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76
itself squarely atop this [Spanish] pre-existing, nascent hierarchy of race.
Americans didn’t force their way up a ladder so much as they grafted a
new top rung to a pre-existing one.” 40 But this grafting was not
uncomplicated. As Tomás Almaguer explains:
Spanish colonization had of the Southwest had conferred
upon Mexicans a “white” racial status, Christian ancestry, a
romance language, European somatic features and a
formidable ruling elite that contested “Yankee”
depredations. Less cultural distance existed between
European-American immigrants and “half civilized”
Mexicans than between whites and other racialized, non-
European ethnic groups.41
In this passage, Almaguer not only alludes to the differences
between black and Mexican racialization but also between black, Mexican
and Asian (particularly Chinese and Japanese) racialization in California.
Almaguer’s work forces us to consider the impossibility of understanding
the racial landscape of California by looking through the lens of racism
against other groups, including African Americans.
California, although admitted into the Union as a free state, was
hostile to the immigration of blacks into the state. Key to understanding
the hostility to black immigration is the concept of “free labor.” Linked to
the ideology of Manifest Destiny, free labor was part of the system of
white supremacy operating throughout the nation. The west was
fashioned as a wide, open territory, where whites from other parts of the
nation could get cheap (or free) land and improve their economic
circumstances. Anglo settlers recognized that the presence of blacks –
Object Description
| Title | "As shelters against the cold": women writers of the Black Arts and Chicano movements, 1965-1978 |
| Author | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Author email | uryder@usc.edu; uryder@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | American Studies & Ethnicity |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-27 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 27 October 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-10-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | McKenna, Teresa |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Sanchez, George J. Johnson, Dana |
| Abstract | This dissertation examines the work of women writers in the Black Arts and Chicano movements during the years 1965-1978. I argue that understanding the intersectional nature of the women's experiences is crucial for understanding their literary output. Further, I argue that Chicanas and African American women of this era challenged homogenous notions of community and racial identity and that we can trace the development of the Third World feminism and multiculturalism that came to the fore in the 1980s to this earlier period. Thus, this study also impacts the way we conceptualize identity formation and the creation of the literary canon. Investigating the ways in which these women integrated nationalist and feminist rhetoric and activism in their work is crucial for a full understanding of this critical period in U.S. history. At stake is an understanding of how Chicana and African American women in the United States have formed identities and communities; struggled for liberation and equality; and become part of the U.S. literary canon. |
| Keyword | Black Power; Black Arts movement; Chicano movement; civil rights; racial identity formation; womanism; borderlands theory; feminism; Third World feminism; nationalism; intersectionality |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1965/1978 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1698 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Ryder-2415 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Ryder-2415.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 81 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 76 itself squarely atop this [Spanish] pre-existing, nascent hierarchy of race. Americans didn’t force their way up a ladder so much as they grafted a new top rung to a pre-existing one.” 40 But this grafting was not uncomplicated. As Tomás Almaguer explains: Spanish colonization had of the Southwest had conferred upon Mexicans a “white” racial status, Christian ancestry, a romance language, European somatic features and a formidable ruling elite that contested “Yankee” depredations. Less cultural distance existed between European-American immigrants and “half civilized” Mexicans than between whites and other racialized, non- European ethnic groups.41 In this passage, Almaguer not only alludes to the differences between black and Mexican racialization but also between black, Mexican and Asian (particularly Chinese and Japanese) racialization in California. Almaguer’s work forces us to consider the impossibility of understanding the racial landscape of California by looking through the lens of racism against other groups, including African Americans. California, although admitted into the Union as a free state, was hostile to the immigration of blacks into the state. Key to understanding the hostility to black immigration is the concept of “free labor.” Linked to the ideology of Manifest Destiny, free labor was part of the system of white supremacy operating throughout the nation. The west was fashioned as a wide, open territory, where whites from other parts of the nation could get cheap (or free) land and improve their economic circumstances. Anglo settlers recognized that the presence of blacks – |
