Critical Race Narratives: A Study of Race, Rhetoric, and Injury (Critical America Series)

The beating of Rodney King, the killing of Amadou Diallo, and the LAPD Rampart Scandal: these events have been interpreted by the courts, the media and the public in dramatically conflicting ways. Critical Race Narratives examines what is at stake in these conflicts and, in so doing, rethinks racial strife in the United States as a highly-charged struggle over different methods of reading and writing. Focusing in particular on the practice and theorization of narrative strategies, Gutiérrez-Jones engages many of the most influential texts in the recent race debates including The Bell Curve, America in Black and White, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, and The Mismeasure of Man. In the process, Critical Race Narratives pursues key questions posed by the texts as they work within, or against, disciplinary expectations: can critical engagements with narrative enable a more democratic dialogue regarding race? what promise does such experimentation hold for working through the traumatic legacy of racism in the United States? Throughout, Critical Race Narratives initiates a timely dialogue between race-focused narrative experiment in scholarly writing and similar work in literary texts and popular culture. The beating of Rodney King, the killing of Amadou Diallo, and the LAPD Rampart Scandal: these events have been interpreted by the courts, the media and the public in dramatically conflicting ways. Critical Race Narratives examines what is at stake in these conflicts and, in so doing, rethinks racial strife in the United States as a highly-charged struggle over different methods of reading and writing.Focusing in particular on the practice and theorization of narrative strategies, Gutierrez-Jones engages many of the most influential texts in the recent race debates -- including The Bell Curve, America in Black and White, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, and The Mismeasure of Man. In the process, Critical Race Narratives pursues key questions posed by the texts as they work within, or against, disciplinary expectations: can critical engagements with narrative enable a more democratic dialogue regarding race? what promise does such experimentation hold for working through the traumatic legacy of racism in the United States? Throughout, Critical Race Narratives initiates a timely dialogue between race-focused narrative experiment in scholarly writing and similar work in literary texts and popular culture. Critical Race Narratives 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 13 Part One: Working Through Racial Injury 30 Chapter One: The Contours of the Contemporary Race Debate 32 Chapter Two: Color-Blindness, Acting Out, and Culture 59 Part Two: Narrative Interventions 78 Chapter Three: Critical Race Stories and the Problem of Remedy 80 Chapter Four: Historical Properties, Uncommon Grounds 101 Chapter Five: The Sociology of Racialized Crime 125 Chapter Six: Genetic Liabilities and the Paradox of Altruism 157 Conclusion 179 Notes 188 Works Cited 206 Index 218 About the Author 225 The Contours Of The Contemporary Race Debate -- Color-blindness, Acting Out, And Culture -- Critical Race Stories And The Problem Of Remedy -- Historical Properties, Uncommon Grounds -- The Sociology Of Racialized Crime -- Genetic Liabilities And The Paradox Of Altruism. Carl Gutiérrez-jones. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 195-205) And Index. If recent decades in American studies will be recalled for a pervasive concern regarding the inclusion of previously disenfranchised communities, it may well be that the movement of American studies into the twenty-first century will be remembered for a pronounced skepticism toward the promise of inclusion.