Page 159 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 159 of 200 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large (1000x1000 max)
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
154
Color is the first thing Black people in america become
aware of. You are born into a world that has given color
meaning and color becomes the single most determining
factor of your existence. Color determines where you live,
how you live and, under certain circumstances, if you will
live. Color determines your friends, your education, your
mother’s and father’s jobs, where you play, what you play
and, more importantly, what you think of yourself.
In and of itself, color has no meaning. But the white world
has given it meaning – political, social, economic, historical,
physiological and philosophical. Once color has been given
meaning, an order is thereby established. If you are born
Black in america, you are of the last order. As kids we
learned the formula for the structure of american society:
If you’re white,
You’re all right.
If you’re brown,
Stick around.
But if you’re black,
Get back, get back.13
This thinking, while obviously exposing a deep psychological trauma
caused by racism, also serves a political purpose. Nationalism based on
race has been a very powerful uniting force for people of African descent
in the United States. As far back as the abolitionist movement, organizing
around race has been a strategy for uniting blacks of various social and
economic classes to fight the common (white) oppressor. However useful
this strategy may have been (or may continue to be), it does foreclose
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 159 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 154 Color is the first thing Black people in america become aware of. You are born into a world that has given color meaning and color becomes the single most determining factor of your existence. Color determines where you live, how you live and, under certain circumstances, if you will live. Color determines your friends, your education, your mother’s and father’s jobs, where you play, what you play and, more importantly, what you think of yourself. In and of itself, color has no meaning. But the white world has given it meaning – political, social, economic, historical, physiological and philosophical. Once color has been given meaning, an order is thereby established. If you are born Black in america, you are of the last order. As kids we learned the formula for the structure of american society: If you’re white, You’re all right. If you’re brown, Stick around. But if you’re black, Get back, get back.13 This thinking, while obviously exposing a deep psychological trauma caused by racism, also serves a political purpose. Nationalism based on race has been a very powerful uniting force for people of African descent in the United States. As far back as the abolitionist movement, organizing around race has been a strategy for uniting blacks of various social and economic classes to fight the common (white) oppressor. However useful this strategy may have been (or may continue to be), it does foreclose |
