The color of memory: Interpreting twentieth-century U.S. social policy from a nineteenth-century perspective

Feminist Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 7-25

  Williams, Rhonda M ^a   Peterson, Carla L ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032016818     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178614     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Like many contemporary writers, we conceive of "race" as a highly mediated and historically variant social construct, a concept which organizes knowledge and informs our ways of interpreting the world. As Michael Omi and Howard Winant note, "race" refers to different types of bodies and in so doing "signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests. . . ." See Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (New York: Routledge, 1994), 55. We use "racialization" to reference the learned practice of reading phenotypes as indicative of discrete and naturally occurring breeding populations that subsume patterns of gender differentiation (and we thank Bob Gooding-Williams of Amherst College for suggesting this definition).
2. Ollie Johnson III argues that historically white and male supremacist political regimes (for example, the United States between 1790 and 1965) are misclassified as "democracies." He defines "pluralist authoritarian" regimes as those that "deny part of the adult population the ability to participate freely in formal institutional politics." In applying Johnson's analysis, we label the enfranchised members of these regimes the "authoritarian citizen." See Johnson's "Pluralist Authoritarianism in Comparative Perspective: White Supremacy, Male Supremacy, and Regime Classification," forthcoming in National Political Science Review 7 (spring 1998). For a discussion of the emergence of the United States as a herrenvolk democracy, see David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (London: Verso, 1991).
3. Ollie Johnson III argues that historically white and male supremacist political regimes (for example, the United States between 1790 and 1965) are misclassified as "democracies." He defines "pluralist authoritarian" regimes as those that "deny part of the adult population the ability to participate freely in formal institutional politics." In applying Johnson's analysis, we label the enfranchised members of these regimes the "authoritarian citizen." See Johnson's "Pluralist Authoritarianism in Comparative Perspective: White Supremacy, Male Supremacy, and Regime Classification," forthcoming in National Political Science Review 7 (spring 1998). For a discussion of the emergence of the United States as a herrenvolk democracy, see David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (London: Verso, 1991).
4. For a discussion of "romantic racialism," see George Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1987), chap. 4; on the association of Black bodies with machines, see Ronald Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), chap. 7.
5. For a discussion of "romantic racialism," see George Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1987), chap. 4; on the association of Black bodies with machines, see Ronald Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), chap. 7.
6. Takaki, chaps. 1-6.
7. The critical literature on slave narratives and African American fiction in the nineteenth century is extensive. See, for example, William L. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986); Valerie Smith, Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987); Carla L. Peterson, "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North, 1830-1880 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
8. The critical literature on slave narratives and African American fiction in the nineteenth century is extensive. See, for example, William L. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986); Valerie Smith, Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987); Carla L. Peterson, "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North, 1830-1880 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
9. The critical literature on slave narratives and African American fiction in the nineteenth century is extensive. See, for example, William L. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986); Valerie Smith, Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987); Carla L. Peterson, "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North, 1830-1880 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
10. Nancy Stepan provides a rich discussion of "races out of their places" in "Biological Degeneration: Races and Proper Places," in Degeneration: The Dark Side of Progress, ed. J. Edward Chamberlain and Sander L. Gilman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), 97-120.
11. Fredrickson, 108-17, 124.
12. Herbert Aptheker, A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States (New York: Citadel Press, 1951), 1: 82-83.
13. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," in The Moynihan Report: The Case for National Action, ed. Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967).
14. For a substantive review and feminist critique of the 1980s' literatures on the underclass, see Adolph Reed, "The Underclass as Myth and Symbol," Radical America 24, no. 1 (1990): 21-40. See also Stephen Steinberg, "The Liberal Retreat from Race during the Post-Civil Rights Era," in The House That Race Built: Black Americans, U.S. Terrain, ed. Wahneema Lubiano (New York: Pantheon Press, 1997), 13-47.
15. For a substantive review and feminist critique of the 1980s' literatures on the underclass, see Adolph Reed, "The Underclass as Myth and Symbol," Radical America 24, no. 1 (1990): 21-40. See also Stephen Steinberg, "The Liberal Retreat from Race during the Post-Civil Rights Era," in The House That Race Built: Black Americans, U.S. Terrain, ed. Wahneema Lubiano (New York: Pantheon Press, 1997), 13-47.
16. See K. Sue Jewell, From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond: Cultural Images and the Shaping of U.S. Social Policy (New York: Routledge, 1993), for a historically informed and insightful examination of the relationships between representations of Black womanhood and U.S. social policy prior to and including the 1980s.
