Department: African-American and African Studies ![[clear]](close-x.png "Remove this limiter")
30 matches in the database.
These are records: 1 - 30.
1.
Albright, Thomas F.
From the Pulpit to the Streets: The Impact of the Second Great Awakening on Race Relations in Ohio.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2012, Ohio State University
► From the Pulpit to the Streets: The Impact of the Second Great…
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▼ From the Pulpit to the Streets: The Impact of the Second Great Awakening on Race Relations in Ohio is a project which examines the ways that the Second Great Awakening influenced racial thought and race relations in Ohio. When I started this project I had noticed that race relations in Ohio started to shift from the 1830s to 1850 from race riots driving African Americans out of the state to by the 1850s some white citizens working with the African American community. This change, illustrated by the shift from Ohio’s Black Laws which in 1804 and 1807 heavily restricted Blacks’ rights to the situation in the 1850s when white lawyers and citizens were working in conjunction with the Black community fighting for African Americans’ rights and against federal statutes. What was not clear was how and why this had occurred. Many times I was left with the description of abolitionists acting against the slave system. What I was left pondering was the ideology that influenced these abolitionists to turn on the racial status quo and why in that particular moment? This project aims to illuminate the influence of the socio-religious movement of the Second Great Awakening and how the religious teachings of the movement effected those fighting for African Americans’ rights and against slavery. This thesis focuses on the Second Great Awakening’s influence on Theodore Weld and the Lane Rebels of Cincinnati, James G. Birney, and Salmon P. Chase.
Advisors/Committee Members: Goings, Kenneth.
Subjects: African American Studies; History
Keywords: Second Great Awakening; Race Relations in Ohio
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2.
Alchahal, Faouzie Abdul-Hamid.
“You Lie!” The Story that Barack Obama’s Body Tells.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2011, Ohio State University
► The topic of what it means to be a real American was…
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▼ The topic of what it means to be a real American was highlighted throughout the 2008 presidential election. Much of the reason for the question was the fact that for the first time in US history there was a chance of a non-white candidate winning the office. From political rallies to Sunday morning talk shows, deliberation over Obama’s Americanness became a part of the public discourse. Was he born here? Is he a Christian? What are his motives? And while the anxiety over his Americanness appeared to be an issue concerning white Americans, black Americans had their own questions about the Democratic frontrunner. Was Barack Obama really black? Would he make issues concerning the black community a priority? And when the questions about Obama’s realness were thought to be thoroughly exhausted, an article in the Chicago Sun Times declared him to be “our first female president.” From the very beginning of his candidacy to his position as president, Barack Obama has elicited questions of authenticity. Who is Barack Obama? Why has there been so much emphasis around his body? This research focuses primarily on the importance of authenticity in the history of American claims to citizenship. Obama’s Americanness is linked to the concerns of his blackness and his gender because of the limitations and conditions that have been and continue to be placed on citizenship. The objective of this project is to make clear that these issues of authenticity surrounding Obama only reinforce the dominant culture’s restrictions on citizenship and therefore maintain white privilege by further marginalizing those who have been historically othered in American society.
Advisors/Committee Members: Drake, Simone C.
Subjects: African American Studies
Keywords: Authenticity; Citizenship; Privilege; Identity Politics; Gender; Race; Ethnicity
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4.
Blount, Roderick Q. Jr.
Massies Creek and Cherry Grove Cemeteries: A Reflection of Greene County, Ohio’s African American Community and Their Contributions to the World.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2011, Ohio State University
► Massies Creek and Cherry Grove cemeteries represent over two centuries of heritage…
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▼ Massies Creek and Cherry Grove cemeteries represent over two centuries of heritage and pride in a community that flourished from the early nineteenth century to the present. Massies Creek and Cherry Grove cemeteries are essential to understanding the history of Greene County’s African American community. Massies Creek and Cherry Grove cemeteries are the final resting place of numerous bishops, church leaders, university presidents, educators, successful businessmen, politicians, and other figures that have made an impact locally, regionally, and nationally. Massies Creek and Cherry Grove Cemeteries: A Reflection of Greene County’s African American Community and Their Contributions to the World uncovers the vital importance of Massie’s Creek and Cherry Grove Cemeteries as reflections of the community that they served by reviewing the history of the county, especially its African American community. The thesis also unveils facts about the prominent African Americans buried in the two cemeteries and how they were pivotal to Americans, particularly African Americans, in Ohio and throughout the nation. The thesis explicates what makes these cemeteries, and the communities around them, an anomaly. In addition, Massies Creek and Cherry Grove Cemeteries: A Reflection of Greene County’s African American Community and Their Contributions to the World examines how and why these phenomenal leaders made these two cemeteries their final resting places.
Advisors/Committee Members: Goings, Kenneth.
Subjects: African American Studies
Keywords: African American; Greene County; Ohio; Cherry Grove; Massies Creek
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5.
