The Sonic Color Line. Jennifer Lynn Stoever
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THE SONIC COLOR LINE
POSTMILLENNIAL POP
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The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening
Jennifer Lynn Stoever
The Sonic Color Line
Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening
Jennifer Lynn Stoever
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
© 2016 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
ISBN: 978-1-4798-9043-9 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-1-4798-8934-1 (paperback)
For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress.
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Also available as an ebook
A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press. The Initiative is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Sonic Color Line and the Listening Ear
4. “A Voice to Match All That”: Lead Belly, Richard Wright, and Lynching’s Soundtrack
5. Broadcasting Race: Lena Horne, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Ann Petry
For my grandma Maryanne (1923–2001), whose lovingly gruff, crumpled-paper-bag voice still carries me.
For my dad, Jeff (1948–2011), who first taught me how to listen, and whose brown Koss KO/747 headphones rest right next to my stereo.
For my son, Martin, who arrived amidst the writing of this book. You teach me to listen anew while letting me think I am teaching you. Your voice will always be my favorite sound. I love you more! Infinity!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Can you sing out in the pouring rain? / Can you sing out, can you sing out?”
—Fishbone, “Pouring Rain”
In summer 2015, I was honored to thank Norwood Fisher and Angelo Moore of Fishbone in person for being my first, funkiest, and fiercest critical race theorists. Only because music is so very powerful do people create mechanisms like the sonic color line to contain it.
To my RUSD English teachers Kathy Rossi, Keith Lloyd, Katie Mackey, and Richard McNeil, who taught us public school kids how to think and write with a love and rigor that turned many of us toward futures we thought far beyond our reach. Thank you to art teachers Louis Fox and Italo DiMarco, for showing me to myself.
I have boundless love for my Riverside home folks: George Campos, Kim Earhart, Cara Cardinale Fidler, Kelly Herrera, Nova Punongbayan, Rodrigo Ramos, Joe Spagna, and especially my dearest familia—Julia Martinez, Sarah Parry, Karin Ribaudo, Jeff Ribaudo, Alison Sumner, Maria Unzueta-Hernandez, and last but certainly not least, Karen Tongson. Womb to tomb, birth to earth. Thank you to Juan and Alice and the Contreras-Martinez families, who helped raise me to be the woman I am today. The generosity and personal example of the Honorable Joe Hernandez II and Gloria Lopez sustained me through graduate school. Melissa Contreras-McGavin and Bradley McGavin, you are the wind beneath my wings.
I was fortunate to have a top-notch, affordable undergraduate education at UC Riverside. I first “heard” literature in Katherine Kinney’s class; I still dream of delivering readings as on point as hers. I also benefitted from the brilliance and generosity of Emory