African American Identity Research Articles

Racial Identity and the Political Ideologies of Afro-Caribbean Immigrants

Although the number of Black immigrants in the United States is increasing, few studies have examined whether they assimilate into the liberal ideologies with which U.S.-born Blacks are typically affiliated. Using data from the National Survey on American Life, this study examines how identity formation and generational status among Black Caribbean immigrants moderate their ideological differences with U.S.-born Blacks. It shows that Black Caribbean immigrants are more likely to identify with more conservative ideologies as generational status increases. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that the adoption of a Black American racial identity is not by itself associated with an ideological convergence between Black Caribbean immigrants and U.S.-born Blacks. More assimilated Black immigrants who prefer Black American rather than non-Black identities are still more likely to be conservative compared with U.S.-born Blacks. The analysis further provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between Black racial solidarity and the political ideologies of Caribbean immigrants. It finds that immigrants who both embrace a Black American identity and are members of Black advancement organizations are more likely to have similar political ideologies as U.S.-born Blacks. However, these similarities disappear as assimilation increases.

TRANSITION IN TONI MORRISON’S “CONSOLATA” FROM PARADISE (1997)

In her novel Paradise (1997), Toni Morrison portrays one of her main characters, Consolata or “disconsolate”, through a constant journey in search for her African American identity as a complete woman. This journey engulfs Consolata in an eternal fluctuation between hope and hopelessness, which results from being caught up in the so-called liminal/diaspora space in hybridity (Bhabha, 1994; Brah, 1996).The present paper deals with location of culture and gender identity in the marginal, unhomely spaces between dominant social formations by analysing chapter 7 “Consolata”. Consolata may be seen as an illustrative example of the black female community struggling to overcome the hurdles of being victimised as hybrid diasporic women in a patriarchal archaic western [black] culture.

I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by Andrew Flory

Reviewed by: I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by Andrew Flory Christopher M. Reali I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B. By Andrew Flory. (Tracing Pop.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017. [ix, 334 p. ISBN 9780472117413 (hardcover), $90; ISBN 9780472036868 (paperback), $39.95; ISBN 9780472122875 (e-book), $39.95.] Illustrations, music examples, discographies, bibliography, index. The title of this significant contribution to pop music studies, particularly in the areas of soul/R&B music, suggests the idea of crossover, which Flory defines as the "phenomenon of commingling music markets that had once been mostly self-contained" (p. 1). Crossover serves as the book's main through-line and is an apt way to describe Flory's approach to the subject. Flory is a musicologist, but his book is about more than Motown's music. He fluidly connects interrelated topics—history, music, race, pop culture, cultural identity, marketing and branding, corporate relations, and biography—to present a holistic view of one the most influential record companies ever to produce a track. The text includes an introduction, six chapters, two appendices, extensive notes, and a bibliography. Flory organizes the book into a "general narrative timeline (with some significant overlap)" (p. 9) that follows Motown's growth from its origins in Detroit, expansion into international music markets, move to Los Angeles, acquisition by MCA in 1988, and legacy. What differentiates I Hear a Symphony from the many other books written about Motown is that Flory critically addresses the music. As he asserts, "musical evidence is at the center of each chapter and fundamental to the book's overall argument" (p. 8). There are many music examples, but the nonmusician can simply read the text and play the tracks to hear what Flory describes. The book also includes photographs, charts, reprints of advertisements, and album cover art to enhance the text. Flory delivers his main argument in the introduction: "Motown's approach was calculated to transcend the R&B market, and before long its music was at the forefront of sweeping challenges to the record industry's longstanding practices of racial segregation. … [Motown] led a musical tide out of the R&B market that crossed cultural borders and routinely delighted mainstream listeners, attaining a level of mainstream acceptance that was unprecedented for a company of its background" (pp. 1–2). He then lays out the "four interrelated phenomena" that serve as the focus of the text: "(1) interaction between R&B and other entertainment markets; (2) varying forms of African American identity that were highlighted or de-emphasized during those interactions; (3) the different agents responsible for musical creation and identity formation at Motown; and (4) dialogue between musical works that helped to situate Motown's music within both domestic and international markets" (p. 2). Flory later uses a nuanced definition of crossover and applies [End Page 272] it in different ways throughout the book to coincide with Motown's evolution as a company. Chapters are given rather pedestrian names. The first, "Searching for Motown," begins with a synopsis of the slow erosion of musical and cultural boundaries between pop, R&B, and country that began during the late 1940s and early 1950s, then turns to a biography of Motown's chief architect, Berry Gordy, who had forays into various businesses prior to launching his music enterprises. Gordy's initial success came after he cowrote "Reet Petite" for Jackie Wilson; the song first appeared on the record charts in November 1957. Through his growing network, Gordy wrote and produced many tracks that were released on several labels, including United Artists and Chess. Gordy also established Jobete, his own publishing firm, and Motown, which released its first record in 1959. After he established the label, it took Gordy several years to find the musical formula that would eventually signify Motown. "Not all of Motown's music from [this] time aligned with stereotypes of black culture" (p. 33), Flory reminds the reader. Motown's roster included white female singers, rockabilly artists, and even some country-oriented musicians. Chapter 2, "The Rise of the Motown Sound," describes Gordy's well-known "assembly line" production style. Motown utilized vertical integration that...

