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020 _a9781501724107
_qPDF
024 7 _a10.7591/9781501724107
_2doi
035 _a(DE-B1597)9781501724107
035 _a(DE-B1597)514757
035 _a(OCoLC)1083571582
040 _aDE-B1597
_beng
_cDE-B1597
_erda
072 7 _aHIS036060
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a347.73/2634
_221
084 _aonline - DeGruyter
100 1 _aFlax, Jane
_eautore
245 1 4 _aThe American Dream in Black and White :
_bThe Clarence Thomas Hearings /
_cJane Flax.
264 1 _aIthaca, NY :
_bCornell University Press,
_c[2018]
264 4 _c©1999
300 _a1 online resource (192 p.)
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
505 0 0 _tFrontmatter --
_tCONTENTS --
_tACKNOWLEDGMENTS --
_tINTRODUCTION. American Dilemmas and the American Dream --
_tCHAPTER ONE. American Dream or Nightmare? Horatio Alger and Race(d) Men --
_tCHAPTER TWO. The Male/Africanist Presence: Senatorial Representations --
_tCHAPTER THREE. The Female/Africanist Presence: Male Bonding in Contemporary American Politics --
_tCHAPTER FOUR. Whose Hearing? Sexual Harassment and the Female Tease --
_tCHAPTER FIVE. The Horror of Blackness: Sleaze, Dirt, and Female Traitors --
_tCHAPTER SIX. "At Least McCarthy Was Elected": Fraternal Reconciliation --
_tCHAPTER SEVEN. "This Is All Shakespeare": Doggett and the Transformation of Tragedy into Farce --
_tCHAPTER EIGHT. Why Race/Gender Domination Persists: The Necessary Failures of Abstract Individualism and Identity Politics --
_tBibliography --
_tNotes --
_tIndex
506 0 _arestricted access
_uhttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
_fonline access with authorization
_2star
520 _a"This is not. the nomination of a justice of the peace to some small county in some small state. This involves the very integrity and fabric of our country."—Senator Orrin G. HatchThe transcripts of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Clarence Thomas are extraordinarily rich and suggestive. Much has been written about the hearings, but until now, no one has paid close attention to the actual language of the participants. Revisiting the words of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, Jane Flax asks what we would learn about American politics if these hearings were, literally, our only text. Orrin Hatch's assertion was, indeed, perhaps more insightful than he realized. How does our legal and judicial system operate in the face of sexual issues? Can it ever transcend race and gender? Who was the real victim in these hearings—Hill, Thomas, the Senate, or the viewing public? Who in America has the power to make political meaning? Rather than attempting to establish fact or truth, The American Dream in Black and White looks at the political narrative by which our nation makes sense of itself. The senators' own anxieties about their publicly televised role were evident throughout these hearings. Given our conviction that we are a nation built on freedom and equality, says Flax, the Senate committee had no choice but to confirm Thomas, thereby validating the cherished belief that with virtue and hard work, even a barefoot boy from Pin Point, Georgia, can transform himself into a Supreme Court Justice. To have turned him down would have called into question the very legitimacy of our politics and law. To have sympathized with Anita Hill, seen as having brought "filthy" material into public view, was impossible. Demonstrating the powerful, public role of narrative, The American Dream in Black and White reveals the hearings as a dramatic challenge to the American political system—a system supposed to rise not only above gender and race, but also above any issue of sex, guilt, history, or personal identity. Anita Hill's and Clarence Thomas's conflicting accounts, Flax argues, are a measure of the stories we tell about ourselves. Drawing on feminist, political, and psychoanalytic theory, she shows how these transcripts reveal deep and serious fissures in the psychic fabric of contemporary Americans, black and white, male and female. Identity politics and abstract individualism reflect rather than repair these fissures, and the lingering discomfort with the hearings reflects the necessity of new political theories and practices.
538 _aMode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
546 _aIn English.
588 0 _aDescription based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024)
650 0 _aJudges
_xSelection and appointment
_zUnited States.
650 4 _aAmerican Studies.
650 4 _aPolitical Science & Political History.
650 4 _aU.S. History.
650 7 _aHISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
_2bisacsh
850 _aIT-RoAPU
856 4 0 _uhttps://doi.org/10.7591/9781501724107
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501724107
856 4 2 _3Cover
_uhttps://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501724107/original
942 _cEB
999 _c222191
_d222191