The Depiction and Ethic of Pride in the Work of Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen’s literary oeuvre emerged in a cultural context wherein Harlemite leaders took pride in an emerging intellectual and literary vanguard. Interestingly, Cullen’s work foregrounds many of the negative aspects of both personal and group pride. Pride for Cullen is typically unnatural, a compensatory excrescence to be shed or managed; this corresponds more closely to a Christian than to a pagan ethos of pride. As regards pride in one’s group identity, although readings of Cullen in terms of gay pride would be anachronistic, he deliberately treats the topic of racial pride—particularly in his novel One Way to Heaven, wherein pride figures a structurally integral leitmotif.

The Anti-Essentialist Poetics of Claude McKay’s Banjo

This article analyses Claude McKay’s 1929 novel Banjo focusing on its anti-essentialist approach to black identity. Such prevalent anti-essentialism differs from the racial pride politics of the Harlem Renaissance, the literary movement with which McKay is usually associated. The rhizomatic poetics of this work will be explained through the fluid character which Glissant and other later Caribbean regionalist critics ascribe to the Caribbean text. This approach favours a hemispheric perception of the Americas which aligns with McKay’s ideas on black identity. Thus, it will be concluded that the prevalence of the American influence in Banjo despite its European setting reflects Quijano and Wallerstein’s model of Americanity for explaining the modern world order which saw its dawn in the Caribbean with the arrival of the Europeans.

Conflicts in racism: Broome and White Australia

This study examines the character of racism as a social relation. As such, racism is continuously produced and modified, not only culturally and ideologically but also in social interaction. Understanding racism and its repercussions demands close investigation of all the processes involved. An instructive example is an incident that unfolded in the early 1910s in Broome, Western Australia. The exemption from immigration restriction of a Japanese doctor raised tempers at a time when the nationwide aspiration for a racially homogeneous society determined political and social attitudes, and ‘whiteness’ was a crucial element of Australianness. The possibility of admitting a Japanese professional to a town that was already suspected of race chaos fuelled debates about the question of ‘coloured labour’ and the ‘yellow peril’, while challenging the unambiguousness of class and race boundaries. The influence and wealth of some Japanese, the indispensable position of their compatriots in the pearling industry, and the skills and reputation of their doctor, supplemented with the distinct racial pride of the whole Japanese community, proved to massively impede and disrupt the unrestricted implementation of white supremacy.

Across This Land and Country

This chapter discusses the emergence of a new era in gospel music during the period 1933–1939, as evidenced by the proliferation of new gospel songs. It first examines the growth of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses and its presentation of music to promote racial pride and assimilation into the African American church community. It then considers the rise of religious radio in the early gospel era, focusing on the creation of radio shows that featured gospel choruses outside the worship service. It also looks at the American Decca Records Company and its religious recordings as part of the Decca 7000 Series, including those by Mahalia Jackson; Thomas A. Dorsey's presentation of the “Gospel Song Feast,” a collaboration between Pilgrim Gospel Chorus and First Church of Deliverance's voice choir, as his first attempt to move gospel from the altar to the auditorium and sell tickets; and First Church of Deliverance's introduction of the Hammond organ.

Natural Mentors, Racial Pride, and Academic Engagement Among Black Adolescents

The current study examined the potential of relational closeness in the natural mentoring relationships (NMRs) of Black students to counter and protect against the noxious effects of school-based discrimination on academic engagement. The study sample included 663 Black students between the ages of 12 and 19 ( M = 14.96 years, SD = 1.81 years), all reporting a natural mentor. Approximately half of participants were female (53%). Participants were recruited from three different school districts in a Midwestern metropolitan area. Findings indicated that perceived school-based discrimination was negatively associated with academic engagement. Relational closeness in NMRs countered, but did not protect against, the negative effects of perceived school-based discrimination on students’ academic engagement. Additional analyses indicated that one mechanism through which relational closeness in NMRs may promote greater academic engagement among Black students is via increased racial pride. Results highlight the potential of NMRs to counter messages of inferiority communicated through discriminatory experiences in the school. Fostering relational closeness between Black students and supportive non-parental adults in their lives may be an effective strategy to boost academic achievement among Black youth experiencing discrimination in the school environment. In addition to fostering stronger bonds with natural mentors, strategic efforts to reduce school-based discrimination are needed to truly bolster the academic success of Black youth.