Critical Rhetorics of Race

by Lacy, Michael G.; Ono, Kent A.

• ISBN13: 9780814762233
• ISBN10: 0814762239
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-11
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

According to many pundits and cultural commentators, the U.S. is enjoying a post-racial age, thanks in part to Barack Obama's rise to the presidency. This high gloss of optimism fails, however, to recognize that racism remains ever present and alive, spread by channels of media and circulated even in colloquial speech in ways that can be difficult to analyze. In this groundbreaking collection edited by Michael G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono, scholars seek to examine this complicated and contradictory terrain while moving the field of communication in a more intellectually productive direction. An outstanding group of contributors from a range of academic backgrounds challenges traditional definitions and applications of rhetoric. From the troubling media representations of black looters after Hurricane Katrina and rhetoric in news coverage about the Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres to cinematic representations of race in Crash, Blood Diamond, and Quentin Tarantino's films, these essays reveal complex intersections and constructions of racialized bodies and discourses, critiquing race in innovative and exciting ways. Critical Rhetorics of Raceseeks not only to understand and navigate a world fraught with racism, but to change it, one word at a time.

Author Biography

Michael G. Lacy is an independent scholar and visiting associate professor at DePaul University in Chicago. Kent A. Ono is professor of Asian American Studies and Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Foreword	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Racialized Masculinities
Apocalypse: The Media's Framing of Black Looters, Shooters, and Brutes in Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath	p. 21
Tales of Tragedy: Strategic Rhetoric in News Coverage of the Columbine and Virginia Tech Massacres	p. 47
N-word vs. F-word, Black vs. Gay: Uncovering Pendejo Games to Recover Intersections	p. 65
Whiteness
Quentin Tarantino in Black and White	p. 81
Patrolling National Identity, Masking White Supremacy: The Minuteman Project	p. 98
Control, Discipline, and Punish: Black Masculinity and (In)visible Whiteness in the NBA	p. 117
Vernacular Resistances
Declarations of Independence: African American Abolitionists and the Struggle for Racial and Rhetorical Self-Determination	p. 139
Transgressive Rhetoric in Deliberative Democracy: The Black Press	p. 159
Bling Fling: Commodity Consumption and the Politics of the ôPost-Racialö	p. 178
Racialized Complexities and Neocolonialism
The Rhythm of Ambition: Power Temporalities and the Production of the Call Center Agent in Documentary Film and Reality Television	p. 197
Inscribing Racial Bodies and Relieving Responsibility: Examining Racial Politics in Crash	p. 214
Cinematic Representation and Cultural Critique: The Deracialization and Denationalization of the African Conflict Diamond Crises in Zwick's Blood Diamond	p. 233
Abstracting and De-Racializing Diversity: The Articulation of Diversity in the Post-Race Era	p. 247
Bibliography	p. 265
About the Contributors	p. 297
Index	p. 303
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.