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LET'S WORRY THE LINE:
BLACK RADICALISM AND THE BOURGEOIS IDEAL

presented by

Phyllis Lynne Burns

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LET'S WORRY THE LINE:
BLACK RADICALISM AND THE BOURGEOIS IDEAL
By

Phyllis Lynne Burns

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of English

2006

ABSTRACT
LET‘S WORRY THE LINE:
BLACK RADICIALISM AND THE BOURGEOIS IDEAL
By
Phyllis Lynne Burns

This dissertation addresses the influence of Black Radical theory and activism on
African American literature and Black culture in North America. A theoretical analysis
ofthe Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army provides space to critique the
ideals ol“"racial progress" advocated by the Black bourgeoisie. Thus. the dissertation
questions readin assumed theoretical frames espoused through Black middle-class
ideologies. I argue that the Black bourgeois ideal is based on the foreclosure ol‘the

generally. the

'-
hr

possibility ol‘selfldel‘ense in response to racial violence. and. more
marginalization ofthe Black majority based on an ideological collusion between white
America and the Black "elite." Through a comparative examination of chattel slave
narratives and neo-sla\ e narratives’novels. the project connects these texts by critically
engaging late twentieth-century Black liberation activism and its opposition to
mainstream and Black bourgeois models. An examination of ideas emerging from the
Black Power Movement provides a comprehensive investigation of underrepresented
texts within the Academy. This project looks at the insights ol‘Assata Shakur. Elaine
Brown. Huey P. Newton. George L. Jackson. and Robert F. Vv"illiams along with the

testimonies of Frederick Douglass. Harriet A. Jacobs. and Mary Prince in addition to the

literature of Gloria Naylor. Sherley Anne Williams. Toni Cade Bambara. Toni l\"lorrison.
and Sam Greenlee. This array of texts in turn creates space to re-formulate traditional
investigations ofchattel-slave narratives and African American literature and. further. to
analyze the continuum of liberation efforts historically and their link to Black youth

culture in the contemporary context ofNorth America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright by
IWHWILSLYNNEBURNS

2006

For My Parents
Elaine and .lohnie Burns
&

.lanet Elaine. John Martin. Alan Darrell

V

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Love for
.lanet Burns. Tim Christensen
Sherrie Lynn .lohnson. l_.al\/londa Horton-Stallings. Tammy \llv"ahpeconiah._
William Stallings. Greg Thomas. Quincy T. Norwood.
Angela Wright. Gwen Etter-Lewis. Griselda Daniel.
Carey Mickalites. Renita and Sidney Ellis. Dolores Sisco. Andrevv Rivers.
Bernadette Ballard-Reid. .lulie Romine

Your encouragement was always there and cherished.

v i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
THE MALFUNCTION OF
“PROGRESS" ......................................................................................... I

CHAPTER I
COVERING ('(),-‘\'l)lf..ll.\'.4 7‘/().\'
AND THOSE BONES .................................................................................................... IO

CHAPTER 2

AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION IN RETROSPECT:

BLACK RADICAL THOUGHT EXAMINES

BLACK BOURGEOIS IDEOLOCASS

CHAPTER 3
LET’S WORRY THE LINE:
ENDING THE SERVICE OF BLACK \NOIVIEN

IN THE LITERARY IMAGINATION ......................................................... 106
CHAPTER 4

“OUR PRESENCE IS FELT LIFE THE BLACK PANTHER MOVEMENT" :

HIP-HOP RIDES WITH BLACK RADICAL IVIOMENTUM .............................. I45
CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 186
ENDNOTES ....................................................................................... I87
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................. I89

Introduction
The Malfunction of"Progress”

In late 2005 America was in mourning. Rosa Parks, celebrated as the “Mother of the
Civil Rights IVIovement” died in Detroit, br'lichigan at the age of 92. Reports of her life,
depicted as a legacy. dominated news coverage for weeks with attention drawn. of course, to
that “fateful” day on December I, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama when Parks was arrested
and jailed for violating segregation laws when she refused to relinquish her bus seat to a
white man. News agencies worldwide spoke of her single act of non—violent, dignified
rebellion that triggered the “iVIontgomery Bus Boycott” which led to a court ruling
desegregating public transportation in :VIcmtgomcry. It was reported that the body of Rosa
Parks, who had received a “Medal of I’reedom” from former President \V’illiam.Iefferson
Clinton and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, would lie in state for public
viewing at two churches: St. Paul AME in Montgomery, and St. Paul ..~\I\’Il-7. in \X-"ashington
D.(':.. as well as at the Charles II. \X’right Museum of;\ frican American History in Detroit
and in the rotunda of the Lincoln Memorial in \V’ashington. DC. In further homage to
Parks, the US. House of Representatives and the Senate voted to re—name the Federal
Homeland Security Office in Detroit the Rosa Parks Federal Building. President George W".
Bush ordered all federal flags across the nation to be lowered to half—mast on the day of her
funeral. which took place in Detroit. President Bush did not attend the funeral.

The narrative surrounding the activism and eulogy of Rosa Parks reveals a great deal.
It not only speaks to the rhetorical strategy underlining America‘s relationship with Black
political activism, but it also exposes the objectives of “racial progress” espoused by Black
bourgeois ldCOIOgy. \X‘hat lurks underneath this narraritivizatit)n of Parks is a network of

sinister duplicity. Park’s death has served the nation well. Although mourned, her demise

was utilized as a symbol to mark the glorious end of an era when the strife ofracial
discrimination plagued the nation. The national attention paid to this Civil Rights pioneer
and the respect bestowed upon this “real apostle of the non-violent movement”1 indicated
for many that racism now only resides in a distant past. Her memorial services. held in both
the North as well as the South, were attended by various heads of state. Even the President,
who comes under continual fire for his ultra~conservatism. was said to have understood the
magnitude of this woman’s passing and ordered the nation to mourn. l‘inally, Parks holds
the distinction of being the first woman and the first person of African descent to lie in state
i in the nation‘s capital. None of these events could have taken place in years past. And so
the logic proceeds that America has learned its lesson and as result we now dwell in racial
harmony. As for the Black elites. they were vindicated. ()ne of their own had proven them
right. The national reverence for the woman who had once served as a chapter secretary of
the NAACP. and had toppled segregation with a dignified non-violent defiance. indicated
that the nation had realized the error of its ways. Non-violence was the pathway to freedom
and contrary to national sentiment, Blacks were worthy and capable.

Both the manner in which Parks has been venerated within the national
consciousness and symbolized by the Black bourgeoisie comes at the expense of an absence.
if not a calculated dismissal. of key information on the part of both entities. In terms of her
refusal to give up her seat. Parks was not the first person to do so: Instead there were mat/j
Blacks who had previously refused to give up their seats and mum others who had violated
various .lim Crow laws not only in l\*lontgomery. but in other Southern locales as well. Yet
Parks was afforded national attention for several specific reasons. In one instance. her act
of rebellion. an embodiment of non-violence. made white America comfortable. Robert

\V'illiams (Neg/mar taxi/l) (ix/m 1962} is just one of many Black activists to engage the subject of

|~J

political violence. 'l'hroughout his narrative \V’illiams explains how white America
monopolizes violence in that it continually levels physical attacks against Blacks whenever it
senses that the racial order is threatened, but when Blacks respond by meeting violence with
violence. they are immediately crin‘iinalized. killed with impunity. and deemed psychotic for
engaging in acts of self-defense. 'l‘herefore. political violence is designated as the exclusive
right and privilege of white America. Dhoruba Bin \V'ahad (“Still Black. Still Strong” 1989:)
provides a similar argument. The former Black Panther leader discusses how historically
revenge is the solution when whites are killed by people of color. while “peaceful
reconciliation” is called for when Black people die at the hands of whites. Secondly.
\Villiams. who was the NAACP chapter president in Monroe. South Carolina discusses the
N\.-\CP‘s philosophy of political violence and armed self-defense. The national
organization suspended \Villiams for six months when it learned that the l\-'Ionroe chapter
was advocating and using armed weapons to defend the Black community from l\'u lx'lux
l\'lan and local police assaults. Thirdly. \V'illiams also asserts that the NAACP did not look
favorably on his particular chapter. because. as he explains. “we ended up with a chapter that
was unique in the whole NAACP because of a working class composition and a leadership
that was not middle class” (l4).

()ne of the principal founders of the NACCP was \V’lll’). Dul’iois. the African
American Harvard scholar whose “'l‘alented Tenth” theory galvanized Black elites into
adopting a version of the “white man‘s burden.” According to DuBois. a "natural
aristocracy" comprised often percent ofthe Black population in North America would
hear the burden ofelevating the race. Through their exemplary work in the lofty fields of
science and the arts. this "Talented Tenth." defined also as these "exceptional men."

would. as the vanguard. demonstrate that Blacks possess the capacity to become full

(I)

participants in American society. l-lowever. an analysis ofthis ideology of“racial uplift."
which is based on the presupposition that it is the moral prerogative of the middle class to
re-make the working class in their own image. reveals the symbolic reliance ofthe black
bourgeoisie on the continued existence of the “lower” classes. In this dissertation. l argue
that the bourgeoisie can envision freedom and equality only according to a paradigm of
ownership. which requires the symbolic. and often literal. sacrifice of the "unregenerate"
classes of Black Americans. The Black middle class. in other words. is only capable of
defining itselfand distinguishing itself from the “lower" classes through a psychic
economy of sacrifice: once again. a mentality that is fundamentally a variation ofthe
“white man‘s burden" tailored to fit Black men. If only ten percent were deemed worthy.
the remaining 90 percent ofthe Black population were envisioned as doomed. and this
segment. it seems. could be sacrificed for the good of the ten percent. The theory worked
to reinforce an “Us v. Them" mentality among Blacks in North America. and. in turn. the
NAACP — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — was re-
titled by those in the ninety percent as the “National Association for the Advancement of
Certain People.”

Rosa Parks epitomized this class of Black elites and quelled white America's
psychotic fears of violence—prone Blacks. In her memoir. The Mon/gmnetjv Bus Boycott
and [he ll 'omen H 770 Slur/ed ll ( 1987,). Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. former Women‘s
Political Council president. an organization ofBlack middle-class women. describes
Parks as "a medium sized. cultured mulatto woman: a civic and religious worker. quiet
and unassuming. and pleasant in manner and appearance: dignified and reserved; of high

morals and a strong character" (579-80,). “Cultured.” "quiet.“ and light-complexioned.

Parks was. for Robinson. a paradigm of virtue. As a young adult. Parks attended
Alabama State College. She found work as a tailor‘s assistant at the Montgomery Fair
department store and worked part-time as seamstress for a local white family in addition
to fulfilling duties as an NAACP chapter secretary. She married Raymond Parks who
earned his living as a barber. and in 1957 the couple moved to Detroit. Years later she
co-founded the Rosa Parks and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. a youth
organization that advocated education and participation in the electoral process. Her
former pastor at Montgomery's St. Paul AME recalls how Parks often greeted young
people at the church where she offered the instruction. "Don‘t be bitter. be better" (Kurth
2005).

My dissertation. "Lets \Xv’orry the Line: Black Radicalism and the Bourgeois
Ideal." provides an analysis of the ideals of"racial progress" advocated by members of
the Black elite such as Parks and Robinson and embraced by mainstream America. I
argue that this ideal is based on the foreclosure of the possibility of self-defense in
response to racial violence. and. more generally. the marginalization ofthe Black
majority based on an ideological collusion between white America and the Black elite.
both of which are evident in the elevation of Parks to an icon of racial harmony. My
project discusses at length how Black bourgeois sentiment arises out ofa need to
establish an identity that aligns itself with white America. Therefore. the id 3a of class, as
it is discussed in this project. is not grounded exclusively in material wealth. but rather a
symbolic identification.

Within this frame I critically engage chattel and neo-slave narratives together with

late twentieth-century African American literature and Diaspora Studies to formulate an

analysis of Black liberation struggle and its opposition to mainstream and Black
bourgeois ideals of racial progress. My examination ofideas emerging from the Black
Power Movement allows a comprehensive investigation of underrepresented texts within
the Academy. 1 call into question readily assumed theoretical frames espoused through
Black middle-class ideologies. This in turn creates space to re-formulate traditional
investigations ofchattel-slave narratives and African American literature and. further. to
analyze the continuum of liberation efforts historically and their link to Black youth
culture in the contemporary context ofNorth America.

I open my dissertation with "Covering Comlemnmion and Those Bones." The
chapter provides a reading of former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown‘s The
Condemnation o/‘ljtlle B (2002) together with an explication ofToni Cade Bambara‘s
novel. Those Bones Are A-"o/ All ("hi/d. While Brown provides a meticulous investigation
ofthe national incarceration rates of Blacks in North America. Bambara‘s epic novel
addresses the "Atlanta Child Murders." Both texts are instrumental in drawing attention
to the era of“New Age Racism" and the duplicity of“racial progress." The authors
expose how a socioeconomic order in the US. is founded on the vilification and
eradication of economically poor Blacks. The chapter. titled "Covering Condemnation
and Those Bones." begins with an analysis of mainstream reviews of Condemnu/imr and
concludes with an examination ofthe formal qualities of Those Bones.

Through engaging in an analysis ofthe figural structure of the novel. I
demonstrate how Bambara disrupts the difficult gap between "us" and "them" that the
figure of bourgeois progress uneasily assumes. In particular. I examine how the narrative

voice ofthe novel's "Prologue" addresses the reader with the second person singular

pronoun. "you." while narrating the events surrounding the murders. By addressing the
reader in a personal tone that incorporates him or her into the community of poor Blacks.
the narrator problematizes the discourse on Blacks and crime that frames popular
understandings of the story. effectively forcing the reader to question complacent
assumptions about divisions of race and class that determine rhetorical norms of
objectivity in the media.

The second chapter. "African American Fiction in Retrospect: Black Radical
Thought Examines Black Bourgeois Ideology." offers a survey of late twentieth-century
African American fiction. The discussion here concerns the dismissal of radical political
activism by Black bourgeois adherents. I argue in this chapter that African American
writers. beginning with narratives of chattel slavery. have traditionally analyzed systemic
racism in the United States. but a departure emerged in late twentieth-century when Black
novelists began to expand this inquiry. Their focus now included a critique ofthe
collusion of the Black bourgeoisie. I assert that late twentieth-century Black writers
expand this theme because they were greatly influenced by the Black Power Movement
in North America. The chapter critically engages the theory and praxis ofthe Black
Panther Party (BPP). which takes its philosophical cue. most notably. from Frantz
Fanon's The ll’releheu’ ofthe Ear/h. Contemporary writers such as Gloria Naylor. Sam
Greenlee. Toni Morrison. and Sherley Anne Williams produced a body ofliterature that
incorporates the principles of Black radical theory to challenge ideals of“racial progress“
and re-define bourgeois understandings ofblack history and literature. These authors are
particularly concerned with re-defining the concept of“slavery" not as a marker of

historical progress. but as a concept that meaningfully defines the condition of Blacks in

contemporary America. This re-conceptualization ofthe relationship of Blacks to both
American history and contemporary culture also calls for a re-evaluation of revolutionary
violence as vehicle for change.

In “Let's Worry the Line: Ending the Service of Black Women in the Literary
Imagination." I employ a psychoanalytic textual analysis to destabilize conventional
interpretations of"classic" texts. written by men. which have been used to define the
African American literary tradition. In the previous chapters I argued that poor Blacks
are continually sacrificed in order for the Black middle-class to attain and maintain
positions of symbolic equivalence to the white middle-class. Similarly. within Black
literary theory. liberation has been positioned as the prerogative ofmale authors. But
scant attention has been paid to how bourgeois theories of male liberation are based on
the surrnounting ofthe freedoms Other. chattel slavery. through the unconscious
identification with white male "masters." particularly during moments of the sexual
oppression of Black women. Against this tradition ofaehieving freedom through the
disavowed identification with the master class. I position texts by Black female authors
including Sherley Anne Williams and Pearl Cleage. which envision violent acts as
potential forms of praxis. mediating the relation of thought and action by perforrnatively
re-delining the conceptual frame of liberation.

The fourth and concluding chapter. "‘Our Presence is Felt Like the Black Panther
Movement‘: Hip-Hop Rides with Black Radical Momentum." engages an analysis about
the generational links that formulate Hip-Hop. The chapter examines Hip-Hop‘s affinity
with the theory and praxis ofthe Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. It

situates Hip-Hop as Black youth culture-know]edge. Hip-l lop is the conduit through

which Black youth culture celebrates itself. comprehends its sociopolitical history. and
re-creates spaces ofdefiance and resistance. In this chapter. I reject the mainstream
notions that Hip-Hop is “nihilistic noise.” Such blithe dismissals oinp-Pop in fact
reflect a disavowed recognition that Hip-Hop provides a space of self-definition for Black
youth that often categorically rejects mainstream definitions of what it means to be Black.
Artists such as Dead Prez. Immortal Technique. The Coup and Dave Chappelle produce
works that specifically address the socioeconomic predicament ofthose residing in the
nation's central cities. the birth—place of Hip-Hop. They comprehend and thus define this
predicament as war on the Black community at-large and through their artistic
expressions offer strategy for liberation. The chapter details the psychic formation of
Hip-Hop and proceeds to chronicle the revolutionary ecstasy that defines this cultural

tradition.

C)

Covering Condemt-uttirm and Those Bones

A critique of reviews and articles on Elaine Brown‘s The Condemnation of'Littt'e
B (2002) and an analysis of Toni Cade Bambara‘s Those Bones Are Not My Child (2000‘).
and Tayari .lones‘s Leaving Atlanta (2002) is necessary for a discussion of racial progress
and the Black bourgeoisie since each text locates its meaning by addressing how the
Black middle class. in its aspirations to attain economic and cultural success. are quite
willing to sacrifice poor and disenfranchised Blacks. Also. significantly. the events
examined in ('ondenination. Those Bones. and Leaving take place in Atlanta. Georgia a
city that is widely recognized as one of the nation‘s first "Chocolate Cities.” Nicknamed
also the “Black Mecca." Atlanta. during the late twentieth-century. specifically during the
1080s. was considered an oasis for young Black northern aspiring professionals. most
commonly known as “Buppies” (Black Urban Professionals) who reversed the migration
trend oftheir foreparents by returning South to a region that was supposedly committing
"Bubbacide." Atlanta. as Brown cites throughout Condemnation. would stand in as a
microcosm ofNorth America. in that the city made promises to emerge as the new jewel
ofthe South. a "city too busy to hate." an international city where racism was a thing of
the past and Black economic success could be finally realized by the individual. But
Brown. together with Bambara and .lones. reveal a reality about Atlanta that unveils the
operations ofa class/caste system that brutally shuts out a large population of Black
citizens. Within her chapter "In the Shadow ofthe Dome." Brown extensively chronicles
the extent to which city officials. both Black and white working in conjunction with

predominately white corporate and financial interests. attempt to build this Black Mecca

IO

at the expense ofdestroying Black neighborhoods they deem poor and thus inherently
destructive.

It is interesting to see how Condemnation has been defined. or re-defined. since
Brown undoubtedly seeks to redefine the language used to analyze the wretched
condition ofBlacks via the city of Atlanta that ultimately stands in to discuss the
condition of Blacks in all ofNorth America. She examines the case of Atlanta-born
Michael Lewis. and the incarceration ofBlack children as adults in general in order to
resist the national criminalization of Blackness. Within her chapter. “The
Abandonment." Brown directs our attention to emblems of Black bourgeois “success"
who have played a secondary and yet. a highly pivotal role in the vilification of Blacks
through careers built on the denigration of Black resistance and struggle even though
their positions of power were realized through this legacy. Bambara and Jones direct
their sights toward Atlanta‘s Black community. which was held under siege when
numerous Black children were kidnapped and murdered during what is now called "The
Atlanta Child Murders." Both novels allow space to take on the breadth ofcity politics
and community organizations which all conspired to treat the murder of Black children as
a necessity within a quest to maintain the facade ofa prosperous Black middle-class

haven.

The Condemnation and Abandonment
Dead Prez. or DPZ. rap about the blend between revolution. liberation. and self-
determination. and in one oftheir cuts the duo issues a proclamation from Hip-Hop that

leads me to think immediately of Brown‘s opening line in A Taste ofl’ower. her narrative

chronicling her activism as Black Panther Party leader. DPZ says that “Freedom ain't
gonna come til we regulate em“ (“Turn Offthe Radio.” 2000b). The duo. consisting of
rappers M-l and stic.man. take their philosophical cue from the Black Panthers who
initiated a strategy of self-determination that called upon Oakland. California’s Black
community to address police brutality by activating a program to monitor and patrol local
police. Panther members. armed with loaded weapons. cameras. tape recorders. and law
books. began monitoring police patrols. By regulating c0ps. the BPP took the first step in
dernystifying state authority in which “[pleople would see members ofthe [Black
Panther] Party standing in their defense against the hated representatives of the white
power structure" (Abu-.Iamal 2004. 43). This critical concept of re-appropriation is often
missed. if not dismissed. in popular/mainstream discussions concerning African
American resistance in the United States. What DPZ learned from the Panthers and what
they reissue now nearly forty years later is that liberation for Blacks in North America.
throughout the Diaspora. and on the Continent. must be defined by those held in bondage.
Liberation/freedom must be seized by the enslaved. not granted by the enslaver. since the
enslaved must determine themselves for themselves.

Brown. the first and only woman to serve as Black Panther Party (BPP)
“Chairman." introduced readers to her 1992 narrative. .4 Taste o/‘Power. with the line —
the one declarative statement that always manages to annoy mainstream feminists and
neoliberals at-large who charge Brown with investing in masculine images of power: "I
have all the guns and all the money" (Brown 1992. 3). Yet. Brown‘s assertion always
inspires me and directs my attention to her re-inscription ofthe BPP stance of self-

determination and self-empowerment. Now. Brown‘s The Condemnation ofLitt/e B.

written ten years after .4 Taste of'Power. and more than 30 years following her activism
as a Panther leader. again announces her presence and keen comprehension of what it
means to be Black in America. Brown chronicles the US. Black social condition and. in
so doing. she offers a vital strategy of self-determination/self—definition to destabilize
racist policy and public sentiment employed to hold Blacks in bondage.

The link between chattel slavery and prisons is outlined clearly by the 13th
amendment to America‘s Constitution. It is a legality that does not abolish slavery at all;
itsirnply redefines slavery: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. EXCEPT as a
punishment for crime whereofthe party has been duly convicted. shall exist within the
United States. or any place subject to their jurisdiction." To make (i.'ondemmttion's case.
Brown recalls this often misread amendment in addition to quoting W.E.B. DuBois. who
wrote in Black Reconstruction: “For there began to rise in America in 1876 a new
capitalism and a new enslavement of labor.” Brown maintains that staggering high
numbers of Blacks were “looming as part ofa new scheme ofconvict labor. free labor in
America. on which DuBois had so profoundly reflected a century before" (349‘). The
United States has the largest prison population in the world with more than two million
people incarcerated. and. as Brown explains: “By the end ofthe millennium. blacks.
about 12 percent of the population. represented 46 percent ofall prisoners in the United
States ofAmerica" (352). According to US. Census reports the state of Georgia has the
highest prison population. In a state where Blacks make-up 28.7 percent ofthe
population. they represent 34 percent of probationers. 44 percent of parolees. and 66

percent ofthe people in the state‘s jails and prisons. IVIoreover. adhering to a national

trend. inmates are exploited as a source of cheap and free labor. and within this insidious

scheme. inmates. who are disproportionately Black nationwide. are enslaved by
numerous private corporations that contract with government agencies to hire or “farm"
inmate workers. Brown further writes that. in order to create jobs and to attract these
corporations. “economically impoverished cities and towns lobby for prison construction
— a scheme that necessarily requires more prisoners" (353).

