1st Edition

From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond Cultural Images and the Shaping of US Social Policy

By K. Sue Jewell Copyright 1993
    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    How do the mass media contribute to the social and economic advantages of the privileged and the subjection of African American women? Does America really care about providing equal opportunities for African American women? Passionately written and supported with detailed evidence this book shows the deeply rooted abiding cancer of oppresion in American society. It reveals the formal and informal ways in which African American women have been exluded from equal participation before and after the time of slavery. It will shock many who complacently believe that America is already a land on equality and it will give new heart to the many others who experience racism and sexism as daily facts of life.

    Chapter 1 The Status of African American Women; Chapter 2 The Social Significance of Cultural Imagery; Chapter 3 Cultural Images as Symbols of African American Womanhood; Chapter 4 Imagery of African American Womanhood; Chapter 5 Cultural Imagery of African American Women and Empiricism; Chapter 6 Gender-Oriented Social Policy; Chapter 7 The US Legal System; Chapter 8 Determining Entitlements; Chapter 9 A Microcultural Response; Chapter 10 Redefining Images of African American Womanhood and Reshaping Social Policy;

    Biography

    K. Sue Jewell is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Black Studies at The Ohio State University.

    `From Mammy to Miss America and beyond is a long overdue cultural history of African-American female subjectivity as is has been produced through the white, Anglocentric and patriachal industries of entertainment, advertising and the government. Jewell mounts a forceful project that is not only able to loosen the grip of white culture on the image of the African-American woman but demystify its ideological hegemony in order to transform existing policies and social practices towards a more just and equitable order.' - Peter McLaren, Renowned Scolar in Residence, Miami University of Ohio