Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 369-384
Author(s):  
Joseph P. McCormick II ◽  
Todd C. Shaw ◽  
Robert A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Central Actor ◽  
African American Communities ◽  
Inclusive Policy ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Exclusive Or

In this volume, we have presented a conceptual framework that argues the American constitutional order has entailed various racial orders that advanced either more racially exclusive or more racially inclusive policy agendas. The American presidency has been a central actor in these orders. One key conclusion we reach based on the analyses of our contributors is that the historic presidency of Barack Obama attempted to advance the policy interests of various African American communities across several dimensions—e.g., voting rights, criminal justice reform, healthcare, and housing. And while African American communities may have had what we call an “inverted linked fate” with Obama (or linked their sense of well-being with Obama’s perceived political well-being), Obama’s personal linked fate with African American communities—i.e., Black women, Black LGBTQ persons, faith-based communities, etc.—did not overcome what we call the “inclusionary dilemma.” Despite African American voters being critical to Obama’s electoral victories, the aforementioned orders imposed constraints upon the Obama policy agenda and fueled the president’s reluctance to press more left-of-center policy prescriptions that would be of greater benefit to Black communities. We end by considering the Obama administration’s shortfalls relative to a new, progressive Black politics during the Trump administration.

Black Women and Beauty Culture in 20th-Century America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine Leeds Craig
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Black Press ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Beauty Culture ◽  
Beauty Contests ◽  
Hair Care ◽  
Black Beauty

Black beauty culture developed in the context of widespread disparagement of black men and women in images produced by whites, and black women’s exclusion from mainstream cultural institutions, such as beauty contests, which defined beauty standards on a national scale. Though mainstream media rarely represented black women as beautiful, black women’s beauty was valued within black communities. Moreover many black women used cosmetics, hair products and styling, and clothing to meet their communities’ standards for feminine appearance. At the beginning of the 20th century, the black press, which included newspapers, general magazines, and women’s magazines, showcased the beauty of black women. As early as the 1890s, black communities organized beauty contests that celebrated black women’s beauty and served as fora for debating definitions of black beauty. Still, generally, but not always, the black press and black women’s beauty pageants favored women with lighter skin tones, and many cosmetics firms that marketed to black women sold skin lighteners. The favoring of light skin was nonetheless debated and contested within black communities, especially during periods of heightened black political activism. In the 1910s and 1920s and later in the 1960s and 1970s, social movements fostered critiques of black aesthetics and beauty practices deemed Eurocentric. One focus of criticism was the widespread black practice of hair straightening—a critique that has produced an enduring association between hairstyles perceived as natural and racial pride. In the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, African migration and the transnational dissemination of information via the internet contributed to a creative proliferation of African American hairstyles. While such styles display hair textures associated with African American hair, and are celebrated as natural hairstyles, they generally require the use of hair products and may incorporate synthetic hair extensions. Beauty culture provided an important vehicle for African American entrepreneurship at a time when racial discrimination barred black women from other opportunities and most national cosmetics companies ignored black women. Black women’s beauty-culture business activities included beauticians who provided hair care in home settings and the extremely successful nationwide and international brand of hair- and skin-care products developed in the first two decades of the 20th century by Madam C. J. Walker. Hair-care shops provided important places for sharing information and community organizing. By the end of the 20th century, a few black-owned hair-care and cosmetics companies achieved broad markets and substantial profitability, but most declined or disappeared as they faced increased competition from or were purchased by larger white-owned corporations.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Todd C. Shaw ◽  
Robert A. Brown ◽  
Joseph P. McCormick II
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Community ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
President Obama ◽  
African American Politics ◽  
Linked Fate

This chapter provides a framework for this edited volume about how Barack Obama’s presidential legacy has, and has not, shaped African American politics—after Obama. Its co-editors—Todd Shaw, Robert Brown, and Joseph McCormick—posit that President Obama, a pragmatist who struggled to avoid the perceived pitfalls of race, operated within a conservative American racial order. The race and racism of this order convinced various Black constituencies to embrace an “inverted linked fate,” whereby they perceived their collective well-being based on the perceived political well-being of Obama. In return, no matter Obama’s cultural and symbolic ties to the Black community, he and his administration confronted an “inclusionary dilemma,” whereby the Black-led coalition that gave Obama electoral victories were, at times, underserved by the political and juridical limitations of his policy agenda or policy successes. The authors then give an overview of the rest of the volume.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-195
Author(s):  
Douglas J. Flowe
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
First Century ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
African American Communities ◽  
Twenty First Century

This epilogue brings all of the concepts explored in each chapter to bear on contemporary issues of police violence, mass incarceration, and economic isolation in African American communities in the twenty first century. It makes it very clear that considering this history, it is possible to understand crime in ailing, segregated, and over-policed black communities as a form of protest, in many instances.

scholarly journals The Influence of Colorism on the Hair Experiences of African American Female Adolescents

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Lakindra Mitchell Dove
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Female Adolescents ◽  
African American Female ◽  
Natural Hair ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
African American Female Adolescents

