Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women

by Brittney Cooper

Beyond Respectability charts the development of African American women as public intellectuals and the evolution of their thought from the end of the 1800s through the Black Power era of the 1970s. Eschewing the Great Race Man paradigm so prominent in contemporary discourse, Brittney C. Cooper looks at the far-reaching intellectual achievements of female thinkers and activists like Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Fannie Barrier Williams, Pauli Murray, and Toni Cade Bambara. Cooper delves into the processes that transformed these women and others into racial leadership figures, including long-overdue discussions of their theoretical output and personal experiences. As Cooper shows, their body of work critically reshaped our understandings of race and gender discourse. It also confronted entrenched ideas of how--and who--produced racial knowledge.

Genres: History, Feminism, Nonfiction, Race, Sociology, Social Justice, Womens

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2017

About the author

Brittney Cooper is a writer, teacher, and public speaker. She thinks Black feminism can change the world for the better.

Brittney is Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University. She is co-founder of the popular Crunk Feminist Collective blog. And she is a contributing writer for Cosmopolitan.com and a former contributor to Salon.com. Her cultural commentary has been featured on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris-Perry, Al Jazeera’s Third Rail, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, PBS, Ebony.com, Essence.com, TheRoot.com, and TED.com.

Dr. Cooper is co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection (The Feminist Press 2017). She is author of Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women (University of Illinois Press, May 2017) and Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (St. Martin’s, February 2018).

Reviews

[Cherisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book because it reaffirmed what I have always known to be true, that black women were thinkers and activists. Brittany Cooper expertly centers black women as intellectuals and knowledge producers in a history that dates back to the nineteenth century. I especially loved the last line of the book, "Black women are serious thinkers, and it's our scholarly duty to take them seriously." I took my time reading Cooper's work because I wanted to "sit with it" and absorb every ounce of this masterful contribution to intellectual history.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Beyond Respectability, Dr. Brittney Cooper affirms Black women's intellectual thought by tracing it's lineage beginning with figures like Pauline Hopkins, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Pauli Murray, and Frances Barrier Williams. This work is not a biographical undertaking, but a reckoning that situates the history of Black women's intellectual thought as long, deep, and far reaching. She takes extreme care not to compare these women's theories against that of promeninent race men, or even to one another, but instead demonstratea how these theories, considered fully, give birth to feminist conception of race, class, and gender. I wish that this book has been around when I was in college to help shape and challenge my nascent understandings of Black intellectualism which at the time mostly centered race men. Highly recommended read.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brittney Cooper's genealogy of black American female intellectuals fills in the margins that Hazel Carby left open at the end of Reconstructing Womanhood. Cooper focuses principally on a genealogy that begins with Frances Williams and the start of the National Association of Colored Women and carries forward to Patricia Hill Collins and Alice Walker. Cooper's writing is easily accessible and thought provoking as she challenges both the need to keep these women authors in critical circulation and how these women defy much of what has been generally accepted about the Civil Rights Movement (that it was principally a man's movement) and the evolution of ideas (such as Mary Church Terrell's own ideas that would anticipate what Kimberlé Crenshaw would call intersectionality). This book has value for historians and those fascinated by black feminist studies alike.

[Krystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deconstructs the scholarship of black women about their existence, challenging such layers as race, class, and gender, with attention to detail, spanning historical thought to present.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put it down. I sat down expecting to read just the prologue and introduction, but kept on reading all the way to end. Excellent and highly engaging!

[Jessica M Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put some respect on my mind!

I am a race woman, and I want my mind to be honored.

In Cooper's book, she elegantly reminds us of the women who marked the world with their thoughts (i.e., we have intellectuals like, Fannie Williams, Mary Terrell, Pauli Murry, Toni Bambara, and Anna Cooper who have aroused the public sphere.)
Gender roles and society's norms apropos of the sexes torment women today (although it is done covertly.)

Cooper shared with me the Black intellectual history vis-a-vis to feminism. And, it allowed my mind to formulate extraordinary thoughts. Just as we discovered that Caucasians could not accurately define and analyze our thoughts and identity as people of color, we can apply this thought on a micro level concerning the sexes. Could Black intellectual men faithfully transmit their ideas to understand women of color? It is evident that women should study themselves. Our mission, as women, is to assert to the Universe and all who thrive on this plane of life, that we are WOMEN as well as intellectuals. We deserve credit when analyzing our people.

Today, women of color are still at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale, and something must be done. We have to battle with racism in this white supremacist society, as well as endure the consequences of male superiority. We are creators, and our ancestors would be displeased with our docileness. It's time to wake up from our dreams ladies.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

IQ "Anti respectable in its rejection of traditional gender roles, Blackhood as a form of revolutionary, queer, Black racial sociality, had the potential-and indeed even the intrinsic demand-to formulate new ideas about the performance of Black gender identities." (137)

BEYOND RESPECTABILITY is an engaging academic take on the contribution to feminism and history of these 'race women'. These women had to tackle class, gender and race issues as critics told them to keep quiet given their status as middle/upper class Black women, their refusal to back down results in an inspiring history lesson. A little more dense than I was expecting but a much needed read on some formidable Black women who served as public intellectuals throughout our country's history. And my love for Mary Church Terrell has continued to grow.

