Way too cool : selling out race and ethics

257 Pages·2015·8.803 MB·English

by  Winnubst, Shannon

WAY
T (cid:3)
(cid:4)OL
SELLING OUT RACE & ETHICS
SHANNON WINNUBST
Way Too Cool

Way Too Cool
selling out race and ethics
Shannon Winnubst
Columbia University Press New York
columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Winnubst, Shannon.
Way too cool : selling out race and ethics / Shannon Winnubst.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-231-17294-3 (cloth : acid-free paper) — isbn 978-0-231-17295-0 (pbk. :
acid-free paper) — isbn 978-0-231-53988-3 (e-book)
1. Advertising—Social aspects—United States—History. 2. Minorities in
advertising—United States—History. 3. Commodification—United States.
4. Neoliberalism—United States. 5. United States—Race relations. I. Title.
HF5813.U6W55 2015
306.3'4—dc23 2015004862
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and
durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design: Julia Kushnirsky
Cover art: Portrait of Andries Stilte II (2006) © Kehinde Wiley. Used by permission.
Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Sean Kelly, NY;
Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA; and Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris.
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may
have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
in memory of
Patricia Lou LeGer Winnubst
1932–2011

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A Very Uncool Book 1
1. Excavating Categories: Foucault’s Birth of Biopolitics 27
interlude 1: Old School Cool 53
2. Rethinking Difference: The Limits of Interpellation 57
interlude 2: Instant Cool! 81
3. From Instant Karma to Instant Wealth: The Fantasies and
Cathexes of These Neoliberal Times 83
interlude 3: Neoliberal Cool 107
4. “How Cool Is That?”: Gender and the Neoliberal Imaginary 111
interlude 4: The Birth of Cool 133
5. Reading Race as the Real: The Securities and Punishments
of Neoliberal Cool 139
interlude 5: Real Cool, Now 169
6. Stop Making Sense: The Aporia of Race and Ethics 175
Notes 197
Bibliography 223
Index 233

acknowledgments
This book has seen many twists and turns over several years of research
and, accordingly, I have many individuals and audiences to thank for
engaging various aspects of the project: for indulging all kinds of incho-
ate musings and speculations about neoliberalism, late liberalism, bio-
politics, Foucault, precarity, pain, pleasure, and the social contract,
Ladelle McWhorter, Jana Sawicki, Falguni Sheth, Kimberly Springer,
Mary Thomas, Matt Coleman, Phillip Armstrong, Becky Mansfield,
Marc Spindelman, Michael Bray, and graduate students in Women’s,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Studies at Ohio State,
especially Meredith Lee, Matt Brenn, and Divya Sundar; for thinking
about race and all its damning contortions, bell hooks and Kimberly
Springer; for persistent thinking and work on ethics, bell hooks, Lynne
Huffer, and Cynthia Willett; for helpful suggestions and feedback on
thinking through Lacan, Andrew Cutrofello and Tim Dean; for indulg-
ing a stream of random questions on Marx, Amy Wendling; for dis-
abusing me of pursuing apathy as a neoliberal affect, Falguni Sheth; for
priceless help in navigating the contemporary world of cool, J. Brendan
Shaw; for helping me sort through the difficulty of writing about New
Orleans, Thom McClendon; for encouraging me to embrace charts and
tables (to say the least), Alison Kafer; for brainstorming cool titles, Andy
Cavins, Lynaya Elliott, and Tess Pugsley; and for inspiring cheerleading,
Marie Draz, Perry Zurn, and Andrew Dilts. I also offer a special thanks