Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 671

Kendrick Lamar + J. Cole Offer #BlackOutFriday Gifts

Historian Barbara Ransby: #LaquanMcDonald Video "Reminds Us of the Days of Lynching"

'For the first time in three decades, a Chicago police officer faces charges of first-degree murder for an on-duty shooting. White police officer Jason Van Dyke was arrested and is being held without bail for the killing of African-American 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.  Chicago police announced they will also move to fire officer Dante Servin, who killed 22-year-old African-American woman Rekia Boyd in 2012. We discuss the developments in Chicago with Barbara Ransby, professor of African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and History at the University of Illinois, Chicago.'

Present + Future of Civil Rights Movements: Panel on Race + Culture + Media

The Present and Future of Civil Rights Movements: Race and Reform in 21st Century America--Plenary Session: Race + Culture + , Media. Moderated by Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University) with Panelists Devon W. Carbado (UCLA School of Law), Tanisha C. Ford (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Russell Robinson (University of California, Berkeley School of Law), Goldie Taylor (Editor-at-Large, The Daily Beast) -- via +Duke University School of Law 

Theaster Gates: The Making of an Artist and the Disruptive Power of Art

'In conversation with bell hooks and Laurie Anderson, Chicago-based installation artist Theaster Gates addresses the importance of expanding upon the art form to engage with the real world.' -- The New School

Aretha Franklin on Her Legacy and Why She'll Never Stop Singing

'Aretha Franklin was honored recently by the National Portrait Gallery with a “Portrait of a Nation” prize, given out to some of the people who appear in its collection. Gwen Ifill spoke with the Queen of Soul about her career, her voice and her legacy.' -- +PBS NewsHour 

Laquan McDonald Shooting: Protests in Chicago After Video Release

After dashboard-camera footage of the shooting of Laquan McDonald was released, citizens peacefully took to the streets of Chicago to protest another case of Police malfeasance.  -- New York Times Video

bell hooks + Charles Blow Talk Radical Sexuality & Body Geography

'bell hooks and Charles Blow in a discussion presented by Eugene Lang College at The New School about performance art in popular culture today.
Charles Blow is a journalist and the current visual op-ed columnist for the New York Times. bell hooks is an author, activist, feminist and scholar-in-residence at The New School. This fall is her fifth and final week-long visit in a three-year residency.' -- The New School

“ThanksKilling”--Remembering the Origins of a National Holiday

“ThanksKilling”--Remembering the Origins of a National Holidayby Lawrence Ware + Ashley Nicole McCray | NewBlackman (in Exile)
It’s Thanksgiving once again: that day, every year, when we are all gluttonous to celebrate the fact that ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ had a harmonious meal — at least that is how it has been framed historically.
Let’s be honest. On the last Thursday of November, every year, we celebrate the beginning of an European invasion that ends with the death or relocation of millions of native people. While many have tried to redefine the meaning of Thanksgiving into a time wherein we cultivate a sense of gratitude, the undeniable truth is that the blood of native people stains the genesis of the holiday.
The colonial origins of Thanksgiving – or what many natives often refer to as Thankskilling or Thankstaking – is not something to celebrate. While we cannot pinpoint one specific or original “Thanksgiving” celebration, President Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday in 1863 and conceived it as a national day of thanksgiving.
“Pilgrims and Indians” weren’t included in the tradition until 1890. The national mythos surrounding this holiday does not take into consideration the long and violent history of contact between European settlers (in this case English pilgrims - puritans) and indigenous populations that already inhabited the land. It is in these forgotten histories that we see the history of this holiday for what it truly is:  English pilgrims, unprepared to survive on the land and unfamiliar with the vegetation, waterways, and others food sources, stranded on Turtle Island who survive those early winters and ultimately engage in a brutal campaign of colonialism and genocidal activity.
It is important that we think clearly and honestly about how the beatified pilgrims saw the natives. Five time Plymouth County Governor William Bradford said the natives were “savage people, who are cruel, barbarous, and most treacherous.” Clearly not the people you would like to feast with, yet our national narrative surrounding this holiday celebrates the first Thanksgiving as a moment of harmonious bridge building. 
This is clearly not the case. Especially when we learn about the Pequot Massacre of 1637. This is just one in a multitude of genocidal tactics employed against the indigenous peoples of this land since white Europeans arrived in 1492. Of this event, Governor Bradford said,
Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.
 
