Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 12

June 3, 2025: GraduationStudying: Crummell and Douglass’s Debate

[This pastweekend, my younger son andco-favorite-GuestPoster Kyle Railton graduated from high school. As I wipe away proud Dadtears, this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of texts and contexts for this momentousoccasion—leading up to a special weekend post on what’s next for the new grad!]

[Note: Thispost was part of a 2013 series, and I’m sharing it largely unchanged, exceptfor a few updated links. The rest of the week’s series is newly drafted, but I couldn’tresist adding this graduation-focused moment into the mix!]

On the impromptudebate, between two of the most impressive Americans, that exemplifies one ofour most complex and crucial questions.

One of my mostcommon topics in this space, including in thislate August series, has been the challenges and yet the importance ofremembering our darkest American histories. As I wrote in that week’s thirdpost, no national histories are darker nor more important for us to betterremember thanthose of slavery; that’s why, whatever its flaws or limitations, I’m onboard with QuentinTarantino’s project in his latest film, Django Unchained. Yet inarguing for that importance, I can and should recognize the fact that it’ssignificantly easier for me to say than it is for African Americans, for thosewho own darkest histories and heritages are directly tied to these nationalhorrors. For that community, it’s fair to ask whether remembering the historiesof slavery is as important as trying to move beyond them and into a morepositive future; and indeed, in the decades after emancipation and the CivilWar many prominent African American voices argued precisely for, if notforgetting slavery, at least not focusing on keeping its memories alive.

Perhaps theleader of that movement was Alexander Crummell,the priest, philosopher, professor, and political activist whose impressive 19thcentury life and career spanned abolitionism, black nationalism and thedevelopment of the Liberian state, and many other causes. In the years afterthe Civil War, Crummell came to feel that only by moving beyond the memories ofslavery could African Americans achieve success and equality; he developed thattheme with particularly clarity in “TheNeed for New Ideas and New Aims for a New Era,” his 1885 commencementaddress at Storer College, the newly founded freedmen’scollege in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. In the audience was none otherthan Frederick Douglass, a trustee of the college and one of the few men whocould equal Crummell’s longstanding prominence in the African Americancommunity, and Douglass apparently objected vocally to Crummell’s arguments.Unfortunately no specific transcript of Douglass’s comments exists, butthroughout this era Douglass certainly argued the opposite of Crummell’scritique of “fanatical anxieties upon the subject of slavery”; for Douglass,instead, that dark history “couldbe traced [in American identity] like that of a wounded man through a crowd bythe blood,” and so must be followed and engaged with.

If we approachthis debate from a scholarly perspective, as I did when I used the exchange toopen a chapter of myfirst book, it seems clear enough that Douglass was right, that it’s vitalto remember even—perhaps especially—our darkest histories. But for thoseAfrican American college graduates in the audience, just as for all AfricanAmericans in the era—and, in less immediate but still present ways, for alltheir descendents—the question was and remains far from simply academic. Obviouslythere is value, practical as well as philosophical, in remembering the worstparts of our pasts, for individuals, for communities, and for the nation. Butas Crummell noted, to dwell upon such memories can make it significantly moredifficult to live in the present and move into an even stronger future. So thekey, perhaps, is to remember without getting lost, to engage without giving into the most limiting or damaging effects. Easier said than done, of course—butboth Crummell and Douglass, and many other inspiring and influential voices,give us models for such work.

Nextgraduation connection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Graduation texts or topics you’d share?

June 2, 2025: GraduationStudying: George Moses Horton’s Poem

[This pastweekend, my younger son andco-favorite-GuestPoster Kyle Railton graduated from high school. As I wipe away proud Dadtears, this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of texts and contexts for this momentousoccasion—leading up to a special weekend post on what’s next for the new grad!]

On twoways in which biographical contexts greatly enhance a seemingly simplegraduation poem.

When readin a vacuum, George Moses Horton’s “The Graduate LeavingCollege” (1845) is a tender and sweet depiction of the final moments in acollege student’s career before he departs that educational institution which hasof course also become his community and home. A couple of word choices reallydrive home the bittersweet tone: calling this cohort of students “the pensiveseniors”; and describing their final rest before the departure “one more transientnight.” Although the poem’s last word is “joy,” suggesting that the graduate’sreturn to his childhood home is not without its pleasures as well, theoverarching tone is one of happy but nostalgic remembrance and leave-taking, ascaptured by the first stanza line “My eyes let fall a friendly tear.” Again, a tenderand sweet depiction of this experience eventually shared by most every collegestudent, and indeed by every graduate of every kind of educational institution(and, yes, by their proud papas as well).

