Foundations of the Mulata and Mulatta in the United States and Brazil -- Framing Blackness and Mixedness: The Politics of Racial Identity in the Celebrity Texts of Jennifer Beals, Halle Berry, and Camila Pitanga -- The Morena and the Mulata in Brazilian Telenovelas: Containing Blackness in a Racial Democracy -- Reinventing the Mulatta in the United States for the 2000s: Celebrating Diversity amid the Haunting of Blackness -- Remixing Mixedness: U.S. Media Imaginings of Brazil and Brazil's Bid for Rio.
Summary:
"Brazil markets itself as a racially mixed utopia. The United States prefers the term melting pot. Both nations have long used the image of the mulatta to push skewed cultural narratives. Highlighting the prevalence of mixed-race women of African and European descent, the two countries claim to have perfected racial representation--all the while ignoring the racialization, hypersexualization, and white supremacy that the mulatta narrative creates. Jasmine Mitchell investigates the development and exploitation of the mulatta figure in Brazilian and US popular culture. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, she analyzes policy debates and reveals the use of mixed-black female celebrities as subjects of racial and gendered discussions. Mitchell also unveils the ways the media moralizes about the mulatta figure and uses her as an example of an "acceptable" version of blackness that at once dreams of erasing undesirable blackness while maintaining the qualities that serve as outlets for interracial desire"-- 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.