scholarly journals The Sense of Loss in Jean Rhy’s Voyage in The Dark: The Absence of Mother and Imagined Black Identity

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Zita Rarastesa

<p>The sense of loss of a mother leads Anna Morgan to her imagined black identity. Being a Creole from Dominica, Morgan is alienated both in her home country and in London. Du Bois’s notion of double consciousness substantiates Morgan’s sense of alienation. The racial issue here is not only socially constructed, but it is also personally constructed, as Morgan does not consider England as her homeland although she is as white as English people. people. The character is struggling from identity conflict, as she internalizes the impact of the British colonialization to the black people in Dominica. She feels more black than white because of the image of blackness that she creates from the image of her mother and black women in general, as nurturing, warm and domestic. In addition to that, the geographic location contributes to Morgan’s sense of loss.</p>

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 164-174
Author(s):  
Dr. Nirjharini Tripathy

The American novelist Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye portrays black society and deals with the themes of black victimization and racial oppression. It presents a prolonged representation of the means in which the standards of internalized white beauty contort the life and existence of black women. This paper explores and elucidates the impact of race, racial oppression and representation in The Bluest Eye. And how racism also edifices the hatredness between Blackand White communities. This paper will discuss various issues and concepts such as Race, Race in the Colonial Period, Racializing the Other and Stereotyping. The paper also deals with understanding Representation through the ideas of Saussure, Barthes, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Geertz, and Said. Racism is primarily a belief in the supremacy and dominance of one race upon another that consequences in the differences, discrimination and prejudice of people towards one another rooted and established on their race or ethnicity. Racism has deeply affected the African-American coloured people making them feel inferior. The Bluest Eye reflects the appalling effect on blacks individualising the values of a white culture that rejects them both immediately and incidentally. Even after abolition of slavery legally still the African-Americans faces the cruelty of racial discrimination and never considered equal to the whites. The Black people struggles to ascertain themselves with the white and their ethnic ways. Toni Morrison propounds on black cultural heritage and seeks the African-Americans to be gratified and proud of their black colour as well black identity. This paper conveys the essence of the coloured people’s fight for their race, and  also its continuance and forbearance in a principally multicultural White dominated  America.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Sewell

With the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent focus on black existence, itis perhaps timely to revisit a previous historical period – the 1970s which saw theemergence of the civil rights movement and the transformation of black consciousness and identity.Both psychosocial and existential theories highlight the relationship between context and the development of identity. Drawing on the work of Erikson, Cross describes stages of identity development from negro to black which he originally related to the historical context of the black consciousness period of the 1970s but later, developed into a tool to measure black identity. This model depicts identity as developing in fixed stages with objective and measurable characteristics. The black existential approach focuses on the construction of identity within a context shaped by an individual’s experiences. Black existential philosophy aims to explore how different black experiences shape different manifestations of black identity construction. This articlereviews these two perspectives. I conclude that the black existential perspective produces richer knowledge about the existence of black people. Using the example ofhow second generation British born black Jamaicans constructed their identity during the 1970s, it is possible to see how this construction was shaped by their lived experiences in Britain at this time.


Pragmatics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecelia A. Cutler

Within hip-hop, MC (Master of Cermonies) battles are one of the most visible and potentially humiliating venues for demonstrating one’s verbal skill. Competitors face each other in front of an audience. Each has a minute to “diss” his or her opponent against a backdrop of rhythms produced by a DJ. Each participant’s performance generally consists of “freestyle” or spontaneously generated rhymes designed to belittle some aspect of the opponent’s appearance, rhyming style or place of origin, and ritual insults directed at his or her mother, sister, or crew. Opponents show good will by embracing afterwards. Ultimately the audience decides who wins by applauding louder for one opponent than the other at the end of the battle. Using the framework of interactional sociolinguistics (Goffman 1974, 1981), I will analyze clips from a televised MC battle in which the winning contestant was a White teenager from the Midwest called “Eyedea.” I will show how Eyedea and his successive African American opponents, “R.K.” and “Shells”, participate in the co-construction of his Whiteness. Eyedea marks himself linguistically as White by overemphasizing his pronunciation of /r/ and by carefully avoiding Black ingroup forms of address like “nigga” (c.f. Smitherman 1994). R.K. and Shells construct Eyedea’s Whiteness largely in discursive ways – by pointing out his resemblance to White actors, and alluding to television shows with White cultural references. Socially constructed racial boundaries must be acknowledged in these types of performances because Whiteness (despite the visibility of White rappers like Eminem) is still marked against the backdrop of normative Blackness in hip-hop (Boyd 2002). In a counter-hegemonic reversal of Du Boisian double-consciousness hip-hop obliges White participants to see themselves through the eyes of Black people. Hip-hop effectively subverts dominant discourses of race and language requiring MC battle participants to acknowledge and ratify this covert hierarchy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Leidiana Da Silva Lima Freitas ◽  
Maria Suely De Oliveira Lopes

