The Trouble with Post-Blackness

Since 2008, postulations about a postracial America have become a frequent subject of discussions regarding racial equality. This collection of essays compiled by editors Baker (Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era) and Simmons (Changing the Subject: Writing Women Across the African Diaspora) are in large part a response to Toure and Michael Eric Dyson's Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means To Be Black Now (2012). Together, the authors argue that the ideology of blackness throughout history has never been static and has consistently been defined by the current political and social landscape. Black culture is both a recognizable and permanent component of contemporary America, which is why the notion of a postracial America is regarded as preposterous to most contributors. Connections are drawn between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the Obama administration to clarify that ideas of black personhood still exist in the public imagination, perhaps now more than ever.