Communication Studies, Department of
Date of this Version
5-2012
Citation
Quarterly Journal of Speech 98:2 (May 2012), pp. 178–202.
doi: 10.1080/00335630.2012.663499
Abstract
The mainstream press frequently characterized the election of President Barack Obama the first African American US President as the realization of Martin Luther King’s dream, thus crafting a postracial narrative of national transcendence. I argue that this routine characterization of Obama’s election functions as a site for the production of selective amnesia, a form of remembrance that routinely negates and silences those who would contest hegemonic narratives of national progress and unity.
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Other Communication Commons
Comments
Copyright © 2012 National Communication Association; published by Taylor & Francis. Used by permission.