Thread by @karlajstrand

First up for me @AsalhConvention today is "Bold Belonging: Black Women's Dynamic Theories of Citizenship" bc I am always ready to hear @ProfKori speak! Also on the panel are the amazing Natanya Duncan and @EbonRebel. @harris_duchess will be moderating. What a lineup! #asalh2020

.@ProfKori discusses the social contract and how Black people cannot trust in that social contract. Case studies in Black women's experiences will illuminate this. How do Black women claim a country and system that wasn't designed for them and regularly oppresses them? #asalh2020

.@EbonRebel: Black women understand the violence inherent in the capitalist system. Despite this, they still try to creatively stake out a place in the system. In part to make it more equitable but also to critique it even during their participation in it. #asalh2020

Garrett-Scott: Examining Black women's economic citizenship, esp how they try to construct and transform the capitalist system while participating within it. Black women continually try to build strong networks and institutions that allowed enslaved people to earn money.

Black women participated in the Freedman's Bank despite its mismanagement. They participated in economic activism: boycotts, etc. Black women called attention to their power and influence in the family and used this to call for pay equity, fair treatment, increased access, etc.

Garrett-Scott: Black women remain today at the forefront to critique capitalism but also in building institutions that empower Black women financially.

.@ProfKori: Discusses "homemade citizenship" from her new book From Slave Cabins to the White House. Uses literature to trace practices of making oneself at home, feeling belonging or success even tho you know you will be attacked by asserting this belonging. #asalh2020

Mitchell: Starts with Harriet Jacobs and how she defines/redefines success as they march towards it. Even while enslaved, Jacobs recruits wt women to abolitionism but also records her definitions of success in this nation that wants to convince us Black women will never belong.

Mitchell: In the books, also examines Nella Larsen, Michelle Obama, Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Frances Harper, Toni Morrison, and more. [NOTE: Buy this book.]

Mitchell: Black success (like Michelle Obama's) is always met with violence, as evidenced by our current moment. We went from mom-in-chief to predator-in-chief because that is always what America has been about. #asalh2020

Duncan: Today is the day of the woman at @AsalhConvention. In honor of 19th Amendment for some women but also scholars like Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, who will be honored later today. #asalh2020

Duncan: Explores global citizenship of UNIA women. When we think about citizenship, we often look at iconography. But remember that this is deliberate practice to identify with something more than the immediate space they were currently surrounded by. #asalh2020

Duncan: Shows photos of Amy Jacques Garvey and Amy Ashwood Garvey. Amy Jacques was more than Marcus Garvey's wife and biographer, she was also an activist in her own right. She made deliberate choices in what she recorded and published about him and the org.

Duncan: Examines Amy Jacques Garvey's dress and physical actions as a way to see who she really was as opposed to who we needed her to be. Amy Jacques was shown as patient, resilient. She was dedicated to the long road to African redemption. #asalh2020

Duncan: Argues against narrative that says Black women at the time adhered to prescribed gender roles. They were able to eke out ways to assert autonomy and agency. Black women in the UNIA could vote. #asalh2020

.@harris_duchess: Black women are subversive and this is a theme throughout these papers. Black women understand the exploitative nature of capitalism and are strategic in their participation. Black women have power and citizenship via family. #asalh2020

Harris: Homemade citizenship asks how we make ourselves at home, in our families, in the country, in the world. Black efficient womanhood: Black women in the UNIA are misunderstood and misrepresented. They are not "only" wives, mothers, but autonomous agents in their own rights.

Garrett-Scott: Don't take images for granted! Critically look at them and examine comportment. Black women have often used it as a resource, tool. UNIA women and others have departed from traditional ideals and exerted agency, which can be seen through their comportment.

Duncan: As clothes change, a Black woman's citizenship can change. You are adaptable in service to Black people. Changing one's comportment is an activist strategy, often intentional. When Black women "take off or put on their pearls", they know how they will be read.

Mitchell: The way Black women make and convey meaning is dynamic and intentional. Discusses Alice Childress' Wine in the Wilderness and how changing hair esp can change citizenship and help to navigate of racism and sexism. Mrs. Obama is another example.

Mitchell: Mrs. Obama continues to affirm Black women who choose natural hair, by ensuring she doesn't affirm if she has natural or permed hair. She understands the violence in the US and how she had to appeal to a wide audience in order to achieve her goals.

Duncan: Madame Maymie de Mena represented the UNIA and is used as an example of how women in the org were often misunderstood and were must more autonomous and agents of change on their own. #asalh2020

Garrett-Scott: Discusses a "Black women's way of banking". The Black bank shaped its methods and lending around Black working women's realities. Other (white) credit standards and regulations were not designed to enhance but to exclude them from opportunities.

Garrett-Scott: We still see Black women making the most of opportunities to enhance Black business, financial opportunities, credit worthiness definitions, etc. Black women's banking is commonsense and practical, expands notions of economic citizenship and belonging. #asalh2020

Mitchell: Community conversations are important for young activists. Homemade citizenship is still relevant: how do we define success? What are we working towards? We are marching towards our def of success and violence comes in to interrupt us. #asalh2020

Mitchell: Mrs. Obama makes decisions about her hair as part of the community conversation even as she can't escape the mainstream eye. It's clear she knows how racist the US and takes this into account w her decisions on her hairs and how to decorate the White House, etc.

Mitchell: First Ladies have always made space in the WH to make it the people's house, but Mrs. Obama accused of giving special treatment to POC in her choices of artwork, etc. She had to navigate citizenship and belonging definitions. Debate is the embodiment of community.

Garrett-Scott: Refers to Tanisha Ford's work. Black women in this political economy make choices re: clothes and styling to respond to daily oppressions, display constant creativity, and put on armor.

Mitchell: Must address the politics of pleasure and how Black women are always denied pleasure, in clothing and in many other ways.

Duncan: Decisions about dress display importance of kinship. Authenticity is integral as well. #asalh2020

Another fantastic panel at @AsalhConvention! Thanks to the panelists for sharing their work and expertise with us. #ASALH2020