Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 511

The Mountaintop Ain't Flat: Regina Bradley on Hip-Hop and The American South

'With a splash of humor, scholar Regina Bradley explores how hip hop is used as a tool of reckoning in the contemporary Black American South. Regina N. Bradley, the 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellow at Harvard University, is an assistant professor of African American Literature at Armstrong State University. Her work focuses on the stories and experiences of black folks in the American South after the Civil Rights Movement.' -- TEDx Talks

Larry Wilmore--Black on The Air: The N-Word + Detecting Bullshit + Charlamagne Tha God on ‘Black Privilege’

'Larry Wilmore discusses Seinfeld’s awkward moment with Kesha on the red carpet, the Bill Cosby trial, his personal formula for detecting bullshit, and Bill Maher’s recent use of the word "nigger." Later, Wilmore  talks to Charlamagne tha God about growing up in rural South Carolina and how it shaped his worldview.' 

Black Detroit: How African Americans Shape the Motor City

'The city of Detroit is growing again, but it's more of a gradual growth these days. It's quite a contrast from the budding days of Motor City, when millions of African Americans fled to escape Jim Crow restrictions in the South. Author and historian Herb Boyd remembers moving to Detroit in the 1940s during The Great Migration, right before the riots of 1943. In the following years, he observed and participated in Detroit's development, and its growth into a center of a American racial politics, industrial innovation, and cultural center that grew out of Motown. Among many things at the time, Detroit served as a focal point for the development of a black middle class and the union movement due to the thriving automotive industry. In his new book, Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination , Boyd writes about a tale of two cities — one rebounding from dismal economic periods, and one serving as a budding example of urban America during the 20th century.' -- The Takeaway

Never Forget That Comey Is The Feds by Lawrence Ware

Never Forget That Comey Is The Fedsby Lawrence Ware | @Law_Writes | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Trump is bold. I’ll give him that.
A few weeks ago, y’all’s president fired James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This decision was met with almost universal disdain because Comey was actively investigating 45’s campaign’s possible link to the Russian Government. Then, in a move emboldened by living over 60 years in the body of a mediocre white man, Trump had the audacity to meet with Russian Governmental officials the day after he fired the FBI director.
Anyway, it appears that Trump lied. Or, at least, Comey said as much when testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday.
But we already knew that the president was shady. Hell, white folks knew he was sexually assaulting white women and still voted for him, so I wasn’t shocked by anything I heard at the Senate hearings…but I’m confused.
Look, I understand that we all like to feign outrage at every little thing that happens at the White House these days. And yeah, Comey was dropping some bombshells…but when did black folks fall in love with the FBI? Why are ya’ll out here talking about Comey like he just earned an invitation to the good cookout—not the one with hotdogs, the one with chicken?
Let’s not forget that Comey is partially responsible for getting us in this mess to begin with. If he had not reopened the investigation into Hillary's emails days before the election, we would all be living in a very different country. The Falcons would have won the Super Bowl; Kaepernick would have a job; Caine would still be alive; and the Cavs would be winning in the NBA Finals. But no, we are not in that world because Comey decided to sabotage the election.
Further, this dude is gon’ be alright. Getting fired by 45 is like hitting the liberal white people lottery. You get a book deal, a speaking tour in Wisconsin and an endless supply of craft beer (IPA I presume) when Trump hands you a pink slip. I’m not going to treat this guy like he is a martyr or the second coming of John Brown just because he told the truth at a Senate hearing.
Finally, and I cannot express this enough, this dude was (and for the most part still is) the Feds. In fact, he is the Fediest of Feds. Given the history of J. Edgar Hoover’s anti-blackness, the paucity of black folks in the FBI, and COINTELPRO’s harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and The Black Panthers, I find it difficult to muster a single ounce of solidarity in response to anything Comey has to say. What we have is a clear case of one white dude telling the truth about an evil white dude all while maintaining a system that subjugates black and brown people.
Comey did a good job, but he ain’t earned any cookies.
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Lawrence Ware is a philosopher of race at his day job and writes if the kids go to bed on time. He is a contributing editor of NewBlackMan (in Exile) and a frequent contributor to The Root and VSB. He has been featured in the New York Times and you can sometimes find him discussing race and politics on HuffPost Live and Public Radio International. He is the kind of Steelers fan that enjoys watching the Cowboys lose.

