The Western journal of black studies最新文献

{"title":"Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker","authors":"H. Young","doi":"10.5860/choice.51-4932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.51-4932","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"33 1","pages":"264"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79377621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making","authors":"R. Hines","doi":"10.5860/choice.185476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.185476","url":null,"abstract":"Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making Author: Nadia E. Brown Oxford University Press, 2014 Price: $49.95 ISBN: 978-0199352432 In Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making, Nadia Brown explores the ways in which the intersectionality of race and gender colors experiences and thereby influences legislative choices and political behavior of Black women legislators. By developing and utilizing the concept of Representational Identity Theory, Brown illuminates the variations of experiences that exist among this group. She points out the nuances of differences, yet the shades of similarities, which this group shares as it relates to race and gender identity. The author also studies the policy preferences and legislative behavior that these experiences and identities reflect. The author reveals and explores such intersectionality by studying the Maryland state legislature as a case study. By hinging on the multiplicity of experiences, Brown offers new awareness about how gender and race identity permeates political representation and behavior among the Black women elected to office. Rejecting the narrow viewpoint of examining Black women through the spectrum of either \"gender politics\" or \"racial politics,\" through its seven chapters, this book offers a powerful analysis of individual experiences of Black women and links it to the concepts of collective race and gender identities. In the first chapter the author introduces the readers to a quote by Maryland State Senator, Yvonne Scott. The quote points out the unique cultural, philosophical, and historical experiences of a Black woman, especially a Black woman legislator. She cites this quote to highlight the central theoretical framework discussed in this chapter, representational identity theory. She discusses the importance of the race and gender linkages between the diversity of experiences. The author posits that this discussion of theoretical considerations is important to understanding the political behavior of Black female legislators. Brown chose the state of Maryland as her case study for her research. She attributes this choice to the fact that the state is home to a large number of Black female legislators, the racial diversity of the state, the highly organized state legislature, and the unique combination of strong partisanship and legislative autonomy. The author devotes a large portion of this chapter introducing readers to the theory of representational identity, which incorporates the diversity of experiences of Black female legislators that is part of a collective identity. Here, the author departs from the overwhelming existing literature that examines Black women as one single unified political group. This chapter calls for the need to examine the ties between descriptive and substantive representation, one in which the dynamics of a Black female representatives' social/demographic ties to the constituents and a represent","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"119 1","pages":"169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79409388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"NAACP Youth and the Fight for Black Freedom: 1936-1965","authors":"Kam-Teo Weyburn","doi":"10.5860/choice.51-3419","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.51-3419","url":null,"abstract":"NAACP Youth and the Fight for Black Freedom: 1936-1965 Author: Thomas L. Bynum University of Tennessee Press, 2013 Price: $ 49.00 ISBN: 978-1-57233-945-3 NAACP Youth and the Fight for Black Freedom: 1936-1965 is a recent work by Thomas Bynum that challenges current historiography which argues that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) viewed civil rights activism within its ranks as anathema to its legal assault against segregation. Indeed, the historian from Middle Tennessee State University posits that the African American protests of the 1960s had as its genesis the NAACP youth direct action that began in the 1930s and that expanded mightily in the 1940s and '50s. In the final analysis, ironically, Bynum asserts that the autocratic bureaucracy of the NAACP stifled the very youth and student activism in the association in the 1960s that it had created three decades earlier. Bynum informs us in the first chapter of NAACP Youth that Juanita Jackson, a student leader, laid the foundation for \"non-violent direct action\" (1) by young people within the NAACP in the 1930s. A member of a prominent NAACP family in Baltimore, Maryland, Jackson had access to the still relatively young association (founded in 1909) hierarchy where she promoted the importance of African American youth as future association leaders. These were also the years where the role of NAACP youth and college chapters were formulated with the youth coming within the jurisdiction of local branches while the latter came within the purview of college