Bowden, Ashley Camille.
Intersections of History, Memory, and “Rememory:” A Comparative Study of Elmina Castle and Williamsburg.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2009, Ohio State University
► The representation of freed and enslaved people of African descent at sites…
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▼ The representation of freed and enslaved people of African descent at sites such as Elmina, Ghana, and Williamsburg, Virginia, are subject to much criticism and praise. “Founded” by the Portuguese in 1482 and later controlled by the Dutch, Elmina is distinguished as the first of its kind. Initially established as a trading center between Africans and Europeans, those interactions soon gave birth to Elmina as a dungeon for holding Africans as slaves for sale into slavery. Williamsburg, a living history museum, is identified as the second colonial capital following the Jamestown settlement. On the eve of the American Revolution its citizens were confronted with questions of freedom, independence, and bondage. While many white settlers fought for independence and freedom from England, they simultaneously embodied slavery and unequal treatment towards enslaved and free African Americans.Today, both Elmina and Williamsburg reflect historical spaces as memory of the past. This thesis explores the ways that contemporary historical interpreters depict Elmina and Williamsburg. Some of the goals of this thesis are to study and analyze the sites’ contemporary flaws, the sources these flaws, the ways that the histories of these sites are packaged for guests, and to explore how the sites’ guests are encouraged to re-interpret and identify with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery. A comparative analysis of the ways that Elmina and Williamsburg are interpreted by visitors, site administrators and the people that live in and around these sites was conducted to understand how these sites are memorialized. Finally, this thesis addresses questions of “musemification,” preservation, tourism, and the role that these sites play in shaping contemporary identities within and outside the African Diaspora
Advisors/Committee Members: Rucker, Walter.
Subjects: African Americans; African history; Cultural anthropology; History; Library science; Museums
Keywords: History; Memory; Rememory; Slavery; Slave Trade; Elmina; Ghana; Williamsburg; Virginia; Museums; Historic Sites; Sites of Memory; Representations of Slavery
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6.
Bush, Christina.
No B-Grades, Fakes, or Variants: Commodification, Performance, and Mis- and Disembodied Black Masculinity.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2010, Ohio State University
► Despite the fictitiousness of their fixedness, in the popular cultural imaginary, masculinity…
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▼ Despite the fictitiousness of their fixedness, in the popular cultural imaginary, masculinity and maleness are often conflated, while blackness is frequently gendered male. Through a critical analysis of various sites of mis- and disembodied black masculinity, specifically advertising and corporate branding, sneaker culture, and masculine identified queer women, No B-Grades, Fakes, or Variants: Commodification, Performance, and Mis- and Disembodied Black Masculinity examines how and why racialized and gendered performances of authenticity that are maintained in the absence of the bodies they are commonly associated with work to expose the myth of entrenched corporeal scripts, and provide the possibility for re-configuration and re -imagination of identity.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stevens, Maurice.
Subjects: African Americans
Keywords: black masculinity, sneakers, race
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7.
Butler, Tamara T.
Sweetgrass and Saltwater: Reclaiming the Classroom for the Preservation of South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Culture.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2009, Ohio State University
► The South Carolina Sea Islands are often the center for historical African…
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▼ The South Carolina Sea Islands are often the center for historical African retentions and slave resistance studies; however, this research seeks to demonstrate the area’s importance as a site for the study of cultural resurrection and reclamation. The intent of this thesis is to evaluate the modes by which contemporaries are resurrecting Gullah-Geechee as an identity that is perpetuated through consumer culture, a marketing strategy, and indigenous lifestyle. In this research, I explore the formation and role of Gullah-Geechee identity within and beyond African American Sea Island communities. Through an analysis of historical documents and contemporary issues, this project explores how Gullah-Geechee people and culture function in public spaces, such as locally-owned businesses, historical sites and contemporary classrooms. I suggest that by incorporating literacy and literary practices into the History classroom, students, teachers and community members can collectively develop appropriate methods for marketing and preserving Gullah-Geechee cultures.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rucker, Walter.
Subjects: African Americans; Black history; Curricula; Education; History; Literacy; Social studies education
Keywords: Gullah; Geechee; Community Literacy; Penn School; Citizenship Schools
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8.
Crum, Melissa Renee.
THE CREATION OF BLACK CHARACTER FORMULAS: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF STEREOTYPICAL ANTHROPOMORPHIC DEPICTIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN MAINTAINING WHITENESS.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2010, Ohio State University
► The mass media industry as a hegemonic entity has played a vital…
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▼ The mass media industry as a hegemonic entity has played a vital role in displaying fallacious accounts of black life. Grounded in ideas from scholars like Richard Schechner, Patricia Ticineto, Joseph Roach and Sara Ahmed, this research is a critique of the ways in which memory, and its possible manifestations, plays in non-blacks’ (specifically whites) interpretation, motivation, and perception of stereotypical visual portrayals of blackness. The focus will be on how the continuing phenomenon of stereotyping blackness in the 20th and 21st centuries is perpetuated in child-targeted feature-length animations with animal characters. I argue that the possible furtive and/or involuntary visual manifestations of “black identity” in animation have their sources in a white historical memory that clings to the desire to maintain whiteness. This work demonstrates how ideas of blackness in white memory were not solely constructed from the imaginations of producers of mainstream culture. Rather black stereotypes are the result of a combination of black protest against negative portrayals, blacks as accomplices in perpetuating their negative stereotypes, and whites’ imagined ways of blackness. Following the work of Anna Everett and Robin Kelly and commentary from Bert Williams and George Walker, the perpetuation of whiteness through imagined black identities in media outlets does not take into account the ways in which blacks think of and present themselves within black communities, the ways blacks display their identity outside the constraints of white imagination, or how blacks openly or discreetly oppose stereotypical caricatures. However, the change in the portrayal of black people after the Civil Rights Movement (1945-1964) is the result of the powerful black collective voice influencing change in nefarious deceptions of African-Americans in media outlets. This change, according to Donald Bogle, Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, however, simply gave new faces to old caricatures. Therefore, the continued practice of stereotyping blacks by way of dated Enlightenment thinking regardless of black protest speaks to the pervasiveness of “blackness” via the malignant ideology of whiteness. The desire to sustain ideologies and practices of mainstream media has prevented the erasure of black caricatures. The compromise between portrayals of whiteness and holistic portrayals of black life is more sophisticated making black caricatures more elusive, but still evident. Through a critical evaluation of Scrub Me Mama, Shark Tale and Madagascar, this research will demonstrate how ideas of Enlightenment theories of race from the 17th and 18th centuries has a prolonged history that leads to anthropomorphic animation of the 21st century. Movies have the ability to be used as a critical space for the interpretation and evaluation of stereotypes. When typecasts are confronted, they can be used to make more complex black characters and the information acquired during critical evaluation can be used to interrogate the trends seen in housing, employment, and judicial discrimination against people of color. The ultimate goal of this project is for audience members to be conscious consumers of media products and recognize that movie characters have the ability to influence real-life interactions with the people those characters supposedly represent.
Advisors/Committee Members: Newsum, Horace.
Subjects: African Americans; American history; American studies; Black history; Gender; Mass media; Minority and ethnic groups; Motion Pictures; Philosophy; Social structure; Womens studies
Keywords: African American and African Studies, Cultural Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Critical Race Theory
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9.
Dantzler, Camille Ciara.
Exchange of Fictions: Exploring the Intersections of Gendered Self-narration and Testimonio Representations on the Rwandan Genocide.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2012, Ohio State University
► This paper will examine the narrative construction and varied perspectives of two…
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▼ This paper will examine the narrative construction and varied perspectives of two novels that with others make up the Fest' Africa Commemorative Project “Rwanda: Writing as a Duty to Remember”. The two texts are Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, the Book of Bones (Bloomington, 2000) and Véronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda (Johannesburg, 2002). Diop is a famous Senegalese journalist, screenwriter, and novelist. His most recent novel Doomi Golo (Dakar, 2006) is among the first few novels written in Wolof. Tadjo was born in France and grew up in Côte d'Ivoire. She is a poet, writer, and novelist, also well known for her creative illustrations in children’s books. Some of Tadjo’s works include the novel A vol d'oiseau [As the Crow Flies] (Paris, 2001) and Talking Drums (England, 2000) an anthology of poems from various African artists. Fest’ Africa was a Francophone African initiative formed with the purpose of conveying experiences of the Rwandan genocide as well as the authors’ own experiences during their visit in 1998, four years after the massacre. A number of questions necessarily arise for a representational enterprise of this sort. How are the traumatic experiences of Rwandans tellable? What renders texts like Diop’s and Tadjo’s legitimate in wider discourse on the modes of production, memory, and the archive of testimonies on traumatic experiences of the genocide? Can we ‘read’ Patricia Yaeger’s concept of ‘empathy-denial’ in these testimonial narratives? Where in these stories does one find spaces of "empathy contestation" in their depiction of the actors involved with the event? Could it not be argued that what occurred in Rwanda in 1994 pushes against the very limits of the narrative conventions and frames that attempt to make sense of the event? What are the sites of disruption of one’s usual expectations of a testimonio, autobiography, or fictive account when a text attempts to capture the sheer horror of what someone saw or was subjected to? These two novels create a space for an analytic examination of the questions above. Each novel pays particular attention not only to the incommensurability of the genocide but also the relationship between the representations of Rwandan women in the genocide and the women’s negotiation of the self in a “post genocide” era. It is this negotiation of the self through testimony by the Rwandan women that has created a new genealogical form of entitlement to resources in Rwandan society today. This genealogy is based on the women’s experiential identification with the genocide and it positions them as advantageously as individuals and/or collective with traumatic experience(s) in relation to the event. The representations of the traumatic experiences by the testifier and mediator, and consumer also engage with the struggle between the global “Culture of Intimacy” and the politics of truth on the genocide in the production and dissemination of the two novels.
