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archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Dan Castilow

Variations and differences in skin colour has been a complex phenomenon around the world. Issues of colour and identity in a postcolonial and post-Apartheid context, is also a significant field of interest. Popular stereotypes portray darker skin pigmentation as undesirable and inferior to lighter pigmentation. The process of ‘lactification’ (Fanon, 1968) remains a question today as much as during earlier colonial times. These stereotypes also bring to the fore, essential questions about hierarchies of power and oppression, culture and identity and how these are shaped to fit popular dominant culture. This study explored peoples’ perceptions around different shades of skin colour and attitudes towards various shades of pigmentation. The study adopted a qualitative approach and explored perceptions around skin colour through in-depth interviews. Fifteen adult participants in Soweto, Gauteng were recruited for the study via purposive sampling. The data collected was analysed using thematic content analysis. The study found that the western idea of attractiveness is still highly regarded. Black women and men take various measures to conform to the western ideal simply to be acknowledged as attractive and stigma is attached to the dark complexion. Self-esteem is affected by the perception of beauty, high perception of attractiveness equals to the high self-esteem.

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This short story collection deals with themes of race, kinship, desire, subjectivity, and appearance vs. reality.

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Too often the acknowledgment that race is a social construction ignores exactly how this construction occurs. By illuminating the way in which the category of blackness and black individuals are made, we can better see how race matters in America. Antidiscrimination policy, social science research, and the state's support of its citizens can all be improved by an accurate and concrete definition of blackness. Making Blackness, Making Policy argues that blackness and black people are literally made rather than discovered. The social construction of blackness involves the naming of individuals as black, and the subsequent interaction between this naming and racial projects. The process of naming involves an intersubjective dialogue in which racial self-identification and ascription by others lead to a consensus on an individual's race. These third parties include an individual's community, the media, and, crucially, the state. Following Ian Hacking, this process is most properly termed the dynamic nominalism of blackness. My dissertation uses analytic philosophy, qualitative and quantitative research, and historical analysis to defend this conception. The dynamic nominalist process is illustrated through the media's contribution to the making of Barack Obama's blackness, and the state's creation and maintenance of racial categories through law, policy, and enumeration. I then argue that the state's dominant role in creating blackness, and the vital role that a black identity plays in millions' sense of self, requires the United States Government to support a politics of recognition. The state's antidiscrimination efforts would also improve through the adoption of a dynamic nominalism of blackness. Replacing the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission's inconsistent and contradictory definitions of race with the dynamic nominalism of blackness would clarify when and how racial discrimination occurs. / African and African American Studies

This dissertation argues that a fantasy of white authority was articulated and disseminated through the representations of blackness and Aboriginality in nineteenth-century American and Australian theatre, and that this fantasy influenced the representation of Aboriginality in twentieth-century Australian culture. The fantasy of whiteness refers to the habitually enacted and environmentally entrenched assumption that white people can and should superintend the cultural representation of Otherness. This argument is presented in three parts. Part One examines the complex ways in which white anxieties and concerns were expressed through discourses of blackness in nineteenth-century American blackface entertainment. Part Two examines the various transnational discursive connections enabled by American and Australian blackface entertainments in Australia during the nineteenth century. Part Three examines the legacy of nineteenth-century blackface entertainment in twentieth-century Australian culture. Overall, this dissertation investigates some of the fragmentary histories and stories about Otherness that coalesce within Australian culture. This examination suggests that representations of Aboriginality in Australian culture are influenced and manipulated by whiteness in ways that seek to entrench and protect white cultural authority. Even today, a phantasmal whiteness is often present within cultural representations of Aboriginality.

This dissertation argues that a fantasy of white authority was articulated and disseminated through the representations of blackness and Aboriginality in nineteenth-century American and Australian theatre, and that this fantasy influenced the representation of Aboriginality in twentieth-century Australian culture. The fantasy of whiteness refers to the habitually enacted and environmentally entrenched assumption that white people can and should superintend the cultural representation of Otherness. This argument is presented in three parts. Part One examines the complex ways in which white anxieties and concerns were expressed through discourses of blackness in nineteenth-century American blackface entertainment. Part Two examines the various transnational discursive connections enabled by American and Australian blackface entertainments in Australia during the nineteenth century. Part Three examines the legacy of nineteenth-century blackface entertainment in twentieth-century Australian culture. Overall, this dissertation investigates some of the fragmentary histories and stories about Otherness that coalesce within Australian culture. This examination suggests that representations of Aboriginality in Australian culture are influenced and manipulated by whiteness in ways that seek to entrench and protect white cultural authority. Even today, a phantasmal whiteness is often present within cultural representations of Aboriginality.

abstract: Though the concept of 'transgender' has gained a foothold in American culture, the representation of transgender subjects is both limited and limiting. Media representations of trans experiences generally exclude or negatively depict both trans-masculine people and trans individuals of color. Subsequently, many trans-masculine individuals of color — especially black transmen — turn to online forums to create original content, express what being transgender means to them, and explore topics excluded from mainstream conversations. Utilizing participatory ethnography influenced by digital and visual approaches, “Tumblr Saved My Life”: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of how Black Trans- Masculinity Operates through Tumblr explores how black transmen articulate racialized trans-masculine experiences via posts, selfies, and hashtags on the social networking site Tumblr. Online observations revealed that Tumblr allows interlocutors an opportunity to ask questions, document physical changes, learn about the lived realities of transgender people of color, and connect with fellow black trans-masculine individuals. In addition to online observation, in-person interviews and observations explored the context for the content interlocutors create, as well as how online articulations of masculinity differ from everyday performances of gender.Tumblr interactions are important to participants; however, the platform is not where they discuss the more nuanced aspects of being black and transgender. In-person interviews illuminated how black transmen uniquely understand societal erasure as black women prior to starting hormone replacement therapy and experience hyper-visibility as black men after treatment. Specifically, interlocutors note the various forms of racism they experience, and how those forms change depending on whether their bodies are read as a feminine or masculine. For example, when read and socialized as black girls, participants noted being subjected to sexualization and predation. Conversely, when read and treated as masculine, they gain access to male-only spaces, but face exclusion and suspicion in other contexts. In short, this work articulates the complex relationship black transmen have to vectors of power, and how they utilize visual images, social media, and technology to present and construct their realities. Ultimately, understanding these experiences can expand the scope of trans studies and feminist theory. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Gender Studies 2020