And it is through Condemnation that Brown meticulously investigates the
conviction ofthen 13-year old Michael Lewis. nicknamed Little B. a Black child born and
raised in Atlanta who is held captive in Phillips State Prison in Georgia. Michael serves a
life term as an adult on trumped-up first-degree murder charges. He was arrested in 1997
for the death of Darrell Woods. also Black. a 23 year-old husband and father oftwo sons.
who was. after his death. continually glorified by the local press as a consummate “family
man." Woods was fatally shot while sitting in his car as his wife went into a grocery
store to buy a soda. But Michael's case. as Brown reveals. was ludicrous from the word
“go." His conviction. and the conviction of Black youth in North America overall.
emerges out of

new social and political policies rife with racism. particularly in relation to crime

and punishment. These latter day theories about black boys are rooted in the

culture ofAmerican slavery. wherein the black male was identified as inherently

fl)

avage. an immoral or amoral being possessing a bestial nature. and thus by
nature inferior to whites and fit only to serve as a slave. (Brown 2002. 102-3)
Brown does more than zero in on the public condemnation of young Black males;

she also looks at how mainstream notions work to vilify young Black females. Brown

tells us about Shawntello Young. also from Atlanta. who lost her eight-month old

14

daughter. Tameka. when her child choked to death after swallowing a cockroach. Local
news agencies. as in the case of Michael. were quick to condemn 18-year old Shawntello
as just another Black teen mother. ill-equipped to take proper care ofa child she should
not have had in the first place. While Black male youth have been envisioned as
criminal. a "menace to society." Black female youth are made to be criminals in part
because they‘re perceived to be sexually promiscuous and irresponsible mothers. Brown
writes there was a broad public indictment levied against Shawntello since it was readily
assumed that Tameka died because her mother either neglected or abused her baby.
There was no recognition that Tameka choked to death because of conditions brought
about by poverty. The poverty was itself widely ignored. or viewed as a simple
inevitability. Brown explains:
This implicit distribution of personal responsibility to black mothers themselves
for the death oftheir babies. a variation on the themes raised in the death of
Shawntello Young‘s baby. evades the more compelling objective realities. In the
case ofShawntello Young. this evasion went not merely to the issue ofthe gross
neglect on the part of the AHA [Atlanta Housing Authority] with respect to
maintenance of Perry Homes. It also had to do with the total environment of
poverty and neglect to which Shawntello and Tameka and all the other Perry
Homes children had been subjected. (98)
The Fulton county assistant medical examiner. .lohn Parker. who performed the autopsy
on Tameka's body remarks how “impress[ed]" he was of Tameka‘s cleanliness: a remark
that steers the public to assume that the child should in fact be dirty (94). lVloreover. on

the very day Shawntello buries her daughter. Renee Lewis Glover. All A executive

—‘
(J!

 

director. held a press conference where she presented a police report which was meant to
substantiate her claim that not only did Shawntello stand by and watch her daughter play
with the cockroach. but even more. Shawntello watched her daughter choke to death.
And to drive yet another nail into Tameka's coffin. Perry issued an AHA inspection
report “in which the Young family had been given ‘failing and unsatisfactory
housekeeping grade.” (98‘). In the case of Michael. the court dismisses the fact that
agencies put in place to assist Michael summarily failed him. In the case ofShawntello.
we are supposed to ignore the reality of her living in a housing project that federal
agencies run as slums. More specifically. as Brown details. the public is also supposed to
ignore the fact that the Herman E. Perry Homes project. where Shawntello and her baby
lived. was in such wretched conditions that the AHA was. at the time of Tameka's death.
seeking approval to demolish it. Perry Homes was surrounded by a battalion ofneglected
filth; yet. Shawntello is made wholly responsible for the death of her child even as she
Shares space with a city park overrun with vermin (the site of repeated rapes). a sanitation
landfill. and a highly polluted river (99-100).

Overall. Brown targets Michael and Shawntello's cases in order to confront “New
Age Racism." and its very emergence. She thus details the link between chattel slavery
and nee-slavery. of which the prison industrial complex is an integral aspect. Exposed is
the racial brutality inherent in American consciousness. a consciousness that always
defines crime as inherently Black and “evil": mainstream media statistics as wholly
objective; federal agencies or agendas as compassionate if. unfortunately. overwhelmed:
and. finally. presidential politics as culturally inclusive. This is a reactionary

consciousness that rests on the idea that racism. when considered "had." no longer exists.

l6

while it defines its very identity through a vilification of Blacks for being Black. And in
the end. or "in the main" as Brown often writes. this consciousness without fail holds
Blacks completely and exclusively responsible for why our communities are besieged by
enforced poverty. and violent and racist police that areal] supported by a biased judicial
system and government policies. Brown explains that Americans "have shifted
responsibility onto Blacks by saying ‘Well. ifblacks are poor. there must be something
wrong with them. lfthey‘re going to prison in these large numbers. it's because they're
committing the crimes. There's no more racism in America; they just can't make itm
(Weaver El ).

Mainstream reviewers of The ('omz’emnarirm Q/‘LiII/e B. predictably. fail to
address any ofthese crucial points overall. Several publications miss the connection
between the demonization of Blacks and America‘s political economic order because of
their inability to focus on the socioeconomic conditions that cultivate Michael and
Shawntello‘s condemnation. News reports ofthe case of Michael‘s arrest are emblematic
ofthis failure. The city's leading newspaper. Atlanta .lozn'nul-Consli/ulirm, featured
articles and editorials reminiscent of the fictive news reports about Bigger Thomas in
Richard Wright's Narivc Son. Even before he is found “guilty“ by ajury ofhis so-called
peers. Bigger is labeled by the press as the “sex-slayer" and "black killer" (3-3). In like
fashion. Michael was immediately rendered guilty though popular representation. As
soon as Michael was arrested. Mayor Bill Campbell. the third African American to hold
this post in Atlanta. condemned Michael as an "evil" in the city (28) and the Journal-
C'rmslilulirm ran such articles as "Teen Suspect a ‘Thugf Police Say” and "Slaying

Suspects Brother: ”He‘s Badm (361 ). The media. by attributing characterizations of

17

Michael‘s criminality to sources assumed to be of unimpeachable authority such as the
police and the mayor. and sources that provide the experiential and emotional counterpart
ofthis “factual" evidence of his depravity such as a family member. effectively convict
Michael at the same moment that they inscribe his accusation in the consciousness ofthe
public. While not technically convicted. of course. the "fact" that Michael represents the
larger problem ofa degraded Black culture defined by its criminalin is established within
the public mind. Brown recalls specifically the newspaper‘s editorial "Keeping Kids
from Killing":
Among the proliferation of.lournul-Consliluriun editorials written about Michael
was one published only a week after his arrest, which developed the syllogistic
conclusion. supported by nothing more than its two cited cases. that Michael was
the latest exemplar ofa new breed of"scary" kids. These were “young killers . . .
living outside the bounds of norn'ia/ social interaction. tiny [hugs who would kill
at the slightest insult — or sometimes without any provocation.” (29)
By highlighting the fact that these editorials condemn Michael on the basis of(arbitrary)
analogies. Brown stresses that the evidence required by the newspaper's editors is not
strictly empirical or logical. but the self-apparent sort ofevidence that can be attached to
Michael through the application of racially-charged language. If Michael is a “thug." we
only have to follow the tautology to its conclusion to realize that he "would kill" for
trivial reasons. Why. we might ask. does the editor find Michael representative ofthis
trend in particular? How do we know that “a new breed of 'scary' kids” exists if we can
cite only two examples ofthis supposed phenomenon? These obvious questions are not

relevant. because the editor has effectively eliminated the problem ofthe grounds of his

comparison — the m'hilrurincss of his analogy — by the invocation ofa truth assumed to
be self-evident: the inherent criminality ofBlack culture. from which Michael emerges.
If. as Brown argues and extensively documents. the conviction of Michael is an event
compulsively repeated throughout America with the effect ofsustaining a system of
legalized neo-slavery. it is also an event that tells us important things about the
representational practices that enable this system. It is a representational practice that
need only appeal to the public‘s self-evident knowledge of Blacks to effectively establish
the guilt ofa Black defendant. We might therefore posit that there is something that
America experiences as inherent in the representation of Blacks that sustains the system
of neo-slavery by rendering Blacks guilty at the very moment that their Blackness is
inscribed in them —— as when Michael is labeled a sx'tiny thug.“

Thus. as Brown notes. when the police came to get Michael. the entire city. if not
the entire country. had already held Michael. like all Black children. to be guilty — guilty
for his social condition. guilty for the problem of violent crime. guilty by virtue of
representing an inherently guilty condition. being Black. In “LITTLE B REVISITED:
Author Decries Tarring of Suspect." Brown says of Michael and the city's relationship to
him at 13: “Nobody was there for him. There was no system in place. no institution in
place. So I thought at the time. ‘Now ifhe killed somebody. why is anybody surprised?
You throw him in the sewer and now you want him to act like he‘s been nurtured and
cared for all his life?” (\k’eaver El). During his "trial" which lasted a mere three days. a
statement made by Valerie Lewis. Michael‘s mother. was included as key "evidence"

used against Michael. Ironically her statements about Michael were now deemed valid

19

by the state despite the fact that. only two years earlier. the juvenile court had declared
his mother an “unfit" mother in her third "deprivation hearing" (83‘).

Adding to the list of absurdities was the fact that Michael had been declared a
ward ofthe state. At the time of his arrest. he was living on his own. and had not
attended school for two years. For his truancy. Michael was found guilty. while the State
was deemed wholly innocent of its neglect. We can locate a similar situation in the
"disappearance" of four year-old Rilya Wilson. who was declared missing in 200]. As
reported in a May l3. 2002 Newsweek article. “A Hole in the Safety Net.” the Florida
Department of Children Families “somehow managed to lose track of Rilya's
whereabouts for more than fifteen months" (40). No one was held accountable for
having lost a Black child. Florida's Governor .leb Bush said he was not prepared to
blame anyone yet. True to his word. the caseworker assigned to Rilya was allowed to

U government records even after

I—
vs.

resign. rather than being fired or charged with falsifyin
authorities discovered that the cz-tseworker falsified reports of her having visited Rilya
who was supposedly living with the grandmother. and for having failed to file a missing
person‘s report when she discovered that Rilya was no longer living with the
grandmother.

A lack of insight appears to generally plague reviews of Condemnation. There is
little. if any. mention ofthe racism that made Michael's arrest or Tameka‘s death an
inevitz-ibility. Brian Gilmore ofthe flushing/on Post (“The Dispossessed“). together with

the reviewer of Publisher ’s fleck/j". instead charges Brown with bogging down her text

\-

with too much historical information. Gilmore says that the author

provides so much information and data that at times you almost want to scream.
“Enough already!" Layer upon layer of studies. reports and anecdotal evidence
from various sources sometimes bogs down her excellent prose. And at the end...
there is. unfortunately. no resolution to the story of Little B. (Gilmore T04)
In unison l’uh/ishet' 's It’eek/j' cites that Brown: “spins a narrative . . . [in which] [t]here‘s
too much history and criticism here for a quick breakout. but those same qualities will
give the book staying power. particularly on campus" (283). While the review. on first
read. may appear positive. it Opens with an ill-placed compliment. What Gilmore and
Publisher Iv Week/'1' seem to be missing is the fact that Brown provides extensive critical
information heec'tuse this very information has been systematically suppressed and or
misread. One of the author‘s objectives is to counteract the “stealth history” so
commonly and easily disseminated through American history books and media outlets.
According to Mumia Abu-.Iamal. the term “stealth history" was utilized by Black Studies
professor Reginald Moore within his criticism ofmainstream examinations ofthe Black
Panthers. Moore writes that “stealth history has a distinctive political objective. to
dampen. discredit and demonize the revolutionary potential of African Americans” (Abu-
Jamal 2004. 160). With precision reminiscent of Panther strategy Brown‘s
(I'ondemnatitm demystifies America's “stealth history" — a glorified narrative spoken
through a “rhetorical duplicity" that deliberately reduces brutal conquests and
exploitations to an orgasm ofAmerican patriotism. In Brown‘s words this “rhetorical
duplicity” emerges out of "[t]he dawn ofa new age of racism in which a new forked
tongue would lick the country‘s wounds with new lies. as it fashions a new language

permitting America to comfortably coexist with a continuum of racism and its horrible

I-J

ramifications" (356). Thus. an underlying question in her text. as evidenced by the
wealth ofinformation that reviewers predictably bemoan. is what happens when the
marginalized and disenfranchised assemble because they understand and articulate the
magnitude oftheir oppression? What happens if we don’t? The battle is already lost if
information is deemed a “glaring flaw“ (Gilmore T04). As a matter of fact. this very
stance works to perpetuate oppression. Socioeconomic oppression positions itselfto
appear overwhelming. invincible. so that resistance appears futile; victory. within this
frame of thinking. appears only as an impossibility. In terms of the Publisher ’s Il’eeklv
review specifically. what is also at stake is venue. or how and where (fi'ondemnatitm will
and should be read. IfCondentmttion should become a central work in academy studies.
as the reviewer asserts. it surely needs to move outside the proverbial and exclusive ivory
tower of"academic" study which has a tendency to examine texts with a cold calculating
eye. one unconscious of real meanings connected to the Black communities. So how
does the Black community engage Condemnation? Essence. for example, devotes scant
attention to Brown's work in its review. Their reviewer places Condemnation within a
catalog of reviews:
Elaine Brown's 1994 memoir. A Taste o/l’ower -- which chronicles her rise in the
Black Panther Party — is a perennial best seller. Her latest nonfiction book. The
(,‘ondemnation o/F'Little B (Beacon Press. $24). takes on the American judicial
system and the Black middle class as she analyses the tragic case of Little B. a 12-
year old [sic] man-child on death row [sic] in Atlanta for murder. She not only
makes a convincing case for the boy’s innocence but sheds light on the corrupt

billion dollar prison industry. (102)

'3’)

——

In actuality. Essence‘s review is not really a review at all; it‘s more ofa synopsis. a
superficial and flawed one at that. While it mentions Brown‘s analysis ofthe Black
middle class and thejudicial system. it spends little time thinking about why the author is
compelled to make this intervention. For this reviewer. Michael‘s case remains an
isolated instance rather than a collective concern for Black youth. for Black people; and
there is no mention of Shawntello Young. which. for a publication that touts itself as a
Back women‘s magazine. is surely alarming... and yet perhaps not so alarming if we
engage Brown's critique of"l\7ew Age Racism“ and the collusion ofthe Black middle

class.

