{"product_id":"race-theft-and-ethics","title":"Race, Theft, and Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eRace, Theft, and Ethics\u003c\/i\u003e, Lovalerie King examines African American literature's critique of American law concerning matters of property, paying particular attention to the stereotypical image of the black thief. She draws on two centuries of African American writing that reflects the manner in which human value became intricately connected with property ownership in American culture, even as racialized social and legal custom and practice severely limited access to property. Using critical race theory, King builds a powerful argument that the stereotype of the black thief is an inevitable byproduct of American law, politics, and social customs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn making her case, King ranges far and wide in black literature, looking closely at over thirty literary works. She uses four of the best-known African American autobiographical narratives -- \u003ci\u003eNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass\u003c\/i\u003e, Harriet Jacobs's \u003ci\u003eIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\u003c\/i\u003e, Booker T. Washington's \u003ci\u003eUp From Slavery\u003c\/i\u003e, and Richard Wright's \u003ci\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/i\u003e -- to reveal the ways that law and custom worked to shape the black thief stereotype under the institution of slavery and to keep it firmly in place under the Jim Crow system. Examining the work of William Wells Brown, Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, and Alice Randall, King treats \"the ethics of passing\" and considers the definition and value of whiteness and the relationship between whiteness and property.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClose readings of Richard Wright's \u003ci\u003eNative Son\u003c\/i\u003e and Dorothy West's \u003ci\u003eThe Living is Easy\u003c\/i\u003e, among other works, question whether blacks' unequal access to the economic opportunities held out by the American Dream functions as a kind of expropriation for which there is no possible legal or ethical means of reparation. She concludes by exploring the theme of theft and love in two famed neo-slave or neo-freedom narratives?Toni Morrison's \u003ci\u003eBeloved\u003c\/i\u003e and Charles Johnson's \u003ci\u003eMiddle Passage\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eRace, Theft, and Ethics\u003c\/i\u003e shows how African American literature deals with the racialized history of unequal economic opportunity in highly complex and nuanced ways, and illustrates that, for many authors, an essential aspect of their work involved contemplating the tensions between a given code of ethics and a moral course of action. A deft combination of history, literature, law and economics, King's groundbreaking work highlights the pervasiveness of the property\/race\/ethics dynamic in the interfaces of African American lives with American law.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (2024)","offer_id":46166424354993,"sku":"9780807182901","price":40.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (2003)","offer_id":46166424387761,"sku":"9781578065233","price":30.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (2000)","offer_id":46166424420529,"sku":"9780801863707","price":45.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover (2007)","offer_id":46166424453297,"sku":"9780807132579","price":54.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover (2017)","offer_id":46166424486065,"sku":"9780820352152","price":118.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook (2007)","offer_id":46166424518833,"sku":"ef258633-24d3-3ca7-bccc-13ea166109f8","price":21.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook (2009 A)","offer_id":46703792881874,"sku":"abf91d64-f017-310f-a838-bc6f61d9802a","price":21.79,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook (2009 B)","offer_id":46703792914642,"sku":"8d7e04c0-4c4a-4dcf-b631-36d9f1cae41f","price":21.79,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_c099cc48-198a-46bc-96c8-f8d7d44e96a7.jpg?v=1763684326","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/race-theft-and-ethics","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}