Signifying Without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama

by Stephanie Li and Professor Stephanie Li

Book Overview

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama faced a difficult task--rallying African American voters while resisting his opponents' attempts to frame him as "too black" to govern the nation as a whole. Obama's solution was to employ what Toni Morrison calls "race-specific, race-free language," avoiding open discussions of racial issues while using terms and references that carried a specific cultural resonance for African American voters.

Stephanie...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813551447
• ISBN13: 9780813551449
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"