Tommy J. Curry
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813175164
- eISBN:
- 9780813175195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813175164.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Tommy J. Curry considers Wright’s views on gender in terms of the historical reality of black males’ vulnerability to sexual violence at the hands of white men and white women. Curry explores ...
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Tommy J. Curry considers Wright’s views on gender in terms of the historical reality of black males’ vulnerability to sexual violence at the hands of white men and white women. Curry explores Wright’s impassioned response to the 1951 trial and execution of fellow Mississippi native Willie McGee. McGee had been charged with having raped a white woman, Williametta Hawkins, who had been described as his mistress but who, in fact, had threatened to cry rape if he refused her advances. Curry reports that at that time, black men, often out of economic need, were sometimes coerced into sexual intercourse by threats of false accusations of rape. Otherwise, they would be either literally or metaphorically lynched. In a way unprecedented in Wright scholarship, Curry frames Wright’s “The Man of All Work” as an allegory for the rape of McGee. In the story, a black man cross-dresses in search of employment in domestic work. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and misidentifications by whites that almost kill him. Curry concludes that this story was far more than a clever plot: it effectively expressed a particular set of humiliations and dilemmas faced by black men.Less
Tommy J. Curry considers Wright’s views on gender in terms of the historical reality of black males’ vulnerability to sexual violence at the hands of white men and white women. Curry explores Wright’s impassioned response to the 1951 trial and execution of fellow Mississippi native Willie McGee. McGee had been charged with having raped a white woman, Williametta Hawkins, who had been described as his mistress but who, in fact, had threatened to cry rape if he refused her advances. Curry reports that at that time, black men, often out of economic need, were sometimes coerced into sexual intercourse by threats of false accusations of rape. Otherwise, they would be either literally or metaphorically lynched. In a way unprecedented in Wright scholarship, Curry frames Wright’s “The Man of All Work” as an allegory for the rape of McGee. In the story, a black man cross-dresses in search of employment in domestic work. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and misidentifications by whites that almost kill him. Curry concludes that this story was far more than a clever plot: it effectively expressed a particular set of humiliations and dilemmas faced by black men.
Maxine Leeds Craig
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195152623
- eISBN:
- 9780199849345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter looks at the rearticulation of race in light of gender differences. The new meanings and practices of race had different consequences for black men and black women. In 1964, very few ...
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This chapter looks at the rearticulation of race in light of gender differences. The new meanings and practices of race had different consequences for black men and black women. In 1964, very few African American men straightened their hair and virtually all African American women did. When men gave up straightened hairdos, they became more conventionally masculine. Women who ceased straightening their hair did so at the risk of sacrificing their femininity. Though the experience and meaning of wearing straightened hair was quite different for men compared with for women, a gender-neutral discourse of racial pride masked the differences.Less
This chapter looks at the rearticulation of race in light of gender differences. The new meanings and practices of race had different consequences for black men and black women. In 1964, very few African American men straightened their hair and virtually all African American women did. When men gave up straightened hairdos, they became more conventionally masculine. Women who ceased straightening their hair did so at the risk of sacrificing their femininity. Though the experience and meaning of wearing straightened hair was quite different for men compared with for women, a gender-neutral discourse of racial pride masked the differences.
Hiram Pérez
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479818655
- eISBN:
- 9781479846757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479818655.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
This chapter presents James Baldwin’s short story, “Going To Meet the Man,” as a rescripting of Freud’s Oedipal scene, introducing the black male as a triangulating figure vis-à-vis the (white) male ...
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This chapter presents James Baldwin’s short story, “Going To Meet the Man,” as a rescripting of Freud’s Oedipal scene, introducing the black male as a triangulating figure vis-à-vis the (white) male child’s identification with each parent. A desire both to possess and be possessed by the black man, to annihilate and be annihilated by him, functions to consolidate white indivisibility across the division of heterosexual and homosexual identifications that resolves the Oedipal. The chapter extends Baldwin’s reading of this race secret to the torture that occurred at the Abu Ghraib military prison in order to better understand not only the racialized and sexual nature of the violence but also to determine what about it was symptomatically American. This casting of the American race secret onto the globe recruits a gay cosmopolitan archive, especially in its imagination of the exotic, or “brown” (in this case, Arab, Middle-Eastern, Mediterranean, Muslim, “Oriental”).Less
This chapter presents James Baldwin’s short story, “Going To Meet the Man,” as a rescripting of Freud’s Oedipal scene, introducing the black male as a triangulating figure vis-à-vis the (white) male child’s identification with each parent. A desire both to possess and be possessed by the black man, to annihilate and be annihilated by him, functions to consolidate white indivisibility across the division of heterosexual and homosexual identifications that resolves the Oedipal. The chapter extends Baldwin’s reading of this race secret to the torture that occurred at the Abu Ghraib military prison in order to better understand not only the racialized and sexual nature of the violence but also to determine what about it was symptomatically American. This casting of the American race secret onto the globe recruits a gay cosmopolitan archive, especially in its imagination of the exotic, or “brown” (in this case, Arab, Middle-Eastern, Mediterranean, Muslim, “Oriental”).
Deidre Helen Crumbley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813039848
- eISBN:
- 9780813043791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813039848.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, ...
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This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, followed by interviews covering their life experiences in both the North and the South. These experiences include employment patterns and salaries earned; “separate but equal” education during the Plessy v. Ferguson era; White on Black violence, such as false imprisonment and threats of and actual lynching; politics of sex between White men and Black women in the South; enculturation of White children in perpetrating racial violence and of Black children in surviving it; Black adult strategies for negotiating southern White terrorism and for migrating to and adjusting within urban life; economic survival strategies, such as sharecropping in the South and Black women's performing domestic “day labor” in the North; southern religious roots and new urban religious options; and colorism. The chapter concludes by exploring how these narratives inform Great Migration research.Less
This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, followed by interviews covering their life experiences in both the North and the South. These experiences include employment patterns and salaries earned; “separate but equal” education during the Plessy v. Ferguson era; White on Black violence, such as false imprisonment and threats of and actual lynching; politics of sex between White men and Black women in the South; enculturation of White children in perpetrating racial violence and of Black children in surviving it; Black adult strategies for negotiating southern White terrorism and for migrating to and adjusting within urban life; economic survival strategies, such as sharecropping in the South and Black women's performing domestic “day labor” in the North; southern religious roots and new urban religious options; and colorism. The chapter concludes by exploring how these narratives inform Great Migration research.
Jennifer A. Richeson and Meghan G. Bean
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199735204
- eISBN:
- 9780199894581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735204.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
While some herald Barack Obama’s election as the first black President of the United States as evidence that people were able to overcome stereotypes regarding black men, others suggest that it is ...
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While some herald Barack Obama’s election as the first black President of the United States as evidence that people were able to overcome stereotypes regarding black men, others suggest that it is Obama’s election that will provide a new image of black men that will, in turn, help to eradicate racial stereotypes and racism more generally. This chapter considers the relevance of prevailing stereotypes of black men in light of Obama’s rise to the Presidency. The chapter first reviews the extant social psychological evidence suggesting that there is a pervasive connection between black men and threat in the minds of most social perceivers. After, evidence regarding the malleability of this “black male = threat” stereotype is presented, followed by a discussion of Obama’s potential to attenuate it. The chapter ends with a discussion of the potential influence of the “black male = threat” stereotype on Obama’s Presidential bid and presidency.Less
While some herald Barack Obama’s election as the first black President of the United States as evidence that people were able to overcome stereotypes regarding black men, others suggest that it is Obama’s election that will provide a new image of black men that will, in turn, help to eradicate racial stereotypes and racism more generally. This chapter considers the relevance of prevailing stereotypes of black men in light of Obama’s rise to the Presidency. The chapter first reviews the extant social psychological evidence suggesting that there is a pervasive connection between black men and threat in the minds of most social perceivers. After, evidence regarding the malleability of this “black male = threat” stereotype is presented, followed by a discussion of Obama’s potential to attenuate it. The chapter ends with a discussion of the potential influence of the “black male = threat” stereotype on Obama’s Presidential bid and presidency.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how black men groomed black boys into industrious and respectable men. While histories of African American life under Jim Crow have revealed in great detail the rhetoric and ...
