The Early Days of Blackness and Public Television

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR: Black & Public
by Mark Anthony Neal

In celebration of Black History Month, Thirteen/WNET in New York recently launched the on-line project, Broadcasting While Black. The flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) the efforts by Thirteen/WNET could easily be read as another seasonal gimmick aimed at generating more financial support for public broadcasting among Black Americans--and such a reading wouldn't be wrong. But I'd like to suggest that something more substantial is also at play, captured in part by the comments of Thirteen/WNET on-line editor Robin Edgerton who writes, that while mainstream Black History Month programming typically focuses on the history of racial conflict and oppression ("Black History Month then becomes, in part, White History Month"), "this online project emphasizes identity--African-Americans who took control of media moving their debates and art forward--and at the same time developing a broader place and stronger voice."

Broadcasting While Black offers a compelling snapshot of the heady days of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements when the desire for many factions within Black America to tell their story came to fruition via public affairs broadcasting on stations such as WNET in New York City, WGBH in Boston and WTTW in Chicago. Among the signature shows produced in the late 1960s were Black Journal (Tony Brown's Journal), Soul!, and Say Brother (Basic Black), which is the longest running program of its type in the country. Many of these programs were informed by a distinctly local perspective, as was the case with Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, which was produced by current WNET-producer Charles Hobson.

Read the Full Essay HERE

Chatting Up Chris & Rihanna...Again

from WNYC's Soundcheck

Pop Violence
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The lives and lyrics of pop music are filled with domestic violence. The latest chapter: an alleged assault involving pop stars Rihanna and Chris Brown. Today we discuss the history of abuse in pop recordings -- and in real life. We're joined by Elizabeth Mendez Berry, a music journalist who has written about domestic violence in the hip-hop industry, and Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African-American studies at Duke University and author of the blog NewBlackMan.

Soundcheck blog: John Schaefer on Chris Brown and Rihanna

Listen HERE

NOLA Lovesong

from The Root.com

With the help of its Oscar nod, the Katrina doc Trouble the Water has brazenly summoned the voices and spirits of those-who by force or choice-have not returned since the hurricane.

***

Katrina's Second Line
by Mark Anthony Neal

...Trouble the Water serves as tribute to those who were lost in the storm. In that way, the film serves as a kind of “second line” performance—the parade of dancing, shuffling bodies that occurs, often after a funeral. According to musician Michael White, “at the time of their origin, these parades offered the black community an euphoric transformation into a temporary world characterized by free open participation and self expression through sound, movement and symbolic visual statements.”

White adds that in the moment, the second line obliterates social class and status. “...one could be or become things not generally open to blacks in the normal world: competitive, victorious, defiant, equal, unique, hostile, humorous, aloof, beautiful, brilliant, wild, sensual, and even majestic.”

Indeed, Trouble the Water serves as a triumphant and critical reminder to a nation that would rather ignore the dead bodies that were sacrificed and cultural gifts that New Orleans gave our country. And that in itself is troubling.

Read the Full Essay HERE

A Black Male Feminist’s Guide to Anti-Misogynist Black Politics

special to NewBlackMan from CanWeBeFrank

A Black Male Feminist’s Guide to Anti-Misogynist Black Politics
(AKA: Why We Can’t Support Chris Brown)
by Frank Leon Roberts

Plain, Conversational Responses to Misogyny:

Misogynist Myth 1:
“Chris Brown is a good kid. Something must have really pushed him over the edge. He does not deserve to be dragged through the mud like this. Black men are always being represented as extra-sexist, which isn’t fair. Overall Chris Brown is great role model for black men. ”

Whenever we dare to critique black male sexism or misogyny, we are immediately told that such critiques are "wrong" because they run the risk of representing black men in a "negative" light. The time has come to move beyond these sort of Clarence Thomas politics. When black men---regardless of their class, sexual orientation, or profession----abuse a woman, it is intolerable, unacceptable, and must be aggressively denounced. Period.

We know this story all too well. When Clarence did it, it was “Anita’s fault.” When O.J. did it, it was “white people’s fault.” When R. Kelly “did it” it was those “jealous hoes’ fault.”

When will be allowed to denounce black male misogyny without fear of losing our Blackness membership card?

Misogynist Myth 2:
Rihanna must have “Provoked” It. She “asked” for it.

Sometimes I wonder how black people would respond if white people suddenly started offering “justifications” for our antebellum, slave ass-whippings. I can just imagine it now, “Well Kunte actually deserved that bloody lash because I told his sneaky ass to stop stepping out of line in the cotton field!”

I’m being dangerously facetious here, but my point should be well taken. There is no such thing as a “justification” for an act of sexist violence. In the moment that a man’s hands come down upon a woman’s body, they are immediately rooted (even if inadvertently) to a longer history of sexism and misogyny; to a history which has systematically preconditioned us to believe that physical violence is both a sane and natural way to put a woman “in her place.”

