Abstract
In Imagining Black Womanhood, Stephanie Sears explores the politics and practice of identity work with underserved youths through a study of the Girls Empowerment Project (GEP), a program “designed to attract and reach girls where they are, and provide leadership, self-esteem, empowerment and economic development skills” (p. 18). The program, based in Sun Valley, a large housing development in Bay City, California, touts Africentric and womanist principles. Focusing on the experiences of underserved African American girls, community members, and staff in the GEP, Sears explores the evolution of the organization, particularly the strategies that are used to engage members around stereotypes and conditions exacerbated by intersectionality.
Sears begins from a historical perspective, positing U.S. social attitudes and policy perspectives as key to interest in and subsequent funding support for organizations like GEP. Recounting the commodification of African women’s bodies throughout slavery, societal attitudes about the “deserving poor,” and stereotypes advanced by the Reagan administration of low-income African American females as “welfare queens,” the author ties these attitudes to legislative changes and policy resulting in the dismantling of the welfare state. In her research, Sears uses the voices and experiences of founding members to explore how the original mission and vision of the organization attempted to address some of this stigma by shaping initial programmatic goals from Julius Wilson’s theories on the alleviation of poverty and disenfranchisement of the underclass.
Sears questions the perspectives of oppression and empowerment in multiple spheres—home, community, society, and the media. She exposes how the biases that inform many of the stereotypes that these girls must struggle against come from across the political spectrum and across racial lines. By exposing class-based, racial, and gender stereotypes that undermine the agency of young African American women, Sears demonstrates how discourses from both the dominant society and the African American community seek to control the sexuality and efficacy of young women. As a result, despite GEP’s mission to “empower” girls to counter racial and gender stereotypes, Sears notes that the organization inadvertently reproduced some of the same issues in its structure and work.
In “Dance Lessons,” Sears presents a case example of how the struggle over sexuality, power, and identity among GEP’s stakeholders is seen through the “embodied politics” of a dance event. In the example, the staff strongly encouraged members to perform traditional African dances, viewed as traditional, cultural, and respectable by the adults. Their attempts, however, are thwarted by some GEP participants’ desire to express themselves through hip-hop. Sears delves into the inevitable conflict between youths and adults, analyzing it from multiple perspectives—the key stakeholders versus historical constructs of appropriateness, sexuality, respectability, and self-determination. The case example drives home questions that lie at the heart of the book, including these: what is “empowerment” and how does it differ from “enabling”? How are these concepts developed and applied in the context of race, class, and gender? What happens to institutions and individuals when recipients of empowerment or enabling attempt to actualize and define their power as equal participants in the process?
Imagining Black Womanhood is an excellent book, not just for researchers, social workers, and youth development practitioners, but for anyone who is interested in thinking about how issues related to race, class, gender, and identity affect policy, programming, and practice in underserved communities. Through rich narratives of stakeholders, archival information, and her own experiences, Sears develops a solid connection between life experienced by the GEP girls and their female-centered networks and issues, realities, contradictions, and assets related to their intersectionality. She then explores how the program, through experiential learning, art, dance, and group discussion, has an impact on young African American women and girls who are struggling to understand and fight stereotypes in their society, community, and personal lives. Throughout the text, she shows how the transformative work of the organization—and the women who are affiliated with it—speaks to broader questions of access, power, and the ability to create individual and collective change.