About the Book
Orly Clerge is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor of Stories from the Front of the Room: How Higher Education Faculty Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy.
The New Noir
Race
by Orly Clerge (Author)
Price: $29.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Oct 2019
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780520969131
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 16 b/w illustrations, 8 tables
About the Author
and Diaspora in Black Suburbia
Table of Contents
"In The New Noir, Orly Clerge skillfully documents the changing meaning of Blackness for today’s diasporic Black middle class. Combining ethnography, interviews; and insights from her own life experience, she draws a nuanced and insightful portrait that defies stereotypes and lays new theoretical grounds for exploring the intersections of class, ethnicity and race."—Philip Kasinitz, Presidential Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Stuart Hall meets E. Franklin Frazier in the suburbs of New York. The New Noir is an illuminating and provocative ethnographic monograph that documents the rise of a new, multicultural black middle class. Clerge speaks to the dynamic nature of these spaces, backing up her observations with statistics. Urgent, timely, and well-written — a work of importance.”—Elijah Anderson, Yale University, author of Code of the Street and The Cosmopolitan Canopy.
"Orly Clerge’s The New Noir is an elegantly written, important, and startling account of the position of the diasporic Black and Caribbean American community in the middle-class suburban areas of New York City and Long Island. Using compelling culinary metaphors, Clerge demonstrates the struggles of Haitian and Jamaican professionals to gain a foothold in a pair of complex racial communities, negotiating their position with African Americans as well as the white middle and working classes. This is truly a new Noir and a surprising one for those unaware of the many changes that immigration has brought about in the 21st century. The New Noir will take its place with the best ethnographies of race."—Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University, coauthor, Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America.
Reviews
— CHOICE"Drawing on the black ethnographic tradition of W. E. B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston, Clergé focuses on black middle-class residents of two New York City suburbs—Cascades, a majority black in-city suburb, and Great Park, a multiethnic, multiracial community in predominantly white Nassau County—to demonstrate the complexity of their lives. The book traces migrants from the US South, Haiti, and Jamaica, recounting their specific cultures, social classes, and experiences with slavery and white supremacy. . . . This well-researched and well-written book is an important study, accessible to general and academic audiences. Highly recommended."
— Journal of Urban Affairs"The New Noir: Race, Identity, and Diaspora in Black Suburbia is a refreshingly novel approach to ethnography that offers much about race, class, culture, and urban community-building. The fact that it covers so much analytical terrain, and that it does so in a clear and coherent manner, makes this book a pleasure to read."
— American Journal of Sociology"The New Noir offers a clear contribution to sociological studies on middle class Black communities, but the focus on different nationalities makes the study much richer."
"In The New Noir, Orly Clerge skillfully documents the changing meaning of Blackness for today’s diasporic Black middle class. Combining ethnography, interviews; and insights from her own life experience, she draws a nuanced and insightful portrait that defies stereotypes and lays new theoretical grounds for exploring the intersections of class, ethnicity and race."—Philip Kasinitz, Presidential Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Stuart Hall meets E. Franklin Frazier in the suburbs of New York. The New Noir is an illuminating and provocative ethnographic monograph that documents the rise of a new, multicultural black middle class. Clerge speaks to the dynamic nature of these spaces, backing up her observations with statistics. Urgent, timely, and well-written — a work of importance.”—Elijah Anderson, Yale University, author of Code of the Street and The Cosmopolitan Canopy.
"Orly Clerge’s The New Noir is an elegantly written, important, and startling account of the position of the diasporic Black and Caribbean American community in the middle-class suburban areas of New York City and Long Island. Using compelling culinary metaphors, Clerge demonstrates the struggles of Haitian and Jamaican professionals to gain a foothold in a pair of complex racial communities, negotiating their position with African Americans as well as the white middle and working classes. This is truly a new Noir and a surprising one for those unaware of the many changes that immigration has brought about in the 21st century. The New Noir will take its place with the best ethnographies of race."—Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University, coauthor, Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America.
Awards
- C. Wright Mills Book Award 2019 Finalist, Society for the Study of Social Problems
- MARY C. DOUGLAS PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK 2020, Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association