Transcending Blackness : from the new millennium Mulatta to the exceptional multiracial /

This study adds to the growing field of mixed-race studies with its critique of how popular culture representations of mixed-race people often depend on marginalizing or pathologizing blackness. After an informative introduction discussing the history of mixed-race images and debates over whether the present era is "post-racial," Joseph (Univ. of Washington) presents four case studies. The first two examine the "new millennium mulatta" in the television series The L Word and Danzy Senna's novel Caucasia. These texts recycle the traditional stereotype of the tragic mulatta and make little space for an affirmative multiracial identity that also maintains an African American selfhood. In the second half of the book, Joseph looks at cases of the "exceptional multiracial" in the film Mixing Nia and Tyra Banks's television show America's Next Top Model. Here again the price of the ticket to success is the ideological transcending of blackness and the continued privileging of whiteness. Joseph's primary contribution lies in focusing on how the celebration of mixed race usually perpetuates negative attitudes toward blackness, and how central gender is to performance of raced identities. Unfortunately, Joseph repeats her thesis too often in abstract language and depends on a small number of examples (a perhaps debatable representation). Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Upper-division undergraduates and above. G. Jay University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee

Multiracial identity, ever more prevalent in America, is generally represented as either a source of confusion or a post-racial triumph. University of Washington professor Joseph argues that both views are wrong, because they presuppose that blackness is something bad to be overcome. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.