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This chapter examines how black men groomed black boys into industrious and respectable men. While histories of African American life under Jim Crow have revealed in great detail the rhetoric and strategies black women used to enhance the morality and respectability of young black girls, less attention has been paid to the collective and similar efforts of both sexes to bolster the character and gender identity of boys. Indigenous religious, educational, and social movements spearheaded by black men aimed to relieve the “boy problem.” The Baptist State Sunday School Convention, schools such as the Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina, and the Young Men's Institute sought to tend to boys defined as drifting. Such boys were considered passive and malleable. While drifting boys had the potential to be shaped into respectable men, in an unsavory environment, they could also turn bad. To fend off this consequence, black men offered boys wholesome diversions, counseled temperance in thought and behavior, and instructed them in how to lead virtuous and manly lives. Part of this project of masculinization sought to reinforce black boys' fidelity to domestic concerns. Men's work in public institutions addressed private issues as men such as George Shaw, principal of the Mary Potter School, helped his male students overcome broken home environments. Men like George Shaw believed that both men and women shared the responsibility for crafting wholesome domestic spaces.Less
This chapter examines how black men groomed black boys into industrious and respectable men. While histories of African American life under Jim Crow have revealed in great detail the rhetoric and strategies black women used to enhance the morality and respectability of young black girls, less attention has been paid to the collective and similar efforts of both sexes to bolster the character and gender identity of boys. Indigenous religious, educational, and social movements spearheaded by black men aimed to relieve the “boy problem.” The Baptist State Sunday School Convention, schools such as the Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina, and the Young Men's Institute sought to tend to boys defined as drifting. Such boys were considered passive and malleable. While drifting boys had the potential to be shaped into respectable men, in an unsavory environment, they could also turn bad. To fend off this consequence, black men offered boys wholesome diversions, counseled temperance in thought and behavior, and instructed them in how to lead virtuous and manly lives. Part of this project of masculinization sought to reinforce black boys' fidelity to domestic concerns. Men's work in public institutions addressed private issues as men such as George Shaw, principal of the Mary Potter School, helped his male students overcome broken home environments. Men like George Shaw believed that both men and women shared the responsibility for crafting wholesome domestic spaces.
D'Weston Haywood
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469643397
- eISBN:
- 9781469643410
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643397.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This book conducts a close, gendered reading of the modern black press to reinterpret it as a crucial tool of black men’s leadership, public voice, public image, gender and identity formation, and a ...
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This book conducts a close, gendered reading of the modern black press to reinterpret it as a crucial tool of black men’s leadership, public voice, public image, gender and identity formation, and a space for the construction of ideas of proper masculinity that shaped the long twentieth-century black freedom struggle to promote a fight for racial justice and black manhood. Moving from the turn of the twentieth century to the rise of black radicalism, the book argues that black people’s ideas, rhetoric, and strategies for protest and racial advancement grew out of a quest for manhood led by black newspapers. Drawing on discourse theory and studies of public spheres to examine the Chicago Defender, Crisis, Negro World, Crusader, and Muhammad Speaks and their publishers during the Great Migration, New Negro era, Great Depression, civil rights movement, and urban renewal, this study engages the black press at the complex intersections of gender, ideology, race, class, identity, urbanization, the public sphere, and black institutional life. Departing from typical histories of black newspapers and black protest that examine the long roots of black political organizing, this book makes a crucial intervention by advancing how black people’s conceptions of rights and justice, and their activism in the name of both, were deeply rooted in ideas of redeeming Black men, prioritizing their plight on the agenda for racial advancement. Yet, the black press produced a highly influential discourse on black manhood that was both empowering and problematic for the long black freedom struggle.Less
This book conducts a close, gendered reading of the modern black press to reinterpret it as a crucial tool of black men’s leadership, public voice, public image, gender and identity formation, and a space for the construction of ideas of proper masculinity that shaped the long twentieth-century black freedom struggle to promote a fight for racial justice and black manhood. Moving from the turn of the twentieth century to the rise of black radicalism, the book argues that black people’s ideas, rhetoric, and strategies for protest and racial advancement grew out of a quest for manhood led by black newspapers. Drawing on discourse theory and studies of public spheres to examine the Chicago Defender, Crisis, Negro World, Crusader, and Muhammad Speaks and their publishers during the Great Migration, New Negro era, Great Depression, civil rights movement, and urban renewal, this study engages the black press at the complex intersections of gender, ideology, race, class, identity, urbanization, the public sphere, and black institutional life. Departing from typical histories of black newspapers and black protest that examine the long roots of black political organizing, this book makes a crucial intervention by advancing how black people’s conceptions of rights and justice, and their activism in the name of both, were deeply rooted in ideas of redeeming Black men, prioritizing their plight on the agenda for racial advancement. Yet, the black press produced a highly influential discourse on black manhood that was both empowering and problematic for the long black freedom struggle.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines North Carolina Baptist Convention leaders' efforts to make their churches and themselves more manly. Fearing that their churches were becoming feminized, they sought to weaken ...
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This chapter examines North Carolina Baptist Convention leaders' efforts to make their churches and themselves more manly. Fearing that their churches were becoming feminized, they sought to weaken black church women's home missionary work. At the same time, black men campaigned to assume more of “women's work” by engaging in social service activity. The rhetoric of masculinization within the church influenced the dialogue and activity of North Carolina's black men and women as they fought to assert and redefine the influence of their respective genders within their churches.Less
This chapter examines North Carolina Baptist Convention leaders' efforts to make their churches and themselves more manly. Fearing that their churches were becoming feminized, they sought to weaken black church women's home missionary work. At the same time, black men campaigned to assume more of “women's work” by engaging in social service activity. The rhetoric of masculinization within the church influenced the dialogue and activity of North Carolina's black men and women as they fought to assert and redefine the influence of their respective genders within their churches.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter explores the institutional efforts of North Carolina's leading black men to promote racial pride, progress, and a dignified manhood within the black race while fostering interracial ...
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This chapter explores the institutional efforts of North Carolina's leading black men to promote racial pride, progress, and a dignified manhood within the black race while fostering interracial dialogue with whites. Though black men dominated the public events as spokespersons, black women played critical roles in these communal enterprises. Interracial gatherings at Emancipation Day and state fair events spoke simultaneously to black and white audiences, often producing multiple and conflicting messages about the meaning of racial progress and equality. Over time, strategies for racial progress within these institutions evolved from a philosophy that emphasized good feelings between the races to one that endorsed more militant and uncompromising approaches. The self-help leadership preferred by men such as Charles Hunter thus fell into disfavor after World War I and the rise of New Negro ideology in the 1920s.Less
This chapter explores the institutional efforts of North Carolina's leading black men to promote racial pride, progress, and a dignified manhood within the black race while fostering interracial dialogue with whites. Though black men dominated the public events as spokespersons, black women played critical roles in these communal enterprises. Interracial gatherings at Emancipation Day and state fair events spoke simultaneously to black and white audiences, often producing multiple and conflicting messages about the meaning of racial progress and equality. Over time, strategies for racial progress within these institutions evolved from a philosophy that emphasized good feelings between the races to one that endorsed more militant and uncompromising approaches. The self-help leadership preferred by men such as Charles Hunter thus fell into disfavor after World War I and the rise of New Negro ideology in the 1920s.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show how North Carolina's black men and women were equally engaged in community-based activism during the Jim Crow era. Central ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show how North Carolina's black men and women were equally engaged in community-based activism during the Jim Crow era. Central to this investigation is an examination of men's appropriation of communal spaces — generally labeled public and private — to promote gendered agency, cooperation, and, at times, sexual dominance. The factors influencing the development of African-American gender identity are then discussed. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show how North Carolina's black men and women were equally engaged in community-based activism during the Jim Crow era. Central to this investigation is an examination of men's appropriation of communal spaces — generally labeled public and private — to promote gendered agency, cooperation, and, at times, sexual dominance. The factors influencing the development of African-American gender identity are then discussed. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter assesses the construction and contestation of black manhood within private male-dominated spaces. The proceedings of North Carolina's Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons reveal the ...
