random ass rant about kim kardashian and her ethnicity
-
With the world’s most ubiquitous celebutante firmly cast in the starring role, this Article conducts an exegesis on the semiotics of Kim Kardashian’s racial identity. In the process, the Article explores the social construction of race in action, weighs the individual agency possible in the racialization process, and further probes the reality of identity fluidity at a time when society and the law are only just beginning to grapple with more malleable conceptions of race. After presenting an analysis of the social, legal, and historical formulation of the concept of whiteness and tracing the dramatic transformation of both juridical and popular notions of racial belonging over the course of American history, this Article draws upon Kardashian’s racial fluidity and recent controversies involving Rachel Dolezal and Elizabeth Warren to question some of our most fundamental perceptions about race and provide a unique spin on issues of diversity, identity, and colorblindness. All told, the Article highlights (for better or worse) the continuing relevance of race in American life and underscores the underappreciated significance of racial fluidity (in a time when society is growing increasingly “woke” about gender fluidity) and its potentially seismic impact on long-held, but rarely questioned, assumptions in antidiscrimination and equal protection jurisprudence.
As journalist Erin Keane once quipped, “Like a round, shiny mirror, [Kim] Kardashian’s butt reflects back to us our myriad cultural panics and anxieties, inviting us to oil them up and present them to the world . . . .” Because no issue has defined American history more than race, it should come as no surprise that, even on this point, the most omnipresent celebrity of our generation, Kim Kardashian, and her backside have relevance. For years, people have wondered whether Kardashian is white.[2] By examining the radically different answers that law, history, and society give us, we may learn, at long last, the only remaining private detail of Kardashian’s life. Perhaps even more importantly, we can also shed light on the politics of identity, the vexing problem of race, and the socio-legal dynamics of the racialization process.
With the world’s most ubiquitous celebutante firmly cast in the starring role, this Article therefore conducts an exegesis on the semiotics of Kim Kardashian’s racial identity. In the process, the Article explores the social construction of race in action, weighs the individual agency possible in the racialization process, and further probes the reality of identity fluidity at a time when society and the law are only just beginning to grapple with more malleable conceptions of race. In presenting an analysis of the social, legal, and historical formulation of the concept of whiteness and tracing the dramatic transformation of both juridical and popular notions of racial belonging over the course of American history, this Article questions some of our most fundamental perceptions about race and provides a unique spin on issues of diversity, identity, and colorblindness. All told, the Article not only highlights (for better or worse) the continuing relevance of race in American life but also underscores the underappreciated significance of racial fluidity (in a time when society is growing increasingly “woke” about gender fluidity) and its potentially seismic impact on long-held, but rarely questioned, assumptions in antidiscrimination and equal protection jurisprudence.
Part II begins by assessing the meaning of whiteness, and Kardashian’s particular lineage, in a historical, legal, and sociological light. As we determine, while Kardashian is not white by historical standards, neither are most of you. That said, the law would characterize Kardashian as formally white. But the seeming ability to give an answer certain to this question betrays the law’s inherent instability on matters of racialization, a fact highlighted by the likelihood that Kardashian may not be white by law for much longer. Finally, sociologically speaking, we trace how recent geopolitical events have shaped social perceptions of race and perhaps impacted the way society reads Kardashian’s racial heritage.
Part III takes a step back and asks why the enterprise of determining Kardashian’s race, and scrutinizing the meaning of whiteness, has any value at all, particularly in a world that some have characterized as post-racial. In the process, we rebut the myth of colorblindness and demonstrate how race, overtly and subconsciously, continues to matter in American society both in small ways and large.
We then turn, in Part IV, to examining Kardashian’s own volitional role in the construction of her racial identity. As we argue, Kardashian’s chosen fluidity marks a broader movement towards “elective” notions of race. We contextualize social and judicial recognition of this phenomenon and the exertion of individual agency in identity (re)formation by comparing the relatively supportive public reaction to gender fluidity (as in the case of Kardashian’s former stepparent, Caitlyn Jenner) with the widespread social opprobrium cast on racial fluidity (as evidenced by the controversies surrounding Rachel Dolezal and Elizabeth Warren).
In Part V, we conclude by examining the challenges that face the law in confronting the reality of identity fluidity. In the process, we model two different iterations of racial mutability and consider, and critique, the ways in which the law has only began to grapple with the consequences of such ambiguity and malleability. All told, therefore, the Article and the Kardashian trope it adopts serve as a mechanism to highlight extant cultural and legal anxieties over identity fluidity and to initiate a broader conversation about the resulting impact on civil rights laws.
-
@it-s-just-sen i am not reading that tbh
-
you’re not required to read this
-
what in the actual fuck
-
ima not read it but i agree
