From Blackface to Black Twitter: Reflections on Black Humor, Race, Politics, & Gender

by Jannette L. Dates, Mia Moody Ramirez

Overview

From Blackface to Black Twitter: Reflections on Black Humor, Race, Politics, & Gender traces the roots and fruits of comedy over the centuries to analyze and offer insights into the intersections of race, gender, and politics in humor that is by, for, and/or about black people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433154553
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	08/01/2018
Edition description:	New
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jannette L. Dates is a former dean of the School of Communications at Howard University, a nationally recognized authority on mass media and African Americans, and co-editor of acclaimed book Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media (1990)—recipient of the Gustavus Myers Award.

Mia Moody Ramirez, a noted scholar in gender, race, and media, received her PhD from the University of Texas. She is a professor of journalism, public relations, and new media at Baylor University, where she also serves as Director of American Studies and Graduate Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements – Introduction – Part I. The Roots of Black Humor – Overview, Structure, and Significance of Book – Pre-Slavery Through the 19th Century – Part II. The Fruits of Black Humor – The Twentieth Century – Representations of Black Men and Kings of Comedy – Black Feminism and the Queens of Comedy – Part III. Black Comedy, Social Identity, and User-Generated Content – 21st Century-Humor and Social Identity – Black Twitter, Social Movements, and Politics—Humor Across Media Platforms and Memes – Humor and Citizen-Produced Memes – Part IV. Black Humor and Politics – Humor and President Obama – Part V. The Future of Black Comedy – Conclusions and Focus on the Future for Black Comedy – Appendices – Appendix A: Noteworthy African American Men in Comedy (Both Stand-Up and Screen) – Appendix B: Noteworthy African American Women in Comedy (Both Stand-Up and Screen) – Appendix C: Images Used in Cover Collage – Index.

Editorial Reviews

I’ve always been a fan of black comedy. I remember, as a little boy, sitting at the feet of my maternal grandmother while she listened to The Jack Benny Program on radio. She laughed loudest when Rochester, the black valet played by Eddie Anderson, tested Benny’s patience with his dry wit and smart banter. I laughed a lot back then at the black vaudevillian comedy of that time and then even more as I got older and the ranks of black comedians grew. But back then I gave little thought to the things that motivated this humor and the impact the laughter these comedians brought us had on the social and political life of this country. I found that awakening in the pages of this book. From Blackface to Black Twitter: Reflections on Black Humor, Race, Politics, & Gender is a guided tour through more than a century of efforts, conscious and unconscious, to salve the wounds of America’s enslaved people of African descent and their descendants—with laughter. Black comedy, the authors suggest, is often an Afrocentric response to white hegemony and the insidious stereotyping of blacks by others. More than anything else, this book is about how the laughter created by black comics has been a key part of the existentialism of America’s black community. And in this way, it is part of a black survival guide that is still being written.” —DeWayne Wickham, Dean and Professor of Journalism, School of Global Journalism and Communication, Morgan State University

“In this important addition to the literature concerning black humor, Jannette L. Dates and Mia Moody Ramirez provide a wide-ranging and comprehensive overview of comedy by, for, and about African Americans. For newcomers to the field, the appendices will be a welcome guide, as will the historical scope offered by this volume. The major contribution of this book is in the authors’ very timely and important explication of the impact of new social media platforms on the deployment of black humor in the early 21st century, by both professional comedians and by the general public.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University

From the Publisher