administrators (both black and white) and the NAACP Board of Directors. The first chapter also portrays a civil rights organization laying the groundwork for young people to advocate for equal educational opportunities, employment opportunities, civil liberties, and anti-lynching legislation, mandates that reflected the agenda of the NAACP National Office in New York City. Bynum briefly mentions some youth and college chapter support of the \"Scottsboro Boys\" during the late 1930s but does not criticize the class bias of the association's establishment (secretary Walter White, in particular) for initially not supporting the working class black youngsters falsely accused of raping two white women. The Second World War motivated NAACP young people to new heights of political engagement as black soldiers that were ostensibly fighting a war against racism abroad still faced racism at home. According to Bynum, the 1940s also brought to prominence national youth director Ruby Hurley who saw a \"lack of collaboration\" between youth councils and college chapters as an opportunity for closer cooperation between the two groups in order to advance the NAACP agenda. Certainly, the energetic Hurley used the war as a catalyst to mobilize African American young adults to document black soldiers' \"undergoing physical violence at the hands of white commanding officers or mob violence.\" (34) Disappointingly, the author only make","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"12 1","pages":"204"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87386128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Race, Rape, and Injustice: Documenting and Challenging Death Penalty Cases in the Civil Rights Era","authors":"J. Barnhill","doi":"10.5860/choice.50-7025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.50-7025","url":null,"abstract":"Race, Rape, and Injustice: Documenting and Challenging Death Penalty Cases in the Civil Rights Era Authors: Barret J. Foerster & Michael Meltsner University of Tennessee Press, 2012 Price: $ 39.95 ISBN: 978-1-57233-862-3 In 1965, about two dozen white northern law students, mostly men, headed into the South to research racial bias in sentencing in rape cases. Their efforts to document the manner in which old rape cases were handled (perhaps more appropriately, mishandled) produced substantial documentation that Southern justice was discriminatory against blacks in rape cases, perhaps in all sorts of cases. This book describes not only the difficult to dangerous environment in which the students worked but, more important, the aftermath and the legal significance of the data they collected. The author, Barret J. Foerster, was one of the law students and after a successful career that culminated in a federal judgeship in California; he decided that the episode and its consequences had been long enough neglected. So he contacted other student researchers as well as those who used the data in subsequent years to bring about change in the criminal courts, even to influence Supreme Court decisions. Interviews and documents provided the basis for not only a recapturing of the 1965 adventure but the fruits of that perilous effort. The civil rights revolution of the sixties was in full sway in the South, times were turbulent, nay dangerous, and the students were cautious in their venture, seeking to maintain a low profile as they explored case files and the like, collecting the data that would form the basis of a database documenting the reality that black on white rape was much more likely than any other type to result in a death sentence. The work moves quickly past the dangerous activities but not before reestablishing the mid 1960s South as a tinderbox of racial tensions and white hostility to blacks and northerners. Race, Rape, and Justice brings out the hostility or uncooperativeness of white officials, the belligerence of other whites when they learned the purpose of the northern white intruders. The mood of the South during the sixties shines through the section on the research effort. The deaths of Michael Schwemer, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were still recent events when the law students ventured into enemy territory in search of data on differential sentencing in rape cases. Happily, the students escaped unscathed. The data showed what the researchers expected, that blacks convicted of raping white women were disproportionately sentenced to death. …","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"42 1","pages":"206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89791800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe","authors":"Ogunleye Adetunbi Richard, Adekunle Ajasin","doi":"10.5860/choice.49-1620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.49-1620","url":null,"abstract":"The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe Author: Nwando Achebe Indiana University Press, 2011 Price: $ 19.07 ISBN: 978-0-253-22248-0 Nwando Achebe's The Female King of Colonial Nigeria, presents a biography of a renowned female king; Ahebi Ugbabe, who reigned during the colonial period in Nigeria. The book begins with the review of various studies that investigated into the life experiences of a diverse group of African women. It also examines preliminary preparation that sets out numerous theoretical frames for considering the work. The book is divided into five chapters and each chapter focuses on the fluidity