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     Tonya AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Tonya Post Number: 4524 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: |
Redefining 'black' Obama's candidacy spotlights the divide between native black culture and African immigrants. By Louis Chude-Sokei February 18, 2007 ALTHOUGH NOT quite able to pass for white, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been able to pass for African American. He is biracial, but not white; black, but not African American; American but not African. What has entranced the country more than his somewhat vague policies is Obama's challenge to conventional racial and cultural categories. Among African Americans, discussions about his racial identity typically vacillate between the ideologically charged options of "black" versus "not black enough" or between "black" and "black, but not like us." But there is a third side to Obama — and also to the politics of racial passing in America. The population of African immigrants in the United States is rapidly growing. Since 1990, about 50,000 Africans have come to the United States annually, more than in any of the peak years of the international slave trade, which was abolished in 1807. They add to the steady influx of black immigrants from other continents and the Caribbean, and those who have been in the United States for generations but who don't racially and culturally define themselves as African American. These blacks feel cramped by the narrowness of American racial politics, in which "blackness" has not just defined one's skin color but has served as a code word for African American. To be heard and to be counted, these black immigrants must often pass as African American, sometimes against their will. Obama is not the first prominent black to defy conventional American racial and cultural categories. People identified former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's Jamaican ancestry as the quality that made his blackness different. When in the mid-1990s it seemed possible that he would run for president, the pride of the Caribbean immigrant community was nearly palpable. He emboldened Caribbean immigrants to resist African American pressures to erase their own cultural and historical distinctiveness. In such distinctions between black immigrants and African Americans lay buried a history of competitive intra-racial tensions and cultural differences that have never been resolved. In addition to black immigrants' need to hold onto their own identities, many whites have historically tended to regard black immigrants as a model minority within a troublesome native-born black population. A good proportion of immigrants tend to be better educated than African Americans, don't have the "chip" of racial resentment on their shoulder and exhibit the classic immigrant optimism about assimilation into the mainstream culture. Many whites, however, exploit these differences to magnify the problems of African Americans while avoiding charges of racism. And because these differences often result in greater employment and more educational opportunities for immigrants and their descendants, they also feed tensions between native and immigrant blacks. The complex history of black immigrant and African American interaction and distinction has been masked by a tendency in American politics to treat "black" and African American as interchangeable categories. It is further masked by an African American cultural politics that arrogates to itself the official word on racial matters. For black immigrants, African American culture can be as alien and as hostile as mainstream America. Because Powell didn't run for president, the intra-racial differences and historical tensions between immigrant and native-born blacks that his candidacy might have brought to national attention remain largely unknown. "Black" effectively continued to mean African American. But, from a black immigrant perspective, Obama's run for the presidency carries the promise of spotlighting this "category crisis" at long last. There is the possibility of a conversation in which Africans in the U.S., along with other black immigrant groups, may emerge distinctly from the all-consuming category of "black." These issues have been present in scholarship and education for some time. Tensions between native and foreign-born blacks are rising in higher education because universities are reputedly using black immigrants, at the expense of the native-born, to diversify their student bodies. In this case, black immigrants are the primary beneficiaries of the blanket category of "black." Add to this a shifting academic terrain in which traditional black studies are threatened by increasingly popular courses and programs that have a diaspora or Africana slant and do not put African American history or experiences center stage. It's now not uncommon to hear African American scholars and students complaining about the increasing presence of Caribbean and African blacks in black studies departments. Indeed, these kinds of tensions erupted at UC Berkeley two years ago and reflect the continuing struggle over the redefining of "black" in American life and thought. As the numbers of black immigrants and their progeny grow to challenge the numerical supremacy of the native black minority, can a challenge to African Americans' cultural dominance, racial assumptions and politics be far behind? Especially because black immigrants generally and increasingly differ from native-born African Americans in their views on race, racism and political affiliations. They also are less responsive to American racial traumas, which helps explain why some civil rights leaders are unsure of Obama's loyalties to African American causes. Because his political "blackness" is independent of their sanction and emerges from outside their histories, it threatens their cultural and political authority. So Obama does not transcend race, as some might dream. Instead, he represents a set of tensions that go beyond black and white. On one hand, there is America's complex and still unresolved relationship with African Americans and, on the other, an emergent black immigrant presence that is less willing to politically or socially pass for "black" and that has unresolved and unspoken issues of its own. In Obama, we witness how one set of tensions works with and against the other. Immigrant status is deployed not against race but against the messy and unresolved tensions of domestic American racial relationships. And in this, whether he wins or loses, Obama is definitely a sign of the country's future. LOUIS CHUDE-SOKEI, an associate professor of literature at UC Santa Cruz, is the author of "The Last 'Darky': Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy and the African Diaspora." Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-chude-sokei18feb18,0,767264 3.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 800 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
