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110
both the men and women involved in the Black Arts Movement.
Therefore, Baraka’s seemingly uncritical adoption of misogynist rhetoric
can perhaps be understood as part of the system in which he was located.
That is, a patriarchal system that devalued (and de-masculinized in some
respects) black men. According to Gerald Horne, black people as a race
have traditionally been feminized. In Fire this Time: The Watts Uprising
and the 1960s he asserts that:
Nationalism generally can have negative consequences for
women... Part of the “liberation” proclaimed by many black
male nationalists . . . was the “right” to emulate the
patriarchy of the Euro-American community. The black
nationalism that ultimately detonated in Watts was not just
a reaction against white racism; it was also a reaction
against the historic and stereotypical notion that blacks
were the “female” of the races: subordinated, subordinate,
dominated, timid. Through black nationalism a slice of race
cum gender privilege could be reclaimed by means of a
sometimes brutal masculinity that, after all, was normative
among other races and ethnicities . . .18
If Horne is correct, the assertion of hypermasculinity by Baraka,
while not excusable or acceptable, is understandable. The problem lies in
constructing a liberation movement that does not step back and look fully
and critically at its political and rhetorical platforms in an effort to not
reproduce some of the systems of oppression that it is attempting to
dismantle. 19 Women members of the Black Power/ Black Arts movement
would push gender issues to the fore, rightfully demonstrating that racial
and gender oppressions are linked and must both be deconstructed.
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 115 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 110 both the men and women involved in the Black Arts Movement. Therefore, Baraka’s seemingly uncritical adoption of misogynist rhetoric can perhaps be understood as part of the system in which he was located. That is, a patriarchal system that devalued (and de-masculinized in some respects) black men. According to Gerald Horne, black people as a race have traditionally been feminized. In Fire this Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s he asserts that: Nationalism generally can have negative consequences for women... Part of the “liberation” proclaimed by many black male nationalists . . . was the “right” to emulate the patriarchy of the Euro-American community. The black nationalism that ultimately detonated in Watts was not just a reaction against white racism; it was also a reaction against the historic and stereotypical notion that blacks were the “female” of the races: subordinated, subordinate, dominated, timid. Through black nationalism a slice of race cum gender privilege could be reclaimed by means of a sometimes brutal masculinity that, after all, was normative among other races and ethnicities . . .18 If Horne is correct, the assertion of hypermasculinity by Baraka, while not excusable or acceptable, is understandable. The problem lies in constructing a liberation movement that does not step back and look fully and critically at its political and rhetorical platforms in an effort to not reproduce some of the systems of oppression that it is attempting to dismantle. 19 Women members of the Black Power/ Black Arts movement would push gender issues to the fore, rightfully demonstrating that racial and gender oppressions are linked and must both be deconstructed. |