Advisors/Committee Members: Kwaku, Korang.
Subjects: African Studies
Keywords: Rwanda, memory, narrative, history, women, autobiography, trauma, testimony
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11.
DuBois Bourenane, Heather L.
Rewriting the real : magical realism and the fiction of Wilson Harris and Ben Okri.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2000, Ohio State University
► Magical realism, which incorporates both physical and spiritual "realities," is often considered…
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▼ Magical realism, which incorporates both physical and spiritual "realities," is often considered a "postcolonial" genre of literature. This perspective depends upon a monolithic conception of "Western" and "non-Western" ideologies, and assumes that "magical realism" does something Western texts do not do. Investigating the works of the Nigerian novelist Ben Okri and the Guyanan writer Wilson Harris problematize this idea of magical realism as a postcolonial phenomenon.Despite numerous differences, Okri and Harris share a conviction of the inherent universality of the human consciousness. This factor plays a major role in the development of their fiction, which explores similar themes of revision, history, and liminality through very different stylistic techniques. By comparing the articulation of these themes in Harris's The Infinite Rehearsal (1987) and Okri's Infinite Riches (1998), one realizes that despite the various strategies of magical realism (which include intertextuality, metatextuality, surreal and fantastic imagery and events, and highly figurative use of language), each author emphasizes the necessity of reconciling paradoxical or contrary elements of reality in order to both better understand the world and work toward political and social change.This approach to magical realism is particularly relevant to the field of postcolonial literary theory. While theories of hybridity or syncreticity seem to correspond neatly to the multivalent realities of magical realist fiction, the extent to which postcolonial theory is useful in interpreting and understanding magical realism is limited. Since magical realism has frequently been disregarded as politically irrelevant for its "fanciful" (vs. sociopolitical realist) representation of reality, many postcolonial critics object to its "textualized" politics and "universalizing" themes. As the fiction of Harris and Okri reveals, however, magical realism is a strategy which allows for the reconciliation of contradictory elements of reality by challenging the binary logic which governs both our conception of "Western" thought and the conventions of literary realism. Magical realism thus provides a vehicle for the expression of a specifically located worldview with universal implications; a highly liberating cultural politics which moves beyond the constraints of polarizing logic, and helps elucidate better understanding a paradoxical and multivalent world.
Advisors/Committee Members: Irele, F. Abiola.
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12.
Favors, Jelani Manu-Gowan.
Shaking up the world : North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and the Black student movement, 1960-1969.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 1999, Ohio State University
► This study analyzes the Black Student Movement of the 1960s by examining…
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▼ This study analyzes the Black Student Movement of the 1960s by examining the generation of insurgency at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, the birthplace of the movement. In an attempt to thoroughly document the rise and decline of the Black Student Movement, the research utilizes the political process model of social movements. This model contends that various factors lead to the rise and decline of generations of insurgency. The study applies these factors to the Black Student Movement as exemplified at A&T in an effort to determine why it was this particular institution that best captured the evolution of the Black Student Movement throughout the decade of the sixties.In order to apply the factors of the political process model, the research includes interviews conducted with movement participants during this particular generation of insurgency at A&T. Representing various segments of the indigenous population, the movement participants interviewed provide further clarity and understanding to the dynamics of the Black Student Movement as embodied through the collective protest of students who attended A&T. In addition, members of the Black community have also provided a detailed analysis of the unique relationship between the Black educational institutions of Greensboro and the indigenous population. Existing research and social artifacts are also used to further highlight the generation of insurgency at A&T. The results of this research detail the peculiar nature of students who attended A&T, and how it was these unique characteristics that designated this particular group of students as the pioneers of the Black Student Movement. As the research indicates, this defining characteristic was largely influenced by the various environmental factors that shaped and molded the generation of insurgency. These factors included the relationship between students and the school administration as well as the relationship forged between the Black community of Greensboro. The study concludes that new theoretical explanations, as well as factors that the political process model establish as key to the rise and decline of insurgency, played a significant role in the establishment of A&T and Greensboro, NC as a center of Black insurgency throughout the decade of the sixties.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nelson, William E.
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13.
Fitzpatrick, Liseli A.
