I wanted to get across to her that black critical thinkers often face an extra step in the writing process -- we have to separate what we think from what our comrades of color expect us to believe, presume we believe, or would rather we didn't discuss in racially mixed company, in public, or at all. For us to reason independently of Negro orthodoxy -- especially to criticize sacred cows of black America like affirmative action -- means risking banishment from the black community. The threat of getting kicked out of blackness (impossible as that sounds), or at least being seen as outside black solidarity, looms large. SOURCE
What do Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Shelby Steele and John McWhorter have in common? Some black folks would be quick to say that one adjective describes them all: sellout. But I've always had a problem with the notion that African Americans must adhere to prescribed dogma or have their "black cards" revoked by the community. We fight against being seen as a monolith, but then ostracize each other for not having the right ideas, right speech or right background to be sufficiently black.
It is certainly within my rights to challenge political or ideological beliefs I find abhorrent. There is much that I dislike about Clarence Thomas. I find his right wing beliefs immoral and repugnant. He appears bitter and self-hating. And, because I believe Anita Hill, I believe he is a unrepentant sexual harasser. But he is still a black man.
Thomas' ideology may be very different from that of most black Americans, but having your own mind is not a betrayal. It concerns me when the black community applies narrow restrictions to what its members must think. It is nothing more than mental slavery. And it is a form of bondage black folks use often. Heck, just last week I was called out on this blog by an anonymous poster who felt my musical tastes were unseemly for a black woman.
The chains we force upon each other are no better than the shackles of a racist society; they are both constricting and spiritually limiting.
In "Clarence Thomas is not a sellout" (excerpted above), Salon author James Hannaham reviews "Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal," a new book by Harvard professor Randall Kennedy that examines "heresy in black culture." I'm adding this book to my library list. Check out the Salon article and wade into the comments if you dare. It seems a lot of commenters missed the point of the article and got hung up on Clarence Thomas. Let me know what you think.
12 comments:
Tami,
Thanks for the heads up about Randall Kennedy's newest book. I found Interacial Intimacies to be very smart and so I'm also putting this one on my book shelf as well.
Maybe you could organize a virtual reading group/book club on it at some later point--so often I read something and I think, "I wish I had someone to talk to about this."
On that note (and yes taking away from the tenor of your post, but I am curious) have you read Tommie Shelby's WE WHO ARE DARK: THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BLACK SOLIDARITY. Shelby is a philosophy prof at Harvard and the book is smart and provocative--it'd be an interesting pairing with the Kennedy work.
I think that there does exist within our culture the tendency for a mob mentality. We do tend to believe that is a such thing as "acting black." I think that this is dangerous because it takes away individual's ability to be true to themselves. However, I do think that certain black people ought to be taken to task for advocting policies or taking certain actions that are harmful to the masses of black people. Public figures must be held accountable for the things that they say and do.
Tasha
www.thesowingcircle.blogspot.com
Tami,
I don't think Condi, Powell or McWhorter are sellouts. I don't know enough about Steele to judge.
I do however think Thomas is a sellout. I think so because he's a hypocrite. He owes his career in large part to Affirmative Action.
Now though he wants to close the door that was open for him, that's being a sellout.
Jennifer,
Oooh, I like the idea of a virtual reading group. Let me think about how that might work. I fyou have any ideas...hit me up on e-mail. It woule be kind of cool to have several people read a book like Kennedy's and then write posts about it...sort of a blog carnival, book discussion. Hmmm.
Haven't read We Who Are Dark...Another one for the list.
Tasha and MDC,
I totally agree that Thomas should be held accountable for his hypocrisy. I think we're on the same page. I only get uncomfortable when folks try to revoke his black man status.
Ahaa. And just last week, your anonymous scribe was called out, whipped for a misogynist, if not a misanthrope, (not a REAL black man)having failed to share your Womanist perspective. I played the provocateur and you took the bait articulating an abiding intolerance for points of view contrary to your "uber-thought."
Anonymous,
I disagree. A bunch of people, me included, disagreed with your views on Bob Johnson and BET. No one questioned your blackness because of those views. Since that initial discussion, though, you have questioned MY black cred on several old posts on this blog.
