{"id":42497,"date":"2015-09-01T14:35:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42497"},"modified":"2015-09-01T14:35:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:35:02","slug":"the-politics-of-race-and-class-in-the-age-of-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42497","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of Race and Class in the Age of Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Politics of Race and Class in the Age of Obama<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Revue de Recherche en Civilisation Am\u00e9ricaine<\/a>
\nNumber 3 (March 2012): Post-racial America?<\/a><\/p>\n

Myra Mendible<\/strong><\/a>, Professor of English and Department Chair for Language and Literature
\nFlorida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida<\/em><\/p>\n

This essay explores the revival and misappropriation of identity politics in the age of Obama. I argue that Obama\u2019s<\/a> presidency has exposed the fault lines of American society, evoking deep-seated apprehensions about race, immigration, and America\u2019s role in a post-9\/11<\/a> world. As a result, it has generated a range of discursive strategies intended to both disguise and deploy racialist ideology. In particular, my analysis focuses attention on three developments in the wake of Obama\u2019s election: the emergence of \u201cwhiteness\u201d as an endangered identity; the prevalence of \u201cclass\u201d as a code word for \u201crace\u201d; and the reconfiguration of \u201cpassing<\/a>\u201d and miscegenation<\/a> tropes in political discourse. I consider the ways that these rhetorical sleights-of-hand exploit post-racial discourse in order to dismantle decades of progressive civil rights legislation in the United States.<\/p>\n

Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n