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APPROPRIATING BLACKNESS: PERFORMANCE AND THE POLITICS OF AUTHENTICITY. By E. Patrick Johnson. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003; pp. 366. $79.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.
In Appropriating Blackness, E. Patrick Johnson clearly articulates the diverging opinions faced when dealing with most issues surrounding blackness by acknowledging the contrasting politics and opinions that encircle theories of blackness. Johnson does an admirable job of dissecting various points of view in order to show their strengths and weaknesses. He then pieces them all back together for the reader, providing an extremely synthesized interpretation of the appropriation of blackness. Each chapter could stand alone, but Johnson has managed to provide a through-line that connects all the chapters despite the diverse array of theories they cover.
From the title of his introduction, "'Blackness' and Authenticity: What's Performance Got to Do With It," an obvious homage to Tina Turner, one could surmise that Johnson is about to engage in a meaningful and secular discussion. And that he does. Johnson acknowledges how "slippery" any discourse on blackness may become when he states it is "ever beyond the reach of one's grasp" (2). Johnson goes on to suggest "that the mutual constructing /deconstructing, avowing/disavowing, and expanding/delimiting dynamic that occurs in the production of blackness is the very thing that constitutes 'black' culture" (2). Later, he presents questions that serve as the source of his inspiration. The following questions are just a few examples from the many that Johnson posits, but they are the foundation upon which his book is written: "How does one theorize these various citations...