Protesting the Privilege of Perception

Author(s):  
Scott L. Matthews

This chapter explores how Hale County, Alabama became an iconic site of documentary representation during the twentieth century and why some its poor black and white residents resisted the attempts of documentarians to turn their private lives into public symbols. The chapter begins by examining the collaboration between two local white documentarians, amateur folklorist and poet, Martha Young and photographer J.W. Otts, who recorded the lives and customs of Hale County’s rural black people in the early 1900s. It focuses on Young’s dialect poems that speak from the perspective of black women who refused to be photographed by whites and who saw photography as an exploitative medium. Next, the chapter demonstrates how this narrative and tradition of resistance to documentary continued during the 1930s. It explores the resistance writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans faced in the 1930s from some of the white tenant families they documented for their book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and it shows how their descendants often found new ways to resist documentarians and journalists in succeeding decades. These acts of resistance transformed poor black and white residents into actors rather than just icons in the documentary process.

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Constance Bailey

This dissertation looks at nine works by contemporary black women writers and argues that the relationships between the major characters in the text reflect and emphasize the importance of mentoring bonds in black communities. More importantly, the project argues that by critically exploring this relationship we can come come to understand more about coming of narratives written by black women writers. These works suggest that there is a marked difference in the way that black people, black women in particular, mature, become successfully integrated into society, and deal with personal and communal crises.


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.


On Essays ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 323-348
Author(s):  
Christy Wampole

This chapter analyses the hybridization of the essay with visual genres such as illustration, photography, film, and video, an emergent tendency throughout the twentieth century that underscores the shared features of essayism and Surrealism. These include the use of a logic of digression and free association, a focus on the inner life of the self, the dismissal of formal strictures, the deployment of sensory perception, memory, intuition, and imagination towards expressive ends, and the reliance on images. Beginning with Salvador Dalí’s illustrations for Montaigne’s Essays (1947), the chapter then turns to James Agee and Walker Evans’ collaborative photo essay Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), Chris Marker’s essay-film Sans soleil (1982), and John Bresland’s video essay Mangoes (2010) in order to pinpoint the shared affinities between essayism and Surrealism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Alice de Fátima Nogueira de Moura ◽  
Ingrid Pereira Reis

A maneira como a mídia, em especial o jornalismo brasileiro, representa a mulher negra, ainda reforça o estereótipo racial e social pobre e sexista, além de o espaço para a veiculação de conteúdos produzidos e protagonizados por negras ser quase inexistente. A partir dessa afirmação, a problemática da pesquisa procurou responder o seguinte questionamento: qual a representatividade da mulher negra no jornalismo impresso, mais especificamente no jornal O Liberal? O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi investigar a representatividade da mulher negra no jornalismo impresso, mais especificamente no jornal O Liberal, e como objetivos específicos: pesquisar a representatividade da mulher negra no jornal em discussão; analisar a representatividade da mulher negra nesses conteúdos; comparar, o espaço de voz entre mulheres negras e brancas, e, identificar se o discurso do jornal fortalece o silenciamento das mulheres negras. Como instrumento de pesquisa, utilizou-se a entrevista semidirigida com a jornalista Sheila Faro, Presidente do Sindicato dos Jornalistas do Pará – SINJORPA, que foi transformada em material audiovisual. A conclusão aponta que o modelo atual de comunicação do jornal O Liberal fortalece o silenciamento das mulheres negras, negando a essas mulheres participação ativa em discussões essenciais para a estruturação de uma sociedade mais justa e igual.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Jornalismo Impresso; Mulher; Negritude; Representatividade.     ABSTRACT The way the media, especially Brazilian journalism, represents the black woman, still reinforces the racial and social stereotype poor and sexist, and the space for the production of content produced and carried out by black people is almost non-existent. From this statement, the research question sought to answer the following question: what is the representation of the black woman in print journalism, more specifically in the newspaper The Liberal? The general objective of this work was to investigate the representativeness of the black woman in printed journalism, more specifically in the newspaper The Liberal, and as specific objectives: to investigate the representativeness of the black woman in the newspaper under discussion; analyze the representativeness of the black woman in these contents; compare the voice space between black and white women, and identify if the newspaper's speech strengthens the black women's silence. As a research tool, the semi-directed interview with the journalist Sheila Faro, President of the Syndicate of Journalists of Pará - SINJORPA, was used, which was transformed into audiovisual material. The conclusion is that the current communication model of the newspaper O Liberal strengthens the silence of black women, denying these women an active participation in discussions essential for the structuring of a more just and equal society.   KEYWORDS: Printed journalism; Woman; Blackness; Representativity.     RESUMEN La manera como los medios, en especial el periodismo brasileño, representan a la mujer negra, todavía refuerza el estereotipo racial y social pobre y sexista, además del espacio para la difusión de contenidos producidos y protagonizados por negras ser casi inexistente. A partir de esa afirmación, la problemática de la investigación buscó responder el siguiente cuestionamiento: ¿cuál es la representatividad de la mujer negra en el periodismo impreso, más específicamente en el periódico O Liberal? El objetivo general de este trabajo fue investigar la representatividad de la mujer negra en el periodismo impreso, más específicamente en el periódico O Liberal, y como objetivos específicos: investigar la representatividad de la mujer negra en el periódico en discusión; analizar la representatividad de la mujer negra en esos contenidos; comparar, el espacio de voz entre mujeres negras y blancas, y, identificar si el discurso del periódico fortalece el silenciamiento de las mujeres negras. Como instrumento de investigación, se utilizó la entrevista semidirigida con la periodista Sheila Faro, Presidenta del Sindicato de Periodistas de Pará - SINJORPA, que fue transformada en material audiovisual. La conclusión apunta que el modelo actual de comunicación del diario O Liberal fortalece el silenciamiento de las mujeres negras, negando a esas mujeres participación activa en discusiones esenciales para la estructuración de una sociedad más justa e igual. PALABRAS CLAVE: Periodismo Impreso; las mujeres; negritud; Representatividad.


Author(s):  
Scott L. Matthews

This expansive history of documentary work in the South during the twentieth century examines the motivations and methodologies of several pivotal documentarians, including sociologists Howard Odum and Arthur Raper, photographers Jack Delano and Danny Lyon, and music ethnographer John Cohen. It also explores the contentious history of documentary work in Hale County, Alabama, a place immortalized by writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans in their collaborative book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, as well by other documentary artists such as William Christenberry, Martha Young, and J.W. Otts. The work of these documentarians salvaged and celebrated folk cultures threatened by modernization or strived to reveal and reform problems linked to the region's racial caste system and exploitative agricultural economy. Images of alluring primitivism and troubling pathology often blurred together, neutralizing the aims of documentary work carried out in the name of reform during the Progressive era, New Deal, and civil rights movement. Black and white southerners in turn often resisted documentarians' attempts to turn their private lives into public symbols. Hale County, Alabama and other places in the region became not only an iconic sites of representation but also battlegrounds where black and white residents challenged the right of documentarians to represent them. The accumulation of influential and, occasionally, controversial documentary images of the South created an enduring, complex, and sometimes self-defeating mythology about the region that persists into the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Lindsey Andrews ◽  
Jonathan M. Metzl

On 26 April 2013, the Wall Street Journal published an essay by neurocriminologist Adrian Raine promoting his newest book, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime. On the newspaper’s website, an image of a black-and-white brain scan overlaid with handcuffs headed the essay. Clicking ‘play’ turned the image into a video filled with three-dimensional brain illustrations and Raine’s claims that some brains are simply more biologically prone to violence than others. Rejecting what he describes as ‘the dominant model for understanding criminal behaviour in the twentieth century’ – a model based ‘almost exclusively on social and sociological’ explanations – Raine wrote that ‘the genetic basis of criminal behaviour is now well established’ through molecular and behavioural genetics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Christina Landman

Dullstroom-Emnotweni is the highest town in South Africa. Cold and misty, it is situated in the eastern Highveld, halfway between the capital Pretoria/Tswane and the Mozambique border. Alongside the main road of the white town, 27 restaurants provide entertainment to tourists on their way to Mozambique or the Kruger National Park. The inhabitants of the black township, Sakhelwe, are remnants of the Southern Ndebele who have lost their land a century ago in wars against the whites. They are mainly dependent on employment as cleaners and waitresses in the still predominantly white town. Three white people from the white town and three black people from the township have been interviewed on their views whether democracy has brought changes to this society during the past 20 years. Answers cover a wide range of views. Gratitude is expressed that women are now safer and HIV treatment available. However, unemployment and poverty persist in a community that nevertheless shows resilience and feeds on hope. While the first part of this article relates the interviews, the final part identifies from them the discourses that keep the black and white communities from forming a group identity that is based on equality and human dignity as the values of democracy.


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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