Black Mirror

“[Lott] has important things to say about how race functions in contemporary U.S. culture.”—D. C. Mauss, Choice

“This is a rich book. Eric Lott made worlds I thought I knew look unexplored: more interesting, more cryptic, more threatening, more alive.”—Greil Marcus

“Eric Lott reveals the syncopated rhythms of racial fantasy that serve as the enduring backbeat of American culture. He posits that a ‘black mirror’ works overtime in American culture to produce a fantasy of white masculinity and plenitude. This book is insightful, timely, and stunningly written.”—Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Northeastern University

“The ‘Black Mirror’ does not exactly reproduce blackness; it activates fantasies of blackness that are crucial to the reproduction of white national selfhood. Lott begins with a timely, uncannily lucid account of Barack Obama’s usage of cross-racial mirrorings throughout his presidency. This book is poised to intervene in the most difficult and significant of contemporary and political questions. A monumental achievement.”—Donald Pease, Dartmouth College