"Using what he calls the “Caribbean Carnivalseque” as a rhetorical trope that defines the essence of being Caribbean, Browne grounds his analysis in Kenneth Burke’s Rhetoric of Motives and the concept of human beings as symbol-using animals."
"What galvanizes our aim is the increasing call by scholars across disciplines to critically engage violence and repression committed by and on behalf of the state. We seek to explore the ways in which the structures of the state explicitly and implicitly normalize violence against communities of color."
"Needless to say, I didn’t make it home that night. Instead I spent over nine hours sleeping on a jail cell floor with a stale roll beneath my head for a pillow because rather than acquiesce to the ways in which white parades as blue, I transgressed."
"In what ways does Indigenous social justice work differ from other kinds of social justice work? And what are some of the complications in building solidarity between social movements that focus on a diversity of issues?"
"The capability to turn images of Black people recently murdered or beaten by police into Internet memes further normalizes antiblack violence as spectacle, throwing doubt on the radical potential of body cameras."
"The death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015 sparked Baltimore’s inclusion as a center of the Black Lives Matters movement – a contemporary iteration of an African Diasporic liberation consciousness."
"We point out how remix and participatory culture are effective rhetorical moves against this type of psychological terrorism. By repurposing Ulmer’s genre of the “popcycle,” we put forward the concept of the “participatory popsicle.”"
"Through the rhetoric of brownwashing, the Obama administration embraces heterogeneity by including acceptable and exceptional migrants into US civic life."
"Acts of “vandalism” and activism alter the perception of history, contesting our past and present, and illustrate that systemic racism pervades American culture."
"Addressing racialized State violence in the present, therefore, involves understanding both the rhetorical/visual functions and historical roots of the COC."
"Not all speakers and listeners acknowledge that “#BlackLivesMatter as a rallying call was meant to undermine all forms of state violence” against all Black people. But we can choose to make that what it means."
"Citizens and immigrants alike consume racial ideology on an almost daily basis, and we are repeatedly forced to think of ourselves in racial terms even if we did not do so before."
"By unpacking the factors that led her to buy into what she describes as the lost commandment that “thou shalt not love a girl from the hood” throughout the early portions of her life, Richardson’s book makes a still urgent call."
Present Tense is happy to announce that one of our Editors has started a tenure-track position this year. Don Unger, our Social Media Editor, is now an Assistant Professor of Professional Writing at St. Edward’s University.
