{"id":14756,"date":"2011-07-06T21:38:42","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T21:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=14756"},"modified":"2011-10-27T19:35:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T19:35:51","slug":"more-than-a-tragic-mulatto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=14756","title":{"rendered":"More than a ‘tragic mulatto’"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a ‘tragic mulatto’<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Runnymede Bulletin<\/a>
\nSpring 2011, Issue 365
\npages 26<\/p>\n

Zaki Nahaboo<\/a><\/strong>
\nDepartment of Politics & International Studies
\nThe Open University, UK<\/em><\/p>\n

Daniel R. McNeil. Sex and Race in the Black Atlantic: Mulatto Devils and Multiracial Messiahs<\/a><\/em>. London: Routledge, 2009, 186 pp. Hardback ISBN 978-0-415-87226-3, Paperback ISBN 978-0-415-89391-6, eBook ISBN 978-0-203-85736-6.<\/p>\n

Daniel McNeil<\/a> illuminates harrowing\u00a0accounts and insidious perceptions of mixed-race that exist across Canada, America and Britain. His monograph charts the transgression of the ‘colour-line’, exploring the subjectivity of those compelled to negotiate a mixed-race heritage while providing a critical intervention into the discourse of mixed-race as the contemporary cosmopolitan signifier of a post-racial future. These issues leap from the pages as he draws upon influential figures and popular culture ranging from Philippa Schuyler<\/a> to Barack Obama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the title suggests, these issues cannot be analysed without considering the gendered forms of violence and the masculine structuring of desire, which snare the mixed race woman, particularly, between a rock and a hard place.<\/p>\n

This is best exemplified in the second chapter of the book, in which McNeil seeks to uncover the linkages between the likes of W. E. B Du Bois<\/a>, Frantz Fanon<\/a> and Otto Rank<\/a>. McNeil does not undermine recent poststructuralist readings of these theorists, instead choosing to delve into their perceptions about the mulatto<\/a>. Here he finds that within their masculinist framework the mixed-race woman, in particular, is perceived as a hindrance, a problem, a neurotic and an object of pity. McNeil has provided a novel contribution, subtly showing that mixed-race is not simply a position of the petty bourgeoisie, but rather is seen as a shameful reminder of colonialism and ‘dilution’.<\/p>\n

McNeil’s account of renowned American child prodigy Philippa Schuyler is a strategically deployed case study for elucidating a far more complex identity than the ‘tragic mulatto<\/a>‘: i.e. “a feminised and neurotic figure who desires a white lover and either dies or returns to the black community”. Schuyler’s life is deployed to expose how the black\/white binary is paradoxically and simultaneously transcended, escaped, denied and repudiated, while also remaining a continuous weight upon her life…<\/p>\n

Read the entire review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a ‘tragic mulatto’ Runnymede Bulletin Spring 2011, Issue 365 pages 26 Zaki Nahaboo Department of Politics & International Studies The Open University, UK Daniel R. McNeil. Sex and Race in the Black Atlantic: Mulatto Devils and Multiracial Messiahs. London: Routledge, 2009, 186 pp. Hardback ISBN 978-0-415-87226-3, Paperback ISBN 978-0-415-89391-6, eBook ISBN 978-0-203-85736-6. Daniel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,5,19,10,20],"tags":[2967,419,4457,4456,1755,6778,122,6777],"class_list":["post-14756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-book-reviews","category-canada","category-uk","category-usa","tag-daniel-mcneil","tag-daniel-r-mcneil","tag-frantz-fanon","tag-otto-rank","tag-philippa-schuyler","tag-runnymede-bulletin","tag-w-e-b-du-bois","tag-zaki-nahaboo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}