HIS 328

Black Gender and Sexuality in U.S. Culture

In this course, we will trace the development of ideas and cultural debates about black gender and sexuality in U.S. culture. We will emphasize several things. One is how whites have used ideas about black man-/womanhood to define what it means to be "black" and the impact these definitions have had on public policy and social practices. Another is how blacks have resisted these characterizations (and the social inequality that often resulted from them), created their own definitions of their gender and sexual identities, and tried to shape public policy and social practices in ways that reflected these self conceptions. A third focus will be debates within black communities regarding appropriate gender and sexual norms, conflicts rooted in class, gender, sexual, and political differences (among others).

Units: 3.0