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This chapter assesses the construction and contestation of black manhood within private male-dominated spaces. The proceedings of North Carolina's Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons reveal the importance of gender to men and how it was retooled over time to allow for uplifting images of black manhood. This task proved challenging for Prince Hall Masons. They struggled to define what constituted respectable manhood amid the perceived threat of rival factions within their ranks, the growing calls for fraternity men to embrace a more militant politics, and, most notably, conflicts with women in their auxiliary (the Order of the Eastern Star) over work autonomy.Less
This chapter assesses the construction and contestation of black manhood within private male-dominated spaces. The proceedings of North Carolina's Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons reveal the importance of gender to men and how it was retooled over time to allow for uplifting images of black manhood. This task proved challenging for Prince Hall Masons. They struggled to define what constituted respectable manhood amid the perceived threat of rival factions within their ranks, the growing calls for fraternity men to embrace a more militant politics, and, most notably, conflicts with women in their auxiliary (the Order of the Eastern Star) over work autonomy.
Rashad Shabazz
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039645
- eISBN:
- 9780252097737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039645.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines the role of carceral power in the rise of Black gangs and particularly in the sociospatial production of Black masculinity. Focusing on the period between 1960 and the early ...
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This chapter examines the role of carceral power in the rise of Black gangs and particularly in the sociospatial production of Black masculinity. Focusing on the period between 1960 and the early 1980s, it considers how carceral power contributed to the emergence of the Almighty Black P. Stone Rangers street gang. It also explores how policing in Black Chicago and the growing prison industrial complex led to the incarceration of many gang members and Black men in Chicago. In Chicago (as well as other cities throughout the Black diaspora) gangs played a crucial role in the performance of Black masculinity. They did so not simply because of their swagger, clothing, or saturation, but because they were the group who had the strongest relationship with the criminal justice system. This chapter discusses the interrelationships among carceral space, Black gangs, prison masculinity, and the elements of masculinity in carceral institutions.Less
This chapter examines the role of carceral power in the rise of Black gangs and particularly in the sociospatial production of Black masculinity. Focusing on the period between 1960 and the early 1980s, it considers how carceral power contributed to the emergence of the Almighty Black P. Stone Rangers street gang. It also explores how policing in Black Chicago and the growing prison industrial complex led to the incarceration of many gang members and Black men in Chicago. In Chicago (as well as other cities throughout the Black diaspora) gangs played a crucial role in the performance of Black masculinity. They did so not simply because of their swagger, clothing, or saturation, but because they were the group who had the strongest relationship with the criminal justice system. This chapter discusses the interrelationships among carceral space, Black gangs, prison masculinity, and the elements of masculinity in carceral institutions.
Ronda C. Henry Anthony
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037344
- eISBN:
- 9781621039259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037344.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This book examines the ways women’s bodies are used and misused in African American literature to support the production of black masculine ideality and power. Focusing on black male texts such as ...
