Real Black : adventures in racial sincerity
New York's urban neighborhoods are full of young would-be emcees who aspire to "keep it real" and restaurants like Sylvia's famous soul food eatery that offer a tast of "authentic" black culture. In these and other venues, authenticity is considered the best way to distinguish the real from the phony, the genuine from the fake. But in Real Black, the author proposes a new model for thinking about these issues--racial sincerity. The author argues that authenticity caricatures identity as something imposed on people, imprisoning them within stereotypes--turning them into racial objects and inanimate things, instead of living, breathing human beings. Contending that such assumptions deny people agency--not to mention humanity--in their search for identiy, the author counterposes sincerity, an internal and more productive analytical model for thinking about race
298 pages ; 24 cm
9780226390017, 9780226390024, 0226390012, 0226390020
58563415
Real fictions
Real Harlemites
Real bodies
Real Jews
Real publics
Real natives
Real emcees
Real names
Real loves