scholarly journals Afrofuturism and Transhumanism: New Insights into the African American Identity in Octavia Butler’s Dawn

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Abdullah Al-Nuaimi ◽  
Zainor Izat Zainal ◽  
Mohammad Ewan Awang ◽  
Noritah Omar
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
American Identity ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
Octavia Butler ◽  
The Future

Afrofuturism offers visions about different aspects of African Americans’ future. Combining the elements of Afrofuturism and Transhumanism can allow new and vast paths to argue about African Americans’ future. Octavia Butler (1947-2006) is among those authors who wanted a better future for her people. In Dawn (1987), she presents the future of an African American protagonist – Lilith, whose identity is scientifically fictionalised and intermingled with hope for a better future. This study critically examines the traits and the role of the protagonist. It aims to investigate how Butler’s transhumanist protagonist’s portrayal is necessary to pursue the demarginalisation of African American’s future identity. In this respect, we adopt the Afrofuturistic sense of utilising knowledge and science of Ytasha Womack in discussing Afrofuturism, as well as Nick Bostrom’s transhumanistic perspective on the necessity of body enhancements to extend humanism.

scholarly journals Metamorphoses of the African American Identity in Post-segregation Era and the Theory of Afrocentrism

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
D. M. BONDARENKO ◽  
N. E. KHOKHOLKOVA
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
Inferiority Complex ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society

The article deals with the issue of African American identity in the  post-segregation period (after 1968). The problem of African  Americans’ “double consciousness”, marked for the first time yet in  the late 19th – early 20th century, still remains relevant. It is that  descendants of slaves, who over the centuries have been relegated  to the periphery of the American society, have been experiencing and in part are experiencing an internal conflict, caused  by the presence of both American and African  components in their identities. The authors focus on Afrocentrism  (Afrocentricity) – a socio-cultural theory, proposed by Molefi Kete  Asante in 1980 as a strategy to overcome this conflict and to  construct a particular form of “African” collective identity of African  Americans. This theory, based on the idea of Africa and all people of  African descent’s centrality in world history and culture, was urged to  completely decolonize and transform African Americans’  consciousness. The Afrocentrists proposed African Americans to re- Africanize their self-consciousness, turn to African cultural roots in  order to get rid of a heritable inferiority complex formed by slavery and segregation. This article presents a brief outline of the  history of Afrocentrism, its intellectual sources and essential  structural elements, particularly Africology. The authors analyze the  concepts of racial identity, “black consciousness” and “black unity” in  the contexts of the Afrocentric theory and current social realities  of the African American community. Special attention is paid to the  methodology and practice of Afrocentric education. In Conclusion,  the authors evaluate the role and prospects of Afrocentrism among  African Americans in the context of general trends of their identities transformations.

The Reel and Surreal of Race in America: Michel Gondry and the African–American Identity Crisis of Dave Chappelle

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Monique Taylor
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African American ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Identity Crisis ◽  
American Identity ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
Real Community

In this chapter Monique Taylor analyses the concert documentary DaveChappelle’s Block Party (2005), directed by French filmmaker Michel Gondry, which depicts the organization and performances of a “block party” hosted by African-American comedian Dave Chappelle in Brooklyn, New York. Chappelle’s Block Party featured performances by some of the biggest names in hip hop, rap, and R & B music, including ?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, the Fugees reunited with Lauryn Hill, and Kanye West. The chapter argues that Gondry plays the role of outsider-looking-in as both a participant in as well as an observer of aspects of American cultural conversations on memory, identity and language. Taylor’s chapter draws attention to Dave Chappelle’sBlock Party’s construction of a hybrid and hyper-real community through the use of strategies such as movements back and forth in time between the entertainers’ performances and the preparations leading up to the concert which highlight the production of the event, surreal visual embellishments, and prominent allusion to symbols of African–American identity. The chapter also places the film within the context of Chappelle’s own exploration of his identity and struggle to “keep it real.”

scholarly journals STEREOTYPING AFRICAN AMERICANS’ RACIAL IDENTITY ON VALERIE MARTIN’S PROPERTY

