Yet another Follow Up to the Magic

Why  does the topic of race in the Post-modern era, generate excitement here?  Because  the so-called Post-modern, Postcolonial, Post-racial era has been so greatly heralded for being devoid of the negative racial connotations associated with the modern era.  bell hooks provides context for why the black experience in Post-modern discourse, is kept hidden, not clearly defined, discussed or debated.  


Ok, bell hooks provides context:


Context:
Postmodern Blackness, bell hooks


The Issue:
Melissa Harris-Perry's article in the Nation
"Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama.


The Reaction:


Exhibit A      Exhibit B      Exhibit C      Exhibit D     Exhibit E    Exhibit F




The outcome was mostly a fractured and disjointed discourse around the character, intentions and anti-intelectual nature of Harris-Perry's question.  Why? Because Harris-Perry unearthed a family secret among Liberals and conservatives alike.  That secret is, that like the Greek god Janus, society is happy to look forward to the future of humanist interaction and values, at the same time, it looks into the past and dredges up colonial narratives for use in the, supposedly, more progressive present.

Again, from hook's thesis,
"4] The failure to recognise a critical black presence in the culture and in most scholarship and writing on postmodernism compels a black reader, particularly a black female reader, to interrogate her interest in a subject where those who discuss and write about it seem not to know black women exist or to even consider the possibility that we might be somewhere writing or saying something that should be listened to, or producing art that should be seen, heard, approached with intellectual seriousness. This is especially the case with works that go on and on about the way in which postmodernist discourse has opened up a theoretical terrain where "difference and otherness" can be considered legitimate issues in the academy. Confronting both the lack of recognition of black female presence that much postmodernist theory reinscribes and the resistance on the part of most black folks to hearing about real connections between postmodernism and black experience, I enter a discourse, a practice, where there may be no ready audience for my words, no clear listener, uncertain, then, that my voice can or will be heard."


Harris-Perry's article simply put forth an argument interrogating specific cultural aspects of politics and political practice.  Using the words, "white, "black" liberal" and "electoral racism" in the same essay, critical of practice and discourse caused an internet row.  In the Post-racial, Post-modern era why have the shields of defence been employed in an attempt to deflect and attack the notion that issues surrounding race could effect a collation of groups within politics?


Again, hooks
"It is sadly ironic that the contemporary discourse which talks the most about heterogeneity, the decentered subject, declaring breakthroughs that allow recognition of otherness, still directs its critical voice primarily to a specialized audience, one that shares a common language rooted in the very master narratives it claims to challenge. If radical postmodernist thinking is to have a transformative impact then a critical break with the notion of "authority" as "mastery over" must not simply be a rhetorical device, it must be reflected in habits of being, including styles of writing as well as chosen subject matter. Third-world scholars, especially elites, and white critics who passively absorb white supremacist thinking, and therefore never notice or look at black people on the streets, at their jobs, who render us invisible with their gaze in all areas of daily life, are not likely to produce liberatory theory that will challenge racist domination, or to promote a breakdown in traditional ways of seeing and thinking about reality, ways of constructing aesthetic theory and practice"


The cognitive dissidence surrounding this issue centres on the supposed Post-modern values and perspective that encourage critical discourse.  Melissa Harris-Perry attempted to interrogate a subject, and she was shunned for her thesis and was treated as if she is not a serious intellectual, framing the issue of Postmodern blackness as hooks does provides insight from a perspective of the Postmodern black experience.  Thank you Ms. Harris-Perry for your intellectual curiosity.

Fortunately, the reasonable Negroes on Team Blackness over at @BlackingItUp have done a great job covering this story.  Listen to their latest coverage here... or in the podcast section on the right.

Follow up: Magic on a PostModern Stick

Elon James from, BCCO studios, Blacking It Up, has now written about the Melissa Harris-Perry article on white flight from President Obama.  In his article in News One, he can barely contain his complete distain for a Salon.com piece entitled, Obama's  Bridge Too Far.  In his article, Really? Salon.com Writer Equates Respected Black Scholar With KKK

He wrote,


Last night I came across on article that I was so offended by that I reserved comment until I had a full nights sleep. I thought to myself that it was so insulting, so idiotic that it couldn’t be as bad as I was perceiving it to be. I needed to literally go to bed, take a mental break, and come back. That article wasGene Lyons “Obama’s Bridge too Far” on Salon.com. The article, a poorly thought out and terribly executed piece which wasn’t even cohesive as a whole should have been axed in the editorial process. But it wasn’t.

