{"id":29,"date":"2020-05-11T18:12:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T22:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2020-05-15T16:46:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:46:17","slug":"black-pride","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/black-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black pride embodies the interior and exterior of blackness as it shifts and changes from body to body and culture to culture. <\/b>Black pride is a consistent theme we have encountered either explicitly or implicitly each week throughout the course. Although I could speak about its existence in every reading and documentary we\u2019ve watched, it is more effective to focus on the commonality of them all \u2013 dispelling the monolith of Blackness. To understand the way Black pride functions, one must understand that Blackness is multidimensional and exists in different social, political, and economic spheres. These all represent the outer spheres of how to view black pride, but Kevin Quashie reminds us in The Sovereignty of Quiet<\/i>, to look past theorizing Blackness through the lens of resistance that is public, loud, and dramatic. He encourages readers to analyze the Black experience through the interior, or what he calls quiet. Quiet highlights \u201cone\u2019s inner life\u2014one\u2019s desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, fears.\u201d (6). This speaks about the \u201cfull range of one’s inner life\u201d that is absent from race\/racism but focuses on the essence of their being. To understand Black pride, one must see that Blackness isn\u2019t just an observable quality based on physical traits, but needs dissecting of the mind and the spirit; the interior.<\/p>\n

In Iola Leroy<\/i>; Or, Shadows Uplifted<\/i>, the main character, Iola discovers her blackness later on in life after living as a free white woman during slavery. Her parents chose to let her pass as white as a means to protect her, but when her father dies, and her envious uncle reveals the truth about her family, she is confronted with her identity and forced to deal with it. Iola chooses to embrace her Black identity by advocating for racial empowerment and civil rights. Another example of Black pride can be seen in the Nina Simone documentary, The Amazing Nina Simone<\/i>, as she reveals herself to us as unapologetically Black. Black with pride, and not caring about what anyone else had to say about it. Nina\u2019s Black pride can be seen on the outside as she embraced Afro-centric dress and natural hair, along with her interior through her music. Her song \u201cYoung Gifted and Black,\u201d (inspired by Lorraine Hansberry) along with others, opened the doors for others to take pride in their Blackness, and Nina was vulnerable enough to share this with the world. Black Pride also exists across different times and socioeconomic backgrounds. In Imani Perry\u2019s biography Looking for Lorraine<\/i> she speaks about the pride Hansberry had as a highly educated Black lesbian woman during the 1950s. While Geneva Smitherman brings to light the pride that exists historically in Black Vernacular English. Black Pride isn\u2019t strictly physical but can exist within the interior, in education, art, and culture. As you conceptualize this theme, I encourage you to ask yourself these questions: Can Black Pride only exist amongst Black Bodies? When and Where is Black Pride? Can Black Pride be \u201cQuiet?\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Seat at “Her” Table: How Solange Expresses Black Pride Through Music and Commentary\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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