But whenwe add in the details of Horton’s quite amazingbiography (which I first learned about when I taught him in my 19thCentury African American Literature course a few years back, and which Ican’t do full justice to here so please do check out that first hyperlinkedpiece from the University of North Carolina’s Special Collections folks), thispoem becomes significantly more interesting still. To quote a particularly relevantpassage, which follows sentences about Horton being enslaved near Chapel Hilland developing relationships with the campus and town alike: “He earned moneyfor himself through selling romantic poetry commissioned by UNC students. Thesepoems were acrostics: the first letters of the lines spell out the subject’sname. Horton composed poetry in his head and recited the poems while others transcribedthem.” “Graduate” is not an acrostic nor does it focus in any overt way on aspecific individual, and so likely wasn’t one of these directly commissionedpoems—but it of course reflects Horton’s relationship to UNC, his understandingof both the experiences of college students and of this pivotal communal moment.

Yet it alsoreflects more than that. Horton remained enslaved until the end of the CivilWar, but for the four decades before that moment consistently used his poetryto argue for his freedom; such as his first poem, “On Libertyand Slavery” (1828), which he published in the Lancaster (MA) Gazettewith the help of UNCfaculty member Caroline Lee Hentz. “Graduate” makes no mention of slavery,nor is there any direct evidence in the text that its author is an enslaved person.But when we know that he was, and know moreover that his poetry was a principalmeans through which he expressed the layers of his identity that slavery couldnot circumscribe, then I believe we have to see one of his most striking formalchoices—his use of the first-person pronouns “I” and “my” in the opening stanza—ina new light. Here at the opening of this poem, one seemingly connected to theUNC students whom Horton got to know well during his time around Chapel Hill,Horton imagines himself as a college student, and one graduating to all that’snext, and even better, in what lies beyond that experience. At once a bittersweetdetail, and a reflection of the ideals of education and graduation alike.

Nextgraduation connection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Graduation texts or topics you’d share?

May 31-June 1, 2025: May 2025 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

May5: The Works Progress Administration: EO 7034: A series for the WPA’s 90thanniversary kicks off with three significant elements of the Executive Orderthat established it.

May6: The Works Progress Administration: My Column on Federal Workers: Iwanted to make sure to include as part of this series one of my recent SaturdayEvening Post Considering History columns on federal workers duringthe Depression.

May7: The Works Progress Administration: The Arts: The series continues withthree quotes that together help sum up the creation and arc of the WPA’s vitalartistic & cultural programs.

May8: The Works Progress Administration: Iconic Individuals: Three iconic& inspiring individuals linked to the WPA, as the series labors on.

May9: The Works Progress Administration: Wartime Evolutions: The seriesconcludes with two distinct but interconnected ways the WPA evolved duringWWII, and what we can do with the combination.

May10-11: A Works Progress Administration for the 21st Century:Unlikely as the idea is in May 2025, a special follow-up post making the casefor a new WPA!

May12: Spring Semester Reflections: Major American Authors of the 20thCentury: For this year’s Spring semester reflections series, I paid tributeto my late Dad’s presence in my courses, starting with a Langston Hughes poem Itaught the day after he passed.

May13: Spring Semester Reflections: American Literature II: I also taught Gatsbythe day after Dad passed, so shared how a debate I had with him helped shapemy teaching.

May14: Spring Semester Reflections: First-Year Writing II: The seriescontinues with how I got to feature my Dad’s work in my FYW courses.

May15: Spring Semester Reflections: Graduate Research Methods: My Dad’s focuson psychoanalytical theory isn’t my own, but I found a way to include it in myGrad course nonetheless.

May16: Spring Semester Reflections: Student Tributes to Dad: The seriesconcludes with a handful of moving tributes to my Dad as a teacher from formerstudents.

May17-18: What’s Next: And a weekend follow-up post highlighting three thingsI’m looking forward to in the Fall semester!

May19: Malcolm X’s 100th: The Autobiography: For Malcolm Little’s100th birthday, a series on cultural representations of Malcolm kicksoff the complicated layers to his own text.

May20: Malcolm X’s 100th: An Opera: The series continues with twodistinct and equally important ways to contextualize the opera X (1986).

