African American Communication & Identities

Ronald L. Jackson II (Ph. D., Howard University) is Associate Professor of Culture and Communication Theory in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. He is author of The Negotiation of Cultural Identity (Praeger Press), Think About It! (Iuniverse.com), African American Communication: Identity and Culture (with Michael Hecht and Sidney Ribeau; Erlbaum Publishers). Forthcoming are five books entitled: African American Rhetorics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (with Elaine Richardson; Southern Illinois University Press); Scripting the Black Masculine Body in Popular Media: Identity, Discourse and Racial Politics in Popular Media (SUNY Press), Essential Readings in African American Communication Studies and Understanding African American Rhetoric (with Elaine Richardson). Dr. Jackson's theory work includes the development of two paradigms coined "cultural contracts theory" and "black masculine identity theory."

In this compelling anthology, editor Ronald L. Jackson II explores constitutive aspects of African American communication behaviors as they relate to how African Americans define themselves culturally. Readers benefit from a plethora of research on African Americans related to almost every area of communication inquiry, including theory and identity; language, performance, and rhetoric; interpersonal relationships; gendered contexts; organizational and instructional contexts; and mass mediated contexts.Endowing the field with an intellectual legacy of issues, challenges, needs, and paradigms, African American Communication and Identities is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in Communication Studies and African American Studies courses. This volume is also an excellent reader for advanced courses in intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication, race relations, and interethnic communication.

SECTION 1. THEORETIC APPROACHES TO AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITIESCh 1. How I Got Over: Communication Dynamics in the Black Community - Jack L. Daniel and Geneva SmithermanCh 2. The Afrocentric Idea - Molefi Kete AsanteCh 3. Complicity: The Theory of Negative Difference - Mark Lawrence McPhailCh 4. Black Kinesics: Some Nonverbal Communication Patterns in Black Culture - Kenneth R. JohnsonCh 5. Improvisation as a Performance Strategy for African-based Theatre - Joni L. JonesSECTION 2. AFRICAN AMERICAN RHETORIC AND LANGUAGECh 6. A Dilemma of Black Communication Scholars: The Challenge of Finding New Rhetorical Tools - Deborah F. AtwaterCh 7. African American Ethos and Hermeneutical Rhetoric: An exploration of Alain Locke¿s The New Negro - Eric King WattsCh 8. Playing the Dozens: Folklore as Strategies for Living - Thurmon GarnerCh 9. Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival - John BaughSECTION 3. AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION IN RELATIONAL CONTEXTSCh 10. An Afro-American Perspective on Interethnic Communication - Michael L. Hecht, Sidney Ribeau, and J. K. AlbertsCh 11. Interracial Dating: The Implications of Race for Initiating a Romantic Relationship - Tina M. Harris, Pamela KalbfleischCh 12. The Changing Influence of Interpersonal Perceptions on Marital Well-being Among Black and White Couples - Linda K. Acitelli. Elizabeth Douvan, and Joseph VeroffCh 13. Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord": Participation in African American Churches Among Young African American Men Who Have Sex With Men - Jeffrey Lynn Woodyard, John L. Peterson, and Joseph P. Stokeseffrey Lynn Woodyard, J. L. Peterson, J. P. StokesSECTION 4. COMMUNICATING AFRICAN AMERICAN GENDERED IDENTITIESCh 14. Multiple Perspectives: African American Women Conceive Their Talk - Marsha HoustonCh 15. Crossing Cultural Borders: "Girl" and "Look" as Markers of Identity in Black Women¿s Language Use - Karla D. ScottCh 16. "That Was My Occupation": Oral Narrative, Performance, and Black Feminist Thought - D. Soyini MadisonCh 17. Interrogating the Representation of African American Female Identity in the Films "Waiting to Exhale" and "Set It Off." - Tina M. HarrisCh 18. Defining Black Masculinity as Cultural Property: An Identity Negotiation Paradigm - Ronald L. Jackson, II and Celnisha L. DangerfieldSECTION 5. AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION AND IDENTITIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL CONTEXTSCh 19. "Diversity" and Organizational Communication - Brenda J. Allen, Ch 20. African American Women Executives¿ Leadership Communication Within Dominant-Culture Organizations - Patricia S. ParkerCh. 21. Student Perceptions of the Influence of Race on Professor Credibility - Katherine Grace HendrixCh 22. Exploring African American Identity Negotiation in the Academy: Toward a Transformative Vision of African American Communication Scholarship - Ronald L. Jackson, IISECTION 6. AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITIES IN MASS MEDIATED CONTEXTSCh 23. The Changing Image of the African American Family on Television - Melbourne S. CummingsCh 24. Jammin¿ on the One! Some Reflections on the Politics of Black Popular Culture - Herman GrayCh 25. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films - Donald BogleCh 26. Black Talk Radio: Defining Community Needs and Identity - Catherine R. Squires