Signifying without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama

Acknowledgments

xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks begin where this project began, with Grant Farred’s invitation to me to submit “something on Morrison” for the SAQ edition on “Thinking Black Intellectuals.” I am grateful both for Grant’s confidence and for his helpful feedback on what would become the seed of this book. I also thank the friends, colleagues, and students who have shared my enthusiasm for Obama and the still pregnant promise of his presidency. This book owes its existence to the support and commitment of Leslie Mitchner, who saw the manuscript through its many evolutions. Early on she became the audience I needed to keep writing. I am especially grateful to Karla Holloway for her incisive and demanding comments on early drafts. Her rigorous commitment to the manuscript simply made it better. Morrison’s term, “race-specific, race-free language,” names the language of my parent’s home, a home I carry within me. Sara Antonia and Jonathan Li are responsible for all the words I speak and write. And my thanks to Dinah Holtzman who understands those words, both spoken and unspoken. Signifying without Specifying ...