Synopses & Reviews
Race has long shaped shopping experiences for many Americans. Retail exchanges and establishments have made headlines as flashpoints for conflict not only between blacks and whites, but also between whites, Mexicans, Asian Americans, and a wide variety of other ethnic groups, who have at times found themselves unwelcome at white-owned businesses.and#160;and#160;
Race and Retail documents the extent to which retail establishments, both past and present, have often catered to specific ethnic and racial groups. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the original essays collected here explore selling and buying practices of nonwhite populations around the world and the barriers that shape these habits, such as racial discrimination, food deserts, and gentrification. The contributors highlight more contemporary issues by raising questions about how race informs business ownersandrsquo; ideas about consumer demand, resulting in substandard quality and higher prices for minorities than in predominantly white neighborhoods. and#160;In a wide-ranging exploration of the subject, they also address revitalization and gentrification in South Korean and Latino neighborhoods in California, Arab and Turkish coffeehouses and hookah lounges in South Paterson, New Jersey, and tourist capoeira consumption in Brazil. and#160;and#160;
Race and Retail illuminates the complex play of forces at work in racialized retail markets and the everyday impact of those forces on minority consumers. The essays demonstrate how past practice remains in force in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.and#160;and#160;
Review
andquot;Thoroughly researched, well-argued, and clearly written, Making a Promised Land is a fine piece of work, providing new insight in its attention to visual culture in Harlem.andquot;and#160;
Review
andquot;In this elegant, evocative study, Massood explores the relationshipand#160;between African American representation and urban life as documentedand#160;in still and moving images over the past century . . . a compelling analysisand#160;of the changing image of Harlem in the cultural imaginary.andquot;
Review
andquot;Massood focuses on Harlem and the representations of African American bodies and spaces in photographs and films in her engaging book,
Making a Promised Land.andquot;
Review
andquot;Examining still and moving images of Harlem over the last century, Massood thoughtfully analyzes two popular visual mediums of the 20th century, photography and film, as new modes of historical interpretation. The author examines African American urban history with a sharp eye for enlightening visual portrayals. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;This well-written, meticulously researched, and forcefully argued study explores the repression of civil rights on the American screen and the struggle of African American activists to find civil rights among the cinematic images that ignored 'the Black need for freedom.'andquot;
Review
andquot;Ellen C. Scott has written an authoritative, compelling, wide-ranging and always illuminating history of the institutionally-based politics of racial representation in the classical studio era. A truly essential volume.andquot;
Review
andquot;Ellen C. Scottand#39;s deeply researched study of film censorship and Black film protests reveals that deep anxieties, rather than stereotypical certainties, structure representations of Blackness in classical Hollywood cinema.andquot;
Review
andquot;This is the most important book on race and consumerism in many years.andquot;
Review
andquot;Simply put, this is a deliciously engaging book. The authors weave a rich and well-paced narrative of a network of 'literary sisters,' determined to write despite only dribbling support from the literary establishment. But more than that, the book broadens and deepens our knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance, while correcting so many misconceptions surrounding its fabled artists.andquot;
Review
andquot;With this biography, Mitchell and Davis complete a trilogy of studies of the novelist Dorothy West, poet Helene Johnson, and the women they wrote with, traveled with, performed with, and slept with during the Harlem Renaissance. Highly recommended.andquot;
Synopsis
In Making a Promised Land, Paula J. Massood examines the interconnected histories of African American representation, urban life, and citizenship as documented in still and moving images of Harlem over the last century. She analyzes how photography and film have been used over time to make African American culture visible to itself and to a wider audience and charts the ways in which Harlem, the andldquo;Mecca of the New Negro,andrdquo; became a battleground in the struggles to define African American politics, aesthetics, and citizenship.
Synopsis
Making a Promised Land examines the interconnected histories of African American representation, urban life, and citizenship as documented in still and moving images of Harlem over the last century. Paula J. Massood analyzes how photography and film have been used over time to make African American culture visible to itself and to a wider audience and charts the ways in which the "Mecca of the New Negro" became a battleground in the struggle to define American politics, aesthetics, and citizenship. Visual media were first used as tools for uplift and education. With Harlem's downturn in fortunes through the 1930s, narratives of black urban criminality became common in sociological tracts, photojournalism, and film. These narratives were particularly embodied in the gangster film, which was adapted to include stories of achievement, economic success, and, later in the century, a nostalgic return to the past. Among the films discussed are
Fights of Nations (1907),
Dark Manhattan (1937),
The Cool World (1963),
Black Caesar (1974),
Malcolm X (1992), and
American Gangster (2007). Massood asserts that the history of photography and film in Harlem provides the keys to understanding the neighborhood's symbolic resonance in African American and American life, especially in light of recent urban redevelopment that has redefined many of its physical and demographic contours.
