The New Black Sociologists follows in the footsteps of 1974’s pioneering text Black Sociologists: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, by tracing the organization of its forbearer in key thematic ways. This new collection of essays revisit the legacies of significant Black scholars including James E. Blackwell, William Julius Wilson, Joyce Ladner, and Mary Pattillo, but also extends coverage to include overlooked figures like Audre Lorde, Ida B. Wells, James Baldwin and August Wilson - whose lives and work have inspired new generations of Black sociologists on contemporary issues of racial segregation, feminism, religiosity, class, inequality and urban studies.
Table of Contents:
Introduction. Part One: HIDDEN FIGURES. 1 #SayHerName: Why Black Women Matter in Sociology. 2 Rewriting Wright: A Note on Perspective in Method and Writing. 3 James Baldwin and the Lay Race Theorist Tradition. 4 Black versus European: Frantz Fanon and the Over determination of Blackness. 5 The Sociology of Stuart Hall. 6 The Cigar Annie's of August Wilson: Ethnographically Unmasking Black Women's Invisibility. 7 Zora Neale Hurston and Ethnography of Black Life. 8 Poking and Prying With a Purpose: Zora Neale Hurston and Black Feminist Sociology. Part Two: BEHIND THE VEIL. 9 When and Where I Always Enter: An Auto-Ethnographic Approach to Black Women's Body Size Politics in Academia. 10 School Daze: Patricia Hill Collins, a College Classroom, and a New Sociology of Race. 11 A History of White Violence Tells Us Attacks on Black Academics are not Ending (I know because it happened to me). 12 A Love Letter to Black Graduate Students. 13 No Fucks to Give: Dismantling the Respectability Politics of White Supremacist Sociology. Part Three: BLACK ON BOTH SIDES. 14 For, By and About: Notes on a Sociology of Black Liberation. 15 The Evolution of #BlackLivesMatter. 16 William Julius Wilson and the Study of the 'New' Diversity Elite Colleges. 17 Black in Business and Ain't It Grand: Sharon M. Collins and the Re-Imagination of Black Professional Life. 18 Why Research on the Global Black Middle Class is Essential. 19 On Second Sight, Surveillance & the Black Planet: Notes on a New Framework. 20 The New Black Sociology: Bringing Diasporic & Internationalist Perspectives. References. Notes.
About the Author :
Marcus Anthony Hunter is Chair of the Department of African American Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology, and he holds the Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is co-author of the forthcoming Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life (2018) and the author of Black Citymakers: How the Philadelphia Negro Changed Urban America (2013), which was a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award in 2013. His research and areas of specialization are in race; sexuality; urban race relations; and politics, history and change with a focus on urban black Americans.
Review :
Fanon said that "every generation must find its mission" and this generation’s mission is clearly articulated in The New Black Sociologists. The new black sociology should be unconditionally black feminist and intersectional, adopt a more international perspective, recognize the importance of "lay theorists" and experiential knowledge, and be deeply committed to defending black people against the physical and emotional violence racism and the racists inflict on them. We are all indebted to Marcus Anthony Hunter for gathering these powerful voices in this book, a book destined to become a classic!
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University, Author of Racism without Racists
Once in a great while a book comes along to reveal the field of Sociology’s smugness about race, about black identity, about whiteness. Once in a great while a book challenges the mainstream sociology of racism, or even reinvents it, putting black scholars at the center of its account. In the tradition of Joyce Ladner and Patricia Hill Collins, and firmly situated in the legacy of W.E.B Du Bois, Marcus Anthony Hunter’s edited collection, The New Black Sociologists, is such a book. Highly recommended for course adoption!
Howard Winant, University of California, Santa Barbara
Bravo! Another must-read book from the Black critical tradition. From its beginning Black social analysts have led in critically understanding this country’s still-foundational white racism. Here contemporary Black critical sociologists not only assess known and forgotten thought leaders and activists of the past and present, but also provocatively research and weigh contemporary racial, class, gender issues their critical heritage enables them to comprehend more clearly than most analysts of our era.
Joe R. Feagin, Texas A&M University, Author of The White Racial Frame, 2e
