In this Book

  • Signifying without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama
  • Book
  • Stephanie Li
  • 2011
  • Published by: Rutgers University Press
    • Viewed
    • View Citation
summary

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama faced a difficult task—rallying African American voters while resisting his opponents’ attempts to frame him as “too black” to govern the nation as a whole. Obama’s solution was to employ what Toni Morrison calls “race-specific, race-free language,” avoiding open discussions of racial issues while using terms and references that carried a specific cultural resonance for African American voters.

Stephanie Li argues that American politicians and writers are using a new kind of language to speak about race. Challenging the notion that we have moved into a “post-racial” era, she suggests that we are in an uneasy moment where American public discourse demands that race be seen, but not heard. Analyzing contemporary political speech with nuanced readings of works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Colson Whitehead, Li investigates how Americans of color have negotiated these tensions, inventing new ways to signal racial affiliations without violating taboos against open discussions of race.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. p. xi
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-30
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. 1. Violence and Toni Morrison’s Racist House
  2. pp. 31-67
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. 2. Hiding the Invisible Hurt of Race
  2. pp. 68-99
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. 3. The Unspeakable Language of Race and Fantasy in the Stories of Jhumpa Lahiri
  2. pp. 100-133
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. 4. Performing Intimacy: “Race-Specific, Race-Free Language” in Political Discourse
  2. pp. 134-163
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Conclusion. The Demands of Precious
  2. pp. 164-177
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 179-189
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 191-198
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 199-202
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
  1. About the Author
  2. p. 203
  3. restricted access
    • PDF icon Download
Back To Top