<p>Taking as its pretext the contemporary moment of self-reflexive critique on the part of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and American Studies, <italic>Reading Democracy</italic> historicizes a black feminist literary critical practice and movement that developed alongside black feminist activism beginning in the 1970s. This dissertation addresses the future direction of scholarship based in Women's Studies and African-American Studies by focusing on the institutionalized political effects of Women's Liberation and the black liberation movements: the canonization of black women's writing and the development of a black feminist critical practice. Tracing a variety of conceptions of black feminist criticism over the course of two decades, I argue that this critical tradition is virtually indefinable apart from its anthological framing and that its literary objects illustrate the radical democratic constitution of black women's political subjectivity. </p><p>The editors of such anthologies of African American women's writing and black feminist practice as Toni Cade Bambara's <italic>The Black Woman</italic> (1970), Mary Helen Washington's <italic>Black-Eyed Susans</italic> (1975), and Barbara Smith's <italic>Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology</italic> (1984) articulate the relationship of political praxis to creative enterprise and intellectual activity. In the case of Smith's anthology, for example, "coalition politics" emerges as the ideal democratic practice by which individuals constitute political identities, consolidate around political principles, and negotiate political demands.</p><p>Situating anthologies of black women's writing in relation to the social movement politics of the 1960s and 1970s, Reading Democracy explores how black feminist projects in the academy and the arts materialized the democratic principles of modern politics in the United States, understanding these principles as ethical desires that inspire self-constitution and creative and scholarly production. Constructing a literary critical and publication history, this dissertation identifies the democratic principles that the anthologies in this study materialize by analyzing them alongside the novels and short stories published during the 1970s and 1980s that they excerpt or otherwise reference, such as Toni Morrison's <italic>The Bluest Eye</italic> (1970), Audre Lorde's <italic>Zami: A New Spelling of My Name</italic> (1982), and Paule Marshall's <italic>Praisesong for the Widow</italic> (1983). The anthology facilitates the analysis of the single creative work's black feminist consciousness. Using the critical terms of democratic theory to mark the fulfillment of a political theory of black women's writing, as Smith first proposed, this dissertation arrives at a sense of democracy as a strategic zone of embodiment and a modern political imaginary forged by the recognition of "the others" in our midst who are coming to voice and are ineluctably constituted by the same ethical desires as are we ourselves.</p> / Dissertation

<p>At the heart of "American Realities, Diasporic Dreams" lies the following question: How and why do people generate longings for diasporic experience, and what might this have to do with nationally-specific affective and political economies of race, gender, and age? This dissertation focuses on the women of Girlfriend Tours International (GFT), a regionally and socio-economically diverse group of Americans, who are also members of the virtual community at www.Jamaicans.com. By completing online research in their web-community, and multi-sited ethnographic research in multiple cities throughout the U.S. and Jamaica, I investigate how this group of African-American women makes sense of the paradoxical nature of their hyphenated-identities, as they explore the contentious relationship between "Blackness" and "Americanness." </p><p>This dissertation examines how these African-American women use travel and the Internet to cope with their experiences of racism and sexism in the United States, while pursuing "happiness" and social belonging within (virtual and territorial) diasporic relationships. Ironically, the "success" of their diasporic dreams and travels is predicated on how well they leverage their national privilege as (African) American citizens in Jamaica. Therefore, I argue that these African-American women establish a complex concept of happiness, one that can only be fulfilled by moving--both virtually and actually--across national borders. In other words, these women require American economic, national, and social capital in order to travel to Jamaica, but simultaneously need the spiritual connection to Jamaica and its people in order to remain hopeful and happy within the national borders of the U.S. Their pursuit of happiness, therefore, raises critical questions that encourage scholars to rethink how we ethnographically document diasporic longings, and how we imagine their relationships to early 21st century notions of the "American Dream."</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on February 26, 2010). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Catherine A. Dobris, Ronald M. Sandwina, Kim D. White-Mills, Kristina H. Sheeler. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70).

In light of the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States, black women have become the fastest growing incarcerated population in the U.S. Given the fact that more than 75% of incarcerated woman are the primary caregiver for at least one child under the age of 18 the growing incarceration of black women results in the separation of many black mothers from their children. This assault on black motherhood is part of a historically persistent practice of subjugation, control, and maintenance over black women’s reproduction and bodies starting from slavery. This report will not only map this repressive trajectory into the present, but it will also focus on examining black motherhood through the lens of mass incarceration. Furthermore, this report will not only attempt to situate the enduring practice of black women’s subjugation within larger discourses around racism, sexism, oppression, state control, domination, and power but also within an understanding of manifestations of embodied blackness. / text

This Thesis is a local study employing new definitions of political activism and using oral histories, personal records and organizational archived material to debunk the myth that the feminist struggle surrounding the Equal Rights Amendment was separate from issues of race. Black women were involved in the fight for the ERA although not necessarily in the ways that White men and women might expect. Additionally, even when not obviously present, proponents and opponents of the ERA argued over the idea of Black women and race. Concern about Black women, overt racism and coded race language were all a part of the struggle by Georgia ERA Inc. advocates as well as Stop-ERA members. Race is intimately tied to the struggle for the ERA in Georgia.

