Surplus Blackness
Alfred L. Martin Jr. / University Of Iowa
Alfred L. Martin, Jr. theorizes “surplus Blackness” in relation to the treatment of Black audiences in the culture industries.
Read moreTag: Blackness
Surplus Blackness
A Look into Digital Blackface, Culture Vultures, & How to Read Racism like Black Critical Audiences
Lando Tosaya and Ralina L. Joseph / University of Washington
Lando Tosaya and Ralina L. Joseph illuminate some of the ways critical Black audiences resist culture vultures, digital Blackface, and performative activism.
Read more Watching Woke: An Exercise in Restraining Our Burden of Representation
Laura Irwin and Ralina L. Joseph / University of Washington
Through analysis of Hulu’s Woke, Laura Irwin and Ralina L. Joseph explore the complexities of the burden of representation that Black TV faces.
Read moreActivism or Performative Activism?: Investigating Jimmy Butler’s “No Name” NBA Jersey
Jas L. Moultrie and Ralina L. Joseph / University of Washington, seattle
Jas L. Moultrie and Ralina L. Joseph illustrate the power and limitations of players’ voices in the midst of branded corporate activism.
Read moreRace and The Unintended Consequences of Musical Reaction Videos
María Elena Cepeda / Williams College
Using Tim and Fred Williams’ musical reaction videos as a case study, María Elena Cepeda discusses racial and generational relations between audiences and content creators as potential drivers of change in production and marketing in the music industry.
Read moreWitness Me: How Tiktok Users Broke With the Sociopathic American Gaze in the Wake of George Floyd’s Murder
Alex Hack / University of Southern California
Considering generational trauma along with TikTok’s algorithm, Alex Hack discusses the many TikToks that were widely circulated in response to the murder of George Floyd and how they, in many ways, managed to break past the logic of Americana.
Read moreInsecure, Issa Rae, and The Interstitial Space of Black Female Friendships
Daelena Tinnin / University of Texas at Austin
Daelena Tinnin examines the dearth of black female friendships on television, the paradox of visibility, and Insecure‘s liminal possibilities.
Read moreMoving From The Margins: Blackness, Podcasts and Racialized Audio Space
Briana Barner / University of Texas at Austin
Briana Barner explores the podcast as a racialized space, and gives an example of a podcast that pushes back against the notion that podcasts are a White space.
Read moreA Pedagogical Experiment in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Susan Courtney / University of South Carolina
Susan Courtney reflects on teaching race and media studies to undergraduates, inspired in part by her fall 2015 course, “Mediating Ferguson, USA: 1915-2015.”
Read moreShady is the New Black
Bambi Haggins / Arizona State University
Bambi Haggins considers how the “shady” protagonists, Olivia, Annalise, and Cookie, ambivalently challenge previous “Super Negro” televisual representation strategies.
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