May21: Malcolm X’s 100th: Lee’s Film: Three interesting contextsfor Spike Lee’s epic 1992 biopic, as the series marches on.

May22: Malcolm X’s 100th: A Cameo in Selma: Malcolm isn’t a mainfocus of Ava DuVernay’s film, but his powerful scene reflects the film’s overallgoals.

May23: Malcolm X’s 100th: One Night in Miami: The series concludeswith a recent film adaptation that embodies the important goal of humanizingour heroes.

May24-25: Malcolm X’s 100th: Malcolm in 2025: A special weekendfollow-up post highlighting three lessons we can learn from Malcolm in 2025!

May26: 2020s Blockbusters: Top Gun: Maverick: A Memorial Day series on recentsummer blockbusters kicks off with a problem & a possibility with ourcultural moment of ubiquitous sequels.

May27: 2020s Blockbusters: Inside Out 2: The series continues with twodistinct ways to contextualize the highest-grossing film of 2024.

May28: 2020s Blockbusters: Jurassic World: What’s not new in the recent JurassicPark films and what is, as the series explodes on.

May29: 2020s Blockbusters: Barbie: What I liked a lot about the recent mega-blockbuster,and what I loved.

May30: 2020s Blockbusters: Live Action Disney: The series and month concludewith three ways to explain the large and growing corpus of live-action remakesof animated films.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topicsyou’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!

May 30, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Live Action Disney

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On threeways to explain the large and growing corpus of live-actionremakes of animated films (besides, y’know, the oodles and oodles ofmoney they make).

1)     Nostalgia: I began this week’s series with apost on sequels/reboots/new entries in franchises and nostalgia, and it seemsentirely clear to me that that widely shared and very human emotion is also aprimary motivation for remaking beloved animated films, often in ways that hewquite closely to the original despite the shift to live-action. Not sure I needto say too much more about this item than that!

2)     Disney and IPs: I don’t want to sound entirelylike one of those old dudes yelling at the clouds about this, so let me start bysaying that I’ve enjoyed a number of the Disney-funded films and TV shows inboth the Star Wars and Marvel Universes. There’s no necessary reason whyworks that are part of existing intellectual properties can’t also be enjoyableand engaging and even interesting cultural texts, after all. But nonetheless,the Mouse’s trend of squeezing every last drop out of every IP they own is, atthe very least, exhausting, and I don’t think we can minimize that goal when weconsider these remakes of prior Disney projects.

3)     Artistic Vision: Tim Burton. Kenneth Branagh.Jon Favreau. Bill Condon. Marc Forster. Guy Ritchie. Robert Zemeckis. Barry Jenkins.Those are just some of the talented directors who have made live-action Disneyremakes over the last couple decades. I’m sure they were well-compensated fortheir efforts, and I’m also sure that none of them would list the Disney remakeat the top of their career achievements. But that doesn’t mean that they didn’tbring their own artistic vision to the projects, and make them significantlymore unique than they might otherwise have been. If we’re going to have suchmovies—and it seems clear that we’re going to—they might as well be made bytalented folks seeking to do their own thing while still (of course) operatingwithin the project’s parameters. Which, ultimately, describes the ideal summerblockbuster, no?

May Recapthis weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 29, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Barbie

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On what Iliked a lot about the recent mega-blockbuster, and what I loved.

In lieu ofa first paragraph here, I’m going to recommend that y’all check out anexcellent August2024 podcast episode, of Liam Heffernan’s America: AHistory podcast and featuring guests Jon Mitchell and Vaughn Joy, on boththe 2023 Barbie film and all thingsBarbie. Take a listen if you get a chance, and then come on back (orstay here first, whatever works for ya) for my own thoughts on the film.

There’s alot I enjoyed about Barbie, which made me laugh out loud a number oftimes (no easy feat, as folks who know me can attest) and ultimately moved medeeply. The most moving element is the one I’ll dive into in the finalparagraph, so for this one I’ll talk about a corollary to the humor—just howconsistently and thoughtfully the film took me by surprise. I don’t know what Inecessarily expected from a movie about the world of Barbie dolls, but I knowfor sure that to my mind virtually nothing in this film was predictable—and yetas I watched it pretty much every one of those unexpected elements also feltnatural, made sense within the world and story that was being created and portrayed.I think that’s really a miracle when we’re talking about a film based on a toy,which is what made it so silly when a ton of other toy-basedmovies were greenlit (or at least considered) in the aftermath of Barbie’smega-success. Maybe the PollyPocket movie will be just as thoughtful and unique and effective, but boyhowdy do I doubt it.

