Patricia Hill Collins is a social issue theorist and author whose work has focused primarily on sexuality, gender, and race[1]. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism is a literary work that explores the role of hip hop music and its correlation to gangs. The book uses those themes to particularly explore their direct correlation to the African American experience in the United States. Much of the book's content is founded upon the musical genre, hip hop, and as a result there is also a tangential focus on the youth and how sex[uality], racism, and classism aids in their development. Not only does she explore hip hop, but she also sets out to put black feminist thought in a global perspective outside of the United States.[1]
Collins' work is a collection of essays that had been previously published.[2] In total, there are six essays which are furthered divided into three parts. Although the book's title hints at a chronological orientation between the Black Liberation movement and its succession to the modern day Hip Hop Generation, the text actually serves as a rhetoric for black feminism thought[2].Feminism with the intersectional approach featuring women of colors, often referred to as womanism, makes an appearance through Collin's text by examining women of color as 'outsiders within.' With this structure she explores figures of the Domestic Worker and the Welfare Mother to place a critique on gendered and racial hierarchies.[3]
References
edit- ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/40301319?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
- ^ http://www.genderforum.org/issues/gender-and-language/patricia-hill-collins-from-black-power-to-hip-hop-racism-nationalism-and-feminism-philadelphia-temple-university-press-2006/
- ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/40301319?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents