On Anger

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Female Subjectivity

This chapter takes up the position of the infamous “angry black woman” by avoiding righteous, revisionist, or reactionary arguments about black women and anger and instead considering black women’s anger as critical posture. The argument neither begins nor ends with the stereotype, but with the supposition that representational discourse has been largely unable to account for anger as an aspect of black female subjectivity. The case is therefore made that anger is inherently bound up with the notion of claim for black women, and accounting for this interaction requires an interrogation into the most intimate of black female spaces. The chapter ultimately turns to a discussion of reality television, Claudia Rankine’s discussion of Serena Williams, and a brief analysis of Toni Morrison’s Sula.

The Way It Is

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Strong Black Woman ◽  
Social Intimacy ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the trope of the strong black woman by way of the “superwoman” of R&B musical parlance, particularly as expressed by R&B artist Karyn White in her 1988 hit song “Superwoman.” It extends this discussion to a consideration of the reality television series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is in order to document the complex enactments of black female social intimacy and to say something about how black women collectively navigate trauma and pain by way of their music, as well as through their interactions with each other.

“I Just Wanted a World That Looked Like the One I Know”

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Ralina L. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Black Female ◽  
First Century ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
The Press ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The One

Chapter 3 examines showrunner Shonda Rhimes’ twenty-first century Black respectability politics through the form of strategic ambiguity. Joseph traces Rhimes’ performance of strategic ambiguity first in the pre-Obama era when she stuck to a script of colorblindness, and a second in the #BlackLivesMatter moment when she called out racialized sexism and redefined Black female respectability. In the shift from the pre-Obama era to the #BlackLivesMatter era, this chapter asks: how did Rhimes’ careful negotiation of the press demonstrate that, in the former moment, to be a respectable Black woman was to perform strategic ambiguity, or not speak frankly about race, while in the latter, respectable Black women could and must engage in racialized self-expression, and redefine the bounds of respectability?

From Blaxploitation to Black Macho

2019 ◽  
pp. 183-201
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Ntozake Shange ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Black Women Writers

For commentators concerned with black cultural production in the contemporary era, there are few images more controversial than the angry black woman, particularly as it is reproduced within the confines of reality television. This chapter traces the lineage of the angry black woman back to key black feminist texts of the 1970s, arguing that the trope emerges out of a distinct sociopolitical history that was codified within both public policy and popular culture throughout the decade. Blaxploitation films became the site where black women’s anger was most visibly commodified, even as black women involved in an emergent black feminist movement worked to combat withering social commentaries that included Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s matriarchy thesis and sexist takedowns of black women writers like Ntozake Shange and Michele Wallace.

scholarly journals Positive Liberty and Black Female Subjectivity in Toni Morrison’s Sula

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Najd F. Alfaqir
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Female ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Female Subjectivity ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Female Autonomy ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
Closed Systems ◽  
Feminist Aesthetics

The essay investigates the representation of female subjectivity that is disturbed by issues of race, gender, and community in Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula. In my analysis, I bring to bear both the works of postmodernist theory and contemporary Feminist aesthetics in order to strengthen female subjectivity against the closed systems in which black women are objectified and separated from the autonomous existence they deserve. My representation of postmodernism is inspired by Linda Hucheon’s theory of Postmodernism in A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Her suggestion that postmodernism is a contradictory concept that simultaneously acknowledges and disregards any concept offers new possibilities; it blurs the lines that humans create between self/other and centered/decentered, undermining socially constructed notions of good and bad. As I closely examine the character of Sula, who embodies such postmodern concept, I attempt to rethink her position as marginalized and evil to think about her character as a quest to rise above the limitations resulting from the closed systems in which black women are objectified. In my conclusion, I suggest that Sula’s presence in the novel as radical on the surface is positive, for she transforms her otherness into a space from which female autonomy and liberty emerge. Throughout Sula, Morrison explores spaces of existence beyond constructed social conventions towards female individuality and Sula epitomizes that in her positive liberty.

