{"id":36097,"date":"2014-08-15T06:17:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T06:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=36097"},"modified":"2019-06-12T14:57:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T14:57:56","slug":"only-the-news-they-want-to-print-mainstream-media-and-critical-mixed-race-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=36097","title":{"rendered":"“Only the News They Want to Print”: Mainstream Media and Critical Mixed-Race Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Only the News They Want to Print”: Mainstream Media and Critical Mixed-Race Studies<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies<\/a>
\nVolume 1, Number 1<\/a> (2014-01-30)
\npages 162-182
\nISSN: 2325-4521<\/p>\n

Rainier Spencer<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs; Professor of Afro-American Studies
\nUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas<\/em><\/p>\n

This essay lauds the publication of the <\/em>Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies<\/a>, then turns <\/em>immediately to argue that the journal must focus itself on actively becoming the authoritative<\/em> voice on mixed-race matters, while also speaking out against naive colorblindness and premature<\/em> declarations of postraciality. This is crucial because the public receives its information on mixed-race<\/em> identity from the mainstream media, which has a long historical record of inaccurate and<\/em> damaging reporting on mixed race. Using the recent “Race Remixed<\/a>” series in the <\/em>New York Times<\/a> as a contemporary example of this problem, the essay argues that it is imperative that<\/em> mainstream media writers seek out and use scholarly input in the publication of their articles.<\/em><\/p>\n

With the publication of this inaugural issue<\/a> of the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies<\/em>, the field of study demarcated by the journal\u2019s title takes a major leap forward both materially and symbolically. The material leap has to do with the fact that there is now an academic publication devoted expressly to the field of critical mixed-race studies<\/a>, a single source to go to for the latest in mixed-race research. Even though the journal certainly cannot publish everything in this field, and scholars will still find themselves combing through libraries and the Internet for newly published work, my hope is that this journal will nonetheless become the unquestioned touchstone of mixed-race scholarship. The symbolic leap, on the other hand, while related to the material one, has to do with the intangible satisfaction that attends to having \u201cmade it,\u201d so to speak. While there is no difference between the good scholarly work done immediately prior to the launching of the journal and the good scholarly work we find in the pages of this issue, there is nevertheless a gratifying sense that \u201cwe\u201d\u2014those of us who work and publish in this area\u2014now have a journal to call home. The importance of this should not be minimized…<\/p>\n

…One crucial observation to make about mixed-race identity work over the past twenty years is that even though there has been phenomenal growth and change in the work itself, non-scholarly reporting on mixed race has not kept pace with those advancements. While scholarly studies of mixed race have proliferated, creating both the academic field and now this journal, and while mixed-race identity work has become more and more sophisticated, the quality of media coverage has remained ossified. In fact, mainstream media analysis of mixed-race identity in the United States is generally no different whether one reads an article from 1994, 2000, 2006, or 2012. Given its outsize impact on the general public, the dominant media in the United States is in fact a hegemonic entity. Its coverage of mixed-race identity has crucial effects on attitudes, opinions, and even public policy; therefore, the accuracy of its reporting is critical. For this reason, dominant media representation of multiraciality will be my main focus in this article as I consider the challenges it presents to critical mixed-race studies…<\/p>\n

…The specific details being reported aside, the deeper structural problem with mainstream media stories on the alleged postracial power of mixed-race identity or the supposed significance of changing racial demographics is that the information presented is often one-sided, simplistic, geared to a tabloid sensibility, and does not reflect the multiform ways that edifices of power have race embedded within them, whether visible or not. It is a matter of sensationalism taking precedence over serious analysis. David Roediger<\/a> identifies this tendency of providing sensationalism without substance, noting that \u201coften multiracial identities and immigration take center stage as examples of factors making race obsolete\u201d and that \u201cwe are often told popularly that race and racism are on predictable tracks to extinction. But we are seldom told clear or consistent stories about why white supremacy will give way and how race will become a \u2018social virus\u2019 of the past.\u201d Roediger\u2019s words highlight the importance of unmasking this postracial aspiration for what it is: an effort to provide comfort to a nation that is unwilling to do the hard work required to deal effectively with centuries of entrenched racism and the resultant consequences…<\/p>\n

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

This essay lauds the publication of the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies, then turns immediately to argue that the journal must focus itself on actively becoming the authoritative voice on mixed-race matters, while also speaking out against naive colorblindness and premature declarations of postraciality. This is crucial because the public receives its information on mixed-race identity from the mainstream media, which has a long historical record of inaccurate and damaging reporting on mixed race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,8413,8,20],"tags":[10372,2640,45,2327],"class_list":["post-36097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-journal-of-critical-mixed-race-studies","tag-new-york-times","tag-rainier-spencer","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36097","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=36097"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54411,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36097\/revisions\/54411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}