She's Mad Real by Oneka Labennett

She's Mad Real by Oneka Labennett

Challenges the believe that West Indian American girls are but assert agency in defining race through strategic consumption of popular culture

She's Mad Realcontributes to the ongoing conversation about transnational black migration and diasporic identitiesBy focusing on teenagers, however, LaBennett attempts to fill a gap in this field, which has usually neglected this group to focus on adult subjects. For this reason, LaBennett's is a commendable work, especially suited for undergraduate and graduate students interested in understanding why the study of popular culture is an excellent opportunity to look at broader social-political phenomena. -- Andreea Micu * Journal of Popular Culture *
She's Mad Realprovides a panorama of theory, deep description, and praxis to understand these black teenage girls. LaBennett is writing against the grain, as urban black female adolescents are typecast by their race, age, gender, and presumed class position. Furthermore, as urban black teen girls, it is assumed that they are 'at risk' for becoming underage mothers with low educational aspirations and with little thought of how to becomes wage earners. LaBennett breaks that mold and brings other variables into the mix. -- A. Lynn Bolles * American Anthropologist *
LaBennett offers a pivotal critique as she takes issue with national (US) and global imagery of black teenage girls...She's Mad Realreminds readers to appreciate that ethnicity, gender, class and inter-generational differences, along with the contexts in which they are set in motion, are critical to understanding the experiences and subjectivity of American and immigrant black youth. -- Aisha Khan * Anthropological Quarterly *
LaBennett is deeply attuned to her subjects. Together, researcher and research subjects explore the wide world around them: hip-hop culture, opportunities for mobility, sexual life, issues of risk, relationships with momits all here! LaBennett develops incisive new interpretations of such concepts as & play-labor and & authenticity. Shes Mad Real both joins a rich ethnographic literature and expands it in revealing politically conscious and hip ways. A fantastic text for in-class use. -- Howard Winant,University of California, Santa Barbara

"LaBennett rightfully inserts the experiences West Indian female youth into a transnationalism literature that has privilege the experiences of adult migrants, and which has generally focused on tensions between African Americans and West Indians, rather than acknowledging the complexity of this relationship. The author compellingly advocates for a youth-centered approach to transnationalism, inter-ethnic relations, and multiple conceptions of Blackness that goes beyond the context of the school; in particular, she showcases the consumption practices, fluid work-leisure lives, and critical approach to popular culture she noticed among the young Black women who occupy center stage in the ethnography. These are among the most significant and welcomed contributions of the volume."

-- Ana Ramos-Zayas * Critique of Anthropology *

Oneka LaBennett is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California. She's the author of She's Mad Real: Popular Culture and West Indian Girls in Brooklyn and co-editor of Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780814752487
ISBN 10	0814752489
Title	She's Mad Real
Author	Oneka Labennett
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	New York University Press
Year published	2011-07-25
Number of pages	253
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable