1. Woke country: conceptualizing the tune of race-conscious postracialism.
- Author
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Sandras, Dakota J.
- Subjects
POPULAR music ,SOUND recordings ,RACIAL differences ,ANTI-racism ,RACISM ,POSTRACIALISM - Abstract
This essay examines new iterations of postracial discourse that can be expressly observed through American country music songs released in the year 2020. Noting that their distribution and reception are largely connected to an era of postracial disruption, I attend to three popular songs that reveal how hollow race-conscious language, popularly labeled "woke," functions to conflate postracialism and antiracism. By employing explicit recognition of racial difference to frame (the) country as progressive and exceptional relative to its racist past, such rhetoric – which I call race-conscious postracialism – indicates another mode by which whiteness is upheld, even amidst demands for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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