Mapping the Convergence of Controversy and Collective Memory: The Case of Jeremiah Wright

• In Event: Back Down Memory Lane: Explorations of Absence, Presence, and Institutionalized Public Memory

Abstract

The recent episode of Jeremiah Wright illustrates once again how, in the African-American experience, critics of American political orthodoxy can be marginalized by being referenced as “other.” The response to Wright during this past Presidential election, however, illustrates how, in a new era of 9/11 orthodoxy, genuine oppositional arguments can be closed off through the eruption of disingenuous controversies that reinforce the way the polis sustains dominant memories in the face of such unorthodox dissent.

Author

• Stephen Rahko, Indiana University