Say It Loud!: African-American Audiences, Media, and Identity

In a collection of essays based on direct interview research, Say it Loud! amplifies the voice of ordinary African-Americans as they respond to media presentations of Black society. Each chapter investigates ways in which African-American identity is constructed, maintained, and represented in mass media and how these portrayals are interpreted within the African-American community. Together the essays cover a vast array of media messages in television, film, music, print and cyberspace. From the Boondocks comic strip, The Cosby Show, and The Color Purple to the music of rap artist DMX and original testimony from a Menace II Society copycat killer, the material included in this volume is examined as context for the African-American struggle to achieve definition, meaning, and power. Say it Loud! offers rare insight into how this struggle is both helped and hindered by the representation of race in our media culture.