Great read! First read from this author. This book makes me want to read more from this author. Kept my attention and interest until the end.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Fandom for Us, by Us by Alfred L. Martin, Jr. is a nonfiction exploration of Black fandom through class, clout, canon, and comfort. Through Black Panther, Misty Copeland, The Wiz, and The Golden Girls, Alfred L. Martin, Jr. explores how Black fans interact with art exploring Blackness and art that doesn’t but Black audiences can still connect to.

If you are like me and you are expecting an exploration of modern fandom topics like how Black cosplayers are mistreated online and the way Black fans uplifted anime into the mainstream and the conversations around fanfic and racism, that is not what this book is. It instead expands the definition of ‘fandom’ beyond how I, and many others, think of it into something that happens in the home, in families, and in communities. This makes the book deeply personal and recontextualizes how we think of fandom into a broader Black context that is independent of white fans.

The chapter on class goes into Misty Copeland, including some brief discussion on the fact that Misty is, yes, the first female Black principal ballerina for the American Ballet Theater, but her having lighter skin is also a conversation with worth having because if she had a deep skin tone, that probably would have made it even harder if not shut doors in her face. I was somewhat surprised to learn that some fans of Misty Copeland will pay for seats to her performances and will leave when she’s finished, but, in the end, is it that different from someone buying tickets to a concert with multiple acts only for a specific artist or band? The emphasis on her working for the American Ballet Theater made a lot of sense to me as there is a lot of inherent prestige tied to ABT because the word ‘American’ is in it, making it seem like an exclusive organization where only the best of the best in the nation can join.

Of all the chapters, the one that caught my interest the most was the chapter on Black comfort and The Golden Girls. Martin discusses his own history in the fandom as well as the purchasing of fandom products, which many of the interviewees also have, and it was the most similar to how I have personally experienced fandom in my own life and I found it very telling that it was a show centering white women that reflected my experiences. But it isn’t only The Golden Girls that provides comfort to Black fans, as The Wiz, Black Panther, and Misty Copeland can also do so. At no point are the categories meant to be firm in ways that exclude the other media being explored; it’s just one lens out of the four presented to examine it.

I would recommend this readers who have ever been in fandom or asked what it meant to be a fan and those looking for works exploring Black fandom

Fandom for Us, by Us is important and brilliantly written and argued by Martin. This is about reception, and while personally I might have wanted a bit more about the objects of fandom, Martin is clear that his emphasis is to "magnify...Black fans' voices by highlighting what they like and why they like." Yet even more compelling is his desire to "illuminate the productivity of Black fan labor in both its joy and its pain." The chapter on Copeland is particularly stunning. Excellent and crucial.

Great book! This book definitely read like a textbook and thesis type paper, but nonetheless very enjoyable. I love anythingggg about the Wiz and I really enjoyed this book. I'm not fully familiar with Misty but this was an interesting book to read about her. This book was also very well researched and analyzed, and Alfred is very passionate about telling the black story. Kudos to him!

This was a really interesting and well-written deep dive into Black fandom. It centers Misty Copeland, Black Panther, The Wiz, and Golden Girls and investigates fandom from four perspectives: class, clout, canon, and comfort. The author did a lot of anecdotal research to end up with a piece that is a love letter to Black fandom and an academic exploration into it. It was dense while remaining readable and it was a very cool topic.

This book reads like a master’s level research paper. Which makes sense because the author is a professor. Unfortunately, it was a hard red for me. It was obviously well researched and I love the included perspective of black fans. I appreciate the thoroughness, however, it didn’t feel “accessible”.

Fandom for Us, By us was a great look at the way race plays a factor in the way media objects are received by their audience. Martin uses popular media such as The Wiz, Black Panther and Misty Copeland. He argues that this celebrity and pieces of media are particularly important for reasons he details in each chapter of the book. These elements which , these include, culture, clout, class and comfort.

This book reads like a PHD thesis, this isn't a critique so much a a warning for any potential readers. This is very much heavily academic writing. I, myself have a graduate degree and even had to look up some of the words that were used in this piece.

While it is very academically dense, I think it still does a good job explaining the concepts in a way that most people could understand. It is great to see a diverse voice broaching fandom studies as so often the field is overwhelmed by straight white narratives

I'd give this book four stars, while I enjoyed it, the work itself was a little too academically dense for my taste. Though this piece is definitely worth reading if you are a big fan of fandom studies or Black media.

The convergence of the politics of representation and Black fan cultures

Boldly going where few fandom scholars have gone before, Fandom for Us, by Us breaks from our focus on white fandom to center Black fandoms. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., engages these fandoms through what he calls the “four C’s”: class, clout, canon, and comfort.

