On Racial Icons

Fleetwood, Nicole R.

ISBN 10: 0813565154 / ISBN 13: 9780813565156

Published by Rutgers University Press, 2015

About this Item

Looks at visual culture and race in the United States, in particular the significance of photography to document black public life. It examines America's fascination with representing and seeing race in a myriad of contexts as emblematic of national and racial progress at best, or as a gauge of a collective racial wound. Series: Pinpoints. Num Pages: 90 pages, illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; JFCA; JFSL3. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 216 x 140 x 10. Weight in Grams: 209. . 2015. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780813565156

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On Racial Icons
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813565154
• ISBN 13: 9780813565156
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

What meaning does the American public attach to images of key black political, social, and cultural figures? Considering photography’s role as a means of documenting historical progress, what is the representational currency of these images? How do racial icons “signify”?
 
Nicole R. Fleetwood’s answers to these questions will change the way you think about the next photograph that you see depicting a racial event, black celebrity, or public figure. In On Racial Icons, Fleetwood focuses a sustained look on photography in documenting black public life, exploring the ways in which iconic images function as celebrations of national and racial progress at times or as a gauge of collective racial wounds in moments of crisis.
 
Offering an overview of photography’s ability to capture shifting race relations, Fleetwood spotlights in each chapter a different set of iconic images in key sectors of public life. She considers flash points of racialized violence in photographs of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till; the political, aesthetic, and cultural shifts marked by the rise of pop stars such as Diana Ross; and the power and precarity of such black sports icons as Serena Williams and LeBron James; and she does not miss Barack Obama and his family along the way. On Racial Icons is an eye-opener in every sense of the phrase.

Images from the book. (http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages/Fleetwood.aspx)

About the Author

NICOLE R. FLEETWOOD is the director of the Institute for Research on Women and an associate professor of American Studies at Rutgers University. She specializes in visual culture and media studies, black cultural studies, and gender theory. She is the author of the award-winning book Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness.