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40 pages 1 hour read

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018

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Key Figures

Brittney Cooper (The Author)

Born in 1980 in Louisiana, Dr. Brittney Cooper is a Rutgers University professor in Africana Women and Gender Studies. In addition to her scholarly work, including Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women (2017), she has written works aimed at more general readers, such as this volume. An important presence on social media, including her blog posts on Crunk Feminist Collective and contributions to the Substack newsletter The Remix, Cooper’s regularly appears on panels, news shows, and the TED Talks stage.

Cooper’s work in these forums makes her a public intellectual, a person who brings analyses and critical frameworks typically associated with academia to general readers and to topics of note in popular culture. In Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Cooper relies on the persona of Black cultural critic as homegirl—a Black female peer, usually a friend of long standing—to establish credibility as she discusses hot-button topics and calls out aspects of United States and Black culture that oppress Black women. Her cultural analysis of Black female icons, Black love, and politics makes intersectional feminist analysis accessible.

Cooper complements her shared culture with her audience of Black women readers with critical and texts associated with Black feminism. For example, Cooper acknowledges the deep debt she owes to Audre Lorde and a Black female student who taught her the significance of her informed rage. Cooper delivers these analyses using diction that includes profanity, catchphrases and song titles from contemporary Black culture, and forms of address associated with the church; these rhetorical choices reinforce her belief that Black feminism has something to offer every Black woman.

Kin and Homegirls

Cooper includes autobiographical detail to show the influence of women in her family on her understanding of her identity and Black feminism. Cooper’s grandmother, a woman whose values were steeped in Black respectability and Christianity, encouraged Cooper to pursue sexual pleasure. She represents lived experience as a route to Black feminist insights.

Cooper’s mother had Cooper at a young age, left college early, and left her abusive husband. Cooper presents her mother as a steely, determined woman who made the school system provide her gifted daughter with greater educational opportunities. She also once interrupted a Black speaker who blamed single Black mothers for dysfunction in the Black family and Black communities. Her mother’s actions taught Cooper the value of education, defiance, and disruption—key elements of Cooper’s feminism.

Cooper’s father was largely absent from her life after Cooper’s parents separated. Cooper uses autobiographical detail about how different her father was inside and outside the home to develop a discussion of toxic masculinity and the ways in which Black men are both privileged and disadvantaged.

Cooper believes friendships with Black women are necessary for survival. She includes many stories about named and unnamed friends who staged interventions that forced Cooper to question deeply held beliefs and make changes to align her life more closely with her Black feminist values. These friendships serve as an important source for Cooper’s understanding of what Black feminism looks like in practice.

Female Icons

Cooper incorporates analysis of Black female icons to show the interplay between privilege and disadvantage in the lives of even the most powerful Black women. Cooper supports her argument about the ultimate inefficacy of Black respectability by engaging in extended analysis of Michelle Obama’s style and demeanor. Cooper analyzes Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s music and movement to show that Black feminists need to allow space for mistakes and contradictions as Black women figure out what Black feminism looks like for them.

Not all the icons Cooper reads are Black. Cooper engages in analysis of politician Hillary Clinton as an icon of strong women who refuse to conform to gender norms and the cost to them for making that choice. Cooper’s inclusion of Clinton, a privileged white woman and one-time supporter of the crime bill that accelerated mass incarceration of Black men, shows Cooper’s impulse to be generous in reading women who are imperfect allies.

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