Table of Contents

Obama and the biracial factor: An introduction ~ Andrew Jolivette; Race, multiraciality, and the election of Barack Obama: Toward a more perfect union? ~ G. Reginald Daniel; "A Patchwork Heritage" Multiracial citation in Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father ~ Justin Ponder; Racial revisionism, caste revisited: Whiteness, blackness and Barack Obama ~ Darryl G. Barthe, Jr.; Part II: Beyond black and white identity politics; Obama mamas and mixed race: Hoping for "A More Perfect Union" ~ Wei Ming Dariotis and Grace Yoo; Is 'no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama'? ~ Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain; Mixed race kin-aesthetics in the Age of Obama ~ Wei Ming Dariotis; Mutt like me: Barak Obama and the mixed race experience in historical perspective ~ Zebulon Miletsky; Part III: The battle for a new American majority; A different kind of blackness: The question of Obama's blackness and intraracial variation among African Americans ~ Robert Keith Collins; Avoiding Race or Following the Racial Scripts? Obama and race in the recessionary period of the colorblind era ~ Kathleen Odel Korgen and David L. Brunsma; Barack Obama and the rise to power: Emmett Till revisited ~ Andrew Jolivette

About the Author

Andrew J. Jolivette received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is Associate Professor and chair of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University where he is an affiliated faculty member in Race & Resistance Studies and Educational Leadership.

Reviews

"Obama and the biracial factor offers deep insights into the emergence and early years of the administration of the first biracial President in US history, as well as what it might mean for the future of American politics." --Kevin R. Johnson, Dean, UC Davis School of Law. "Andrew Jolivette has assembled some of the brightest thinkers at the intersections of race, politics, and social issues. This provocative volume asks and answers critical questions of the early 21st century." --Kristen A. Renn, PhD, Associate Professor, Michigan State University. "An engaging contribution to debates about the politics of mixed race, offering essays that will provoke both thought and, no doubt, healthy disagreement about what "mixed race" is and what it means in Obama's presidency. " --Michele Elam, Stanford University. "Andrew Jolivette presents incisive essays by social scientists and cultural critics about Obama's racial justice successes and stagnations. An historically-informed theme of "post-racism" instead of "post-race" emerges - sober, inspiring, realistic." --Naomi Zack, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon. "Obama and the biracial factor is a crucial addition to the growing work in critical mixed-race studies. This book goes beyond simplistic analyses to demonstrate how mixed-race identity is used to reinforce rather than challenge white supremacy within popular discourse. With the growing debates between scholars who focus on anti-Blackness versus critical race mixed-studies, one may not agree with all the analyses proferred in the text. Nevertheless, this book is an essential addition to this debate." --Andrea Smith, Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of California Riverside.