토니 모리슨의 『그 아이에게 신의 가호가 있기를』에 나타난 흑인여성의 정체성 박탈과 회복의 과정

토니 모리슨의 『그 아이에게 신의 가호가 있기를』에 나타난 흑인여성의 정체성 박탈과 회복의 과정

Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity

Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity

Reconfiguring Black Internationalism: English as Foreign Language Teachers of African Descent in South Korea

ABSTRACTBlack internationalism is a framework used to analyze the oppression faced by people of African descent and their collaborative efforts globally, sometimes alongside other people of color, to dismantle white supremacy. Black internationalism, however, is not without its shortcomings, privileging certain intellectuals, locations, and institutions. This article seeks to reconfigure the contours of Black internationalism by focusing on the political activism of English as Foreign Language teachers of African descent in South Korea. I posit that these millennials’ activism, including Black History Month festivals and #BlackLivesMatterKorea, is a result of their racialized socialization. I also emphasize the role of the Facebook group Brothas and Sistas in South Korea (B.S.S.K.) in facilitating the practice of Black internationalism. Additionally, I show how Black American identity comes into sharp relief when refracted through the eyes of Koreans and continental Africans living in South Korea. These encounters, especially with non-U.S. racialized subjects, highlight and destabilize African-American exceptionalism.

From the Sacred Sound of the Conch Shell to the Cemetery Dance: Reimagining an Africana Festival Created in a Southern Appalachian City

To contemplate African American experience and its many racialized contours is to invoke a tensive quandary concerning the reconstruction of African American cultural identity in a dynamic network of historically assailed African diasporas. Utilizing a transdisciplinary approach that deploys historical analysis as well as cross-cultural and epistemological reflection, this article gestures in such a reconstructive direction from the local vantage point of Asheville, North Carolina’s “African and Caribbean” Goombay Festival. One detects in the festival an exotifying, ambiguously celebratory quality that deprioritizes Affrilachian cultural memory in southern Appalachia in favor of consumable public entertainment. The ensuing argument culminates in a preliminary epistemological reimagining of the Asheville Goombay Festival by way of constructive intercourse with the ancestral spirit-based African Jamaican ritual institution of Gumbay Play, an institution that facilitates processes of identity formation through mnemonically engaged ritual performance. Further, it is argued that this reimagining can amplify the ancestral mnemonic potential of Goombay in Asheville to incorporate more fully the varied Affrilachian lifeworlds of western North Carolina, thereby making possible a reexamination of African American cultural identity in Asheville capable of producing substantive responses to the epistemological challenge of Affrilachian cultural identity formation within western North Carolina’s greater social landscape.

