| OUR VOICES Essays in Culture, Ethnicity, and Communication Fourth Edition |
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| Alberto González (editor) Bowling Green
State University Marsha Houston (editor) University of Alabama Victoria Chen (editor) San Francisco State University |
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| ISBN: 1-931719-21-7 | |
| softbound, 339 pages, ©2004 |
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| Examination Copy Purchase Book | |
| PDF of Chapter 1
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| The Fourth Edition of OUR VOICES features
seven new selections. Many of the previous essays have been significantly
updated, and two new sections, "Economic Class and Cultural Identity"
and "Reflecting on 9/11," have been added. New selections in the Fourth Edition address such topics of current interest and concern as:
The new edition continues to:
Foreword: Orlando L. Taylor Introduction: Alberto González, Marsha Houston, and Victoria Chen PART I: NAMING OURSELVES 1. (De)hyphenated Identity: The Double Voice in The Woman Warrior Victoria Chen The double voice in Kingston's The Woman Warrior is explored in the context of Chinese American women’s hyphenated identity. 2. Dis/orienting Identities: Asian Americans, History, and Intercultural Communication Thomas Nakayama Nakayama argues for the centrality of the Japanese American experience in the making of American culture and history. 3. How I Came to Know Sidney A. Ribeau Ribeau examines the importance of the articulation of the African American experience. 4. Names, Narratives, and the Evolution of Ethnic Identity Dolores V. Tanno Tanno describes how each ethnic self-reference communicates a story and how multiple stories provide significance to an American identity. PART II: NEGOTIATING SEXUALITY AND GENDER 5. Jewish and/or Woman: Identity and Communicative Style Sheryl Perlmutter Bowen Bowen explores the particular intersection of her Jewish upbringing and the feminism she adopted as an adult. *6. Constructing American Jewish Male Identity David E. Weber Weber describes the tensions and challenges that occur when Jewish identity is marked as unusual. 7. Remembering Selena Alberto González and Jennifer Willis The "borderland" metaphor is used to explore the discourses surrounding the late tejana singer. 8. When Miss America Was Always White Navita Cummings James James reflects on the meaning of blackness and black womanhood through family stories and personal experiences. 9. Illusive Reflections: African American Women on Primetime Television Bishetta Merritt Images of African American women on primetime television are critically examined. 10. Black Queer Identity, Imaginative Rationality, and the Language of Home Charles I. Nero The meaning of home and community for African American gay men is explored through poetry and song lyrics, as well as feminist and gay/lesbian theory. PART III: REPRESENTING CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE IN INTERPERSONAL AND MASS MEDIA CONTEXTS 11. Negotiating Cyberspace/Negotiating RL Radhika Gajjala Gajjala discusses virtual life as created through information communication technologies and the (im)possibilities for empowerment and cross-cultural dialogue. 12. The Rhetoric of La Familia Among Mexican Americans Margarita Gangotena Gangotena uses the concept of la familia to explore Mexican American family communication. 13. When Mississippi Chinese Talk Gwendolyn Gong Gong describes speech strategies used by Chinese from the Mississippi Delta. 14. The Reason Why We Sing: Understanding Traditional African American Worship Janice D. Hamlet Hamlet explores how the rhetorical style of preachers in traditional black churches preserves the cultural identity of black communities. 15. When Black Women Talk With White Women: Why the Dialogues Are Difficult Marsha Houston Houston explores ways to build satisfying conversations between black and white women. 16. Latina/o Experiences With Mass-Mediated Communication Diana I. Ríos Ríos discusses the dual functions of mass media in Mexican American communities in Texas. 17. Native American Culture and Communication Through Humor Charmaine Shutiva Shutiva challenges some of the stereotypes about Native Americans and discusses the role that humor places in their culture. PART IV: CELEBRATING CULTURES 18. Capturing the Spirit of Kwanzaa Detine L. Bowers Bowers describes Kwanzaa as a ritual that invites a spiritual connection to African heritage. 19. A House as Symbol, a House as Family: Mamaw and Her Oklahoma Cherokee Family Lynda Dee Dixon Dixon reflects on a Cherokee matriarch who insured family unity by providing a home for family reunions and remembrance. 20. Communicating Good Luck During the Chinese New Year Mary Fong Fong discusses good luck expressed through speech and gift-giving practices that display good will and affection. 