Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 587

Ashleigh Johnson--Meet The Goalie Changing The Face Of USA Water Polo

'Profile of Ashleigh Johnson, the rangy Princeton student who’s ability to read — and reach — opponent’s shots is setting a new standard.' -- Time

Mychal Denzel Smith and Marc Lamont Hill in conversation with Charlene Carruthers

'Mychal Denzel Smith discusses Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education and Marc Lamont Hill discusses Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond with Charlene Carruthers of the Black Youth Project 100.'
 

Nnedi Okorafor: 'I Love Stories — And So I Write Them'

'NPR Host Farai Chideya speaks with science-fiction writer and Hugo Award nominee Nnedi Okorafor about diversity in the genre: "I think that inevitably science fiction and fantasy was going to become more diverse, and I think that certain people kind of react negatively to that because they've been used to being in a certain position for so long." 

Does the New Netflix Series 'The Get Down' Do Justice in its Portrayal of the Bronx?

'Jake Offenhartz, freelance journalist and editor at HistoryBuff.com, and Mark Naison, professor of History and African American Studies at Fordham University, discuss the depictions of the Bronx in the 1970s in the new Netflix series The Get Down and listeners join the conversation with their experiences.' -- WNYC

Black Media at a Crossroads: An Interview with George Curry

'Joe Madison speaks with veteran journalist George E. Curry, about Black Media.  Curry was the editor-in-chief of Emerge Magazine (1992-2000) and editor-in-chief for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.' 

25 Years After Riots Community Relationships in Crown Heights Remain Complicated

'This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of riots that shook Crown Heights for three days. Simmering tensions between the black and Orthodox Jewish communities and the police erupted on Aug. 19, 1991 after a car crash killed a 7-year-old black child, Gavin Cato. A Jewish man from Australia was later stabbed to death. Now, the neighborhood is undergoing rapid gentrification.' -- WNYC

Remembering the "Summer of Soul" -- Mark Anthony Neal on Soul + Politics in 1967

'They called it The Summer of Love, a historical moment of "free love" that rocked traditional norms of morality, strengthened the mainstream women's movement and fueled a newfound sense of independence among young people. Often glanced over from this period are ways that ways these shifts were experienced in Black communities, especially with the mainstreaming of Soul music. In a conversation with NPR’s Michel Martin, Mark Anthony Neal examines The Summer of Soul where artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Temptations and Sly & the Family Stone recorded songs that were a soundtrack for a period of racial tension and political change that still resonates in many Black communities.' 

Colson Whitehead, The Prophet -- and 'The Underground Railroad' by Charles Bane, Jr.

Colson Whitehead, The Prophet -- and The Underground Railroadby Charles Bane, Jr. | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Western History is an insistent narrative that follows a pat formula that remains a standardized text to this day. "Civilization" begins in ancient Greece and winds its way through the appearance of Rome. This led in turn through the artistry of the European Renaissance and continues through the gateway of the Enlightenment. An accepted voice of this phenomena was Thomas Paine, whose logic made inevitable the democratic spirit of an emerging America. Following this logic, the founding of the United States was an ideal, a culmination of historic Western thought never to be equalled.
But it is a lie, and the lie appears in its celebrations, documents and record. In the Oxford History of the American People, its author Samuel Eliot Morrison writes approvingly of an early settler:  "Such was the first William Byrd, son of a London goldsmith who reached Virginia in  1671 at the age of nineteen...Purchased the plantation named Westover, built there a mansion, a shop, and a warehouse and did very well with his tobacco crop. He imported, in his own ships, servants and all manner of goods. To the West Indies he sent provisions, grain and barrel staves, and imported thence sugar, rum and African slaves -- in one shipment 506 slaves, most of whom he sold to his neighbors. He was also a successful Indian trader...At the time of his death in 1704, he was rightly regarded as one of the first gentlemen of Virginia."
The publication of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead detonates at ground zero of the American lie ; it exposes in gripping, imaginative (some reviews describe the language as hallucinatory) prose the reality of slavery as holocaust, fueled by a racism so toxic that its effects are felt in every step towards a future that we inhabit today.
Unconsciously, Whitehead's artistic masterwork transforms him into prophet: his description of "patrollers " surrounding plantations is so harrowing and precise that we cannot help seeing in them modern day police officers like those described in a Justice Department report that described a police department where incident forms  handed to officers were blank, save for " suspect" which were pre- filled in: " Black male. "
Whitehead cannot help this; he is widely seeing and cannot turn away; the author read widely of slave narratives before beginning his tale of Cora, an indomitable soul who is determined to run away from her enslavement and reach freedom. But as the story unfolds, Cora learns that freedom is illusory and slave catchers are free to roam anywhere and everywhere and send as they please anyone -- free or no -- into bondage and lifetime suffering.
Perhaps this is the book's greatest strength: Whitehead is waiting for racism to appear at every corner of the American narrative, and his patience has produced a novel of profound truth, and what will long be recognized as a classic.      
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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead; Doubleday; published August 2, 2016; 320 pages  
Charles Bane, Jr. is the author of The Ascent Of Feminist Poetry. Visit his website at Charles Bane, Jr.com

#Swim1922: Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and USA Swimming Bring Swim Safety to Black Communities

'In the aftermath of Simone Manual's gold medal performances at the 2016 Rio Olympics, a partnership between the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and USA Swimming is working to address swim safety within the African American community takes on an added significance.' -- CNN  

2016 Hutchins Forum: Race and the Race to the White House

'A discussion on Race and the White House, moderated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Featuring Charles Blow, Donna Brazile, Armstrong Williams and Leah Wright-Rigueur. Additional remarks by Lawrence D. Bobo.' -- PBS NewsHour