Black Feminism Research Paper

What does it mean to you to be a black girl? If you aren’t one, what do you see when you visualize a black girl? If your imagination limits you to just an afro-centric featured, loud and slang-loving, uneducated woman, then this piece is addressed to you. The persistence of the stereotypes concerning average black girls have chained us all to the earlier listed attributes. One side effect of this dangerous connection is the wide opening for a new form of discrimination it creates. Whether it is depicted through slave owners allocating the preferable duties to lighter-skinned black woman, or in modern times where a dislike in rap music categorizes you as not really black, segregation within black communities occur. Tracing all the way back to elementary school, my education on the subject of racial segregation has been constricted to just the injustices routed by dissimilarities between racial groups. What failed to be discussed was the intragroup discrimination occurring in the black society from both outside observers and inside members. Unfortunately, our differences in the level of education, in physical appearance, and in our social factors such as our behaviour, personality or what we believe in have been pitted against each other to deny the variety of unique identities that we as black individuals carry.

Within the cultural context of society, the systematic structure is defined by White male patriarchy that sanctions Black males to convey the way in which they have been socialized and institutionalized to think, perform, and behave when self- identifying as male. However, the social order of society is structured by a historical system centered among race-based superiority. This notion impedes the development of a true independent identity. Consequently, a struggle arises for distinctiveness, respect, and power. For Black men there becomes a conflict with who he is versus how he is projected in society.

In 1971, William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., a Black psychologist and prominent researcher (specializing in Black psychology) developed a framework for assessing how black Americans come to understand what it means to be Black. Dr. Cross introduced his ideologies as the “Nigrescence Model of Racial Identity Development“. He asserts that every black American must undergo a series of identity stages to develop a healthy and balanced understanding of the Black experience and become well-rounded in our global society. This model encompasses five stages of identity development, which Dr. Cross emphasizes, must be performed in order to successfully accomplish this goal.

A third alternative is phenomenology, which is valuable for understanding "exploring how human beings make sense of experiences and transform experiences into consciousness, both individually and as a shared meaning " (Pleong, 1999). Like the outline in Creswell (2013), 120 nationally, successful African American/Black could be selected and interviewed for the present study; these women are identified by their professional organizations as being leaders across 10 occupational fields.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze and discuss the African American women`s quest for voice, acceptance and fulfilment. The analysis will be based on three selected novels, namely, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Color Purple and Beloved. Since their authors - Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker all - experienced some difficulties in their life related to the subject matter of the thesis, their biographies will be sketched, too. The analysis focuses especially on three women who are the protagonists of the selected novels. Their personal and social problems will be juxtaposed within the context of the criticism selected for the purpose of this thesis.

Prideful Black identity socialization, per Allen (2015), is an essential element of success and resilience. Researchers have created, recreated, and scrutinized many Black identity models, but William Cross’ (1971, 2001) theory is regarded as the most accurate and beneficial (Constantine, 1998). Cross created a Black identity development model that observes three patterns (Cross et al., 2001). First, Nigrescence pattern A is the process by which individuals have formative Black socialization experiences throughout their lives. Next, Nigrescence pattern B is the process by which individuals who were not socialized toward Blackness, or those who do not have a healthy Black identity

1. My redefinition of Hip hop feminism differs from the “normal” definition of feminism, to me hip hop feminism is a way of living and thinking. Hip hop feminism is connected to the Liberation Movement although this movement focused on advancing women rights than civil rights I still believe it played a part with the Hip Hop feminism movement which focused on the rights for young black women in the hip hop industry. I believe this because both movements give women a new definition of what it is like to be a women and both fight for the women cause although they may not hit the exact issues they promote change. Hip hop feminism should fight for the rights of women in hip hop who don’t receive respect due to their sexuality and gender. Women’s perspective in hip hop should be changed and embraced as a powerful persona rather than sexual perspectives. In order to make my definition of hip hop feminism happen in the industry major change must be presented. First, we must create respect towards hip hop women and shut down the suppression of female power. The way in which this would happen is to stop the secularization of women in this industry and not support the hypermasculan culture hip hop is. Although I understand that not all sexualization will be abolished completely from hip hop due to it being part of the culture . However I feel if women were to maybe not givein to the

