Ralina Joseph’s second book, Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity (2018) is a much-needed and much-welcomed contribution to the fields of critical feminist theory, media studies, and women of color theory. For those already familiar with scholarship on intersectionality, critical race theory, and Black feminist thought, Joseph’s work complements this literature as her analysis provides a complex dissection of the social, political, economic, and gendered contexts in which Black female bodies are [mis]represented, [mis]understood, and negatively appraised in the United States. Joseph’s book does an excellent job of calling attention to the intersectional identities that are often missing from popular representations of Black women in the media. Her work encourages readers to reflect on and question the dominant narratives that are perpetuated in contemporary Western society. One of the many strengths of this book is that it puts into words everyday experiences that Black women face. Joseph mobilizes the notion of strategic ambiguity to showcase how women of color are often held to different standards and judged more harshly and with more scrutiny than their peers. Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity dramatizes the landscape for readers and paints a very vivid picture of how Black women must often negotiate particular messages or understandings of who they are and what they stand for. The introduction thoroughly dissects the theoretical underpinnings of key concepts such as postrace and postracial resistance. Audiences outside of academia might find this particular section challenging as she critically untangles the philosophical origins of these terms and their use. Her book contains six chapters, each capturing the experience of a specific group. The first half of the book (Chapters 1–3) relays the experiences of powerful Black women, namely Michelle Obama (Chapter 1), Oprah Winfrey (Chapter 2), and Shonda Rhymes (Chapter 3). The second half draws on ethnographic work and details the lived experiences of young Black college women (Chapters 4 and 5) and television executives (Chapter 6). Written for and about Black women, this book tells the stories of different groups of women who have used or refused to use strategic ambiguity and postracial resistance as tools to navigate their social world. After reading this book, readers are able to understand the use of strategic ambiguity and how it can function as a (successful or unsuccessful) tool in different contexts. This book is a wonderful starting point for any reader interested in a critical analysis of the ways in which Black women are represented in United States media. It is likely to appeal to women of color wanting to learn more about the intersections of gender, race, and class and the ways in which Black women perform acts of resistance or engage in respectability politics. Joseph’s book could serve as an essential reading or supplementary text for courses in Women and Gender Studies or Critical Psychology (courses such as Black Women’s Studies, Black Representations, African-American Culture Studies, or Cultural Anthropology).

中文翻译：

---

书评：奇卡纳母亲作品选集

Ralina Joseph 的第二本书《后种族抵抗：黑人女性、媒体和战略歧义的使用》（2018 年）是对批判女权主义理论、媒体研究和女性色彩理论领域急需且广受欢迎的贡献。对于那些已经熟悉交叉性、批判种族理论和黑人女权主义思想学术的人来说，约瑟夫的作品补充了这些文献，因为她的分析提供了对黑人女性身体所处的社会、政治、经济和性别背景的复杂剖析 [mis]在美国代表、[错误]理解和负面评价。约瑟夫的书在引起人们对交叉身份的关注方面做得非常出色，而这些身份往往在媒体中流行的黑人女性形象中缺失。她的作品鼓励读者反思和质疑在当代西方社会中延续的主流叙事。这本书的众多优点之一是它将黑人女性面临的日常经历用文字表达出来。约瑟夫运用战略模糊性的概念来展示有色人种女性如何经常受到不同标准的约束，并且比同龄人受到更严厉和更严格的评判。后种族抵抗：黑人妇女、媒体和战略歧义的使用为读者戏剧化地描绘了风景，并描绘了一幅非常生动的画面，说明黑人妇女必须经常协商特定的信息或对她们是谁以及她们代表什么的理解。引言彻底剖析了诸如种族后和种族后抵抗等关键概念的理论基础。学术界以外的观众可能会发现这一特定部分具有挑战性，因为她批判性地解开了这些术语的哲学渊源及其使用。她的书包含六章，每一章都记录了一个特定群体的经历。本书的前半部分（第 1-3 章）讲述了有权势的黑人女性的经历，即米歇尔·奥巴马（第 1 章）、奥普拉·温弗瑞（第 2 章）和珊达·莱姆斯（第 3 章）。后半部分借鉴了民族志工作，详细介绍了年轻黑人女大学生（第 4 和第 5 章）和电视高管（第 6 章）的生活经历。这本书是为黑人女性而写的，讲述了不同女性群体的故事，她们使用或拒绝使用战略模糊和后种族抵抗作为驾驭社会世界的工具。看完这本书，读者能够理解战略模糊性的使用以及它如何在不同环境中作为（成功或失败的）工具发挥作用。对于对批判性分析黑人女性在美国媒体中的表现方式感兴趣的任何读者来说，这本书都是一个很好的起点。它可能会吸引想要更多地了解性别、种族和阶级的交叉点以及黑人女性进行抵抗行为或参与体面政治的方式的有色人种女性。约瑟夫的书可以作为妇女和性别研究或批判心理学课程（黑人妇女研究、黑人代表、非裔美国人文化研究或文化人类学等课程）的基本阅读或补充文本。