Est. 2023

“No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much." Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"...No woman has ever written enough.”

 

― bell hooks, Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work

 

The excellence of our discipline is attributable to Black writers, thinkers, activists, and scholars. To cap off this Black History Month, we’d like to draw attention to the contributions of racialized academics who have broadened sociological knowledge with their work and perspective.

 

To do this, we’re going to give a briefing on some influential Black sociologists and how they’ve added to the field:

 

Patricia Hill Collins

       Collins is a career scholar with many accomplishments in sociology. In 2009 she began her term as the 100th President of the American Sociological Association (ASA) — becoming the first Black woman to take on this position. She is best known for her 1990 publication; a book called Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. This text added a deep theoretical analysis of the lived realities and media/public representation of Black women, subjects which she would continue to build on in subsequent work, such as in Fighting Words: Black Women and the Struggle for Justice (1998). 

 

Key concepts:

• Matrix of domination 

• Outsider within 

• Controlling images (i.e; Mammies, Matriarchs and Jezebels)

 

W.E.B Du Bois

      Du Bois is a canonical figure in both Black Studies and sociology as a discipline. His work is rarely absent in theory courses or classes related to the sociology of race. A perspective key to Du Bois’ work is his recognition of the interaction between one’s social identities. Namely, he coined the term ‘double consciousness’ to describe the experience of existing as a racialized minority group in an assimilationist, white-dominant society. It can be thought of similarly to (but distinct from) Horton Cooley’s “looking-glass self” in which (racialized) individuals perceive themselves according to the view of others (in this case, the white 'elite'). Further, Du Bois wrote at length about the period of Black Reconstruction in the US, as he pointed out the active role that African Americans played in their abolition from slavery and in negotiating the terms of a new, post-emancipation society.

 

Key concepts: 

• Double consciousness 

• ‘The veil’ 

• The social construction of race

 

Joyce Ladner

       Perhaps a lesser known sociologist, Ladner is a contemporary theorist, author, activist, former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and former interim President at Howard University. She has produced canonical work in subfields such as the area of Black Girlhood Studies and has dedicated much writing to subjects like the lives of African American families and children, in addition to her insistence on revealing the inherent ‘whiteness’ of dominant sociological paradigms/theory. Ladner, notably, was also an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington where she stood on stage alongside MLK Jr as he delivered his infamous speech.

 

Key publications:

• Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman (1971)

• The Death of White Sociology (1973)

 

Kimberle Crenshaw

         It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that all sociology students encounter Crenshaw’s work at some point in their degrees. The reach of her work extends across disciplines of gender and sexuality studies, sociology, and political studies, among others. Her powerful concept of ‘intersectionality’ refers to a framework which interrogates overlapping systems of oppression and privilege. As she says in her own words, “The idea that we all have the same life is false. Race, class, gender come together to shape the life chances of people in very different ways.” Moreover, Crenshaw is also active in the #SayHerName campaign which aims to highlight Black women’s experiences of police brutality and state violence.

 

Key concept:

• Intersectionality theory​

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Sources and Additional Reading & Content:

 

• On Joyce Ladner: https://commencement.columbia.edu/directory/joyce-ladner. 

• On Du Bois: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/web-du-bois. 

• On Patricia Hill Collins: https://www.asanet.org/patricia-hill-collins/. 

• The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o. 

 

• Book: The New Black Sociologists Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Hunter, 2018)

• Interview with Crenshaw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dcj5tegl7I. 

• Interview with Ladner: https://www.julianbondoralhistoryproject.org/joyce-ladner.