Resumo: A presença do negro no cenário literário brasileiro vem se tornando mais visível nas últimas décadas. Embora no passado esse protagonismo tenha sido mais tímido, principalmente quando se trata da mulher negra, essa presença hoje é bastante expressiva. Carolina Maria de Jesus, apesar do preconceito e da discriminação, é uma das muitas escritoras afrodescendentes que conseguiu destaque no meio literário. Através de sua escrita, mostrou a situação de pobreza, de miséria e de exclusão que sofreu durante sua vida. Dessa forma, o presente artigo objetiva analisar a obra Diário de Bitita (1986), enfocando aspectos como a negritude e o pertencimento. De forma específica, buscou-se entender como a questão racial e a ideia de pertencimento são abordadas na referida obra, além de discutir como Carolina de Jesus lidava com essas questões na sua infância e adolescência. Para tanto, buscou-se como auxílio os aportes teóricos de Cixous (2017), Fanon (2008), Hall (2005), entre outros. Observou-se, através desta análise, que a escrita de Carolina Maria de Jesus é um instrumento utilizado pela escritora para denunciar a situação dos pobres e, principalmente dos negros, diante de uma sociedade dominada por uma concepção eurocêntrica que privilegia os brancos em detrimento dos negros. Diante do preconceito, da discriminação e da exclusão vivenciados por Bitita, muitas vezes ela desejava ter a pele branca para assim poder usufruir dos mesmos direitos de que dispunham os brancos.Palavras-chave: escrita; negritude; pertencimento; Diário de Bitita.Abstract: The presence of blacks in the Brazilian literary scene has become more visible in recent decades. Although in the past this main role was more timid, especially when it comes to black women, this presence today is quite expressive. Carolina Maria de Jesus, despite of prejudice and discrimination, is one of the many Afro-descendant writers who had achieved prominence in the literary medium. Through her writing, she showed the situation of poverty, misery and exclusion she suffered during her life. Thus, this article aims to analyze the work Diário de Bitita (Bitita’s Diary, 1986), focusing on aspects such as blackness and belonging. More specifically, we sought to understand how the racial issue and the idea of belonging are addressed in the referred work, in addition to discussing how the author dealt with these issues in her childhood and adolescence. Therefore, support was sought in the theoretical contributions of Cixous (2017), Fanon (2008), Hall (2005), among others. It was observed that Carolina Maria de Jesus uses her writing as an instrument to denounce the situation of poor and, especially of black people, in the face of a society dominated by an Eurocentric conception that privileges whites over blacks. Facing the prejudice, discrimination and exclusion experienced by Bitita, she often wished to have white skin to enjoy the same rights as  white people.Keywords: writing; blackness; belonging; Diário de Bitita.


Author(s):  
Brandon R. Byrd

This essay examines the ideas and activism of a woman calling herself Madame Parque, who traveled across the United States giving lectures to black and white audiences during the 1870s. Claiming to be a well-educated, multilingual, and mixed-race Haitian educator, Parque spoke at courthouses, black churches, and black schools throughout the United States, mocking racism and sexism and celebrating Afro-diasporic history and black identity. The woman who presented herself as a Haitian named Madame Parque emboldened African Americans striving for meaningful freedom and prodded white Americans to develop more enlightened perspectives about black people. Her story captures the dynamic ways in which black women influenced the directions of black thought in the postemancipation United States.