of gender and the colonial experience in Igbo land. Chapter one discusses the genealogy and naming system in the Ohom Eguru Elechi clan- the ancestoral home of Ahebi Ugbabe. As a typical Igbo community, the circumstance that surrounds the birth of a child often determines the name of that child. For instance, a male name Nwafor indicates a child bom on Afo day (Afo is a prominent market day in Igbo land (p.36), while Oyima means friend of the Omabe masquerade (p.40)). The chapter further discusses the early sojourns of Ahebi in Unadu (her mother's town) and her eventual return to Umuida. Her stay in Unadu was regarded as an interesting one because she relates well with her female and male contemporaries but refused their hands in marriage. This refusal led to her being raped by one of the suitors- Eze Ezenma. She later returned to Umuida (her birth place), stayed there for a while before she embarked on self exile as result of her refusal to be the victim of her father's misconduct. Chapter two examines Ahebi's exilic life in Igala land, the choices she made that kept her alive, her vocation as sex worker, trader, her interaction with Attah-Igala and the British colonial officers who allowed her to evolve the perfonnance of the female masculinities of female headman, female warrant chief, female king and full man (page 95). The last part of the chapter examines the lessons learnt by Ahebi from the past processes: Inikpi and Oma Idoko who had contributed immensely for the survival of their people and eventually being immortalized in the oral histories of Igala land. Chapter three commences with the subjugation of Igbo land by the British colonial masters between 1896-1903.The reasons for these are: to have an effective control of the land and to supplant the indigenous institutions that regulates the life of the people. It was just around this time that Ahebi emerged again in Enugu-Ezike (her home town). Due to her linguistic skill which helped her to have access to the leading people and colonial masters in her area, she was appointed as the headman and warrant chief by the colonial administrator. Also, the weakness of Ugwu Okegwu (the formal headman), who could neither write nor speak pidgin English lend credence to the appointment of Ahebi as the warrant chief. However, the male traditional ruling elites were not happy with her","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"100 1","pages":"64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80371334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Race in American Science Fiction","authors":"Tiffany A. Flowers","doi":"10.5860/choice.49-1921","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.49-1921","url":null,"abstract":"RACE IN AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR: ISIAH LAVENDER III INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2011 PRICE: $24.95. ISBN: 13: 9780253222596 Science fiction often talks about race by not talking about race, makes real aliens, has hidden race dialogues. Even though it is literature that talks a lot about underclasses or oppressed classes, it does so from a privileged if somewhat generic white space. If science fiction is about social change, let us talk about how this change comes about from an \"other\" space, a black space. (p. 8) The above quote from this work not only illuminates how the author frames this work, but how race in science fiction often goes ignored through dialogue, character development, and cultural norms of this genre. Throughout this work the focus is to examine science fiction through a black cultural lens in order to offer a varying perspective on the silence of raced narratives in science fiction. The author asserts by neglecting the dialogue surrounding this issue within science fiction that this genre functions as a way to make privilege invisible. However, discussing 'otherness' unpacks this privilege and puts the focus on how black bodies are negotiated within time, space, and science fiction narratives. In the opening chapter, Introduction: Mapping the Background the author outlines the focus of this work. Isiah Lavender dismantles the privilege prevalent in this genre regarding the dismissal of race in the text, subtext, content, and style of science fiction. He suggests that in order for a true discussion of race to occur within science fiction that the invisible must become visible. In chapter two, Lavendar frames the discussion of racing science fiction in the following manner: Acknowledging and dealing with race in science fiction may have a significant cultural effect for the twenty-first century because it can prepare us for the looming social changes that may descend upon us as America ceases to be dominated by the white majority ... p. 25 Lavendar illuminates this point by examining work by the foremost writers in the field such as Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley, Samuel R. Delany, Nalo Hopkinson, and Sam Greenlee. The main focus of this chapter is to look historically at Science Fiction and how it has helped Afro-futurism within the literary narrative to emerge. The author posits that not only will black science fiction emerge as a booming trend among black writers, but it will be used to challenge the lack of paradoxical realities where African Americans are not viewed in an 'otherness' context. In Chapter two--Meta-Slavery, the author focuses on the depictions of bondage within science