Staying Human: Forty Years of Black Studies Practical-Critical Activity in the Spirit of (Aunt) Jemima

Abstract

In this African-centred autoethnography, the author self-reflexively narrates and critically interprets 40 years of selected examples of her teaching and activist social inquiry as Black Studies “practical-critical” activity: resisting white supremacy racism and alienation in the spirit of (Aunt) Jemima. As a site of memory, authentic blackness and Black Studies theoretical critique that rejects the denigration of Black womanhood, this lieu de mémoire (site of memory) focuses analytical practice-to-theory attention on resisting dispossession and alienation and supporting community-minded social action in university and community contexts in the United States, Africa, and diaspora locations. Using Pan-African-centred womanist epistemology and spirituality, this article explores questions about the transformation of identity and consciousness in seeking to answer the question: “Social science research for whom?” The author reflects upon the key task of resisting anti-blackness and harmonising the conception of humanness in social inquiry.