Over the last one hundred and thirty years African Americans have little by little-gained freedom for themselves as slaves and domestic servants. Now as a culture they are legally capable of obtaining jobs and positions in all areas of private and public organizations, (Hayes, A. F., & Preacher, K. J., 2010). This particular ethnic group are known to be instrumental in holding their cultures together through times of constant struggle. They have used rallies, protests, silent marches and received help from volunteer organizations to fight for rights as well as obtain justice in a racist and sexist society. This work explores the troubles African Americans face in Americas society today, through stereotypes and how gender roles as African Americans differ from each other as well as the American population.

Studies that disect trends of the unique experience of African American women when it comes to self-identity as it relates to educational attainment, income, and occupational ambitions, are timelty and long overdue. Seeing as though, some of the participants were simply unaware of how to articulate how these racist, sexist, and classist constructs affected their lives, further shows the need for this research in this particular discourse. Even though this study is not generalizable, getting the

The United States prides itself on being a land of opportunities, and in many ways it is. We look at countries like South Africa, which not long ago was segregated through the laws of Apartheid, and we are glad that we are so much further along than the land of Mandela. However, every now and then we need to stop and ask ourselves just how far along we really are, and we have to wonder if many of the once oppressed countries we helped free are not passing us up in the area of civil rights and opportunity.

Black women deal with challenges every day, whether it’s because of their race, gender, class, education, religious or sexual ties. When it comes to Black women we tend to view their issues as either race or gender related to the exclusion of other aspects of their identity and their intersectionality (Bryant-Davis 114). The show Insecure, an HBO comedy series created by Issa Rae, focuses on the sisterly bond between two young professional black women living in Los Angeles. The show demonstrates the challenges that black women face on a regular basis, whether it’s finding love, navigating a white dominated workplace, battling stereotypes or finding their identity. Although Insecure deals with many important sociological issues, the focus of this paper is the representation of Black women in the workplace, specifically in a white environment and the microaggressions they encounter in their attempt to succeed in their careers.

Black women deal with challenges every day whether it’s because of their race, gender, class, education, religious or sexual ties. When it comes to Black women we tend to view their issues as either race or gender related to the exclusion of other aspects of their identity and their intersectionality (Bryant-Davis 114). The show Insecure, an HBO comedy series created by Issa Rae, focuses on the sisterly bond between two young professional black women living in Los Angeles. The show demonstrates the challenges that black women face on a regular basis, whether it’s finding love, navigating a white dominated workplace, battling stereotypes or finding their identity. Although Insecure deals with many important sociological issues, my focus in this paper is the representation of Black women in the workplace, specifically in a white dominated environment and the microaggressions they encounter in their attempt to succeed in their careers.

As humans living in an organized society, we are inevitably defined and viewed through the ideals created by that organizing entity. Each culture has its own view of masculinity and femininity that may vary from another culture's. The degree of difference may not be very large but it is these cultural differences that often create conflicts and struggles among certain groups of people. A quintessential example of such a struggle can be seen when observing black women in America. The adversities that black women encounter in this country are caused by the societal ideals of femininity. In American culture, though a woman can be as independent and successful as she desires, she must still conform to

The following paper will discuss two of the major dimensions of my cultural identity, and analyze the way in which my identity holds privileges, or has exposed me to oppression. Being that I am white, I have lived a life of privilege simply because of the color of my skin. I have been afforded opportunities, and lived a life free from persecution due to my skin color. I have also lived a life that has been impacted by oppression because of my female identity. This unique position between privilege and oppression is where I live my life.

Clusters were named and profiled based on the importance/awareness of women’s intersected identity and their level/type of engagement with that identity (see Figure 3). Said differently, Black women’s racial and gender centrality (i.e., identity importance/awareness) coupled with women’s qualitative descriptions of their conceptualization or relationship with their intersected identity (as assessed by the themes emergent within women’s qualitative responses) were used to define clusters. The four clusters include: consciously introspective, consciously engaged, pre-consciously conflicted, and unconsciously disengaged. The demographics of each cluster are presented in Tables 3 – 6.