New Age Racism and the New Age Negro

Once we begin to seriously engage the history of slavery in the US. and the
extent to which this "culture ofslavery had indeed survived and was still wedded to the
socioeconomic structure in [contemporary] America” we grasp the reality that the cruel
hostility exacted against present-day poor and disenfranchised Blacks across the country
by white America and the Black middle-class is historical (Brown 210). Brown begins
by reminding us of Malcolm X ([1965] I992) who repeatedly warned the community
about repeating the corrosive class/caste divisions encouraged by the master and upheld
by house slaves during the era ofchattel slavery. The conflicts between house and field
slaves influenced by the master class is a subject to which E. Franklin Frazier devoted an
entire book. Th4;B/ael< Btmrgeoisie ([ l 95 7] 1997). Now writing in the new millennium.

P

'=-«i-;4- ‘ - .. . - .
Brown opens her -‘ Abandonment ' chapter With a theory ofhouse and field slaves which

allows her to explain the machinations of the “New Age Racist Agenda“ and “New Age

Negroes“:
The House Slave was mostly terrified ofbeing forced into the brutalities ofthe
Field. Thus the House Slave could become the obedient slave. the obsequious
slave. the slave collaborator. willing to turn on his slave brothers and sisters
in the Field or in the House. to inform the Master of any plans or resistance or
uprising.

The only slave more accommodating to the institution was the Black Slave

Overseer. sometimes called the Nigger Driver. The Nigger Driver worked the
Field Slaves and whipped them as soundly as any white overseer for laziness and
other infractions that might slow down crop production and threaten profits. The
Black Slave Overseer might even kill another slave to maintain the Master's Plan.
(210)

The author further writes that the agenda ofcontemporary New Age Racism might

collapse without the support of the New Age Negroes. defined also as the Black

bourgeoisie. which now embraces and emulates the practices ofthe former house slave.

Although the New Age House Negro. she writes. “owns nothing of significance.“ s/he is
elevated to the [Master‘s] house on the back of black struggle. and finds his
significance in his ability and willingness to serve the New Age Racist agenda.
Indeed. his very livelihood is dependent on this willingness. a willingness to do
even more than his historical counterpart. The New Age House Negro must
round up the lazy black Field Slave. the unwed welfare mothers and their

children. the criminal predators and the rest ofthe postindustrial black residue.

and himselfopen the dikes of social Darwinism that will down this black riffraff.

those who will not or cannot swim in the new economic tide — including. and

especially. the Little BS. (212)

Brown opens her discussion ofthe New House Negro by returning to W.E.B. DuBois's
theory of Talented Tenth." a theory the scholar himself would later renounce. but that
New House Negroes would adhere to with persistence. According to DuBois’s theory. a
"natural aristocracy" comprised often percent ofthe Black population in North America
would bear the burden of elevating the race. Through their exemplary work in the lofty
fields of science and the arts. the Talented Tenth. defined also as these “exceptional
men.” would demonstrate that Blacks possesses the capacity to become full participants
in American society. This theory is a cornerstone of New Age Negro philosophy that
"clings to the idea ofa civilized. primarily white America. to which the Black underclass
remains unworthy or incapable of inclusion” (Brown 217).

In “Abandonment." Brown chronicles the careers of several Black women and
men “who had now come to be a new crop ofNegroes who. positioned to actually
influence the outcome of government activity. were actively undermining the cause of
improving the lot of Blacks in America" (220). Although the New Age Negroes had
secured their position through years of Black struggle. their emergence into public and
economic positions of power was gained through a beliefthat racism is a thing of the past
and therefore socioeconomic success can be achieved by the individual. But this
ideology frames New Age Racism. and thus. as “collaborators“ ofa New Age Racist

agenda. the New Age Negro is quick to demonize those Blacks who have not “made it"

by disconnecting themselves from the Black community and in aiding in imprisoning and
impoverishing Blacks in record numbers.

While Brown looks at the careers of many Blacks. she zeroes in on the politics
surrounding the “achievements" ofColin Powell. Clarence Thomas. Condoleezza Rice.
and Oprah Winfrey. She offers a comparison between Supreme Court Justice Thomas
and Chairman Powell. designating Powell as “Clarence Thomas with a gun" (226).
Powell is the first person of African descent to be appointed by the President as chairman
ofthe .Ioints Chiefof Staff. He was awarded this post in 1989 by George Bush. Sr. and
when Bush‘s son. George W. Bush. seized office in 2000. Powell was named Secretary of
State. making him. again. the first African American to attain this position. In her
analysis of Powell. Brown details his military career. which consists of cover-ups and a
dedication to American economic fascism rendered throughout America‘s wars in the late
twentieth-century. In her consideration of his appointment by Bush. Sr.. Brown recalls
that until Powell was named “Man of the Year” by Essence magazine and a photograph
of him appeared on the cover of Ebonv magazine. Powell had not identified himself as
Black. However. she writes.

what was clear. from the time Bush thrust [Powell] into the forefront of the Gulf

War public relations campaign. was his readiness to kill for American oil

companies and a Texas oilman who was now president ofthe United States. Of

the Bush administration‘s campaign ofalI-out war against Iraq after Iraq's
occupation of Kuwait. Powell stated that Kuwait “was worth fighting, a war over”
because it “measured up" as a “regime. as a nation. and frankly. as the source of

20 percent ofthe world's oil." (More accurately Kuwait was believed to hold 10

26

percent of the world‘s oil reserves at the time.) Also clear was Powell‘s

commitment to oversee the thousands ofhis black brothers and sisters. now

represented in a larger percentage in the rank and file ofthe military than in the

population. and send them off to kill people who were not their enemies and die

for oil interests that were not their own. (226)
Perhaps his allegiance to US. policy. which "brings death. and destruction to people of
color around the world" began during Powell's career in Vietnam War with his
participation in the cover-up ofthe My Lai massacre. In 1968 hundreds of South
Vietnamese civilians. including women and children. were raped and murdered by US
troops. As Deputy Assistant ChiefofStaff for Operations at America Division
Headquarters. Powell was appointed chief investigator of what was then considered an
alleged massacre. Following his investigation Powell concluded that the reports ofa
massacre were “false" and he closed the investigation. Yet “[years] later Powell would
defend his participation in the cover-up... by stating that he was ”mystified by those
early investigations and knew nothing ofMy Lai until years later” (227). But as Brown
also reports. Powell would take credit for his commanding the Secondary Infantry
Division in Korea. This division. comprised of Black soldiers. was deemed a battalion of
“black militants" by the military once the soldiers levied charges of racism. Powell was
called in to bring these wayward and disruptive soldiers into line. and he would later
define and cherish the assignment "of whipping his Korean battalion into shape" as "the
most satisfying ever“ (227).

Unlike Powell who seemed to dismiss his position as a person of African descent.

Thomas appears to have consciously used his heritage to further his career. and. in the

end. his identity politics have served the New Age Racist agenda well. It is widely
known that Thomas. who replaced US. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
earned his education through an affirmation program. having attended College of Holy
Cross as a “King Scholar." and that while at Holy Cross he co-founded the school's
Black Student Union. He continued his education at “Yale Law School in 1971 at the

Uressively

—
9

height of black student uprisings around the country when Yale was ag
recruiting blacks” (Brown 224). Looking back upon his days following graduation.
Thomas would lament: “No one would hire me after law school" (Brown 225). Brown
recounts. however. that Thomas‘s "eagerness to serve and to be included in the status
quo" opened doors for him. 'I‘homas's "first government job came under the patronage of
a rich. white Republican" (225 . Missouri state attorney .Iohn Danforth. who was at the
time visiting his alma mater. Yale Law School. was looking for a “qualified" Black to
work in his office (225). Hired by Danforth. Thomas would onally follow the attorney
general. who moved to \X-"ashington after being elected a US. Senator. After Danforth.
Thomas worked within the Ronald Reagan administration in the Department of
Education and would later be appointed head ofthe Equal Employment Opportunity
Office (EEOC). “the court oflast resort for blacks and others seekingjustice in job
discrimination cases" (Brown 225). During his tenure with the EEOC Brown cites that
Thomas "went further than even Reagan could have imagined. nearly imploding the
whole EEOC structure. dismissing case after case. and finally reducing it to the nil
condition on which grievances could be redressed. sending blacks back to seek
employment without even the veneer of equal opportunity" (225). She classifies Thomas

as a “New Age ‘Nigger Driver" who. much like Powell in Vietnam. kept Blacks in check.

5v

and who was “willing to do for Reagan what Reagan could never have really done for
himself“ (225). Thomas‘s servitude was shared by the George Bush administration once
Marshall announced his retirement from the US. Supreme Court:

Before Thomas was nominated for the Supreme Court. blacks. feminists.
and liberals had been ready for Bush. ready to rally the nation to reject the
prospective nominee. as they had been with Robert Bork. the previous nominee.
They knew what another conservative vote in the Court forecast. Now though.
Bush was ready too. He paraded out his Negro. Clarence Thomas. announcing he
was the "best qualified." wielding the whip of racism against whites who might
challenge his credentials. carrying a paddle for spanking feminists with
accusations ofa “high-tech" lynching. and bitch-slapping blacks who did not like
it. (Brown 225)

Thomas was nominated only after Bork“s nomination had been rejected. and Thomas. the
second choice. was considered by Bush only after he had been recommended by “New
Right activist ideologues Thomas .Iipping ofthe Free Congress Foundation and the
organization‘s president. Paul Weyrich. also founder ofthe Heritage House” (Brown
224). Additionally. well known “archconservatives”/ “racists” Senators Strom Thurmond
(South Carolina) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) supported Thomas.

Thomas’s confirmation hearings were highly contested by multiple civil rights
organizations including the NAACP. the Urban League. the National Bar Association.
and the National Organization of Women. When the Thomas nomination moved to the
Senate. Anita Hill. a law professor at the University ofOklahoma who had worked for

Thomas when he was head ofthe EEOC. came forward with charges that Thomas had

29

sexually harassed her during her years at the EEOC. Hill testified before a panel of 15
white male senators that Thomas harassed her with inappropriate discussion of sexual
acts and pornographic films in retaliation for her having rejected his invitation to date
him. Thomas would label the hearings sparked by Hill's charges as “a high-tech
lynching for uppity blacks." and Hill would later counter-that Thomas's remark was
“ironic. given that he had previously chided African Americans for using race as a
‘crutch.‘ I think he did it because he knew how effective it would be” (“Two Years
Later. Anita Hill Revisits the Clarence Thomas Controversy” 2002). After his
appointment, as Associate Supreme Court .Iustice. Thomas would “do his best to shred the
black agenda" as he "vote[d] over and over for the dismantling ofaffirmative action and
school integration programs" (226). Finally. Thomas who owes his lofty status to
affirmative action programs. has steadfastly denied this option to others. While his
nomination and appointment was founded on a campaign that stressed his identity as an
American African man. Hill points out that when she was testifying before the Senate
.Iudiciary Committee her identity as an African American woman was deliberately
ignored because her identity did not serve the needs of the state.