17. For a recent sampling of Black (and some non-Black) economists' perspectives on race and economic restructuring, see African Americans and Post-Industrial Labor Markets, ed. James B. Stewart (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Press, 1997).
18. Sociologists Bonnie Thornton Dill and Rose Brewer exemplify this tradition in their works. See, for example, Dill's "A Limited Proposal for Social Reform: A Response to William J. Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 16 (December 1989): 69-76; and Brewer's "Theorizing Race, Class, and Gender: The New Scholarship of Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women's Labor," in Theorizing Black Feminisms, ed. Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia (New York: Routledge,1993), 13-30. Feminist economists Rhonda M. Williams and Julianne Malveaux similarly contextualize their analyses of African American working women, men, and their families. See Williams's "Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamic," in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, 1993), 82-96; and Malveaux's Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist (Los Angeles: Pines One Publishing, 1994), particularly chaps. 2, 3, 6, 10, and 13. See Williams, and also Brewer for an alternative account.
19. Sociologists Bonnie Thornton Dill and Rose Brewer exemplify this tradition in their works. See, for example, Dill's "A Limited Proposal for Social Reform: A Response to William J. Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 16 (December 1989): 69-76; and Brewer's "Theorizing Race, Class, and Gender: The New Scholarship of Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women's Labor," in Theorizing Black Feminisms, ed. Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia (New York: Routledge,1993), 13-30. Feminist economists Rhonda M. Williams and Julianne Malveaux similarly contextualize their analyses of African American working women, men, and their families. See Williams's "Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamic," in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, 1993), 82-96; and Malveaux's Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist (Los Angeles: Pines One Publishing, 1994), particularly chaps. 2, 3, 6, 10, and 13. See Williams, and also Brewer for an alternative account.
20. Sociologists Bonnie Thornton Dill and Rose Brewer exemplify this tradition in their works. See, for example, Dill's "A Limited Proposal for Social Reform: A Response to William J. Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 16 (December 1989): 69-76; and Brewer's "Theorizing Race, Class, and Gender: The New Scholarship of Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women's Labor," in Theorizing Black Feminisms, ed. Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia (New York: Routledge,1993), 13-30. Feminist economists Rhonda M. Williams and Julianne Malveaux similarly contextualize their analyses of African American working women, men, and their families. See Williams's "Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamic," in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, 1993), 82-96; and Malveaux's Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist (Los Angeles: Pines One Publishing, 1994), particularly chaps. 2, 3, 6, 10, and 13. See Williams, and also Brewer for an alternative account.
21. Sociologists Bonnie Thornton Dill and Rose Brewer exemplify this tradition in their works. See, for example, Dill's "A Limited Proposal for Social Reform: A Response to William J. Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 16 (December 1989): 69-76; and Brewer's "Theorizing Race, Class, and Gender: The New Scholarship of Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women's Labor," in Theorizing Black Feminisms, ed. Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia (New York: Routledge,1993), 13-30. Feminist economists Rhonda M. Williams and Julianne Malveaux similarly contextualize their analyses of African American working women, men, and their families. See Williams's "Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamic," in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams (New York: Routledge, 1993), 82-96; and Malveaux's Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist (Los Angeles: Pines One Publishing, 1994), particularly chaps. 2, 3, 6, 10, and 13. See Williams, and also Brewer for an alternative account.
22. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (New York: Free Press, 1994).
23. In collaboration with the Center for Popular Economics, feminist economists Nancy Folbre and Randy Albelda have written user-friendly texts that document the rising tides of general and racial economic inequality in the 1980s through 1990s and critique the very racist and sexist ideological and economic war against the U.S. poor fought during the same years. See Folbre and the Center for Popular Economics, New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (New York: New Press, 1995); and Folbre, Albelda, and the Center for Popular Economics, The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (New York: New Press, 1996).
24. In collaboration with the Center for Popular Economics, feminist economists Nancy Folbre and Randy Albelda have written user-friendly texts that document the rising tides of general and racial economic inequality in the 1980s through 1990s and critique the very racist and sexist ideological and economic war against the U.S. poor fought during the same years. See Folbre and the Center for Popular Economics, New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (New York: New Press, 1995); and Folbre, Albelda, and the Center for Popular Economics, The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (New York: New Press, 1996).
25. For a history of slave women, see, for example, Angela Davis, "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves," Black Scholar 3 (December 1971): 3-15; Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman? (New York: W.W. Norton, 1985).
26. For a history of slave women, see, for example, Angela Davis, "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves," Black Scholar 3 (December 1971): 3-15; Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman? (New York: W.W. Norton, 1985).
