Between abundance and marginalization: The imperative of racial rhetorical criticism

Tracing what has become a profound and robust conversation among rhetorical critics, I argue in this essay that questions of race are of such central importance to rhetorical criticism that rhetorical critics must all now participate in a body of work I name racial rhetorical criticism. To make this argument, I trace three racial rhetorical projects, which I name hearing race, seeing race, and bounding race. I conclude with suggestions for future work: a turn toward comparative racial rhetorical studies, an amplification of historical racial rhetorical studies, and a broad partipation from rhetorical critics in racial rhetorical criticism.