Introduction

The vitriolic Presidential campaign of 2016 and the new Trump Presidency have suddenly made many old issues newly, even insistently, relevant again. The constant promise to put “America First,” plans to build a border wall, executive orders intended to keep out “dangerous” immigrants (overwhelmingly from Islamic countries), and White House photo ops featuring only white male lawmakers and administrators all have re-sparked long standing conceptual debates about the place of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender in American identity. They have also raised, for many, recollections of the harrowing rise of the fascist movements of the 1930s and the horrors that they unleashed. It is therefore appropriate that we feature essays in this issue of Soundings that directly or indirectly address each of these topics, connecting the past and the present, ethics with politics.We continue our year-long series “Resoundings”—reexamining central writings from past issues of this journal—with a pair of contrapuntal essays by two influential scholars from 1973, another deeply divided time in America. Social philosopher Michael Novak's “How American Are You If Your Grandparents Came from Serbia in 1888?” and activist-educator Agnes Moreland Jackson's “To See the ‘Me’ in ‘Thee’: Challenge to All White Americans, or, White Ethnicity from a Black Perspective and a Sometimes Response to Michael Novak” debate the place of race and ethnicity in American life and the degree to which a broadening conception of “whiteness” allows for or continues to deny full recognition of African American identity. In his reassessment of these essays, “1973 Redux,” historian Jason Mellard marvels that these contributions, particularly Jackson's, still seem so current that “my first impulse was simply to suggest [it] … be run again without comment.” Mellard's nuanced and pointed commentary fully explores the issues these essays raise and their implications, both for their historical time and our own.We then follow the “Resoundings” section with two articles that speak in different ways to the contemporary rhetoric of the need for powerful male leaders to ensure social stability and advancement. Nathan Bracher's “The Twentieth Century and the Lessons of History” focuses on reconsiderations of the Holocaust and the proper place of morality and ethics in its assessment. Revisiting a perpetually central question, he thoughtfully explores what students of history can and cannot learn from the past, concluding that ethics “prove to be inescapable and desirable.” Paul Maltby's essay on the Christian-infused art of Ron DiCianni, particularly his highly popular “Heroes” series tied to the events of 9-11, illuminates the themes of evangelicalism and hypermasculinity in DiCianni's work. He argues such themes are central to its broad appeal among many religiously conservative Americans.Collectively, all these essays reveal the contributions the interdisciplinary humanities can make to better understanding the deep historical roots of our current debates and rhetoric, and to recognizing the intersections between narrow racialized, gendered, and religious constructions of American identity and hierarchy.

Effects of Africentric Socialization on Psychosocial Outcomes in Black Girls: The Critical Role of Gender

ABSTRACTAfrican American social work scholars recommend rigorous research and evaluation of Africentric interventions as one approach to building culturally appropriate, evidence-based treatments for the Black community. Following this approach, this pilot study evaluates the Imani Rites of Passage program, a 15-week Africentric curriculum with 10 Black adolescent females (mean age = 12.40), comparing their pre- and post-intervention data to that of a no-intervention group of 13 Black males (mean age = 12.08). The program evaluation is based on the degree of correspondence between theory and the measurement model spelled out by the cognitive-cultural view of African-American identity. The findings for Black females were consistent with the cognitive-cultural model in some ways but not in others, and they were more complex than the predictions. Future Africentric interventions guided by the cognitive-cultural model must consider gender differences in the outcomes. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.

Contemplating the Void: How Narrative Overcomes Anonymity in Toni Morrison'sSula

AbstractAn analysis of Toni Morrison's novel Sula and her use of the classic etymological and narrative styles and tropes evident in the major epics of the Greek, Mesopotamian, and Indian regions of the world to recover the disenfranchised aspects of African-American cultural history that have traditionally been subsumed in modern times in discussions of the classic epics. Further, this paper examines the use of the character, Sula as a divine and heroic figure and the Bottom as a modern interpretation of the holy spot of redemption in the material world to invigorate the novel, and connect it to the cultural lineage that has resulted in this work from one point of view. Focusing on the novel and using Morrison's own interpretations of the purpose of Sula and the style in which it was written this paper attempts also to address the criticisms that define this work as an ethnic and political text purposed specifically to overwrite the importance of previous epic texts in terms of defining the spiritual and collective view of the morays and faith of the African American identity.

Michele Prettyman Beverly. Review of "Queering Post-Black Art: Artists Transforming African-American Identity after Civil Rights" by Derek Conrad Murray.

Michele Prettyman Beverly. Review of "Queering Post-Black Art: Artists Transforming African-American Identity after Civil Rights" by Derek Conrad Murray.

Measuring the Harlem Renaissance: The U.S. Census, African American Identity, and Literary Form by Michael Soto

Measuring the Harlem Renaissance: The U.S. Census, African American Identity, and Literary Form by Michael Soto

Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity by Mark S. Warner

Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity by Mark S. Warner

Odtworzyć tożsamość, odzyskać nowoczesność. Od plądrowania archiwów do rekonstrukcji nagrań

The aim of this work is to shed light on the cultural context of the contemporary practices in music production. The essay focuses on the use of the archival recordings (both: African-American free jazz heritage, and Polish Radio Experimental Studio tapes) in the process of the reinterpretation of basic cultural categories: „identity” (to rebuild „African-American identity” – Presence Americaine) and „modernity” (to reclaim „Polish modernity”). The field of my research are „Polish Radio Experimental Studio” albums produced by Polish label Bolt Records, and series of free jazz albums produced by labels such as ESP-Disk, Nessa, NoBusiness Records and Transparency. The question is: are these practices a part of the interpretive research and/or a critical theory of the contemporary culture?

