Understanding Racial Encounters in African American Literature: Trauma, Identity, and Literary Analysis in African American Narrative

Abstract

This paper expands upon Anderson’s (2011) concept of the “Nigger Moment,” identifying it as a distinct category of trauma experienced predominantly by African American individuals and operationalizing it as a tool for literary analysis. While racism and racial socialization have long been central themes in African American literature, the specific phenomenon of the “Nigger Moment” has not been adequately theorized or critically examined. These moments consistently manifest in African American literature, resulting in significant shifts in the characters’ thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. By analyzing both fictional and nonfictional works, this paper aims to uncover the manifestations, functions, and developments of these moments, drawing on the lived experiences of African Americans to center their perspectives. Critical examinations of how African American writers and analysts address “Nigger Moments” provide strategies against racism that can be communicated across generations, races, and cultures. Literature serves a dual purpose: revealing and representing reality and offering solutions for navigating these realities. This is echoed in Fatoumata Keita’s (2018) reading of Toni Morrison’s works, which depict characters undergoing profound struggles to ultimately achieve redemption and liberation. Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me are used as case studies to demonstrate the impact of “Nigger Moments” on self-perception and community relationships. These texts, familiar within African studies and African American literature, highlight the continuity of this phenomenon within the literary canon and provide a foundation for developing correctives that resonate with the lived realities of African Americans.