Research Catalog

Title

On racial icons : blackness and the public imagination / Nicole R. Fleetwood.

Author

Fleetwood, Nicole R.

Publication

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2015]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 128 pages : illustrations; 22 cm.

Summary

• Explores visual culture and race in the United States, focusing in particular on the significance of photography to document black public life. Examines America's fascination with representing and seeing race in a myriad of contexts as emblematic of national and racial progress at best, or as a gauge of a collective racial wound.
• "What meaning does the American public attach to images of key black political, social, and cultural figures? Considering photography's role as a means of documenting historical progress, what is the representational currency of these images? How do racial icons 'signify'? Nicole R. Fleetwood's answers to these questions will change the way you think about the next photograph that you see depicting a racial event, black celebrity, or public figure. In On Racial Icons, Fleetwood focuses a sustained look on photography in documenting black public life, exploring the ways in which iconic images function as celebrations of national and racial progress at times or as a gauge of collective racial wounds in moments of crisis. Offering an overview of photography's ability to capture shifting race relations, Fleetwood spotlights in each chapter a different set of iconic images in key sectors of public life. She considers flash points of racialized violence in photographs of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till; the political, aesthetic, and cultural shifts marked by the rise of pop stars such as Diana Ross; and the power and precarity of such black sports icons as Serena Williams and LeBron James; and she does not miss Barack Obama and his family along the way."--Publisher description.

Series Statement

Pinpoints: complex topics, concise explanations ; [2]

Uniform Title

Pinpoints (Series)

Subjects

• Mass media > Social aspects
• Visual communication
• African American celebrities
• Mass media > Social aspects > United States
• African Americans > Race identity
• Since 1975
• Blacks > Race identity
• African Americans in mass media
• Art and race
• Photography > Social aspects > United States
• United States > Race relations
• Visual communication > United States
• Race relations
• African Americans > Social conditions > 1975-

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

"I am Trayvon Martin": the boy who became an icon -- Democracy's promise: The black political leader as icon -- Giving face: Diana Ross and the black celebrity as icon -- The black athlete: Racial precarity and the American sports icon.

ISBN

• 9780813565156
• 0813565154

OCLC

• ocn893709675
• 893709675
• SCSB-5825230

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries