A Thug's Humanity? A Consideration of Curtis Jackson

A Thug’s Humanity?
by Mark Anthony Neal

At this point—as if there was ever a previous point—any discussion about the artistic merit of Curtis Jackson’s “music” is little more than a banal exercise in corporate music journalism. Mr. Jackson has never been interested in art, no matter how we might shift the signifiers to fit into the expectations of a music industry that seems to have little use for actual music. Yet Mr. Jackson’s literal body and its cartoonish doppelganger, 50 Cent, continue to stimulate curiosity, if only because of his deft performance of late stage American masculinity.

Considered purely within the context of a constructed masculinity, 50 Cent might rank as one of the most compelling examples of black masculinity since Jack Johnson. Signature generational figures like Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) or Tupac Shakur, challenged notions of black masculinity in their respective historical eras, in part, because they complicated how black masculinity functioned in distinct political, cultural, social, religious and sexual spheres. In the case of Jack Johnson it was the blunt force of his masculinity and the anxieties produced in response to fears of how that force might be employed beyond the boxing ring, that made him the projection of so many racialized and gendered fantasies. In the case of Mr. Jackson such fears are purely the product of the capitalist wet dream that literally feeds upon—consumption as literal practice—the “body” 50 Cent willingly provides.


Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Critical Noir: Domesticating Violence

© Kara Walker (b. 1969)
Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats
From Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005

Domesticating Violence
by Mark Anthony Neal

Six years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, time once again stood still in remembrance of that first moment of death. It has become one of the defining rituals of contemporary America; Indeed the depth of the tragedy need not be remarked upon anymore, because of how potent a symbol of loss it has become—the loss of life and as some might argue, the loss of America’s innocence. But even in the midst of mourning, there is no denying that the 9/11 attacks have been deftly manipulated, in an effort to domesticate terrorist violence, so that for the average American, terrorist violence is no longer far-fetched in a far-away land, but as real as the corner supermarket. That Americans would seemingly move in lock-step—politically at least—because of fears both real and imagined, only highlights the value of domesticating forms of violence that have never really been tangible for most Americans.

This is not to de-legitimize the possibility of terrorist attacks in everyday life—the recent experiences of British citizens are duly noted here—but to put into high relief that for some American citizens terrorist violence has long been a fact of life. This was the point that Cornel West trenchantly made when he suggested in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks that America had been “niggerized”—a point he reiterated in his lively discussion with Mos Def on Bill Maher’s Real Time—suggesting that for many white Americans, they had come face-to-face with the kind of literal and symbolic violence that has long marked the experiences of black folk in this country. The same can be said for the thousands of women, who succumb to forms domestic and sexual violence at the hands of men in this country every year. The recent rape and torture of Megan Williams in West Virginia was a visceral reminder that as we memorialize those who died in the 9/11 attacks, as a nation, we have not expended nearly as much energy addressing the violence and terror that is regularly directed at women in this country, particularly black women.

This was a point that the Chicago Foundation for Women recently made during their 22nd Annual Luncheon, which was symbolically held on September 11th. The luncheon was preceded by the release of a report by the Foundation that suggested that “Violence against women and girls is a cradle-to-grave epidemic that includes: child abuse and incest, bullying, elder abuse, domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, street harassment and the trafficking or prostitution of women and girls for sexual or labor exploitation.” The foundation also made clear, via a morning symposium “Violence in Language, Art and Culture: Images to die for?,” the ways that popular culture and mainstream media are complicit in the reproduction of violence against women and girls. The popular culture and media piece is critical as the Foundation’s report suggest that "A study of American high school students found that the majority of girls and three-quarters of boys thought that forced sex was acceptable under some circumstances, including when a woman had had past sexual experiences or when a boy spent a lot of money on the girl."

Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Felicia Pride Steps to the Mic

from Scheme Magazine

Felicia Pride: The Message
by Dale Coachman

When it comes to women in the hip hop culture unfortunately we predominantly focus on the video vixens and why they do what they do or the plight of Lil’ Kim coming out of jail and or Foxy Brown going in. Baltimore representative Felicia Pride who is an Author, Blogger (AOL.com Black Voices) and founder of The BackList has come to give her contribution to hip hop from a different standpoint. With her first book The Message: 100 Life Lessons from Hip hop Greatest Songs do out the end of this month Ms. Pride is here to give her interpretation of what hip hop has means and has done for her throughout her life and career. Whether it’s learning the corporate ropes of publishing, discovering what brings her liberation of self or a stories of how and where she acquired her swagger. With a published book in addition to writing a literary chapter for the television series Everybody Hates Chris or interviewing the next up and coming writer Felicia Pride has her hands full, but without hip hop music the road would be a lot harder to travel.

Read the Full Interview with Felicia Pride

Anxious Black Woman on the Megan Williams Case

from Diary of an Anxious Black Woman
Thursday, September 13, 2007

Does "Domestic Violence" Lessen the Severity of Racial and Sexual Violence?

I have to ask this question because I've been reading various blogs responding to the recent case of the heinous torture and abuse of a black woman by six white supremacists in West Virginia, and too many have been commenting - with the latest details revealing that the victim may have had a relationship with one of the young men - that this seems to be "just a domestic violence incident." Just a domestic violence incident?!

So, let me get this straight. Up until that little reveal, everyone was pretty much on board that this case was heinous, cruel, evil, demonic, and purely craptastic because we had the impression that the unsuspecting victim had been lured away by evil racist predators since she was "too trusting" by either meeting strangers on the Internet (the first version of the story) or by being led astray by people she "thought were her friends" (the second version of the story). Now is the possibility that the young victim may have been dating one of these guys (and already "transgressing" since she entered into an interracial relationship), so let's not get carried away with our outrage.

Ummmm.....What?! (To quote Geico Caveman - see this intelligent critique - yet again, and I've been doing this often so I had better calm myself down before I end up on a therapist's couch since I may be crazy if the rest of our insane, offensive, whack-job society is considered "normal"). James Baldwin once eloquently wrote how absolutely futile it is to surrender to therapy so as to adjust oneself to a society that is already irreparably damaged by systemic racism, misogyny, and imperialism, so, let's hold onto our sanity and our selves.

I guess I'm wondering why, with the term "domestic violence" added into the mix, we should adjust our attitudes and our outrage over this. In my previous post, I had already concerned myself with the fact that this victim - by virtue of being black and female - is far too vulnerable to the evil vultures we call the Media and, so, will have to needlessly suffer the vilification of her character when new details begin coming out, which may be spun into a yarn that turns her into a "liar" or a "fool" or a "conniving nappyheaded ho." Just wait for it.

In light of the Feds deciding that they will not prosecute this case as a "hate crime", I see the onslaught coming. Of course, in our minds, "hate crime" is a racial issue, and black women have somehow been dismissed from this category. Not to mention that "hate crimes" rarely address gender crimes, like rape and domestic violence, thus leaving black women and other women of color vulnerable and, once again, bleeding at the intersections of race and gender.

Read the Full Essay

To be black and female . . . a note for Megan

To be black and female . . . a note for Megan
by Stephane Dunn

$10,000. I wonder if this would equal the cost of a prime black female slave’s body today if we take into account inflation and contemporary costs? Well, we know one thing, it’s the possible, low, get-out-of-jail-price if you get caught at kidnapping and brutalizing a black woman.

There has never been a national compassion and outrage over the historical and contemporary brutality directed against black women. Never. There are several reasons why this is so, but the two most glaring have everything, of course, to do with race and gender. In slavery and beyond,through the Jim Crow years, the firmly established white supremacist patriarchal cult of true womanhood firmly situated black women as outside of ‘true womanhood’ status. They were less than women, animalistic and primitive rather than feminine and human. Since their humanity and womanhood was not "true," Black women could and were sexual Jezebels and seducers of civilized white men but never rape victims. That legacy is alive and well, so much so, that in black rape cases that do make more than five second news spots, the legitimacy of the woman’s personhood and womanhood is as much a part of the story as the details of the actual case.

A case of rape and violence against a black woman will not even make the news unless the accused is famous, wealthy, or part of an elite social class. And so it was in the Duke case. It did not become news because a black woman had been violated; it became news because it involved a group of young, white male Duke students. It became even more news worthy as the case splintered and the media and national conscious could drop attention on the very real nature of racial and gender politics on elite campuses and become outraged over the ‘wrongful’ violation of those Duke lacrosse players. There is a disturbing subtext to the way the whole thing unraveled and the way it has since been reported on in the media. The cased proved shaky and the conversations about sexist ‘boys will be boys’ behavior and racialized thought seemed to die in quiet and in shame.

There is now another element that will linger in what I think of as the legacy of the Tawana Brawley scandal. In a country that has not wanted to and continues not to deal with or own the particular sexual and racial violence directed against black female bodies, this is sort of a ‘quiet’ justification, a confirmation of the other, less discussed racial myth that hangs in the shadow of the black male rapist myth; the myth that black women are not ‘true’ victims of rape and violence. This is why the ‘face’ of the victim that is always positioned to invoke national attention, compassion, and outrage is never black and is certainly never black and female. Black male rape and violence against black women does not even make the news unless it meets the famous criteria and the rape and violence against black women by white folk, well, it had better be sensational enough to earn its way into the CNN two second spotlight.

When the black community went into battle over Imus’s infamous radio slur, even then, the national conversation never quite made it to a focus on the history of black women’s misrepresentation, mistreatment, and media neglect in this country; it dovetailed nicely into a frenzied address and attack on rap music representation. All of this does not bode well for Ms. Megan Williams, who was raped, brutalized, traumatized, and quite frankly, probably would have been killed in relative obscurity. We are rightfully beginning to recognize that we are still at war to gain respect and recognition of our humanity. We must rally now using all the technology at our disposal and our very bodies to demand the spotlight for Megan and for the personhood, womanhood, and very bodies of all those daily, anonymous, non-white female victims.

***

Stephane Dunn, Ph.D, is a writer, scholar, and educator. She specializes in popular culture, 20th century African American Studies, and American literature. A creative writer and cultural critic, she writes plays, creative nonfiction, and essays about film, popular culture, and contemporary social issues. Her forthcoming book, Baad 'Bitches' & Sassy Supermamas (University of Illinois Press), explores women's representations in 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the 'supermama flicks, Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, and Foxy Brown.

***

Read more about the Megan Williams

Live Arts and Fresh Cut Chips

Live Arts and Fresh Cut Chips
by Mark Anthony Neal

I’ve been in the UK the past few days, specifically Birmingham, where I’ve been attending the opening days of the 3rd Decibel Performing Arts Showcase and Symposium. Sponsored by The Arts Council of England, the event brings together Afro-Caribbean, Asian, and African artists and programmers from across England. I had the privilege of delivering the opening keynote address—yet another incarnation of my ongoing meditation on Jay Z as cosmopolitan—which was quite an honor considering the fact that folk like Carl Hancock Rux, Hip-Hop Theater pioneer Benji Reid and longtime Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall Inc. Executive Director Patricia Cruz were all in the audience and could have provided a brilliant keynote address in their own right. The same goes for my brilliant interlocutor Robert Beckford.

The real beauty of the event though, is that it afforded me a wonderful opportunity to break bread with a range of artists and thinkers from across the diaspora such as Sydney Bartley (Director for Jamaica's Ministry of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture), Dr. Vena Ramphal (who specializes in South Asian Dance), Myung-Joo Chung (who consults Korean Theater companies) and David Tse, who directs the Yellow Earth Theater in London. Like progressive artists in the US, they are all struggling to convince State institutions and various other potential benefactors that their art is worthy of support, while also struggling to provide progressive art that doesn’t cater to lowered expectations.

Read More at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

The Katrina-Politans

The Katrina-Politians:
A Meditation on Movement, Citizenship and the Katrina Generation
by Mark Anthony Neal

Can “niggas” be cosmopolitan? The answer was emphatically no, two years ago, as we all witnessed the drama(s) of misery and suffering unfold in New Orleans and the rest of the gulf coast region. To be cosmopolitan suggests an access to economic resources and the leisure time to travel the world unfettered by the demands faced by everyday folk. But those black bodies that that made themselves visible in the days after Hurricane Katrina made its landing were not “everyday folk”—they were “niggas” and “niggas” is perhaps apropos for a nation that struggled to name the landlocked and waterlogged black bodies that encroached upon the casual comforts and carefree expectations of our tiny little worlds. We called them “looters,” “refugees,” “unfortunate,” “sinners,” “animals,” “hapless” and “helpless”—anything but citizens. And it is in this context that I’d like to offer yet another linguistic reference: “Katrina-Politans,” a term that obviously references notions of cosmopolitanism, but more so draws from Taiye Tuakli-Wosornu’s decidedly classed concept of Afro-Politians—those Africans who live in the world. What is to be said about the humanity, desires and survivalisms of those black bodies that bore witness to Katrina’s fiercest moments, even as they are deemed expendable, and dare continue to think themselves citizens of the world?

What I am suggesting here is a form of cosmopolitanism, that speaks to the relationship between those black bodies so many observed two years ago—bodies that were rendered visible, yet invisible at the same time—and the State. This is a type of cosmopolitanism marked, in part, by a symbolic homelessness from notions of mainstream American morality, political relevancy and cultural gravitas; a cosmopolitanism that finds resonance in the “Katrina Generation”—those black bodies that were deemed as little more than “refugees” by mainstream corporate media. In this regard the evoking of the term, “refugee” duly reinforced the inhumanity and foreignness of this population. In the early moments of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the evoking of “refugees” also cast illegitimacy on those so called “refugees” who might view themselves as national subjects—citizens—deserving of relief in a moment of national crisis. The term “refugee” also cast aspirations on the desires of the “Katrina Generation” to seek citizenship in whatever locale they chose—or likely were forced—to relocate.

When Walter Mosley makes the point, as he recently did in The Nation, that “not only did our government fail to answer the call of its most vulnerable citizens during that fateful period; it still fails each and every day to rebuild, redeem and rescue those who are ignored because of their poverty, their race, their passage into old age,” he captures the tragic irony of Katrina’s aftermath: many Americans and dare I say the State, have never deemed those black bodies as legitimate citizens. In her book Black Cosmopolitanism, literary scholar Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo suggests that efforts to deny black bodies access to the resources of the State, are historically related to fears among whites that blacks might view themselves as cosmopolitan subjects.


Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Nerd Sexy: The Return of Junot Diaz

from the New York Times

Travails of an Outcast
by Michiko Kakutani

Oscar, Mr. Díaz’s homely homeboy hero, is “not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about — he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a playboy” with a million hot girls on the line. No, Oscar is a fat, self-loathing dweeb and aspiring science fiction writer, who dreams of becoming “the Dominican Tolkien.” He’s one of those kids who tremble with fear during gym class and use “a lot of huge-sounding nerd words like indefatigable and ubiquitous” when talking to kids who could barely finish high school. He moons after girls who won’t give him the time of day and enters and leaves college a sad virgin. He wears “his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light saber”; he “couldn’t have passed for Normal if he’d wanted to.”

Read the Full Review