Rachel Alicia Griffin

I AM an Angry Black Woman: Black Feminist Autoethnography, Voice, and Resistance

This article couples Black feminist thought (Collins, 2009) and autoethnography to advocate for Black feminist autoethnography (BFA) as a theoretical and methodological means for Black female academics to critically narrate the pride and pain of Black womanhood. Rooted in my desire to “talk back” (hooks, 1989) to systemic oppression as a biracial (Black and White) Black woman, I position anger as a productive force that fuels coming to voice through BFA as an act of resistance. In this article, BFA is used to self-reflexively explore my everyday experiences as an “outsider within” (Collins, 1986) and problematize the omnipresence of racism and sexism (at the least) in the everyday lives of Black women. Situating my anger as just and justifiable, I locate my voice directly in response to controlling imagery, such as the angry sapphire that denotes angry women of color as unruly, while simultaneously highlighting the need for “progressive Black sexual politics” (Collins, 2005, p. 16) that bear witness to the productive anger of Black women.

The Disgrace of Commodification and Shameful Convenience: A Critical Race Critique of the NBA

This essay positions sport as a pedagogical social institution from which people learn about race, gender, power, and privilege. The National Basketball Association is examined closely with a critical race lens with regard to the commodification of Black masculinity. A critical race analysis reveals the sharp contradictions between the league’s progressive image as an “industry leader” of racial diversity (Lapchick, Bustamante, & Ruiz, 2007, p.1) and the actualization of league discourse, policy, and practice.

Still flies in buttermilk: black male faculty, critical race theory, and composite counterstorytelling

Driven by critical race theory, this essay employs composite counterstorytelling to narrate the experiences of black male faculty on traditionally white campuses. Situated at the intersections of race and gender, our composite counterstory is richly informed by 11 interviews with black male faculty alongside critical race scholarship that documents the omnipresence of black misandric ideology. Through our protagonist Dr Timesnow, a black male Assistant Professor, we reflect on how his daily experiences incite racial battle fatigue, feed into imposter syndrome, and circumvent an inclusive campus community.

Crystal Mangum as Hypervisible Object and Invisible Subject: Black Feminist Thought, Sexual Violence, and the Pedagogical Repercussions of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

In March 2006 Crystal Mangum, a Black female exotic dancer, accused three White male Duke student-athletes of sexual violence, igniting a firestorm of media coverage. This article focuses on the public treatment of Mangum, before and after the case was legally resolved, illustrating how she became hypervisible as a vilified object and invisible as a credible subject. Drawing on Black feminist thought, we consider how representations of Mangum serve pedagogical functions, teaching Black female survivors to stay silent.

Gender Violence and the Black Female Body: The Enduring Significance of “Crazy” Mike Tyson

Using Black feminist thought (Collins, 2009) as critical public pedagogy (Giroux, 2000), this article confronts the everlasting public pedagogy (Giroux, 2000) of State of Indiana v. Michael G. Tyson as a consequential wellspring of sexism and racism. As a communicative phenomena, the public pedagogy of the trial coupled with Tysons sustained celebrity status is argued to constitute Black female survivors as deserving of gender violence and unworthy of protection. In addition, when Tyson is positioned in the public eye time and time again as a “crazy” individual, society at large is excused for ideologically perpetuating violence against Black women via dismissal and indifference. Throughout this article, the precedent set over 20 years ago by the discursive treatment of both Washington and Tyson is discussed in relation to contemporary understandings of mens violence against women.

Feminist Consciousness and “Unassimilated” Feminisms

Remembering my mother’s insistence that I read as a child, coupled with her willingness to buy me secondhand books even if that meant putting back what she wanted for herself, I realize that it was her resolve that first introduced me to feminism. Although she never had the luxury of earning a college degree, my mother knew that reading would nourish my curiosity and bring possibilities into focus that 1980s’ and 1990s’ U.S. American rhetoric generally deemed unimaginable for ‘‘blackgirls’’ (Boylorn, 2013, p. 76). I remember reading book after book after book, upside down with my feet propped on the back of our couch, and feeling annoyed when my mom would interrupt with quizzical questions about what I thought and how I felt about the characters, storyline, ending, and so forth. Looking back, I see that my mother was teaching me how to read critically and articulate my voice as a girl (soon-to-be woman) of color because she understood that doing so would be key to my survival and success. I don’t want to romanticize my mother’s perspective. In her own words, she was naı̈ve about the significance of race in particular, and when I was born her 18-year-old-single-White-mother-toa-brown-girl self thought that racism would be over by the time I went to prom. However, despite her naı̈veté, she was the first person who taught me that my blackgirl voice mattered, and she was my first example of what a feminist consciousness looked like in action. Having been encouraged by my mother to grasp and cherish the emancipatory potential of communication and voice, my career nestled in reading and writing feels charmed—mostly. As a U.S. American, biracial Black, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender female, feminist scholar who, by way of degrees and income, has become part of the middle class, I have benefited immensely from those who came before me and established Women’s Studies in Communication (WSIC) as a scholarly space that legitimates communicative inquiry into the gendered politics of recognition, representation, and respectability. Likewise, with the creation of WSIC came not only the journal space itself but also a discursive echo that trumpeted profound but simple assertions throughout our field: Women matter. Gender matters. Feminism matters. Like Patricia Hill Collins’s (2001) stance on the use of womanism and=or Black feminist thought, I too believe that labels matter. However, also like Collins (2001), I fear

On Sweetwater and the Significance of Black Women Tellin

In this essay, I offer a personal/political/intellectual response to Sweetwater . My reflections flow from a bittersweet panel at the 2013 National Communication Association Annual Convention that illuminated the power of black womens work about black women, but simultaneously testified to our oppressive present/absence in the field of communication studies. Situating Sweetwater as a rich foundation from which additional black femininity research can emerge, I close with a poetic articulation of what Robin M. Boylorn told me and taught me through her beautiful book.