Date of Award

4-3-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

School of Communication

First Advisor

Joseph P. Zompetti

Abstract

The election of Barack Obama brought an uptick in discourse surrounding the notion of a “post-racial” America. This thesis will investigate post-racialism and the backlash surrounding its assumptions about the United States in the context of an act of resistance that took place at the University of Missouri in 2015. Black football players on the Missouri football team joined students in the #ConcernedStudent1950 activist group in calling for the resignation of university president Tim Wolfe. Threatening to abstain from athletic activity, Wolfe stepped down, signaling a victory for the minority student body. By utilizing Gramscian rhetorical theories and concepts, the events at Missouri will guide a conversation on the backlash to post-racialism, and the ways in which the student athletes participating in the football boycott illuminated the role of black Americans in issues of hegemony and racial inequality.

Comments

Imported from ProQuest Bauer_ilstu_0092N_11182.pdf

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2018.Bauer.T

Page Count

107

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Rhetoric Commons

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