 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Romantic racism" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Romantic racism is a form ofracism in which members of a dominant group project their fantasies onto members ofoppressed groups. People such asNorman Mailer,[1][2][3]Jack Kerouac, and otherBeatnik authors of the 1950s have been accused of romantic racism. They maintain that the dominant mainstream culture of the1950s in the United States stressedconformity and held upmiddle-classsuburban families as the cultural ideal, and that it was indifferent to art and literature, upheldracial segregation, and despised or ignored black achievements, such asjazz.[1] Those, like the novelist Norman Mailer, who felt limited by or alienated from mainstream culture, sought out influences from other cultures as a form of rebellion. This romanticization is based in stereotypes created by the dominant group.
Mailer's essay "The White Negro" offers a clear description of this romanticization of the racialOther in American culture. Mailer, a fan of jazz music, created his concept of what it meant to be "hip", or a member of the white urbancounterculture, largely on his perception of the culture of urbanAfrican-Americans (with whom the expression "hip", meaning "in the know", originated).
Critics consider Mailer's depictions of what he imagines African-American life to be like as an instance of what they call "romantic racism", contending that he implies that life in urbanghettoes—depicted as filled with sex, drugs, and violence—is somehow enriched, rather than hurt, bypoverty andcrime. Mailer's essay has also been criticized for spreading thestereotype of African-American men ashypermasculine andhypersexual.[3]