Class is a key component of how Black fandom is contingent on distinctions between white, nationally recognized cultural productions and multicultural and/or regional cultural productions, as demonstrated by Misty Copeland’s ascension in American Ballet Theatre. Clout refers to Black fans’ realization of their own consumer spending power as an agent for industrial change, reducing the precarity of Blackness within historically white cultural apparatuses and facilitating the production of Black blockbusters like 2018’s Black Panther. Canon entails a communal fannish practice of sharing media objects, like the 1978 film The Wiz, which lead them to take on meanings outside of their original context. Comfort describes the nostalgic and sentimental affects associated with beloved fan objects such as the television show, Golden Girls, connected to notions of Black joy and signaling moments wherein Black people can just be themselves.

Through 75 in-depth interviews with Black fans, Fandom for Us, by Us argues not only for the importance of studying Black fandoms, but also demonstrates their complexities by both coupling and decoupling Black reception practices from the politics of representation. Martin highlights the nuanced ways Black fans interact with media representations, suggesting class, clout, canon, and comfort are universal to the study of all fandoms. Yet, for all the ways these fandoms are similar and reciprocal, Black fandoms are also their own set of practices, demanding their own study.

My Take:
This text is undoubtedly a rigorous academic work. However, the examples and interview snippets effectively ground the theory and knowledge for anyone interested in or engaged with Black fandom. As a podcaster, this book has provided me with a new framework for discussing media from my perspective for my audience, which predominantly consists of Black women, femmes, and nonbinary individuals. I highly recommend this book for gaining a fresh perspective on media and its representation within Black fandom.

This is a wonderful and surprising take on Black fandom and Black fans. I was expecting more "nerdy" fandoms from games and anime and such, but the fan subjects here were Misty Copeland, Black Panther, The Wiz, and ... the Golden Girls. The author weaves together a critical perspective and insights from an array of real fans across these diverse fandoms. I really enjoyed the ideas here. Black intertextuality as a way of linking generations of Black fans ... the idea that reception is necessary for understanding representation, because fandoms are social and the white gaze is always there, ready to judge ... this is a dense text and hard to summarize, so I would dive in and let it simmer. There's just one thing that I found odd: how the participants were described, especially bringing up their sexuality. It didn't really seem to have any bearing on their fannish engagement or understanding Black fandoms at all, not even when it came to shipping and so on.

Working from the author’s own fandoms, Martin explores how Black fandom makes classed distinctions and engages in consumer activism to support “good,” “family-friendly” Black content and to canonize particular fan objects, here Misty Copeland, Black Panther, The Wiz, and The Golden Girls, centering Black joy. He notes that “representation” matters, but can never be perfectly “right” because representation is always a simulacrum and therefore can never be unquestionably “real”; representation also requires an audience, and therefore depends on reception, so it can only work for a particular audience; and, for a Black audience, representation is likely to be entangled in double consciousness, “partly judged on how others (especially white viewers) will make meaning from texts.”

Although he focuses on joy, he also emphasizes pain as a verb, as in to take pains: “Black folks use their money to support Blackness via Misty Copeland and Black Panther in the hope that their capital will result in industrial change: more Black ballerinas [particularly in mainstream white spaces] and more high-budget Black-cast films. Black fandoms labor to canonize The Wiz as a representation and centering of specific Black cultural tastes. Black fans labor to read The Golden Girls Blackly to make it resonate. Thus, the ‘pain’ associated with Black fandoms is a political fandom rooted in a way to make media resonate and center Black cultural competencies.” For me, the discussion of The Wiz was particularly illuminating—he recounts how the white reception at the time saw it as a cult film, “so bad/strange it was good, while Black audiences saw it as canonical, a Black-cast film without Blaxploitation.” By contrast, The Golden Girls could be read “within Black structures of meaning and feeling,” including verbal sparring; the multigenerational and friendship-based living arrangements were familiar.
Martin argues that the Black canon he discusses “is interested in the ways these texts get used and reused in everyday life as a whole text, rather than one that requires remixing for its pleasure.” I find that pretty interesting, given that Misty Copeland is a performer who regularly interprets canonical works; that his Black Panther chapter includes things like kids dressing up as characters from Wakanda; and that The Wiz is a transformative work. But we all see different things in our fandoms.

*Fandom for Us, by Us* by Alfred L. Martin, Jr. takes a groundbreaking approach to fandom studies by shifting the focus to Black fandoms. Through the lens of class, clout, canon, and comfort, Martin explores how Black fans interact with media and how their unique practices influence cultural production. From Misty Copeland's rise in ballet to the impact of *Black Panther* and *The Wiz*, the book delves into the intersection of fandom and Black identity. Using 75 interviews, Martin highlights the distinct ways Black fandoms navigate representation and joy, making this a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of fan culture.