"Black women's leadership memoirs have been a critical site for the articulation of their intellectual and political goals. Less concerned with the interiority of their subjects, this genre afforded Black women, particularly those who emerged during the 1890s, the opportunity to theorize about race and gender politics in ways that their lack of access to producing more formal academic texts did not." (68)

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
Review to come

[Lana Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women" by Brittney Cooper was an interesting read. It has taken me some time to complete it because I initially found it to be dense and academic and put it aside for a while. When I returned, I found it much more enjoyable. I like the title, which is why I bought the book., and the information, research, and Cooper's perspective is new and refreshing in this time of works by and about African American women in history. Her work of "Putting Black Women on the List' is important because it reconstituted Black women's historic practice of listing through the form of the literary anthology." Cooper deals with a number of issues that are currently and historically have been important to African American women, intellectuals, including those of race, gender, and respectability. I recommend her book for women who are interested in understanding the development of the aforementioned issues in the lives of African American women.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this author's book Eloquent Rage, so I was curious to read this. However, I have to admit I cheated a bit: After reading the prologue and introduction, I skipped chapters one and two, and only read the last two chapters and the epilogue. I'm not reading the book as a scholar, just reading for pleasure, so I hope I can be forgiven for skipping over the chapters about the building of respectability culture and going directly to the "beyond respectability" chapters, which were brilliant. I had just seen the new film about Bayard Rustin, in which Anna Arnold Hedgeman figures prominently, so I was glad to learn more about her in this book. Also very interested in the chapter on Pauli Murray, of course. Highly recommended for those who have any curiosity about the subject. And if you don't have any curiosity about this subject, maybe at least skim this book so you can develop that curiosity.

[gnarlyhiker · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women” is well-argued, well-written and informative. It is a perfect read for those readers who are not familiar with Black women intellectuals and activist from the 19th and 20th century, as well as to the present. 3.5

good luck

**ARC/publisher/Netgalley

[Camara Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, my favorite book of this year. The seriousness with which Cooper takes Black women intellectuals is refreshing and affirming. Despite the complexity of the language, this book is written accessibly. Without a doubt, this book should be included the syllabi of anyone teaching American/Modern Political Philosophy and Thought.

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooper's work is necessary! She busts through the wall silencing and erasing Black Women's intellectual timeline through the 19th-20th century and beckons more work be done!
Beyond Respectability is a book for anyone open to learning more about great Black Female intellectuals whose stories have gone unheard for too long. A required reading for anyone committed to anti-racist activism!

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read that taught me a lot about the work of black women intellectuals. I really appreciate Cooper's assertion that it is not enough to just remember and perform triage to black feminists/black women (Cooper's distinction between the two is not clear), but to actually engage with the work they provided.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

More academic than I was expecting because I didn't read any information about it before I picked it up. I still loved the book. Cooper's writing is clear and precise and her arguments are compelling. Beyond Respectability introduced me to public intellectuals who I had previously known nothing.

[Ida Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional read

This book presented a different perspective on the Race Woman. There is an abundance amount of information on past and present Intellectual black women. This is a great read for scholars, students and historians.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made it through this book and learned a lot, but personally am not fond of highly academic language and using technical words when simpler ones would do. That aside, this was a fascinating travel through Black women intellectual thought from the late 1800s to the present.

[Sonya]

This is an academic read; but I powered through gaining important understanding. I will read Black feminist literature through a different lens as a result of Ms. Cooper's book; she gives a framework for interrogation of these works.

[jacquelyn harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

very important read on the impact of the race woman and the incredibly essential influence of Black intellectual thought from the womanist/Black feminist lens! ...but also quite inaccessible outside of the academic context and a bit dense

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really insightful and a much needed analysis on Black women’s contribution to Black political thinking throughout American history

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was not an easy read but worth it to learn about a list (that's a loaded word with this book) of Black female intellectuals from the late 1800s to the 1970s. Well done.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was really interesting, and it may be because of my own headspace right now or that I'm getting too old for the tiny font, but I had up and down responses to some of the arguments made. Or maybe it was a mixed reaction to how they were presented. Like chapter 4 was a delight and I was really engaged with the discussion about political theory (Black power and Black feminism) but chapter 3's treatment of Pauli Murray's personal life made me really uncomfortable.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is completely unfamiliar with black women in the public sphere and activism, I found this to be extremely enlightening. It's very well written and informative.

[Cubierocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dense and worthwhile read - would definitely recommend.

[Melita Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh, Ineeded this book to awaken the brain cells!
This book challenges the way I think of black women. I do not think they are any different from me apart from skin colour. The author argues that academic black women need to be taken as seriously as white men, I suggest that all women need to be taken as seriously as men.
"A white woman has only one handicap to overcome- that of sex, I have two, both sex and race." Writes Terrell in the 1920s. But is that the same today?
Black women have gone through so much. During slavery if a woman was raped it was seen not as a crime toward her, but toward her owner.
Since emancipation there has been segregation and the civil rights movement. Both genders were involved but the author suggests that thought was black women had to support the men to regain their status and be good, humble wives.
The author doesn't appear to have much time for white women, always reaching for the same status as white men., and she challenges the perception of black woman throughout. I believe Historical events have leyft deep rooted ideology which will take many generations to resolve. The emotions are like a huge wave crashing onto a beach. The impact hits with great force and as it recedes slowly it drags the shingle and clusters of pebbles in its wake slowly but surely eroding the memories leaving an environment clear of debris.
It's a challenging read, not for the fainthearted. However if you are studying American history of. Or women's rights this is a good book to use,

[Mills College Library]

305.48896 C7763 2017

[Sarah left GR]

http://dh.jmjafrx.com/2018/01/27/blac...