Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity

Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity PDF

Author: Sherrow O. Pinder

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2021-08-01

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 143848481X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Michael Jackson and the Quandary of a Black Identity, Sherrow O. Pinder explores the ways in which the late singer's racial identification process problematizes conceptualizations of race and the presentation of blackness that reduces blacks to a bodily mark. Pinder is particularly interested in how Michael Jackson simultaneously performs his racial identity and posits it against strict binary racial definitions, neither black nor white. While Jackson's self-fashioning deconstructs and challenges the corporeal notions of "natural bodies" and fixed identities, negative readings of the King of Pop fuel epithets such as "weird" or "freak," subjecting him to a form of antagonism that denies the black body its self-determination. Thus, for Jackson, racial identification becomes a deeply ambivalent process, which leads to the fragmentation of his identity into plural identities. Pinder shows how Jackson as a racialized subject is discursively confined to a "third space," a liminal space of ambivalence.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson PDF

Author: ChristopherR. Smit

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 135155834X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Throughout his 40-year career, Michael Jackson intrigued and captivated public imagination through musical ingenuity, sexual and racial spectacle, savvy publicity stunts, odd behaviours, and a seemingly apolitical (yet always political) offering of popular art. A consistent player on the public stage from the age of eight, his consciousness was no doubt shaped by his countless public appearances, both designed and serendipitous. The artefacts he left behind - music, interviews, books written by and about him, and commercial products including dolls, buttons, posters, and photographs, videos, movies - will all become data in our cultural conversation about who Michael Jackson was, who he wanted to be, who we made him to be, and why. Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle includes essays that aim to understand Jackson from multiple perspectives: critical cultural theory, musicology, art history, media studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, literary theory, gender studies, performance studies, disability studies, film studies, and African-American studies. Intended for classroom use as well as research and general interest, this book expands our understanding both of this fascinating figure himself and of gender, sexuality, celebrity, and popular culture.

Colorblindness, Post-raciality, and Whiteness in the United States

Colorblindness, Post-raciality, and Whiteness in the United States PDF

Author: Sherrow O. Pinder

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-27

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1137431105

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book problematizes the ways in which the discourses of colorblindness and post-raciality are articulated in the age of Obama. Pinder debunks the myth that race does not matter and reconsiders the presumptive hegemony of whiteness through the dialectics of visibility and invisibility of race.

David Walker

David Walker PDF

Author: Sherrow O. Pinder

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2024-05-07

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1509548289

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

David Walker, a free (with a small f) black man, was one of the most significant African-American abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Born in a slave society before moving to Boston where, after the American Revolutionary War, slavery was abolished, Walker devoted his life to fighting slavery and antiblack racism. In this book, Sherrow O. Pinder brings to light Walker’s lived experience, activism, and the synchronizing of his Christian principles and reformist radicalism to demonstrate why and how slavery must be eliminated. Walker’s call for blacks to regain their natural rights culminated in his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, an enormously influential work that is now considered a founding text of black studies. Today, given the escalation of antiblack racism manifested in the upholding of institutionalized violence by the state and the continued marginality of African-Americans, we cannot afford to forget Walker’s push for racial egalitarianism: it is more urgent than ever.

Black Political Thought

Black Political Thought PDF

Author: Sherrow O. Pinder

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1107199727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A unique collection of articles and speeches by prominent African American activists, spanning over 150 years of black political thought.

The Dangerous Philosophies of Michael Jackson

The Dangerous Philosophies of Michael Jackson PDF

Author: Elizabeth Amisu

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2016-09-26

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

An essential companion to Michael Jackson's music, films, and books, this work offers 21 original, academic essays on all things Jackson-from film, music, and dance to fashion, culture, and literature. Going well beyond the average celebrity biography, this comprehensive book looks at why Jackson is regarded as one of the most important musicians of our time, offering insights into every facet of his art, life, and artistic afterlife. It looks at the methods by which his work was created, presented, received, and appropriated; discusses Jackson's varied personas along with his public and private appearances, albums, conceptual art, short films, and dance; and considers his use of costume, makeup, and reinvention. To help readers understand the phenomenon that was-and is-Michael Jackson, the book focuses on Jackson's historical context through an analysis of his films, songs, and books, examining him as an artist and shedding light on the political and ideological debates that surrounded him. Not shying away from the controversial aspects of Jackson's life and legacy, it also tackles questions of sexuality and racism, gender, and class, comparing Jackson to artists ranging from J. S. Bach to Andy Warhol. Through its examination of Jackson's entire catalog, the work connects all the aspects of his art and life to exemplify-and explain-the performer's unparalleled influence in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask

Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask PDF

Author: Harriet J. Manning

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-16

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1000894517

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Michael Jackson challenged the power structure of the American music industry and struck at the heart of blackface minstrelsy, America’s first form of mass entertainment. The response was a derisive caricature that over time Jackson subverted through his art. In this expanded, all-new edition, Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask argues for the tangible relationship between Jackson and blackface minstrelsy. It reveals the dialogue at minstrelsy’s core and, in its broader sense, tracks a centuries-long pattern of racial oppression and its resistance and how that has been played out in popular theatre. Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask explores Jackson’s early talent and fame and the birth and escalation of ‘Wacko Jacko’. In relation to all this, the book examines Jackson’s dynamic art as it evolved, from his live performances and short films to the very surface of his own body. Scholarly and interdisciplinary, this work is suitable for readers across a diverse spectrum of academic fields, including African American studies, popular music studies and cultural theory, media and communication, gender studies and performance and theatre studies. Academic but accessible, this book will also be an engaging read for anyone interested in Michael Jackson and especially in his role as an icon of difference, in America’s dynamics of race and his mass media image.

Race, Culture, and the City

Race, Culture, and the City PDF

Author: Stephen Nathan Haymes

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780791423837

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book proposes a pedagogy of black urban struggle and solidarity.

The Michael Jackson Trend Whitening the Black

The Michael Jackson Trend Whitening the Black PDF

Author: Jane White-Franco

Publisher:

Published: 2010-01-14

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 9780557278329

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Jane White-Franco's debut book dares to go where others are afraid too.Delving into gossip and interesting conversations. Her nonfiction book uncovers a taboo subject, that of Blacks desiring to be white in a time when the US has elected its first African-American president.