Interestinglyenough, the thing I loved about Barbie, and the element that moved medeeply, was in fact directly connected to the fact that this was a filminspired by a toy. Nearly 13 years ago I bloggedabout toys targeted at girls, and while I was focused there on new toyslike the girl-centric Legos, the truth is that dolls have been girl-centeredtoys forcenturies at least. And at least in American history, no doll has been moresuccessful and enduring than Barbie, making this particular toy an easy andunderstandable target for those who want to critique the gendering of toys andchildhood. That’s a perspective that the film certainly shares at times, butultimately it moves in a very different direction, considering how both Barbieand the film’s human characters (especially the mother-daughterduo at the story’s center) have to navigate these issues of gendered expectations,ideals, limits, and more. That led up to one of my favorite movie moments in along time, Barbie’s conversationwith her creator Ruth Handler, which, to round off this post, was bothentirely unexpected and profoundly moving.

Lastblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 28, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Jurassic World

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On what’snot new in the recent Jurassic Parksequels/reboots/whateverwecallthemnow, and what is.

I bloggedabout the original Jurassic Park (1993) almost exactly a decade ago,as part of a 2015 Memorial Day BlockbusterStudying series. This post willdefinitely be in conversation with that one, so I’d ask you to check it out ifyou would and then come on back for today’s thoughts.

Welcomeback! Full disclosure: I haven’t seen the whole of any of the newer JurassicPark films, which kicked off with 2015’s mega-hit summerblockbuster Jurassic World and has continued through JurassicWorld: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic World Dominion (2022), andthe forthcoming Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). But I have seen lots ofclips and have read a lot about them, and it seems clear to me that they are continuingthe trend on which I focused in that 2015 post: drastically simplifying thecomplicated scientific ideas and multilayered characters that Michael Crichton’soriginal novel did feature, in favor of much more cartoonish heroes andvillains, lots of dino action, clever deaths, and thelike. I have little doubt that if the films did more of the former and less of thelatter, they not only wouldn’t be the blockbusters they are, but probablywouldn’t exist because the first one wouldn’t have been the success it waseither. But if we’re going to claim that we’re investigating ethical and moralquestions around science (to quote a wise man, “Yourscientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stopto think if they should”), I’d prefer that we do so with a bit morethoughtfulness than these films display.

Spoileralert: this isn’t going to be one of those final paragraphs where I make thecase for a radical re-viewing of my post’s topic. But there is one new elementto Jurassic World (and, I believe, its sequels) that I find moreinteresting: Chris Pratt’s characterOwen Grady, an ethnologist who has learned how to train and work with dinosaurs(specifically velociraptors, the franchise’s consistent breakout dinostars).That’s a pretty ludicrous concept, which of course makes it totally appropriatefor a series that has depended on such at every step. But does it also representsomething distinct for the series, it seems to be: an emphasis on dinos ascharacters in their own right, and even potentially heroic ones, rather than achallenge that our heroic characters must overcome (they’re not necessarilyvillains in the earlier films, a title reserved for the human bad guys, but Ithink “challenge” is an accurate term). If we’re gonna keep making blockbusterdinosaur films, reframing them as more clearly about the dinosaurs seems like avery good call.

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 27, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Inside Out 2

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On twodistinct ways to contextualize the highest-grossing filmof 2024.

First ofall, there’s absolutely nothing surprising about the fact that Inside Out 2was 2024’s top-grossing film. As the above hyperlinked list illustrates, fiveof the year’s top ten films were animated, and a sixth (Mufasa: The LionKing) could certainly be defined as such as well (and at least represents asequel to an animated film; well, a prequel, but you know what I mean!). Moreover,the other four of the five top-grossing Pixar filmsof all time were likewise sequels, including Incredibles 2, FindingDory, and the third and fourth installments in the Toy Storyfranchise. While animated films might not fit our stereotypical definition of asummer blockbuster (at least not as well as did yesterday’s subject Top Gun:Maverick, for example), in truth there’s no surer thing in Hollywood thandrawing kids to the movies over the summer, and of course most such kidaudience members will require at least one adult ticket purchase to accompanythem. Moreover, while many films over the last few years have not made it totheaters at all, it seems to me that big-budget animated films are still likelyto have at least some form of theatrical run, making it even more probable thanever that such films will occupy prominent places in the roster of box-office blockbusters.

