“It Ain't Enough”: Toni Morrison and the Tragic Dark-Skin Girl Motif Available to Purchase

DAVID IKARD is professor of African American and Diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University. He has served as chair of Africana Studies at the University of Miami and the chair of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt. He is the author of four books, including Breaking the Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism, Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama's Post-Racial America (co-authored with Martell Teasley), Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in the 21st Century, and Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs (2017). In 2013 Nation of Cowards received the Best Scholarly Book Award from the DIOP organization. His essays have appeared in African American Review, MELUS, Palimpsest, African and Black Diaspora Journal, The Journal of Black Studies, and Obsidian III. In 2015 he received the William R. Jones Outstanding Mentor Award from the Florida Education Fund and the McKnight Fellows for his dedication and commitment to mentoring graduate students. He is also a Ford Fellow and a faculty mentor for the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship. Prof. Ikard's TED Talk entitled “The Real Story of Rosa Parks and Why We Need to Confront Myths about Black History” has been translated into over 16 languages and received more than 2.5 million views on the TED website. He has given lectures and workshops about diversity and inclusion all over the world, but his most memorable experience was addressing the employees at Pixar Studios in San Francisco in 2019. He is also the proud father of two brilliant teenagers who challenge him daily to be a better scholar, activist, and human being.

DR. LA-TOYA SCOTT is an assistant professor in African American literature and culture at Sam Houston State University. Her research reflects an investment in Black life past institutionalized subjectivity (that focuses primarily on Black death and pain) and expands the conversation into the next step—the cultivation of safe spaces/modern-day hush harbors for healing, transformation, and community-building—within the afterlife of slavery and modern-day technological mediums and platforms. Dr. Scott's current work analyzes the internal and external responses to the construction of Black safe spaces in multiple and diverse forms (primarily finding roots in Black literature, Black film, and social media platforms). Dr. Scott has published articles in Supernatural Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Art, Media, and Culture, Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition, and more. Raised in Florida, she uses her lived experiences from her time there, along with Black feminist theory and practice, to draw implications for antiracist praxis across fields and disciplines.