Description
Book SynopsisBlackness is a prized commodity in American pop culture. Marketed to white consumers, it invites whites to view themselves in a mirror of racial difference, while remaining wholly white. From sports to literature, film, and music to investigative journalism, Eric Lott reveals the hidden dynamics of this self-and-other racial mirroring.
Trade ReviewThis is a rich book. Eric Lott made worlds I thought I knew look unexplored: more interesting, more cryptic, more threatening, more alive. -- Greil Marcus
The ‘Black Mirror’ does not exactly reproduce blackness; it activates fantasies of blackness that are crucial to the reproduction of white national selfhood. Lott begins with a timely, uncannily lucid account of Barack Obama’s usage of cross-racial mirrorings throughout his presidency. This book is poised to intervene in the most difficult and significant of contemporary and political questions. A monumental achievement. -- Donald Pease, Dartmouth College
Eric Lott reveals the syncopated rhythms of racial fantasy that serve as the enduring backbeat of American culture. He posits that a ‘black mirror’ works overtime in American culture to produce a fantasy of white masculinity and plenitude. This book is insightful, timely, and stunningly written. -- Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Northeastern University
[Lott] has important things to say about how race functions in contemporary U.S. culture. -- D. C. Mauss * Choice *
