugging arms. This article asks what it meant for Japan, a nation still recovering from World War II and the American occupation, to quite literally embrace American blackface in the form of an embraceable doll. Rejecting the claim that blackface loses its significance in a Japanese context, this article argues that Dakko-chan cannot be considered devoid of racist meanings. Emerging amid the political turmoil surrounding the revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty, Dakko-chan came to express a wide range of contradictory feelings about race, sex, and nation, illustrating how affective attachments to racist forms have accrued rather than dissipated through their movement into new cultural contexts.

The link between stereotypical leader traits and perceived electability: Do Black women politicians face double jeopardy?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Elizabeth Mosier ◽  
Evava Pietri
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
White Female ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Double Jeopardy ◽  
Leader Traits ◽  
Voting Intentions

This paper examined whether Black women political candidates face double jeopardy in voter perceptions of electability due to Black women being perceived as having fewer traditional leader traits compared to White male, White female, and Black male candidates. Due to increasing political polarization in the U.S., concerns over electability are at the forefront of many voters’ minds when casting their ballots. Traditional conceptions of electability are built upon racialized and gendered notions of what traits connote an effective leader; thus, women and racial minority candidates are often perceived as less electable compared to White men. However, research has not adequately examined the intersectional aspect of electability bias. The current study proposed a double jeopardy effect: we expected that participants (n = 454) would perceive Black women, compared to White men, White women, and Black men, as lower in competence and leadership ability, which would lead to lower electability perceptions and voting intentions. Unexpectedly, there were mixed findings for the effects of race/gender on competence and leadership ability, and we did not find any evidence that candidate race/gender related to electability or voting intentions. We discuss potential explanations for these null findings and suggest avenues for future research.

scholarly journals “Deluded and Ruined”: Diana Bastian—Enslaved African Canadian Teenager and White Male Privilege

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afua Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Male Privilege ◽  
Cape Breton ◽  
Black Teenager ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Catastrophic Impact ◽  
African Canadian

This essay explores the vulnerability of enslaved African Canadian Black women by examining the death of Diana Bastian, an enslaved Black teenager who in 1792 was raped by George More,a member of the Governing Council of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Though Bastian begged for assistance during the resultant pregnancy, More denied her such aid and cast her aside. Bastian further appealed to More’s brother, a local magistrate, who also denied Bastian any help, and Bastian died giving birth to the twins More sired. Bastian’s owner, Abraham Cuyler, appeared to have been absent from the province at the time of Bastian’s rape, pregnancy, and labour. Bastian’s brief and tragic history is told in her death certificate recorded at the St. George’s Anglican Church, Sydney. This very succinct document brings to light the story of racial and sexual abuse on the Canadian frontier, and helps us to understand the marginal status of Black women’s lives in colonial Canada. I suggest in this essay that when we place enslaved Black women at the centre of Canada’s historical and colonial past, we come to a new understanding of the power and privilege White men possessed, and the catastrophic impact it had on Black women’s bodies.

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