Hidden Cities, Hidden Selves: Lost-Race Romance in Pauline Hopkins's Of One Blood and Walter Mcdougall's The Hidden City

This essay turns the critical focus on genre in Pauline Hopkins's Of One Blood (1902-03) to the spatial and temporal logics of lost-race romance. It argues that pairing Hopkins's assertion of black American identity through ancient Ethiopian civilization with Walter McDougall's founding of white American lineage on disappearing American Indianness in The Hidden City (1891) elucidates the neatness and messiness of the genre's ideological functioning. Its imaginary shapes American racial identity by yoking colonial to national space and past to future, reaching across a socially turbulent present within the US that nevertheless emerges significantly in Hopkins's adoption.

Introduction

The vitriolic Presidential campaign of 2016 and the new Trump Presidency have suddenly made many old issues newly, even insistently, relevant again. The constant promise to put “America First,” plans to build a border wall, executive orders intended to keep out “dangerous” immigrants (overwhelmingly from Islamic countries), and White House photo ops featuring only white male lawmakers and administrators all have re-sparked long standing conceptual debates about the place of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender in American identity. They have also raised, for many, recollections of the harrowing rise of the fascist movements of the 1930s and the horrors that they unleashed. It is therefore appropriate that we feature essays in this issue of Soundings that directly or indirectly address each of these topics, connecting the past and the present, ethics with politics.We continue our year-long series “Resoundings”—reexamining central writings from past issues of this journal—with a pair of contrapuntal essays by two influential scholars from 1973, another deeply divided time in America. Social philosopher Michael Novak's “How American Are You If Your Grandparents Came from Serbia in 1888?” and activist-educator Agnes Moreland Jackson's “To See the ‘Me’ in ‘Thee’: Challenge to All White Americans, or, White Ethnicity from a Black Perspective and a Sometimes Response to Michael Novak” debate the place of race and ethnicity in American life and the degree to which a broadening conception of “whiteness” allows for or continues to deny full recognition of African American identity. In his reassessment of these essays, “1973 Redux,” historian Jason Mellard marvels that these contributions, particularly Jackson's, still seem so current that “my first impulse was simply to suggest [it] … be run again without comment.” Mellard's nuanced and pointed commentary fully explores the issues these essays raise and their implications, both for their historical time and our own.We then follow the “Resoundings” section with two articles that speak in different ways to the contemporary rhetoric of the need for powerful male leaders to ensure social stability and advancement. Nathan Bracher's “The Twentieth Century and the Lessons of History” focuses on reconsiderations of the Holocaust and the proper place of morality and ethics in its assessment. Revisiting a perpetually central question, he thoughtfully explores what students of history can and cannot learn from the past, concluding that ethics “prove to be inescapable and desirable.” Paul Maltby's essay on the Christian-infused art of Ron DiCianni, particularly his highly popular “Heroes” series tied to the events of 9-11, illuminates the themes of evangelicalism and hypermasculinity in DiCianni's work. He argues such themes are central to its broad appeal among many religiously conservative Americans.Collectively, all these essays reveal the contributions the interdisciplinary humanities can make to better understanding the deep historical roots of our current debates and rhetoric, and to recognizing the intersections between narrow racialized, gendered, and religious constructions of American identity and hierarchy.

