White Negroes : when cornrows were in vogue ... and other thoughts on cultural appropriation

The pop star : swinging and singing -- The cover girl : blackness, groundbreaking -- The artist : a dead boy made art -- The hipster : the new white Negro -- The meme : Kermit the Frog meets Nina Simone -- The viral star : opposite from stardom -- The chef : America's whiteface mammy -- The entrepreneur : a bit free -- The activist : the time for anger.

Summary:

"This book provides a cultural, political, and social survey through the most American of pastimes that continues to thrive today. With narrative, accessible criticism, research, and popular cultural touchstones we can all recognize, I'd like to introduce readers to the black presence that holds up daily life as they know it. It is a crucial account of the people, stories, and culture that create the hilarious, crazy wonder that is life in the 21st century. It is also a wake up call. White Negroes wants to peel open still beating heart of interracial antagonism in this country and expose a form of theft that feels natural only because we are used to it. But we don't have to be. This book documents how this very old tradition shapes our society in the present in the hopes that we can imagine something better. White Negroes will transform what readers think they know about race and culture in the new millennium and open the door to a new present and future unburdened by crimes of the past"--

Format:

Book

Length:

187 pages ;

Copies:

Available:*

Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Non-Fiction	305.896 JAC	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

In White Negroes , cultural commentator, essayist, and scholar Lauren Michele Jackson explores trends started in Black communities that have caught on and become cool, hugely popular and lucrative, but that exclude Black communities once mainstream audiences and mainstream dollars latch on. The consequences of this phenomenon can be easy to miss, as it is so ingrained in our consumer habits. Yet over and over, Black intellectual property is converted into white profit - one hashtag, hair style, music genre, and dance move at a time. This, Jackson argues, plays a role in keeping Black people from achieving economic, political, and social equity.

Weaving together media scholarship and cultural critique, Jackson re-situates cultural appropriation as more than just a new buzzword. It is, she contends, simply another chapter in the long history of whiteness thriving at the expense, stolen labor and ingenuity of Black people. Further, her interrogation and exposure of the interracial antagonism resting on the other side of appropriation unravels behavior that feels normal only because it is common.

Piercing, audacious, and bursting with pop-culture touchstones, White Negroes introduces a bold new voice in Jackson. Her debut is both a love letter to the creativity of Black folks and an urgent call for more thoughtful consumption by those who consider themselves "allies."

Author Notes

Lauren Michele Jackson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago, and contributing editor at The New Inquiry and Real Life. Her writing about race and online culture has appeared in The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, The Awl, Buzzfeed, Hazlitt, In Media Res, Inside Higher Ed, and Feminist Media Studies. In addition to her work as an essayist and critic, her poetry has appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, The Journal, Spoon River, and Up the Staircase Quarterly.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Northwestern University professor Jackson's insightful debut essay collection takes on cultural appropriation--particularly of black innovation by white celebrities, artists, and entrepreneurs--through the lens of power dynamics, identifying it as a process by which "society's imbalances are exacerbated and inequalities prolonged." In the realm of pop culture, she analyzes the pursuit of "urban" sexual wildness by Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, the aesthetic but not economic investment of the Kardashians in black fashion, and Paula Deen's fetishistic presentation of Southern food alongside explicit racism. Her exploration of the art world juxtaposes the public reaction to Rachel Dolezal, made famous by her "impulse to inhabit blackness," with accusations against institutions such as the Whitney Biennial, which she asserts ignores black artists but treats depictions of antiblack violence as edgy and relevant. She identifies toxic white resentment of black success in the recent viral videos of white people calling the police on black people (often children) for using public pools, having lemonade stands, or barbecuing in parks. Jackson is uncompromising in her bold language, palpable in her outrage; she keeps her razor-sharp analysis in an accessible but academic register. She both calls out the damage done by appropriative and oppressive behavior and calls in white readers to take part in valuing black contributions in a way that helps black lives. (Nov.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misidentified the book's author as a college instructor.

Library Journal Review

In this debut work of nonfiction, with a title borrowed from a 1957 essay by Norman Mailer, Jackson (English, Northwestern Univ.) explores the long roots and far reaching effects of cultural appropriation and its ties to racial inequity through a litany of illustrations. With modern case studies showing instances of cultural appropriation in everything from music, art, and fashion to food, entrepreneurship, and activism, Jackson argues that this deeply ingrained phenomenon is stealing wealth from black Americans to benefit white Americans. In explaining how cultural appropriation has become commonplace, Jackson reveals the serious repercussions that can result. Whether through a popular overnight meme or YouTube videos gone viral, Jackson tracks how ideas from black creators have infiltrated American society--but not to the financial benefit of their creators, who get lost in the shadow of the limelight their appropriators take over. VERDICT A thoughtful addition to social science and African American studies collections.--Venessa Hughes, Denver