Condoleezza Rice. according to Brown. is “wedded" to the Bush family in that
she has loyally served both presidencies. George Bush. Sr. appointed Rice. the first
Black woman as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Under the
George W. Bush administration she was appointed director ofSoviet and East European
Affairs in the National Security Council and as special assistant for national security
affairs. She now serves as the nation‘s Secretary of State. Rice. who earned a Ph.D. at

the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. and has since

been a Fellow in the Arms Control and Disarmament Program and a National Fellow at
the Hoover Institution. has explained ofherself. “I'm really a Europeanist" (Sciolino
2000). The former Black Panther Chairman clarifies Rice‘s self-assessment in stating
that her identification as an “Europeanist” goes well beyond the Secretary of State‘s
linking her scholarly pursuits to her profession; rather. “[Rice‘s] commitment to the Bush
men borders on sycophancy and reaches beyond academic interests and Europeanism to a
surrendering of self and soul" (221). Speaking before the Los Angeles World Affairs
Council in 1999. where she delivered a speech titled “American Foreign Policy for the
Twenty-first Century." Rice informed her audience that there now exists one international
economy and warned: “You‘d better find your place within it. you'd better succeed. or
you‘re going to lose and you‘re going to lose big time" (Rice 1999). She then. later on in
her speech. made clear that an international economy would emerge from the needs of
America's national economic interests and not from the interests ofan “illusory
international community” (Rice 1999). Brown further reports how Rice “recalls her race
as a palliative for Bush‘s brand ofracism and an exculpation for a history of racist
oppression of blacks" (222). Rice often reminds us that she too has experienced racism
as when she evokes the memory. "I lost a little friend in that church bombing in 1964. at
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church" (Rice 1999). Yet while she was Provost at Stanford
University she publicly denounced affirmative action programs — programs from which
she herself had benefited as a former student. While Rice instead approves ofthe “new
approaches" initiated by the Republican Party she at the same time recognizes the
wretched conditions of urban school systems to which Black and poor American are

sequestered. But in a CNN interview. Rice fails to hold government policy responsible

for these conditions. She offers that African Americans need to “[g]et over it. don‘t fight
last century‘s wars and battles... African Americans need to look at what’s happening
today” (Brown 223). Within this perspective. Rice continues with a call to Blacks to
instead dedicate themselves to hard work and a good education because as she said in the
CNN interview. “It really does not matter where you are from. only where you are going"
(Brown 223).

Rice can locate a kindred spirit in talk-show host billionaire Oprah Winfrey who
identifies her immense financial success as self-actualized and issues this proclamation
only through a denigration ofthe activism ofthe Black Power Movement of the 19603.
According to the Mississippi-born Winfrey: “The other kids were all into black power
and I wasn‘t a dashiki kind ofa woman. Excellence was the best deterrent to racism
and that became my philosophy" (242). But as Brown summarizes. Winfrey‘s recipe ”for
“excellence“ was a well-developed campaign that caters to white suburban housewives
and white women working outside ofthe home. and through an agenda that persistently
and consciously ignores issues impacting the lives of Black women and their families
“even as the political agenda pounded poor Black women and their children into deeper
poverty and degradation" (243). In order to exemplify Winfrey‘s politics which would
continue for nearly two decades. Brown returns to Winfrey's first nationally televised
program that aired during Black History Month in 1987. To summarize. Winfrey
traveled to Forsyth County. Georgia to interview Ku Klux Klan members and white
sympathizers who were terrorizing locals Blacks within a campaign to maintain an all-
white community. Winfrey’s all white. pre-selected audience was allowed to participate

in the program while outside a rally of Blacks and whites protested the program's airing.

Winfrey listened as members ofthe “Keep Forsyth and Dawson Counties White
Committee" aired their grievances about Blacks living in their neighborhoods. and one
committee member told \‘v'infrey that she would be welcome in his home anytime. while
outside protestors waved placards with the message “Like Forsyth. Oprah Goes All
White" (243). After the program. Winfrey returned to her home base in Chicago while
the violence and protests in Forsyth continued. Winfrey would not involve herself on
behalfofthe protesters or offer comment about those who were arrested during tnarches
against the “Keep Forsyth and Dawson Counties White Committee." but she would take
the time to speak on the behalfofthe good intentions ofcommittee members: “...there
[were] members of [Forsyth] who [were] God-fearing but because they"[d] been raised to
exclude blacks from their lives. racism [was] a hard thing to erase from the heart. And
there [were] people who wanted to try" (243).

Brown writes that following Forsyth. Winfrey shifted her programming to insipid
subjects that "provide comfort for her core audience of white women" (243). Winfrey
now features almost exclusively “lifestyle" and “glamour ‘makeoversf diets. and New
Age self-healing readings and practices and endless self-deprecating discourse over her
own weight and 'nappy' hair" (243). In addition to her talk show Winfrey also owns a
production company. Harpo Films. which in 2005 presented a film adaptation of Zora
Neale Hurston‘s acclaimed 1937 novel. Their Eves Il'ere Hatching God. Set in the rural
South during the late nineteenth century. readers meet the protagonist. .lanie Crawford. a
Black sixteen year-old girl. who lives with her grandmother. Nanny. .lanie is warned by
her Grandmother who fears that James sexual desires. if left unchecked and unregulated.

will inevitably lead to trouble. As a solution Nanny tells .lanie that she must marry Logan

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Killicks. a man more than twice .Ianie‘s age and whom the grandmother believes will
provide her granddaughter with a protected and respectable life within a world that preys
upon Black women. When .Ianie protests. Granny delivers some ofthe most poignant
lines within the novel — a proclamation that will haunt .Ianie's adult years and will propel
her to resist and rebel against the space a white and male-dominated world has carved out
for her as a Black woman. Nanny schools .Ianie:

Honey. the white man is the de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able
tuh find out. Maybe it‘s some place way off in the de ocean where the black man
is in power. but we don‘t know nothin‘ but what we see. So de white man throw
down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have
to. but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de
mule uh de mule ofthe world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been prayin‘ fuh it tuh be
different wid you.” (Hurston 14)

Nanny prays that her granddaughter will not have to endure the hardships and miseries
that she. as well as .Ianie's own mother. has endured. Within Nanny’s critique Black
women are abused and this abuse is depicted as generational and therefore inevitable.
But .Ianie builds a self-governed life that has at its center a community of Black women.
represented by her friend Phoebe .Iackson. Phoebe is James confidante and
spokesperson. The novel opens with the two Black women discussing .Ianie‘s life and
ends with .Ianie telling Phoebe to inform the other Black women about her predicaments
and ultimate triumph. In essence. Their Eyes Were Watching God. is the story of a Black
woman who as a child is told that there is only one place for her in the world as a Black

woman. and yet. this Black woman confronts this disempowerment and finally proceeds

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to tell and share with other Black women that they can determine the course oftheir own
lives. What is at stake in the novel is a sense of autonomy. but the ideal of individualism
is wedded to and determined by a collective sharing. Without fail. these critical points
are obliterated in Winfrey-"s production of Oprah Win/rev Presents." Their Eves Were
Hatching God. Her rendition ofthe novel depicts the “universal" woman. which means
ultimately that .Ianie is stripped of any cultural markers. Rather than a Black woman who
eventually matures into an independent Black woman who struggles against and defeats
the interlocking discriminations of racism and sexism heaped upon Black women. .Ianie
emerges in the film as "woman." or specifically as “white woman." While the film‘s
official website classifies the novel as “an American classic." which offers a "luminous
and haunting" tale about “a Southern Black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a
free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance." the film dismisses the
identity politics so emblematic to the text (“About the Novel" 2005). For example. in the
novel's opening Hurston anchors her text with Nanny/"s warning to .lanie ofthe dangers
facing. specifically. Black women. However. in the film Nanny‘s explicit warning is
excised. stripped as it were ofher assessment of patriarchal oppression exacted upon the
personhood of Black women. Nanny‘s statement is replaced with a new millennium
proclamation: “De woman is de mule uh de mule ofthe world” [italics added] ()prah
kWh/rev Presents 2005). Thus. Winfrey via Oprah Winfrey Preset-71s: Their Eyes Were
Hatching God comes to adhere to what Brown announces is a foundational tenet ofNew
Age Racism. In this universalized rendition of Hurston‘s novel. the Black woman's

voice. her persistence in denouncing and rebelling against the conflation of racism and

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sexism is covertly silenced and ignored and this silencing is able to take place. because as
Brown writes. in New Age Racism. racism does not exist.

“. . . the central objective remained the same: which way freedom” 3
A Taste ofl’ower and Condemnation are written to target a highly specific
audience. Moreover. the very act of story-telling is highly significant in its connection to

the ideal of self-determination. a state of consciousness that American society seeks to
deny Blacks at all times. Self-determination was the key term in George Jackson's
formulation for escape from bondage. .Iackson explains that “Slavery is an economic
condition. Today‘s new slavery must be defined in terms of economics" (.Iackson 1994.
251 ). Under chattel slavery. he writes. a slave was the property ofone man who
“exercise[d] the property rights of his established economic order.” and the owner could
“could move that property or hold it in one square yard ofthe earth‘s surface" (251).
Slavery. he continues. is an “economic condition which manifests itself in the total loss or
absence of self-determination" (251 ). Nee-slavery. like its predecessor. is arranged
through an economic system that benefits a “small knot of men” (252) who exercise
property rights in their established economic order by controlling the acquisition ofthe
worker’s (read: neo-slave) wage. “The sense and meaning of slavery comes through as a
result ofour ties to the wage." .Iackson states. since the wage must be had in order to
survive. Because the neoslave‘s wage is determined by others. neo-slavery is “an
economic condition which manifests itself in the total loss or absence of self-
determination” (252). The BPP Field Marshal proclaims: “Only after this is understood

and accepted can we go on to the dialectic that will help us in a remedy" (252). A Taste

o/‘Power and The (.‘ondemmttion of Little 8 both function as neoslave narratives. Both
texts are positioned to address and then resist the socioeconomic condition of Blacks in
North America. It is therefore irresponsible and dangerous to read Brown's work as an
isolated textual event. as so many reviewers have done. Brown positions (“'ondemnation
to be read not as the singular life story ofa Black teen male. who just happened to be at
the wrong place at the wrong time. and who was haphazardl y apprehended and
incarcerated as a consequence. Rather. (I'ondemnation testifies to the political position of
all Blacks in the United States. The injustice that Michael endures has been or can be
endured by all Blacks in America. He is Us.

Consider how the “library ofcongress" officially catalogs the text. For that
institution. The (fl'ondemnation o/Little 8 falls within the following areas:

1. Lewis. Michael. 1983 or -4 2. Murder — Georgia — Atlanta. 3. Murder in mass

media. 4. Discrimination in criminal justice administration — Georgia — Atlanta. 5.

African American juvenile delinquents — Georgia — Atlanta — Public opinion. 6.

Atlanta (Ga) — Race relations.
Notice that “Race relations" is listed last. and relegated only to Atlanta. as are all other
classifications with the exception of“Murder in mass media." By tethering the text to a
limited geographic location. this listing contradicts Brown‘s assertion. proclaimed
throughout Condemnation. that “in the end. in the main. it would seem that all black
people in America live in the Bluff" (Brown 2002. 79). Earlier. Brown identifies the
Bluffas the “black ghetto" or more specifically. the “barracoon ...where black people

have been quartered since the end of [chattel] slavery" (69).

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Michael's date of birth is perhaps most interesting here. The year. as written.
points to uncertainty. The entry reads: “Lewis. Michael. 1983 or 4." What are we to
make ofthis unknown. given the fact that Brown. within the opening chapters ofthe
book. provides an in-depth historical analysis of Blacks in the South. their position as
“slaves." and the way in which the rebuilding of the region was dependent on cheap labor
born of chattel slavery? What are we to make ofthis entry when we further consider that
Assata Shakur. former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army solider. opens her life
story with the following line: “The FBI cannot find any evidence that I was born"
(Shakur. 18). We can't even stop there. Frederick Douglass begins My Bondage and M1"
Freedom with. ..in regard to my birth I cannot be as definite" (34). Behold these other
indefinnes:

“I do not know how old I am" — John Brown (Slave Life in Georgia. 324).

“I was born May 1815" — Henry Bibb (Narrative ofthe Life ofHenry Bibb. 13).

“I was born in the state of Maryland" — James Pennington (Fugitive Blacksmith.

114)

“I was born in Maryland. in 1812" — John Thompson (Life of John Thompson.

417)

“I was born a slave" — Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl. 544).

“I was born in the year I 784" — William Grimes (Li/e ll’i/liam Grimes, Runaway.

187)

“I was born. 1 am not able to tell what year or month" — Moses Roper (Narrative.

493).

The entry. “Lewis. Michael. 1983 or 4." inadvertently reads as point of identification in a
chattel slave narrative.

Brown dedicates ('ondemmttion to Michael with the message: “For Michael/Until
you‘re free.“ The dedication is an integral part ofthis discussion as well. I think an
essential question is. “What needs to take place “until." what does Brown require for
Michael to be free? It seems as ifthe author. at this key point. at the very outset. is
speaking to her readers about our relationship to Michael as well. She extensively
researches Black life in the LES. for us to understand and effectively engage in the
struggle for liberation.