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This book examines the ways women’s bodies are used and misused in African American literature to support the production of black masculine ideality and power. Focusing on black male texts such as the slave narratives of Henry Bibb and Frederick Douglass and the prose of W. E. B. Du Bois, Walter Mosley, James Baldwin, and Barack Obama, it analyzes representations of ideal black masculinities and femininities and discusses black men’s struggles for gendered agency in relation to their complicated love-hate relation to (white) normative masculinity. It also assesses the influence of shifting socioeconomic circumstances on the ideological, cultural, and emotional terms upon which black men conceptualize their identities. Drawing on the economies of gendered racism, the book shows how these structures continue to shape contemporary representations of black manhood and womanhood. It also probes how idealized masculinities and femininities are interrogated by black men by considering texts that problematize traditional constructions of black masculinity.Less
This book examines the ways women’s bodies are used and misused in African American literature to support the production of black masculine ideality and power. Focusing on black male texts such as the slave narratives of Henry Bibb and Frederick Douglass and the prose of W. E. B. Du Bois, Walter Mosley, James Baldwin, and Barack Obama, it analyzes representations of ideal black masculinities and femininities and discusses black men’s struggles for gendered agency in relation to their complicated love-hate relation to (white) normative masculinity. It also assesses the influence of shifting socioeconomic circumstances on the ideological, cultural, and emotional terms upon which black men conceptualize their identities. Drawing on the economies of gendered racism, the book shows how these structures continue to shape contemporary representations of black manhood and womanhood. It also probes how idealized masculinities and femininities are interrogated by black men by considering texts that problematize traditional constructions of black masculinity.
Ronda C. Henry Anthony
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037344
- eISBN:
- 9781621039259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037344.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines W. E. B. Du Bois’s contributions to the continuing development and modeling of ideal black masculinity by focusing on four of his texts: Souls of Black Folk (1903), Quest of the ...
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This chapter examines W. E. B. Du Bois’s contributions to the continuing development and modeling of ideal black masculinity by focusing on four of his texts: Souls of Black Folk (1903), Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911), Darkwater (1920), and Dark Princess (1928). It considers how Du Bois generates masculine identity, leadership, and power by remythologizing the terms of both black manhood and “colored” womanhood. It argues that Du Bois codifies these inventions and conceptions of strong black masculinity for the new century and uses representations of women to ground his intellectual, artistic, and political notions of black masculine ideality. It also discusses Du Bois’s political figurations of black nationalism, citizenship, leadership, and masculine power in America based on the ability of black men to achieve an ideal manhood that can challenge hegemonic white masculinity to uplift the race.Less
This chapter examines W. E. B. Du Bois’s contributions to the continuing development and modeling of ideal black masculinity by focusing on four of his texts: Souls of Black Folk (1903), Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911), Darkwater (1920), and Dark Princess (1928). It considers how Du Bois generates masculine identity, leadership, and power by remythologizing the terms of both black manhood and “colored” womanhood. It argues that Du Bois codifies these inventions and conceptions of strong black masculinity for the new century and uses representations of women to ground his intellectual, artistic, and political notions of black masculine ideality. It also discusses Du Bois’s political figurations of black nationalism, citizenship, leadership, and masculine power in America based on the ability of black men to achieve an ideal manhood that can challenge hegemonic white masculinity to uplift the race.
Angela Hornsby-Gutting
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032931
- eISBN:
- 9780813039404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032931.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. This book has situated gender (analysis of black manhood and womanhood) more ...
