Just Between Sisters: Gender, Race, Class, Sexuality, and Relationships of Mixed-Race Women and Girls (AMS) (HRJ) (GEN) (HUM) HUMN 7302Posted in Course Offerings, Media Archive, United States, Women on 2012-03-14 18:07Z by Steven |
Southern Methodist University
Fall 2012
Evelyn L. Parker, Associate Professor of Practical Theology
In 1967 the US Supreme Court ruled state miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Instituted in 1691, the state laws sought to prevent sexual mixing across racial lines protecting the “purity” of European Americans. Since 1967 the population of mixed-race children has more than tripled. Among the demands of mixed-race people have been new census policy that recognizes various ways of expressing their identity. Additionally, the mixed-race movement has raised awareness about their experiences and inspired the development of Mixed-race Studies in academic settings. Among the many issues of Mixed-race Studies there are questions about female relationships and intersectional questions of race, gender, class, and sexuality that merit examination. The intersectional questions refer to Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, ways in which race and gender interact to shape the multiple dimensions of black women’s lives. Crenshaw argues that the intersection of racism and sexism operate in black women’s lives in ways that a single dimensional analysis fails to reveal. This course builds on Crenshaw’s concept to explore the various ways race, gender, class and sexuality intersect in shaping the identity of mixed-race women and girls and their relationships with other women and girls. Through the use of novels, memoirs, and film, this course focuses on intersectional and relational questions of first generation African/African Diasporic (black) and European (white) mixed-race women and girls. This course may be applied to the following curricular field concentrations: American Studies, Gender Studies, Human Rights and Social Justice, and Humanities.