Title
White Norm, Black Deviation: Class, Race, and Resistance in America’s “Postracial” Media Discourse
Department
School of Communication and Media
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-11-2018
Abstract
The authors deploy Marxist theory—and Gramscian hegemonic theory in particular—to investigate the subtleties of racial “othering” in the media representations of African Americans in a putatively postracial America. The paper’s objects of inquiry are an opinion article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the reaction it instigated in the Atlanta Black Star. We argue that the contestations of signification between the dominant narrative about African Americans in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the rhetorical pushback it actuated in the alternative Atlanta Black Star both reproduce and legitimate dominant media framing by highlighting the alterity of subordinate ethnic groups and providing a site for contestation.
Journal Title
Howard Journal of Communications
Journal ISSN
1064-6175
Volume
30
Issue
3
First Page
265
Last Page
283
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1080/10646175.2018.1491433