Volta

An Italian-American Reckoning With Race

Michelle Reale

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Hardback

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English

Peter Lang Publishing Inc
31 October 2024

Social groups; Social welfare & social services; Political science & theory

In Volta: An Italian-American Reckoning with Race, author Michelle Reale embarks on a brave and unflinching journey to the roots of racism as she knows it. Starting with the town she was raised in, Reale examines several cultural touchstones within the Italian-American community, along with local and national flashpoints in Italian-American and African-American relations, and subjects such as Columbus Day, Frank Rizzo, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, and how Italians became ‘White’. In examining these issues, Reale challenges the reader and points them towards the lifelong process of racial reckoning.

The style of reckoning here is straightforward and brutally honest, with no apologetics, making this book unique in contemporary anti-racism literature. While the author looks through the lens of her own culture, she argues for the ""self-implicative"" nature of reckoning – that one cannot point the finger of blame in any direction other than oneself. Her account shows how our acculturation of racism is both conscious and unconscious, and that only way to face it is head on.

Along with general reader, this book will appeal to college students of all levels, anti-racism educators, Whiteness scholars, high-school students, and those interested in the intersectionality of racism and culture.

""Anti-racist action begins with the self. It entails the difficult work of acknowledging the prejudices we carry and the harm we have caused. In Volta, Michelle Reale maneuvers adeptly through her own racial reckoning and Italian-American history to offer an invaluable model for the reflective praxis essential to transformative change.""

—Christopher Allen Varlack, Executive Director, Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action

""In Volta, Michelle Reale uses autoethnographic and poetic strategies to look critically at her own upbringing and how racism extends through generations in a culture. Her vibrant narrative and poetic skills forge bonds between theory and an examined life. This unflinching inquiry provides a valuable model for anti-racist work.""

—Anne McCrary Sullivan, Author of Learning Calabar: Notes from a Poet’s Year in Nigeria

By: Michelle Reale
Imprint: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 255g
ISBN: 9781636676111
ISBN 10: 1636676111
Pages: 106
Publication Date: 31 October 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements — Dedication — Author’s Note — Introduction — Pushing the Boundaries of Methods as a Way In — Volta: I Always Knew There Would Come a Time — Racism: I am Terrified of This Dark Thing That Sleeps in Me — The Ocean Blue: The Columbus Problem Are Italians White? — Edgelands — Italian Americans and Racial Strife on the National Stage — Troubling Issues of Race in Italy

Dr. Michelle Reale is a scholar, writer and poet living and working in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Reviews for Volta: An Italian-American Reckoning With Race

“In Volta, Michelle Reale uses autoethnographic and poetic strategies to look critically at her own upbringing and how racism extends through generations in a culture. Her vibrant narrative and poetic skills forge bonds between theory and an examined life. This unflinching inquiry provides a valuable model for anti-racist work.” —Anne McCrary Sullivan, Author of Learning Calabar: Notes from a Poet’s Year in Nigeria