Abstract
Ralina Joseph’s second book, Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity (2018) is a much-needed and much-welcomed contribution to the fields of critical feminist theory, media studies, and women of color theory. For those already familiar with scholarship on intersectionality, critical race theory, and Black feminist thought, Joseph’s work complements this literature as her analysis provides a complex dissection of the social, political, economic, and gendered contexts in which Black female bodies are [mis]represented, [mis]understood, and negatively appraised in the United States.
Joseph’s book does an excellent job of calling attention to the intersectional identities that are often missing from popular representations of Black women in the media. Her work encourages readers to reflect on and question the dominant narratives that are perpetuated in contemporary Western society. One of the many strengths of this book is that it puts into words everyday experiences that Black women face. Joseph mobilizes the notion of strategic ambiguity to showcase how women of color are often held to different standards and judged more harshly and with more scrutiny than their peers. Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity dramatizes the landscape for readers and paints a very vivid picture of how Black women must often negotiate particular messages or understandings of who they are and what they stand for.
The introduction thoroughly dissects the theoretical underpinnings of key concepts such as postrace and postracial resistance. Audiences outside of academia might find this particular section challenging as she critically untangles the philosophical origins of these terms and their use. Her book contains six chapters, each capturing the experience of a specific group. The first half of the book (Chapters 1–3) relays the experiences of powerful Black women, namely Michelle Obama (Chapter 1), Oprah Winfrey (Chapter 2), and Shonda Rhymes (Chapter 3). The second half draws on ethnographic work and details the lived experiences of young Black college women (Chapters 4 and 5) and television executives (Chapter 6).
Written for and about Black women, this book tells the stories of different groups of women who have used or refused to use strategic ambiguity and postracial resistance as tools to navigate their social world. After reading this book, readers are able to understand the use of strategic ambiguity and how it can function as a (successful or unsuccessful) tool in different contexts. This book is a wonderful starting point for any reader interested in a critical analysis of the ways in which Black women are represented in United States media. It is likely to appeal to women of color wanting to learn more about the intersections of gender, race, and class and the ways in which Black women perform acts of resistance or engage in respectability politics. Joseph’s book could serve as an essential reading or supplementary text for courses in Women and Gender Studies or Critical Psychology (courses such as Black Women’s Studies, Black Representations, African-American Culture Studies, or Cultural Anthropology).