With allthose caveats aside, however, it’s still interesting to me that Inside Out 2specifically tops both of these lists (ie, is both 2024’s and Pixar’s highest-grossingfilm), and I think we can contextualize that striking success in a couple distinctways. I haven’t seen the film, but from what I can tell it is very much inconversation with a longstanding and consistently popular film genre: highschool dramedies, and especially high school dramedies focused on teenage girls’experiences. That is, by aging the original Inside Out’s protagonist RileyAndersen up two years and making her an incoming high school student in the sequel,directorKelsey Mann and her co-screenwriters Meg LeFauveand Dave Holstein made a very smart choice, taking what had been more of a children’sfilm initially and shifting it into that teen/high school setting and genre. Tocite just one example (of a film celebrating its 30th anniversarythis summer, which doesn’t make me feel ancient or anything), Clueless (1995)was one of the most unexpected summerblockbusters of the 1990s, raking in more than $10 million its openingweekend to put it just behind the far more conventional summer film Apollo 13in that weekend’s box office. Teenagers might be an even more reliable summeraudience than young kids, as they can get themselves to the movies—and these consistentteen hits indicate as much.

It wouldbe wrong to suggest that such teen hits always or only focus on femaleprotagonists—StandBy Me (1986) opened in August, to name just one male-centered teenblockbuster. But I do believe that a significant majority of these summer successesare more focused on female characters and thus (to be reductive about it I know)on appealing to women as a primary audience—and in the case of Inside Out 2,while of course its female protagonist was an existing character to whom thesequel understandably returned, I think it missed an opportunity to add in a teenageboy as (for example) a second protagonist with his own set of animatedemotions. I fully understand how fraught that idea might be in execution (asthe Dad of two still-teenage sons, believe me I fully understand it), but Iwould also note (as manyothers have as well) that one of the central stories of the last few yearshas been a two-part failureto engage with teenage boys’ emotional lives: a failure of our society as awhole to do so; and a concurrent failure of teenage boys to find healthyoutlets for doing so, leading far too many of them to the likes of JordanPeterson and Joe Rogan et al. Obviously those are issues way beyond any onefilm or even the medium as a whole—but if there’s gonna be an Inside Out 3,I’d love for it to take a stab at the complicated and crucial question of youngmen’s emotional lives.

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 26, 2025: 2020s Blockbusters: Top Gun: Maverick

[Moviegoinghas unquestionably changed a great deal in recent years, but there is still aplace for the summer blockbuster, and I believe there always will be. So forthe unofficial kickoff of another summer season, I wanted to AmericanStudy ahandful of recent such blockbusters!]

On a problemand a possibility with our cultural moment of ubiquitous sequels.

A good bitof the frame for today’s post is parallel to what I wrote in this priorpost about The Force Awakens(2015), nostalgia, and multi-generational storytelling. So if you don’t mindchecking out that post and then coming back here, I’d appreciate it!

Welcomeback! I haven’t yet had a chance to see one of the biggestblockbuster films of recent years, Top Gun: Maverick, and I don’t know that I will as I believe theoriginal Top Gun (1986) is one of theworst blockbuster films ever made. That’s a personal opinion, ofcourse (although as that hyperlinked article reflects, I’m not alone in holdingit), but I do think it illustrates a larger problem with the genuinely ubiquitouspresence of sequels, prequels, reboots, and other uses of existingintellectual properties in our current pop culture zeitgeist. The more thiskind of cultural product dominates the landscape, the more of theseexisting/prior works filmmakers and creators will have to return to—and therequite simply aren’t that many 1980s films (or works from any decade/moment)that have enough going on to make a sequel or reboot worthwhile or meaningful. Idon’t think it’s my Star Wars fandomalone that distinguishes that film franchise, and its truly imaginativeand culture-changing storytelling across so many decades and so manydifferent media (into all of which a sequel like The Force Awakens slotted thoughtfully, as I argued in that priorpost), from a simplistic and vapid individual blockbuster film like Top Gun.