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Rasiah Rasiah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
African Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Identity ◽  
American Character ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
New Form ◽  
Valerie Martin

This study is intended to analyze the persistence of African American stereotype in the contemporary slavery-themed novel authored by Valerie Martin, Property (2003). Valerie Martin is a white author, who seems to have changed the slavery discourse, but the stereotyping of African Americans is still there and built in a new form of stereotyping. Postcolonial analysis showed that the stereotyping of African Americansas ‘other’ existed in direct stereotyping and indirect stereotyping. Direct stereotyping is that the author directly uses the pejorative language and symbols in forming the African American character, meanwhile indirect stereotyping is the author using the shift of discourse that seemed worthy in describing the African American character, but in the same time it affirms the stereotype of the African American identity as inferior still exists, even in the so-called Post-racial era in the United States. Keywords: Representation, Stereotyping, Identity, Race, African American

scholarly journals Mind games: A temporal sentiment analysis of the political messages of the Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Twitter

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110143
Author(s):  
Soyoung Park ◽  
Sharon Strover ◽  
Jaewon Choi ◽  
MacKenzie Schnell
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Message Content ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
African American Identity ◽  
2016 Election

This study examines the temporal dynamics of emotional appeals in Russian campaign messages used in the 2016 election. Communications on two giant social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, are analyzed to assess emotion in message content and targeting that may have contributed to influencing people. The current study conducts both computational and qualitative investigations of the Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) emotion-based strategies across three different dimensions of message propagation: the platforms themselves, partisan identity as targeted by the source, and social identity in politics, using African American identity as a case. We examine (1) the emotional flows along the campaign timeline, (2) emotion-based strategies of the Russian trolls that masked left- and right-leaning identities, and (3) emotion in messages projecting to or about African American identity and representation. Our findings show sentiment strategies that differ between Facebook and Twitter, with strong evidence of negative emotion targeting Black identity.

Obama and Race in America

The Forum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton Keller
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
American Identity ◽  
African American Identity

AbstractThis examination of Obama and race in America has three themes. The first is his African-American identity, and concludes that it has marked and useful resemblances to John F. Kennedy’s Irish Catholicism. It then examines Obama’s record affecting race relations in America: what he has done and, as revealing, what he has not done. Finally, it seeks to set Obama’s approach to race relations in the context of its rich and diverse history in this nation.

Racial Discrimination and Trajectories of Problematic Alcohol Use Among African American Emerging Adults: The Role of Organizational Religious Involvement

2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812110516
Author(s):  
Danielle R. Busby ◽  
Meredith O. Hope ◽  
Daniel B. Lee ◽  
Justin E. Heinze ◽  
Marc A. Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Stable Class ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

Racial discrimination jeopardizes a wide range of health behaviors for African Americans. Numerous studies demonstrate significant negative associations between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans. Culturally specific contexts (e.g., organized religious involvement) often function protectively against racial discrimination’s adverse effects for many African Americans. Yet organized religious involvement may affect the degree to which racial discrimination increases problematic alcohol use resulting in various alcohol use trajectories. These links remain understudied in emerging adulthood marked by when individuals transition from adolescence to early adult roles and responsibilities. We use data from 496 African American emerging adults from the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS) to (a) identify multiple and distinct alcohol use trajectories and (b) examine organizational religious involvement’s protective role. Three trajectory classes were identified: the high/stable, (20.76% of sample; n = 103); moderate/stable, (39.52% of sample; n = 196); and low/rising, (39.72% of the sample; n = 197). After controlling for sex, educational attainment, and general stress, the interaction between racial discrimination and organized religious involvement did not influence the likelihood of classifying into the moderate/stable class or the low/rising class, compared with the high/stable class. These results suggest organized religious involvement counteracts, but does not buffer racial discrimination’s effects on problematic alcohol use. Findings emphasize the critical need for culturally sensitive prevention efforts incorporating organized religious involvement for African American emerging adults exposed to racial discrimination. These prevention efforts may lessen the role of racial discrimination on health disparities related to alcohol use.

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