Racetalk : racism hiding in plain sight / Kristen Myers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Myers, Kristen A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Racism in language.

Physical Description:

ix, 299 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2005]

Summary:

Studying racism is challenging. Most people avoid publicly expressing racialized comments for fear of being labeled racist. Much public talk is sugarcoated and coded to distance the speaker from the racist message. This study captures behind-the-scenes commentary-racetalk-that degrades people due to race and ethnicity.

Despite racial inroads made over the past several decades, the racetalk in this study evinces old-fashioned racist ideas persisting in modern imaginations. These scripts say that African Americans are dangerous. Whites are superior. Latinos are dirty and disposable. Indians are sinister. Slavery is a trivial-if not nostalgic and amusing-historical anomaly that is better forgotten. Private racetalk keeps these old scripts hidden yet alive. Through racetalk, people imbue different racial and ethnic groups with oppositional statuses and delineate boundaries between whiteness, blackness, and brownness. Racetalk is a tool used in policing these boundaries.

Most people who cross racial/ethnic boundaries through alliances, friendships, and courtships are sanctioned. Nevertheless, some people are able to cross more successfully than others. An analysis of the content of racetalk reveals the processes through which people negotiate racial/ethnic meanings and boundaries on a daily basis and, in so doing, how they often perpetuate the old racial regime and occasionally challenge it.

Contents:

Hiding in plain sight

Revealing

Racetalk as reproducing racism

The structure of signification

The structure of domination

The structure of legitimation

Bridging boundaries

The accidental anti-racist

Dialectics revisited

Praxis : in search of a balm.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-288) and index.

ISBN:

0742535339

0742535347

OCLC:

58043429