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Presentations

From Looney Coons to Tacos & Tequila: The Aesthetics of Race in Middle Class America

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
James D. Anderson
7:30 pm

Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum 600 South Gregory Street Urbana

Event Description

Jim Anderson explores the ways in which evolving forms of race and ethnic  performance entered into and shaped the culture of middle class America from  the late nineteenth century to the present. He begins with an analysis of the art  and lyrics of minstrel sheet music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth  centuries and then traces its legacy through television, “playful” racialized  antics in educated environments and into the theme parties of contemporary campus life.  Then and now, race performances have supplied America’s middle class with fun and entertainment while offering up ethnic and race caricatures that have reinforced entrenched dynamics of race superiority, national identity and citizenship status.

Event Video
James D. Anderson

Gutgsell Professor of Educational Policy Studies