Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics / Comparative Feminist Studies (PDF)

Rooks, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University

"In this impressively original and profoundly iconoclastic book, Alexander-Floyd demonstrates that Black nationalisms share the same theoretical ground as the racist discourses they ostensibly oppose. Tracing the devastating effects of these mistaken assumptions on public policies, popular culture, and visions of community, she provides a powerful argument for new approaches to social justice in mainstream and minority politics." - Mary Hawkesworth, Editor, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

"In Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics, Nikol Alexander-Floyd makes a significant contribution toward broadening and deepening our understanding of the ways that both the study and practice of Black American politics is shaped by gendered ideologies. Among the book s signal accomplishments is its examination of the hegemonic status of the trope of Black cultural pathology, which, as Alexander-Floyd shows, has been a fundamental ideological rationale for such seemingly disparate phenomena as Louis Farrakhan s Million Man March, Reagan/Clinton/Bush social policy, and liberal poverty research. Students, scholars, and citizens will benefit substantially from engaging with this book s interpretations and arguments." - Adolph Reed Jr., Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania

"Alexander-Floyd s Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Politics is a provocative, thoroughly researched feminist critique of Black nationalism in the U.S. She makes a compelling case in this pioneering approach to the study of Black politics for the connections between White nationalism and Black nationalism, especially with respect to their conservative gender ideologies and masculinist rhetoric. Alexander-Floyd s interdisciplinary study is a major contribution to the scholarship on the gender politics of the most influential movement in contemporary Black America." - Beverly Guy-Sheftall, co-author of Cole of Gender Talk and Director of Women s Research & Resource Center at Spelman College