“That Applies to My People Too”: A Discourse Analysis of the Radical White Press in the Original Rainbow Coalition

Abstract

I use discourse analysis to investigate the white press of the original
Rainbow Coalition, founded by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther
Party, to dissect how radical media is used as a platform to build
coalitions, and debate the role of allies. Borrowing from Viraj Patel’s
intersectional approach to allyship, which suggests that one’s cross-cutting
identities creates situationally-specific roles for allies, I add a
communicative perspective to understand how allies can effectively
represent and practice allyship using mass communication. In doing so, I
break down how whiteness is represented in radical media to understand if
it’s an inherently negative concept.