Blackness has always played a central role in the American
imagination. Therefore, it should not be surprising that popular
television--a medium that grew up with the Civil Rights Movement--has
featured blackness as both a foil and a key narrative theme throughout
its sixty-year existence. Ironically, in modern "colorblind" times, we
are faced with a unique turn of events--blackness is actually
over-represented in television sitcoms and dramas.
Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America
presents fifteen classic and contemporary studies of the shifting,
complex relationship between popular television and blackness. Using a
variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, these essays
examine four key issues that have framed popular and scholarly inquiries
into the nature of race on television:
* The black-white binary
* The power of media
* Distinguishing between "negative" and "positive" images
* The relative importance of markets versus racial motives in television
Firmly establishing popular television as a central cultural forum in our society, Channeling Blackness
looks at how television has profoundly shaped and been shaped by
America's ambivalent relationship with blackness. It provides numerous
examples of how our current interaction with television distinguishes
the lived experiences of today from those of the past. The book also
shows how the entertainment function of television often masks its
ideological purpose, particularly its role in reflecting and reproducing
America's racial order. A useful supplement in any number of courses on
race and society, Channeling Blackness is an ideal text for
advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on race and media, media and
society, television studies, television criticism, communication
studies, and African American and ethnic studies.