abstract: The Civil Rights Project estimates that Black girls are among the least likely to graduate from high school. More specifically, only about half, or 56%, of freshman Black girls graduate with their class four years later. Beyond the statistics little is known about Black girls who drop out, why they leave school and what happens to them once they are gone. This study is a grounded theory analysis of the stories eight adult Black women told about dropping out of high school with a particular focus on how dropping out affected their lives as workers, mothers and returners to education. There is one conclusion about dropping out and another about Black female identity. First, the women in my study were adolescents during the 1980s, experienced life at the intersection of Blackness, womaness, and poverty and lived in the harsh conditions of a Black American hyperghetto. Using a synthesis between intersectionality and hyperghettoization I found that the women were so determined to improve their economic and personal conditions that they took on occupations that seemed to promise freedom, wealth and safety. Because they were so focused on their new lives, their school attendance suffered as a consequence. In the second conclusion I argued that Black women draw their insights about Black female identity from two competing sources. The two sources are their lived experience and popular controlling images of Black female identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

[pt] O presente trabalho tem como objetivo conhecer as experiências vividas pelas mulheres negras, tentando descobrir se as mesmas receberam tratamento diferenciado dentro da prisão em função da questão racial dos negros. No Brasil nos últimos quatro anos observamos expressivo crescimento dos crimes cometidos por mulheres, o que vem chamando atenção dos estudiosos do assunto. Além disso, o sistema penitenciário brasileiro apresenta deficiências estruturais, que reforçam a cultura da violência institucional, fomentando práticas e abordagens discriminatórias e violentas, ferindo a dignidade e violando direitos. Estas práticas também ocorrem no encarceramento feminino e nossa hipótese é que essas são ainda mais perceptíveis quando realizado o recorte étnico racial. Esta realidade revela outra face das desigualdades sociais e do racismo, o que pode se acentuar transformando-se em vulnerabilidades penais quanto ao cometimento de um delito. Neste contexto o presente estudo questiona as expressões do racismo dentro do sistema prisional. O estudo contou com a contribuição de 10 mulheres internas e egressas do sistema prisional do Rio de Janeiro. O resultado do estudo apresentou que a população negra do estado do Rio de Janeiro está mais representada nas prisões do que na população do Estado. Ainda assim, as mulheres negras que foram entrevistadas não reconhecem as expressões do racismo no interior das prisões. / [en] This purpose of this work is to know if Brazilian black women experienced a different treatment within prison as a consequence of their race. During the last four years is possible to observe an expressive growth of crimes committed by women in Brazil, which calls for the attention of the experts on the subject. Futhermore, the Brazilian prisional system keeps structural deficiencies which reinforce the institutional culture of violence by promoting discriminatory practices and approaches that hurt the dignity and violate the rights. These practices also occur within female prisions, and our hypothesis is that they can be better observed from a ethnical and racial point of view. This reality reveals another face of social inequality and racism that can accentuate becoming criminal and vulnerabilities to the commission of a crime. In this context, the present work discuss the expressions of racism within the prisional system. The study relied on the contribution of ten women who are, or were, under the prisional system of Rio de Janeiro. The work shows that the black population of the state of Rio de Janeiro is more represented in prisons than in the general population of the state. Eventhough, the interviewed women did not recognize racism expressions within the prisons.

The struggles with patriarchy in the marriages of highly educated married black women are not clearly defined by research, leading to generalisations that all women experience, interpret and resist patriarchy in a uniform way. Written from an African feminist and symbolic interactionist perspective this qualitative study sought to investigate the cognitive processes of highly educated married black women that develop from their lived experiences, interpretations and resistance with regard to patriarchy in their marriages. Data were collected through (auto)biographical narrative essays, semi-structured interviews and observations and analysed using thematic data analysis. The findings indicate that highly educated married black women experience, interpret and resist patriarchy in diverse ways, highlighting three clusters of these women – the liberal, the conformist and the secretive. Their self-concept and identity are more likely to be shaped by their social experiences and interactions with their husbands and the extended family than interactions in their professions. / Sociology / M.A. (Sociology)

Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-10-14T15:05:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Maísa Maria Vale.pdf: 2808385 bytes, checksum: 2c00b69d431e19d3aa735574cf40d0cd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Portela (anapoli@ufba.br) on 2015-11-25T17:50:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Maísa Maria Vale.pdf: 2808385 bytes, checksum: 2c00b69d431e19d3aa735574cf40d0cd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-25T17:50:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Maísa Maria Vale.pdf: 2808385 bytes, checksum: 2c00b69d431e19d3aa735574cf40d0cd (MD5) / FAPESB / Este trabalho investiga a trajetória social e política de mulheres negras candidatas às eleições para a Câmara Municipal de Salvador, em 2008 e 2012, visando compreender como se dão as implicações sociopolíticas de acesso ao poder, dessas experiências com a opressão na identidade feminina destas mulheres. Explicito dentro deste processo as interfaces entre raça e gênero, interseccionado com outras identidades, destacando as diferenças intragênero. Objetivo ambicioso, num país onde a memória histórica dos feitos das mulheres se esfumou por influência das estruturas de opressão patriarcal e racista. Associando identidades e política, teoricamente, averiguo os possíveis entraves provenientes destas múltiplas identidades cruzadas, para a concretização da unidade das mulheres negras entre elas mesmas e com outras mulheres para forjar um enfrentamento mais radical contra as estruturas de opressão patriarcal e racista. O estudo filia-se à teoria feminista negra, articulando metodologicamente conhecimentos gerados na História Oral, nos Estudos Culturais, no Estudo do Cotidiano, na produção escrita por mulheres e organizações negras brasileiras, para registrar e analisar as experiências de dez candidatas negras. Este estudo dá visibilidade às contribuições dos feminismos como corrente plural de pensamento e ação e evidencia, também, nestes percursos, suas fragilidades e contradições. Não busca respostas em forma de verdades absolutas, tampouco definitivas sobre a realidade dessas mulheres, mostrando que não esgota as razões para uma agenda feminista, mais ampla e exigente, que leve em consideração as diferentes experiências e vivências de mulheres, em termos de raça, sexualidade, classe social, religião, cultura e geração. This paper addresses the socio-political implications of the experiences of black women who ran as candidates in the elections of 2008 and 2012 for the Municipality of Salvador. From the interfaces between race and gender intersected with other explicit identities within this process intragênero the differences, in the sense proposed by black feminists who emphasize the asymmetries among women themselves. Consisted in an attempt to discover a little more of the history of political black women as subjects. Ambitious goal in a country where the historical memory of the deeds of women vanished, influenced by the structures of patriarchal and racist oppression. Linking identities and politics, theoretically, the study joins the blackfeminism, articulating knowledge generated in Cultural Studies in Oral History in the Study of Everyday Life in the production written by Brazilian women and black organizations, to seize the memories and experiences of these subjects, focusing on the study of speech ten black candidates, focusing on this role from the rebuilding of its social and political trajectory. Through oral history accounts choose the life history produced through these interviewees talk about themselves and their views on the process involved, the strategies used in dealing with the various forms of exclusion, seeking to reveal the relationship between history social and individual trajectory of each interviewee. This study gives visibility to the contributions of feminist as plural current of thought and action, but also shows these routes its weaknesses and contradictions. Not looking for answers in the form of absolute nor definitive truths about the reality of these women, showing that does not exhaust the reasons for a more extensive and demanding feminist agenda that takes into account the different experiences and life among women in terms of race, sexuality, social class, religion, culture and generation.

A dissertação analisa a presença e a atuação de mulheres negras na representação política no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, tomando como base de comparação as duas últimas eleições, de 2002 e 2006. Nestas eleições consideram-se as candidatas aos cargos de deputada estadual, de deputada federal e, no caso da eleição do ano de 2006, também a disputa para o cargo de senadora. O trabalho visa se inserir num cenário mais amplo que é o da representação política negra e feminina, diminuta quantativamente no país. Assim, a problemática analisada é a incorporação ou não de bandeiras feministas e anti-racistas pelas candidatas. Os instrumentos utilizados para esta análise foram o Horário Gratuito de Propaganda Eleitoral destas duas eleições e as entrevistas com candidatas negras que participaram da pesquisa qualitativa. A partir desta ótica, são consideradas questões pragmáticas que envolvem a busca pela eleição e as perspectivas de gênero que se inserem no campo da disputa eleitoral, um espaço tradicionalmente ocupado por homens brancos. A dissertação conclui indicando que o evidenciamento e o reconhecimento racial é tímido em disputas eleitorais o que não acontece com a perspectiva de gênero - , mas não significa a negação destes. / The dissertation analyzes the presence and the performance of black women in the representation politics in the State of Rio de Janeiro, taking as base of comparison the two last elections, 2002 and 2006. In these elections the candidates to the positions of state deputy consider themselves, of representative and, in the case of the election of the year of 2006, also the dispute for the senator position. The work aims at to insert itself in a scene ampler than it is of the representation the politics black and, feminine miniature quantitatively in the country. Thus, the problematic one analyzed is the incorporation or not of flags feminists and anti-racists for the candidates. The instruments used for this analysis had been the Gratuitous Schedule of Electoral Propaganda of these two elections and the interviews with black candidates who had participated of the qualitative research. From this optics, pragmatic questions are considered that involve the search for the election and the gender perspectives that if they insert in the field of the electoral dispute, a traditionally busy space for white men. The dissertation concludes indicating that the evidence and the racial recognition are shy in electoral disputes - what does not happen with the gender perspective -, but does not mean the negation of these.