The colorblind screen : television in post-racial America / edited by Sarah Nilsen and Sarah E. Turner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Nilsen, Sarah.

Turner, Sarah E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Minorities on television.

Race relations on television.

Racism on television.

Television broadcasting--Social aspects--United States.

Television broadcasting.

Television broadcasting--Social aspects.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2014]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

The election of President Barack Obama signaled for many the realization of a "post-racial" America, a nation in which racism was no longer a defining social, cultural, and political issue. While many Americans espouse a "colorblind" racial ideology and publicly endorse the broad goals of integration and equal treatment without regard to race, The Colorblind Screen complicates the notion of colorblindness in this "post-racial moment" by configuring it in relation to multiple identity positions-race, ethnicity, class, and gender. The volume's contributors examine television's role as the major discursive medium in the articulation and contestation of racialized identities in the United States. While the dominant mode of televisual racialization has shifted to a "colorblind" ideology that foregrounds racial differences in order to celebrate multicultural assimilation, the volume investigates how this practice denies the significant social, economic, and political realities and inequalities that continue to define race relations today. Focusing on such iconic figures as President Obama, LeBron James, and Oprah Winfrey and shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men, and Ugly Betty, many chapters examine the ways in which race is read by television audiences and fans. Other essays focus on how visual constructions of race in dramas like 24, Sleeper Cell, and The Wanted continue to conflate Arab and Muslim identities in post-9/11 television. The volume offers an important intervention in the study of the televisual representation of race, engaging with multiple aspects of the mythologies developing around notions of a "post-racial" America and the discursive rationale offered by the ideology of colorblindness. Book jacket.

Contents:

Theories of colorblindness

Shades of colorblindness: rethinking racial ideology in the United States / Ashley Doane

Rhyme and reason: "post-race" and the politics of colorblind racism / Roopali Mukherjee

The end of racism? colorblind racism and popular media / Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Austin Ashe

Icons of post-racial America. Oprah Winfrey: cultural icon of mainstream (white) America / Janice Peck

The race denial card: the NBA lockout, Lebron James, and the politics of new racism / David J. Leonard and Bruce Lee Hazelwood

Representations of Arabs and Muslims in post-9/11 television dramas / Evelyn Alsultany

Maybe brown people aren't so scary if they're funny: audience readings of Arabs and Muslims on cable television comedies / Dina Ibrahim

Reinscribing whiteness. "Some people just hide in plain sight?" historicizing racism in Mad men / Sarah Nilsen

Watching tv with white supremacists: a more complex view of the colorblind screen / Richard King

BBFFs: interracial friendships in a post-racial world / Sarah E. Turner

Post-racial relationships. Matchmakers and cultural compatibility: arranged marriage, South Asians, and racial narratives on American television / Shilpa Dav

Mainstreaming Latina identity: culture-blind and colorblind themes in viewer interpretations of Ugly Betty / Philip A. Kretsedemas

Race in progress, no passing zone: Battlestar Galactica, colorblindness, and the maintenance of racial order / Jinny Huh.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2014. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.

Other Format:

Print version: Colorblind screen : television in post-racial America.

ISBN:

9781479893331

OCLC:

870646885

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.