He continues,
Lyons compared the Scholar Harris-Perry to the publicly mocked known idiot Michelle Bachmann. How did Lyons think that was going to work out? You mock the concept that as a White man you might not always understand everything about racism, then you degrade a brilliant Black mind and compare her to a wilful White idiot who has said websites full of dumb shit. Oh yeah. You’ve just won me over. White Liberals are sooooooo not racist.


James pens a witty and well thought article on the touchy topic of race and liberals in America.

The Pomo Poor

Poor Whites Unite

From KPFA,

"Armed struggle by militant groups in the 1970s, who hoped to topple unjust and racist governments and end imperial wars, may seem like the dark side of a tumultuous but increasingly distant era. Yet they posed questions still unanswered today. Historian and activist Jeremy Varon talks about the complex legacy of the Weather Underground and the Red Army Faction."

Amy Sonnie and James Tracy expose an overdue story of coalition building in, Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times 

Poor Whites United with Black freedom Protesters, Hillbilly Harlem, Poor white flight from bourgeoisie, dual consciousness of class  and the untold story of Post-modern class, actually.  Click the title of the podcast, above, to listen, or listen, here.

Magic on a Post-modern stick

Blacking it Up # 152

The above podcast, Blacking It Up (officially comprised of reasonable Negroes), was, to quote  host (and unofficial spokesperson for the ACLU) Elon James, "magic on a stick".  It provides zen-like commentary on a topic covered in previous posts on, Interracial Friendship, specifically interracial friendship in America  (the dynamic in Europe is similar).  The issue of friendship,  discussed in the lecture featured in Interracial Friendship was framed in the context of political brinksmanship between Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.  The friendship was productive but tenuous.  Granted this interracial friendship took place over 100 years ago, during the modern era.  Has interracial friendship changed in the post-modern era?

The above podcast is an excellent example of the discussion of post-modern blackness.  Melissa Harris-Perry published an article in the Nation blog.  The post put forth a hypothesis in progress or an argument that white liberals are seemingly less supportive of President Obama, due  to his race.  The article, published in the October 10, 2011 edition of The Nation, appeared in the Sister Citizen feature.  Black President Double Standard:Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama, sparked a fire storm among liberals, apparently.  Perhaps the level of controversy was high, because Dr. Harris Perry is quite well regarded in Liberal circles, perhaps not.

Joan Walsh and David Sirota, mentioned in the podcast, seemingly took offence to Harris-Perry's article   .  Walsh asked on Salon.com,  Are White Liberals Abandoning the President? in her piece and she does not see the evidence.  Sirota also queried on AlterNet.org  if race had anything to do with white liberals cooling to Predident Obama.  As the podcast points out, Wlash and Sirota's arguments included some valid points but they were twinned with a tone of "How dare you accuse us....US! We have done so much for you people, I mean I am friends with black people and I voted for President Obama, I can't be racist!" Walsh's claim of Harris-Perry as  "friend" was eerily close to the my best friends are black response of the "privileged". Both Walsh and Sirota and are respectable, able and usually, excellent journalists.  It seems a scab was opened on the soar topic of race, or not. 

Interestingly, Harris Perry has published previous articles on electoral racism, however, the Nation article caused quite a stir in the internets, including some who attempted to critically assess the topic. but one wonders if the topic or the culture of  arena in which the touchy topic of race was broached caused so much controversy.  Listen to the Podcast for a funny and informative take on the wrangle.  Hear it above, or in the Podcast section, it also updates daily on this blog, go grab the feed and listen for yourself.  Full disclosure, it is one of my favourite podcasts, it has a permanent place on my playlist...

Interracial Friendship

Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, indirect friends, cultural opponents and socially mobile young men who represent industrial era cultural change.  Perhaps they represent role models for change in the digital era.

