scholarly journals Resistance and Protest in Percival Everett's Erasure

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-157
Author(s):  
Sonia Caputa
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Identification ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Black Experience ◽  
Thelonious Monk ◽  
American Experience ◽  
The Impact

 As argued by the literary critic Margaret Russett, Percival Everett “unhinges ‘black’ subject matter from a lingering stereotype of ‘black’ style [and] challenges the assumption that a single or consensual African-American experience exists to be represented.” The author presents such a radical individualism in his most admired literary work published in 2001. In Erasure, Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, the main character and narrator of the book, pens a stereotypically oriented African American novel that becomes an expression of “him being sick of it;” “an awful little book, demeaning and soul-destroying drivel” that caters for the tastes and expectations of the American readership but, at the same time, oscillates around pre-conceived beliefs, prejudices, and racial clichés supposedly emphasizing the ‘authentic’ black experience in the United States. Not only is Erasure about race, misconceptions of blackness and racial identification but also about academia, external constraints, and one’s fight against them. The present article, therefore, endeavors to analyze different forms of resistance and protest in Percival Everett’s well-acclaimed novel, demonstrating the intricate connections between the publishing industry, the impact of media, the literary canon formation and the treatment of black culture.

scholarly journals An Actantial and Functional Analysis on Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Heri Dwi Santoso
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
African American ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
American People ◽  
African American People ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Plot Structure ◽  
Structural Research

To a certain extent, a structural study is good enough to comprehend the very substance of a literary work. Given the above thesis, the researcher attempted to conduct a structural research on Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (ROTHMC), an African-American novel, using actantial and functional structure analysis. This study aimed at comprehending the basic framework of the story that leads to the revelation of the plot and relations between characters, which indicated the African-American protagonist’s struggle to challenge white supremacy. Method used in the research was descriptive qualitative. Results found that the protagonist was David Logan, an African-American independent farmer that had an ambition to free African-American community from white people’s repressions. It was also found that the ambition and dream of David Logan about African-American freedom and independence and his awareness on the repression toward African-American people (Sender) has made him struggled to make African-American or African-American become a free race with dignity in the United States, where land and other things at the time was dominated by White people. Meanwhile, the functional analysis showed the plot structure of ROTHMC, which was centered on the struggles of David Logan and the family to challenge white supremacy.

The Effects of the Westward Movement on California's Growth and Development, 1900–1920

1969 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Frank L. Beach
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
United States Population ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Westward Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

Internal migration is a growing social phenomenon of today's America: a third of the United States population live in a different state from the one in which they have been born. This, however, has been a constant aspect of the American experience. The author of the present essay analyzes in an historical perspective the growth of California from 1900–1920 under the impact of the westward movement. The social, economic and political implications of the California development are the main features of this paper.

Assata Is Welcome Here

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teishan A. Latner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
Political Exile ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Eldridge Cleaver ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

Chapter Five examines Cuba’s provision of formal political asylum to political dissidents from the United States. Focusing on black radical activists such as Robert F. Williams, Eldridge Cleaver, Assata Shakur, Nehanda Abiodun, William Lee Brent, Charlie Hill, and Huey Newton, and organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Republic of New Afrika, the chapter explores the role that political exile and asylum has played within the larger relationship between the Cuban Revolution and the African American freedom struggle, and the impact of this engagement upon U.S.-Cuba relations amid the Cold War and the War on Terror. While some U.S. black activists looked to the Cuban Revolution as a hemispheric beacon of hope, Cuba in turn looked to U.S. black activists as allies in its geopolitical struggle with Washington, viewing the African American freedom struggle as its best hope for a radical ally in its northern neighbor.

Haunted Roadscapes in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing

MELUS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-153
Author(s):  
Nicole Dib
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Road Trip ◽  
The Road ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Unique Experience

Abstract In this article, I argue that Jesmyn Ward deploys a road trip in her 2017 novel Sing, Unburied, Sing as a literary formula through which she demonstrates the immobilizing effects of racism and incarceration on contemporary black lives. The association of the American road-trip novel with freedom and free movement is strong in the American imaginary, and Ward manipulates this association to explore what happens when automobile travelers are precarious rather than privileged. The road trip in Ward's novel makes visible various forces of mobility and immobility that differentiate citizens by race. She conjures two dimensions of the African American experience that are immobilizing: the carceral system and the risk of “driving while black.” Sing, Unburied, Sing already critiques the traditional road trip in its plot and narrative structure; for Ward, it is the linkages of dimensions of African American immobilization around the road trip that are powerful. Ward's novel demonstrates that black automobility, or the unique experience of the road for racialized drivers, reveals the political and social dynamics that shape our conception of the road for all drivers. Furthermore, I analyze how the road trip within the novel “unburies” a story about the violence of incarceration. I explore how Ward finesses that iconic American narrative trope, the journey by car that ought to be freeing, to heighten her critique of racist, anti-black structures of oppression in the United States.

