Double negative : the black image and popular culture / Racquel J. Gates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gates, Racquel J., 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans in mass media.

African Americans in popular culture.

African Americans and mass media.

Race in mass media.

African Americans--Race identity.

African Americans.

Physical Description:

xii, 236 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2018.

Summary:

From the antics of Flavor Flav on 'Flavor of love' to the brazen behavior of the women on 'Love & hip hop', so-called 'negative' images of African Americans are a recurrent mainstay of contemporary American media representations. Racquel J. Gates examines the generative potential of such images, showing how some of the most disreputable representations of black people in popular media can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot. Rather than falling back on claims that negative portrayals hinder black progress, Gates demonstrates how reality shows such as Basketball Wives, comedians like Katt Williams, and movies like 'Coming to America' play on negative images to take up questions of assimilation and upward mobility, provide a respite from the demands of respectability, and explore subversive ideas. By using negativity as a framework to illustrate these texts' social and political work as they reverberate across black culture, Gates opens up new lines of inquiry for black cultural studies.

Contents:

Eddie Murphy, Coming to America, and formal negativity

Relational negativity : the sellout films of the 1990s

The circumstantial negativity of Halle Berry

Embracing the ratchet reality television and strategic negativity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Gates, Racquel J., 1980- Double negative.

ISBN:

9781478000419

1478000414

9781478000549

1478000546

OCLC:

1007567612