Dimensions Of Blackness

A multidimensional approach captures the complexities of African American racial identity. While the dynamics of racial oppression limit the range of attitudes blacks may construct and hold, their basic humanity introduces additional attitudinal variance that is nearly boundless. Rather than claim it is possible to conceptualize and measure every iteration of blackness, modern social theorists such as Robert Sellers and William Cross Jr. contend that one should systematically “sample” the unmanageable range of different identity frames found among blacks. In Dimensions of Blackness, the authors suggest there is no single, solitary way to express black racial identity. They move away from blackness as binary and instead reveal what happens when black racial identity is conceptualized with “difference of opinion.” Using a multidimensional perspective this book explores whether black racial identity differences among blacks influence political attitudes and behavior. Jas M. Sullivan is Associate Professor of Political Science and African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University. He is the coauthor (with Jonathan Winburn) of The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus: Race and Representation in the Pelican State. Jonathan Winburn is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Social Science Research Lab at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of The Realities of Redistricting: Following the Rules and Limiting Gerrymandering in State Legislative Redistricting. William E. Cross Jr. is Clinical Professor of Higher Education and Counseling Psychology at the University of Denver and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the coeditor (with Jas M. Sullivan) of Meaning-Making, Internalized Racism, and African American Identity, also published by SUNY Press.

The essays in Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy make visible the submerged stories of Black life in academia. They offer fresh historical, social, and cultural insights into what it means to teach, learn, research, and work while Black. In daring to shift from margin to centre, the book’s contributors confront two overlapping themes. First, they resist a singular construction of Blackness that masks the nuances and multiplicity of what it means to be and experience the academy as Black people. Second, they challenge the stubborn durability of anti-Black tropes, the dehumanization of Blackness, persistent deficit ideologies, and the tyranny of low expectations that permeate the dominant idea of Blackness in the white colonial imagination. Operating at the intersections of discourse and experience, contributors reflect on how Blackness shapes academic pathways, ignites complicated and often difficult conversations, and reimagines Black pasts, presents, and futures. This unique collection contributes to the articulation of more nuanced understandings of the ways in which Blackness is made, unmade, and remade in the academy and the implications for interrelated dynamics across and within post-secondary education, Black communities in Canada, and global Black diasporas.

This groundbreaking volume examines the transnational dimensions of Black Power - how Black Power thinkers and activists drew on foreign movements and vice versa how individuals and groups in other parts of the world interpreted 'Black Power,' from African liberation movements to anti-caste agitation in India to indigenous protests in New Zealand.

Dimensions of Black Conservatism in the US is a collection of twelve essays by leading black intellectuals and scholars on varied dimensions of black conservative thought and activism. The book explores the political role and functions of black neoconservatives. The majority of essays cover the contemporary period. The authors have provided a historical context for the reader with several articles examining the origins and development of black conservatism.

African American Identity: Racial and Cultural Dimensions of the Black Experience, edited by Jas M. Sullivan and Ashraf M. Esmail, is a multidisciplinary exploration of the African American racial identity. The contributors to this volume cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, exploring questions like what is racial identity, how do we quantify it, and what effects do racial identity have on psychological, political, educational, and health-related behavior.

The first book devoted to black holes in more than four dimensions, for graduate students and researchers.

A historical narrative and critical analysis of higher education centred on the experiences of Black students and faculty at McGill University.

Presents research on how variations in African Americans’ racial self-concept affects meaning-making and internalized oppression. Focusing on the broad range of attitudes Black people employ to make sense of their Blackness, this volume offers the latest research on racial identity. The first section explores meaning-making, or the importance of holding one type of racial-cultural identity as compared to another. It looks at a wide range of topics, including stereotypes, spirituality, appearance, gender and intersectionalities, masculinity, and more. The second section examines the different expressions of internalized racism that arise when the pressure of oppression is too great, and includes such topics as identity orientations, self-esteem, colorism, and linked fate. Grounded in psychology, the research presented here makes the case for understanding Black identity as wide ranging in content, subject to multiple interpretations, and linked to both positive mental health as well as varied forms of internalized racism. Jas M. Sullivan is Associate Professor of Political Science and African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University and the coeditor (with Ashraf M. Esmail) of African American Identity: Racial and Cultural Dimensions of the Black Experience. William E. Cross Jr. is Clinical Professor at the University of Denver and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity.