The Problem of the Color[blind]: Racial Transgression and the Politics of Black Performance

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The Problem of the Color[blind] THEATER: THEORY/TEXT/PERFORMANCE Series Editors: David Krasner and Rebecca Schneider Founding Editor: Enoch Brater Recent Titles: The Stage Life of Props by Andrew Sofer Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement by Stephen J. Bottoms Arthur Miller's America: Theater and Culture in a Time of Change edited by Enoch Brater Looking Into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography by Arnold Aronson Avant-Garde Performance and the Limits of Criticism: Approaching the Living Theatre, Happenings/Fluxus, and the Black Arts Movement by Mike Sell Not the Other Avant-Garde: The Transnational Foundations of Avant-Garde Performance edited by James M. Harding and John Rouse The Purpose of Playing: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective by Robert Gordon Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theater, Performance, and Philosophy edited by David Krasner and David Z. Saltz Critical Theory and Performance: Revised and Enlarged Edition edited by Janelle G. Reinelt and Joseph R. Roach Reflections on Beckett: A Centenary Celebration edited by Anna McMullan and S. E. Wilmer Performing Conquest: Five Centuries of Theater, History, and Identity in Tlaxcala, Mexico by Patricia A. Ybarra The President Electric: Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Performance by Timothy Raphael Cutting Performances: Collage Events, Feminist Artists, and the American Avant-Garde by James M. Harding Illusive Utopia: Theater, Film, and Everyday Performance in North Korea by Suk-Young Kim Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and the Black Body by Harvey Young No Safe Spaces: Re-casting Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in American Theater by Angela C. Pao Artaud and His Doubles by Kimberly Jannarone The Problem of the Color[blind]: Racial Transgression and the Politics of Black Performance by Brandi Wilkins Catanese The Sarah Siddons Audio Files: Romanticism and the Lost Voice by Judith Pascoe The Problem of the Color[blind] Racial Transgression and the Politics of Black Performance brandi wilkins catanese The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2011 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2014 2013 2012 2011 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Catanese, Brandi Wilkins, 1974– The problem of the color(blind) : racial transgression and the politics of black performance / Brandi Wilkins Catanese. p. cm. — (Theater—theory/text/performance) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-472-07126-5 (cloth : acid-free paper) — isbn 978-0-472-05126-7 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. African Americans in the performing arts. 2. African Americans in motion pictures. 3. African Americans—Race identity. 4. Performing arts—Social aspects—United States. 5. Motion pictures—Social aspects—United States. 6. United States—Race relations. I. Title. pn1590.b53c37 2011 791.089'96073—dc22 2010043128 ISBN 978-0-472-02792-7 (electronic) ...