John Stauffer 

"Lincoln and Douglass were low-caste figures in American society and being intelligent young men, they knew it, and struggled to escape it. Both identified reading and education as the key to their ascendance, and each took solace (and early moral and political shaping) from a book titled The Columbian Orator."....Michael Patrick Brady 18 November 2008

Brady goes on to state,

"In this sense, Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln is an extraordinarily apt book for our times. Obama’s political and personal pedigree has drawn comparisons to both men."

It is almost as President Obama's duality as a black political figure is inspected in this interesting lecture.

Postmodern scramble

In reading and writing about the Post-modern construct of the world very little is written about the black experience, directly.  There are plenty of allusions to post-racial America and the word bigot is applicable to ignorance outside of race, however there are constant indicators of how far we have progressed in this era.  bell hooks writes;


Apparently, no one sympathised with my insistence that racism is perpetuated when blackness is associated solely with concrete gut level experience conceived either as opposing or having no connection to abstract thinking and the production of critical theory. The idea that there is no meaningful connection between black experience and critical thinking about aesthetics or culture must be continually interrogated.

bell hooks

Her critique of blackness in the post modern era hinges on the sense that critical theory is absent or muted in expressions of blackness.  I would agree wholly with her assessment.  Particularly within the media, blackness is quite churlish and stereotypically literal.  In music, theatre, television, video games and films the black experience is depicted as reactionary and anti-intellectual.  One main reason for this is as hooks writes in Postmodern Blackness


Postmodernist discourses are often exclusionary even when, having been accused of lacking concrete relevance, they call attention to and appropriate the experience of "difference" and "otherness" in order to provide themselves with oppositional political meaning, legitimacy, and immediacy. Very few African-American intellectuals have talked or written about postmodernism


Because blacks have not sufficiently defined themselves, there exists no clear consciousness of the black experience.   While prolific in the modern era and early post modern, discourse on blackness has waned and devolved into an antiquated and inaccurate and an often self-promoted, stereo type of the reactionary emotional black person.  This has allowed for the play of the 'otherness' card by those who would like to continue to exploit racial difference.  One of the questions explored on this blog is what is British Blackness?

This article from the Guardian, 

Postmodernism: the 10 key moments in the birth of a movement

really made me think about blackness and the black experience in the post modern era.  A reference to hip hop was veiled in an Austin Powers reference, 

During the film Austin Powers in Goldmember, one of Mike Myers's characters, a Belgian criminal mastermind called Dr Evil, performed a parody of a hip-hop music video"...Dr Evil's intervention here typified postmodern culture: ironic, knowing, quoting from a source that was already quoting from another source and – perhaps this the main point – thereby cannily making a packet for a film franchise that, if one can be serious for a second, really didn't warrant a third outing. Such "bricolage", as Lyotard would put it (ie assembling artefacts from bits and pieces of other things from unexpected eras and sources), was key to the hip-hop culture Myers pastiched. And hip-hop culture, which is postmodernism's ironically adopted child, is everywhere – clothes, graffiti, poetry, dance, your iPod, my iPod, everybody's iPod. Everywhere apart from on Classic FM, because Classic FM doesn't roll that way.

Hip hop has as everyone's adopted child, a striking and accurate simile that defines a specific black expression and experience as abandoned by its parents and nurtured by 'others'. The article points out how art has become a commodity, it appears blackness has as well.  In this instance, perhaps the bits and pieces that Lyotard refers to as 'bricolage' are the black experience, undefined.

Also currently, the V & A have an exhibit on Post-modernism..

On British Politics and Schools

Kemi Adegoke a rising star in British Politics on low expectations and British schools..

From TEDx Euston:

She says went into politics because she was angry...angy about education and angry about international development. But there is a lot more to this beautiful talk by Kemi Adegoke. In finding the words to describe the complex issues of what she describes as "The culture of low expectations" in inner city British schools she lets us into how she started on her incredible journey:) . She takes us through her amazing forray into politics and how she suddenly became on of the leaders of policy formulation on Africa in the Conservative Party. Kemi inspires us by her words and her story.....at TEDxEuston 2010.