African Names and Naming Practices: The Impact Slavery and European Domination had on the African Psyche, Identity and Protest.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2012, Ohio State University
► This study on African naming practices during slavery and its aftermath examines…
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▼ This study on African naming practices during slavery and its aftermath examines the centrality of names and naming in creating, suppressing, retaining and reclaiming African identity and memory. Based on recent scholarly studies, it is clear that several elements of African cultural practices have survived the oppressive onslaught of slavery and European domination. However, most historical inquiries that explore African culture in the Americas have tended to focus largely on retentions that pertain to cultural forms such as religion, dance, dress, music, food, and language leaving out, perhaps, equally important aspects of cultural retentions in the African Diaspora, such as naming practices and their psychological significance. In this study, I investigate African names and naming practices on the African continent, the United States and the Caribbean, not merely as elements of cultural retention, but also as forms of resistance – and their importance to the construction of identity and memory for persons of African descent. As such, this study examines how European colonizers attacked and defiled African names and naming systems to suppress and erase African identity – since names not only aid in the construction of identity, but also concretize a people’s collective memory by recording the circumstances of their experiences. Thus, to obliterate African collective memories and identities, the colonizers assigned new names to the Africans or even left them nameless, as a way of subjugating and committing them to perpetual servitude. In response, my research investigates how African descendants on the continent and throughout the Diaspora resisted this process of obliteration of their memories and how they deployed the practice of naming for survival in such a hostile environment. Therefore, this study not only focuses on the deliberate attempt made by European colonizers to obliterate African memory and instill a sense of shame within the African community, but also the various ways Africans resisted and sought to maintain their identity through names and naming practices, and the important role names played in their lives – both on the African continent and throughout the Diaspora.
Advisors/Committee Members: Mphande, Lupenga.
Subjects: African American Studies
Keywords: Names, Naming, African Psyche, Identity, Slavery, Colonialism, Black Power
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14.
Foster, Theodore Roosevelt III.
Ultimately Other-ed: The Transnational Development of Racial Discourse in Ecuador and the Black Subject.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2011, Ohio State University
► Anti-Black racism in Ecuador affects the everyday life experiences of Afro-Ecuadorians. The…
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▼ Anti-Black racism in Ecuador affects the everyday life experiences of Afro-Ecuadorians. The United Nations 2011 “Year of Afro-descendents” campaign against anti-Black racism globally provides an opportunity for the Ecuadorian state to address anti-Black racism in Ecuador. However, how has the Ecuadorian state historically produced meanings of race and nation that have contributed to contemporary anti-Black racism? Ultimately Other-ed: The Development of Transnational Racial Discourse in Ecuador and the Black Subject analyzes the early twentieth century development of Latin American racial discourse in a transnational context by analyzing the work of three public intellectuals. Through the works of Jose Vasconcelos, Benjamin Carrión and Fernando Ortiz, we can see the transnational operation of a regional racial ideology with different national articulations for the Black subject. The thesis draws upon racial formation theory in order to understand the impact of Ecuadorian public intellectual, Benjamin Carrión, on rearticulating the meanings of race and nation. The thesis also shows the impact U.S. racial discourse on Latin America as a result of U.S. imperial aggression throughout Latin America during the early twentieth century. Through a close examination of the foundations of anti-Black racism by the Ecuadorian state, a more critical understanding of contemporary efforts against anti-Black racism by the state can be reached.
Advisors/Committee Members: Thiam, Cheikh.
Subjects: African American Studies
Keywords: Afro-Latin America, Latin America, Anti-Black Racism, Spanish, Ecuador
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15.
Fyle, Margaret Sophia.
Yoruba loan words in Krio: a study of language and culture change.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 1998, Ohio State University
► This study examines lexical borrowing from the Yoruba language of Nigeria to…
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▼ This study examines lexical borrowing from the Yoruba language of Nigeria to the Krio language of Sierra Leone. The historical background to the emergence of Krio culture and language is examined, highlighting the hegemonic position of English, an important base of Krio culture, vis-a-vis Yoruba and other African languages. The study goes further to analyze the borrowing process of words from Yoruba, the largest single component of African language words in the Krio language. This process is elucidated by lists of Krio words, their Yoruba derivatives and meanings. The work concludes with a look at current policy towards Krio culture and language in Sierra Leone.
Advisors/Committee Members: Onyejkwe, Okey.
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16.
Headley, Stacyanne.
Racial subordination and the politics of lynching in America.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2002, Ohio State University
► As an American phenomenon, racial violence has many dimensions. One of its…
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▼ As an American phenomenon, racial violence has many dimensions. One of its most important dimensions is lynching. In the past, many scholars investigating the social and political impact of lynching have looked at the phenomenon in quantitative terms. These researches have focused on the number of persons lynched without significantly probing the social, cultural and political implications of this American practice. This study diverges from the traditional described above by meticulously examining the historical, political and cultural context of lynching. It specifically examines the rationalizations conjured up by Whites to justify lynching and cement their dominant positions in the American power structure. This thesis also analyzes Black responses to lynching and the impact this phenomenon had on the mobilization of Black interests via the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century. As an analytical context for this discussion, this thesis focuses on the murder of Emmett Till by racists in Mississippi. It attempts to illuminate the lessons that can be learned from the use of lynching as a vehicle for racial power and control in America.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nelson, William E.
