Turning On and Off the "Post Racial Gaze"

Indianapolis, IN

Barack Obama's historic election to the United States presidency in 2008 focused national attention on the first Black president and his family as living and unequivocal proof of the triumph of equal opportunity and the end of centuries of racial strife. The visible role of elite women like Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey has often been explored, while less well understood is the role of everyday portrayals of Black women as they normalize colorblind paradigms of post-racialism and "neoliberal multiculturalism" (Goldberg 2009, 23). This paper analyzes three media texts, all released in 2008 - Neil LaBute'sLakeview Terrace,Tyler Perry'sThe Family That Preys, and Beyoncé's "If I Were A Boy" music video- focusing on representations of Black women as sexualized objects involved in interracial relationships with white men. The paper reveals that these ways of seeing serve the privileged white male gaze while falsifying racist and sexist realities. Offering key insights intothe "post racial gaze," the paper exposes how Black women arebeing positioned to normalize pleasurable post-racial fantasies and to facilitate discursive shifts toward neoliberal multiculturalism.