Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 739

A Reading by Nathaniel Mackey with Bassist F. Vattel Cherry

Prize-winning poet and Duke University professor Nathaniel Mackey reads from his serial poems “Mu” and “Song of the Andoumboulou” accompanied by F. Vattel Cherry on bass. The reading took place March 23 at the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

The Hunger Crop: Sugar Beets vs. Sugar Cane

Visiting Melon Professor Patricia Northover speaks about the difference between sugar beets and sugar cane during her presentation, "The Caribbean: "The Hunger Crop?" Sugar, Imperial Debris and the Struggle for Development as Justice" Professor Northover's talk was presented by Duke University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies as part of the John Hope Franklin Center's Wednesdays at the Center series.

The Role of the Black Public Intellectual: James Braxton Peterson & Mark Anthony Neal in Conversation

Recorded in March of 2015 on the Duke University campus, James Braxton Peterson and Mark Anthony Neal engage in a frank conversation about the role of Black Public Intellectuals and Scholars. Peterson is director of Africana Studies and Associate professor of English at Lehigh University and the host of The Remix on WHYY in Philadelphia. He is author of The Hip-Hop Underground and African American Culture: Beneath the Surface . Neal is Professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University and the author of several books including the recently published 10th Anniversary edition of New Black Man . Neal is the host of Left of Black . The event was Sponsored by the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE), The Department of African & African American Studies and the Duke Forum for Scholars and Publics.

#HereForCookie: Empire & Hip-Hop Reparations

#HereForCookie: Empire and Hip-Hop Reparationsby Simone C. Drake | @SimoneCDrake | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
There is perhaps no better litmus test for race relations and the continuing perseverance of anti-blackness in the United States than for a Fox news host to propose President Obama will offer an apology for slavery “and then there's going to be a major push to get cash. And I’m talking lots of cash.”  Not surprisingly, in a consumer-driven, capitalist economy, the idea of reparations becomes synonymous with cash payouts.  Or, perhaps monetary payments is logically deduced because slaves did not earn wages and institutionalized racism has resulted in descendants of slaves, as a group, earning less than their white (and Asian) counter-parts and possessing significantly less wealth. 
It could be the entanglement of this logic—wrongs are righted through cash—and this reality—social and economic status of African Americans are inherited from the past—that makes a night time soap opera like Lee Daniel’s Empire appealing to a multiracial audience. Through its undeniable “blackness” and the foregrounding of consumption, excess, and privilege (and black art) the series creates a world in which discussions of reparations are moot.  However, I would propose an implicit dialogue about reparations frames the series.
The media has been quick to label Empire a black version of the 1980s primetime soap opera Dynasty. The New York Post, for example, proposes “‘Empire’ feels a bit like early-era ‘Dynasty,’ only with the Carringtons having gone gangsta.”  While Empire is a soap opera and not a sitcom, it is nonetheless interesting that media comparisons have focused almost exclusively on Dynasty with only Dick Gregory making a widely circulated comparison with The Cosby Show. Although the genres differ, the predominately black cast of Empire shares significant commonalities with The Cosby Show, as does the fact that both series revived their respective television networks.  
What distinguishes Empire from both Dynasty and The Cosby Show, however, is the black production of black narratives. Daniels is the executive producer of Empire. Aside from Diahann Carroll (Dominique Devereaux) there is no recurring black character on Dynasty and neither Dynasty nor The Cosby Show had black executive producers (although Cosby did write for all episodes). Black production of black narratives is reparative—it is a cultural reparation.
If reparations is about making amends for a wrong, then black people having the opportunity to tell their own stories and chose how they will be represented is a form of reparations.  In this same vein, the way in which, to channel Jill Scott, Daniels is “taking [his] freedom” in an industry that has been central to producing and perpetuating racial stereotypes is doing more than repairing wrongs. The black production of black narratives ultimately provides black audiences viewing pleasure.
The need for oppositional gazes disappears for many of the African American viewers who according to Fox make up 62% of the show’s audience aged 18-49 (and this percentage must raise some when you move to the next age bracket up, because my parents were regular viewers). Being able to experience pleasure, even if only for forty-two minutes once a week, in a nation that fosters racial animus and hostility—see online comments on pretty much any subject regarding African Americans and social, political, or economic plight—being able to simply enjoy seeing those who look like you on a screen is reparative. And, bringing the series to network television rather than cable is an inclusive act.  
If Lee Daniels is “[p]ulling [his freedom] off the shelf,” then Cookie Lyons (Taraji P. Henson) is Putting it on [her] chain/Wearing it 'round [her] neck.” There seems to be a consensus that Cookie is the most beloved character of the series. Her tenacity, hustle, and steadfast commitment to her children have made 17 million viewers love her. Daniels did not set out intent on casting Henson and Terrance Howard (Luscious Lyons, Cookie’s ex-husband) as leads in this series. It is therefore ironic that these two actors would reunite in a hip-hop-themed series after starring in Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow (2005) together.
I have previously written about how Henson’s character (Shug) singing the hook on a rap single only to result in a white woman and black man making a profit in Hustle reflects a failed intersectional consciousness in Brewer’s efforts to “rebuild the South.” Thus, to see Henson and Howard reunite on Empire, it is hard not to think of this being Shug’s/Cookie’s moment to seek amends for not just seventeen years of incarceration but also for everyone but her profiting off of her sound.
Whether Daniels will take us there is unknown. His questionable gender politics when it comes to black women makes restitution for Cookie even more questionable. Nonetheless, through her 90s style and channeling of Lil’ Kim, Salt-N-Pepa, and Foxy Brown, Cookie amends the wrong of sexism in hip-hop, as she demands a voice, authority, and power. Daniels better not do wrong by Cookie, because we are #hereforcookie.
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Simone C. Drake is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University.  She is the author of Critical Appropriations: African American Women and the Construction of Transnational Identity (LSU Press) and her second book, When We Imagine Grace: Black Men and Subject Making  is under contract with University of Chicago Press.

