Race Still Matters

Description

More than half a century after the civil rights era of the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, American society is often characterized as postracial. In other words, that the country has moved away from prejudice based on skin color and we live in a colorblind society. The reality, however, is the opposite. African Americans continue to face both explicit and latent discriminations in housing, healthcare, education, and every facet of their lives. Recent cases involving law enforcement officers shooting unarmed Black men also attest to the reality: the problem of the twenty-first century is still the problem of the color line. In Race Still Matters, contributors drawn from a wide array of disciplines use multidisciplinary methods to explore topics such as Black family experiences, hate crimes, race and popular culture, residual discrimination, economic and occupational opportunity gaps, healthcare disparities, education, law enforcement issues, youth culture, and the depiction of Black female athletes. The volume offers irrefutable evidence that race still very much matters in the United States today.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1. Race

1. Reverse Racism: A Discursive History
Tad Suiter

2. “The Struggle is Real out Here”: The Contextual Reality of Being Black Couples and Families in America
Karlin J. Tichenor

3. Holy Smoke: Church Burnings, Journalism, and the Politics of Race, 1996–2006
Christopher Strain

4. Fear of a Black President: Conspiracy Theory and Racial Paranoia in Obamerica
Travis L. Gosa and Danielle Porter Sanchez

Part 2. Structural Inequality

5. From Orchards to Silicon Valley: African American Suburbanization in the U.S. West, the Black San Jose Model, 1945–2010
Herb Ruffin II

6. African American Economic Experiences: Income, Occupations, Savings, Investments, and Social Security Trends since 2000
LaToya T. Brackett

7. Confronting an Enduring Legacy: Health-Care Workforce Disparity
Costellia H. Talley and Henry C. Talley

Part 3. African American Youth

8. Sustained Inequality: African American Education in a “Postracial” Nation
Daniel R. Davis

9. “Nothing We Could Do or Say”: African American Young Men’s Lived Police Experiences
Rod K. Brunson and Amanda D’Souza

10. African American Youth and the Postracial Societal Myth
Carl S. Taylor and Pamela R. Smith

Part 4. Popular Culture

11. Leave the Prejudice, Take the Power: Crash, Fruitvale Station, and Race in Hollywood in the Twenty-First Century
Justin Gomer

12. African American Female Athletic Image: What We Should Take Away from the London 2012 Olympic Games
Rachel L. Myers

13. An Obama Effect? African American Voting Behavior and the Political Symbolism of a Black President
David C. Wilson, Samantha S. Kelley, Emmanuel Balogun, Christian Solar, and Sahar Salehi

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• 21st century
• Ethnic studies
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438462745
• Langue: English

