LAUSR

Abstract We examine the popular “Notorious R.B.G.” image through a lens informed by scholarship on Black masculinity, Blackface, and Black rage. The Notorious R.B.G. is predicated on the juxtaposition of the “small,” “octogenarian,” white body of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the “larger than life,” corpulent, and youthful Black body of Christopher George Latore Wallace (Malone, Rosin, and Thomas). Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., was a renowned rapper tragically murdered in 1997. We argue the Notorious R.B.G. deploys symbolic markers of Black masculinity to further racist oppression while elevating Ginsburg’s aged, white female body. The racial configurations animating the Notorious R.B.G. deflect attention from the mortal violence to which Black bodies are subject within the United States and hamper intersectional advocacy. Ultimately, the Notorious R.B.G.’s constructions of mortality, discrimination, and progressive politics affirm whiteness as it circulates alongside contemporary racial justice movements.