African American Culture and Society After Rodney King: Provocations and Protests, Progression and 'Post-Racialism'

Description

1992 was a pivotal moment in African American history, with the Rodney King riots providing palpable evidence of racialized police brutality, media stereotyping of African Americans, and institutional discrimination. Following the twentieth anniversary of the Los Angeles uprising, this time period allows reflection on the shifting state of race in America, considering these stark realities as well as the election of the country's first black president, a growing African American middle class, and the black authors and artists significantly contributing to America's cultural output. Divided into six sections, (The African American Criminal in Culture and Media; Slave Voices and Bodies in Poetry and Plays; Representing African American Gender and Sexuality in Pop-Culture and Society; Black Cultural Production in Music and Dance; Obama and the Politics of Race; and Ongoing Realities and the Meaning of 'Blackness') this book is an engaging collection of chapters, varied in critical content and theoretical standpoints, linked by their intellectual stimulation and fascination with African American life, and questioning how and to what extent American culture and society is 'past' race. The chapters are united by an intertwined sense of progression and regression which addresses the diverse dynamics of continuity and change that have defined shifts in the African American experience over the past twenty years. Cover Contents List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: “Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire” Part I The African American Criminal in Culture and Media 1 “Ill Parallels”: Ice-T, Iceberg Slim, and Portrait of a Pimp 2 From Deflection to Deconstruction: The Transformation of Ishmael Reed’s Satire in Juice! Part II Slave Voices and Bodies in Poetry and Plays 3 Of Diggin’ and Fakin’: Historiopoiesis in Suzan-Lori Parks and Contemporary African American Culture 4 Poetry in the Archive: Reimagining Amistad in Kevin Young’s Ardency Part III Representing African American Gender and Sexuality in Pop‑Culture and Society 5 (Dis)Robing Django Unchained: The Black Damsel in Distress as a Progressive Image 6 From Brandy to Beyoncé: Celebrity and the Black Haircare Industry Since 1992 7 The Rebirth of Queer: Exile, Kinship, and Metamorphosis in Dee Rees’s Pariah Part IV Black Cultural Production in Music and Dance 8 Popularizing African American History and Culture through Dance: The Ethics and Politics of the Artistic Visions of Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison 9 Breakbeat Syncretism: The Drum Samplein African American Popular Music 10 Twenty-First Century Blues: Treme, Jazz, and the Remaking of New Orleans Part V Obama and the Politics of Race 11 The Wright Liability: Barack Obama’s Response to Racial Controversy 12 “Not One of Us”: Barack Obama,the “Paranoid Style,” and the Polarization of American Politics 13 A Double Edged Sword: Ebony Magazine and the 2008 Obama Campaign Part VI Ongoing Realities and the Meaning of “Blackness” 14 Being Afraid of “Post-Blackness”: What’s Neoliberalism Got to Do With It? 15 Art in the Age of “New Jim Crow”: Delimiting the Scope of Racial Justice and Black Film Production since Rodney King Afterword Index