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This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. This book has situated gender (analysis of black manhood and womanhood) more firmly within the discourse of race activism in the early Jim Crow South by providing insight into the flexible meanings of black manhood and the relationship between black male and female activists in that era. Gender, race, and the use of institutional space contributed to a dialogue within the black middle-class community that was simultaneously uplifting and divisive. As North Carolina's black men sought to reconcile themselves with the outer world of segregation through building institutions, they were equally attentive to the project of fashioning an African American manhood characterized by dignity and authority that would prove uplifting to their manhood and to the black community overall.Less
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. This book has situated gender (analysis of black manhood and womanhood) more firmly within the discourse of race activism in the early Jim Crow South by providing insight into the flexible meanings of black manhood and the relationship between black male and female activists in that era. Gender, race, and the use of institutional space contributed to a dialogue within the black middle-class community that was simultaneously uplifting and divisive. As North Carolina's black men sought to reconcile themselves with the outer world of segregation through building institutions, they were equally attentive to the project of fashioning an African American manhood characterized by dignity and authority that would prove uplifting to their manhood and to the black community overall.
Kyle T. Bulthuis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479814275
- eISBN:
- 9781479894178
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479814275.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter explains the intersections of gender with race in church life. In the larger society, slavery, poverty, and menial status meant that black men risked being labeled feminine and without ...
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This chapter explains the intersections of gender with race in church life. In the larger society, slavery, poverty, and menial status meant that black men risked being labeled feminine and without power. Thus in the black churches men, not women, took primary place, mimicking the white church's example in an exaggerated form. Black women, however, remained numerous in the churches, and supported their leaders through the emergence of auxiliary benevolent societies and in quiet, obedient forms of piety, similar to most white women. Just as white women gained a place in the public sphere through benevolence, so did black men in public processions and benevolent societies. These black men used a universal language of unity, which mirrored colonial-era church language, but like those earlier forms masked the strongly middle-class and masculine identities of the actors.Less
This chapter explains the intersections of gender with race in church life. In the larger society, slavery, poverty, and menial status meant that black men risked being labeled feminine and without power. Thus in the black churches men, not women, took primary place, mimicking the white church's example in an exaggerated form. Black women, however, remained numerous in the churches, and supported their leaders through the emergence of auxiliary benevolent societies and in quiet, obedient forms of piety, similar to most white women. Just as white women gained a place in the public sphere through benevolence, so did black men in public processions and benevolent societies. These black men used a universal language of unity, which mirrored colonial-era church language, but like those earlier forms masked the strongly middle-class and masculine identities of the actors.
E. Patrick Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807872260
- eISBN:
- 9781469602677
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807882733_johnson.5
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
This chapter shows that southern black gay men's lives are no different from other black southerners' lives. They are full of memories, both good and bad, that speak to the region's fraught history ...
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This chapter shows that southern black gay men's lives are no different from other black southerners' lives. They are full of memories, both good and bad, that speak to the region's fraught history and its relation to the rest of the country. The narrators in this book speak with candor about being children of the South—of the joy of having open fields to run and play in; the comfort of southern food, family gatherings, and church functions; the onerous nature of family chores and the strain of witnessing family dramas; dealing with homophobia and experiencing racism and segregation. The chapter title is from the description of his Southern childhood by Gerome, one of the narrators quoted: “When I stop now and look back at it . . . it's like some bitter and some sweet.”Less
This chapter shows that southern black gay men's lives are no different from other black southerners' lives. They are full of memories, both good and bad, that speak to the region's fraught history and its relation to the rest of the country. The narrators in this book speak with candor about being children of the South—of the joy of having open fields to run and play in; the comfort of southern food, family gatherings, and church functions; the onerous nature of family chores and the strain of witnessing family dramas; dealing with homophobia and experiencing racism and segregation. The chapter title is from the description of his Southern childhood by Gerome, one of the narrators quoted: “When I stop now and look back at it . . . it's like some bitter and some sweet.”
Ronda C. Henry Anthony
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037344
- eISBN:
- 9781621039259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037344.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the impact of Richard Wright’s modernist constructions of black masculine identity in his 1940 novel Native Son on James Baldwin’s Another Country (1960). Baldwin explores race ...
