Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising / Edition 1

by Robert Gooding-Williams

Overview

Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising keeps the public debate alive by exploring the connections between the Rodney King incidents and the ordinary workings of cultural, political, and economic power in contemporary America. Its recurrent theme is the continuing, complicated significance of race in American society. Contributors: Houston A. Baker, Jr.; Judith Butler; Sumi K. Cho; Kimberle Crenshaw; Mike Davis; Thomas L. Dumm; Walter C. Farrell, Jr.; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Robert Gooding-Williams; James H. Johnson, Jr.; Elaine H. Kim; Melvin L. Oliver; Michael Omi; Gary Peller; Cedric J. Robinson; Jerry Watts; Cornel West; Patricia Williams; Rhonda M. Williams; Howard Winant.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415907347
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/19/1993
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert Gooding-Williams is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Black Studies at Amherst College. He is author of the forthcoming book Nietszche's Pursuit of Modernism, to be published by Routledge.

Table of Contents

Introduction[Robert Gooding-Williams; partOne Beating Black Bodies; Chapter 1 Endangered/Endangering: Schematic Racism and White Paranoia, Judith Butler; Chapter 2 Terror Austerity Race Gender Excess Theater, Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Chapter 3 Scene … Not Heard, Houston A. Baker; partTwo Acquitting White Brutality; Chapter 4 The Rules of the Game, Patricia J. Williams; Chapter 5 Reel Time/Real Justice, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Gary Peller; partThree Assaulting America: A Political Economy Begets Ruin; Chapter 6 Race, Capitalism, and the Antidemocracy, Cedric J. Robinson; Chapter 7 Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamics, Rhonda M. Williams; Chapter 8 The Los Angeles “;Race Riot” and Contemporary U.S. Politics, Michael Omi, Howard Winant; partFour On the Streets of Los Angeles; Chapter 9 Anatomy of a Rebellion: A Political-Economic Analysis, Melvin L. Oliver; Chapter 10 Uprising and Repression in L.A., Houston A. Baker; partFive Ideology, Race, and Community; Chapter 11 “;Look, a Negro!”, Robert Gooding-Williams; Chapter 12 The New Enclosures: Racism in the Normalized Community, Thomas L. Dumm; Chapter 13 Korean Americans vs. African Americans: Conflict and Construction, Sumi K. Cho; partSix The Fire This Time; Chapter 14 Home is Where the HanIs: A Korean American Perspective on the Los Angeles Upheavals, Elaine H. Kim; Chapter 15 Reflections on the Rodney King Verdict and the Paradoxes of the Black Response, Jerry G. Watts; Chapter 16 Two Nations … Both Black; Chapter 17 Learning to Talk of Race;

Editorial Reviews

". . . very impressive . . . These works are not about race and urban uprising. They are about all of us, not the American Dream but the American Real." — The San Diego Review
"The book Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising offers a timely reminder that the beating of Rodney King, the outcome of the Simi Valley trial of the police officers involved in it, and the subsequent uprisings in response to the verdict are best understood in social, cultural, economic, and political contexts. The authors demonstrate that a critical analysis of popular representations of these events can illuminate the larger subject of race relations in American society. The book suggests that a multidisciplanary approach is needed to appreciate fully the vast and interlocking dimensions of the problem." — Gail Lee Dubrow, Journal of the American Planning Association

From the Publisher

In 17 often insightful essays, academics and social critics explore the connections between the Rodney King incidents--the beating, the trial and what the editor terms the subsequent ``uprising''--and conditions in America's cities. Though some essays suffer from redundancy and overly academic language, others offer provocative observations. Houston A. Baker finds King's silence during his trial emblematic of the enforced silence of African Americans during the age of slavery. Arguing that the King verdict was not a unique failure of justice, Kimberle Crenshaw and Gary Peller suggest that lawyers for the Los Angeles police officers used the same tactic of decontextualizing evidence that the U.S. Supreme Court used in a decision weakening the claim of minority-owned businesses for ``set-aside'' government contracts. Describing the failure of police to protect Korean merchants, Sumi K. Cho observes how the Korean community, though stereotyped as a ``a model minority,'' was sacrificed in the interests of white dominance. Gooding-Williams teaches philosophy and black studies at Amherst College. (May)

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