The occupiers celebrated the genocide — and thanked God for the victory. Immediately following the Pequot Massacre of 1637, the occupiers worked diligently to whitewash history. The name of the tribe was erased from the map. The Pequot River became the Thames, and the geographic space the Pequot inhabited became known as New London. It is as if they never existed.
The whitewashing and erasure of indigenous histories is not unique to this holiday, but it is, perhaps, one of the most ironic instances of indigenous mass murder in service of white European colonial expansion. The idea that we celebrate the notion that indigenous peoples and the white European occupiers who literally sought their extinction were able to put their differences to the side long enough to sit down and feast upon food, in relative peace and harmony, is deeply problematic.
Even more so is the idea that it was the white European occupiers who had to teach and demonstrate “civility” to these “barbarous savages.”  With the Pequot massacre in mind, it is clear which group in the Thanksgiving picture were the real “barbarous savages” and who were the ones practicing civility.
The language and the rhetoric surrounding the holiday erase the true history of settler-colonialism. The Pequot Massacre is just one mere instance in the long history of evil acts that began with the white European occupation of Turtle Island. This is also not the first time we have seen the descendants of the occupiers attempt to create a new civic identity by whitewashing history and silencing indigenous voices while erasing indigenous bodies.
We see this unfolding in Oklahoma (Okla-humma, Choctaw for “Red People”), where non-native occupiers see no shame in calling themselves “Sooners” (those who stole land prior to the Oklahoma Land Runs — a  territory that was, by treaty, set aside specifically and solely for tribal communities “so long as the rivers run and the sun shines…”).
However, indigenous peoples and our co-conspirators cannot stand idly by as those who continue to employ colonial and, ultimately, genocidal tactics against our communities, rewrite, and revise history to justify both their actions and the actions of their ancestors. We must thoughtfully and intentionally intervene because while “Boomer Sooner,” “R*dsk*ns,” and “Thanksgiving” may seem inconsequential to some, the historical context that gave rise to these terms and celebrations contribute to real life consequences that still impact native people in this country.
Native women are the group most likely to be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes, with low estimates suggesting 1 in 3 in her lifetime. Upwards of 80% or more of these cases are perpetrated by non-native males. There are 2,000 reports of missing and murdered Indigenous Women from Turtle Island, and suicide in native communities far surpasses the national average for every age group. Natives have the shortest lifespan of any group living in the United States, and this rate is even lower for those living on reservations.  
Historical or intergenerational trauma is literally embedded in native DNA, and many of our parents and grandparents were stolen from their families and forced into boarding schools that had the expressed mission to “civilize the savage” and “kill the Indian but save the man.” Physical torture, sexual assault, murder, public shaming, and stealing the culture of native children accomplished this. 

Psychological studies have demonstrated that native mascots negatively affect the psyche and well being of native youth and many of these children have a difficult time making it through K-12, never mind college. Further, native people are virtually helpless when a non-native perpetrates a crime on native land. The victims have no jurisdiction over non-natives and the only way they could ever achieve justice is if the already overloaded federal government decides the case is worth pursuing. The silencing of native voices not only happened historically, but also continues today.
Whitewashing history, revising history, and developing rhetoric that celebrates the creation of a new civic identity for European occupiers—these all contribute to the oppression of indigenous peoples and tribal communities. The stories like those told about the Indians and Pilgrims at Thanksgiving ingrain a false sense of truth into the mind of the general public. These stories tell the populace that “everything is okay,” and, in fact, the “Indians owe a lot to the Pilgrims.”
A closer examination and orientation with actual history, however, will negate these ideas and will enable the public to see how and, more importantly, why these stories – Columbus, Thanksgiving, Boomer Sooner – are told the way they are. These stories are extensions of colonialism and are in fact genocidal tactics. By erasing and replacing the true stories with those of “Thanksgiving,” the occupier continues to remain complicit in genocide.
So enjoy that turkey…but remember that you are doing so in a land that was stolen. Honor the dead by remembering their stories and their sacrifice.
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Lawrence Ware (@law_ware)  is an Oklahoma State University Division of Institutional Diversity Fellow. He teaches in OSU's philosophy department and is the Diversity Coordinator for its Ethics Center. A frequent contributor to the publication The Democratic Left and contributing editor of the progressive publication RS: The Religious Left, he has also been a commentator on race and politics for the Huffington Post Live, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and PRI’s Flashpoint. He can be reached at law.writes@gmail.com.
Ashley Nicole McCray (@AshTreeMcCray)is a member of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe (Li-Si-Wi-Nwi) and the Oglala Lakota Nation (Oceti Sakowin). She is a Ph.D student/Graduate Assistant in the History of Science, Technology, & Medicine at the University of Oklahoma. She is a 2015 White House WHO Champion of Change: Young Women Empowering their Communities, a 2015 Norman Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Award Recipient, and a CoreAlign Speaking Race to Power Fellow.

Soundtrack to a #BlackFriday: Public Enemy--"Shut 'Em Down" (feat. Pete Rock)

"Shut 'Em Down"--Public Enemy (from Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black)



I testified
My mama cried
Black people died
When the other man lied
See the TV listen to me double trouble
I overhaul and I'm comin'
From the lower level
I'm takin' tabs...

