ABSTRACT
Herman Gray uses “scandal” in reference to questionable “race scandals” created by whites—either through fictional media representations or biased mediation in journalistic coverage of real events. Race scandals in the media oscillate between these two ends—“racism as scandal” and “racialized scandals”—in competing racial projects. The proliferation of digital technologies and the ubiquity of the internet and digital media in everyday life add a new dimension to race scandals that facilitates their effectiveness as racial projects. In manufactured race scandals, white media executives and workers label instances of black opposition—real or imagined—to the dominant white racial order as “scandalous.” Besides politicians, celebrities are also prime targets for race scandals in the media, as they are almost guaranteed to attract and retain viewership. Digital technologies have fundamentally transformed everyday communications; the internet, digital video, and social media, especially, have altered the landscape of race scandals.
