{"id":1247,"date":"2016-03-21T12:39:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2016-03-21T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T18:25:11","slug":"entitlement-moving-beyond-the-bounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1247","title":{"rendered":"entitlement: moving beyond the bounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past few days I have been reading <\/span>Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo <\/span><\/i>along side Aimee Cox\u2019 <\/span>Shapeshifters: Blacks Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship <\/span><\/i>and \u00a0Jamaica Kincaid\u2019s <\/span>The Auto<\/span><\/i>biography <\/span>of My Mother<\/span><\/i>, and Cox\u2019 highlighted the role of entitlement in solidifying and validating the black girl\u2019s citizenship. Alongside alluding to the importance of entitlement, I have been able to complicate and \u00a0rethink the narrative of black girlhood I have been working with. Firstly, Chapter 4, \u201cMammies, Matriarchs and Other Controlling Images\u201d of Patricia Hill Collins <\/span>Black Feminist Thought <\/span><\/i>and Hortense Spillers\u2019 \u201cMama\u2019s baby, Papa\u2019s Maybe: An American Grammar Book\u201d have allowed me to think about ways that the black girl body has been gendered and ungendered, which leaves room for rethink the limitations that are presented in my original thesis. Thus encouraging me to expand the boundaries and furthering my analysis by thinking about the ways in which black trans girls narratives are black girls \u00a0narratives, which means \u00a0reimagining and rethinking \u00a0our existences within our specific contexts which Xuela, the protagonist of Kincaid\u2019s, <\/span>The Autobiography of My Mother <\/span><\/i>allowed us to do via dreaming and time traveling<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cox\u2019s radical and complex application of entitlement is fundamental to the self-determination and self-definition Shange discusses in <\/span>Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, <\/span><\/i>except it goes into the legalities, what I would like to think of as the externalized factors which causes the internalized impacts that Shange tries combat by providing modes and methods to heal. As stated in <\/span>Shapeshifters:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cEntitlement typically connotes greed and undeserved \u00a0favor when used in conversations that mention Black or poor members of society. This is especially true when talking about low-income young Black women. We need only to refer to the Reagan-era discourse that continues to unjustly haunt welfare recipients who happen \u00a0to be young, female, and Black. Entitlement as theorized by Janice-the central figure in this ethnography-and the other young Black women in this book, however, is an empowered statement that disputes the idea that only certain people are worthy of the rights of citizenship and the ability to direct the course of their lives.\u201d (viii)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kincaid:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I heard small rumblings coming from deep within Morne Trois Pitons, I believe I smelled sulfur fumes rising up from the Boiling Lake. And that is how I claimed my birthright, East and West, Above and Below, Water and Land: In a dream. I walked through my inheritance, an island of villages and rivers \u00a0and mountains and people who began and ended with murder and theft and not very much love. I claimed it in a dream. Exhausted from the agony of expelling from my body a child I could not love and so did not want, I dreamed of all the things that were mine.\u201d (89)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shange:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMakin cloth, bein a woman & longin <\/span><\/p>\n

to be of the earth <\/span><\/p>\n

A rooted blues <\/span><\/p>\n

some ripe berries <\/span><\/p>\n

happenin inside<\/span><\/p>\n

spirits <\/span><\/p>\n

walkin in a dirt road <\/span><\/p>\n

toes dusted & free <\/span><\/p>\n

faces \u00a0movin windy<\/span><\/p>\n

brisk like<\/span><\/p>\n

dawn round<\/span><\/p>\n

gingham windows &<\/span><\/p>\n

opened eyes <\/span><\/p>\n

reelin to days<\/span><\/p>\n

ready-made<\/span><\/p>\n

nature\u2019s image <\/span><\/p>\n

i\u2019m rejoicin<\/span><\/p>\n

with a throat deep <\/span><\/p>\n

shout & slow<\/span><\/p>\n

like a river<\/span><\/p>\n

gatherin<\/span><\/p>\n

Space\u201d (80)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201ci am \u00a0sassafrass\/ a weaver\u2019s daughter\/from charleston\/i\u2019m a woman makin cloth like all good women do\/the moon\u2019s daughter made cloth\/ the gold array of sun\/ the moon\u2019s daughter sat all night\/ spinnin\/i have inherited fingers that change fleece to tender garments\/ i am the maker of warmth & emblems of good spirit\/mama didnt ya show me how\u201d (80)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The selected speaks to \u00a0the right, the entitlement, the various \u00a0forms of citizenship the black girls should have access to, the re-magination and the imagination of black girlhood. Entitlement through legalities and through dreams and through being. The bounds of entitlement is mobile as well historical and contemporary.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1000 hours of jazz & blues record I discovered thanks to a friend who shared it facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past few days I have been reading Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo along side Aimee Cox\u2019 Shapeshifters: Blacks Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship and \u00a0Jamaica Kincaid\u2019s The Autobiography of My Mother, and Cox\u2019 highlighted the role of entitlement in solidifying and validating the black girl\u2019s citizenship. Alongside alluding to the importance of entitlement, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,310,1],"tags":[381,382,383],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogposts","category-reading-zake","category-uncategorized","tag-blackgirlhood","tag-entitlement","tag-reimagination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}