{"id":36644,"date":"2014-07-11T06:58:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T06:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=36644"},"modified":"2014-07-11T07:00:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T07:00:51","slug":"transcending-blackness-from-the-new-millennium-mulatta-to-the-exceptional-multiracial-ralina-l-joseph-cannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=36644","title":{"rendered":"Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial. Ralina L. Joseph. [Cannon]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial. Ralina L. Joseph. [Cannon]<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

MELUS: Multi-Ethnic LIterature of the United States<\/a>
\nVolume 39, Issue 3<\/a> (Fall 2014)
\npages 207-209
\nDOI: 10.1093\/melus\/mlu028<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarita Cannon<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature
\nSan Francisco State University<\/em><\/p>\n

Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial<\/em><\/a>. Ralina L. Joseph. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012. 248 pages. $84.95 cloth; $23.95 paper.<\/p>\n

Ralina L. Joseph\u2019s<\/a> timely book about representations of multiracial black women in popular culture makes a significant contribution to the growing field of critical mixed-race studies<\/a>. Drawing on research in various fields, Joseph closely reads four texts produced between 1998 and 2008: Showtime\u2019s television series The L Word<\/em><\/a> (2004-09), Danzy Senna\u2019s<\/a> coming-of-age novel Caucasia<\/em><\/a> (1998), Alison Swan\u2019s independent film Mixing Nia<\/em><\/a> (1998), and the reality competition show America\u2019s Next Top Model<\/em><\/a> (2003-present). Joseph examines representations of black mixed-race subjectivity in these texts through two tropes: the new millennium mulatta<\/a> and the exceptional multiracial. These two very different archetypes of multiracial identity are nonetheless linked by a common desire to transcend blackness, a proposition that Joseph argues is deeply troubling in twenty-first-century America, where, although many proclaim that affirmative action is no longer necessary, structural inequalities between blacks and whites remain entrenched.<\/p>\n

One of Joseph\u2019s central claims in Transcending Blackness<\/em> is that popular representations of black mixed-race women fall into one of two categories. The new millennium mulatta is, in many ways, a revision of the tragic mulatta<\/a> figure, made popular in films such as The Birth of a Nation<\/em><\/a> (1915) and Imitation of Life<\/em><\/a> (1959). According to Joseph, the new\u2026<\/p>\n

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

Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial. Ralina L. Joseph. [Cannon] MELUS: Multi-Ethnic LIterature of the United States Volume 39, Issue 3 (Fall 2014) pages 207-209 DOI: 10.1093\/melus\/mlu028 Sarita Cannon, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature San Francisco State University Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,8413,8,20],"tags":[4259,14211,1980,1444,4749,1986],"class_list":["post-36644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-melus","tag-melus-multi-ethnic-literature-of-the-united-states","tag-ralina-joseph","tag-ralina-l-joseph","tag-ralina-landwehr-joseph","tag-sarita-cannon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644","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=36644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}