fiction. He posits that much of the language, visual representations, and reoccurring themes lay the groundwork for discussions pertaining to slavery with science fiction. In Chapter three--Jim Crow Extrapolations, the post slavery themes within science fiction are examined through text and sub-text of science fiction literature and films.","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"281"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90633043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Extremist for Love: Martin Luther King Jr., Man of Ideas and Nonviolent Social Action","authors":"Michael Blackwell","doi":"10.5860/choice.52-1014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.52-1014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"279"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89639941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery","authors":"Gary L. Grizzle","doi":"10.5860/choice.50-0474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.50-0474","url":null,"abstract":"Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery AUTHOR: HENRY GOINGS UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS, 2012 PRICE: $30.00 ISBN: 978-0-8139-3238-5 Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery is a memoir from the pen of Henry Goings who was born into slavery in James City County, Virginia in the early nineteenth century. In this engaging narrative Goings begins with a recounting of his experiences as an enslaved groom and personal assistant; his escape to freedom in the North; his near catastrophic attempt to rescue his first wife from slavery; and his eventual settlement in Ontario, Canada. Goings ends his narrative with expressions of his views on, among other things, slavery, the Civil War, and the post-slavery prospects of African Americans. Henry Goings' memoir, originally published in 1869, is greatly enhanced by the editors of this edition who, in the preface and introduction, provide important background on the history of the document and the context in which Goings lived and wrote. In addition, they supplement Going's original publication with a chronology of his life; maps of his travels; previously published interviews with him and his second wife; a letter that he wrote to the editor of a Canadian publication decrying racist sentiments in that country; and a land sale notice listing him as the sales agent, the combination of which contributes to a richer understanding of the space that Henry Goings and other African Americans, both enslaved and free, occupied in nineteenth century North America. As is the case with all slave narratives, Henry Goings' memoir is valuable as a window to the past: the recounting of his trials and triumphs leaving the reader with a sense of having shared that world with him in all its frightening complexity. However, Goings' memoir is even more precious owing to its thoughtful treatment of the world in which slavery existed and from which it would soon part. Highlights of that treatment include the following. First, there is his piercing portrayal of what it means to be a slave. Goings' lays bare the inherent inhumanity of slavery by going beyond the physical brutality to which salves were subject and expressing the sheer misery of human existence when you know that, no matter how well you are treated physically, you will not be afforded any measure of justice, any significant control over your life, or even the most basic education. A misery that he captured through such wistful statements as \"He was then living (if any slave may be said to live) in New-Kent County, Virginia\" (55) and \"Surely the Divine Author of the universe would not have given any of the human family the feelings and faculties of men, unless he also intended them to assume the responsibilities, and appreciate the pleasures of domestic life\" (58). These statements, and others like them throughout the narrative, express the abject forlornness of slavery in a way that is sure to give pause to even the most unrepentant apologists for slavery. Second, ","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75003066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina","authors":"M. D. Crawford","doi":"10.5860/choice.48-2390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.48-2390","url":null,"abstract":"Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina AUTHOR: LEONARD N. MOORE LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2010 PRICE: $35.00 HARDCOVER ISBN-13:9780807135907 In the shadow of America's fight for democracy following WWII, freedom at home came to mean the right to fair police protection for many African American communities. Leonard N. Moore's Black Rage in New Orleans.