('ona’emmztion continues the analysis Brown began in A Taste (iv/"Power. With
both texts she is able to fix her sight on the every-day socioeconomic predicament of
Blacks in a state constructed and sustained by capitalist white-supremacism. Brown
powerfully unpacks the mythologies of Thomas Jefferson. and dismantles the widely
perceived image ofAbraham Lincoln as the “Great Liberator“ when she recalls his letter
to Horace Greeley. editor of The New York Tribune. Lincoln wrote: “Dear Sir I have
not meant to leave anyone in doubt. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union. and is not either to save or destroy Slavery. IfI could save the Union without
freeing any slave. I would do it" (Brown 2002. 141 ). For Lincoln. the concerns of
“slaves" are clearly separate from the concerns ofthe “union" insofar that the enslaved
are not nor can ever be full participating members of the union. What‘s more. Lincoln‘s
statement implies that Blacks in the United States are responsible for the sanctity ofthis
union because Blacks in America can be exploited. and held forever in bondage in order

to safeguard the continuation ofhis union. Just as the “3l5‘s Compromise" was a

measure that reduced Black personhood to a percentage and was initiated by the US
government to appease its southern electorate to preserve their “nation" as a whole. the
13‘“ amendment was guided by the same intent. The amendment was never meant to free
Blacks: instead. its intent was to ensure the continued exploitation of Black labor. What
essentially took place was a name change. Slavery would no longer be called chattel
slavery. for the new slavery. as Jackson writes in Solea’aa’ Brother. is “updated to
disguise“ the “plantation.“ which in many respects has become the nation‘s prisons
(Jackson 1994. 251 ). Just as Lincoln has been erroneously embraced as an American
hero for allegedly “freeing slaves.“ one of his successors. William Jefferson Clinton. has
also been erroneously hailed as the nation‘s “first Black president." Clinton is bestowed
with this “honor" because. as Brown points out. most ofus are unaware that more Blacks
were sent to prison via the US. judicial system during Clinton‘s eight-year reign than the
previous combined twelve years of Republican presidency headed by Ronald Reagan and
George Bush. Sr.

Brown recalls her formative years in .4 Taste o/‘l’ower. and. ofcourse. she draws
parallels between growing up in North Philadelphia and her political activism that leads
to her prominent Black Panther politics. Her narrative operates in the same manner as
Condemnation insofar as she articulates what it means to be young. Black and struggling
within a society that continually vilifies Blackness. In the opening chapter of
('ona’en‘znation Brown says that she was anguished when her thoughts turned to how
Michael must be feeling. “suspended as he was over an abyss ofabsolute abandonment in

the universe he occupied“ (10). She then connects her childhood to Michael‘s:

40

I could remember feeling something like that myselfas a child. I could remember
trembling in fearful aloneness. feeling unwanted in a world into which I had been
born. black and femal 3 and poor. circumscribed to a Philadelphia ghetto and
predestined to isolation from the mainstream of society. a whites-only preserve.
(10)
The kinship between her and Michael is keenly strategic. .4 Taste of'l’ower illustrates
how the BPP was able to name and actively confront racial oppression. Panthers
understood that racism does not function individually or anomalously: racism works well
as an socioeconomic that institutionalizes itselfas “white supremacy." According to the
BPP. a critical step toward liberation requires a recognition of the relationship between
oppressive social conditions and the racist economy of state power. This position is
clearly articulated in Condemnation. An essential point ofthe text is for the reader to
comprehend that Michael‘s captivity. masked as legal punishment for a crime. works to
serve a specific purpose. Michael joins the ranks ofover one million incarcerated Blacks
whose status as inmates (i.e.. legal slaves) guarantees a steady work force within the
ever-growing prison industrial complex. On this note. Brown writes:
If blacks would survive. it seems we must first wake ourselves from this
nightmare and come to grips with its reality. If blacks would ever finally march
out ofthe hell ofMonticello. where we have lived for seemingly time
imrnernorial. we must look away from the brutal master ofthis house and become
masters to ourselves. We must seize our lives and destinies and collect our dues.
The goal oft/reedom must return to the top ofour agenda. For it is the only

business of the slave. (357)

41

When Brown proclaims. “Little B is not one in a million. Little B is one of millions of
children like him in America“ (84). are we really to believe that the text is meant to speak
only of Michael‘s freedom as an imlividual? Narratives by Black writers have never
been so exclusive in their intent. Nor have they been written without making the
audience a central part ofthe text. which is to say that Black narratives have always been
consciously political. They seek to impact — or better yet — activate the reader.

This “until" Brown points to in the dedication is definitely linked to the wealth of
information the author presents for our consideration. How can Michael be made free if
we don‘t understand the point ofhis enslavement and how his status in the US. is our
status in America? How can Michael be made free if we don‘t liberate ourselves from
mainstream discussions about Blacks in America that are generated by. and made circular
through a “rhetorical duplicity"?

In the end. Condemnation has earned the attention of tnany reviewers: however.
we need to be concerned about how the text has been read or misread thus far.
Condemnation provides every indication that the author continues the radical politics she
began during her Black Panther years. This is not a book to read and then put aside. It‘s
very clear that Elaine Brown writes for liberation. The text is a call to arms. activism.
and resounds throughout her latest offering. She knows the history of Black struggle. and
that America as we know it lacks the capacity to accommodate the freedom of Black
people.

Covering Those Bones
Toni Cade Bambara's Those. Bones A re Not My Child. the 609-page novel that

took Bambara nearly twelve years to complete. and that her editor Toni Morrison defines

as the novelist‘s “magnum opus.“ Opens with a “Prologue“ that in itself is complex and
demanding because its formal qualities meticulously attend to the novel‘s sociopolitical
intent. The novel‘s title. a proclamation. is attributed to a Black mother summoned to
Atlanta‘s medical examiner‘s office to identify the “remains“ of her child. From the
outset the book‘s title provides voice to a parent gripped by terror who is expected to be
silent because the death of her child has been deemed inconsequential. Moreover. the
mother has not only lost her child. btrt she has also endured the nightmare of being
treated with suspicion. It is whispered and implied throughout. that this parent. along
other Black parents. are said to be responsible for the disappearance and murder oftheir
children. And while the title of Barnbara‘s novel can easily be identified as a response to
an “official" query. it also suggests that the parent resists the terms in which the state
defines her child. By declaring. “Those bones are not my child.“ the mother refuses to
reduce her child to an objectified “thing.“

In its entirety. the novel addresses what James Baldwin would designate in The
Evidence of Things Not Seen ([1985] 1995) as “the Terror.“ or what the general public
now calls the Atlanta Child Murders. On July 20. 1979 Edward Ilope Smith. age 14. was
reported missing. Edward‘s body was found eight days later near the body of 13 year-old
Allied James Evans. From September 1979 to June 1981. 40 Black children were
kidnapped. sexually assaulted. and brutally murdered in Atlanta. Multiple theories about
who. or what. was doing the killing were widespread. While some believed a lone serial
killer had descended upon on the Black community. others thought the murders were
either cult motivated. child-porn thrill killings. the work ofthe Ku Klux Klan. or that

Vietnam veterans who suffered from flashbacks of Vietnamese children hurling grenades

were now killing Black children as part of some form ofpsychotic retaliation. Ifthese
theories were not insidious enough. the Atlanta Police Department (APD) was tenacious
in targeting the parents of slain children who had voiced criticism over the APD‘s
investigation ofthe murders. The APD listed these parents. as “prime suspects.“ and
forced them to take lie detector tests. tapped their telephones. and dogged their every
step.

There were. and still are. however. many theories about who was killing the
children and why. and although Atlanta resident Wayne Bertram Williams was tried for
the murders and is now serving a life sentence. after his incarceration the bodies of
murdered Black children were still being discovered. Most importantly. as Baldwin
points out. Williams was never convicted for the murder of any of the children. Rather.
Williams was convicted for the murder oftwo men: Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel
Cater. who both died in a manner the prosecution claimed fit the pattern of‘how the
children were slain. Approximately a year after the murders began parents

staged sit-ins where they camped out in media and law enforcement offices.

demanding a special investigation of the ‘epidemic‘ of child murders... charg[ing]

that the authorities were dragging their feet because ofrace: because ofclass:
because the city. the country‘s third-busiest convention center. was trying to
protect its image and was trying to mask a crisis that might threaten Atlanta‘s

trade dollars. (Bambara 15-16)

Thus. the parents of the slain children and other adults who had organized the Committee
to Stop Children‘s Murders (STOP). and then Baldwin who made a trip to Atlanta to

speak with the parents ofthe children. understood the political implications surrounding

44

the conviction of Williams. a Black man. then 23 years old. who was arrested but never
convicted for the deaths ofthe 40 children. Within the city‘s Black community it is
widely believed that Williams was and remains the scapegoat whose conviction and
incarceration both protects and exonerates the economic interests ofa city that advertised
itselfas the “leader ofthe New South“ that was simply “too busy to hate.“ Equally
critical. Baldwin writes that Williams‘s “guilt“ was entirely assumed. never proven since
he was not charged with killing any of the children. and the person. or persons. who
murdered them — all of whom were the daughters and sons of poor Black families — was
never-brought-to—trial. What is clear. Baldwin charges. is that whoever is murdering the
children wants them to be found as they are. since this “brutally indifferent treatment of
the child‘s corpse is like spitting in the faces ofthe people who produced the child“ (6).
And. Bambara is decisive on this point in that she addresses the extent to which
economically poor Black children who were then brutally murdered were treated as an
inconvenience if not a menace. and their parents were disrnissively scolded and
denigrated by virtually every aspect ofcity operations.

Bambara writes the “Prologue“ of Those Bones .4 re Not My Child in a second-
person-singular narration that blends the voices of an unnamed mother and father within
their narration. The mother. primarily. discusses how community activism quickly
mobilized because. as she explains. “when mumps have been replaced by murder. alarm
is no longer a private affair“ (9). But this activism is seemingly crushed under the weight
ofpublic policy. the circular relationship between rumor and the “news.“ as well as the
collusion between state and local agencies and mainstream media. It is only later that we

learn that the mother who speaks in the “Prologue" could be one of the main characters.

4;
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Marzala “Zala” Rawls. Zala and her husband. Spencer “Spence" Rawls. a Vietnam vet.
have three children: a daughter. Kenti who is seven. and two sons. eight year-old Kofi.
and 12 year-old. Sundiata. nicknamed “Sonny." Although Zala and Spence are separated.
when Sonny does not return home from a youth center camping trip. the couple
eventually reunites when it becomes clear that their son is missing and has possibly been
kidnapped.
But again. the author delays our introduction to the Rawls". and this move. of
course. is strategic. For example. we are given the following dialogue in the “Prologue“:
Your eyes strain. stretching down the block. searching through schoolchild chatter
for that one voice that will give you ease. Your eyes sting with effort to see over
bushes. look through buildings. cut through everything that separates you from
your child‘s starting point — thejunior hiin school. (3)
The author immediately situates you. the reader. in the center of the “Terror" — “you“
become the parent who anxiously awaits the return of your child. and you need to know
that your child is safe. unharmed and will return home. The use ofthis specific pronoun
is essential. Bambara seeks to establish empathy for the parents who were otherwise
alone in their efforts. By utilizing the second-person pronoun. she situates the reader
within the text of the “Terror.” The fear and anxiety experienced by the parents becomes
your own. Also. as the passage indicates. you also take on what are imagined as
superhuman capabilities since you are now able to “see over bushes." to “look through

9

buildings.“ and to “cut through everything. ‘ These superhuman powers are vital for the
parents who were made to feel alone because ofa lack of support from virtually every

other entity outside ofthemselves. They were forced to fight alone against what seemed

46

to be insurmountable odds. thus they had to undergo a self-transformation. As you
continue your search for your child. the likelihood of any outside assistance quickly
diminishes since you know you are up against a political / historical reality that reiterates.
time-and-time again. that your very existence. and. by extension. your child‘s. is
perceived by other forces as serving only the needs of others. or more specifically the
state. So your demand for help goes unheard since it falls on the proverbial deaf car.
because as Baldwin explains of Blacks in America. represented here as the parents ofthe
slain children. “[n]o one is compelled to hear the needs ofa captive population" (36).
Thus. in the novel‘s beginning the parents speak to themselves. and sometimes not even
to each other. Instead they are made to feel isolated and excluded. The mother and
father each holds a private conversation with him/herselfand oftentimes. this
conversation is further spilt as ifthe parent disconnects from. alienates. him/herself.
During the murders. the APD. taking its cue from city administrators and
economic interests. absolutely refused to examine how it played an integral role in the
disappearance and death ofthe children. The APD refused to listen to the parents pleas
and outrage “because. as police logic went in the summer of ’79. [the year the United
Nations designated ‘The Year ofthe Child‘] seven or eight deaths did not constitute ‘an
epidemic‘ of murder" (Bambara 5). But when the city did begin to investigate the deaths
as a collective under the Atlanta Missing Children‘s Case. investigations preceded from
the premise that the parents themselves killed their children and as result. this official
assumption created a chasm between the parents who oftentimes. as Bambara depicts.
became suspicious of each other. Yet. for the most part. the Black parents knew. having

grown Up in United States. that “the spirit ofthe South is the spirit of America“ (Baldwin

47

7). STOP launched an independent investigation. because its organizers did not accept
the official line that the murders were disconnected. and they refuted the beliefthat their
children met their death because they were either abused or discontented/ungrateful
children who ran away from inherently dysfunctional Black homes.

