Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource Playing the Race Card : Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson, Linda Williams, (electronic resource)

Playing the Race Card : Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson, Linda Williams, (electronic resource)

Creator
Contributor
Summary
The black man suffering at the hands of whites, the white woman sexually threatened by the black man. Both images have long been burned into the American conscience through popular entertainment, and today they exert a powerful and disturbing influence on Americans' understanding of race. So argues Linda Williams in this boldly inquisitive book, where she probes the bitterly divisive racial sentiments aroused by such recent events as O. J. Simpson's criminal trial. Williams, the author of Hard Core, explores how these images took root, beginning with melodramatic theater, where suffering characters acquire virtue through victimization. The racial sympathies and hostilities that surfaced during the trial of the police in the beating of Rodney King and in the O. J. Simpson murder trial are grounded in the melodramatic forms of Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Birth of a Nation. Williams finds that Stowe's beaten black man and Griffith's endangered white woman appear repeatedly throughout popular entertainment, promoting interracial understanding at one moment, interracial hate at another. The black and white racial melodrama has galvanized emotions and fueled the importance of new media forms, such as serious, "integrated" musicals of stage and film, including The Jazz Singer and Show Boat. It also helped create a major event out of the movie Gone With the Wind, while enabling television to assume new moral purpose with the broadcast of Roots. Williams demonstrates how such developments converged to make the televised race trial a form of national entertainment. When prosecutor Christopher Darden accused Simpson's defense team of "playing the race card," which ultimately trumped his own team's gender card, he feared that the jury's sympathy for a targeted black man would be at the expense of the abused white wife. The jury's verdict, Williams concludes, was determined not so much by facts as by the cultural forces of racial melodrama long in the making. Revealing melodrama to be a key element in American culture, Williams argues that the race images it has promoted are deeply ingrained in our minds and that there can be no honest discussion about race until Americans recognize this predicament
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
Playing the Race Card : Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson
Title
Playing the Race Card
Title remainder
Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson
Statement of responsibility
Linda Williams
Creator
Contributor
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
The black man suffering at the hands of whites, the white woman sexually threatened by the black man. Both images have long been burned into the American conscience through popular entertainment, and today they exert a powerful and disturbing influence on Americans' understanding of race. So argues Linda Williams in this boldly inquisitive book, where she probes the bitterly divisive racial sentiments aroused by such recent events as O. J. Simpson's criminal trial. Williams, the author of Hard Core, explores how these images took root, beginning with melodramatic theater, where suffering characters acquire virtue through victimization. The racial sympathies and hostilities that surfaced during the trial of the police in the beating of Rodney King and in the O. J. Simpson murder trial are grounded in the melodramatic forms of Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Birth of a Nation. Williams finds that Stowe's beaten black man and Griffith's endangered white woman appear repeatedly throughout popular entertainment, promoting interracial understanding at one moment, interracial hate at another. The black and white racial melodrama has galvanized emotions and fueled the importance of new media forms, such as serious, "integrated" musicals of stage and film, including The Jazz Singer and Show Boat. It also helped create a major event out of the movie Gone With the Wind, while enabling television to assume new moral purpose with the broadcast of Roots. Williams demonstrates how such developments converged to make the televised race trial a form of national entertainment. When prosecutor Christopher Darden accused Simpson's defense team of "playing the race card," which ultimately trumped his own team's gender card, he feared that the jury's sympathy for a targeted black man would be at the expense of the abused white wife. The jury's verdict, Williams concludes, was determined not so much by facts as by the cultural forces of racial melodrama long in the making. Revealing melodrama to be a key element in American culture, Williams argues that the race images it has promoted are deeply ingrained in our minds and that there can be no honest discussion about race until Americans recognize this predicament
http://bibfra.me/vocab/relation/auteur
K6V8i783OW4
Cataloging source
Midwest
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1946-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Williams, Linda
Index
no index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
dictionaries
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
hoopla digital
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Culture populaire
  • Blanches
  • Hommes noirs americains
  • Noirs americains dans les medias
  • Medias et relations raciales
  • Melodrame americain
  • Racisme dans la culture populaire
  • Noirs americains dans la culture populaire
  • melodrame americain (Etats-Unis)
  • Popular culture
  • Women, White
  • African American men
  • African Americans in mass media
  • Mass media and race relations
  • Melodrama, American
  • Racism in popular culture
  • African Americans in popular culture
  • Electronic books
  • États-Unis
  • United States
Target audience
adult
Label
Playing the Race Card : Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson, Linda Williams, (electronic resource)
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Distribution
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
Form of item
  • online
  • electronic
Governing access note
Digital content provided by hoopla
Isbn
9780691201337
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
15462510
Publisher number
MWT15462510
Specific material designation
remote
System details
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Label
Playing the Race Card : Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson, Linda Williams, (electronic resource)
Link
Publication
Distribution
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
Form of item
  • online
  • electronic
Governing access note
Digital content provided by hoopla
Isbn
9780691201337
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
15462510
Publisher number
MWT15462510
Specific material designation
remote
System details
Mode of access: World Wide Web