The African American Bible: Bound in a Christian Nation

At 2015 National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama delivered a sermon from his bully pulpit that garnered ire of Christian Right.1 In retrospect, there were many moments from speech that could have caused concern. The president's conciliatory gestures toward Dalai Lama might have opened a diplomatic Pandora's box, for even slightest bow of acknowledgment could tax relations with Chinese government. Ultimately this hardly proved newsworthy, nor did Mr. Obama's description of Islamic State as a death cult. His denunciation of Islamicized violence in Paris, Pakistan, and Middle East was as expected as his recitation of words attributed to Prophet Muhammad, None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself2 At time, the golden rule was a party line feigned by Democrats and Republicans alike.Any contention from these statements paled next to this controversial presidential parable:So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities-the profound good, strength, tenacity, compassion and love that can flow from all our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends? Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in name of Christ.3Much could be said about identity politics at play in Mr. Obama's statement- limits of his religious pluralism, his signification of 9/11, his social location of theodicy. But in this moment, I'd like to suggest that this event was proof positive that Americans are bound in a Christian nation.To be clear, United States of America is not made up solely of Christians, nor is it a theocracy. But America is a Christian nation. Those who protest with song of the separation of church and state forget that its refrain comes after a verse not about whether but how one may operate in other. Put differently, Americans would not argue about church-state relations were it not a central concern.In terms of anthropology of Scriptures, I contend that black people's relationship with Bible testifies to two aspects of Christian nation paradox.4 America is a strange new world in which some are bound in (i.e., enchained, castigated, conquered) just as it can be promised land where others are bound for (i.e., invigorated, cheered, conquerors). In theorizing about an African American Bible, members of Society of Biblical Literature might re-cognize category of Scriptures as indicative of stories not only that we read but that also read us back.5 Within their binding, astute begin to make sense of their worlds.The following reflective essay recounts some of lessons learned in studying tension between Bible and very constitution of African American identity. There we see ambivalence of this nation's Bible readers to matter of black life-namely, that its import is far from sacrosanct according to America's hermeneutical posturing.6In BeginningAt crossroads of genetic turn and post-civil rights era, inclusionminded Americans began to profess that we are all just part of one race, human race.7 The Christian Pop/Rock/Rap group called DC Talk (Decent Christian Talk) made statement into a creed.We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place.We're colored people, and they call us human race.We've got a history so full of mistakes.And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace.8The racial sentiment also reflects scientism of Zeitgeist. The Mitochondrial Eve discourse has given moderns sufficient license to remark that we are all African from a certain point of view. …

In principio era il suono. La lingua perduta delle madri nella narrativa di Toni Morrison

The essay aims to analyze Toni Morrison’s daring linguistic experimentation through her narrative use of sound, accurately chosen as a strategy to explore and possibly re-discuss, the concepts of race and gender at the core of her narratives. Specific attention will be drawn to the language of the mothers and their consequent use of sounds and words, filled with multiple meanings, seen as a fundamental tool capable of healing and reaffirming, to a certain extent, an African-American identity. By way of conclusion, the essay will mostly consider the figure of the mother in The Bluest Eye (1970) and Beloved (1987) through Morrison’s attention to the sounds of language.

The Digital Barbershop: Blogs and Online Oral Culture Within the African American Community

For African Americans, the legacy of oral communication within the community is being transferred to online spaces. Blogging provides a platform with features that mirror many of the components of the Black barbershop. The barber and beauty shop symbolize a space of retreat, wherein African Americans have formed alternate publics used to critique the dominant culture, foster resistance, and strengthen African American institutions. Analysis of nine African American–authored blogs using a method of critical technocultural discourse analysis demonstrates that each blog used traditional Black rhetorical strategies while making modifications to contemporary goals. The strategies involve modifications made to traditional Black humor and folktales. The writing style is highly performative, yet relies upon participant interaction. This reliance on orality is a necessary force in the maintenance of cultural traditions that have long worked to assist in group definition and acts of resistance in political power struggles. By utilizing modified song, narrative, and fables to articulate resistance and craft African American identity, African American online oral culture persists as a strategy to house political discourse within the often hidden enclave spaces of the digital barbershop.

Am I My Sister’s Keeper? Linking Domestic Violence Attitudes to Black Racial Identity

This exploratory online investigation sought to examine the links between African American college women’s gender role attitudes, Black racial identity attitudes, and domestic violence attitudes toward African American women in heterosexual marital relationships where domestic violence occurs ( N = 192). Less sophisticated Black racial identity attitudes (i.e., pre-encounter and immersion-emersion) predicted greater self-reports of justifying domestic violence toward African American women and believing that African American women benefit from abuse. Pre-encounter and immersion-emersion attitudes also predicted less willingness to help victims. An Afrocentric worldview (i.e., internalization Afrocentricity) was positively predictive of believing that African American women benefit from domestic violence as well as greater willingness to help victims. Appreciating one’s African American identity and other racial and ethnic groups (i.e., internalization multiculturalist inclusive) predicted less justification, fewer reports that African American women benefit from abuse, and a greater willingness to help victims. Post hoc mediation analyses revealed that gender role attitudes and an investment in protecting African American male domestic violence perpetrators (i.e., Black male victimage and justification beliefs) mediated the link between internalization Afrocentricity attitudes and the belief that African American women benefit from abuse.