Harlem is one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world a historic symbol of both black cultural achievement and of the rigid boundaries separating the rich from the poor. But as this book shows us, Harlem is far more culturally and economically diverse than its caricature suggests: through extensive fieldwork and interviews, John L. Jackson reveals a variety of social networks and class stratifications, and explores how African Americans interpret and perform different class identities in their everyday behavior.
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New York's urban neighborhoods are full of young would-be emcees who aspire to "keep it real" and restaurants like Sylvia's famous soul food eatery that offer a taste of "authentic" black culture. In these and other venues, authenticity is considered the best way to distinguish the real from the phony, the genuine from the fake. But in "Real Black, " John L. Jackson Jr. proposes a new model for thinking about these issues "racial sincerity.
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Jackson argues that authenticity caricatures identity as something imposed on people, imprisoning them within stereotypes: an African American...

New York's urban neighborhoods are full of young would-be emcees who aspire to "keep it real" and restaurants like Sylvia's famous soul food eatery that offer a taste of "authentic" black culture. In these and other venues, authenticity is considered the best way to distinguish the real from the phony, the genuine from the fake. But in "Real Black, " John L. Jackson Jr. proposes a new model for thinking about these issues "racial sincerity.
"
Jackson argues that authenticity caricatures identity as something imposed on people, imprisoning them within stereotypes: an African American...

In this courageous book, John L. Jackson, Jr. draws on current events as well as everyday interactions to demonstrate the culture of race-based paranoia and its profound effects on our lives. He explains how it is cultivated and reinforced, and how it complicates the goal of racial equality. In this paperback edition, Jackson explores the 2008 presidential election, weaving in examples ranging from the notorious New Yorker cover to Saturday Night Live's political parodies.

The killing of Osama bin Laden, the aftermath of the Arab Spring movements, and the shocking and tragic July 2011 events in Norway have exposed important questions about the meaning of democracy and its impetus: How are race, religion, and democracy linked? How are these connections expressed in real life? On the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, this volume examines the symbiotic connections among race, religion, and democracy and calls for reframing the existing discourse on democracy to reflect the mutually inclusive nature of these forces. The authors show that race and...

The killing of Osama bin Laden, the aftermath of the Arab Spring movements, and the shocking and tragic July 2011 events in Norway have exposed important questions about the meaning of democracy and its impetus: How are race, religion, and democracy linked? How are these connections expressed in real life? On the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, this volume examines the symbiotic connections among race, religion, and democracy and calls for reframing the existing discourse on democracy to reflect the mutually inclusive nature of these forces. The authors show that race and...

How Black Christians, Muslims, and Jews have used media to prove their equality, not only in the eyes of God but in society. The institutional structures of white supremacy--slavery, Jim Crow laws, convict leasing, and mass incarceration--require a commonsense belief that black people lack the moral and intellectual capacities of white people. It is through this lens of belief that racial exclusions have been justified and reproduced in the United States. Televised Redemption argues that African American religious media has long played a key role in humanizing the...

How Black Christians, Muslims, and Jews have used media to prove their equality, not only in the eyes of God but in society. The institutional structures of white supremacy--slavery, Jim Crow laws, convict leasing, and mass incarceration--require a commonsense belief that black people lack the moral and intellectual capacities of white people. It is through this lens of belief that racial exclusions have been justified and reproduced in the United States. Televised Redemption argues that African American religious media has long played a key role in humanizing the...