{"id":23538,"date":"2012-05-31T03:01:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T03:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=23538"},"modified":"2012-05-31T23:50:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T23:50:31","slug":"jared-sexton-amalgamation-schemes-antiblackness-and-the-critique-of-multiracialism-comer-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=23538","title":{"rendered":"Jared Sexton, Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism [Comer Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jared Sexton, Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism [Comer Review]<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Black Diaspora Review<\/a>
\nVolume 3, Number 1<\/a> (2012)
\npages 52-53<\/p>\n

Nandi Comer<\/a><\/strong>
\nIndiana University, Bloomington<\/em><\/p>\n

Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism<\/a><\/em>. By Jared Sexton. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. 345 pp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s proud to be able to say that\u2026 The first black president… That\u2019s unless you screw up. And then it\u2019s going to be what\u2019s up with the half white guy?\u201d
\n\u2014Wanda Sykes<\/a>, 2009 White House Correspondents Dinner<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shortly after the 2008 presidential election, Wanda Sykes stood in front of a banquet hall of the most prominent journalists in the United States and celebrated Barack Obama<\/a> for being the \u201cfirst black president.\u201d During her comments she also acknowledged his biracial identity, but her emphasis on his Black identity represented the frame of mind of millions of Americans who acknowledge Obama as the first Black president. Still, Sykes\u2019s remarks about Obama\u2019s racial identity indicates the choice people of mixed race have\u2014to accept traditional notions about race and hypodescent, which determines anyone with African blood Black, or to claim a multiracial identity. Although this choice is a personal one, since the 1980s multiracial communities have mobilized to construct a politicized identity in the pursuit of racial equality.<\/p>\n

In Amalgamation Schemes<\/a><\/em>, author Jared Sexton<\/a> examines the political history and current discourse of multiracialism in order to uncover the negative ramifications of its political agenda. Through his critical analysis, Sexton argues that in its attempt to gain political recognition as a progressive movement committed to racial equality and the elimination of sexual racism, multiracialism has positioned itself in opposition to notions of hypodescent and antimiscegenation, while simultaneously adapting a morally conservative identity. For Sexton the multiracial political agenda are dangerous breeding grounds for antiblackness, heteronormativity, desexualization of race, and deracialization of sex. In other words, Jared Sexton argues that multiracialism is a mechanism for further reinforcement of \u201cglobal white supremacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his work Sexton\u2019s primary aim is to \u201caddress the problematic of multiracial discourse\u201d (154). What was originally a movement dedicated to furthering the goals of the Civil Right Movement<\/a>, seeking acknowledgement and representation in the census, Sexton argues, was actually a misinterpretation of the original policy meant to \u201ctrack the progress towards racial equality.\u201d Ironically, Sexton argues, the very Black civil rights leaders from whom multiracialism draws are the same individuals from whom multiracialism seeks to distance itself…<\/p>\n

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

Jared Sexton, Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism [Comer Review] Black Diaspora Review Volume 3, Number 1 (2012) pages 52-53 Nandi Comer Indiana University, Bloomington Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism. By Jared Sexton. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. 345 pp. \u201cIt\u2019s proud to be able to say that\u2026 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,5,8,26,20],"tags":[10977,1471,10976],"class_list":["post-23538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-book-reviews","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-black-diaspora-review","tag-jared-sexton","tag-nandi-comer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23538","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=23538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}