Interesting article, but ("So Obama does not transcend race, as some might dream.") not so true. Until the author sheds the shackles of the "African American" identity misnomer (that is mostly associated with ignorance, violence and incapability), then the merit of most of his assessments will still be elusive. | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1850 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Nels: what do you mean when u say: Until the author sheds the shackles of the "African American" identity misnomer (that is mostly associated with ignorance, violence and incapability) Are you saying that the author is associating "ignorance...." with the AA identity or are you associating "ignorance..." w/African American identity? Or what exactly? I think the article is interesting too. I do think as they say in academic parlance, that Chude-sokei has essentialized both African and African American identities. And perhaps, that W.Indian's are less of a good example, considering that both Malcolm, Marcus, and more recently brother Farrakhan are of Caribbean descent. I think really that this article is more on solid ground when if it is limited to traditional politics. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 7371 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
It would be impossible to discuss this subject without using the term African American, Nels, especially since it is pivotal to the schism which is growing between African immigrants and slave descendants of African origin. What term would you use to replace it? | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 801 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
Yukio -- "Are you saying that the author is associating "ignorance...." with the AA identity or are you associating "ignorance..." w/African American identity? Or what exactly?" It is a perceptive "given" that the world's view of the black (aka African American) experience is one of disdain. Mind you, the AA term itself is frequently viewed as that being of a nomadic wanderer, constantly looking for an identity, a place to belong - perpetually unsatisfied with their human condition. A persistent gripe of passionate resistance to the current (oppressive) authoritarian structure. "A good proportion of immigrants tend to be better educated than African Americans, don't have the "chip" of racial resentment on their shoulder and exhibit the classic immigrant optimism about assimilation into the mainstream culture." Chude-Sokei clearly illustrates this AA failure to accept and assimilate within its own native-born social construct by highlighting the ("chip" of racial resentment on their shoulder). Further more, the following declarations by the author infer a level of social, academic and moral ignorance among the black American community that is unparalleled in the history of the Union. - "Among African Americans, discussions about his racial identity typically vacillate between the ideologically charged options of "black" versus "not black enough" or between "black" and [[[ "black, but not like us." ]]]" "In addition to black immigrants' need to hold onto their own identities, many whites have historically tended to regard black immigrants as a model minority within a [[[ troublesome native-born black population. ]]]" "Add to this a shifting academic terrain in which traditional black studies are threatened by increasingly popular courses and programs that have a diaspora or Africana slant and [[[ do not put African American history or experiences center stage. ]]]" By mere observation, the inference is that the traditional black (AA) community is bereft of reason, logic, social competence and political direction, helplessly brought on by (for example) its inability to discern between that from which it benefits and that from which it doesn’t. Sadly, the mainstream media and Hollywood have also succeeded in driving another nail in the coffin of the AA community’s potential for unbiased and unbridled success, by relegating is most valuable asset, its youth - to the reduced stupidity and ignorance that accompanies its fondness for rap, hip-hop, athletics and that which is perceived on face value as non-intellectual, non-academic and mentally unchallenging. Mind you, the images of Katrina enabled the world to virtually paint the entire (black, AA or whatever they want to call them self) constituency as ignorant in the most damning sense of the word. The black AA community is headed for a crossroads; one path leading to progressive success across all levels of the accomplishment dynamic; a total immersion into the fabric of the American identity and cultural stable. The other path; one of social obscurity, cultural isolation, global disrespect, human indifference and abject failure - exacerbated by the academic ignorance of prior generations. Black is “not” always “right”. Smart is always beneficial. | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 802 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: |
