Read “Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs,” by David Ikard

@JaniceOCG #LovableRacists by @blkeducator & @UChicagoPress resonates in today’s battles over CRT. Dr. David H. Ikard is live on Thurs., Jan. 13 at 8 pm ET, w/ “If America Fails?” on TWN’s YouTube page, for discussion on democracy in The Handmaid’s Tale & threats in current American culture.

Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs by David Ikard was published in 2017, yet holds such resonance today.  With battles playing out in schools across the country over teaching CRT and actual history, one wonders:

• What white supremacist narratives are being told that might be dislodged if schools were free to #TeachTheTruth?

• What’s at stake in the curricula we teach our children?

• What’s a good strategy for adults who have been nurtured on lies, half-truths, and distortions of fact, for gaining a more accurate view of reality?

You know the drill…help us craft questions for the good doctor!  — LMO P.S.  The University of Chicago Press is the publisher and I LOVE that they describe themselves on Twitter as a “Distinguished publisher of scholarly books and journals.  Refining minds since 1891!”  We are living with the consequences today of the minds they didn’t reach! 🙂

“In this incredibly timely book, David Ikard dismantles popular white supremacist tropes, which effectively devalue black life and trivialize black oppression. Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs investigates the tenacity and cultural capital of white redemption narratives in literature and popular media from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Help…”  — Publisher

“Professor Ikard is Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies. His research and teaching interests include African American Literature, black feminist criticism, hip hop culture, black masculinity and whiteness studies. He is the author/co-author of four books, including Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism (2007), Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America (2012), co-authored with Martell Teasley and winner of the Best Scholarly Book Award by DISA in 2013, Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in 21st-Century America (2013), and Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs (2017). His essays have appeared in African American Review, MELUS, Palimpsest, African and Black Diaspora Journal, The Journal of Black Studies, and Obsidian III.” — Vanderbilt University

David Ikard also has a passion for creating Black art. Inspired largely by the motherland – Africa – and using acrylics, oils, wood, cloth, and archival paper for mixed media, Ikard focuses on creating images that have “something to do with black folks, social justice, self-determination, nature, and the rawness of our collective humanity.” You may see his artwork online at the Ikard Gallery. — If America Fails: The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

READ | Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs | by David Ikard | University of Chicago Press | 10/19/2017