Black Male Outsider

Gary L. Lemons

Description

This fascinating book traces the development of the author's consciousness as a black male pro-feminist professor. Gary L. Lemons explores the meaning of black male feminism by examining his experiences at the New York City college where he taught for more than a decade—a small, private, liberal arts college where the majority of the students were white and female. Through a series of classroom case studies, he presents the transformative power of memoir writing as a strategic tool for enabling students to understand the critical relationship between the personal and the political. From the insightful inclusion of his own personal narratives about his childhood experience of domestic violence, to stories about being a student and teacher in majority white classrooms for most of his life, Lemons takes the reader on a provocative journey about what it means to be black, male, and pro-feminist.
Acknowledgments

Preface: Writing in the Dark, Writing from the Inside Out

Introduction: When the Teacher Moves from Silence to Voice: “Talking Back” to Patriarchy and White Supremacy

PART 1: FORMULATING A PEDAGOGY OF BLACK FEMINIST ANTIRACISM

Chapter 1. Toward a Profession of Feminism

Chapter 2. A Calling of the Heart and Spirit: Becoming a Feminist Professor; The Proof Is in the Pedagogy

PART 2: FROM THE MARGIN TO THE CENTER OF BLACK FEMINIST MALE SELF-RECOVERY

Chapter 3. Learning to Love the Little Black Boy in Me: Breaking Family Silences, Ending Shame

Chapter 4. White Like Whom? Racially Integrated Schooling, Curse or Blessing?

Chapter 5. “There’s a Nigger in the Closet!”: Narrative Encounters with White Supremacy

PART 3: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: CLASSROOM CASE STUDIES

Chapter 6. Complicating White Identity in the Classroom: Enter Color, Gender, Sexuality, and Class Difference(s)

Chapter 7. When White Students Write about Being White in a Class Called “Womanist Thought”

Chapter 8. Screening Race and the Fear of Blackness in a (Majority-)White Classroom

Chapter 9. On Teaching Audre Lorde and Marlon Riggs: Ten Thousand Ways of Seeing Blackness

A Pro-Wo(man)ist Postscript: Return to the Margin of Masculinity: Teaching and Loving outside the Boundary

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Ethnic studies

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 10 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791479087
• Langue: English

Extrait

a memoir

Teaching as a ProFeminist Man

Black Male Outsider

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Black Male Outsider

Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man

A MEMOIR

Gary L. Lemons

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Anne Valentine

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Lemons, Gary L. Black male outsider : teaching as a pro-feminist man / Gary L. Lemons. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7301-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7914-7302-3 (pbk : alk. paper) 1. Women’s studies—United States. 2. Feminist theory—United States. 3. Male feminists—United States. 4. African American feminists. I. Title.

HQ1181.U5L46 2008 305.32089'96073—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2007010148

For Fanni (my life partner), Gabriel, Danyealah, and Elmore (our children), and all the students whom I have taught over the years who believe in the transforming power of black feminist thought— you gave me the time, space, and encouragement to write with candor about my determination to become a pro-woman(ist) “professor,” committed to gender justice.

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C ONTENTS

Acknowledgments Preface: Writing in the Dark, Writing from the Inside Out Introduction: When the Teacher Moves from Silence to Voice: “Talking Back” to Patriarchy and White Supremacy

Chapter 1.

Chapter 2.

Chapter 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

P 1: F P ART ORMULATING A EDAGOGY OF B F A LACK EMINIST NTIRACISM

Toward aProfessionof Feminism

ACallingBecoming aof the Heart and Spirit: Feminist Professor; The Proof Is in the Pedagogy

P ART 2: F ROM THE M ARGIN TO THE C ENTER OF B F M S -R LACK EMINIST ALE ELF ECOVERY

Learning to Love the Little Black Boy in Me: Breaking Family Silences, Ending Shame

White Like Whom? Racially Integrated Schooling, Curse or Blessing?

“There’s a Nigger in the Closet!”: Narrative Encounters with White Supremacy

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1

11

29

57

79

103

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Chapter 6.

Chapter 7.

Chapter 8.

Chapter 9.

Contents

P 3: F T P : ART ROM HEORY TO RACTICE C C S LASSROOM ASE TUDIES

Complicating White Identity in the Classroom: Enter Color, Gender, Sexuality, and Class Difference(s)

When White Students Write about Being White in a Class Called “Womanist Thought”

Screening Race and the Fear of Blackness in a (Majority-)White Classroom

On Teaching Audre Lorde and Marlon Riggs: Ten Thousand Ways of Seeing Blackness

A Pro-Wo(man)ist Postscript: Return to the Margin of Masculinity: Teaching and Loving outside the Boundary

Notes Works Cited Index

123

151

171

191

215

231 233 239

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

I begin with a special thanks to all the students cited in this book. Without their permission to include autobiographical writing from classes they completed with me, I could not have illustrated the efficacy of black fem- inist thought as a transformative pedagogical strategy. The work of the students represented in this text only represents a very small portion of the amazing body of memoir writing produced in my classes at a small lib- eral arts college in New York City where I taught between 1991 and 2004. I owe much gratitude to a select group of individuals on the faculty and in the administration at the college during the time I taught there. They offered unwavering collegial support for the development of my ped- agogy. Among them were Jacqui Alexander, Amit Rai, Minelle Mahtani, Jerma Jackson, Kai Jackson, Jan Clausen, Sara Ruddick, Sekou Sundiata, Barrie Karp, Toni Oliviero, Michael Vanoy Adams, and Jane Lazarre. I am especially grateful to have known Jane as a beloved colleague. Our work to- gether toward increasing racial diversity at the college was a continual source of personal inspiration for me as a black professor of antiracist stud- ies. I came to understand the real meaning of collegial support in our re- lationship. Her memoirBeyond the Whiteness of Whitenesshas remained on my course syllabi over the years. I also want to thank Professor Linda Rohrer Paige, another beloved colleague and “best” friend (of nearly thirty years since we were students ourselves), who teaches at Georgia Southern University. Over the years, the many invitations and generous hospitality she has extended to me as a guest speaker on her campus speaks to the long-standing commitment to progressive gender and racial politics she has maintained. I will always be indebted to bell hooks, who coadvised my dissertation on the pro-woman(ist) writings of Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois. Since then her writings on black masculinity, feminist memoir writ- ing, and progressive education have immeasurably contributed to the foundation of the feminist antiracism I practice in the classroom. I am

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