Racism Postrace - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478001801 ISBN 13: 9781478001805

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2019

Synopsis

With the election of Barack Obama, the idea that American society had become postracial—that is, race was no longer a main factor in influencing and structuring people's lives—took hold in public consciousness, increasingly accepted by many. The contributors to Racism Postrace examine the concept of postrace and its powerful history and allure, showing how proclamations of a postracial society further normalize racism and obscure structural antiblackness. They trace expressions of postrace over and through a wide variety of cultural texts, events, and people, from sports (LeBron James's move to Miami), music (Pharrell Williams's “Happy”), and television (The Voice and HGTV) to public policy debates, academic disputes, and technology industries. Outlining how postrace ideologies confound struggles for racial justice and equality, the contributors open up new critical avenues for understanding the powerful cultural, discursive, and material conditions that render postrace the racial project of our time.

Contributors. Inna Arzumanova, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Aymer Jean Christian, Kevin Fellezs, Roderick A. Ferguson, Herman Gray, Eva C. Hageman, Daniel Martinez HoSang, Victoria E. Johnson, Joseph Lowndes, Roopali Mukherjee, Safiya Umoja Noble, Radhika Parameswaran, Sarah T. Roberts, Catherine R. Squires, Brandi Thompson Summers, Karen Tongson, Cynthia A. Young

About this title

About the Author

Roopali Mukherjee is Associate Professor of Media Studies at City University of New York, Queens College.

Sarah Banet-Weiser is Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics.

Herman Gray is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Review

“According to this stellar array of scholars, racism is alive, well, and thriving both in the United States and globally, and they offer important theoretical and empirical insights into why and how. This volume effectively dismantles the myth of postraciality, using a range of cultural forms and texts to demonstrate how racism rears its ugly head in the service of capitalism and white supremacy. Indeed, these essays tell us that the popular and common usage of ‘postrace’ neutralizes antiracist movements and props up antiblackness and other modes of racial and ethnic antipathy with devastating effect. This volume is a wake-up call to all who have luxuriated in the liberal fantasy of a democratizing media.” -- Jane Rhodes, Professor of African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1478001801
• ISBN 13: 9781478001805
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Mukherjee Roopali, Banet-Weiser Sarah, Gray Herman