So no, Idon’t think we needed another Top Gunfilm. But from what I can tell (and again, haven’t seen it, so as always Iwelcome responses and challenges in comments!), Maverick does do one really interesting thing that is a positivepossibility when it comes to these ubiquitous sequels (and that does link it toForce Awakens and the entire recent Star Wars trilogy): it actively thinksabout time. That is, despite star TomCruise’s seeming agelessness, he is of course three and a half decadesolder than he was in the original film, and thus his character Pete “Maverick”Mitchell is likewise. Much like the smash hit TV show Cobra Kai (which Ialso haven’t seen, outside of clips here and there, but when does that stop anAmericanStudier?!), Maverick is thusable to not just continue the original story, but to reflect actively on thepassage of time, on themes of continuity and change, on the relationships(limiting and enriching alike) between the past and the present. Maybe I’mbiased because those are the kinds of questions that define every part of mywork and career, but I believe we all can benefit from asking them, of our popculture stories and our own identities and everything in between. If even sillyblockbusters can help us do so, then count me in!

Nextblockbuster tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Summer blockbusters, recent or otherwise, you’d analyze?

May 24-25, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: Malcolm in 2025

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to this special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm herein 2025!]

On threeof the many lessons from Malcolm X’s life and work worth learning from in ourown moment.

1)     Cross-Cultural Connections: I’ve written a fewtimes in this space (andelsewhere) about YuriKochiyama, the Japanese American activist who became so close to Malcolmthat she was famouslyphotographed cradling his head just after his February 1965 assassination. Kochiyama’sactivisms were consistently defined by cross-cultural connections, whether tothe Civil Rights Movement or Puerto Rican independence fighters or illegallyimprisoned Muslim Americans after 9/11. But her relationship with Malcolm Xlikewise reminds us that he too forged such cross-cultural connections, thathis work was undertaken in conversation and collaboration with others doing thework (despite the narrative of him as a separatist, which does reflect some ofhis views but is far from sufficient to understanding him). Now more than ever,we must all hang together, and I value all reminders of such solidarity fromacross our histories.

2)     Antisemitism: None of us are perfectly able toembody such solidarity, though, and in one key area Malcolm fell short, andindeed too often expressed the divisions and discriminations that are theopposite of solidarity. Due in part to his dozen years as a leader of theradical Nationof Islam (NOI), and in part to what seem to have been his personalprejudices, Malcolm consistently voiced and advocated for antisemitic ideas andnarratives, including not just through statements like“In America, Jews sap the very life-blood of the so-called Negroes to maintainthe state of Israel” but also throughdistributing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to NOI members. In2025 America accusations of antisemitism are too often used as anexcuse for persecution of other endangered individuals; but that incrediblyfrustrating trend can’t allow us to dismiss the genuine presenceof antisemitic views and narratives in our moment and society, including ifnot especially among communities that should be allies of those facing suchhate.

3)     Human Heroism: Remembering that most frustratingside of Malcolm’s views helps us do what I argued throughout this week’s seriescultural works can also do: see such historical figures as human, with all thelayers (from the best to the worst of us) that that implies. Obviously thatdoesn’t excuse the worst, nor mean that we have to simply accept it withoutcritique or challenge; but at the same time, I’ve never encountered ahistorical figure who didn’t have layers that needed such critique andchallenge, and so we can and must engage them while still finding and focusingon figures whose best can inspire our own best. This concept of human heroismfeels to me like a parallel to others on which I’ve focused in recent years,from critical patriotism to critical optimism. I need to keep thinking aboutit, but I believe it has real value, and certainly can help us see a figurelike Malcolm X as a human hero.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?

May 23, 2025: Malcolm X’s 100th: One Night in Miami

[May 19th marks the100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So thisweek I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in2025!]

I’m goingto keep this post relatively short, as I haven’t yet had a chance to watchRegina King’s 2020film adaptation of KempPowers’s 2013 stage play OneNight in Miami. I hope to do so soon, as it looks like a fascinatingway to reimagine all four of its central historical figures as well as contextsrelated to race in America, the 1960s, celebrity and cultural impact, and more.But what I especially want to highlight here is something that I discussed abit in yesterday’s post on Selma but that it seems like this filmdevelops even further: the reminder that any historical figure, including ifnot especially one as individually iconic as Malcolm X, existed in socialcommunities. More exactly, One Night in Miami seeks to examine thefriendships between its four focal figures, and thus when it comes to Malcolmto consider how such relationships might have shaped as well as been shaped byhis personal, political, religious, activist, etc. interests and actions. Itcan be very hard with such icons to remember and engage with those human sidesof their lives and identities—but I believe cultural works are uniquelypositioned to help us do so, and I look forward to checking out this unique andcompelling such cultural work very soon.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you’d highlight?