To Be A Problem

lex is teaching an awesome class this fall at Duke, To Be A Problem: Outcast Subjectivity and Black Literary Production. She reinvoked W.E.B. DuBois’s question, “How does it feel to be a problem?” to challenge the response to feminism and queer critiques in communities of color.

At the end of that chapter, DuBois said racism is the test of our nation and America will be better when we listen to the striving in the souls of black folk. Likewise, sexism and homophobia are the test of communities of color which will be better when they listen to the striving in the souls of women of color.

The online version is free. If you are interested, sign up here.

To Be A Problem: Outcast Subjectivity and Black Literary Production

This class will reinvoke DuBois’s 1903 question (“How does it feel to be a problem?”) and challenge the response that has sought to foreclose black feminist and queer critiques within the (so-called) black community: “Shh. We have enough problems.” We will explore trouble-making, radical performative critique and the transgressive and embattled act of (visual, textual, sonic and multi-media) publishing as possible responses to systemic and individual exclusions. If publishing is an act of stolen power for outcasts, this class will be a publication of what it can mean to be problematic in a society inflected by race, class, sexuality and gender norms. Our aim is not to solve the problems of classism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia as inflected by race, but rather is to create a space where it is possible to act, speak, write and think otherwise, anyway.

To any grad students out there

In more recent talks, I have spoken about how “blessed” I feel to have my work affirmed in this way, to be among those feminist theorists creating work that acts as a catalyst for social change across false boundaries. There were many times early on when my work was subjected to forms of dismissal and devaluation that created within me a profound despair. I think such despair has been felt by every black woman or woman-of-color thinker/theorist whose work is oppositional and moves against the grain. Certainly Michele Wallace has written poignantly in her introduction to the re-issue of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman that she was devastated and for a time silenced by the negative critical responses to her early work.

I am grateful that I can stand here and testify that if we hold fast to our beliefs that feminist thinking must be shared with everyone, whether through talking or writing, and create theory with this agenda in mind we can advance feminist movement that folks will long — yes, yearn — to be a part of. I share feminist thinking and practice wherever I am.

–bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress