Necessary Adjustments: Black Women’s Rhetorical Impatience

ABSTRACT

This essay examines moments of Black women’s rhetorical impatience, or performances used to manage time within adverse conditions, to expand conceptions of kairos and self-care. It shows how disruption is a vehicle of discipline designed to promote Black women’s respect and wellness, revealing discursive postures that must inform discussions of identity, risk, and power in relation to rhetorical criticism and education.

Notes

1. Many thanks to RR reviewers Patricia Fancher and Julie Jung for helpful feedback during the review process.

2. Here I refer to William Trapani and Chandra Maldonado’s essay “Kairos: On the Limits to (Our) Rhetorical Situation,” one that follows Richard Vatz and Jenny Edbauer Rice in complicating Bitzer’s concept.

3. I also acknowledge Carole Pateman’s The Sexual Contract, another important work that addresses ideological commitments informing social structures.

4. The saying, “If you won’t see you will feel,” is a proverb of warning and discipline in Black Vernacular Culture.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamika L. Carey

Tamika L. Carey is Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia.