Full Description
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
Contents
Introduction. Postrace Racial Projects / Sarah Banet-Weiser, Roopali Mukherjee, and Herman Gray 1
Part One. Assumptions
1. Race after Race / Herman Gray 23
2. Theorizing Race in the Age of Inequality / Daniel Martinez Hosang and Joseph Lowndes 37
3. "Jamming" the Color Line: Comedy, Carnival, and Contestations of Commodity Colorism / Radhika Parameswaran 57
4. On the Postracial Question / Roderick A. Ferguson 72
5. Becked Up: Glenn Beck, White Supremacy, and the Hijacking of the Civil Rights Legacy / Cynthia A. Young 86
6. Technological Elites, the Meritocracy, and Postracial Myths in Silicon Valley / Safiya Umoja Noble and Sarah T. Roberts 113
Part Two. Performances
7. Vocal Recognition: Racial and Sexual Difference after (Tele)Visuality / Karen Tongson 135
8. More Than a Game: LeBron James and the Affective Economy of Place / Victoria E. Johnson 154
9. Clap Along If You Feel Like Happiness Is the Truth: Pharrell Williams and the False Promises of the Postracial / Kevin Fellezs 178
10. Indie Soaps: Race and the Possibilities of TV Drama / Aymar Jean Christian 199
11. Debt by Design: Race and Home Valorization on Reality TV / Eva C. Hageman 221
12. "Haute [Ghetto] Mess": Postracial Aesthetics and the Seduction of Blackness in High Fashion / Brandi Thompson Summers 245
13. Veiled Visibility: Racial Performances and Hegemonic Leaks in Pakistani Fashion Week / Inna Arzumanova 264
Epilogue. Incantation / Catherine R. Squires 283
References 287
Contributors 321
Index 325