If we are to move beyond the cults of sexism and misogyny that run rampant in many black romantic relationships, then we must free ourselves from the egregiously problematic notion that casual male violence against women is ever “justified.” Particularly when it involves a 6’2, 180 pound man against a 5’8, 120 pound (a size “2”) woman.

Misogynist Myth #3:
Well, both of them were in the wrong. Why are we focusing exclusively on Chris Brown’s wrong-doing? Clearly this man needs help. Should’nt we be trying to support Chris Brown and make sure that he gets the help that he needs?

Any politics of social justice that does not begin with a concern, first and foremost for those MOST disadvantaged (i.e. the BATTERED rather than the BATTERER; the ABUSED rather than the ABUSER; the VICTIM of Violence rather than simply the Perpetrator of it) is misguided, and surely doomed for failure. I continue to believe in the utility of a "bottom's up" approach to social justice.

Therefore, we should refuse to let our "concern" for Chris Brown's "needs" silence our outrage, disgust, and/or disapproval of his misogyny.

Can I get a womanist, feminist Amen? A Witness?

***

Frank Leon Roberts is a Scholar-Critic. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at New York University, where he specializes in African American and African Diaspora cultural studies. He graduated from NYU in 2004 with a B.A. in African American Studies and in English and American Literature where his mentor was historian E. Frances White. For Spring 2009, he is teaching in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU (Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.)

Celebrating the Life and Work of Winston Napier

Evolutionary Momentum in African American Studies:

Legacy and Future Directions

Clark University (Worcester, MA), Dana Commons 2^nd floor

Friday, February 27

4:30 Registration Opens

5:00-6:00 Welcome Reception

“Paul Buono Jazz Trio”

6:15-7:15 Buffet Supper

7:30-8:45 Presentations by Students of Professor Winston Napier

William Cobb (Clark BA ‘08):

Mark Duhaime (Clark Senior ‘09):

Pamela Taylor (Clark BA ‘08):

Tracy Walsh (Clark BA ‘07):

Respondent: Magdalena Rabidou (Clark BA ‘08)

Saturday, February 28

9:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:15 Welcome

9:30-10:45 Transnational Influences of African American Culture

§ Barry Gaspar (Duke University): “Atlantic Subjects: Countering Enslavement in the Early 1700s”

§ Allison Blakely (Boston University): “The Influence of Afro-America on Emerging Afro-Europe”

§ R. Victoria Arana (Howard University): “Winston Napier’s Bridge ‘across the Pond’: Theorizing Black British Authority”

11:00-12:00 Keynote Address

§ Karla FC Holloway (Duke University): "Home Invasions--A Narrative Ethic of Race and Privacy"

12:00-1:30 Conference Luncheon

1:45-3:00 Rethinking Black Aesthetics

§ Ousmane Power-Greene (Clark University): “The Disorder of Things: The Literary Criticism and Theory of Hubert H. Harrison”

§ Jarrett Brown (Bowdoin College): “The Maroon Intellectual: Reading Claude McKay’s Correspondences”

§ Carol Bailey (Amherst College): “Centering the Back-ups: Revisiting the Performative in Kate Rushin's Poetry"

§ James Smethurst (University of Massachusetts-Amherst): “Live a Change: The Legacy of Black Arts in the Age of Obama”

3:15-4:30 Mediating Black Identities: Newspapers, Photography, Literary

Magazines, and More

§ Amritjit Singh (Ohio University): “’Elephant’s Dance’: Wallace Thurman the Instigator and Public Intellectual of the Harlem Renaissance”

§ Daniel Scott, III (Rhode Island College): “Image and Community in the Pages of Atlanta Daily World”

§ Kate Capshaw Smith (University of Connecticut-Storrs): “Photography, Civil Rights, and African American Childhood”

§ Ayesha Hardison (Ohio University): “Reading and Redefining Womanhood in Maud Martha”

4:30-5:30 “These—Are—the "Breaks”: A Roundtable Discussion on

Teaching the Post-Soul Aesthetic

§ Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University)

§ Crystal Anderson (Elon University)

§ Bert Ashe (University of Richmond)

Download the conference registration form here, or contact Shirley Riopel Nelson at 508.793.7142 or napierconference@clarku.edu; conference fee $25 ($5 for students).

Sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the Department of English

Remembering Linda Jones

from WUNC's The State of Things

Aretha's Favorite Artist
Thursday February 19, 2009

In 1967, singer Linda Jones was making a name for herself with a soulful tune called "Hypnotized." She died just five years later at the age of 27, but not before she made great impressions on other female singers of the day, including Aretha Franklin. Inspired by her story, Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke professor of African-American studies, wrote an essay on Linda Jones called "Bodies In Pain" from the collection The Best African-American Essays, 2009. He joins Frank Stasio in the studio to talk about the greatest singer you've never heard of.