Extrait

Race Still Matters
SUNY series in African American Studies
John R. Howard and Robert C. Smith, editors
Race Still Matters
The Reality of African American Lives and the Myth of Postracial Society
Edited by Yuya Kiuchi
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Ryan Morris
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kiuchi, Yuya, editor of compilation.
Title: Race still matters : the reality of African American lives and the myth of postracial society / edited by Yuya Kiuchi.
Other titles: Reality of African American lives and the myth of postracial society
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2016] | Series: SUNY series in African American studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007296 (print) | LCCN 2016028131 (ebook) ISBN 9781438462738 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 9781438462745 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: African Americans—Social conditions—21st century. | African Americans—Race identity. | Race discrimination—United States. | Racism—United States. | United States—Race relations—21st century.
Classification: LCC E185.86 .R245 2016 (print) | LCC E185.86 (ebook) | DDC 305.896/073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016007296
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Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Race
1: Reverse Racism: A Discursive History
Tad Suiter
2: “The Struggle is Real out Here”: The Contextual Reality of Being Black Couples and Families in America
Karlin J. Tichenor
3: Holy Smoke: Church Burnings, Journalism, and the Politics of Race, 1996–2006
Christopher Strain
4: Fear of a Black President: Conspiracy Theory and Racial Paranoia in Obamerica
Travis L. Gosa and Danielle Porter Sanchez
Part 2: Structural Inequality
5: From Orchards to Silicon Valley: African American Suburbanization in the U.S. West, the Black San Jose Model, 1945–2010
Herb Ruffin II
6: African American Economic Experiences: Income, Occupations, Savings, Investments, and Social Security Trends since 2000
LaToya T. Brackett
7: Confronting an Enduring Legacy: Health-Care Workforce Disparity
Costellia H. Talley and Henry C. Talley
Part 3: African American Youth
8: Sustained Inequality: African American Education in a “Postracial” Nation
Daniel R. Davis
9: “Nothing We Could Do or Say”: African American Young Men’s Lived Police Experiences
Rod K. Brunson and Amanda D’Souza
10: African American Youth and the Postracial Societal Myth
Carl S. Taylor and Pamela R. Smith
Part 4: Popular Culture
11: Leave the Prejudice, Take the Power: Crash , Fruitvale Station , and Race in Hollywood in the Twenty-First Century
Justin Gomer
12: African American Female Athletic Image: What We Should Take Away from the London 2012 Olympic Games
Rachel L. Myers
13: An Obama Effect? African American Voting Behavior and the Political Symbolism of a Black President
David C. Wilson, Samantha S. Kelley, Emmanuel Balogun, Christian Solar, and Sahar Salehi
Contributors
Index
Preface
Americans agree that slavery was racist. So were Jim Crow laws, residential segregation in the early to mid-twentieth century, and disenfranchisement of Blacks. Americans across the color line also agree that the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s dramatically changed racial politics in the United States. Supposedly, employers are not allowed to make hiring decisions based on race. Car dealers should treat white and Black customers equally. The police should not stop a driver just because he or she is Black. White students and Black students should have equal access to high-quality educational resources, including facilities, equipment, and teachers. The reality is far from what these promises seem to suggest.
In the nation of collective amnesia and color-blind idealism, many Americans choose to believe that their nation has finally become a City upon a Hill. Choosing to believe in this postracial idealism has pragmatic values. It legitimizes American dreams. Many Americans idolize the idea of the self-made person. If you work hard enough, you can attain anything. If race mattered and racism existed, such a promise is nothing but a mirage. But if one rejects the presence of racism and believes that postracialism has realized in the United States, one can truly claim that the United States is the land of opportunities where anyone regardless of his or her race can be the next Horatio Alger.
Believing in the postracial idealism also allows Americans to claim that the country has moved on from its past’s wrongdoings, justifying their diplomatic efforts to bring freedom and equality to the rest of the world. It also offers a sense of superiority and fairness that Americans need as they believe in their assumed role to lead the world economically, politically, and also morally. Especially after the turbulent decade of the 2000s, starting with the terrorist attacks on September11, 2001 and ending with a major economic downturn, the color-blind idealism enabled the country to feel that it had a strong collective identity. To nurture proud citizens, many educational institutions have taught that racism is a thing of the past and postracialism is new reality. Consequently, majority of Americans are now convinced that the United States has truly become postracial and color-blind. Successes of some African American figures also seemed to justify such a belief. African American actors and singers are as successful as, if not more successful than, their white counterparts. Many high-performing and well-paid athletes are African Americans. They may see an African American couple sitting at the VIP table in a high-end casino in Las Vegas. Moreover, the White House has been occupied by a Black president.
All of these examples of so-called progress have led many to believe in the idea of “postracial society.” It meant social progress. It also signified America’s collective identity. But the idea of postracialism is not new to the 2010s. The phrase was sometimes used to recognize the achievements of the civil rights movement, but most often to overestimate the level of racial equality that the United States has achieved and to underestimate the existing racism in the nation. Oprah Winfrey’s growing popularity in the 1990s, Tiger Wood’s victory at the Masters in 1997, and most significantly, Barack Obama’s election as president in 2008 and reelection in 2012 have all been used as evidence of postracial America. Even though Pew Research Center, the National Urban League, and other research groups show that African Americans state their life as better than it was in the past and that they believe it will continue to improve, there is strong evidence that African Americans continue to face racism and that the United States is far from attaining a postracial status.
All of these success stories are nothing but life experiences of the limited few. It is true that an African American can win the Oscars, sell millions of copies of music, and lead the nation. Marvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro explain that “the large number of blacks on the top income list generates an optimistic view of how black Americans have progressed economically in American society.” 1 But many African Americans continue to face realities of racism on a daily basis. Some are explicit and public. After Barack Obama won the presidential race in 2008, we saw signs and read blogs that stated “I would rather move to Canada than to live in the U.S. with a Black president.” Oliver and Shapiro follow up by stating “the near absence of blacks in the Forbes listing, by contrast, presents a much more pessimistic outlook on black’s economic progress.” 2
Some other instances of racism are less explicit and more codified. Erick Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Adam Lanza, all white perpetrators of the Columbine High School shooting case in 1999 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, were described as victims of psychological pathology. The Black perpetrator of the recent LAPD murder case in 2013, Christopher Jordan Dorner, on the other hand, was portrayed as a simple rampant Black murderer. As Ellis Cashmore argued, even Black celebrities are not exempt from racist treatments by the American public. 3 After Hurricane Katrina, whites “found” food from empty stores while Blacks “looted” the stores. We are surrounded by an endless list of lived racist examples.
With the rise of social media, examples of racism are widely shared. If traditional media outlets failed to report them first, citizen journalists will, eventually leading major media corporations to follow up. Even though we are exposed to such news feeds and stories, media fail to truly address the ill of American society. Trent Lott’s comment in 2002, the Jena Six case in 2006, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates in 2009, and many other national and local race-based incidents are often characterized as misbehaviors by a very exceptional few. “It is incredible how some p