Imagining a nation: Cultural politics and transformative social action among late-twentieth century African-American women

Social science rarely studies African American women's socio-political activism and acts of "everyday resistance." Even though 66 percent of Blacks belong to middle- or upper-socio-economic groups, anthropology's research concerning African-American women usually represents them as impoverished, powerless and passive victims of social inequities and in ways that confirm racial stereotypes. This study of middle- and upper-class Black women's use of cultural political strategies, including ethnic identification, cultural symbols, social affiliations, hegemonic discourse and participation in transformative social action is framed by three theoretical concepts: First, emphasizing ethnicity can effect social change; second, cultural symbols and social affiliations have political functions; and third, self-help social activism, everyday talk and practices which deny dominant ideas and offer alternative explanations are forms of political resistance. Research for this dissertation involved collecting data from fifty-five African American women (ages twenty-one through ninety-one years old, 57 percent with masters or doctoral college degrees) from all national regions. Research methods included focused personal interviews, reviews of popular cultural media the women read or watched (e.g., Essence magazine and the Essence Awards Ceremonies) and participant observation at meetings and ceremonies of their social affiliations (e.g., the National Council of Negro Women, national Protestant denominational conventions and local church services). Texts from these sources were subjected to trope, narrative and discourse analysis. Comparison of the experiential tropes in texts of women by generation of birth---Generation I (1900--1920), Generation II (1921--1940), Generation III (1941--1960) and Generation IV (born after 1960)---found that women who were exposed to a greater emphasis on ethnicity in early life reported several common experiences. These include: fewer incidences of race-based discrimination as influencing their self identification; differences in the political strategies they advocated or used, and in their perceived arena of political influence. Discourse analysis of the interviews, meetings and media texts suggests that these women and others like them are constructing an "Imagined Nation" on an ideological terrain through production of crosscutting class and gender alliances, a unified national/transnational consciousness, and expropriation of symbolic and material modes of subordination. These strategies prepare them to be powerful social forces in a leading class forming an alternative hegemony in coming years modifying capitalism to bring social equity for all people, especially people of color world-wide.