Author(s):  
Andrea E. Smith-Hunter ◽  
William Engelhardt ◽  
Gilbert Brookins

The topic of entrepreneurship is central in both scholarly and public policy discussions of minority businesses, yet few studies have examined the factors leading to economic success for minority women entrepreneurs. This paper partially addresses the oversight by analyzing Dun and Bradstreet data on businesses owned by Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Indian and Black women, focusing on the relationship between sales volume (the dependent variable) and number of employees, years in business, race and industry type (the independent variables).  The results from this paper add a new dimension to this line of research, building on previous studies that document the growing significance of entrepreneurship among minority women.  The results show that there is indeed an impact on sales volume by number of employees, years in business, race and industry type.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Towner ◽  
Semisi Taumoepeau

Abstract Tuvalu and Nauru are isolated developing island nations located in the South Pacific Ocean. In contrast to the established larger Pacific destinations such as Fiji and Tahiti, the tourism industries on both Tuvalu and Nauru are in their infancy. Tourism development in these remote island nations faces a myriad of challenges which include a lack of infrastructure, environmental susceptibility, economic vulnerability, difficulties with access and considerable distances from major tourist markets. This paper reviews tourism on Tuvalu and Nauru and evaluates their current situation regarding potential tourism development through workshops with relevant stakeholders, surveys and subsequent SWOT analysis. The results of the paper outlined a large number of challenges faced by Tuvalu and Nauru due to their geographic location but also highlighted that both Islands possess fascinating and unique features that have the potential to attract niche tourism markets. A key finding of this paper is that the tourism stimulus or potential attraction can also be the chief threat to the islands’ economic survival hence the two edges of the sword. Further research is required to assess the effect of the withdrawal of the Refugee Processing Centre on Nauru’s economy and to evaluate the impact of climate change on Tuvalu’s society and potential adaption strategies.


Author(s):  
Nuchelle L Chance

Supported by the Crucibles of Leadership theory, this article explores how adverse experiences influence the leadership development of Black women in higher education senior leadership. I use phenomenology to explore how these leaders’ adverse lived experiences manifested as transformative crucible experiences with resilience, thus promoting leadership development. Black people have been continuously subject to adversity, while Black women have overcome the compounded adversities resulting from their intersectional identities. Reported lived adversities included physical, sexual, and verbal assault and abuse, adverse childhood experiences such as growing up in poverty, being raised by single parents, being subject to bullying, losing loved ones, discrimination, and health issues. Black women are resilient, and education has proven to be a lifeline regarding adversity, thus promoting leadership capabilities. They use adversity as fuel to overcome adverse crucible experiences, thus developing the necessary skills to prepare them for leadership. The results further reveal that Black women in higher education senior leadership experienced significant adverse experiences that manifested as crucible experiences by overcoming adversity. The findings reveal an association between their ability to develop the necessary leadership skills to advance their career and their lived adverse experiences.


2021 ◽  
pp. 053331642199776
Author(s):  
Suryia Nayak

This is the transcript of a speech I gave at an Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) event on the 28th November 2020 about intersectionality and groups analysis. This was momentous for group analysis because it was the first IGA event to focus on black feminist intersectionality. Noteworthy, because it is so rare, the large group was convened by two black women, qualified members of the IGA—a deliberate intervention in keeping with my questioning of the relationship between group analysis and power, privilege, and position. This event took place during the Covid-19 pandemic via an online platform called ‘Zoom’. Whilst holding the event online had implications for the embodied visceral experience of the audience, it enabled an international attendance, including members of Group Analysis India. Invitation to the event: ‘Why the black feminist idea of intersectionality is vital to group analysis’ Using black feminist intersectionality, this workshop explores two interconnected issues: • Group analysis is about integration of parts, but how do we do this across difference in power, privilege, and position? • Can group analysis allow outsider ideas in? This question goes to the heart of who/ what we include in group analytic practice—what about black feminism? If there ‘cannot possibly be one single version of the truth so we need to hear as many different versions of it as we can’ (Blackwell, 2003: 462), we need to include as many different situated standpoints as possible. Here is where and why the black feminist idea of intersectionality is vital to group analysis. On equality, diversity and inclusion, intersectionality says that the ‘problems of exclusion cannot be solved simply by including black [people] within an already established analytical structure’ (Crenshaw, 1989: 140). Can group analysis allow the outsider idea of intersectionality in?


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