This Is Your Book: Marketing America to Itself

PMLA ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Ween
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African American ◽  
American Literature ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Book World ◽  
Important Shift

In February 2001, Knopf Publishing Company, a division of Random House, reportedly purchased the rights to publish two novels by Stephen L. Carter for $4 million. As the Daily Variety Gotham stated, “Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter emerged from the ivory tower last week and shook the book world from its February doldrums” (Bing 43). And the New York Times wrote, “The advance is among the highest ever paid for a first novel and is all the more unusual because of the author's background. Mr. Carter, 46, is an African-American who has written several works of nonfiction, including ‘Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby’ and ‘The Culture of Disbelief‘” (Kirkpatrick, “Knopf”). Whether this purchase is considered “unusual” because it is a first novel or because the author is African American, it is part of an important shift for American literature: the jacket art, prepublication publicity, and sales materials shape this novel as a mainstream, blockbuster, best-selling legal thriller, not as an African American novel per se. The mainstream feel of Carter's novel brings up pertinent questions about race, literature, and the marketing of ethnic identity in the United States. Looking at the positioning of this novel allows us to understand how the publishers, newspaper reporters, and marketers have planted seeds that will influence the reception of the text by reviewers and readers.

scholarly journals Food Insecurity in a Low-Income, Predominantly African American Cohort Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-497
Author(s):  
Tamara Dubowitz ◽  
Madhumita Ghosh Dastidar ◽  
Wendy M. Troxel ◽  
Robin Beckman ◽  
Alvin Nugroho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Nutrition Assistance ◽  
National Trends ◽  
The Impact

Objectives. To examine the impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on food insecurity among a predominantly African American cohort residing in low-income racially isolated neighborhoods. Methods. Residents of 2 low-income African American food desert neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were surveyed from March 23 to May 22, 2020, drawing on a longitudinal cohort (n = 605) previously followed from 2011 to 2018. We examined longitudinal trends in food insecurity from 2011 to 2020 and compared them with national trends. We also assessed use of food assistance in our sample in 2018 versus 2020. Results. From 2018 to 2020, food insecurity increased from 20.7% to 36.9% (t = 7.63; P < .001) after steady declines since 2011. As a result of COVID-19, the United States has experienced a 60% increase in food insecurity, whereas this sample showed a nearly 80% increase, widening a preexisting disparity. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (52.2%) and food bank use (35.9%) did not change significantly during the early weeks of the pandemic. Conclusions. Longitudinal data highlight profound inequities that have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Existing policies appear inadequate to address the widening gap.

scholarly journals Housing Insecurity and the Emotional and Physical Health of African Americans

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 335-336
Author(s):  
Aarti Bhat ◽  
August Jenkins ◽  
David Almeida
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chronic Health Conditions ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Chronic Health ◽  
African American Adults ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Housing insecurity—or limited and/or unreliable access to quality housing— is a potent on-going stressor that can adversely impact individual well-being. This study extends previous research by investigating the impact of housing insecurity on both the emotional and physical health of aging African American adults using the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher oversample of African Americans collected from 2012-2013 (N = 508; M age = 43.02; 57% women). Participants reported on their negative affect, number of chronic health conditions experienced in the last year, and experiences of housing insecurity since the 2008 recession (e.g., homelessness, threatened with foreclosure or eviction, lost home). Negative affect and chronic conditions, respectively, were regressed on housing insecurity, and the potential moderating effect of age was tested. Results showed that housing insecurity was associated with more negative affect (B = 0.05, SE = 0.03, p = .002) and chronic health conditions (B = 0.26, SE = 0.03, p &lt; .001). Additionally, the association between housing insecurity and negative affect was moderated by age (B = -0.11, SE = 0.00, p = .019), such that the effect of housing insecurity on negative affect was stronger for younger adults than for older adults. These results suggest that experiences of insecure housing leave African American adults vulnerable to compromised emotional and physical health, however, the negative effects of housing insecurity may attenuate with age.

scholarly journals The Persistence of Oral Health Disparities for African American Children: A Scoping Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Como ◽  
Leah Stein Duker ◽  
José Polido ◽  
Sharon Cermak
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
African American ◽  
Oral Health ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Oral Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oral Health Care ◽  
African American Children ◽  
American Children ◽  
The Impact

Oral health is an important yet often neglected component of overall health, linked to heart disease, stroke, and diabetic complications. Disparities exist for many groups, including racial and ethnic minorities such as African Americans. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential factors that perpetuate oral health care disparities in African American children in the United States. A systematic search of three literature databases produced 795 articles; 23 articles were included in the final review. Articles were analyzed using a template coding approach based on the social ecological model. The review identified structural, sociocultural, and familial factors that impact the ability of African Americans to utilize oral care services, highlighting the importance of the parent/caregiver role and the patient–provider relationship; policy-level processes that impact access to quality care; the value of autonomy in treatment and prevention options; and the impact of sociocultural factors on food choices (e.g., food deserts, gestures of affection). In conclusion, oral health care remains an underutilized service by African American children, despite increasing access to oral care secondary to improvements in insurance coverage and community-based programs.

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