Bambara brings to light how STOP also confronted news agencies. which
customarily portrayed Black parents as “monstrous" and their children as “street hustling
hoodlums" who eventually got their comeuppance (15). It is through the mother that we
learn that local newspapers handled its coverage ofthe murders carelessly and with
contempt. To begin. the press was slow in reporting on the killings. and when the press
finally decided to grant coverage reporters and editors repeatedly misspelled the
children‘s names. and printed continuous discrepancies in the children‘s ages and their
dates ofdisappearance. As a rule. the press did not speak to the parents. but instead
gathered all its information from the police. And the police. and the emergency response
department. as Bambara recalls through her depictions. were disruptive and callous.
When Zala first calls “91 1“ to report her son. Sundiata. as missing. the operator tells her
that her missing son is “Not an emergency“ (60). Zala then makes a trip to police
headquarters where she encounters the “Youth Division of Missing Persons“ and it is
completely unorganized in virtually every detail. An elderly man in speaking to Zala
signifies on the headquarters: “You could spend your life in here and they couldn‘t even
find you here“ (63). Zala finds no comfort in the environment. The sunlight desperately
tries to penetrate the “murky" windows whose panes are encrusted with “mold“ (63).
Even the condition ofthe photographs and photocopies ofthe missing children.

evidenced by the passage‘s language. indicates yet another series of attacks against the

48

victims who. personified by the photos. have attempted to retreat from the onslaught.

The pictures of missing children “are pinned to dirt-streaked corkboards gauged out by
pushpins. Some pictures were cracked and dusty. Where pushpins were missing from
corners. photos had curled up. covering the faces of the missing" [emphasis mine] (63).
Yet despite how the police treated the cases of missing children. news accounts. both
televised and print. labeled the parents “opportunistic.“ “lime-light greedy.“ and their
motives “mercenary" for their having traveled to other cities to raise funds for searches
and to prompt national awareness. Later on in the novel. eight year-old Kofi. “couldn‘t
understand why such a big thing as somebody knocking over little kids was crammed
between a lot of furniture ads“ (57). Adding even further injury. one editorial. the mother
notes. described the murderer as the “ ‘gentle killer‘ — the man or woman who‘d wash
some ofthe victims. laid them out in clean clothes. and once slipped a rock under the
murdered boy‘s head 'like a pillow.‘ a reporter said. Like a pillow“ (5). The mother
condemns the reporter. the newspaper. and the readership for accepting the depiction ofa
Black child‘s death as comforting. which provides space for her to confront why the
murder ofthe child is situated in sentimental terms. and why this description.
unchallenged. has been welcomed. since the child. according to the reporter. was not. in
the end. actually harmed. but cared for. She adds also to this list ofcharges what the
reporter is saying about the parent(s). The murderer. or the “gentle killer.“ replaces the
parent as a caring surrogate who tucks the child into bed — an image which is insulting to
the parents because again it is. “like spitting in the faces of the people who produced [and
love] the child.“ For the mother. these points are self-evident. The question now

becomes. why and how are these points not self-evident to the journalist. editors. and the

many faithful readers who will all undoubtedly vigorously defend the existence of an
objective press.

For example. in the pre-trial of coverage devoted to Michael Lewis. the Atlanta
Journal—C‘(mstitulion classifies him a “thug" who was an “evil in the city.“ The mother
who speaks in Barnbara‘s “Prologue“ is repeatedly outraged by how the city. even
through its seemingly mundane operations and activities. defines Black children. Take
for example two key images the mother sees as she begins her search. In the first
instance she sees a truck parked in front ofa store and later on she‘s threatened by a dog
rummaging through the trash. As she walks down the street toward the school. she sees
an exterminator‘s truck. The driver. who is no longer behind the wheel and is unseen.
has double-parked the truck in front ofa dry-cleaner. Neither the driver who is unseen.
nor the exterminator‘s truck. nor its juxtaposition to the dry—cleaner. would prompt any
alarm under “normal“ circumstances. Rather. what first catches her attention is how
someone has placed a “STOP“ bumper sticker on the truck‘s door. The bumper sticker
reads: “HELP KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE“ (4). Yet. the word “CHILDREN“ is
aligned directly under the term “Pest“ which is part of the exterminator‘s logo. This
alignment parallels “Children“ to a “Pest." and even more chilling. the vehicle‘s
proximity to the dry-cleaning business doubly conveys the idea that the children‘s
extermination as “pest“ is a cleansing. These images are no longer mundane. or even
accidental. Instead. Black children are not “murdered“ since their death falls under the
category of pest extermination. which is then aligned with cleaning. and then made
parallel to an image of comfort. according to the daily news. Also. what are we to make

of the invisible driver of the truck? Surely he must have seen how the “STOP“ bumper

sticker was aligned on the truck and realized the implications ofthe sticker being placed
anywhere on an exterminator‘s truck. Why did he not remove it? But more importantly
Bambara writes that “an exterminator truck pulled up and double-parked.“ This absence
ofa driver lends the impression that the truck was moving of its own volition. or that it
moves through an unseen. if not an immaterial force. Ifthis is the intent of the truck‘s
description we can then relate it to the forces rallied against the parents. What Bambara
foreshadows in her “Prologue“ is the difficulty Zala and Spence have in being able to
identify not only who can best assist them with their search. but also who or what is the
driving force behind the circumstances that have created the dilemma that they must
overcome in order to retrieve their son. The exterminator‘s truck was driven by
“someone.“ and Bambara deliberately makes this driver unseen. if not elusive.

For the Black parent the journey is always arduous and she is attacked on all
fronts. She fights against a city that redefines the murder of Black children as a
necessity. and this assault affects her mentally and physically. But the parent has not yet
made it to the school. and the speaker. again depicted as “you.“ continues. You reach
what is the “only half-way clear path“ to the school and your body is besieged by “nettles
and briars“ growing in the “brambled lot“ (I I ). At the end of the path. your way is
blocked:

Up ahead a rawbony mutt is nuzzling a pile oftrash. The dog looks up. bares it

teeth. Hackles stiff. ifshivers itself sideways and blocks your way. Skin that

bags below its ribs puffs out a few times. but you don‘t hear the bark. you‘re

breathing that hard. The dog plants a paw on a baby doll *facedown in the trash.

The doll‘s ma-ma box tears through its gauze-cotton skin. You growl at the dog.

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you‘re feeling that crazed. It moves its rump aside to let you pass. The doll lets
out a croaked ma-ma that catches you in the back of your knees. You plow
through a tangle of weeds and renegade vines looping up from clumps of kudzu
and scrub grass. Now that you‘ve passed. the dog is woofing at you. Your ears
are cocked for attack. But the mutt resumes its raid on the trash and you
concentrate on the bobby traps the kudzu has set for your feet. (I I)
The passage is both disturbing and mythic. The dog has snatched the doll from the trash
and has ripped its throat out. The doll. though inanimate. is nevertheless depicted as
crying out in horror and pain. and the doll stands in to represent a child as it cries pitifully
for its mother. who is unable to protect it. Moreover. the child is utterly objectified.
reduced to a mere piece oftrash on which the dog feasts. nourishes itself. and defends as
its prey. The mother witnesses this obscenity. And because the doll/child‘s anguish is
transferred to and registered on the body ofthe mother: a “croak that catches you in the
back of your knees.“ she is rendered powerless in defending herself and the doll/child
against the ravenous attack ofthe dog. In addition. the mother‘s very body is besieged as
ifthe natural elements havejoined forces to rally against her. She must maneuver a safe
passage through a “tangle of weeds and renegade vines.“ as well as “concentrate on the
hobby traps set“ by the kudzu. Finally the “woofing“ dog itselftakes on mythic
proportions. It bars her pathway to the school and guards its terrain. It is a re-
configuration of Cerberus. For the parents and their children their daily life and routines
are now submerged within a hellish world.
Parents and children quickly become the damned through a police. judicial. and

educational system that criminalizes them all. City officials mandate a curfew. and

countless children are arrested for violating the policy. When parents are ordered to
appear in court because their children have defied the curfew. parents are detained or
arrested even before they can enter the courthouse. To protect their children. fearful
mothers have begun carrying arsenals in their handbags. Equipped with either handguns.
knives. or mace. they forget to remove these safety measures from their bags before they
enter the courthouse and they set of‘fthe metal detectors stationed at the courthouse
entrance. When parents begin to keep their children home from school in order to keep
them indoors. close-by. and safe. truant officers call the parents and threaten to report
them to the police. And the schools become a site where children are terrorized and
made to feel even more unsafe.

This point is made painfully clear in Leaving Atlanta (2002). The novel‘s author.
. Tayari Jones. grew up in Atlanta. where she attended elementary school during the
“Terror.“ Her novel focuses on several fifth-graders at Oglethorpe Elementary and
details how. in 1979. the students attempted to cope with the disappearance and murder
oftheir classmates and a school system that offered little if any comfort. In one scene.
the students are accosted by a police officer whose school visit is totally disruptive
because his presence only confirms the students" assumption that the police cannot and
do not want to protect them. As soon as “Officer Brown“ enters the classroom. the
narrator offers: “No child in this room had felt safe since .Iashante disappeared" (94).
Thinking to himself. Rodney Green. a student who is later abducted and murdered.
cannot take the police officer seriously and he questions his ability: “Officer Brown is
softer and rounder than you imagine a police officer should be. His wide toothy smile is

no it ingly familiar. Was he the man inside the clown suit at [my] sister‘s birthday

5.:

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party?“ (92). Rodney‘s question is startling because it conjures memories ofJohn Wayne
Gacy. Jr.. known as the serial “Killer Clown.“ Gacy. a Chicago resident. was convicted
and executed in 1994 for the rape and murder of33 boys and young men who he buried
in a crawl space in his house. He was labeled the “Killer Clown“ because he entertained
children at block parties and hospitals where he dressed as a clown. Although of course.
given the time frame. Rodney cannot make any mention whatsoever of Gacy. the author
may be evoking this serial killer in hindsight. Ifthis is the case. the memory ofa clown
that she links to Rodney and then attributes to Officer Brown who visits the school to talk
with the students about children being murdered is absolutely frightening. Brown we
recall discusses at length the duplicity inherent in New Age Racism. wherein racist
motivations are cleverly disguised in order to present a facade of racial acceptance and
inclusion. The clown. as evidenced by Gacy. affects a light-hearted persona that is then
used to deceive children he considers his prey. Officer Brown. standing in as a
representative of law enforcement. presents himself as a protector who serves the people.
btrt the students are able to unmask this disguise. Officer Brown‘s insincerity is exposed
by Rodney‘s classmate. a student the author tellingly names Cinque Freeman. When the
officer asks the students about safety and what they‘ve learned from watching the “news“
with their parents. it is Cinque Freeman who responds with. “Everybody knows
somebody is killing black kids" (92). Of course the student‘s name is meant to
immediately convey a sense of rebellion and resistance since the student is named after
Cinque. the West African who was enslaved and who in 1839 gained his freedom by
successfully leading a rebellion aboard the slave ship Arnistad. And while the student‘s

first name connects him to a specific historical moment in Black resistance. his last name.

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Freeman. read ofcourse as a “Free Man.“ is meant to define the objective ofthis
resistance. Moreover. the character C inque appears to remind us that mainstream
“news“ refused to address the ftrll implications that is specifically Black children who are
being murdered. When he reminds Brown ofthis point. the officer “looks suddenly taken
aback as ifhe only now notices that he is white“ (92). And when he reacquaints himself
with this realization. the narrator says that Brown “looks away from Cinque“ (93). The
students. Black children who are now abandoned by the police. know that the police.
represented by Brown. have “nothing useful to share. As a matter of fact. [the children]
are more fearful than ever to know that this man is all that stands between them [their]
generation and an early death“ (93).

