Images of Race and Economic Crisis in the Twenty-First Century

• In Event: The 2009 Crisis of Neoliberalism: Marxist Scholars on Rhetorics of Stability and Change

Abstract

In his book, Why Americans Hate Welfare, Martin Gilens examines mainstream media portrayals of the poor over a forty-year period (1950-1992) in an effort to understand how these images shaped popular understandings of race and poverty. In 2009, issues of race and “economic crisis” remain salient as the U.S. elects the first African American to the office of president in the context of an economic slowdown dubbed the worst since the Depression of the 1930s. In terms of media images, which greatly influence popular attitudes toward race and poverty, what has changed and what has remained stable since the time period of Gilens’s study? This paper examines mainstream media representations of economic crisis as experienced by both individuals and corporations in an effort to understand how images of poverty and race are framed as neoliberalism struggles to maintain hegemony in the twenty-first century.

Gilens, M. 1999. Why Americans hate welfare: Race, media, and the politics of antipoverty policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Authors

• Mary Triece, University of Akron

• Josh Hanan, University of Texas, Austin