Traps
"This is a valuable project. The editors are excellent, well-known scholars, and activists in the academy." —Darlene Clark Hine\ "After looking carefully at Traps’ selections, I have to confess that I’m both excited and satisfied by what Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall have assembled here from the 19th century to the present. Educators genuinely need a text like this for opening their classroom to critical discussions on the well-worn subjects of race and gender."\ —Charles Johnson\...
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Traps is the first anthology of writings by 19th- and 20th-century African American men on the overlapping categories of race, gender, and sexuality. The selections on gender in Sections I and II reveal what some may view as the unexpected commitment of African American men to feminism. Included here are critiques of the subordinate social, economic, and political position of black women. Sections III and IV analyze the taboos and myths in which black sexuality is enmeshed. These essays also stress the importance of rejecting homophobia and the need to contest the predominance of a heterosexual paradigm. Monolithic constructions of gender and sexuality, reinforced by sexism and historically sanctioned homophobia, are the "traps" that give this book its focus and its title. About the Authors: Rudolph P. Byrd is Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the Program of African American Studies at Emory University. He is author of Jean Toomerís Years with Gurdjieff and editor of I Call Myself an Artist: Writings by and about Charles Johnson. Beverly Guy-Sheftall is founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center at Spelman College and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies. Her previous publications include Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought and Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920.
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPrologue: The Tradition of John: A Mode of Black Masculinity1Pt. 1Remembering our Forefathers: Pioneering Perspectives on the Rights and Education of Women1The Rights of Women272Give Women Fair Play293I Am a Radical Woman Suffrage Man374The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs465The Damnation of Women586"When and Where (We) Enter": In Search of a Feminist Forefather - Reclaiming the Womanist Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois71Pt. 2Disloyalty to Patriarchy: Resisting Sexism7In the Days of My Youth938Feminism and Equality1119Women's Rights Are Human Rights11310Groundings with My Sisters: Patriarchy and the Exploitation of Black Women11911Breaking Silences15312On Becoming Anti-Rapist15813The Sexual Diversion: The Black Man/Black Woman Debate in Context16814A Black Man's Place in Black Feminist Criticism17715Men: We Just Don't Get It19416Mission Statement of Black Men for the Eradication of Sexism, Morehouse College200Pt. 3Meditations from the Heart: Making Meaning Out of Masculinity17Here Be Dragons20718In the Limelight21919The Sexist in Me22120A Phenomenology of the Black Body22321Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man23622Mike's Brilliant Career: Mike Tyson and the Riddle of Black Cool25023It's Raining Men: Notes on the Million Man March25924Dear Minister Farrakhan: A Letter26725Black Men in the Movies: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem (and an Answer)?270Pt. 4Brother to Brother: The Politics of Desire, Sexuality, and Homophobia26A Letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements28127Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart28428Black Macho Revisited: Reflections of a SNAP! Queen29229Does Your Mama Know about Me?29730Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject30131When You Divide Body and Soul, Problems Multiply: The Black Church and Sex30832"Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing": Black Masculinity, Gay Sexuality, and the Jargon of Authenticity327Epilogue. Reflections on Black Manhood342Selected Bibliography349Biographies353Index363