Cynique -- "What term would you use to replace it?" That is one of the most prominent dilemmas facing black America, U.S. society and the world as a whole. Setting aside Jesse Jackson's wreckless injection of the term into the black dynamic, the issue becomes how to properly identify such as diverse group of people given the now proven invalidity of the One Drop Rule and hypodescendency. In truth, blacks in America haven't been black since black slaves began breeding with non-blacks several hundred years ago. What's happened is that white America (so) purposely created such a negative association between "black" and "evil" that finding correct identifiers for (those who call themselves AAs) is exponentially an uphill battle. Worse yet, the growing (intra-racial) fragmentation brought on by the mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, etc. (e.g., http://www.mulattonation.com/) divergence is making the task of finding a non-AA comparator that much more difficult. To answer your question, "what term" is a TALL order. Certainly, much more research would have to be undertaken to come up with the correct solution because most of the empirical data and information that could be used to reclassify the enigma of AA misidentification has been skewed by the ODR and hypodescendency of record. | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1855 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Nels, your reading of the article is interesting. And of course, quite different from mine. I do not liken "African American" w/"ignorance, incapability, and violence," as you seem to do. I'm sure that there are folk here and abroad think of African Americans as you describe, but there are also those, both here and abroad, who associate African Americans with revolutionaries, artistic icons, and the like. There are many, in fact, who claim that African American have made the U.S. more democratic on account of the CRM. Different interpretations of African Americans abounds.... My basic assessement of the author's point is, that African Americans have been a thorn in the U.S. ass, and that Obama's candicacy will force black people to engage in this discussion that could further highlight intraracial conflict and at the same time identify a means by which the U.S. can beter take advantage of African Americans by using Africans' voices to illustrate the insignficance, as WJW claimed, of race... I do think his article makes interesting, but poor, comparisons, however. Because his representation of the W. Indian population is purely sociologically, excluding the real political bonds that have come about between African Americans and W.Indians, thereby simplying the political histories of both groups. By so doing, he has applied their black immigrant experience to what may happen between Africans and African Americans...but first he needs to get the story of W. Indians correct first! | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 803 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
Yukio -- "but there are also those, both here and abroad, who associate African Americans with revolutionaries, artistic icons, and the like." True, however the potency of those accomplished so-called AA's as mentioned above is significantly diminished by the crutch of self-hate (for lack of a better term) that permeates the traditional black community and also retards its forward progression. If you think "black" America is in a bad state now, just wait until the "media" juggernaut finally figures out that black in America really doesn't mean "black" anymore. That's when the sh*t will really hit the fan. | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1856 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
LOL! what do you mean by 'black'? and when did black in American not mean 'black' anymore? | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 805 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
"LOL! what do you mean by 'black'? and when did black in American not mean 'black' anymore?" Black is too broad of a term for such a diverse group of people. Black in the context I mentioned refers to the de facto standard of being designated as black by whites and others. Being "black" is a very complex experience. Since those who've judged the (black) social structure of America have primarily been white, it's become increasingly difficult to determine the validity of such a broad racial, ethnic and cultural designation. sub ... "when did black in American not mean 'black' anymore" When everyone else on the planet realized that black in America was simply a punitive designation, and not a progressive assignment. Again, black America (for lack of a better term) has not yet come to grips with the "fact" that the ODR and hypodescendency are invalid and should not be used as benchmarks for racial classification. Another perspective turns even my perception on its head: Examine... "http://blackademics.org/2006/12/06/its-time-for-ascended-blacks-to-wish-niggers- good-luck/" | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1864 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
When I ask "when," I literarily mean When? Any particular decade or year or any event or events that effected this change in meaning? LOL! I don't quite get what your saying, here, for it seems to that the "'media' juggernaut" has always known that black was "simply a punitive designation, and not a progressive assignment." One of the claims directed at immigrants of color, especially hispanics and w. indians in fact, was their persistence attempt to disclaim a black identity, that is an 'African American' identity, by emphasizing their nationality not their socalled 'race.' And as the article states above, "many whites, however, exploit these differences to magnify the problems of African Americans while avoiding charges of racism." Thus, it seems to me, it is clear that 'black' has long since meant 'black' to the media; indeed, one can compare the lives and careers of Sidney Poitier and Belafonte to look at these issues. | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 807 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: N/A |
"'black' has long since meant 'black' to the media" Therein lies the rub. Negatives far outweigh positives when it comes to the media's intentions, perceptions and goals when it refers to 'black'. Changing the messenger does not necessarily change the message. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 7387 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