Black Coffee

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-433
Author(s):  
Daicia Price
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Core Components

Thirty-five years of formal education has left me feeling isolated. Daily encounters of racism, sexism, and microaggressions have led to difficulty with academic and professional achievement. All of these matters have affected me as a person who identifies as a Black female/woman in academic settings. In this autoethnography, I engage symbolic narrative prose and core components of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to provide an analysis of my personal experiences in educational settings across my lifespan. I bring forth my individual perspective and analysis that encompasses emotional and physical responses that occur while in academic settings as a Black female. Reflective autoethnography offers an opportunity to explore key themes, potential challenges, strengths, and future strategies for creating spaces in education that are supportive and encourage growth while also nurturing Black women to remain grounded in what feels natural and intrinsic to their cultural heritage and identity and expression of self. “Black coffee with no sugar and no cream” is a colloquial phrase used to describe a Black woman who exudes her individual persona without apologies. Positive development of Black females who present as “Black coffee with no sugar and no cream” is unpropitious without intentional culturally responsive interventions. The addition of strong Black coffee to academic settings is crucial to continue efforts in creating a socially just educational system and society. Using reflexivity and metaphors, I describe my matriculation process in the Midwest region of the United States of America within a dichotomy of African-centered and Eurocentric education practices. Providing concepts to promote efficacious attainment of education, I hope to connect with readers who may have similar experiences or be in a position to reduce the adverse encounters a Black woman has in an academic environment at various levels.

Scandalize My Name

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Cultural Critique ◽  
Sociological Inquiry

From sapphire, mammy, and jezebel to the angry black woman, baby mama, and nappy-headed ho, black female iconography has had a long and tortured history in public culture. The telling of this history has long occupied the work of black female theorists—much of which has been foundational in situating black women within the matrix of sociopolitical thought and practice in the United States. Scandalize My Name builds upon the rich tradition of this work while taking a detour from conventional stereotype discourse to argue that black social life defies the limitations of representational thought and practice. By approaching the study of black female representation not as a mechanism of negative or positive valuation but as an opening onto a serious contemplation of the vagaries of black social life, Williamson makes a case for a radical black subject position that structures and is structured by an amorphous social order that ultimately destabilizes the very notion of “civil society.” At turns memoir, sociological inquiry, literary analysis, and cultural critique, Scandalize My Name explores topics as varied as serial murder, reality television, Christian evangelism, and the novels of Toni Morrison, to advance black feminist practice as a modality through which black sociality is both theorized and made material.

scholarly journals POS0173 METABOLOMIC PROFILING AND SYMPTOM BURDEN IN BLACK WOMEN WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 299-300
Author(s):  
L. P. Kimble ◽  
A. Khosroshahi ◽  
R. C. Eldridge ◽  
G. S. Brewster ◽  
N. S. Carlson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Symptom Burden ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Multiple Chronic Conditions ◽  
Systemic Lupus ◽  
Metabolomics Data ◽  
Metabolomics Analysis