Subject

Library Locations

  • Anza LibraryBorrow it
    550 37th Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94121, US
    37.778535 -122.497218
  • Bayview/Linda Brooks-Burton LibraryBorrow it
    5075 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA, 94124, US
    37.732534 -122.391121
  • Bernal Heights LibraryBorrow it
    500 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94110, US
    37.738862 -122.416132
  • Bookmobiles / Mobile OutreachBorrow it
    San Francisco, CA, US
  • Chinatown/Him Mark Lai LibraryBorrow it
    1135 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA, 94108, US
    37.795248 -122.410239
  • Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial LibraryBorrow it
    1 Jose Sarria Court, San Francisco, CA, 94114, US
    37.764084 -122.431821
  • Excelsior LibraryBorrow it
    4400 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94112, US
    37.727127 -122.433284
  • Glen Park LibraryBorrow it
    2825 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA, 94131, US
    37.733969 -122.433723
  • Golden Gate Valley LibraryBorrow it
    1801 Green Street, San Francisco, CA, 94123, US
    37.797819 -122.428950
  • Ingleside LibraryBorrow it
    1298 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94112, US
    37.724132 -122.456251
  • Marina LibraryBorrow it
    1890 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA, 94123, US
    37.801325 -122.434154
  • Merced LibraryBorrow it
    155 Winston Drive, San Francisco, CA, 94132, US
    37.726735 -122.474482
  • Mission Bay LibraryBorrow it
    960 4th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94158, US
    37.775330 -122.393195
  • Mission LibraryBorrow it
    300 Bartlett St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, US
    37.751989 -122.419843
  • Noe Valley/Sally Brunn LibraryBorrow it
    451 Jersey Street, San Francisco, CA, 94114, US
    37.750180 -122.435116
  • North Beach LibraryBorrow it
    850 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94133, US
    37.802585 -122.413280
  • Ocean View LibraryBorrow it
    345 Randolph Street, San Francisco, CA, 94132, US
    37.714138 -122.466002
  • Ortega LibraryBorrow it
    3223 Ortega Street, San Francisco, CA, 94122, US
    37.751163 -122.498094
  • Park LibraryBorrow it
    1833 Page Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, US
    37.770300 -122.451046
  • Parkside LibraryBorrow it
    1200 Taraval Street, San Francisco, CA, 94116, US
    37.743130 -122.479330
  • Portola LibraryBorrow it
    380 Bacon Street, San Francisco, CA, 94134, US
    37.727098 -122.406361
  • Potrero LibraryBorrow it
    1616 20th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107, US
    37.760122 -122.397653
  • Presidio LibraryBorrow it
    3150 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, US
    37.788875 -122.444892
  • Richmond/Senator Milton Marks LibraryBorrow it
    351 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94118, US
    37.781855 -122.468054
  • San Francisco Public LibraryBorrow it
    100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102, US
    37.779376 -122.415795
  • Sunset LibraryBorrow it
    1305 18th Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94122, US
    37.763354 -122.476307
  • Visitacion Valley LibraryBorrow it
    201 Leland Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94134, US
    37.712695 -122.407913
  • West Portal LibraryBorrow it
    190 Lenox Way, San Francisco, CA, 94127, US
    37.741341 -122.465883
  • Western AdditionBorrow it
    1550 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, US
    37.784121 -122.437503

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by San Francisco Public Library. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.