Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Presence in White Culture (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780822946205)

In music, crossover means that a song has moved beyond its original genre and audience into the general social consciousness. Rhetorical Crossover uses the same concept to theorize how the black rhetorical presence has moved in mainstream spaces in an era where African Americans were becoming more visible in white culture. Cedric Burrows argues that when black rhetoric moves into the dominant culture, white audiences appear welcoming to African Americans as long as they present an acceptable form of blackness for white tastes. The predominant culture has always constructed coded narratives on how the black rhetorical presence should appear and behave when in majority spaces. In response, African Americans developed their own narratives that revise and reinvent mainstream narratives while also reaffirming their humanity. Using an interdisciplinary model built from music, education, film, and social movement studies, Rhetorical Crossover details the dueling narratives about African Americans that percolate throughout the United States.

Author: Cedric Burrows
ISBN-10: 0822946203
ISBN-13: 9780822946205
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Language: English
Published: 10/27/2020
Pages: 168
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 0.90d