Blacksmythe

This year represents the 40 year anniversary of the Newark and Detroit riots. Next year will be the 40 year anniversary for Baltimore. One of my former students forwarded me a discussion that relates to our discussions about the local and the global. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Amiri Baraka, Larry Hamm, and Grace Boggs about Newark and Detroit respectively. They were on two separate interview tracks until near the end, where Baraka and Boggs had a back and forth that was telling.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Amiri, what has changed in these forty years, in terms of consciousness and in terms of what the country has learned from that period?AMIRI BARAKA: Well, actually, in some ways, we’ve gone full cycle but up to another level. I mean, we went from the kind of blatant brutalization, of white supremacy and racism. We then organized ourselves and elected two black mayors. We haven’t — none of my children, for instance, have ever grown under white people ruling in Newark. They don’t even know what that is, you understand? And so, we can be proud of that. But at the same time, after we had our two domestic kind of mayors, who compromised relentlessly with corporate power, you understand, now we’ve come full circle and come to –GRACE LEE BOGGS: Let me ask you a question, Amiri. Do you think that we have challenged and criticized and evaluated Black Power sufficiently?AMIRI BARAKA: Have we? No, no, but I’ve been doing it for — I’m sorry.GRACE LEE BOGGS: When are we going to do it?AMIRI BARAKA: Well, I’ve been doing it for almost thirty-seven years. I mean, having two black mayors there, Sharpe James and Ken Gibson, I was probably their most relentless critic all the time. But now we have somebody who doesn’t compromise with corporate power, but who represents it. So that’s the difference. We’ve moved –GRACE LEE BOGGS: Well, so do you think it’s a question of changing an individual? You know, for changing from Gibson to Booker?AMIRI BARAKA: No, you have to get an individual who’s willing to change the system. You have to get an individual who’s willing to actually struggle with the system to change it. As long as you have people who –GRACE LEE BOGGS: I mean, what do we mean by “struggling with the system”? How — when are we going to be –AMIRI BARAKA: To make substantive changes, to make infrastructure changes.GRACE LEE BOGGS: No, when will we begin to understand that we have to create new infrastructures, new forms, so that you can –AMIRI BARAKA: Yeah, but you can only do that through people, you see?GRACE LEE BOGGS: But you’re not going to do it from people at the top. We’re going to do it from people at the bottom.AMIRI BARAKA: Well, you have to mobilize the whole community. But what I’m saying is that people at the top became accommodated to being in power and not changing.GRACE LEE BOGGS: Yes, but maybe what we’ve done — maybe what we’ve — yes, but you see, we’ve put so much emphasis on taking over the power structure, and we became prisoners of it, because the power structure –

…and at that moment the show ends. The entire transcript can be found here. What strikes you most about the differences between Baraka’s position and Boggs’?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve already linked to part of Bill Moyers’ interview with Grace Boggs. But the video expands on some of it, and emphasizes a couple of points that bear consistent repetition:1. We have to generate another way of living as we critique our current state of affairs. A cultural revolution is what is required.2. This cultural revolution will start locally as a way of PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING.When I talk about a cultural revolution, I’m not necessarily suggesting we go back to the Ancients. Studying the writings of the Ancients (and here I’m going all the way back) may serve as a bridge…but it isn’t a destination. I’m suggesting that we think about the best practices of black urban life (in the case of those living in rustbelt cities like me…other cities require different models), and then figure out how to use those practices to develop a set of ethical standards, and a community-oriented approach to problem solving that is based first and foremost on work.On a related note, the PBS Program NOW will be dealing with Bob Moses and The Algebra Project. Please watch.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GM_kj4RD1_M" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]I was just asked to participate in a conference on the Baltimore riots of 68. Being more of a Detroit guy than a Baltimore specialist I was predisposed to pass. But this video deals with the national context and also opens the door for both comparisons and discussions about what is needed now. Thanks to Prometheus6.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I just received an email yesterday about Randy Parker, who committed suicide at the age of 23. Condolences go out to his mother, father, and extended family. While I maintain that we are and have been a resilient people, able to deal with a lot more (because we’ve had to) than many other populations, African Americans are much more likely to experience some forms of mental illness than their white counterparts, and less likely to get treatment. Probably less likely to get effective treatment on top of that. Of course we know the reasons why–systemic racism increases stress, which in turn increases both the likelihood of suffering from mental illness and the severity of that illness. But knowing is only half the battle. We all know someone who needs help…in many cases that person can be found by looking in the mirror.The Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health and African Americans.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve been reading comics now for thirty years. Two of the first websites I read everyday are Comic Book Resources and Newsarama. Rich Johnston, one of their columnists has been writing a gossip column (”Lying in the Gutters“) of sorts, probably the longest running of its kind. At the bottom of every column he’s got something called a “swipe file.”In comics vocabulary a swipe refers to the intentional or unintentional copying of a panel, cover, page (or photograph) for use in a comic. In order to save time and resources, and in some cases in order to give props where props are due, artists swipe covers, poses, panels, and photographs. Instead of creating an image of Magneto from scratch, you swipe another image and use it as the template. At its best and worst swiping is a bit like sampling.The two images above? Alex Ross was one of the first artists in the modern era to paint rather than draw superheroes, lending them the aura of myth. The picture of The Batman is his. In the text he noted that he got the idea from an old story involving Catwoman…she referred to all of the scars he had on his back.But he didn’t say where he received the artistic inspiration from.The picture to the left should be familiar to students of the enslavement. I believe it is one of the only pictures on record of its kind. Note the posture of the body in both cases. What is it that Ross is trying to convey here that caused him to use the body of a formerly enslaved African? What is missed in the translation? Both are arguably heroes, but whereas the Batman protects and defends the status quo from a position of wealth and privilege, the enslaved African comes to freedom and justice from a very different position.

Bookmark It