How Schools, Parents And Organizations Are Trying To Close The Achievement Gap

'College graduation rates are up for Americans in nearly every racial and ethnic group. But the so-called achievement gap is still pretty big. As of 2016, according to Pew, 55 percent of white 25- to 34-year-olds had attained at least an associate degree. African-American students? 35 percent. There is work underway throughout the country to do something about this achievement gap. It's happening in the classroom, in the community, and in the home. Guests are Rinaldo Murray, Executive director, College Tribe; Adrian Miller, 6th grader at Center City Charter School in Washington, D.C.; Sean Beach, 8th grader at Friendship Tech Prep Middle School in Washington, D.C.; William Darity, Professor of public policy and director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University; Joseph Neff, Investigative reporter at The News & Observer; Pastor Kirby Jones, Founder and executive director of The Daniel Center for Math and Science; Anya Kamenetz, Education reporter for NPR.' 

Debunking Myths About Gun Violence

Andrea Lewis of The Root offers information that debunks the myths of Gun Violence. -- The Root

Vann R. Newkirk II: Environmental Racism Is the New Jim Crow

'Communities of color face disproportionate rates of natural disaster and environmental harm. Staff writer Vann R. Newkirk II argues that discrimination in public planning is to blame. “Pollution and the risk of disaster are assigned to black and brown communities through generations of discrimination and political neglect,” says Newkirk II. The environment is a system controlled and designed by people—and people can be racist.' -- The Atlantic

 

 

Why the Jamaican Beef Patty Is a NYC Icon | Food Grails

'In episode 2, of Food Grails Miss Info investigates how the Jamaican beef patty became a NYC icon. As the flaky meat turnover has infiltrated all aspects of city life—found in mom-and-pop bakeries, bodegas, pizza shops, and even street carts—the patty itself has inspired fierce debate. Because if you think a patty is a patty is a patty...well, you're dead wrong. From heated conversations with DJ Clark Kent, to philosophical musings in the back of a Rolls Royce with Upscale Vandal, here are what New Yorkers really have to say about the beef patty.'--First We Feast

The ‘Hood Pastor’ Reimagines Christianity in Harlem

''The Gathering is a newly formed church in Harlem led by the Rev. Kenneth Hart, who uses music, food and art to unite Harlem’s diverse community.' -- New York Times Student Institute 

Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks: Homage to an Independent Black Intellectual Life by Bakari Kitwana

Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks: Homage to an Independent Black Intellectual Lifeby Bakari Kitwana | @TheRealBakari | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
I first met Miss Brooks in the late 80s when I was an editor at Third World Press. In those days she was still living around the corner from Third World Press’s office, which was on the corner of 75th and Cottage Grove on the Southside of Chicago. It was a time in which Haki Madhubuti began mentoring me as a young writer and as one of several folks he saw as what he called “the future of Third World Press,” which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Having just published his bestselling Black Men: Obsolete, Single Dangerous?, and still at the center of Black political and cultural life in Chicago and around the Black world, Madhubuti’s influence and relationships with leading Black thinkers remained extensive since the Black Arts Movement.  Working with him at Third World Press, included him regularly introducing me to a who’s who of Black intellectual artists, activists, writers and scholars.
It was not uncommon in those days for me to be in the room with Gil Scott Heron, Sun-Ra, Randy Weston, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Louis Farrakhan, Paul Coates, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Sam Greenlee, Ishmael Reed, Beverly Guy Sheftall, Murray DePillars, Mari Evans, Margaret Burroughs, Bobby Seal, Conrad Worrill, Betty Shabazz, Susan Taylor, Ivan Van Sertima, Lerone Bennett, John Henrik Clarke, Frances Cress Welsing, to name a few, and of course, Gwendolyn Brooks.
Periodically, when Haki Madhubuti couldn’t reach her on the phone or if he had a package or letter or book he wanted her to have immediately, he would send me over to knock on her door. She soon moved to Hyde Park into an apartment that was more convenient for her as she was getting up in age. That is where Haki sent me to pick her up and drive her to her class she taught once a week. It was the first semester she taught at Chicago State in 1990. It was also around the same time when Madhubuti was laying the groundwork for the Gwendolyn Brooks Center and the Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Black Writers Conference, which would continue for the next two decades.
I would sit in on the class, which was a three-hour seminar. From Miss Brooks, I learned the importance of what she called “the economy of words.”  She would talk to me about the art of writing during the 30-minute drive to and from the evening class. She told me once, “like a great jazz musician, to be a great writer, you should practice everyday.” She also told me that until I reached the point of getting published, I should keep a journal and write in it everyday. It didn’t always need to be something profound. It could be something that caught your eyes on the news, or an aspect the simple routine of your day. But do it anyway cause in the process you’re getting your chops. It’s a practice that I have continued to this day. Anyone who knows me well has seen me with these journals. I sometimes write lecture or interview notes, along with countless reflections in them from the spiritual to the mundane. It’s a practice for me that started with Miss Brooks’ advice.
From Miss Brooks I also learned the value and importance of having a deep sense of humility. She wasn’t a flashy dresser. She wasn’t a braggart. This was a woman who won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950 and who saw it as an honor to love and work and write among everyday, ordinary people throughout the remainder of her life. This quality is unmistakably reflected in her work, from “The Bean Eaters” and “A Street in Bronzeville” to “Annie Allen.”
She once described me, during our talks, as “self-possessed.” I never knew if she meant it as a compliment or as advice to shore up on my humility. I remember tilting my head and looking at her momentarily for an indication that never came. Coming from Miss Brooks, I took it as both.
Of all of her poems, my favorite remains “Primer for Blacks.” It is why to this day, I insist on referring to Black folk as “Blacks” instead of African Americans. Hers was a global, Pan-African vision. She was clear that we are a majority people, not anyone’s minority, and that we should take it in stride as a matter of fact.
The word Black has geographic power,pulls everybody in:Blacks here –Blacks there-Blacks wherever they may be.
Blacks, she insisted, united us all around the world – with continental Africans and those throughout the African Diaspora.
A second of my favorite Brooks poems, one she often love to read publicly, is “To Those of My Sisters who Kept Their Naturals” :
Sisters!I love you.Because you love you.
As a writer who came of age before the Black power movement, Gwendolyn Brooks was inspired by and wrapped her love around a new generation of revolutionary Black poets. She never shied away from the fact that they too had influenced and inspired her. It was a foundational aspect of her and Madhubuti’s decades long friendship. Her vision of teaching, mentoring, and living was steeped in reciprocity.
As we celebrate the life and impact of Gwendolyn Brooks on the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday, and as we approach this fall’s Third World Press 50th anniversary celebration, I realize that I never thanked Haki for making me drive Miss Brooks to class. (So thanks, Haki, and thanks, Miss Brooks!) This was mentoring beyond mentoring. At the time, I remember thinking, “I just finished graduate school and you want me to be a driver?” What I didn’t realize then is that this was just the beginning of my education and immersion into an understanding of what it means to engage an independent Black intellectual life.  
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Bakari Kitwana is the executive director of Rap Sessions, which is currently touring the nation leading town hall discussions on the theme “Run Toward Fear: Millennial Activism & Social Justice in The Trump Era” He is the author of the forthcoming "Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama Era."