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African American Communication & Identities
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African American Communication & Identities
Essential Readings

Edited by:


October 2003 | 368 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Boldly contending that culture can and should be a central organizing principle in studies pertaining to human interaction, African American Communication and Identities: Essential Readings is the first anthology to examine a wide range of communication studies specific to African American communicative experiences, including linguistic, rhetorical, and relational styles.

In this compelling anthology, editor Ronald L. Jackson II explores constitutive aspects of African American communication behaviors as they relate to how African Americans define themselves culturally. Readers benefit from a plethora of research on African Americans related to almost every area of communication inquiry, including theory and identity; language, performance, and rhetoric; interpersonal relationships; gendered contexts; organizational and instructional contexts; and mass mediated contexts.

Creating a space for African American-centered research and broadening the scope of the Communication discipline, this volume includes

    • "Must-read" classic and contemporary studies of African American communication, illuminating the history and development of research and writing in this often overlooked area;
    • Explorations of several conceptual innovations that add to the body of communication literature, such as Afrocentricity, Complicity Theory, Cultural Contracts Theory, and Black Masculine Identity Theory;
    • Section-opening introductions situate readings for students and end-of-chapter discussion questions provoke discussion and critical thought;
    • Insightful analyses of the relational dimensions of African Americans and provocative conceptions of African American gendered identities.

 

Endowing the field with an intellectual legacy of issues, challenges, needs, and paradigms, African American Communication and Identities is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in Communication Studies and African American Studies courses. This volume is also an excellent reader for advanced courses in intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication, race relations, and interethnic communication.


 
SECTION 1. THEORETIC APPROACHES TO AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITIES
Jack L. Daniel and Geneva Smitherman
Ch 1. How I Got Over: Communication Dynamics in the Black Community
Molefi Kete Asante
Ch 2. The Afrocentric Idea
Mark Lawrence McPhail
Ch 3. Complicity: The Theory of Negative Difference
Kenneth R. Johnson
Ch 4. Black Kinesics: Some Nonverbal Communication Patterns in Black Culture
Joni L. Jones
Ch 5. Improvisation as a Performance Strategy for African-based Theatre
 
SECTION 2. AFRICAN AMERICAN RHETORIC AND LANGUAGE
Deborah F. Atwater
Ch 6. A Dilemma of Black Communication Scholars: The Challenge of Finding New Rhetorical Tools
Eric King Watts
Ch 7. African American Ethos and Hermeneutical Rhetoric: An exploration of Alain Locke's The New Negro
Thurmon Garner
Ch 8. Playing the Dozens: Folklore as Strategies for Living
John Baugh
Ch 9. Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival
 
SECTION 3. AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION IN RELATIONAL CONTEXTS
Michael L. Hecht, Sidney Ribeau, and J. K. Alberts
Ch 10. An Afro-American Perspective on Interethnic Communication
Tina M. Harris, Pamela Kalbfleisch
Ch 11. Interracial Dating: The Implications of Race for Initiating a Romantic Relationship
Linda K. Acitelli. Elizabeth Douvan, and Joseph Veroff
Ch 12. The Changing Influence of Interpersonal Perceptions on Marital Well-being Among Black and White Couples
Jeffrey Lynn Woodyard, John L. Peterson, and Joseph P. Stokes
effrey Lynn Woodyard, J. L. Peterson, J. P. Stokes
Ch 13. Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord": Participation in African American Churches Among Young African American Men Who Have Sex With Men
 
SECTION 4. COMMUNICATING AFRICAN AMERICAN GENDERED IDENTITIES
Marsha Houston
Ch 14. Multiple Perspectives: African American Women Conceive Their Talk
Karla D. Scott
Ch 15. Crossing Cultural Borders: "Girl" and "Look" as Markers of Identity in Black Women's Language Use
D. Soyini Madison
Ch 16. "That Was My Occupation": Oral Narrative, Performance, and Black Feminist Thought
Tina M. Harris
Ch 17. Interrogating the Representation of African American Female Identity in the Films "Waiting to Exhale" and "Set It Off."
Ronald L. Jackson, II and Celnisha L. Dangerfield
Ch 18. Defining Black Masculinity as Cultural Property: An Identity Negotiation Paradigm
 
SECTION 5. AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL CONTEXTS
Brenda J. Allen,
Ch 19. "Diversity" and Organizational Communication
Patricia S. Parker
Ch 20. African American Women Executives' Leadership Communication Within Dominant-Culture Organizations
Katherine Grace Hendrix
Ch. 21. Student Perceptions of the Influence of Race on Professor Credibility
Ronald L. Jackson, II
Ch 22. Exploring African American Identity Negotiation in the Academy: Toward a Transformative Vision of African American Communication Scholarship
 
SECTION 6. AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITIES IN MASS MEDIATED CONTEXTS
Melbourne S. Cummings
Ch 23. The Changing Image of the African American Family on Television
Herman Gray
Ch 24. Jammin' on the One! Some Reflections on the Politics of Black Popular Culture
Donald Bogle
Ch 25. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films
Catherine R. Squires
Ch 26. Black Talk Radio: Defining Community Needs and Identity
Key features
  • First and only collection of "must-read" essays on African American communication. Collects in one place important and/or touchstone essays, showing the history and development of research and writing in an area that has been, admittedly, all-too-often overlooked.
  • Criteria for inclusion in the work: (1) the article must be well-cited in the field of communication and/or other fields or be new and groundbreaking; (2) accent the study of African American identities by concentrating on communicative nuances; (3) be well-written, impactful, and insightful; and (4) have served as a catalyst for new and burgeoning research in communication.
  • The pedagogical approach/framework sticks to the fundamental and familiar ways students become introduced to the field of communication, by accenting the major subdisciplinary areas (i.e., communication theory and rhetorical, cultural, instructional, organizational, mass mediated and technical communication).
  • Pedagogical features include section-opening introductions (providing a historical perspective and rationale for each reading) and end-of-reading discussion questions (to aid in comprehension of subject matter).