Silence on Black Female Victims Weakens Fight Against Police Brutality

Tanisha AndersonSilence on Black Female Victims Weakens Fight Against Police Brutalityby Kali Nicole Gross | HuffPost Black Voices
No one can deny black men's vulnerability in this society and the recent killings of Walter Scott and Eric Harris are painful reminders, but the fact is black women suffer the same injustices. Silence, motivated by sexism and patriarchy, in mainstream and black America is the only reason why it isn't widely acknowledged. And it's holding the fight for justice back.
Including black women and girls only strengthens the national case against racist police brutality -- not only does it reinforce the aim to stop deadly police violence but also by virtue of our race and gender, black women's and girls' experiences highlight otherwise overlooked abuses in the legal system.
For starters, early data indicates black women account for nearly 20 percent of those unarmed blacks killed by officers in the past 15 years. Adding the cases of unarmed black women, women such as Tanisha Anderson, Yvette Smith, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Rekia Boyd, and, the most recent, Natasha McKenna does not detract from crimes against black men, instead it broadcasts the extreme and unacceptable scope of homicidal police violence.
It also raises awareness about other cases that deserve justice, particularly as the trial of Rekia Boyd's alleged murderer, Dante Servin, is currently underway.
On Thursday, the Cook County Medical examiner testified that Boyd, 22, an unarmed bystander allegedly gunned down by the off-duty Chicago police detective, "was shot in the back of the head." Her longtime friend Ikca Beamon testified, "I seen her brains coming out of her head... I just lost it."
Natasha McKenna, 37, and battling mental illness, was likely tasered to death in police custody while in restraints in February. This Fairfax County, Virginia, incident was also captured on video.
Acknowledging black female victims also demonstrates criminal profiling isn't just happening to black men, and it isn't only occurring during police stops. A recent African American Policy Forum report showed black girls who were late or absent from school ended up with criminal warrants. Black girls were also arrested for things like having a tantrum in school at age six.
Even as victims, black girls run the risk of incarceration -- such was the case for an 11-year-old rape victim in D.C. Police failed to believe her despite corroborating evidence from the rape kit. Instead she was imprisoned for making a false report. These violations are motivated by the same brand of sexism and misogyny that keeps the brutality against black women and girls hidden in the fight for criminal justice reform.
Sexual violence in police custody is brought into high relief when black women are included. The alleged rape and sexual assault of at least 13 black women by former Oklahoma City Police Officer, Daniel Holtzclaw, serves as the most recent, heinous instance.
The politicized nature of protection also becomes visible, black women's cases can explicitly show how the justice system fails to protect us at the same time that it egregiously condemns black women. Marissa Alexander's case is a recent example, but so, too, is the case of CeCe McDonald, 24. As an African-American trans woman, McDonald served 19 months in solitary in a male facility for fighting back against a racist, transphobic attack in Minneapolis in 2011.
These outcomes showcase a pattern of bias that is not localized to places like South Carolina, Alabama, and New York, but we need to get past the patriarchy and misogyny to put these nationwide systemic inequalities on display.
If we want institutional and structural change, then activists, policymakers, pundits, scholars, and everyday folk must examine black women's and girl's treatment in every facet of the justice system -- from how their bodies are profiled, to their vulnerability to sexual assault and harassment in custody, to sentencing disparities with respect to race, gender, and sexual orientation. It also means including black women in all reform platforms, whether it's community-based organizing or on-air TV news discussions or federal initiatives.
It means saying the names of black female victims alongside those of black men.
At the end of the day, because of our vulnerable position in society writ large, if we remediate the biases against black women and girls, it will have a liberatory effect for all.
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Kali Nicole Gross, Ph.D., a Public Voices Fellow, is associate professor and associate chairwoman of African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin and author of Colored Amazons: Crime, Violence, and Black Women in the City of Brotherly Love, 1880-1910.  Follow her @KaliGrossPhD.

"Hip-hop had to come with me"--Joan Morgan on Being a Prep School Kid in the 1980s

Veteran journalist, editor and author Joan Morgan at the 2015 Hiphop Literacies Conference: Hiphop Futures at The Ohio State University.  Morgan is the author of  When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down and is currently completing her doctorate in American Studies at New York University.

Nas joins De La Soul on New Single "God It"

Legendary Nas Travels Globe in Search of Hip-Hop

Credit: Courtesy of BOND/360

With the documentary Shake the Dust, executive producer Nas explores how Hip-hop  has impacted youth around the globe. The film is directed by Adam Sjöberg--PRI

Amandla Stenberg: "Don't Cash Crop On My Cornrows"

 
16-year-old actress Amandla Stenberg of The Hunger Games deconstructs White Appropriation of Black Culture.

Book Trailer--Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area by Oliver Wang

'Armed with speakers, turntables, light systems, and records, Filipino American mobile DJ crews, such as Ultimate Creations, Spintronix, and Images Inc., rocked dance floors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. In Legions of Boom noted music and pop culture writer and scholar Oliver Wang chronicles this remarkable scene, which eventually became the cradle for turntablism. These crews, which were instrumental in helping to create and unify the Bay Area's Filipino American community, gave young men opportunities to assert their masculinity and gain social status.'