I've been thinkin about what we can call a person who's half-black and half-white. We could always creatively combine words and come up with - "whack". heh-heh. Or, maybe "blite" would be better, even if it does sound the same as "blight". No offense of course. As for what to call slave descendants instead of African Americans, how about - ummm lessee.... Niggas! Juuuust kiddin. Let's do a little more creative combining of words....how about ummmmm - Blamericans". Very Zen. The answer is hidden in the question, when you consider whose fault all of this is. | ||
| Nels Veteran Poster Username: Nels Post Number: 808 Registered: 07-2005 Rating: |
Blamericans? Sure sounds better than Tiger's Caublanasian. Wal*Mart's having a sale on crystal balls too. "As for what to call slave descendants instead of African Americans" That's one of the major points. AA is entrenched in the current social fabric. If it can't be escaped, then how can it be contained? Your guess is as good as mine. | ||
| Yvettep Veteran Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 1675 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: |
As for what to call slave descendants instead of African Americans... ...we could hire Prince to design an unpronouncable symbol for us. Even better, a dozen or so symbols that we would change out every few years. All just to keep the conversation going and keep lots of folks feeling unsure and uncomfortable. LOL! | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1865 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
I don't know about names...but the african american has always been a quite flexible term. The question of precision is not that serious unless it a serious situation, and we have to determine with whom we will fight! Otherwise, Black, african american, whatever.... Its really problematic since whites dont have to do this...they can be both irish-american and white and there isn't a problem. Now, of course, I understand WHY this is the case....but it should be mentioned, nevertheless. Too, "african american" is for white people not us; we know who we are. Jesse's national embrace of this was never taken by all "descendants of slaves." This is quite interesting..., that is descendants of slaves. In a book called "African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade," author Anne Bailey explains how slavery, in fact, continued in Africa long after the end of the slave trade, and in fact, many present day Africans are actually descendants of slaves, though they loathe to admit this...She says: There are recent stories, for example, of individuals who were in line for the position of cheiftaincy in their homes communities but who, at the point of decision, were disqualified because someone raised the issue of possible slave heritage. And, we also know that slavery and indentured servitude is a normal part of European history...but they do not appropriate the nominclature..."descendants of slaves" or "descendants of servants." I think we should not be ashamed of this history. And in fact, we need to embrace it because it is part of our history, and this country's history. But, we can not limit our identity to being slaves. Nor should be forget the travails that our ancestors endured. I think its disrespectful when people say you're thinking or behaving like a slave! What do most people know about slavery beyond Roots? Survivors, but especially victims, of the holocaust are revered but we disrespect our own ancestors! OK...its black history month and I'm pissed to the highest pisstivity! | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 7394 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
We overlooked the term which has negative connotations but which does, nonethless, apply to a sizeable segment of "people of color" in America including a certain guy currently running for persident - that infamous sobriquet defined as being black on the outside and white on the inside: OREO! | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1867 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
naw..oreo doesn't work for obama. I think he is "blacker" than the majority of black politicians. Anyways, I think we have tended to ignore class and regional distinctions among blacks. But I think since jim crow as waned in black folks' mine's eye, we do not have a diversity of black organizations, as we had in the past...there are the civil rights folk and the nation of islam. In the past, we had black communists, feminists organizations, etc...all of this actually still exists, but much of it is in the academy. In the 40s, 50s, and 60s, black reds were respected, black feminists, however, encountered heat, but folk were aware of them...anyways, just some thoughts! | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 7397 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Well, white people regard Obama as "clean" and "articulate", traits they admire because they associate these qualities with whiteness. And Obama is going to have to maintain an image that will not be too offensive to white folks, something a lot of black folks tend to do in order to get ahead. They are saddled with the onus of leading double lives that require them to act like a black-white person. Only within the confines of their private lives can they let down their guards and act natural. But I agree that OREO is too derogatory a term to be adopted as a designation. | ||
| Yukio Veteran Poster Username: Yukio Post Number: 1871 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
yeah it is derogatory, and it presumes, that being black is not being "clean" and "articulate." And that white people have ownership of these descriptors/adjectives, as if, as Barack himself queried, that JJ and AS were not both clean and articulate. Who is the black community is more clean and articulate than the preachers? They actually, not pimps, determined how folk would dress in the hood back in the day! |
