Mr. Tom Porter and Janessa Robinson joined us for a discussion of Ornette Coleman, Black Art and caping for white women in the context of the recent identity discovery of Rachel Dolezal.
*HERE is the article i mentioned by Eric Alterman. It and (apparently) the book it references are nonsense.
This “Dolezal Controversy” reminds me of Greg Tate’s book “Everything but the Burden” (not so much the actual substance of the book than the title) and Paul Mooney’s famous “Everybody wants to be a nigga but nobody wants to be a nigga” line.
We also must always remember, in the spirit of ‘Afro-pessimism,’ how African people are the fungible people of the world. Our bodies, ideas, and very identities create wealth and opportunities of all kinds for everybody except ourselves. The concept of us being used as ‘money’ seems to be the underlining, unspoken idea of the whole show. Whether it is whites labeling our conscious expressions to better monetize it (like ‘jazz’ and all other musical forms), the outright theft of our cultural artifacts, to the taking on the mantle of Blackness to better bring one’s self recognition and fame (that real Black people cannot seem to attain) Black people make economic/social/etc. wealth for all people but Black people.
Finally, I also have a visceral problem with the Dolezal issue being likened to transgenderism. That seems to be not only an attack on the birthright of the Black woman to her own identity, but it also seems to be an attack on Black women AS women. I can totally be overreacting to the comparison (and I have nothing but love for African transgendered people) but the idea of linking a man transitioning into a woman to the Black female body in a culture that has de-humanized and de-sexed Black womanhood is problematic to me.
Peace
PS: Jenner’s an ex Wheaties All-American Olympic HAS-BEEN. Jenner’s gender-bending ‘transformation’ is IMO the perfect ‘Holly-weird’ style ‘PR stunt’ to get his mug back in the lime-lite!!!.
Further emphasizing whites’ [including ‘liberals’] critiquing Black artists, as a means to project their cultural dominance over us, see Ishmael Reed’s piece: ‘Mother Hubbard Goes to China [who’re the real censors]’ @ http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/12/mother-hubbard-goes-to-china/
Reed specifically talks about how not just he, but other Black [particularly the late great Amiri Baraka] along w Hispanic & Native American authors have been dissed &/or effectively censored by the ‘liberal’ media [IE: NY-Times, New Yorker, etc]- an effort often spearheaded by white bourgeois ‘feminists’ [Reed begins by mentioning Toni Morison’s take on ‘minority tokenism’].
IMO Mr Porter’s point was clear & needed NO apology NOR explanation. FYI: The modern [& mainly bourgeois white] feminist & LGBT movements ‘piggy-backed’ off the Black Freedom struggle of the 1960s & 70s, & up-till now have leaped-frogged ahead of us on the ‘liberal Dim’ national agenda [the uprising ‘Black Lives Matter’ youth movement may somewhat change this trend].
IMO if you accept [Olympic has-been / Kardashian linked] Bruce Jenner’s gender ‘transformation’ as a [PC] legit topic, then we ‘must accept’ Ms Dolezal’s racial ‘transformation’ as ‘Legit’. Which means we also then must accept Michael Jackson’s ‘Wacko-Jacko’ de-racializing ‘transformation’ as ‘Legit’- including accepting his 3 FAKE white-kids as his ‘actual’ ‘BIOLOGICAL’ progeny! So where exactly does this take us, & how does it address & improve the conditions of the Black Masses, as Mr Parter aptly notes should be our main concern???