Black Hattitude
Black Hattitude
This chapter considers the social implications of the black hat, when worn tilted or set in a “reckless angle”, on top of a Black head. It argues that the Black stylized hat can serve as a defensive armor or provocative affirmation. It allows a Black man or woman to assert him or herself as an individual despite the pressures to be reduced to a race, class, or gendered collectivity, and to resist the tendency of everyone in America to be turned into a commodity. Despite the protections of group identity, the rakish hat worn on a Black head suggests the ability, the freedom, and the confidence to dispense with all that for a second and impose her or his will on the world as a subject without peer.
Keywords: black hats, blacks, African Americans, group identity, freedom, affirmation, defense
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