Atlantic History 101 Black British History, 1 st in series

Atlantic history is truly rooted in not only the cultural constructs built during the Atlantic slave trade.  This era in history runs concurrently with the construction of the British Empire.  In many ways the concept of blackness was born from the identities constructed in the modern era.  The following interview from KPFA's Against the Grain is required listening for any of us living in the multicultural postmodern era.

Arguably W.E.B DuBois and Paul Robeson are not only the fathers of Afropolitanism but truly the founders of black culture.  By saying this I am also Including South Asians as black people.  During the modern Era south Asians and Caribbean blacks were invited to their post colonial motherland, England, to work, more on this later..

               

       Paul Robeson                                                    W.E.B. Dubois

Please listen to the following show to gain a concrete understanding of how black identity was forged in the modern era....
Tues 8.16.11| Du Bois & Robeson | Against the Grain: A Program about Politics, Society and Ideas

or

listen here (pop out player)

Multicultural Europe and Politics

Against The Grain on KPFA FM, in California is a great radio show about politics, society and ideas

Recently they hosted professor John Bowen of Washington University in St. Louis, where he shared his insight on multiculturalism in Europe.  On the show the following questions were addressed;

Why have so many European leaders recently proclaimed the failure of multiculturalism? What should we make of their claims, and of the proliferating rhetoric of blame directed against Muslims and other immigrants of color in Europe? John Bowen distinguishes rhetoric from reality in France, Britain and beyond, and Nicole Newnham discusses her film about the human cost of US deportation policy.

Is the concept of the Afropolitan dead?  Is multiculturalism a drain on European culture and economies or is multiculturalism a product of Europe's endless quest for cheap labour and neo-colonialism? Listen and judge for yourself...


listen here: Multiculturalism under attack or here 

Post Round UP- Afro Europe Style

Last week I sung the praises of We Are Respectable Negroes!  More from the respectable ones soon..  However in this post round up Afro-Europe is in the spotlight.  Created by Eric K. Afro-Europe describes itself thusly,


"I am Erik K and I write Afro-Europe International Blog, since 2008, to explore the politics, people and culture of black communities in Europe. Prior to Afro-Europe I wrote for an Amsterdam local newspaper, a Dutch Caribbean magazine, and an E-zine. I was born and raised in Amsterdam and I am of Surinamese/Dutch Caribbean descent"


Afro-Europe is intelligent, well written, well researched and culturally conscious.  This blog truly helped me construct a culturally relevant and insightful context for living in Europe.  The concept of being Atlantic, Afropolitan or cosmopolitan is truly represented in Dutch culture. The Post Modern Netherlands are as representative of the cultural,melting pot phenomena of nations enriched by the Atlantic slave trade. 

Speaking of Holland, one of my favorite countries to visit, Afro-Europe has a message for, Dutch Queen Beatrix  who must remove an offensive slavery painting on the side of the Golden Coach, wrote two Dutch MPs in an opinion piece yesterday.

I first read about Slavery, the video game, another product of Holland at Afro-Europe....

"The trailer shows how gamers may trade slaves, conquer countries and even choose their means of torture and their personal burning marks....." 

France now has a Black TV station.  I am sure it will be an improvement of BET but I bet their music videos won't be as good. Not qutie BET, but BeBlack TV is the new black TV channel in France. The channel will broadcast black culture programs for families and young adults. The channel was launched January 20the in Paris by the founder, Guadeloupe-born and French Guianan, Gadjar Sebastian (30). 

Lastly, in England Afro-Europe reports on a collection of monarchs, in this case a pair of Queens.

Miss Sarah Forbes Bonetta, was a West African Egbado Omoba of royal blood, who was orphaned in a brutal massacre in her home country at the age of eight.She was captured and later given to Queen Victoria by Captain Fredrick. E. Forbes of the Royal Navy who received Sarah as a gift from King Ghezo of Dahomey. Mr Forbes then gave her to Queen Victoria as a present "She would be a present from the King of the blacks to the Queen of the Whites, he later wrote in his journal.

"The Queen was immediately impressed by the girl's natural regal manner, exceptional intelligence and gift for academic studies, literature, art and music that she gave her an allowance for her welfare with Sarah becoming a regular visitor to Windsor Castle." 

