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I examine Sojourner Truth and Janelle Monáe’s identity performances to identify some strategies and tactics Black women use to transgress externally defined myths of Black womanhood. I propose that both of these women use their identity as a liberation technology - a spiritual, emotional, physical, and/or intellectual tool constructed and/or wielded by Africana agents. They wield their identity, like an instrument, and use it to emancipate Africana people from the physical and metaphoric chains that restrict them from reproducing their cultural imperatives. I argue that both Truth and Monáe consciously fashion complex narratives of revolutionary Black womanhood as a way to disseminate their identities in ways that “destroy the societal expectations” of Black womanhood and empowers women to reclaim their ability to imagine self-defined Black womanhoods. I analyze the performance texts of Truth and Monáe using Afrofuturism, a theoretical perspective concerned with Africana agents’ speculation of their futures and the functionality of Africana agents’ technologies. Its foundational assumption is the pantechnological perspective, a theory that assumes “everything can be interpreted as a type of technology.” When examining Africana agency using an Afrofuturism perspective, the researcher should examine the devices, techniques, and processes – externally or intra-culturally generated – that have the potential to influence Africana social development. / African American Studies

Through the development of entertainment culture, African American actors, athletes and musicians increasingly were publicly recognized. In the mainstream press, Black celebrities were often faced with the same snubs and prejudices as ordinary Black citizens, who suffered persecution under Jim Crow legislation that denied African Americans their basic civil rights. In the Black press, however, these celebrities received great attention, and as visible and popular members of the Black community they played a decisive yet often unwitting and tenuous role in representing African American identity collectively. Charles M. Payne and Adam Green use the term "critical citizenship" to describe the way in which African Americans during this period conceptualized their identities as American citizens. Though Payne and Green discussed critical citizenship in terms of activism, this project broadens the term to include considerations of community-building and race pride as well. Conceptualizing critical citizenship for the black community was an important part of the overall mission of the Black press. Black press entertainment journalism, which used celebrities as both "constellations" and companions in the fight for civil rights, emerged against the battle against Jim Crowism and came to embody the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. The purpose of this project is to trace how celebrity reporting in the black press developed over time, distinct from yet contemporaneous with the development of yellow journalism in the mainstream press, and to understand how black journalists and editors conceptualized the idea of "celebrity" as it related to their overall construction of critical citizenship. The evidence in support of this project was collected from an inductive reading of the entertainment-related content of the following black press newspapers over the time period 1895-1935: Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, New York Age, New York Amsterdam News, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Cleveland Gazette, Kansas City/Topeka Plaindealer, Savannah Tribune, and Atlanta Daily World. In addition, the entertainment content of Black press magazines The Crisis, The Messenger, The Opportunity and The Negro World was included. / Media & Communication

Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States have higher rates of hypertension than European Americans. In this ethnographic study, 30 Nigerian immigrant health care workers with hypertension described their self-efficacy management of the disease to ascertain the relationship between health-related hardiness, individual attitudes on compliance, and medication adherence self-efficacy. Using a mixed methods designs comprised of survey tools and focus-group questionnaires, the research questions were focused on understanding attitudes and health practices within Nigerian culture that support self-efficacy management. The theoretical framework for this study is the social learning theory and the social cognitive theory postulated by Bandura. Content analysis of the focus group transcript revealed that all participants agreed that culture directly influences their self-efficacy practices. Interview responses generated 4 major themes in which the study participants expressed positive attitude towards adopted values including culture practices, faith, enculturation, and fear of medication effects. Cross tabulations of data from the survey tools showed no relationship between self-care management, attitude, and medication adherence. Factor analysis of the Health Related Hardiness (HRH) scale identified 6 constructs with a cumulative variance of 64.9%. Implication for positive social change include culturally specific health intervention programs that focus on the impact of culture on hypertension self-efficacy practices and self-care management.

Breast cancer is one of the most widespread chronic diseases and a major cause of death among women in the United States. African American women have a higher incidence of breast cancer than their counterparts from other ethnic/racial groups. The purpose of this cross-sectional survey of 126 African American females from the western US metropolitan area was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and behavior with respect to breast cancer manifestation, detection services, and the role of mammography in breast cancer prevention and control. The health belief model guided this study. A 41-item, ethnically sensitive, self-administered, and gender-specific instrument, the Champion Revised Susceptibility, Benefits, and Barriers Scale for Mammography Screening, was used in this study. Analysis of variance, the Scheffe post hoc tests, and Fisher's exact test were used to analyze the data. The results showed that all but three participants (97.6%) reported having had breast cancer screening; almost all of the participants were compliant and answered the knowledge question. The findings also showed that the women with high levels of education reported lower benefits of mammography scores and lower barriers to mammography scores; and higher cues to action scores. Income was not significantly related to attitude toward breast cancer screening. The implication for positive social change is that these results may help to facilitate continued development of intervention strategies to encourage African American women to utilize early breast cancer detection services.