Black Popular Culture and Social Justice PDF
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Black Popular Culture and Social Justice This volume examines the use of Black popular culture to engage, refect, and parse social justice, arguing that Black popular culture is more than merely entertainment. Moving beyond a focus on identifying and categorizing cultural forms, the authors examine Black popular culture to understand how it engages social justice, with attention to anti-Black racism. Black Popular Culture and Social Justice takes a systematic look at the role of music, comic books, literature, flm, television, and public art in shaping attitudes and fghting oppression. Examining the ways in which artists, scholars, and activists have engaged, discussed, promoted, or supported social justice – on issues of criminal justice reform, racism, sexism, LGBTQIA rights, voting rights, and human rights – the book ofers unique insights into the use of Black popular culture as an agent for change. This timely and insightful book will be of interest to students and scholars of race and media, popular culture, gender studies, sociology, political science, and social justice. Dr. Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University, USA, and Co-Director for the Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni (CASA). Her research includes Pulse of the People: Political Rap Music and Black Politics and For the Culture: Hip Hop and the Fight for Social Justice, with interests in popular culture, Black politics, and political psychology. Dr. Jonathan I. Gayles is Professor and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University, USA. He is an interdisciplinary researcher whose primary areas of interest include the anthropology of education, Black masculinity, and critical media studies. He wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning documentary, White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books (2011, California Newsreel). Routledge Transformations in Race and Media Series Editors: Robin R. Means Coleman University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Charlton D. McIlwain New York University Black Celebrity, Racial Politics, and the Press Framing Dissent Sarah J. Jackson The Cultural Politics of Colorblind TV Casting Kristen J. Warner The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News Libby Lewis Representations of Black Women in the Media The Damnation of Black Womanhood Marquita Marie Gammage Race and Contention in 21st Century U.S. Media Edited by Jason A. Smith and Bhoomi K. Thakore Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the African Diaspora Travelling Blackness Manoucheka Celeste Media Across the African Diaspora Content, Audiences, and Global Infuence Edited by Omotayo O. Banjo Black Women Filmmakers and Black Love on Screen Brandale Mills Black Popular Culture and Social Justice Beyond the Culture Edited by Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Jonathan I. Gayles For more information, or to place orders visit Routledge, www.routledge. com/ Black Popular Culture and Social Justice Beyond the Culture Edited by Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Jonathan I. Gayles First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Jonathan I. Gayles; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Jonathan Gayles to be identifed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 9781032306643 (hbk) ISBN: 9781032311074 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003308089 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003308089 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC We would like to dedicate this book to our children and all future artists. Know that your art is meaningful and could possibly change the world! Contents About the Editors x List of Contributors xii Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Cultural Power 1 LAKEYTA M. BONNETTE-BAILEY SECTION 1 Black Television, Movies, and Social Justice 7 1 Michaela Coel May Destroy You, But Also Help You Heal 9 NORRELL EDWARDS 2 Two Percent: The Role of Popular Culture in Highlighting Social Justice Issues 23 ALEXANDRIA JOHNSON, SHAEROYA EARLS AND JOVEL WARRICAN 3 Lovecraft Country and the (Re)construction of Black Womanhood 39 SHAYNA MASKELL 4 The Hate U Give: Police Brutality, Political Fantasies, and Black Popular Culture 48 TATIANA KONRAD viii Contents SECTION 2 Black Music and Social Justice 65 5 Contributions of African American Anthems for Social Justice and Equity 67 JOHN T. MILLS AND DEMOND S. MILLER 6 Cardi B.: Raising Black Feminist Consciousness in Cyberspace 83 MALEKE GLEE 7 “Out for Presidents to Represent Me”: Hip-Hop, The Breakfast Club, and the 2020 Presidential Elections 95 TABIA SHAWEL 8 The Bigger Picture: Hip-Hop, Black Lives, and Social Justice 109 LAKEYTA M. BONNETTE-BAILEY, LESTINA DONGO, KIERRA LAWRENCE, AND NOAH NELSON 9 The Wu-Tang Clan, Politics, and Black Power 125 MICHAEL BLUM 10 Rappin’ Black in a White World: The Watts Prophets and Democratic Futurity 142 SIMON STOW SECTION 3 Black Speculative Fiction, Comics, Protest Art, and Social Justice 157 11 The Future Is in Her Hands: Rewriting Black Girlhood Narratives and Experiences in Comics 159 GRACE D. GIPSON 12 “Red, White, and Black”: Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Dismantling of White American Heroism 181 BRITNEY HENRY 13 Outfoxing the Foxes: Revising Mammy as Subversive Social Justice in Frank Yerby’s The Foxes of Harrow 192 VALERIE N. MATTHEWS Contents ix 14 Writings on the Walls: A Study of Black Protest Street Art in the Wake of the Murder of George Floyd 205 FREDERICA SIMMONS Conclusion: Moving Beyond the Culture 218 JONATHAN I. GAYLES Index 225
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