Looking for Leroy Illegible Black Masculinities
Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities

Mark Anthony Neal’s Looking for Leroy is an engaging and provocative analysis of the complex ways in which black masculinity has been read and misread through contemporary American popular culture. Neal argues that black men and boys are bound, in profound ways, to and by their legibility. The most...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Neal, Mark Anthony (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY New York University Press [2013]
Series:Postmillennial Pop 4
Subjects:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
African American gay men
African American men in popular culture
African American men > Attitudes
African American men > Conduct of life
African American men > Psychology
African American men > Race identity
African American men
African Americans > Social conditions
Masculinity > Social aspects > United States
Masculinity
Men > Identity
Online Access:DE-1046
DE-859
DE-860
DE-739
DE-473
DE-1043
DE-858
Volltext
Summary:Mark Anthony Neal’s Looking for Leroy is an engaging and provocative analysis of the complex ways in which black masculinity has been read and misread through contemporary American popular culture. Neal argues that black men and boys are bound, in profound ways, to and by their legibility. The most "legible" black male bodies are often rendered as criminal, bodies in need of policing and containment. Ironically, Neal argues, this sort of legibility brings welcome relief to white America, providing easily identifiable images of black men in an era defined by shifts in racial, sexual, and gendered identities. Neal highlights the radical potential of rendering legible black male bodies—those bodies that are all too real for us—as illegible, while simultaneously rendering illegible black male bodies—those versions of black masculinity that we can’t believe are real—as legible. In examining figures such as hip-hop entrepreneur and artist Jay-Z, R&B Svengali R. Kelly, the late vocalist Luther Vandross, and characters from the hit HBO series The Wire, among others, Neal demonstrates how distinct representations of black masculinity can break the links in the public imagination that create antagonism toward black men. Looking for Leroy features close readings of contemporary black masculinity and popular culture, highlighting both the complexity and accessibility of black men and boys through visual and sonic cues within American culture, media, and public policy. By rendering legible the illegible, Neal maps the range of identifications and anxieties that have marked the performance and reception of post-Civil Rights era African American masculinity
Item Description:Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jun 2020)
Physical Description:1 online resource
ISBN:9780814789407

Similar Items