The Ruptures of American Capital: Women of Color Feminism and the Culture of Immigrant Labor

by Grace Kyungwon Hong

Universality is a dangerous concept, according to Grace Kyungwon Hong, one that has contributed to the rise of the U.S. nation-state that privileges the propertied individual. However, African American, Asian American, and Chicano people experience the same stretch of city sidewalk with varying degrees of safety, visibility, and surveillance.The Ruptures of American Capital examines two key social formations—women of color feminism and racialized immigrant women’s culture—in order to argue that race and gender are contradictions within the history of U.S. capital that should be understood not as monolithic but as marked by its crises. Hong shows how women of color feminism identified ways in which nationalist forms of capital, such as the right to own property, were repressive. The Ruptures of American Capital demonstrates that racialized immigrant women’s culture has brought to light contested modes of incorporation into consumer culture.Interweaving discussion of U.S. political economy with literary analyses (including readings from Booker T. Washington to Jessica Hagedorn) Hong challenges the individualism of the United States and the fetishization of difference that is one of the markers of globalization.Grace Kyungwon Hong is assistant professor of English and Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Genres: Nonfiction, Labor, Feminism, Race, Gender, Gender and Sexuality

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Magally Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting juxtaposition of two categories that run the risk of being conflated in modern Feminist Studies: "women of color feminism" and "immigrant women's experience." She's able to do this thoughtfully by tracing shifts in political economy, thinking about the turn to globalization and flexibility of labor. Lit-heavy in a sometimes daunting way for non-specialists.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazingly dense, but well-thought out look at how comparative racialization can reveal "ruptures" or contradictions in the national and local imaginaries and material realities. But in addition to this, Hong describes and performs a comparative historical methodology that can be applied in many different contexts.

[Heather Montes Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Performs a brilliant analysis of the shift from U.S. national capital to the 'global' phase--providing insight on the form of the universality of the "possessive individual" (and the gendered and racialized modes of difference that this political economy relies upon.)

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love this book!