\" Police Brutality and African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina (2010) examines the history of African American protests to secure equitable treatment and fair police protection from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) as a civil right in Post-WWII New Orleans. Moore contends that African American communities in the \"Crescent City\" sustained a six-decade long campaign of opposition to police brutality in a struggle waged principally along class lines. Primarily led by poor and working class African Americans, anti-brutality activists pursued both mass protests tactics and black electoral politics in their struggle for social justice. In the two decades following the end of WWII, anti-brutality activism in New Orleans mirrored broader historical developments taking place throughout African American communities. During the 1950s and mid-1960s, major developments effecting African American voting rights were the principal catalyst for police reform. Moore demonstrates how--as a consequence of increased African American voting strength in the wake of Smith v. Allright (1944) and Hall v. Nagel (1946), two court rulings that outlawed all-white primaries--civic leaders and law enforcement officials in New Orleans appeared more willing to listen to African American anti-brutality activists. Similarly, the Civil Rights Act of 1965 brought a renewed sense of hope for the promise that black electoral politics might bring concrete police reform. Unfortunately, in a city dominated by special interests, New Orleans' African American middle class at times aligned its concerns with local government officials when seeking political patronage for delivering African American voters in key city-wide elections. The creation of the Community Organization for Urban Politics (COUP), the Southern Organization for United Leadership (SOUL) and the 1969 mayoral election of Moon Landrieu are illustrative of this relationship, and these developments proved cosmetic and wholly ineffective--at best--in resolving the need for comprehensive police reform. As the passive, non-violent protests of the Civil Rights Movement gave way to the more radical tactics of the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s, so too did anti-brutality activism in New Orleans take on a more visible, highly confrontational and less structured tone. Widespread support by poor and working class African Americans for a more revolutionary approach to acquiring fair police protection was evident, Moore illustrates, in 1970 during the Black Panther Party's","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87808061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Privileging Oppression: Contradictions in Intersectional Politics","authors":"A. Pastrana","doi":"10.14361/transcript.9783839415283.170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14361/transcript.9783839415283.170","url":null,"abstract":"Background and Introduction Race, class, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, physical ability, native language, immigration status and more make up the complex mosaic that is identity politics in the United States. In the social sciences, differentiation is the term used to signal that differences exist. These differences are often identified, experienced, and quantified. They also serve as markers of separation that become convenient labels or constituents in larger social structures. Identity politics is what happens when differentiation is privileged. Related to this, stratification is that delicate, yet sometimes impenetrable, process of morphing difference into hierarchy--not simply allowing gender differences to exist, for example, but insisting that men are better than women, and in terms of sexual identity, that heterosexual is better than bisexual, or when looking at racial existence, that White is better than Latina/o. When identity politics and stratification merge, intersectionality is present and social identities become magnified, adding to the complexity. How have social scientists documented and analyzed the presence of coexisting social identities? This paper explores sociological investigations on role strain and its relationship to feminist definitions of intersectionality. Coexisting social identities have been used to forward understandings of how complexity appears in our lives. Though the proliferation of roles and identities accentuates possibilities, viewing these through the lens of multiple oppressions also contributes to a need for changing the overall social structure. In addition, this paper draws upon the intersectional imagination (Pastrana, 2006), a term used to describe the analytic process that occurs when examining individual- and group-level oppressions based on identity. Starting with an understanding that individuals and groups are more than the sum of their parts, that each individual characteristic or constituent has the capacity to affect different outcomes, the intersectional imagination attempts to describe the ways that identities come together and are pulled apart. Ultimately, this paper asks: How do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) leaders of color manage their personal intersectional politics and how does this affect or influence their work within the larger field of LGBT social movement organizing? Throughout this paper, the term \"LGBT\" is used to refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, populations, and social movement organizing efforts. Though each of these groups has its own rich and vast history of organizing, this paper is concerned with efforts that conceptualize this population as a collective group. Further, \"non-White\" and \"people of color\" will be used interchangeably and will refer to people who do not readily identify as White. Research participants in this paper, for instance, include people who identify as Asian, Black, Latina/o, and Middle Easte","PeriodicalId":85784,"journal":{"name":"The Western journal of black studies","volume":"36 1","pages":"53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73471483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}