On Racial Icons

On Racial Icons
Author: Nicole R. Fleetwood
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2015-07-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813575257

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. On Racial Icons is an eye-opener in every sense of the phrase. Images from the book. (http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages/Fleetwood.aspx)

Troubling Vision

Troubling Vision
Author: Nicole R. Fleetwood
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2011-01-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0226253031

Nicole R. Fleetwood explores how blackness is seen as a troubling presence in the field of vision and the black body is persistently seen as a problem. She examines a wide range of materials from visual and media art, documentary photography theatre, performance and more.

Marking Time

Marking Time
Author: Nicole R. Fleetwood
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Art
ISBN: 067491922X

"A powerful document of the inner lives and creative visions of men and women rendered invisible by America’s prison system. More than two million people are currently behind bars in the United States. Incarceration not only separates the imprisoned from their families and communities; it also exposes them to shocking levels of deprivation and abuse and subjects them to the arbitrary cruelties of the criminal justice system. Yet, as Nicole Fleetwood reveals, America’s prisons are filled with art. Despite the isolation and degradation they experience, the incarcerated are driven to assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them. Based on interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated artists, prison visits, and the author’s own family experiences with the penal system, Marking Time shows how the imprisoned turn ordinary objects into elaborate works of art. Working with meager supplies and in the harshest conditions—including solitary confinement—these artists find ways to resist the brutality and depravity that prisons engender. The impact of their art, Fleetwood observes, can be felt far beyond prison walls. Their bold works, many of which are being published for the first time in this volume, have opened new possibilities in American art. As the movement to transform the country’s criminal justice system grows, art provides the imprisoned with a political voice. Their works testify to the economic and racial injustices that underpin American punishment and offer a new vision of freedom for the twenty-first century."

Icons of Black America [3 volumes]

Icons of Black America [3 volumes]
Author: Matthew Whitaker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1201
Release: 2011-03-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313376433

This stunning collection of essays illuminates the lives and legacies of the most famous and powerful individuals, groups, and institutions in African American history. The three-volume Icons of Black America: Breaking Barriers and Crossing Boundaries is an exhaustive treatment of 100 African American people, groups, and organizations, viewed from a variety of perspectives. The alphabetically arranged entries illuminate the history of highly successful and influential individuals who have transcended mere celebrity to become representatives of their time. It offers analysis and perspective on some of the most influential black people, organizations, and institutions in American history, from the late 19th century to the present. Each chapter is a detailed exploration of the life and legacy of an individual icon. Through these portraits, readers will discover how these icons have shaped, and been shaped by, the dynamism of American culture, as well as the extent to which modern mass media and popular culture have contributed to the rise, and sometimes fall, of these powerful symbols of individual and group excellence.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore
Author: Julie Murray
Publisher: ABDO
Total Pages: 27
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1680796232

Readers will learn about what Mount Rushmore is, how it was built, and the faces that are carved into the side of the mountain. The title is complete with historical and modern images, bolded glossary terms, a More Facts page, and a picture glossary. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Abdo Kids Junior is an imprint of Abdo Kids, a division of ABDO.

Black Iconoclasm

Black Iconoclasm
Author: Charles Athanasopoulos
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 245
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 303166924X

Einstein on Race and Racism

Einstein on Race and Racism
Author: Fred Jerome
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2005-07-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813540984

