Research Catalog

Title

Are we not men? : masculine anxiety and the problem of African-American identity / Phillip Brian Harper.

Author

Harper, Phillip Brian.

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 254 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

In 1995, popular anxieties about black masculinity became evident in public reactions to the conclusion of the OJ Simpson trial and the Million Man March on Washington. The nation's divided response to the OJ verdict, together with the controversy surrounding Louis Farrakhan's call to black men to come together for a "day of atonement", brought issues of race and gender to the forefront of national debate. In his timely and incisive book Are We Not Men? Phillip Brian Harper explores issues of race and representation and shows that ideas about black masculinity have always played a troubled role both in the formation of African-American identity and in the mass media at large. Using examples from a variety of cultural contests, ranging from sports and pop music to literature and television, Harper shows the ways in which narrow definitions of black manhood have failed to acknowledge real differences within the African-American community - to grave social and political effect.

Subject

• Manfred Mann
• African American men > Attitudes
• African Americans > Race identity
• African Americans and mass media
• Ethnische Identität
• Geschlechtsidentität
• Schwarze
• Masculinity
• Noirs américains > Attitudes
• Noirs américains > Identité collective
• Noirs américains > Dans les médias
• Mann
• USA
• Schwarze
• USA

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-237) and index.

Contents

Part I. Black masculine anxiety -- 1. Eloquence and epitaph: AIDS, homophobia, and problematics of Black masculinity -- 2. Nationalism and social division in Black arts poetry of the 1960s -- 3. What's my name?? Designation, identification, and cultural "Authenticity" -- 4. Class acts: The "Street," popular music, and Black-cultural crossover -- Part II. The limits of race and social regulation -- 5. Gender politics and the "Passing" fancy: Black masculinity as societal problem -- 6. The reassuring shock of recognition: Blackness, social order, and crimes of identity -- Part III. Negotiating difference in African-American culture -- 7. Extra- special effects: Televisual representation and the undoing of "The Black Experience" -- 8. Backing up, crossing over, breaking out: Social significances of pop-musical form.

ISBN

• 0195092740
• 9780195092745
• 0195126548
• 9780195126549

LCCN

95026485

OCLC

• ocm33863399
• 33863399
• SCSB-2095235

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library