Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-242) and index.
Contents:
The law is crazy!: Antistatism and the emergence of colorblindness in the early 1970s -- Keep away from me, Mr. Welfare Man: Claudine, welfare, and black independent film -- He looks like a big flag: Rocky and the origins of Hollywood colorblind heroism -- I can't wear your colors: Rocky III and Reagan's war on civil rights -- We are what we were: imagining America's colorblind past -- Lord, how dare we celebrate: colorblind hegemony and genre in the 1990s
Summary:
"The racial ideology of colorblindness has a long history. In 1963, Martin Luther King famously stated, 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.' However, in the decades after the civil rights movement, the ideology of colorblindness co-opted the language of the civil rights era in order to reinvent white supremacy and dismantle the civil rights movement's legal victories without offending political decorum. Yet, the spread of colorblindness could not merely happen through political speeches, newspapers, or books. The key, Justin Gomer contends, was film--as race-conscious language was expelled from public discourse, Hollywood provided the visual medium necessary to dramatize an anti-civil rights agenda over the course of the 70s, 80s, and 90s"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.