Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Publication Date

7-2-2011

Abstract

This study examines the (re)production of anti-Black ideology in critical discourses on race. Though contemporary critical discourses on race have been concerned with theorizing about the deployment of colorblind racial ideology, this study takes the position that anti-Black ideology is uniquely situated within the United States. Post-Civil Rights critical dialogues on race call for a move beyond the Black/white binary and the need to transcend dualistic racial paradigms. Though a typical critique of colorblind ideology implicates a social structure that oppresses all people of color uniformly, this study argues that the reality of material and social consequences vary depending on the group. The study makes an ideological critique of critical race discourses that purport to move beyond Black/white racial theorizing. It argues that not only is racial binary thinking implicated, but that there is a perpetuation of anti-Black ideology that works to create a non-Black/Black paradigm. This study proposes three frames that construct Blacks as nativists, essentialists and pathogens in the post-Civil Rights era. The methodological approach of this study employs racial realism. Racial realism legitimates studies that explore the patterns of racial dynamics. As an ideological critique, this study unpacks and interprets the presence of dominant ideologies that endeavor to maintain a hierarchical racial order.

Keywords

Blacks--Race identity--United States, Race awareness--United States, Racism--United States, United States--Race relations

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Celedon-Pattichis, Sylvia

Second Committee Member

Lopez, Nancy

Third Committee Member

Rodriguez, Ilia

Download

Share

COinS