Authors: Rudolph P. Byrd, Beverly Guy-Sheftall
ISBN-13: 9780253214485, ISBN-10: 0253214483
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Date Published: August 2008
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Rudolph P. Byrd cis Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the Program of African American Studies at Emory University. He is author of Jean Toomerís Years with Gurdjieff and editor of I Call Myself an Artist: Writings by and about Charles Johnson.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall is founding director of the Womenís Research and Resource Center at Spelman College and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies. Her previous publications include Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought and Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920.
Traps is the first anthology of writings by 19th- and 20th-century African American men on the overlapping categories of race, gender, and sexuality. The selections on gender in Sections I and II reveal what some may view as the unexpected commitment of African American men to feminism. Included here are critiques of the subordinate social, economic, and political position of black women. Sections III and IV analyze the taboos and myths in which black sexuality is enmeshed. These essays also stress the importance of rejecting homophobia and the need to contest the predominance of a heterosexual paradigm. Monolithic constructions of gender and sexuality, reinforced by sexism and historically sanctioned homophobia, are the "traps" that give this book its focus and its title.
About the Authors:
Rudolph P. Byrd is Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the Program of African American Studies at Emory University. He is author of Jean ToomerÃs Years with Gurdjieff and editor of I Call Myself an Artist: Writings by and about Charles Johnson.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall is founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center at Spelman College and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies. Her previous publications include Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought and Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920.
Preface | ||
Acknowledgments | ||
Prologue: The Tradition of John: A Mode of Black Masculinity | 1 | |
Pt. 1 | Remembering our Forefathers: Pioneering Perspectives on the Rights and Education of Women | |
1 | The Rights of Women | 27 |
2 | Give Women Fair Play | 29 |
3 | I Am a Radical Woman Suffrage Man | 37 |
4 | The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs | 46 |
5 | The Damnation of Women | 58 |
6 | "When and Where (We) Enter": In Search of a Feminist Forefather - Reclaiming the Womanist Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois | 71 |
Pt. 2 | Disloyalty to Patriarchy: Resisting Sexism | |
7 | In the Days of My Youth | 93 |
8 | Feminism and Equality | 111 |
9 | Women's Rights Are Human Rights | 113 |
10 | Groundings with My Sisters: Patriarchy and the Exploitation of Black Women | 119 |
11 | Breaking Silences | 153 |
12 | On Becoming Anti-Rapist | 158 |
13 | The Sexual Diversion: The Black Man/Black Woman Debate in Context | 168 |
14 | A Black Man's Place in Black Feminist Criticism | 177 |
15 | Men: We Just Don't Get It | 194 |
16 | Mission Statement of Black Men for the Eradication of Sexism, Morehouse College | 200 |
Pt. 3 | Meditations from the Heart: Making Meaning Out of Masculinity | |
17 | Here Be Dragons | 207 |
18 | In the Limelight | 219 |
19 | The Sexist in Me | 221 |
20 | A Phenomenology of the Black Body | 223 |
21 | Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man | 236 |
22 | Mike's Brilliant Career: Mike Tyson and the Riddle of Black Cool | 250 |
23 | It's Raining Men: Notes on the Million Man March | 259 |
24 | Dear Minister Farrakhan: A Letter | 267 |
25 | Black Men in the Movies: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem (and an Answer)? | 270 |
Pt. 4 | Brother to Brother: The Politics of Desire, Sexuality, and Homophobia | |
26 | A Letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements | 281 |
27 | Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart | 284 |
28 | Black Macho Revisited: Reflections of a SNAP! Queen | 292 |
29 | Does Your Mama Know about Me? | 297 |
30 | Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject | 301 |
31 | When You Divide Body and Soul, Problems Multiply: The Black Church and Sex | 308 |
32 | "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing": Black Masculinity, Gay Sexuality, and the Jargon of Authenticity | 327 |
Epilogue. Reflections on Black Manhood | 342 | |
Selected Bibliography | 349 | |
Biographies | 353 | |
Index | 363 |