Nearly fifty years after his death, Albert Einstein remains one of America's foremost cultural icons. A thicket of materials, ranging from scholarly to popular, have been written, compiled, produced, and published about his life and his teachings. Among the ocean of Einsteinia-scientific monographs, biographies, anthologies, bibliographies, calendars, postcards, posters, and Hollywood films-however, there is a peculiar void when it comes to the connection that the brilliant scientist had with the African American community. Nowhere is there any mention of his close relationship with Paul Robeson, despite Einstein's close friendship with him, or W.E.B. Du Bois, despite Einstein's support for him. This unique volume is the first to bring together a wealth of writings by the scientist on the topic of race. Although his activism in this area is less well known than his efforts on behalf of international peace and scientific cooperation, Einstein spoke out vigorously against racism both in the United States and around the world. Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor suggest that one explanation for this historical amnesia is that Einstein's biographers avoided "controversial" topics, such as his friendships with African Americans and his political activities, including his involvement as co-chair of an antilynching campaign, fearing that mention of these details may tarnish the feel-good impression his image lends topics of science, history, and America. Combining the scientist's letters, speeches, and articles with engaging narrative and historical discussions that place his public statements in the context of his life and times, this important collection not only brings attention to Einstein's antiracist public activities, but also provides insight into the complexities of antiracist culture in America. The volume also features a selection of candid interviews with African Americans who knew Einstein as children. For a man whose words and reflections have influenced so many, it is long overdue that Einstein's thoughts on this vital topic are made easily accessible to the general public.

Black in White Space

Black in White Space
Author: Elijah Anderson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2023-04-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226826414

From the vital voice of Elijah Anderson, Black in White Space sheds fresh light on the dire persistence of racial discrimination in our country. A birder strolling in Central Park. A college student lounging on a university quad. Two men sitting in a coffee shop. Perfectly ordinary actions in ordinary settings—and yet, they sparked jarring and inflammatory responses that involved the police and attracted national media coverage. Why? In essence, Elijah Anderson would argue, because these were Black people existing in white spaces. In Black in White Space, Anderson brings his immense knowledge and ethnography to bear in this timely study of the racial barriers that are still firmly entrenched in our society at every class level. He focuses in on symbolic racism, a new form of racism in America caused by the stubbornly powerful stereotype of the ghetto embedded in the white imagination, which subconsciously connects all Black people with crime and poverty regardless of their social or economic position. White people typically avoid Black space, but Black people are required to navigate the “white space” as a condition of their existence. From Philadelphia street-corner conversations to Anderson’s own morning jogs through a Cape Cod vacation town, he probes a wealth of experiences to shed new light on how symbolic racism makes all Black people uniquely vulnerable to implicit bias in police stops and racial discrimination in our country. An unwavering truthteller in our national conversation on race, Anderson has shared intimate and sharp insights into Black life for decades. Vital and eye-opening, Black in White Space will be a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the lived realities of Black people and the structural underpinnings of racism in America.

Black Feelings

Black Feelings
Author: Lisa M. Corrigan
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496827961

Honorable Mention Recipient of the 2021 Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Public Address by the National Communication Association In the 1969 issue of Negro Digest, a young Black Arts Movement poet then-named Ameer (Amiri) Baraka published “We Are Our Feeling: The Black Aesthetic.” Baraka’s emphasis on the importance of feelings in Black selfhood expressed a touchstone for how the Black liberation movement grappled with emotions in response to the politics and racial violence of the era. In her latest book, award-winning author Lisa M. Corrigan suggests that Black Power provided a significant repository for negative feelings, largely Black pessimism, to resist the constant physical violence against Black activists and the psychological strain of political disappointment. Corrigan asserts the emergence of Black Power as a discourse of Black emotional invention in opposition to Kennedy-era white hope. As integration became the prevailing discourse of racial liberalism shaping midcentury discursive structures, so too, did racial feelings mold the biopolitical order of postmodern life in America. By examining the discourses produced by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other Black Power icons who were marshaling Black feelings in the service of Black political action, Corrigan traces how Black liberation activists mobilized new emotional repertoires

Icons of American Popular Culture

Icons of American Popular Culture
Author: Robert C. Cottrell
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2009-09-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 076562835X

Traces the evolution of American popular culture over the past two centuries. In a lengthy chronology of landmark events, and ten chapters, each revolving around the lives of two individuals who are in some way emblematic of their times, this provides a window on the social, economic, and political history of US democracy from the antebellum period to the present.