| The idea of a post-Civil Rights era has entered the US public sphere in the last decade. In the service of a neo-conservative agenda, post-Civil Rights America argues for an end to race, a celebration of multiculturalism, and a utilization of colorblind doctrine in law, public policy, and popular culture. Simultaneously, racial difference is feared and structural racism is ignored. In many ways the multiracial subject, embodying "all races," is imagined to be the quintessential post-Civil Rights American. This dissertation examines how cultural representations of Black/white women, sexualized embodiments of the US racial dichotomy, rely upon two extremes: a post-racial ideology of colorblindness (being "beyond race" or raceless) and a hyper-racialized ideology of hybridity (being "in-between races" or super-raced). I examine the linkages between popular representations of Black-white women and larger US urges to ignore the "gray" role that race and gender can play in the new millennium. Current structural racism is allowed to flourish unfettered because "true" racism only happens in the Jim Crow South and between ignorant individuals. In my readings of cross-sections of cultural sites, I utilize theory in literary, cultural, women's and ethnic studies, and rely heavily upon history. In each of my readings of contemporary cultural sites, I draw upon eighteenth and nineteenth century portrayals of "the mulatta." My dissertation argues that polarization of Black/white female images into a colorblindness/hybridity paradigm ignores the reality of contemporary race relations, which occurs in middle, in-between spaces, and not neatly polarized ends of an imagined racial spectrum. |
