Veil and vow : marriage matters in contemporary African American culture / Aneeka Ayanna Henderson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Henderson, Aneeka A., author.

Series:

Gender & American culture

Gender and american culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Marriage--History.

African Americans.

Marriage--Government policy--United States--History.

Marriage.

Income distribution--United States--History.

Income distribution.

African American families--History.

African American families.

African Americans--Marriage.

Marriage--Government policy.

History.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

220 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

Summary:

"In Veil and Vow, Aneeka Ayanna Henderson places familiar, often politicized questions about the crisis of African American marriage in conversation with a rich cultural archive that includes fiction by Terry McMillan and Sister Souljah, music by Anita Baker, and films such as The Best Man. Seeking to move beyond simple assessments of marriage as "good" or "bad" for African Americans, Henderson critically examines popular and influential late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century texts alongside legislation such as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and the Welfare Reform Act, which masked true sources of inequality with crisis-laden myths about African American family formation. Providing a new opportunity to grapple with old questions, including who can be a citizen, a "wife," and "marriageable," Veil and Vow makes clear just how deeply marriage still matters in African American culture"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Invocation

Marrying the movement

Marrying up

Marrying Black

Monstrous marriage

Viewer, I married him

Benediction.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781469651750

1469651750

9781469651767

1469651769

OCLC:

1119472279