I'm not suggesting that black folks can't get heated over differing opinions. If you bait an argument with inflammatory language, as you often do, Anonymous, you can expect people to react. I'm sure you expect that and probably welcome it.
I loathe Clarence Thomas for his ideology. I just think it shows a narrow definition of blackness to try to revoke his "black card" because he disagrees with me.
Good to know that though you find my blog autocratic, you still are engaged enough to stop by and comment.
Right you are Tami. But know that Bob Johnson and Clarence Thomas (and Isaiah Thomas) ain't study'n you.
Anonymous,
Tis true, I'm sure those folks couldn't care less what I think. But then, that's the beauty of blogging, I can offer my opinions--and I have many--and discuss them with likeminded (and not-so likeminded)folks. It is narcissistic, but fun and extremely rewarding.
And it rewards me, while you troll for likeminded (and not so likeminded) opinions, to be a participant observer.
You'll find me a bit of a chameleon, I listen to Barbara Streisand and KoKo Taylor. I am the son of a son of the JAMES CROW South (shout out to heaven.)The second-generation-post-bondage bigfoot country.
My people integrated an enclave too. That your folk did so, you're now doing so, and you fear that your step children face the prospect, in your lifetime, of doing so, says that, for all of your or my intellectual posturing, ain't nobody here but us chickens. And, though the crumbs from Massa's table are, right through here, mad wide flung, we are additionally plagued by hens running up on roosters,and vice-versa, while they both peck for a little share.
You can be a HENIST, we still in this love together. Ain't much changed.
Anonymous,
You don't think ANYTHING has changed? I admit we have a long way to go where race is concerned. But I have seen a great deal of change in the last three decades. And I gotta think that Colorado in the 2000s is a lot different than 1940s Indiana. Do you honestly think we have made no gains?
And do you view the fight for female equality as equally important as the fight for racial equality? I'm picking up on the "hens running up on roosters" thing.
Coming out of the 40s, the Indiana hamlet in which I came of age had Vivian Carter, Jesse Coopwood, and Dizzy Dixon, DJs on the local radio station, spinning colored jams. In the 21st Century, the Capitol city of the Rockies, with a present day black population at least as large as my home region's mid-20th Century aggregation, has nessuno.
I didn't say NOTHING has changed. In the 1950's my intact family, a man and a woman with four children -the Daddy,the sole breadwinner, a REAL man, earning unskilled labor wages in the steelyard, didn't eat in restuarants. First, because there were still many of them that wouldn't admit us and secondly, because MaMA could burn! So why spend money at a ham hock joint on Broadway?
In the 23 years I've lived in Colorado, I've eaten in $35-an-entree restaurants all over the state (all over the U.S. in fact, including the Indiana city of which your current enclave is a suburb. In London, in Paris, in Rome -more on those places some other time.) White folk ain't hardly tryna keep me out. They want the $35 bucks, wine not included, plus tip; suggested (expected) 20% Some of the service is shitty but I'm regularly seated, picking up $100 tabs for two.
The Colorado legislature has just elected its first black Senate President. The black former Mayor of the Capitol city led the MLK Marade (no typo, Marade, one of the largest King Day celebrations in the country) yesterday. Colorado has plenty black corporate execs, lawyers, doctors, university administrators and even a President (recently retired)at CSU and has celebrities from Phillip Bailey, to Common, to Dianne Reeves, and Pam Grier. Yet, there is NO black presence in the restaurants I speak of. I, like you in the bleachers of the enclave you've spoken elsewhere of, am, typically, "the only " bump on the log.
And I ask myself, What is it worth? To pay these jacked-up prices for a meal among these white folk. To excuse myself and make use of the privy (no, I don't use the throw-away seat covers. My black ass is impervious to the "other" man's microorganisms and if MY, not Bob's, johnson touches water -can't say there's no levity in my post- so what?) Black folk got our heads whupped and worse for this?
...And, oh, hens need roosters like roosters need hens. Roosters do need to stop Bogarting or tryna finesse the hens to the roosters' advantge.
Like ballers say when two on the same team go to the glass: "Don't fight!"
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