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17.
Jones, Kamara Rochelle.
“We Ain’t Ready to See a Black President”: Barack Obama and Post-Racialism in American Society.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2010, Ohio State University
► “‘We Ain’t Ready to See a Black President’: Barack Obama and Post-Racialism…
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▼ “‘We Ain’t Ready to See a Black President’: Barack Obama and Post-Racialism in American Society” is about the news media-circulated post-racial narrative. The post-racial narrative, an extension of post-Civil Rights Era color-blind ideology, argues that the success of President Barack Obama, the United States’ first African-American president, is evidence of a society in which racism, although previously present, is no longer a stifling barrier for Blacks. A tempered version of the post-racial narrative also exists. That version argues that the success of Obama is evidence of post-racial politics, a political climate in which racism, although previously present, is no longer a stifling barrier for Black political candidates seeking high-level political offices. I will argue that both versions of the American post-racial narrative do not reflect the material reality of African Americans and are politically disadvantageous for the stigmatized group. I will also argue that the post-racial narrative was resisted by lay African Americans in a virtual African-American counterpublic space I call the digital African-American underground. And finally, I will argue that the identity politics that were operating among African Americans and Ghanaians in relation to Obama further contradict the post-racial narrative. To construct my arguments, I will use content analysis, theory, and quantitative data.
Advisors/Committee Members: Korang, Kwaku.
Subjects: African Americans
Keywords: Barack Obama, post-racial, post-racialism, postracial, media, politics, race, counterpublic, intra-racial conflict, subtyping, interest convergence theory
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18.
Miles, Dawn Michelle.
Resisting in Their Own Way: Black Women and Resistance in the British Caribbean.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2010, Ohio State University
► The history of the British Caribbean is many times relayed through the…
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▼ The history of the British Caribbean is many times relayed through the lens of slavery because enslaved Africans were the workforce that sustained the economy of the islands. The men and women of African descent who labored in bondage each have stories of life and resistance that historians have tried to capture and scholars have been particularly interested in the latter. Unfortunately, these studies have tended to overlook the more obscure methods of resistance and label them as accommodation. This have often led to a misunderstanding of the ways in which women of African descent resisted their exploitation. Enslaved women, many times, occupied unique spaces in slave societies, where they were able to strategically gain certain freedoms for themselves and, sometimes, their families. The purpose of this research is to illuminate some of these methods of resistance through the lives of three specific women. Rachel Pringle, Old Doll, and Queen Nanny were all enslaved in the British Caribbean from the late eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century, and each woman engaged in acts of resistance that could be ignored as accommodation, however, through a close reading of their stories, this work highlights the more obscure ways of resistance available to slave women. These women secured their manumission or a quasi-free status that was through business ownership, literacy, strategic relationships with Whites and the use of folklore.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rucker, Dr. Walter.
Subjects: History
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20.
Ngonya, Karen Wanjiru.
Kongolese Peasant Christianity and Its Influence on Resistance in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century South Carolina.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2009, Ohio State University
► This thesis draws on recent research that utilizes the Diasporic approach in…
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▼ This thesis draws on recent research that utilizes the Diasporic approach in thestudy of slave culture in the New World. It attempts to link the old Kongo Kingdom to South Carolina through religion and resistance. It proposes that Kongolese peasants developed a variant of Christianity in the Kongo Kingdom, used it to cope with sociopolitical turbulence in Kongo, and continued to draw upon this religion to resist enslavement in the New World. Using a wide range of sources varying from black spirituals to contemporary observer reports, the present inquiry traces Kongolese peasant Christianity from its inception in the Kingdom of Kongo in the sixteenth century through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in South Carolina, focusing on its influence on resistance. This is a significant contribution to the existing scholarship because it gestures towards a re-evaluation of slaves who practiced Christianity. More often than not, scholars portray Christianity as a European religion, and thus depict Africans who practiced it as either acculturated or practicing a newly syncretized form of Christianity. By portraying Christianity as a European religion, scholars unwittingly negate the resilience and flexibility of African cultures.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rucker, Walter c.
Subjects: African Americans; African history
Keywords: Christianity in the Kongo Kingdom; Antonian Movement; Resistance in South Carolina; Stono Rebellion; Denmark Vesey Conspiracy; Gullah Jack
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21.
Nissim-Sabat, Ryan.
