Claiming Citizenship

The Political Labor of Black Women's Resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID5281632
AuthorsA Nuamah (0000-0001-9975-3640), Sally Nuamah, Leah Ouellet (0009-0003-1404-4346)
Year2025
Volume22
Issue2
Pages1-21
Publication date2025-10-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDu Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1742-058X • E-ISSN: 1742-0598
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1742058x25100039
OpenAlexW4414929618
LanguageEN
References cited28

In what ways, if any, do justice-involved Black women make political demands? How do they understand their role and rights as citizens? Previous work has focused on identifying forms of political behavior, both formal and deviant (i.e., resistance, subversive acts), and the degree to which different groups participate in these behaviors. Few studies have focused on the sensemaking and ideologies likely motivating the behavior of justice-involved Black women both within and outside the formal political realm (e.g., elections). Drawing on the responses of Black women residents of an urban prison reentry facility, this article illustrates how this group engages in what we describe as "political claimsmaking," a type of deviant discourse in which participants negotiate the power dynamics informing their social reality to make political demands. Further, we argue that while this political claimsmaking acts as a form of resistance and assertion of citizenship, it is simultaneously a form of inequitable political labor. Understanding Black women's political claims, and the labor involved in making them, has serious implications for imagining more liberatory futures in which the benefits associated with citizenship are more freely accessed

Homelessness and Social Issues · Race, History, and American Society · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access