Life; liberty; and the pursuit of cool have informed the American ethos since at least the 1970s. Whether we strive for it in politics or fashion; cool is big business for those who can sell it across a range of markets and media. Yet the concept wasn't always a popular commodity. Cool began as a potent aesthetic of post-World War II black culture; embodying a very specific; highly charged method of resistance to white supremacy and the globalized exploitation of capital.Way Too Cool follows the hollowing-out of "coolness" in modern American culture and its reflection of a larger evasion of race; racism; and ethics now common in neoliberal society. It revisits such watershed events as the 1960s Civil Rights Movement; second-wave feminism; the emergence of identity politics; 1980s multiculturalism; 1990s rhetorics of diversity and colorblindness; 9/11; and Hurricane Katrina; as well as the contemporaneous developments of rising mass incarceration and legalized same-sex marriage. It pairs the perversion of cool with the slow erasure of racial and ethical issues from our social consciousness; which effectively quashes our desire to act ethically and resist abuses of power. The cooler we become; the more indifferent we grow to the question of values; particularly inquiry that spurs protest and conflict. This book sounds an alarm for those who care about preserving our ties to an American tradition of resistance.
#1573175 in Books 2014-09-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.40 x 1.50 x 6.20l; .0 #File Name: 0231162669432 pages
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