On the prowl : a socio-historical examination of the Black Panther Party in Cleveland, Ohio.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 1999, Ohio State University
► The Black Panther Party (BPP) reenergized the civil rights movement during the…
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▼ The Black Panther Party (BPP) reenergized the civil rights movement during the later part of the 1960s, as they picked up the gun to confront the systematic subjugation of Black people particularly in Oakland, California and generally throughout the country. The dominant social order negatively categorized the Party as gun-toting thugs and legitimate enemies, taking advantage of the early pictures of Panthers patrolling their Black communities to defend law-abiding citizens against the State's police brutality. However, as the Party expanded its operations and incorporated more youths and working class people into its Ten Point Program, BPP advanced its agenda beyond the image of the gun. Panthers throughout the country began to implement community programs, such as serving free breakfast to children and distributing clothes in their local neighborhoods, all in the name of the Party. The story of the BPP, however, has been narrowly confined around the Panther's bloody confrontations with the State and the activities of its national leaders. Little discussion has been devoted to the work of rank-and-file Panthers on the grassroots level and their significance within local communities. In an attempt to address these imbalances in the existing scholarship, this thesis will present a case study of the BPP in Cleveland, Ohio, assessing the particular social forces that contributed to the creation, development, and demise of the Cleveland Panthers. Particular attention will be given to the community programs instituted by the Cleveland Panthers and their relationships with established community organizations and leaders. Furthermore, this thesis will look at the unique political environment in Cleveland, which generated one of the stronger Black Nationalist communities in the country, as well as the 1967 election of Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of a major industrial city. The Cleveland Panthers will be assessed within this context to confront the limited scope of research on the BPP and the accompanying demonic images of Party members.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nelson, William E.
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22.
Paris, Melanie.
Repatriated Africans from Cuba and Brazil in nineteenth century Lagos.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 1998, Ohio State University
► During the late nineteenth century, primarily between the 1840s and 1860s, a…
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▼ During the late nineteenth century, primarily between the 1840s and 1860s, a significant repatriation movement to Africa took place among ex-slaves from the Latin American countries of Cuba and Brazil. Since most of these repatriates were of Yoruba descent, they chose to resettle in Yoruba-populated areas along the West African coast. Some of these Cuban and Brazilian repatriates resettled in Ouidah and Porto Novo in the present-day country of Republic of Benin. However, many of the returnees established themselves in West Africa’s largest port city of Lagos in what is now known as Nigeria. It was also during the nineteenth century that British colonialists began to aggressively launch their quest for total domination and annexation of Yorubaland and the hinterland areas of “Nigeria”. In order to facilitate this agenda, the British used the Cuban and Brazilian repatriates as mediators between themselves and the local Yoruba population. Consequently, in order to secure the repatriates’ cooperation, the British elevated the Cuban and Brazilian returnees to an elite status in colonial Lagos. This thesis examines the economic and social status of repatriated Africans from Cuba and Brazil in Lagos, and the social and economic conditions that served as an impetus for their drastic transition from slavery. More specifically, this study focuses on the relationship between the repatriates and British colonialists during the nineteenth century, and the elite position that the returnees assumed in the Lagos community as a result of this association.
Advisors/Committee Members: Irele, Abiola.
Keywords: Agudas; Lagos; Yoruba; slaves; returnees; CUBA; CUBA AND BRAZIL
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23.
Pierce, India.
My Pew, Your Pulpit: An Ethnographic Study of Black Christian Lesbian Experiences in the Black Church.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2012, Ohio State University
► When it comes to the Black churchwoman’s identity her place in the…
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▼ When it comes to the Black churchwoman’s identity her place in the Black church is highly prescribed and restrained. Black churchwomen are reduced to roles such as ushers, nurses, Sunday school teachers, hostesses, secretaries, clerks, deaconesses, first ladies and mothers of the church. However limited the roles and identities of Black women are thought to be it rarely includes a queer sexuality. It is within this context that the Black lesbian church member has been marginalized, spoken for and in many ways silenced. Using Foucault's theory of pastoral power and obligational salvation, this paper demonstrates how the discourses that come out of the church combined with the secular and spiritual power of the church has enabled the Black church to continue to fulfill its traditional obligations to both the spiritual self - in which the goal is salvation - and to the social self - in which the goal is civil liberties and freedom, whilst also holding on to forms of homophobia which both damage the spiritual self of Christian lesbians and restrict their civil liberties and freedom. Through the ethnographic study of four Black Christian lesbians this project begins to fill the profound gap in the knowledge, analysis and understanding of Black lesbian experiences within the Black church by unpacking: (1) Black Christian lesbians’ experiences in the Black church; (2) strategies they have developed for dealing with homophobia found in Black churches and (3) the spaces they find for themselves in the church in which they can create a sense of belonging.
Advisors/Committee Members: Noble, Dr. Denise.
Subjects: African American Studies; Glbt Studies; Religion
Keywords: Lesbian; Religion; Black Church; LGBT; Performance; Ethnography; Black Liberation Theology; Pastoral Power
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24.
Selby, Amy Lynn.
