Alondra Nelson, author of "Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and
the Fight against Medical Discrimination," talks to Sasha Lilley about
the little known history of the Black Panther's medical activism, from
setting up free clinics to genetic screening for sickle cell anemia.
link
Against the Grain with Sasha Lilley - April 9, 2012 at 12:00pm
David Goodhart meets the politicians who claim to advocate on behalf of Britain's black communities and asks how the ideologies of black politics have changed since the 1980s. The programme hears from David Lammy MP, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Tory activist Shaun Bailey, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips, 1980s Black Sections politician Linda Bellos, and Stafford Scott, who was a community leader during the time of the 1985 Tottenham riots."
This post from the amazing, Afro-Europe eloquently explains the phenomena that we love to explore., Lola Adesioye expresses her view on why Being black in the UK doesn't mean the same as being black in the US!” Ms. Adesioye explains 3rd culture children, global citizenship and she even sings about it...
Readers of this blog are familiar with the Elephant metaphor constructed in so many posts on this site. The Elephant in the American room is race. The social construction of race in America intertwines issues of intelligence, economics, civilisation and integrity between Europeans and many post-modern "others". The sharpest dichotomy between races exist between blacks and whites in America. Also, side note, the genius who scheduled a Republican debate on MLK Day deserves a steak dinner.
The public display of racial pandering that exists in the Republican primaries is predictable, unfortunate and telling. The racial undercurrent running through the Republican Primaries is a clear indication of the effectiveness of the Southern Strategy of the post-modern Republican party. Rachel Maddow's clip illustrates how the Elephant is now sitting at the table. Know who else is sitting at the table with Ms. Maddow? Reverend Al Sharpton, that's who. He actually makes some good points.
This informative broadcast on the origins and composition of media technology brings to mind the stunning archive of meaningful photos that is the wonderful blog Beautone. My only critique of the following broadcast is that the black voice in the settlement of the West and specifically San Francisco was left out. Inclusion, that is what makes Beautone such an important site. In our media fuelled post-modern minds, image is incredibly important. Photos, videos and pictures help to create meaning and provide context to social and personal issues. Images can be historical record, they provide signposts for context. Have a listen, then visit Beautone , it is featured just on the right of this page or on on tumblr....
(tumblr tip, find the "Archive" button to see all images and posts on the site)
Senator Ron Paul as a metaphor for the issue of race in America. The Rachel MaddowShow did an expose on Texas Senator Ron Paul. Rachel and Melissa Harris Perry created a compelling metaphor. They equated the spectre of racial discomfort in Ron Paul's past to American attitudes on race. The comparison was apt and compelling.
Big up and Bruv are two words in the English spoken language that have deemed important enough to be included on the BBC English language learning website.
Corey Robin's assessment of rightwing thought is scintillating. His thesis revolves around privledge, the creation of privilege where there is none, exploitation and keeping the lower orders in line. His Feudal Democracy sub-thesis and his identification of how some on the right frame the wealthy as victims are perceptive. His analysis is very pertinent to today's political discourse
Have a listen...HERE or visit the Lectures and Words page on this blog.
Adam Curtis is an amazing film-maker. His insight and artistic talents are apparent in most of his work. The story of Henrietta Lacks is layered with meaning. Henrietta Lacks, Neo-Eve, mother nature and the exploited. Her tale is that of black women throughout colonisation and slavery. Her story is that of the human race. Adam Curtis writes,
"I have always been fascinated by the story of Henrietta Lacks.
Henrietta was an African American woman from Baltimore who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Before she died some of her cancerous tissue was taken - without her permission - and the cells have been reproducing in laboratories around the world ever since."
Via The Crunk Feminist Collective"I do not dig debating with young white feminists late into the night about white privilege and having other Black women in the thread have to call out the supposed anti-racist feminists for not speaking up, for yet again forcing Black women to do the exhausting work of teaching"
Via, Ta-Nehisi Coates from the Atlantic.com
" During the days of Frederick Douglass's activism, the cause of abolition was deeply entangled with the cause of "women's rights." The two movements would later split over the 15th Amendment."
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.
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.
