Gender and Race: Together at Last?


	Gender and Race Introduction	9:47
	The Slavery Experience	10:04
	The Idea of Race as Nation	13:44
	The Future of Black Women's History	17:32
	Black Women Historians	16:25
	Black Women's Academic Experience	10:40
	Interaction Among Panelists	13:20
	Audience Question and Answer: Part One	21:13
	Audience Question and Answer: Part Two	18:30

	Nell Irvin Painter: Black Women Historians
	Describing herself as one year older than the Schlesinger Library, Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University, was born during World War II. She points out that "…historical context shapes and limits the viable, and in our cases—the Schlesinger's and mine—a progressive context at birth helped make our survival possible. Thirty years later, as the civil-rights revolution and its child, second-wave feminism, came to fruition in the early to mid-1970s, a progressive context allowed us to flourish."<br> <br> Professor Painter acknowledges that, as a member of the first large cohort of women academics, a group nudged into the senior ranks by the momentum of the 1970s, she can't deny the progress that her generation has realized. They have gained prominence, published important works, and worked to bridge the chasm between African American studies, "which was about men, and women's studies, which was about white women." But she then reminds her audience that, in the 1960s, James Baldwin noted the routine nature of the request that black people voice gratitude to white people for the white people's progress with regard to race. The price of our ticket to speak, Painter says, was praising white people for having left racism behind. "Remembering James Baldwin," notes Painter, "I'm always loath to pay the price of entry by speaking the narrative of progress. I fear that the progress narrative is intended as a replacement for the necessary resuscitation of what still needs to be done."<br> <br> The field of black women's history is flourishing; however, Painter points out that conditions such as overwork, ongoing discrimination, the prejudice of white men, sexual harassment by black men, and lack of appreciation for work well done temper the successes of professional black women historians. "In terms of bodily and psychological health, black women scholars are in trouble." Concludes Painter, "The field is doing well. I worry about the toilers.… All too often black women scholars remain invisible when it comes to positive recognition." Painter appeals to scholars for more recognition of African American women's teachings, increased recognition of scholarship in the form of book prizes, and for an easing of the guilt that comes from the necessary refusal of excessive service.<br> <br>