Black Male Outsider Teaching As a Pro-Feminist Man, A Memoir

One manâ??s account of becoming a feminist professor.

This fascinating book traces the development of the authorâ??s consciousness as a black male pro-feminist professor. Gary L. Lemons explores the meaning of black male feminism by examining his experiences at the New York City college where he taught for more than a decadeâ??a small, private, liberal arts college where the majority of the students were white and female. Through a series of classroom case studies, he presents the transformative power of memoir writing as a strategic tool for enabling students to understand the critical relationship between the personal and the political. From the insightful inclusion of his own personal narratives about his childhood experience of domestic violence, to stories about being a student and teacher in majority white classrooms for most of his life, Lemons takes the reader on a provocative journey about what it means to be black, male, and pro-feminist.

â??Feminist politics is a choice. When men make that choice, our world is positively transformed. Prophetically, Gary Lemons speaks to the value of males assuming accountability for feminist cultural revolutionâ??this is a book all men should read along with the rest of us.â?? â?? bell hooks

â??Gary Lemons blurs the distinction between theory and practice and illuminates, as few have, how black feminist theorizing is important conceptually and pragmatically and how it is useful in oneâ??s everyday life. This is a groundbreaking and passionate book.â?? â?? Beverly Guy-Sheftall, coauthor of Gender Talk: The Struggle for Womenâ??s Equality in African American Communities

â??Lemons memorably uses his own experience to engage timely issues, such as domestic violence, the education of African Americans, and the role of religious fundamentalism in black identity formation. I found the personal narratives riveting, and the authorâ??s courageous voice of love and protest unflinchingly exposes what others would rather keep hidden.â?? â?? Joseph Downing Thompson, Washington University in St. Louis
Gary L. Lemons is Visiting Professor of English at the University of South Florida.
Table Of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface: Writing in the Dark, Writing from the Inside Out
Introduction: When the Teacher Moves from Silence to Voice: â??Talking Backâ?? to Patriarchy and White Supremacy
PART 1: FORMULATING A PEDAGOGY OF BLACK FEMINIST ANTIRACISM
Chapter 1. Toward a Profession of Feminism
Chapter 2. A Calling of the Heart and Spirit: Becoming a Feminist Professor; The Proof Is in the Pedagogy
PART 2: FROM THE MARGIN TO THE CENTER OF BLACK FEMINIST MALE SELF-RECOVERY
Chapter 3. Learning to Love the Little Black Boy in Me: Breaking Family Silences, Ending Shame
Chapter 4. White Like Whom? Racially Integrated Schooling, Curse or Blessing?
Chapter 5. â??Thereâ??s a Nigger in the Closet!â??: Narrative Encounters with White Supremacy
PART 3: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: CLASSROOM CASE STUDIES
Chapter 6. Complicating White Identity in the Classroom: Enter Color, Gender, Sexuality, and Class Difference(s)
Chapter 7. When White Students Write about Being White in a Class Called â??Womanist Thoughtâ??
Chapter 8. Screening Race and the Fear of Blackness in a (Majority-)White Classroom
Chapter 9. On Teaching Audre Lorde and Marlon Riggs: Ten Thousand Ways of Seeing Blackness
A Pro-Wo(man)ist Postscript: Return to the Margin of Masculinity: Teaching and Loving outside the Boundary
Notes
Works Cited
Index