The New Black
What Has Changed--and What Has Not--with Race in America
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- £16.99
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- £16.99
Publisher Description
The election and reelection of Barack Obama ushered in a litany of controversial perspectives about the contemporary state of American race relations. In this incisive volume, some of the country's most celebrated and original thinkers on race—historians, sociologists, writers, scholars, and cultural critics—reexamine the familiar framework of the civil rights movement with an eye to redirecting our understanding of the politics of race.
Through provocative and insightful essays, The New Black challenges contemporary images of black families, offers a contentious critique of the relevance of presidential politics, transforms ideas about real and perceived political power, defies commonly accepted notions of "blackness," and generally attempts to sketch the new boundaries of debates over race in America.
Bringing a wealth of novel ideas and fresh perspectives to the public discourse, The New Black represents a major effort to address both persistent inequalities and the changing landscape of race in the new century.
With contributions by:
Elizabeth Alexander
Jeannine Bell
Paul Butler
Luis Fuentes-Rohwer
Lani Guinier
Jonathan Scott Holloway
Taeku Lee
Glenn C. Loury
Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Orlando Patterson
Cristina M. Rodríguez
Gerald Torres
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Positing that the civil rights idea "has begun to unravel," law professors Mack (Representing the Race) and Charles offer 11 essays from scholars, writers, and cultural critics on "postracialism consequent to Obama's election." Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres propose the fresh concept of "political race," consisting of "a group of people who ultimately are defined by their politics rather than by their physiognomy," while Cristina Rodriguez questions the applicability of civil rights principles to immigration reform. Jeannine Bell addresses the "tolerance-violence paradox" as violent racism occurs "in the same space and time as... increases in racial tolerance," while Angela Onwuachi-Willig discusses the newsworthy arrest of Henry Louis Gates. Glenn Loury argues that "Obama's election has neither fulfilled King's dream nor does it usher in any sort of a new era," and that "the imperatives of office in the position of the American presidency" take Obama away from the "black prophetic tradition." "Postracial America," one contributor observes, "is the dream that we would prefer to believe, and the one that many would rather see depicted." Mack and Charles have staged an eminently readable event for wrestling with that idea.