Coogler’s Creed: Much More Than A Rocky Chapter by Stephane Dunn

Coogler’s Creed:  Much More Than A Rocky Chapterby Stephane Dunn | @DrStephaneDunn | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
It’s a good sign when viewers leave an advanced screening of a forthcoming film, pumping their fists, applauding, and smiling – it’s the kind of response that the first Rocky movie inspired and fitting that the classic film’s heir, the Creed, invites similar.
In 2013, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale announced the arrival of a promising young director. Coogler’s sophomore effort, confirms him as a sensitive and skilled filmmaker. Under his capable direction, Rocky and Sylvester Stallone get a touching nod and a new millennial chapter, and we get further introduction to several rising stars in Coogler, Michael B. Jordan (Adonis Creed), and Tessa Thompson (Bianca). ​The millennial treatment of Rocky is significant.  The first film (1976) and the sequels ​('79, '82, '85) played overtly on some specific racial and national politics. The 1976 script – a compelling story read –  finds dramatic fuel in the racialized history of US Heavyweight boxing. Apollo Creed, the undefeated champ who picks Rocky, “The Italian Stallion,” out of oblivion for a bicentennial match when the real contender is injured, understands the racial mythology underlining a “Great White Hope” in the most sacred division in boxing – the heavyweight. Historically, amid the legacy of Jim Crow America, a boxing match between a black and white opponent was a space where the racial status quo and ideologies of racialized masculine superiority and potency were, perpetuated, countered or challenged.
Of course, Stallone gives even further authenticity to his tale because real life legendary Italian boxers like Marciano are Rocky’s heroes. In the later Rocky ​films, Stallone taps further into the not so far in the past Cold War politics so that the​ black and white boxers (Apollo and Rocky), having earlier ​prove​n​ their masculine equality to each other in the ring, and Rocky  cemented as a ‘true’ American ‘Great White Hope,’ are united in friendship and national identity against common foes​, including lastly a​ national ‘other’ – the​ Russian boxer Drago who kills Apollo​. Creed proves refreshing in not attempting to be​ a contemporary redo of Rocky [though yeah it does tease those national politics and retains all the usual testosterone]. 
Some of the best elements in Creed – Sly Stallone’s perfectly pitched performance as elder Philly legend and reluctant coach-mentor, “UNC” to Jordan’s young Creed and the unfolding relationship between the two, the nostalgic nods [not too much though] to iconic scenes from the original Rocky, the boxing world recreation with HBO’s team, the appearance of boxing star (Andre Ward) and no spoiler alert necessary cause you know it’s there – an exquisitely choreographed, knock down, championship fight, plus two arresting, capable female co-stars in veteran actress Phylicia Rashad, young Creed’s surrogate mother and step-mom and Thompson  - reasons enough to enjoy the film.
Creed’s missteps are few. The story needs a bit more backstory behind Creed’s drive to fight despite the privileged life Apollo’s widow provides and his outright desire to deny and escape his father’s long shadow and misses a good opportunity to enrich the story by doing the same for Adonis’s love interest, the intriguing Bianca. Part of the formula of every aspiring boxing champ story on the big screen is the lady love, a do or die sort of chick who loves the champ winning or losing. Who can imagine Rocky without Adrien in that first Rocky film? Thompson’s Philly girl Bianca, an inspiring singer, is pleasantly allowed to be a tad more than an appendage to Adonis; she’s got big dreams and ambitions and a physical opponent of her own to triumph over, but she remains something of an enigma.
Co-written by Coogler and Aaron Covington, Creed showcases Coogler’s savvy use of mise en scène and highlights several developing stylistic trademarks from his use of blurred shots to his ability to make the setting an integral secondary character pivotal to the storytelling as he does with the gritty scenes of Philadelphia in Creed. He smartly mixes the old with newer notes, both visually and orally, for example, Rocky’s unforgettable anthem sampled on rapper Future’s, “Last Breath” and a Tupac cut serving as Creed’s ring entry.
Yet, the most outstanding feature of Coogler’s work thus far has been the distinctive treatment of hip hop culture bred young black men whom he humanizes more adroitly than we usually see on the big screen. He imbues the representation of black male identity with emotional complexity and vulnerability one of the winning aspects of the Coogler - Michael B. Jordan collaboration. We are witnessing some magic here in their cinematic partnership and may well be evolving into one of those iconic director-actor relationships [think Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, DiCaprio and Scorsese].
There is much to cheer about Creed from Sly Stallone and the triumphant rebirth of Rocky in a story that can stand on its own but weaves nicely together wit the classic film’s legacy to Michael B. Jordan, a bonafide leading man, and finally Coogler who delivers a feel good, must-see cinematic punch right in time for the holidays.
Creed dir. Ryan CooglerRelease date: November 25, 2015Warner Bros.
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Writer and professor Stephane Dunn, PhD, is the director of the Cinema, Television, & Emerging Media Studies program at Morehouse College. She teaches film, creative writing, and literature. She is the author of the 2008 book, Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (U of Illinois Press). Follow her on Twitter: @DrStephaneDunn