‘Campaigns against “Blackness”’ focuses on the 2008 Democratic presidential primary waged by Barack Obama and the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial race run by Deval Patrick. It explores racial bias expressed against and by African-American males seeking high office. In these campaigns, the convergence of racial uplift and multicultural democracy manifests in mandates against blackness represented as criminality and political incivility. Historically, US anti-black anima forged tropes of ‘criminality’ and ‘incivility’ that demonized blacks as unsuitable for full citizenship. Today, the new black candidates successfully deflect these tropes, in part, by redeploying them against non-elites, and anti-racist discourse and activism.
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2.
CNN Politics.com (2008) Senator Barack Obama’s 15 June 2008 Father’s Day Address. URL (consulted 15 December 2008): http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/27/obama.fathers.ay/index.html
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Committee for Defense of Human Rights (2008) URL (consulted 15 December 2008): http://www.freethesf8.org/
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Ford, G. ( 2008) Obama’s Race Neutral Strategy Unravels of Its Own Contradictions. BlackAgenda Report 30 April/5 May. URL (consulted Fall 2008) http://www.blackagendareport.com/
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James, J. ( 2009) The Dead Zone: Stumbling at the Crossroads of Party Politics, Genocide, and Postracial Racism. South Atlantic Quarterly108(3): 459-82.
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James, J. (forthcoming) The Case of Ben LaGuer in the 2006 Massachusetts Gubernatorial Race . Keller, J. ( 2008) President Obama: The Preview?Wall Street Journal 3-4 May 2008 : A9.
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King M. L.Jr ( 1967) Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam. New York, Riverside Church, April 30. URL (consulted 13 May 2008): http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/riversidetranscript.html
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Krieger, H.L. ( 2008) Obama Clarifies United J’lem Comment. Jerusalem Post 6 June 2008. URL (consulted 3 September 2009): http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659672984&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Meet the Press (2008) Powell Endorses Obama for President: Republican Ex-secretary of State Calls Democrat ‘Transformational Figure’. URL (consulted 16 December 2008): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27265369/
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Rodríguez, D. ( 2007) Forced Passages. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MN.
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Sexton, J. ( 2008) Amalgamation Schemes: Antiblackness and the Critique of Multiracialism. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MN.
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US House of Representatives (1994) H.R. 3355: Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Library of Congress: THOMAS. URL (consulted 14 May 2008): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/query/z?c103:H.R.3355.ENR
19.
US Senate (1996) S.735: Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Library of Congress: THOMAS. URL (consulted 14 May 2008): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/query/z?c104:S.735.ENR
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Costa Vargas, J.H. ( 2008) Never Meant to Survive: Genocide and Utopias in Black Diaspora Communities. Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD.
