Gender talk : the struggle for women's equality in African American communities / Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Johnnetta B.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly, author.

Contributor:

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Social conditions.

African American women.

African American women--Civil rights.

African Americans--Social conditions--1975-.

African Americans.

African Americans--Social conditions.

Women's rights--United States.

Women's rights.

Sex role--Political aspects.

United States.

Sex role--United States.

Sex role.

Sex role--Political aspects--United States.

Sexism--United States.

Sexism.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxxviii, 298 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Ballantine Books, 2003.

Summary:

Why has the African American community remained silent about gender even as race has moved to the forefront of our nation's consciousness? In this important new book, two of the nation's leading African American intellectuals offer answers to questions that continue to generate controversy and contentious debate. Hard-hitting and brilliant in its analysis of culture and sexual politics, Gender Talk asserts boldly that gender matters are critical to the Black community in the twenty-first century. In the Black community, rape, violence against women, and sexual harassment are as much the legacy of slavery as is racism. Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall argue powerfully that the only way to defeat this legacy is to focus on the intersection of race and gender. Gender Talk examines why the "race problem" has become so male-centered and how this has opened a deep divide between Black women and men. The authors turn to their own lives, offering intimate accounts of their experiences as daughters, wives, and leaders. They examine pivotal moments in African American history when race and gender issues collided with explosive results -- from the struggle for women's suffrage in the nineteenth century to women's attempts to gain a voice in the Black Baptist movement and on into the 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement and the upsurge of Black Power transformed the Black community while sidelining women.

Along the way, they present the testimonies of a large and influential group of Black women and men, including Byllye Avery, Derek Bell, Farai Chideya, Kimberle Crenshaw, Michael Eric Dyson, Marcia Gillespie, Dorothy I. Height, bell hooks, Robin D.G. Kelley, Haki Madhubuti, Faye Wattleton, and Cornel West. Providing searching analysis into the present, Cole and Guy-Sheftall uncover the cultural assumptions and attitudes in hip-hop and rap; in the O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson trials; and in the battle over Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court. Fearless and eye-opening, Gender Talk is required reading for anyone concerned with the future of African American women -- and men.

Contents:

The personal is political

Having their say: conversations with sisters and brothers

Collisions: Black liberation versus women's liberation

The Black church: what's the word?

Race secrets and the body politic

Black, lesbian, and gay: speaking the unspeakable

No respect: gender politics and hip-hop

Where do we go from here?.

Notes:

"A One World Book published by The Ballantine Publishing Group."

"First Edition: February 2003."

"Jacket design by Dreu Pennington-McNeil."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-288) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

Banks Collection copy has dust jacket retained.

ISBN:

034545412X

OCLC:

50859194