num_pages: 184
description: Exposes the new generation of whiteness thriving at the expense and borrowed ingenuity of black peopleand explores how this intensifies racial inequality.American culture loves blackness. From music and fashion to activism and language black culture constantly achieves worldwide influence. Yet when it comes to who is allowed to thrive from black hipness the pioneers are usually left behind as black aesthetics are converted into mainstream successand white profit. Weaving together narrative scholarship and critique Lauren Michele Jackson reveals why cultural appropriationsomething thats become embedded in our daily livesdeserves serious attention. It is a blueprint for taking wealth and power and ultimately exacerbates the economic political and social inequity that persists in America. She unravels the racial contradictions lurking behind American culture as we know itfrom shapeshifting celebrities and memes gone viral to brazen poets loveable potheads and faulty political leaders.An audacious debut White Negroes brilliantly summons a re-interrogation of Norman Mailers infamous 1957 essay of a similar name. It also introduces a bold new voice in Jackson. Piercing curious and bursting with pop cultural touchstones White Negroes is a dispatch in awe of black creativity everywhere and an urgent call for our thoughtful consumption.
language: English
title: White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation
publisher: Beacon Press