Africa in Cleveland: Colonial Wars and Perceptions of Race and Empire in American Newspapers.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2012, Ohio State University
► This thesis examines the change in American public opinion regarding two colonial…
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▼ This thesis examines the change in American public opinion regarding two colonial wars, the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 in South Africa and the Mau Mau uprising of 1952-1960 in Kenya. The representations of the Anglo-Boer War differed greatly from those of the Mau Mau uprising, despite similarities such as the colonial power involved, occurrence within African colonies, and even the methods used by both the colonial power and the colonized people. While mainstream newspapers strongly sided with the Boers, the Mau Mau were presented as savages. However, the African-American newspapers did not follow the mainstream interpretations of events. By using comparative historical analysis of three newspapers in the Cleveland, Ohio area, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Gazette, and the Cleveland Call & Post, I demonstrate that the perceptions of Clevelanders toward the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1901 and the Mau Mau uprising of 1952-1960 resulted from contemporary anxieties regarding the fear of foreigners and communism, and, above all, race. While white Americans overwhelmingly supported the Boers during the colonial war in South Africa at the turn of the century, they supported violent methods to suppress a colonial war in Kenya fifty years later. African-Americans, however, were more varied in their opinion of the earlier conflict, with different newspapers supporting the Boers or British or, sometimes, neither. While African-Americans did support the Mau Mau, there was a concern with identifying with the uprising due to fears of communist accusations and the anxiety of jeopardizing the burgeoning domestic civil rights movement. This thesis challenges the notion that most Americans supported the Boers, while, fifty years later, viewed the Mau Mau as violent savages by demonstrating that American opinion varied, thus defeating the notion of a single “public opinion.” I conclude that understanding the reflection of global events in “public opinion” must be set against the background of domestic issues and anxieties, which amplify the resonance of those events. The media coverage of the Anglo-Boer War and the Mau Mau uprising speak to the troubles of American society as much as to distant conflicts.
Advisors/Committee Members: Barchiesi, Franco.
Subjects: African American Studies; African History; African Studies; American History
Keywords: Anglo-Boer War; South Africa; Mau Mau; Kenya; colonial wars; Cleveland, Ohio; newspapers; public opinion; empire; race
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27.
Sumner, Lindsay McRae.
Problematizing Humanitarianism: A Critical Analysis of Major American Newspaper Coverage of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2009, Ohio State University
► As part of its understanding of the U.S. public’s response to the…
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▼ As part of its understanding of the U.S. public’s response to the Rwandan crisis, this paper examines theories and perspectives on Western humanitarian intervention in the post-colonial world and the relationship between media and the production of public discourse about African conflicts. The paper assesses how much news space is devoted to a “humanitarian” understanding of the conflict in newspaper articles that appeared in the New York Times, the L.A. Times and the Washington Post during between March 1 and July 31, 1994 as compared with the amount of space devoted to conveying some sense of historical or political context. This research reveals that a “humanitarian” concern purported by the media, public perception and official discourse will be mutually reflective of cultural myths that characterize Africa as violent, chaotic and context-less.
Advisors/Committee Members: Barchiesi, Franco.
Subjects: African history; American studies; Black history; History; Mass media; Political science; Sociology
Keywords: Rwanda; Rwandan genocide; humanitarianism; media; American news; U.S. foreign policy; public discourse
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30.
Wooten, Terrance.
Towards a New Black Nation: Space, Place, Citizenship, and Imagination.
Degree: MA, African-American and African Studies, 2011, Ohio State University
► "Towards a New Black Nation: Space, Place, Citizenship and Imagination" is a…
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▼ "Towards a New Black Nation: Space, Place, Citizenship and Imagination" is a project dedicated to examining the ways in which race, geography, and politics intersect to create a sovereign space in visual art and popular media for African Americans to imagine full citizenship. By examining black politics and black nation building through these various lenses, I argue that African Americans use popular media and visual art as channels to acquire access to citizenship rights. With the disappearance of a visible black political movement, black Americans have innovatively used these channels to create an alternative space to deploy Black Nationalism and construct a black nation. I call this space the New Black Nation. Particularly, this project focuses on the viability of the Imagined South, a U.S. South that is dehistoricized, southernized, and recreated as a perfect melding of rural and urban culture, as a home for the New Black Nation. "Towards a New Black Nation: Space, Place, Citizenship and Imagination" interrogates black gender politics and the performance of black male sexuality in this New Black Nation located in the Imagined South. In order to engage this New Black Nation, "Towards a New Black Nation: Space, Place,Citizenship and Imagination" weaves together a discursive reading of Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, the work of Tom Joyner of the nationally syndicated program, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and various representations of black nonheteronormative bodies that exist (though not wholly) within the black nation.
Advisors/Committee Members: Drake, Simone.
Subjects: African Americans; African American Studies; Black Studies
Keywords: black nationalism; Toni Morrison; Paradise; Tyler Perry; black imagination
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