Bibliograph

Double negative, the black image and popular culture, Racquel J. Gates

Type

Label

Double negative, the black image and popular culture, Racquel J. Gates

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Double negative

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1007567612

Responsibility statement

Racquel J. Gates

Sub title

the black image and popular culture

Summary

From the antics of Flavor Flav on 'Flavor of love' to the brazen behavior of the women on 'Love & hip hop', so-called 'negative' images of African Americans are a recurrent mainstay of contemporary American media representations. Racquel J. Gates examines the generative potential of such images, showing how some of the most disreputable representations of black people in popular media can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot. Rather than falling back on claims that negative portrayals hinder black progress, Gates demonstrates how reality shows such as Basketball Wives, comedians like Katt Williams, and movies like 'Coming to America' play on negative images to take up questions of assimilation and upward mobility, provide a respite from the demands of respectability, and explore subversive ideas. By using negativity as a framework to illustrate these texts' social and political work as they reverberate across black culture, Gates opens up new lines of inquiry for black cultural studies

Table Of Contents

Eddie Murphy, Coming to America, and formal negativity -- Relational negativity : the sellout films of the 1990s -- The circumstantial negativity of Halle Berry -- Embracing the ratchet reality television and strategic negativity

Classification