27. Niara Sudarkasa, "Interpreting the African Heritage in Afro-American Family Organization," in Black Families, ed. Harriet Pipes McAdoo (Beverly Hills: Calif.: Sage, 1981), 40-52.
28. Ibid., 45-48; Carol B. Stack, All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), 124. For another interpretation of Black families, see Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon, 1976).
29. Ibid., 45-48; Carol B. Stack, All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), 124. For another interpretation of Black families, see Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon, 1976).
30. Ibid., 45-48; Carol B. Stack, All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), 124. For another interpretation of Black families, see Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon, 1976).
31. For a more extensive development of these points see Peterson, "Doers of the Word," chaps. 3, 6, and 8; and Carla L. Peterson, "Unsettled Frontiers: Race, History, and Romance in Pauline Hopkins's Contending Forces," in Famous Last Words: Women against Novelistic Endings, ed. Alison Booth (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993).
32. For a more extensive development of these points see Peterson, "Doers of the Word," chaps. 3, 6, and 8; and Carla L. Peterson, "Unsettled Frontiers: Race, History, and Romance in Pauline Hopkins's Contending Forces," in Famous Last Words: Women against Novelistic Endings, ed. Alison Booth (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993).
33. Both feminist economists and critical race theorists continue to respond to the ongoing devolution of affirmative action. See Barbara Bergmann, In Defense of Affirmative Action (New York: Basic Books, 1996); Charles R. Lawrence III and Mari Matsuda's profoundly rich memoir-treatise, We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997).
34. Both feminist economists and critical race theorists continue to respond to the ongoing devolution of affirmative action. See Barbara Bergmann, In Defense of Affirmative Action (New York: Basic Books, 1996); Charles R. Lawrence III and Mari Matsuda's profoundly rich memoir-treatise, We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997).
35. Mary Frances Berry's 1995 essay, "Affirmative Action," provides readers with a wonderfully clear historical and legal guide to affirmative action politics, policies, and court rulings. The essay appears in the popular periodical Emerge (May 1995): 29-48.
36. For a more extensive analysis of economic restructuring and the divergent labor market outcomes for white women and African Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, see Rhonda M. Williams and M.V. Lee Badgett, "The Changing Contours of Discrimination: Race, Gender, and Structural Economic Change," in Understanding American Economic Decline, ed. Michael Bernstein and David E. Adler (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 313-29. See also Timothy Bates and David Howell, "The Status of African American Men in the New York City Construction Industry," in Race, Markets, and Social Outcomes, ed. Patrick L. Mason and Rhonda M. Williams (Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997), 15-29.
37. For a more extensive analysis of economic restructuring and the divergent labor market outcomes for white women and African Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, see Rhonda M. Williams and M.V. Lee Badgett, "The Changing Contours of Discrimination: Race, Gender, and Structural Economic Change," in Understanding American Economic Decline, ed. Michael Bernstein and David E. Adler (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 313-29. See also Timothy Bates and David Howell, "The Status of African American Men in the New York City Construction Industry," in Race, Markets, and Social Outcomes, ed. Patrick L. Mason and Rhonda M. Williams (Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997), 15-29.
38. The literature on auditing tests for market discrimination continues to grow. The essays in Clear and Convincing Evidence, ed. Michael Fix and Raymond Struyk (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1992), provide a balanced introduction and overview. Ian Ayres and Peter Siegelman present their findings on price discrimination in the auto market in "Race and Gender Discrimination in Bargaining for a New Car," American Economic Review 85 (June 1995): 304-21.
39. The literature on auditing tests for market discrimination continues to grow. The essays in Clear and Convincing Evidence, ed. Michael Fix and Raymond Struyk (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1992), provide a balanced introduction and overview. Ian Ayres and Peter Siegelman present their findings on price discrimination in the auto market in "Race and Gender Discrimination in Bargaining for a New Car," American Economic Review 85 (June 1995): 304-21.
40. Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
41. Philip S. Foner, The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (New York: International Publishers, 1950), 2: 223-25.
42. Marsha Jean Darling, "'We Have Come This Far by Our Own Hands': A Tradition of African American Self-Help and Philanthropy and the Growth of Corporate Philanthropic Giving to African Americans," in African Americans and the New Policy Consensus: Retreat of the Liberal State? ed. Marilyn E. Lashley and Melanie Njeri Jackson (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), 132.
43. Maria W. Stewart, "Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build," in Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer, ed. Marilyn Richardson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 37.