Seeing myself in a storefront window

ABSTRACT

This publication is a digital comic short story based on autoethnographic research. The story takes as its foundation a photo of an African storefront window in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France in summer 2019. The narrative queries from multiple perspectives and types of information my relationship as an African American woman with several things: the West African jewellery and cloth on display, the window that framed the products for sale, the store, and the neighbourhood that featured a predominately African diasporic population. In this publication, I also address some of the following questions: 1) Can I see myself in this Black, French and African diasporic site of commerce? 2) How does this marketing display relate to American and French marketing and media history’s invisibility of Black women as desired consumers? 3) Has my shared ascribed status of race and increased awareness of West African culture after travels to Ghana and Senegal changed my fit in this Francophone African space?

KEYWORDS:

• African diaspora
• race
• France
• ethnography
• assimilation

Acknowledgment

The author would like to acknowledge the Photovoice Workshop at the Race in the Marketplace Conference, held in Paris on June 24-25, 2019 at the Université Paris-Dauphine. The tour guides, participants and organizers of the workshop inspired and supported this research project. Thank you especially to Alice Schoonejans, Guillaume D. Johnson, Kevin D. Thomas, Francesca Sobande, Nawo Carole Crawford, Gaëtane Selgi, Anthony Kwame Harrison, and Sonya A. Grier.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2022.2120058

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rashida K. Braggs

Rashida K. Braggs is Associate Professor in Africana Studies and affiliate faculty in Comparative Literature at Williams College. Trained in Performance Studies (Ph.D. Northwestern University), Advertising (M.S. Boston University), and Theater Studies and English (B.A. Yale University), she consistently weaves performance through her pedagogy and scholarship. Her book Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music and Migration in Post-World War II Paris investigates the migratory experiences of African American jazz musicians in 1946-1963 Paris. In her current manuscript and accompanying performance project ‘Move Jazz, Black Woman Move,’ Dr. Braggs explores how and why black women jazz performers of African descent migrate to and from Paris from 1969-2019. Her work has also been published in such journals as The Black Scholar, The Journal of Popular Music, and The James Baldwin Review. In such courses as 13 Ways of Looking at Jazz and Performing Blackness, Dr. Braggs teaches students to explore how performance conveys values, patterns and negotiations of power in society. As a scholar, performer and writer, Braggs also acts, sings, dances, and writes and performs poetry.