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Chapter 6 - Sapphires Gone Wild: The Politics of Black Women's Respectability in the Age of the Ratchet
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- By De Anna J. Reese, Department of History and the Africana Studies Program at California State University, Fresno, Delia C. Gillis, professor of History and director for the Center of Africana Studies at the University of Central Missouri.
- Edited by Marquita Gammage, Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers
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- Book:
- Challenging Misrepresentations of Black Womanhood
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 29 May 2019
- Print publication:
- 22 March 2019, pp 115-134
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- Chapter
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Summary
In 2007, American rap artist Hurricane Chris released his debut album, 51/50 Ratchet in which he describes a woman known for her hard partying and boorish behavior. Since then, ratchet women have been normalized on reality television shows, especially those featuring Black women who more often than not get labeled as ignorant, loud, tacky and classless (Lewis 2013). Whether it's the series of shows that comprise Love & Hip Hop, The Real Housewives, Married to Medicine or others, ratchet women are among the most visible and dominant figures on these shows. In the last decade, more than 150 reality shows have aired across major networks. Of those, about 30 centered on Black women, propelling casts of previously unknowns into instant celebrity (Harris 2015).
Contemporary Media Images
Recent studies show that reality TV continues to reinforce existing racialized mass-mediated caricatures. In fact, some argue that the inclusion of realitybased programming has strengthened stereotypical portrayals given that such images are made more ‘‘real’’ than others (Orbe 2008; Ward 2015). Described as guilty pleasure cheap TV, reality TV's formula for success has been its ability to offer conflict and resolution along with heroes and villains. Racial stereotypes and the ideologies that produce them are also entrenched within the culture with the help of mass media (Tyree 2001). For African Americans, television is particularly key in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes, which impact the majority of societal views of them (Tyree 2001, 395).
Less studied than either the Jezebel or the Mammy, the Sapphire makes Black women appear, in the words of one Fox News contributor, always “angry about something” (Harris-Perry 2007, 11). Among the most dominant controlling images of Black women in American popular culture since the Civil War, the Sapphire's aggressive, rude and emasculating behavior gained credibility by way of “sassy mammies” who ran the home with iron fists and browbeat their husbands and children (Collins 2005, 151). Assertive and comical, the Sapphire depicts a woman also obsessed with status-climbing. Sapphire characters in television and film are patterned after this stereotype. In the same manner that the term “bitch” is used to put women in their place, the Sapphire's racialized representation of Black women as loud, pushy and tarttongued is an attempt to both defeminize and vilify them (Collins 2005, 123).
22 - “When They Go Low, We Go High”: African American Women Torchbearers for Democracy and the 2016 Democratic National Convention
- Edited by Christine A. Kray, Tamar W. Carroll, Hinda Mandell
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- Book:
- Nasty Women and Bad Hombres
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 02 June 2021
- Print publication:
- 10 October 2018, pp 297-310
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Summary
We are the backbones of our churches, organizations, communities, and political party. We are the “willing workers.” We are the Mothers of the Movement. We are the group with the highest level of voter participation of any demographic group in America. We are the enthusiastic delegates and community leaders waving placards and chanting “Yes we can!” on the floor of Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.
—Ginger McNight-Chavers, African American authorAmong the many messages the 2016 presidential election cycle sent, one remains abundantly clear. At the end of the day, the most qualified presidential candidate in history could still lose to a man who through word and deed is unapologetic about making America hate again. These misogynistic messages were not lost on Black women who have spent a lifetime defending their names and bodies against similar attacks. As public figures, delegates, and voters, Black women supported Hillary Clinton because, of the two major candidates, they believed she was the only one to push forward progressive change on jobs, health care, and education—issues important not only to Black women, but to all Americans. By crafting a message of unity, mutual respect, and optimism during the 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, African American women joined their foremothers whose patriotism and understanding of American democratic ideals began long before they formally earned the right to vote.
Through examining the contributions and the message of Black women organizers for the Clinton-Kaine campaign during the fortyseventh Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 25–28, 2016, this chapter explores how Black women's stand “with her” was an outgrowth of their lifelong commitment to race, gender, and classbased equality. It will also discuss why Clinton's campaign message at the 2016 DNC—one of hope, compassion, and inclusion—remains important postelection, and why “going high” and refusing to normalize bigotry allows us to find common ground, work together, and move our nation forward.
On July 25, 2016, Stephanie Rawlings Blake called to order the Democrats’ forty-seventh national convention. She replaced Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned from her position at the Democratic National Committee following the release of nearly 20,000 emails from a WikiLeaks hack that showed an attempt to derail Senator Bernie Sanders from becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
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