African-American Criticism Flashcards
Interest convergence
A term used by Derrick Bell to explain that racism is common in our country because it often converges, or overlaps, with the interest of a white individual or group. For example, racism is in the financial interest of upper-class whites who exploit black laborers by paying them less than their white counterparts. In other words, racism has many pay-offs for whites—hence interest convergence is sometimes referred to as material determinism.
Differential racialization
various racial groups in the United States—blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans, for example—have been racialized in different ways in response to different needs of the majority group. Moreover, the laws and legal structures society devises for each group—such as English-only laws for Latinos, alien land laws for Asians, and Jim Crow laws for blacks—operate differently in the case of the various groups. Social stereotypes of the various groups changed accordingly over time to facilitate society’s obtaining what it wanted from the group in question. For example, during slavery, when southern whites had matters well in hand, the dominant narratives, songs, and stories about blacks were reassuring: Blacks were happy with their lives and pleased to serve whites. Later, when blacks received their freedom and were perceived as a threat, social images of them changed.
Intersectionality
No one has a simple, uncomplicated identity based on race alone. In other words, race intersects with class, sex, sexual orientation, political orientation, and personal history in forming each person’s complex identity.
Anti-essentialism
A group whose dominant membership is, let us say, white, may give short shrift to the needs and priorities of nonwhite members because it thinks in terms of an “essential” woman, who is, of course, white. The organization then devises strategies to advance the objectives of this member, whose aims and needs are considered to be representative of the group.
