Playing the race card: melodramas of Black and white from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson

Introduction: Playing the race card.

1. The American melodramatic mode.

2. "A wonderful, 'leaping' fish": varieties of Uncle Tom.

3. Anti-Tom and "The birth of a nation".

4. Posing as Black, passing as White: the melos of Black and White melodrama in the jazz age.

5. Rewriting the plantation legend: Scarlett "totes a weary load".

6. Home sweet Africa: Alex Haley's and TV's Roots.

7. Trials of Black and White: California v. Powell and The People v. Orenthal James Simpson.

Conclusion: Our melodramatic racial fix.