Blacksmythe

Forty years ago this summer, Detroit burned, leaving 43 dead, 467 injured, and 2000 buildings burned to the ground. Although some argue that this ended up being the impetus for white flight, the fact of the matter is that even as whites had the opportunity to leave in droves (and many did), it took a hard fought electoral victory by Coleman Young to seal the deal. Whites, fearing what a black run city would look like, in effect took their marbles and fled.

What should we be focused on forty years later, when it appears as if the dreams of black power died where Jos Campau met the Chrysler Freeway? While the discussion rages as to whether we should follow Garvey, Washington, or Dubois, I think that Grace Boggs has the best handle on it. Thinking about the rebellion, she notes the following:

As we look at our communities, looking more and more each day like wastelands and fortresses, as we look at our younger brothers and sisters scrambling and nodding on the streets of our communities, as we think of the children whom we will be bringing into this world–we cannot just grab on to any ideas of liberation just because they are being pushed by old friends of ours or because they give us an emotional shot in the arm.

We can start by categorically rejecting astrology, drugs, religion, black capitalism, separatism and also all those messianic complexes that someone else or we ourselves are going to become “the leader” whom the black masses are waiting for, to lead them out of the wilderness of their oppression. In other words, we can start by turning our backs on all the various escape routes by which many people are still traveling, in the vain hope that somehow they can evade grappling with the real contradictions of this country, this society.

Read the entire essay here. While there is a lot we can gain from studying the ideas of those that came before us, invariably the context we are dealing with now is unique to us, and our task is to develop a response appropriate to it.

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Michele Martin has been working on a new NPR show and has been demoing parts of it on her blog.  My man Jimi came up with a brilliant idea.  Instead of having a roundtable discussion of experts as experts about the days events, why not have a roundtable discussion of black men (not necessarily “regular” black men) just shooting the sh*t basically.  So he puts me, Gary Dauphin, Eugene Robinson, and Alvin Patrick of ESPN’s Cold Pizza fame, on the mic.  The results?

There were two takes–one with Jimi at the head, one with Michel Martin.  Check out Ms. Martin’s ideas on the piece, and judge for yourself.

Me?  I haven’t listened to both takes, but I talked to Michele briefly afterwards.  The first one with Jimi was cool because it was almost like the microphone wasn’t there.  The second one with Michele was cool becasue Michel has a very beautiful voice, and a stronger radio presence.  But in her case I definitely knew that the mic was there.  I’d be interested i your opinions.

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Somehow I missed Gary Dauphin’s take on John McWhorter. I’m interested in McWhorter about as far as I can throw him, but what I am becoming more interested in are the politics of The New Accomodationism.

Accomodationism refers to the ideology taken up by blacks in the Jim Crow era. Given the pervasive nature of Jim Crow terrorism blacks had to decide whether (and how) to fight, or to go along to get along. This latter strategy involved using various means to change the self-image of black people as well as their image in the minds of whites. It also involved various forms of self-help either through religious, fraternal, professional, or educational institutions, or through various media publications. But the one strategy that was largely disavowed was that of political and economic action against the terrorist regime. The best way for black success was to accept the contours of Jim Crow and to do everything they could to help themselves within those confines (along with getting out of the way of whites).

What we are dealing with now is nothing less than a new form of racial accomodationism. When was the last time that someone posited that structural factors were responsible for black life chances, without qualification? That is, instead of saying “well, we know that some police have it out for black people…but yet and still black crime is real”, saying “some police have it out for black people and we need to figure out how to deal with this.”

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I had the opportunity this weekend to meet a brother I’ve thought of as a friend for at least five years–Jelani Cobb. Jelani was in the area promoting his new book and I got a chance to kick it with him a bit.

We got to talking about nationalism and institutions–what we were just talking about in regards to the State of Black America 2007 event–when we got on the subject of Malcolm:

(more…)

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Mat Johnson’s cooking with gas.

I don’t know how I got put down with Niggerati Manor. Probably Tayari. Yes. Tayari.

I see a great deal of promise in the explosion of Urban Fiction. But for writers like Mat and Tayari, this promise is fraught with…I wouldn’t call it danger, but something akin to it. Just as we have a need for the work of Toni Morrison, we also have a need for the stories of someone like K’Wan. the key though is space.

The space to for writers like K’Wan to tell the stories they want to tell, in the way they feel they want to tell them.

The space for writers like Mat to develop their craft and to do the work needed to move black literature out of the ghetto of low expectations and tired themes.

Book publishers are shutting down imprints left and right. Even academic publishers are now expected to make a profit. In this context where music and books can be freely downloaded it is becoming harder for writers to get the breaks they need to make their mark. And harder for writers to write unique work that speaks to the realities of 21st century black life.

Organizing and networking under these circumstances can only help. Networks can sustain writers through dry spells, they can help writers generate new ideas about distributing their work, they can make what is already viewed as a mystical process much more transparent, and they can spread the wealth that has been previously concentrated in the hands of a few agents, writers, and publishers. I consider this a potential example of Open Source organizing, and I am interested in the journey Mat and his crew are about to take. Harold Cruse talked incessantly about the need for black artists to develop their own critical standards in order to improve their art, and in so doing improve the quality of black life. The Niggerati Manor potentially represents a step in this direction.

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