For an insightful and intelligent view of European culture and history, head on over to Afro-Europe.  

Ghost Writer

The apparition haunting the interwebs known as Chauncey DeVega is another Afropolitan or Atlantic person who seemingly reaches out to us from the small group of Islnads known s Cabo Verde or Cape Verde.  He describes himself as "a race man in progress and occasional polemicist. He is also a resplendent purveyor of negro wisdom and collector of Black wit. Holder of the sacred chalice of the Ghetto Nerds. A believer in Black Pragmatism and the glories of the Black Freedom Struggle.  Chauncey DeVega is a speaker for the tribe known as We are Respectable Negroes...folks who are just a little angry (and you know what happens when we get angry). It may appear that we are the same, but as you will see, we are actually quite different.  He remains anonymous for now. But there will be clues, tasty morsels of information, that friends (and perhaps enemies) can use to find out his gov't name."

                    

This post about black politicians who pander to ambiguously racist political factions, was almost a counter to our Identity Politics and Relics post.  In it we questioned the appearance of  'connectedness' of black pols in Britain while we asked you to harken to the past  to remember influential black British political trliblazers.  In no way am I suggesting that any British black political player is anywhere close to the level of tom foolery displayed by the ones displayed in the following link, however Tom foolery, and buck dancing are behaviours that require vigilance.

Nouveau Blaxploitation: A Buckdancing Rogues Gallery of Black Conservatives Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of White Populist Tea Party America

Is everyone here familiar with Tomming and Buck Dancing (which is so Atlantic as it combines Irish dance with African, most likely evidence of multicultural working class slaves and indentured servants on plantations.  Buck Dancing is an also An African American metaphor for pandering to white power structures.)?  Illustration of each here and after the jump..  Confederate Veterands Buck Dancing and
Buck Dancing for Confederates.....


Lastly Black people in England, please be concious enough to not wear the confederate flag on shirts or hats.  You must be aware of its meaning..

You were not raised that way! We are respectable negroes

It is difficult to explain the high level of awesome in which We are Respectable Negroes exists. It is the place for happy, non-threatening, coloured folks. It's clever, informative and fun.  Most of all, I have to acknowledge a blog that recognises that Frylock is clearly a respectable Negro pack of flying fries.

They also do a great job of providing context.  This article,
We are respectable negroes: How Pulp History Matters: Of Smedley Butler, the Wall Street Coup, the Liberty League and the Tea Party GOP reminds us of how some of the spectres from the past show themselves in myriad ways. 

Post Round Up

Post Round up is a quick review of the internet's delicious black tid bits.  From Acting White's My black Cousin Passing as White article we are treated with the all to applicable term, 'Incognegro', love it. Hey, New England, Stop trying to pass for white..

When are black people coolest?  What do black people need more of?  Good art, that's what!  African Digital Art provides sweet artistic weekly, in their African Weekly Inspiration feed.  This week provides interesting commentary on The G-Man.

What else is out there?  Pure awesomeness that is a podcast and a great tumblr site, called Nerdgasm Noire Network. That's what.  Five geeky women who love comics and nred stuff, internet yummyness.  Five geeks, five opinions one podcast tastier than bacon.  Dustdaughter provides a great review.  Finally in a truly afropolitan critique, Adisa Vera Beatty questions why black people have issues volunteering in Africa in Clutch magazine online.

That's your round up enjoy...

Identity Politics and Relics

In an attempt to stay connected to current events in America one relys on podcasts, online newspapers and blogs in order to consume sweet American awseomeness. This clip from the Rachael Maddow Show was thought provoking.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sat in the UK watching this I was forced to become reminiscent for home and my deceased grandfather.  My grandfather was somewhat of a groundbreaking individual. My grandfather was an Omega Man, he attended a Historically black Union University.  He moved to Boston in the 1930's to attend Boston University graduate school.  He was admitted to the school only to be told the quota for black students was full. Not to be deterred, he became the first black man to run a national chain grocery retail store where he employed Malcolm Little who later be known as, Malcolm X.  He was the head of the Massachusetts NAACP and Urban League successively. While head of  the NAACP he debated the Nation of Islam at Boston University, the religious groups representative was Malcolm X.  Malcolm opened the debate by stating, "Mr. Cooper, you gave me one of my first jobs, I am going to take it easy on you."