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This chapter examines the impact of Richard Wright’s modernist constructions of black masculine identity in his 1940 novel Native Son on James Baldwin’s Another Country (1960). Baldwin explores race and sexuality to probe and ultimately undermine the racially gendered terms and oppositions through which Wright produces powerful black masculinity. By moving beyond the prescribed limits of homosexual or bisexual versus heterosexual, feminized versus masculinized, subordinate versus dominant, and white versus black, Another Country refigures the terms and identity possibilities for black men. Baldwin expands the sexual parameters and agency of black masculinity by burdening and constraining his black female character who remains subordinated, repressed, and subject to the demands of masculine power.Less
This chapter examines the impact of Richard Wright’s modernist constructions of black masculine identity in his 1940 novel Native Son on James Baldwin’s Another Country (1960). Baldwin explores race and sexuality to probe and ultimately undermine the racially gendered terms and oppositions through which Wright produces powerful black masculinity. By moving beyond the prescribed limits of homosexual or bisexual versus heterosexual, feminized versus masculinized, subordinate versus dominant, and white versus black, Another Country refigures the terms and identity possibilities for black men. Baldwin expands the sexual parameters and agency of black masculinity by burdening and constraining his black female character who remains subordinated, repressed, and subject to the demands of masculine power.
Laura E. Free
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450860
- eISBN:
- 9781501701092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450860.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines how congressmen recast black men as legitimate voting citizens only decades after they had been deemed too dangerous to permit safely into the polity. A bitter dispute about ...
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This chapter examines how congressmen recast black men as legitimate voting citizens only decades after they had been deemed too dangerous to permit safely into the polity. A bitter dispute about manhood erupted between political rivals on the same day that Congress officially completed the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of these disputes lay different interpretations of the proper rights of men—what those rights were, how they were best protected and enacted, and most critically, who should have them. This chapter considers the contention of many Republicans who supported black male enfranchisement that black men needed full participatory citizenship for purely practical reasons—to defend their rights of manhood by protecting themselves, their families, and their property. It argues that gender was the key to reconstructing black men’s political identities and depicting them as proper voting citizens.Less
This chapter examines how congressmen recast black men as legitimate voting citizens only decades after they had been deemed too dangerous to permit safely into the polity. A bitter dispute about manhood erupted between political rivals on the same day that Congress officially completed the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of these disputes lay different interpretations of the proper rights of men—what those rights were, how they were best protected and enacted, and most critically, who should have them. This chapter considers the contention of many Republicans who supported black male enfranchisement that black men needed full participatory citizenship for purely practical reasons—to defend their rights of manhood by protecting themselves, their families, and their property. It argues that gender was the key to reconstructing black men’s political identities and depicting them as proper voting citizens.
Robert Peterson
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195076370
- eISBN:
- 9780199853786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195076370.003.0043
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The chapter discusses the legendary Satchel Paige and his life before and during his baseball heydays. Paige was considered a Babe Ruth of Negro baseball. He did not win every game he was in though ...
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The chapter discusses the legendary Satchel Paige and his life before and during his baseball heydays. Paige was considered a Babe Ruth of Negro baseball. He did not win every game he was in though he probably had the most wins compared to any other pitcher in history. His appeal was interracial and universal though he never forgot that he was a black man. Tributes were heaped over him by some of the best names in the industry—Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, and other major-league stars. The chapter discusses his early years and his numerous conflicts with the law. When he started with the Birmingham Black Barons, he had no other throw but his fastball but it was a fastball like no other. That was the start of his legendary career.Less
The chapter discusses the legendary Satchel Paige and his life before and during his baseball heydays. Paige was considered a Babe Ruth of Negro baseball. He did not win every game he was in though he probably had the most wins compared to any other pitcher in history. His appeal was interracial and universal though he never forgot that he was a black man. Tributes were heaped over him by some of the best names in the industry—Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, and other major-league stars. The chapter discusses his early years and his numerous conflicts with the law. When he started with the Birmingham Black Barons, he had no other throw but his fastball but it was a fastball like no other. That was the start of his legendary career.
