Blackness, White Liberalism, and Art

This panel will address the "soft racism" of white liberal artists who have inadequately tried to address white supremacy and anti-Black racism in their work. Whether in the guise of multiculturalism, color blindness, or particular strains of post-racialism, these artists have often perpetuated what cultural theorist Stuart Hall called “a kind of difference that doesn't make a difference of any kind.” We seek papers that take up case studies of neo/liberal representations of race produced within the United States across media from the nineteenth century until today.