This article addresses the prevalence of colorism among the hair care narratives of African American female adolescents. Eleven interviews were conducted to explore the connection between hair and sense of self and self-esteem. During data collection and analysis, the theme surrounding colorism emerged, as many participants discussed its influence on hair, recalling traumatic hair and colorist experiences. This article focuses on the analysis of these narratives using the colorist-historical trauma framework. Three themes emerged: (1) colorist experiences; (2) perceptions of good hair; and (3) the influence of White beauty standards. These themes reflect how participants conceptualized the implications of colorism and its impact on their psychosocial and emotional well-being. The article highlights how colorism is embedded in their lived experiences and how participants combated the presence of colorism perpetuated by family, peers, and society, to embrace their identities. The article outlines the implications of collective efforts to decolonize hair and promote healing and liberation through actions such as the natural hair movement, legal efforts to protect hairstyle preferences in schools and the workplace, and overall awareness of the perception of Black women in media. It also discusses shifts in attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs regarding hair among younger generations.

Minority Stress and Relationships

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Carroll
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Minority Stress ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Minorities ◽  
Heterosexual Couples ◽  
Positive Coping ◽  
African American Communities

Minority stress for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) and African American communities has been well documented over the past 30 years. Generally speaking, being a member of a stigmatized community can lead to alienation from social structures, norms, and institutions, all of which can have negative implications for mental health, well-being, and relationships. When speaking about minority stress and its impact on LGBTQ+ relationships, the research is mixed. Although there are findings that show LGBTQ+ individuals face greater discrimination and more negative health impacts than heterosexual couples, other research notes the positive coping mechanisms that highlight the resilient nature of these couples. For African Americans and other racial minorities, the disparities are greater, with research showing that racial identity is linked to an increase in overall external stressors. However, over the last few years, discrimination toward sexual and racial minorities has reached a critical tipping point. Both within the United States and worldwide, social movements are drawing attention to the historical inequalities experienced by minority groups, and demanding change. Considering minority stress research, methods, and analyses are built on the connection between an individual and their social situations, the construct is due for an evolution, one that is representative of what our world looks like today. Although conceptualizations thus far have been productive in understanding the stressors of the LGBTQ+ and African American communities, there is a need to incorporate critical concepts of intersectionality and expand understanding of what it means to be a member of a minority group.

Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Janifer LaRoche
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
Underground Railroad ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Fugitive Slaves ◽  
Free Black ◽  
African American Communities

This enlightening study employs the tools of archaeology to uncover a new historical perspective on the Underground Railroad. Unlike previous histories of the Underground Railroad, which have focused on frightened fugitive slaves and their benevolent abolitionist accomplices, this book focuses instead on free African American communities, the crucial help they provided to individuals fleeing slavery, and the terrain where those flights to freedom occurred. This book foregrounds several small, rural hamlets on the treacherous southern edge of the free North in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. It demonstrates how landscape features such as waterways, iron forges, and caves played a key role in the conduct and effectiveness of the Underground Railroad. Rich in oral histories, maps, memoirs, and archaeological investigations, this examination of the “geography of resistance” tells the new, powerful, and inspiring story of African Americans ensuring their own liberation in the midst of oppression.

Charitable Collaborations in Bronzeville, 1928-1944

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 975-991
Author(s):  
Clovis E. Semmes
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Self Help ◽  
African American Communities ◽  
Chicago Defender

In the twentieth century, race-based residential and commercial segregation that supported racial oppression and inequality became an elemental characteristic of urban black communities. Conflict-ridden, black-white relationships were common. However, the Chicago Defender Charities, Inc., the entity that sponsors the largest African American parade in the country and that emerged in 1947, embodied a tradition of charitable giving, self-help, and community service initiated in 1921 by Chicago Defender newspaper founder and editor, Robert S. Abbott. The foundation of this charitable tradition matured as a result of an early and sustained collaboration between Chicago’s white-owned Regal Theater and the black-owned Chicago Defender newspaper. Thus, in segregated African American communities, black and white commercial institutions, under certain conditions, were able to find important points of collaboration to uplift the African American communities of which they were a part.

scholarly journals Do All Black Lives Matter Equally to Black People? Respectability Politics and the Limitations of Linked Fate

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tehama Lopez Bunyasi ◽  
Candis Watts Smith
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Black Public Opinion ◽  
The Right

AbstractCathy Cohen’s (1999) theory of secondary marginalization helps to explain why the needs of some members of Black communities are not prioritized on “the” Black political agenda; indeed, some groups are ignored altogether as mainstream Black public opinion shifts to the right (Tate 2010). However, the contemporary movement for Black Lives calls for an intersectional approach to Black politics. Its platform requires participants to take seriously the notion that since Black communities are diverse, so are the needs of its members. To what extent are Blacks likely to believe that those who face secondary marginalization should be prioritized on the Black political agenda? What is the role of linked fate in galvanizing support around these marginalized Blacks? To what extent does respectability politics serve to hinder a broader embrace of Blacks who face different sets of interlocking systems of oppression, such as Black women, formerly incarcerated Blacks, undocumented Black people, and Black members of LBGTQ communities in an era marked by Black social movements? We analyze data from the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) to assess whether all Black lives matter to Black Americans.

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