Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is assistant professor of reading, language, and literature in the division of Teacher Education at Wayne State University. She has published her work in English Journal, The ALAN Review, and Sankofa: A Journal of African Children’s and Young Adult Literature, as well as the books A Narrative Compass: Stories That Guide Women’s Lives and The Pressures of Teaching. She is an alumna of Florida A&M University, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Shanesha R. F. Brooks-Tatum is postdoctoral research and instruction fellow at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. She has published works on Christian hip-hop, spoken-word poetry, and Black popular culture, and is an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

• Contents: Marc Lamont Hill: Foreword. Oppositional Intellectual Work in the Obama Era – Shanesha R. F. Brooks-Tatum/Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: Introduction. Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era – Shawn Anthony Christian: The (New?) «Rap on Race». Historicizing Calls for Racial Dialogue in the Early Years of Barack Obama’s Presidency – Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: The Next Chapter of Our Story. Rethinking African American Metanarratives in Schooling and Society – Kafi Damali Kumasi: Double Consciousness. The Context and Consequences of Black Racial Identity in the Obama Era – Jane Bean-Folkes: Schools of Hope. Teaching Literacy in the Obama Era – Alfred W. DeFreece, Jr.: Where Do We Go from … Where? Identifying the Ideological Bases of Low-Income, Urban Black Adolescents’ Views on Racism – Shanesha R. F. Brooks-Tatum: Transformative Educational Spaces. Black Youth and Education in the 21st Century – Karen Keaton Jackson: The Obama Effect. Using a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy at a Historically African American University – Zandra L. Jordan: The Evidence of Things Not Seen. Faith and Persuasion in the Obama Era – Jamal R. Burke: Hip-Hop’s President. The Genre, His Genius, Our Generation – Kya Mangrum: «As If the Walls Could Speak». Imagining Postmemories of U.S. Slavery in the Age of Obama – Gregory L. Caldwell/Keisha L. Green: African Americans and the U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex – Nutrena Watts Tate/Jonnie Perryman Hamilton: Taking the Pulse of Our Communities. The State of Black Public Health in the Obama Era – Gloria B. Mills/Marcelle M. Haddix: Black Love as Activism. Restoring Our Families and Communities.

«[The] authors explore with subtlety, range, and perspective the complex ways the election of Barack Obama opens a new chapter in that long history. The result is a book that must be read, considered, debated, and challenged but not ignored.» (Earl Lewis, Provost and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of History and African American Studies, Emory University)«Thomas and Brooks-Tatum have compiled a tapestry of fresh, post-Civil Rights era voices who poke and probe the reality of life, advocacy, and scholarship in the age of Obama [...] Whether constructing theory, exploring definitions, or addressing public policy, the essays in this book are mind-expanding, thought-provoking, and fully engaging.» (Julianne Malveaux, President, Bennett College for Women)«While there has been an outpouring of scholarship surrounding the Obama campaign and presidency, this is the first scholarly text that is interdisciplinary, cross-generational, and responsive to a broad range of issues among a new generation [...] This anthology captures the complexities, contradictions, and paradoxes associated with this being both the best of times and the worst of times in many ways for African American families and communities. The essays are cogent, illuminating, hard-hitting, and inspirational [...]» (Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Founding Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College)