From Teyana Taylor’s Oscar-nominated turn in One Battle After Another to Industry’s ruthless Harper Stern, Black women are taking on some of the most morally complex roles on screen. But what does “good” representation really mean and must it always be aspirational? Michaela Makusha investigates.
Black Futures
Check out Black Futures - <b><b>“A literary experience unlike any I’ve had in recent memory . . . a blueprint for this moment and the next, for where Black folks have been and where they might be going.”—<i>The New York Times Book Review</i> (Editors’ Choice)</b><br><br></b><i><b>What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?</b></i><br><br>Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics.<br><br> In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, <i>Black Futures</i> opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader. by Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew on Bookshop.org UK!
Beyond the blank slate: Why Black women’s trust is critical for equitable AI | Brookings
Zarah Guillemet and Raj Korpan discuss preliminary research on Black women's trust in AI and implications for policymakers.
Take Your Place: Rhetorical Healing and Black Womanhood in Tyler Perry’s Films
The unparalleled commercial sucessess that gospel-playwright-turned-screenwriter Tyler Perry has attained through converting his stage plays into films that depict black women overcoming personal crises raises questions about the intent behind his seemingly feminist-inspired representations of black womanhood. Through an analysis of the rhetoric of healing in Perry’s first two films, this essay reveals one of the suppressive pedagogical functions of Perry’s representation of black womanhood. Rhetorics of healing are a series of persuasive messages, performances, and literacy acts that writers deploy in order to convince readers that redressing or preventing crises requires them to follow the curriculum for ideological, communicative, and behavioral transformation that the writer considers essential to wellness. In Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s Family Reunion, Perry’s representation of rhetorical healing constructs black Christian women as students who must learn prescribed attitudes and behaviors to achieve, or remain in, states of wellness, and these lessons reinforce conservative gender ideologies and reify patriarchal constructions of the family and home. Given black women’s historically tenuous relationships with representations of themselves and their families in mainstream film, and given the ways in which their labor in the home is simultaneously desired and exploited, the popularity of Perry’s films does not suggest that his representations of healing foster black women’s self-empowerment. Rather, his popularity points to a moment where black women’s pain is a commodity and their instructive journeys to wellness are an exploited site where writers can carry out their own agendas.
Fearing the Black Body
Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological AssociationHonorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Di...
Digital blackface
Digital blackface is a term used to describe the phenomenon of non-Black individuals using digital media, such as GIFs, memes, or audio clips featuring Black individuals, to express emotions or convey ideas. This behavior has sparked debate and criticism due to concerns about cultural appropriation and the perpetuation of stereotypes. Digital blackface has been described as "one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism"[1] and has been compared to historical minstrelsy by Black individuals and social justice advocates.
Unpacking the Racism of Digital Blackface in the Information Age
Black Feminist Thought, 30th Anniversary Edition: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
Skin in the game: hidden asymmetries in daily life
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Black…
Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness
In Dark Matters Simone Browne locates the conditions of…
Eyes on the Prize - Chicago Reader
Over more than two decades, Haki and Safisha Madhubuti have proved that African-centered education can amount to more than a black version of history. It can also be a springboard to a bright future.
The Root – Black News, Opinions, Politics and Culture
Take My Hand
Winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - FictionDeeply empathetic yet unflinching in its gaze…an unforgettable exploration of responsibility and redemption. - Celeste NgInspired by true events that rocked the nation, a searing and compassionate new novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, from the New York ...
AI Diversity Report: Race and Gender Bias in AI-Generated Videos
AI videos are now mainstream. But do the tools that generate them replicate society’s race and gender biases?
TikTok and the Evolution of Digital Blackface
On the app, users drape themselves in the trappings of Black culture—and steal the viral spotlight. It’s exploitation at its most refined and disturbing.