21. Hybrid Revivals: Ethnicity and South Asian Celebration Radha S. Hegde Hegde describes how Hindu festivals inspire their participants despite outside efforts to limit "foreign" cultural gatherings. PART V: VALUING AND CONTESTING LANGUAGES 22. Identity and Struggle in Jamaican Talk Dexter B. Gordon Gordon describes the creative "survival mechanisms" in Jamaican talk that privilege the local and counter the colonial. 23. The Power of ‘Wastah' in Lebanese Speech Mahboub Hashem Hashem examines wastah as an effective Lebanese method of mediating conflicts and relationships. 24. Wa-Zha-Zhe I-E: Notions on a Dying Ancestral Language Steven B. Pratt and Merry C. Buchanan Pratt and Buchanan foresee the end of the Osage language, and they describe the immense responsibility that comes with trying to save a culture's way of speaking. 25. Broadening the View of Black Language Use: Towards a Better Understanding of Words and Worlds Karla D. Scott Scott examines misconceptions about black language use and explains how local ways of speaking are markers of identity and solidarity. 26. Confessions of a Thirty-Something Hip-Hop (Old) Head Eric King Watts Watts interprets the tensions that arise when popular culture takes the "N-word" from private in-house dialogues and distributes it in easy-to-open packages of hip-hop. PART VI: LIVING IN BICULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS 27. Sapphire and Sappho: Allies in Authenticity Brenda J. Allen Allen describes her interracial friendship with a lesbian woman and how the two overcame sanctions against such a relationship. 28. 'I Know It Was the Blood': Defining the Biracial Self in a Euro-American Society Tina M. Harris In exploring the bi-racial identities of her students, Harris comes to appreciate her own bi-racial heritage. 29. Being Hapa: A Choice for Cultural Empowerment Diane M. Kimoto Kimoto reflects on her Japanese and Mexican heritage and the role of culture in raising her child. 30. Living In/Between Richard Morris Morris describes a life caught between two discourses, one that valorizes a Mescalero worldview and another that negates it. *31. Struggling for Identity: Multiethnic and Biracial Individuals in America Mona Freeman Leonard Leonard reveals how social intolerance of racial ambiguity poses dilemmas and interpersonal challenges for multiethnic individuals. *32. Creating a Family Across Race and Gender Borders Marlene Fine and Fern Johnson As white mothers of two adopted African American boys, Fine and Johnson examine the communication codes operating in the creation of their multiracial and "nontraditional" family. PART VII: ECONOMIC CLASS AND CULTURAL IDENTITY *33. Invisible Identities: Notes on Class and Race David Engen Engen invites readers to consider the ways in which America's working class can and should be considered a cultural community. *34. Working Through Identity: Understanding Class in the Context of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Kathleen Wong(Lau) Wong(Lau) interprets the intertwining aspects of race, gender, and class as she recounts her coming of age in both Chinese immigrant and American university settings. PART VIII: TRAVERSING CULTURAL PATHS 35. How We Know What We Know About Americans: Chinese Sojourners Account for Their Experiences Ling Chen Chen uses conversational episodes to examine assumptions and misunderstandings between Chinese and Americans in the United States. 36. The Cultural Experience of Space and Body: A Reading of Latin American and Anglo American Comportment in Public Elizabeth Lozano Lozano discusses assumptions about "public space" in Anglo American and Latin American cultures. 37. Regionalism and Communication: Exploring Chinese Immigrant Perspectives Casey Man Kong Lum Lum discusses regional differences among Chinese communities in New York City and how ethnic identity is maintained. 38. Traversing Disparate Cultural Realities in a Transnational World: A Bicultural/Hybrid Experience Maria Rogers Pascual Drawing from her Mexican and U.S. cultural experiences, Rogers Pascual elaborates notions of hybridity and Fourth World orientation. 39. Women Writing Borders, Borders Writing Women: Immigration, Assimilation, and the Cultural Production of Space Aimee Carrillo Rowe Carrillo Rowe deconstructs immigration politics as she examines her family's migratory history. PART IX: REFLECTING ON 9/11 *40. Statue or Statement? Racial Tensions in a 9/11 Memorial Teresa Nance and Anita Foeman Nance and Foeman examine how public opposition to a sculpture honoring the New York City firefighters reveals the uneasy state of race relations in the United States. *41. September 11 and 'The Color Line' Robin R. Means Coleman Since 9/11, Coleman looks for lessons from U.S. racial history to rethink the relationship between democratic political activism and power. |