My grandfather also was the first black man to run for Mayor of Boston Massachusetts as a Republican (This was in political protest of a oppressive, Democratic party in 1950's Boston).  I remember being the only one in the family to have the honor of sitting in his chair in our livingroom.  Seated in that chair I was surrounded by copies of the Crisis, Ebony, Jet Essance Magazines as welll as the prototypical aspiring middle class badge of honour, complete sets of the western cannon.

Listening to the grown folks talk I often overheard conversations involving multiple political groups including Congressional Black Caucus.  When I was still very young, Senator Ed Brooke was the  black senator from the Massachusetts Republican party.  Political banter and critique played a major role in my childhood, actually being board to death hearint it was a clearer view into my childhood memories. Listen to “Forerunner: Edward Brooke, Black Power, and White Votes.”  by historian, Dr. Jason Sokol.  (Aired: 4-17-11) here

Senator Ed Brooke

Currently in the UK, I question who among any political players at the Council level or seated in Paliment have the cultural, political and social skills to garner the over whelming support of black constituticancies.  In class struck Britian is a politiation able to speak both to the middle class and working class (although no one claims the working class moniker any longer in ol' Blighty)?  Specifically which Black politico's are able to connect to voters both ideologically and verbally.  Do all black professionals  the fear of apperaing uncooth in both general society and politics?

How does one speak to the folks in private and to the country in public?  In what ways do politicians navigate political parties and use their standing in their local communities as leveraging votes or a political party as well as having the ability to push policy that is beneficial to their constituency economically and socially.  This is a much more difficult course to navigate here in England than in America.

In The North East corridor of America identity politics used to revolve around race and ethnicity.  Big cities split recources unevenly along lines of colour, ethnicity and religion.  These lines crossed strata of class but ethnicity played a large role.  In England is class the determing factor in politicial identity? Have the English bought into the idea that this is a classless society?  We are all middle class, as we are in America, amen.  Or as current events point out is there a Janus faced outlook in Blighty?  Are divisions in society drawn between racial identity in multicultural Britian or does the spectre of class mark socitial divisions?

How does the black politition garner the public support wielded by the CBC or even President Obama?  How does a politician acrew the support of a significant percentage of the electorate?  To whom do they speak?  What do  they talk about and who do they talk to?  More importantly what obstacles are before the democratic process here in England?  A concerted effort to make the democratic process difficult for some exists in America.  With the political clout that some blacks enjoy the ghosts of the apartheid past still roam the corridors of Washington DC.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Exercising ones rights of citizenship are paramount for any democracy.  A legacy of both the tireless pursuit of civil rights as well as apathetic attitudes define the civil rights or voting rights struggle for black voters in America.  From the civil rights movement Blacks in America were able to forge a political identity and gain leverage within the system.  Like everything else that governs black identity in America the black political representative had to adopt what WEB Dubois dubbed a dual conciousness.

WEB Dubois

I am well aware of the dual conciousness psyche required of black British political players.  How can these players draw upon on England's civil rights struggles?  Or does black England need its own Harlem Renaissance or Nigritude movement?  There seems to be a need for self definition, and reckoning among blacks in England as well as greater Europe. 

I believe my exposure and induction to the world of politics was special, but perhaps not unique.  As my grandfather was active in civil discourse, England also has a legacy of black forefathers who have sacrificed for our current freedom and citizenship.  I understood that dual conciousness is a requirement for  maintaing sanity in the modern era.  The Legacy of African survival in the west also required a secure sence of self rooted in admiration for the legacy of sacrifice of my fore fathers and mothers.   This legacy pre-dates America's by centuries.  Black presence in Britain has helped to establish institutions and shape the country we love today.  It is time to celebrate ourselves, it is time to remember our black heroes from England.  It is time to remember our grandfathers.  It is time to fully celebrate our Pan-African roots, our Atlantic roots?

William Cuffy

Is there any use for the term "Afropolitan"? - Afri-love

Is there any use for the term "Afropolitan"? - Afri-love