Listen HERE

Left of Black: Combating Racist Expression in Post-Race Society

from NewsOne.com

OPINION: Hit Cartoon Publisher In The Wallet
By Mark Anthony Neal
February 19, 2009

For anyone familiar with the regular editorial content of the New York Post, the cartoon correlating the recent killing of a chimpanzee with President Barack Obama and his stimulus package is not a surprise.

Despite the paper’s assertion that the cartoon was a parody of Washington insider politics and had little to do with President Obama’s identity as an African-American, there’s simply too much historical evidence in popular culture and media that establishes that primates have long been stand-in imagery for how some whites might view African-Americans, specifically Black men. Just last year, controversy erupted over the cover of American Vogue, which featured a picture of Lebron James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen that seemed to allude to the film “King Kong”. For the New York Post to deny the legitimacy of such interpretations is at best disingenuous and at worst arrogant. In this regard, the running of the cartoon and editorial defense of it, likely says more about the integrity—or lack of—of the New York Post than anything else.

Nevertheless this cartoon highlights the regular attempt to undermine the validity Obama’s presidency within the realm of popular media and culture. The New York Post is of course owned by Rupert Murdoch’s global conglomerate News Corporation, so it is important not to see the “chimpanzee cartoon” as separate and distinct from Fox News contributor’s Juan Williams’ delusional rants about Michele Obama’s presumed black radical political views. Neither should the neo-conservative views of the Wall Street Journal, another News Corporation company, be dismissed as unrelated, despite the fact that the commentary on Fox News or the New York Post is decidedly more vulgar in its presentation. The interconnectedness of these media entities underscores how many communities must become more sophisticated in response to racist, sexist or homophobic expression in the media.

Read Full Essay @

Bakari Kitwana on the New York Post Cartoon

from NewsOne.com

OPINION: The Post’s Post-Racial Politics
By Bakari Kitwana
February 20, 2009

Yesterday, as I prepared for the kick-off to the national discussion tour focused on the theme “Is America Really Post-Racial?” which will convene in ten US cities this spring, I received emails from around the country commenting on The New York Post cartoon that depicts a chimpanzee being shot by two white police officers. The cartoon prominently displays one of the officers saying, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

The commentary comes on the heels of the historic election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president. During the campaign, Obama had been likened to the famed children’s book protagonist and monkey, “Curious George,” and numerous Americans openly expressing their discontent with the very idea of the US president for the first time not being a white male.

Likewise, the recurring backdrop to the historic campaign with an African American as frontrunner was the need for secret service protection for Obama due to the overwhelming number of death threats and the subsequent concern that some nut case might attempt to bring him harm-an idea reiterated by at least one attempted plan in Colorado to make good on the threats during the Democratic National Convention.

One of the routines that have long played out in American electoral politics when it comes to race is politics by suggestion and association. Willie Horton ads, Bill Clinton’s remark about Sister Souljah in 1992, the racially-charged commentary at McCain-Palin rallies during the primaries-all were designed with the intent that Americans would make an emotional connection to previously held ideas about race, racial cues if you will. This cartoon is no different.

Media and political elites intent on playing the game of American’s old racial politics have in the last several decades become quite adept at two primary tried and tested strategies: feigning innocent when they get called on their racist behavior; and when that doesn’t work, defending racist ploys by claiming those offended should get over their sensitivities and toughen their skin.

While it is true that a pet chimpanzee was shot days ago in Stamford, Connecticut that chimpanzee had absolutely nothing to do with the economic stimulus bill. President Barack Obama, by contrast, has been associated with the economic stimulus package from nearly day one of his administration.

So it is nearly impossible to not make some association between the Sean Delonas cartoon and recent current events. And it was painfully obvious to see those on the wrong side of the issue do this usual dance.

The good news is that those strategies have run their course. And like other divide and conquer approaches, such tactics, I believe, will continue fall flat in a post civil rights politics environment.

Read the Full Essay @

NPR: Is the NAACP Still Relevant?

from NPR's Talk of the Nation

Is The NAACP Still Relevant?

Talk of the Nation, February 16, 2009 · While the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, better known as the NAACP, helped end lynching and fought segregation and discrimination, some people are questioning its relevancy on its 100th anniversary. With Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP and Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African & African-American Studies at Duke University.

Listen HERE

Rhythm and Beatdown?

from Vibe.com

Critical Noir
Rhythm and Beatdown?: Some Thoughts on Domestic Violence
by Mark Anthony Neal

The recent accusations, regarding Chris Brown's alleged attack on girlfriend and fellow R&B and Pop star Rihanna Fenty, has brought the issue of domestic abuse to the forefront, particularly in black communities. In far too many black communities, the choice has been to treat issues of domestic abuse and sexual abuse with hushed tunes, presuming that such issues are best handled within the privacy of the home. But like the R. Kelly child pornography case, the Chris Brown/Rihanna drama, puts these issues on the front page and demands that our communities come to terms with the prevalence domestic violence in our lives.

According to the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community at the University of Minnesota, Black women reported more than 30% more cases of intimate partner violence than their White peers. And while domestic violence also occurs to men, Black women are 2.5 times more likely to be victims of domestic violence than men. It goes without saying, that a significant number of incidents go unreported, which likely would have been the case if witnesses to the purported dispute between Brown and Renty had not intervened by calling law enforcement officers. In cases of domestic violence such interventions are crucial, because Black Women are far more likely to be victims of homicides related to intimate partner violence. As a community, Black Americans account for 33% of such homicides with Black women specifically accounting for 22% of these cases (though they make up only 8% of the national population) and 42% percent of all female homicides related to domestic violence. These numbers suggest a national crisis existed, well before fans speculated about the absences of Brown and Renty at the recent Grammy Awards.

Brown is viewed as a clean-cut alternative to much of what passes as black urban youth culture and he and Renty were viewed as ideal role models for the hip-hop generation. That Brown might be guilty of intimate partner abuse is a shock to those who see his image as out of sync with such behavior. Audiences and fans would more readily assume that such behavior would occur at the hands of mainstream rap artists, whose lyrics gratuitously trade in metaphors of violence against women. To the contrary, some of the most well known Black artists have been accused of violence against women and incorporated such violence into some of their music.


Read the Full Essay HERE

RAP SESSIONS, Back in Business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOUR ON POST-RACISM IN AMERICA
ANSWERS PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CALL FOR NATIONWIDE DISCUSSION

February 12, 2009 (Los Angeles, CA)-Critically-acclaimed author and hip-hop activist Bakari Kitwana partners with the Harvard University Law School-based think tank The Jamestown Project to announce a national tour that seeks to answer the question, "Is America Really Post-Racial?"

Rap Sessions presents a diverse panel of leading artists, scholars and activists to engage youth and community leaders in candid, compelling conversations about the ways that race and democracy are being redefined in our national culture. Targeting the hip-hop generation that helped build early support for America's first Black president, these interactive townhall meetings debate the extent to which young Americans have opened a new chapter in American race relations.

"Two-thirds of young voters 18-29 voted for Barack Obama, who called for national discussions on race during the 2008 presidential campaign," notes Kitwana. "This is the same generation that legitimized the n-word in mainstream pop culture and everyday use. The goal of these discussions is to help the nation, and young people in particular, think through these complexities."

Considering recent census figures that suggest minorities will be the majority by midcentury, the movement in party politics to appeal across race like the recen t selection of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who is African American, and heady debates about the new racial politics from the ivory tower to the street corner, Kitwana added: "We now have two generations of Americans who have lived their entire lives in the post-segregation era. For some racial division is a thing of the past, for others having a mixed race president on it's own doesn't bridge the racial divide."

Beginning in February 2009, Rap Sessions' community dialogues will convene in ten cities across the United States. Panelists include: Tricia Rose (Brown University Africana Studies professor and author of four books including The Hip-Hop Wars); Jabari Asim (Editor of The NAACP magazine, The Crisis, and author of What Obama Means), Stephanie Robinson, Esq. (president and CEO of The Jamestown Project and author of Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise), MC Serch (host of VH-1 reality shows The White Rapper Show and Miss Rap Supreme) and activist Lisa Fager-Bediako (founder and president of Industry Ears, Inc.).

Kitwana, the moderator of these discussions, is co-founder of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention. His book The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture has been adopted as a coursebook at over 100 colleges and universities across the country. The 2007-2008 Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, Kitwana has been ackn owledged as an expert on youth culture and hip-hop politics by CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BET and other leading news outlets. His writings have appeared in the Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, and the Boston Globe. Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama Era is his most recent book.

The Jamestown Project is a diverse action-oriented think tank of new leaders who reach across boundaries and generations to make democracy real. The Jamestown Project consists of scholars, activists, and communities who use five broad strategies to achieve its mission: generating new ideas; promoting meaningful public conversations and engagement; cultivating new leaders; formulating political strategy and public policy; and using cutting-edge communications techniques that reach a broad public. For more information, go to www.jamestownproject.org


For more information about Rap Sessions, log onto: www.rapsessions.org.


Press Contact: Nicole Balin, Ballin PR, 323-651-1580, email at: nik@ballinpr.com.

February
18th; Little Rock, AR
23rd; Knoxville, TN

March
13th; Boston, MA
24th; Cleveland, OH
31st; Anchorage, AK

April
10th; Auburn, AL
15th; Champaign, IL
16th Chicago, IL
17th; Minneapolis, MN
22nd; Los Angeles, CA