Synopsis
Making a Promised Land examines the interconnected histories of African American representation, urban life, and citizenship as documented in still and moving images of Harlem over the last century. Paula J. Massood analyzes how photography and film have been used over time to make African American culture visible to itself and to a wider audience and charts the ways in which the andldquo;Mecca of the New Negroandrdquo; became a battleground in the struggle to define American politics, aesthetics, and citizenship.and#160;Visual media were first used as tools for uplift and education. With Harlemandrsquo;s downturn in fortunes through the 1930s, narratives of black urban criminality became common in sociological tracts, photojournalism, and film. These narratives were particularly embodied in the gangster film, which was adapted to include stories of achievement, economic success, and, later in the century, a nostalgic return to the past. Among the films discussed are Fights of Nations (1907), Dark Manhattan (1937), The Cool World (1963), Black Caesar (1974), Malcolm X (1992), and American Gangster (2007).and#160;Massood asserts that the history of photography and film in Harlem provides the keys to understanding the neighborhoodandrsquo;s symbolic resonance in African American and American life, especially in light of recent urban redevelopment that has redefined many of its physical and demographic contours.
Synopsis
Cinema Civil Rights presents the untold history of how black audiences, activists, and lobbyists influenced the depiction of race in American films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Drawing from extensive archival research, Ellen C. Scott takes us to the sites, both inside and outside of Hollywood, where these representations were shaped. She thus offers a nuanced examination of the film industryandrsquo;s role in both articulating and censoring the national conversation on race.and#160;
Synopsis
From Al Jolson in blackface to Song of the South, there is a long history of racism in Hollywood film. Yet as early as the 1930s, movie studios carefully vetted their releases, removing racially offensive language like the andldquo;N-word.andrdquo; This censorship did not stem from purely humanitarian concerns, but rather from worries about boycotts from civil rights groups and loss of revenue from African American filmgoers.
Cinema Civil Rightsand#160;presents the untold history of how Black audiences, activists, and lobbyists influenced the representation of race in Hollywood in the decades before the 1960s civil rights era. Employing a nuanced analysis of power, Ellen C. Scott reveals how these representations were shaped by a complex set of negotiations between various individuals and organizations. Rather than simply recounting the perspective of film studios, she calls our attention to a variety of other influential institutions, from protest groups to state censorship boards.
Scott demonstrates not only how civil rights debates helped shaped the movies, but also how the movies themselves provided a vital public forum for addressing taboo subjects like interracial sexuality, segregation, and lynching. Emotionally gripping, theoretically sophisticated, and meticulously researched,and#160;Cinema Civil Rightsand#160;presents us with an in-depth look at the film industryandrsquo;s role in both articulating and censoring the national conversation on race.
Synopsis
Race and Retail documents the extent to which retail establishments, both past and present, have often catered to specific ethnic and racial groups. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the original essays collected here explore selling and buying practices of nonwhite populations around the world and the barriers that shape these habits, such as racial discrimination, food deserts, and gentrification.and#160;and#160;
Synopsis
Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West led a charmed life in many respects. Literary Sisters reveals a different side of Westandrsquo;s personal and professional livesandmdash;her struggles for recognition outside of the traditional literary establishment, and her collaborations with talented African American women writers, artists, and performers who faced these same problems. Integrating rare photos, letters, and archival materials from Westandrsquo;s life, Literary Sisters is not only a groundbreaking biography of an increasingly important author but also a vivid portrait of a pivotal moment for African American women in the arts.
About the Author
VERNER D. MITCHELL is an associate professor of English at the University of Memphis. He is the editor of This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
CYNTHIA DAVIS is a professor of English and chair of General Education (ACE) at Barry University. She is the author of Dynamic Communication for Engineers and (with Verner D. Mitchell) Dorothy West: Where the Wild Grape Grows and Western Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance: The Life and Writings of Anita Scott Coleman.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. andquot;Nothing So Broadening as Travelandquot;: Porgy, 1929
2. The Benson Family Comes to Boston
3. Pauline Hopkins and African American Literature in New England
4. Boston Girlhoods, 1910-1925
5. The Youngest Members of the Harlem Renaissance, 1926-1931
6. The Russian Interlude, Literary Salons, and Challenge
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index