Black intimacies : a gender perspective on families and relationships / Shirley A. Hill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hill, Shirley A. (Shirley Ann), 1947-

Series:

Gender lens series

The gender lens series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American families.

Physical Description:

viii, 247 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press, [2005]

Summary:

In Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships, Shirley A. Hill applies a gender lens to the multiple systems of oppression that have shaped the lives of African American women and men. She challenges the image of a monolithic black population, a legacy of the civil rights movement that she argues is impossible to sustain in the postmodern era.

Through a critique of intersectionality theory, Hill examines the ways in which gender has affected experiences of intimacy, family relationships, child-rearing, and motherhood for contemporary African Americans. Drawing on ethnographic material, interviews, and scholarly research, Hill's work rethinks the cultural and historical definitions of black identity and reconceptualizes the various forms of oppression faced by black women.

This book will be useful to students and instructors of African American studies, gender studies, sociology, anthropology, marriage and family, and social work.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Postmodern Chasms: The Politics of Inequality 1

The Evolution of Intersectionality Theory

Focus and Framework of the Book

Chapter 2 Theorizing Race: The Challenges of Black Progress, Diversity, and Decline 23

The Historic Diversity of African Americans

Coalescing for Racial Equality

Progress, Stagnation, and Decline

Theorizing Racism and Racial Disparities

Postmodern Diversity, Divisions, and Debates

Chapter 3 Black Families: Beyond Revisionist Scholarship 51

Objectives of the Chapter

The Legacy of Slavery Thesis

The Revisionist Perspective

A Postmodern Gender Perspective

The Declining Well-Being of Single-Mother Families

Single-Mother Families: The Big Picture

Chapter 4 Love, Sex, and Relationships: The Pursuit of Intimacy 93

Pursuing Gendered Intimacy

Revisioning Love and Gender

Courtship and Marriage Class Context

The Love Connection

Marriage: The Culture, Contract, and Reality

The Declining Legitimacy of Gendered Marriage

Living Single

Chapter 5 In Search of the Village: Black Motherhood in Transition 119

From Reproductive Mandate to Voluntary Motherhood

Racialized Constructions of the "Good Mother"

Contested Visions of Motherhood

Motherhood in Class and Race Context

The Black Cultural Ethos of Motherhood

Revisiting the Village

Confronting the Challenge of Voluntary and Equitable Motherhood

Chapter 6 Socializing Black Children: The Impact of Social Class 147

An Intersectionality Approach to Child Socialization

The Securely Middle Class

The Newly Middle Class

Economically Disadvantaged Families

The Perils of Poverty

Chapter 7 Gendered Violence: Racial Oppression and the Assault on Black Women 171

(Re)Discovering Family Violence

Theorizing Intimate Partner Violence

Racial Oppression and Black Masculinity

Beyond Victimized Men: Class and Gender Subordination

Breaking the Silence and Fighting Back

Chapter 8 Resolutions: Broadening the Vision of Liberation 201

Revisioning Gender?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-240) and index.

ISBN:

0759101515

0759101523

OCLC:

55738412