Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 782

How the Digital Divide Impacts Inequality

Marketplace
More than 30 million U.S. homes lack high-speed internet, and as David Crow from Financial Times finds, that has a big impact on inequality in the country: The majority of families in some of the US’s poorest cities do not have a broadband connection, according to a Financial Times analysis of official data that shows how the “digital divide” is exacerbating inequality in the world’s biggest economy.

"My whole concept has been to bring together, not break apart"--Rev. Dr. Terence Leathers for the 'Many Voices' Video Campaign

Many Voices
Rev. Dr. Terence Leathers, a straight-identified pastor at Mt. Vernon Christian Church in Clayton, North Carolina, insists that there is a place for everybody at God's table - gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, transgender - EVERYBODY!The Many Voices Video Campaign Illuminates the powerful presence of Black Gay and Transgender Christians within The Church. Created by Katina Parker. Music by Meredeth Summers Moore, Rachael Derello, and Monica Douthit.

In Conversation With George Clinton

NPR Music
The inimitable  George Clinton  sat for not one but two conversations about his work and where it comes from. First, he spoke with the host of NPR Music's R&B channel, Jason King, about soul music, swag and Kendrick Lamar. Then, after the Museum Of The Moving Image screened Clinton's 20-year-old film  Cosmic Slop , he took the stage for an interview conducted by songwriter, producer and musician James Mtume. The two industry veterans traded stories about Miles Davis and staying in the game. Clinton's memoir,  Brothers Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kind Of Hard On You? , was released earlier this month along with five new songs, and a new Funkadelic album is hard on its heels.

"Ah George, We Hardly Knew You" (1993)--Don Pullen | "Untitled" (1957)--Beauford Delaney

Untitled (1957) -- Beauford Delaney,  Oil on canvas
© Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN / Philippe Migea

Don Pullen & the African-Brazilian Connection-- "Ah George, We Hardly Knew You"

"The UNC Scandal is an Indictment of Big Time College Sports, not of Black Studies" -- Historian Mark Naison

Don't Use the UNC Scandal to Attack Black and Ethnic Studiesby Mark Naison | With a Brooklyn Accent
The corruption of the African American Studies Department at the University of North Carolina should not be treated as an invitation to attack the legitimacy of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies departments at American Universities. 
The UNC-Chapel Hill scandal is an aberration, not part of a national pattern. 
At my University, Fordham, African and African American Studies courses require more reading and writing than most other courses and players on the men's basketball and football teams are often advised NOT to take them because they are too demanding. The same is true of Black Studies Departments at most other universities in the Northeast. 
As for schools with big time revenue producing sports programs, there are certainly ways of getting grades for athletes who are marginally literate, but Black Studies Departments are rarely the chosen vehicle. 
The UNC scandal is an indictment of big time college sports, not of Black Studies and those who attempt to use it to attack the latter must be fought tooth and nail.
***
Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

What Morgan Powell Feared Most: The Gentrification of the Bronx by Mark Naison

What Morgan Powell Feared Most: The Gentrification of the Bronxby Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)As Morgan Powell's many friends and admirers try to grapple with his passing and affirm his legacy, we should not forget that one of the things he feared most was that his tireless efforts to preserve, improve and bring public attention to the Bronx's rivers and waterways could lead to displacement of the Bronx's residents by developers and elected officials who invited them in.This was an irony Morgan spoke to me about many occasions during the last four years, particularly in the neighborhoods adjoining the Bronx River. As the twenty year effort of environmentalists and community activists to clean up the River and create new parks and walkways along its banks was finally bearing fruit, Morgan was worried--for good reason--that the neighborhoods along the river, which were overwhelmingly populated by working class Blacks and Latinos and recent immigrants, were going to rise in value and that landlords in those communities were going to start raising rents beyond the capacity of its current residents.Worse yet, Morgan feared, industrial neighborhoods alongside the lower portion of the river were going to be rezoned for housing and market level housing was going to be constructed there with rents far beyond the ability of local residents to pay,setting in motion a rent and displacement spiral similar to what has happened in Park Slope, the Lower East Side, Harlem and Washington Heights.Morgan was right to be afraid, Right now, a market level housing complex is going up along a formerly industrial strip on West Farms road, right next to Fanny Lou Hamer High School. Morgan spoke out about this complex at meetings of two local community board, but his comments were ignored and the development was approved.But even though Morgan lost this battle, we can't let the developers win the war. Every time someone proposes a market level housing development for the Bronx, every time an elected official proposes rezoning a district from industrial to residential, those who admired Morgan and his work must be present to speak out against and stop those plans.It would be a terrible tragedy if Morgan's crusade to beautify Bronx rivers and waterfront areas so that working class and immigrant Bronx residents could enjoy the natural beauty in their midst, would lead to displacement of those residents just as the crusade began to succeed.***

Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

"Alligator Boogaloo"--Lou Donaldson (1970)

Alto Saxophonist Lou Donaldson with Misha Neal (2008)"Alligator Boogaloo" recorded live at the Cadillac Club in Newark, NJ in 1970.

Culture Worrier — Clarence Page in Conversation with Michael C. Dawson

The Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago
Pulitzer Prize-winner Clarence Page discusses his new column collection, Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984 – 2014: Reflections on Race, Politics and Social Change , with Michael C. Dawson, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. 
Co-sponsored by the Global Voices Lecture Series, the University of Chicago Office of Civic Engagement, Diversity Leadership Council, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, and the Chicago Tribune.

Blank on Blank: Maya Angelou on Con Artists (1970)

Blank on Blank
"The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you're greedy, you're set up." - Maya Angelou, as told to Studs Terkel in 1970

Blackface Minstrelsy and the Genius of Bert Williams

Production still from Bert Williams Lime Kiln Field Day Project. 1913. Odessa Warren Grey and Bert Williams There's History Behind Those Halloween Blackface Fails by Mark Anthony Neal | The Root.com
With Halloween approaching, we’ll soon see a rash of stories about young white college students who feel compelled to apologize for an unfortunate Instagram photo that depicts them in blackface at a campus party. The kind of real-life incidents that inspired the new film  Dear White People .
Yet despite the ambivalence, awkwardness and, sometimes, revulsion that blackface continues to inspire in whites as well as blacks, there is very little public discussion of the historical contexts that led to the emergence of blackface minstrelsy as a most American form of popular culture.
A new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art offers a contemporary assessment of blackface performance in the discovery of an untitled silent film that starred the biggest star of blackface, Bert Williams.
The first major black crossover star of the 20th century was a light-skinned black man, born in the Bahamas, who donned shoe polish for the desired effect of being clearly identified as a so-called darky. His popularity spoke volumes about the state of American popular culture at the time and mocks the hyperbole of those who would claim that any number of contemporary black comedians or reality-TV stars are blackface “minstrels.”
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