The Black Queer Work of Ratchet

This book enters as a corrective to the tendency to trivialize and (mis)appropriate African American language practices. The word ratchet has entered into a wider (whiter) American discourse the same way that many words in African American English havethrough hip-hop and social media. Generally, ratchet refers to behaviors and cultural expressions of Black people that sit outside of normative, middle-class respectable codes of conduct. Ratchet can function both as a tool for critiquing bad Black behavior, and as a tool for resisting the notion that there are such things as good and bad behavior in the first place. This book takes seriously the way ratchet operates in the everyday lives of middle-class and upwardly mobile Black Queer women in Washington, DC who, because of their sexuality, are situated outside of the norms of (Black) respectability. The book introduces the concept of ratchet/boojie cultural politics which draws from a rich bodyof Black intellectual traditions which interrogate the debates concerning what is and is not acceptable Black (middle-class) behavior. Placing issues of non-normative sexuality at the center of the conversation about notions of propriety within normative modes of Black middle-class behavior, this book discusses what it means for Black Queer women's bodies to be present within ratchet/boojie cultural projects, asking what Black Queer women's increasing visibility does for the everyday experiences of Black queer people more broadly.

Addresses the growing use of the word "ratchet" in American popular media over the past several years, but illustrates how similar terms and coded phrases can be reflective of shifts in American culture more broadly Offers rich academic analysis while maintaining an approachable, readable style that engages critically with the term at the center of the study Research draws from deep ethnographic data collected over the course of four years

Autorentext

Nikki Lane is an independent, interdisciplinary scholar trained as a Cultural and Linguistic Anthropologist currently teaching courses in the Critical Race, Gender & Cultural Studies Collaborative at American University in Washington, DC.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Slight Werk, Quare Work.- 2. Defining Ratchet: Ratchet and Boojie Ass Politics in Black Queer Space.- 3. Being Ratchet: Undoing the Politics of Respectability in Black Queer Space.- 4. Representing Ratchet: Screening Black Lesbian Sex and Ratchet Cultural Politics.- 5.Coming Out Ratchet and Whole: Black Women and the Struggle to Just Be.- 6. Conclusion: I Said What I Said: Ratchet Cultural Politics, Black Homonormativity, and the Consumption of Black Women's Flesh.