Background:Black individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), who are predominantly women, have disproportionately poorer health outcomes across the trajectory of their disease including increased mortality, higher symptom burden, and poor quality of life than non-Hispanic Whites. The heterogeneity of immunopathology and biochemical complexity of SLE create major knowledge gaps around the mechanisms of disease and differences in SLE symptom expression. Metabolomics may reveal biochemical dysregulation that underlies SLE symptoms and provide novel metabolic targets for precision symptom interventions.Objectives:We conducted untargeted metabolomic plasma profiling of Black females with SLE and Black female non-SLE controls to gain insight into metabolic disturbances associated with SLE.Methods:We analyzed blood specimens collected from 23 Black female patients with diagnosis of SLE during a routine outpatient rheumatology visit and from 21 Black female non-SLE controls whose data were collected as part of another study of obese caregivers. Data collection for both cases and controls was completed with harmonized protocols. Clinical data for cases were obtained via chart review and both cases and controls completed identical, reliable and valid measures of fatigue, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance. A commercial metabolomics analysis company within the US conducted untargeted metabolomics on the 44 plasma samples using ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry along with metabolite identification and quantification to examine differences between SLE/non-SLE groups.Results:All SLE subjects met 2019 EULAR/ACR criteria (Aringer et al., 2019). SLE subjects were significantly (p < .05) younger (42.5 ± 12.2 vs. 63.2 ± 6.4), had a lower BMI (30.3 ± 9.4 vs. 34.9 ± 4.1), and greater co-morbidities (2.3 ± 1.3 vs. 1.1 ± 1.3) than non-SLE controls. SLE subjects reported higher symptoms than controls across all measures, but differences were not statistically significant. Metabolomics analysis revealed 290 biochemicals that were statistically significant (p ≤ .05) between SLE and non-SLE groups. Random Forest analysis had a predictive accuracy of 91% in differing between the two groups using out-of-bag sampling. Significant metabolic differences between groups were noted in biochemicals associated with glycolysis, the TCA cycle (see Table 1), fatty acid metabolism, branched chain amino acids, sterol levels, heme catabolism, and potential markers of renal impairment. Overall, the differences would suggest reduced energy production among SLE patients compared to controls.Conclusion:Black women with SLE had biochemical profiles consistent with reduced energy production which has implications for the high burden of fatigue and other symptoms in this population. Future work with larger sample sizes should involve integrating symptom and metabolomics data to identify potential biomarkers of symptom burden.References:Aringer, M., Costenbader, K., Daikh, D. et al. (2019). 2019 European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus. Ann Rheum Dis, 78,1151-1159.Acknowledgements:This work was supported by a research re-entry supplement to L. Kimble under the parent award 1P30NR018090-02S1 Center for the Study of Symptom Science, Metabolomics, and Multiple Chronic Conditions (Song, PI) funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, USA.Disclosure of Interests:Laura P. Kimble: None declared, Arezou Khosroshahi Consultant of: Have received honorarium for advisory board but has no relationship with this work., Grant/research support from: Have received a research grant from Pfizer; but has no relationship with this work., Ronald C. Eldridge: None declared, Glenna S. Brewster: None declared, Nicole S. Carlson: None declared, Elizabeth J. Corwin: None declared

The Role of Coping in the Relationship Between Endorsement of the Strong Black Woman Schema and Depressive Symptoms Among Black Women

2021 ◽  
pp. 009579842110212
Author(s):  
Martinque K. Jones ◽  
Tanisha G. Hill-Jarrett ◽  
Kyjeila Latimer ◽  
Akilah Reynolds ◽  
Nekya Garrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
Coping Styles ◽  
Mental Health Outcomes ◽  
Multiple Mediation ◽  
Strong Black Woman

The Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema has been consistently linked to negative mental health outcomes among Black women. However, few have begun to explicate the mechanisms by which the endorsement of the SBW schema may influence mental health outcomes. Accordingly, the current study examined coping styles (social support, disengagement, spirituality, and problem-oriented/engagement) as mediators in the association between endorsement of the SBW schema and depressive symptoms in a sample of Black women. Data from 240 Black women ( Mage = 22.0, SD = 4.0 years) were collected assessing SBW schema endorsement, coping styles, and depressive symptoms. Parallel multiple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Macro. Of the four coping styles examined, disengagement coping partially mediated the association between greater endorsement of the SBW schema and greater depressive symptoms. Study findings add depth to our understanding of the association between the SBW schema and mental health outcomes and lend themselves to research and clinical implications.

Nina Simone as Poet and Orchestrator

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
Marcus R. Pyle
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Black Female ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Female Subjectivity ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Nina Simone

How do you fashion an identity in a society that, at every turn, tries to snuff you out? In this article, I address Nina Simone's praxis of renaming and reinvention to demonstrate strategies of resistance. To this point, I analyze the musico-poetic setting of Nina Simone’s songs “Images” (1964) and “Four Women” (1965) to argue that her artistic musical choices sonically orchestrate varying issues of Black female subjectivity, identity, and self-making. In Simone’s songs, she refuses to discount the materiality of the Black body; instead, she envelops the Black body with signifiance and significance. The sonic bearers of semantic content become extensions of the Self—transmutable and heterodox. The compositional and poetic subtleties in these songs claim that the gaze of the Other can potentiate exteriority and freedom—what I term the “exo(p)tic.”

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