Finally. Bambara offers a critique ofthe Black bourgeoisie. Bambara does not
touch on this subject in her “Prologue.“ Rather it appears most clearly in the chapters.
“The State ofthe Art“ and “Foxglove and Tannia Leaves.“ In the first chapter we
encounter an trnnarned and unseen woman who has just left STOP offices. When Zala
climbs the stairs to the office she smells and immediately recognizes “a wave of floral
perfume. left. no doubt. by one ofthe many self-appointed spokesladies who were forever
volunteering their services for the poor unfortunate mothers who could not possibly be
regarded as spokespersons of‘even their own tragedy“ (318). This woman resembles
many who have visited the STOP office before. and as the wife ofajudge. she stands for
those who envision themselves as honoring the hierarchy once espoused by DuBois.
These women are proud members ofthe “Talented Tenth.“ for it is only through them
that poor Black mothers can hope to articulate and overcome their collective tragedy.

The narrator explains that according to the woman in the hallway. “good speechifying [is]

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done by the gentry” (318). A bourgeois ideology dictates that a “formal" education
creates social status and this social status carries with it the exclusive responsibility and
privilege to speak on behalf of the “race.” Within this frame. the woman also believes
that the poor have remained poor because they have not endured much: they have not
extended themselves to their limits. they have not made the necessary sacrifices to attain
material success and social prestige. Thus. when she thinks about the mothers and their
predicament she is easily able to dismiss their suffering by noting that their “drama“ or
how they will speak about their “drama." will be of little consequence. Also. the woman.
resembling Ivy Webber. the judge‘s wife who appears in “Foxglove" chapter. is not all
concerned about the mothers. Rather. their motives are assumed to be selfish. and she is
therefore able to condemn the parents who have joined together in order to safeguard
themselves and their families. Mrs. Webber. just like the woman on the stairwell. cannot
believe that these parents do not want her assistance. that they. of all people. had the
audacity to turn her away. Mrs. Webber is outraged that the parents see her as a “paragon
of aristocratic uselessness“ (398). Instead. she believes her money and social status
would benefit their cause. and. according to her. history has proven her right: “Where
would the race be ifnot for the conscientious men and women who‘d built the schools.
the banks. produced the art. the wisdom. and saw to it that the laws were passed that
guaranteed continual progress?“ [emphasis mine] (401 ).

Undoubtedly. this is where the parents and the Mrs. Webbers part company —~ on
the very ideal of“progress.“ Because at the heart ofthe matter. how is progress being
defined when Black children are murdered in record numbers and their families are

terrorized and vilified when they proclaim their outrage? To paraphrase Brown. how is

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progress defined when the 13‘“ Amendment clearly re-established slavery under a new
economic order rather than abolishing it. and as a consequence millions of Black men and
women are convicted and incarcerated? How is progress being defined when. although
Black men. women. and children. more than ever before. are able to influence American
culture and have been appointed to positions in the upper-echelon ofU.S. government.
the numbers of economically disenfranchised Blacks steadily and rapidly increases? The
underlying message in The C‘ondemmtlion of'Litt/e B. Those Bones Are Not My C hi/d.
and Leaving Atlanta. through their critiques ofAtlanta. “the city too busy to hate.“ which
represents all ofNorth America. is that “progress.“ the fetish ofthe bourgeoisie. is bought

at the expense of poor disenfranchised Blacks.

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African American Fiction in Retrospect:
Black Radical Thought Examines Black Bourgeois Ideology

Late twentieth-century African American fiction provides an intriguing
examination ofthe dismissal of radical political activism by the Black bourgeoisie.
Traditionally African American novelists analyze systemic racism in the United States.
but late twentieth-century novelists expand this inquiry by drawing our attention to ideals
of racial progress espoused by the Black bourgeoisie. This expanded theme is due in
large part to the activism ofthe Black Power Movement in North America and its
attention to Black conservatism‘s steadfast allegiance to a doctrine of “racial progress."
A doctrine of racial progress or an ideology of“racial uplift" is framed by a set of
assumptions that Black bourgeois culture either refuses to acknowledge or categorically
repudiates. The Black Panther Party (BPP). taking its philosophical cue most notably
from Frantz Fanon‘s The wretched ofthe Earth. addressed Black bourgeois ideals and
linked them with political collaboration among US. Blacks that according to the BPP
helped perpetuate racial oppression. The BPP targeted how ideological divisions within
the Black community inevitably deter liberation strategy. For the Panthers. Black radical
activism could never emerge from the Black middle-class because of its allegiance to
power structure which vilifies Black culture by adhering to a hostile and confrontational
relationship‘with the working-class and economically poor.

In company with Fanon. a reading of E. Franklin Frazier (The Black Bourgeoisie).
Elaine Brown (The (."ondemnation ofLittle B). Toni Cade Bambara (Those Bones A re Not
My Child). and most recently Michael Eric Dyson (ls Bill (.‘osby Rig/21?: ()r Has the

Black Middle (..‘lass Lost Its Mind?) provides the groundwork to understand the formation

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and continuance ofthe Black bourgeoisie. In both his introduction and opening chapter.
“The Roots ofthe Black Bourgeoisie.” Frazier establishes the group as first emerging
during chattel slavery wherein some enslaved. working as they did in the master‘s house.
lived in a situation in which “lives ofthe masters and slaves became intertwined in a
system of social relationships“ (10). Frazier begins by explaining how house slaves were
subject to a type ofdiscipline that escaped those who were slaving in the fields: “This
discipline included both moral and religious instruction. The slaves participated in the
religious life oftheir white masters — including family prayers and attendance at the white
churches. where a section was reserved for them“ (12). According to Frazier‘s
description. house slaves. while “disciplined" in what he refers to as “European culture.“
were also taught to stay in their place. and this “reserved space“ was then deemed
exclusive and special insofar as the house slave constructed a social hierarchy built on a
“deep-seated inferiority complex" which prompted this bourgeois class to begin
“rejecting identification with the Negro masses on the one hand. and suffering from the
contempt ofthe white world on the other“ (24). This social hierarchy was further
cultivated by the class of enslaved who were then selected to learn a skilled trade and
become artisan apprentices. The selection “further broadened a division of labor on the
plantation in which the intelligence and talents ofthe slaves found expression“ (13).
What therefore emerged from this skilled labor pool in conjunction with a clear sense of
inferiority to whites was a sense of superiority to other blacks. as ifa “skilled“ trade
required inherent intelligence and talent. as Opposed to field work. which was readily and
simply assumed to be the result ofpure physical labor. Novelist Edward P. Jones. author

of The Knorr'n Il'orld. addresses this assumed split between intellect and body through his

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character. Moses. an enslaved field hand who regularly eats dirt “to discover the
weaknesses and strengths ofthe field“ (2). It‘s through the knowledge ofthe body.
through a physical acumen of several senses: sight. touch. taste. and smell. that Moses is
able to productively manage the fields. There is neither differentiation nor ascendancy
here between body and mind: they are one and the same. In terms ofthe body. Frazier
also takes into consideration color consciousness among the enslaved. A fixation on
complexion gave way to an exclusive kinship. or allegiance to the master class. whose
white skin was erroneously cherished and thus envisioned as a distinct marker of
superiority. The enslaved “mulattoes.“ or “mixed bloods.“ who had been permitted to
hire their time and work as semi-free laborers. perhaps thought they had control over
their lives. that they were engineers oftheir own fate. bonded as they were by “blood" to
their masters who were the free and independent individuals. Frazier also outlines how
enslaved women and men. sometimes able to save a portion oftheir wages. purchased
their freedom. We can count at least two dilemmas emerging from the act of purchasing
one‘s freedom. First. it gives credibility to a “boot-strap mentality;“ the beliefthat one
needs only to work hard enough in order to access liberation. Secondly. we can easily
argue that purchasing one‘s freedom engages a complicit act — a contradiction of
liberation since to purchase freedom upholds and legitimizes the institution ofchattel
slavery. To buy one‘s freedom allows the enslaver to define “freedom." as it also
invariably accepts the idea that a person can be owned. that a person is chatteliproperty.

Malcolm X. in 1965. also looks to chattel slavery when speaking about definitions
of freedom: in making his classic distinction between house and field slaves. he

excoriates racial progress devotees. In his address to young Civil Rights fighters at

60

Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma. Alabama. Malcolm urged young people to “read
the history ofslavery" in order to understand the conflicts ofa Black bourgeois ideology
and its definitions of liberation. According to Malcolm the “master” will always look to
derail liberation strategy. Oftentimes this objective is realized through the involvement
ofthe Black bourgeoisie. who will emerge as in the fomt ofthe “old house Negro“ who
speaks the language ofthe master to the field slaves in hopes of unsettling their quest for
freedom: “When the field Negroes got too much out ofline. [the old house Negroes] held
them back in check. He put ‘em back on the plantation“ (X Final Speeches. 27).
Malcolm‘s instruction to “read the history ofslavery" in order to understand class
divisions among Blacks in late twentieth-century North America distinctly links the
socio-economic order ofchattel slavery to that ofthe America in which he lived;
furthermore. Malcolm directly links the self-understanding of Blacks. and ofthe Black
middle class in particular. to the symbolic order of slavery. Slavery. in this formulation.
is not conceived as a thing of the past. but as a conceptual framework ofvital importance
to present-day America. and to an understanding of Black psychology. Such an assertion
implies that the examination of slave narratives is necessary in order to gain a meaningful
comprehension ofBlack American history and literature. To satisfy this corollary to
Malcolm‘s concept of what I will call “nee-slavery.“ we can turn to Harriet A. Jacobs‘s
nineteenth-century text Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl. kl’ritten By Herself:

In explaining her quest for freedom. Jacobs describes to a white Northern
audience how her family‘s position within the socio-economic order ofslavery
influenced her ideas about liberation. and within this re-telling we hear Frazier and

Malcolm‘s explications of Black bourgeoisie mentality. To begin. Jacobs effortlessly

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conflates skin color with intelligence through her description of her parents. described by

5

Jacobs as a “light shade of brownish yellow." which follows immediately on the heels of
her description of her father‘s trade. He was. Jacobs states. “considered so intelligent and
skillful. in his trade“ as an carpenter. which enabled him “several times” to “offer [to use]
his earnings to free his children“ (5'). Jacobs never reveals whether or not her father ever
contemplated escape: but. we do know that her grandmother. a “free" woman who
purchased her freedom. and earned a living as a baker (yet another “skilled“ trade).
vehemently opposed the idea of escape. Jacobs describes her grandmother as a woman
much loved and respected by the white society she served for many years as a faithful
and honest servant/slave. Moreover. it is the grandmother who repeatedly attempts to
teach Jacobs to understand “the will of God: that He had seen fit to place [the enslaved]
under such circumstances and though it seemed hard. we ought to pray for contentment“
(l7). Jacobs frequently provides evidence ofher grandmother‘s devotion to the master
class — a woman who has been well disciplined as a slave and who. as reward. is
affectionately nicknamed “Aunt Marthy“ by her enslavers. The grandmother
wholeheartedly embraces the doctrine of obeying her master in all things. She chastises
Jacobs for not only becoming pregnant out of wedlock. but later for wanting to escape
and for “abandoning“ her children. Furthermore. “Aunty Marthy“ tries to dissuade her
enslaved son. Benjamin. from escaping. She instead wants Benjamin to go back to his
master and beg for his forgiveness for having escaped. This same reasoning appears in
Mary Prince‘s 1831 narrative. The History ofMary Prince: A ll’est African Slave.
Related by Herself Prince has escaped. but her father finds her and returns her to the

master and begins to apologize for his daughter‘s flight.

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Each ofthese examples also emphasizes that Black bourgeois ideals operate
through a symbolic identification. Although Frazier draws our attention to the origins of
the Black middle- class and its roots of‘color consciousness. and Malcolm‘s parallel
between houseifield slaves illustrates class divisions among contemporary middle-class
and working poor Blacks. the Black bourgeoisie cannot be defined solely by either skin
color or economics. Consider the definitions Michael Eric Dyson employs as he attempts
to define Black categories of Black identity. Dyson writes that “class in black America
has never been viewed in strictly literal economic terms: the black definition ofclass
embraces style and behavior as well“ (xv). In his introduction to Is Bill Cosby Right?
()r Has the Black .«ltiddle Class Lost Its .Il/lind? Dyson introduces readers to the terms
“Afristocracy“‘ and “Gliettocraev.” He categorizes the Afristocracy as “composed of
lawyers. physicians. intellectuals. civil rights leaders. entertainers. athletes. brokers. and
the like“ [emphasis added] (xiv). And according to his evaluation. the Ghettocracy
“consists ofthe desperately unemployed and underemployed. those trapped in
underground economies. and those working poor f‘olk who slave in menial jobs at the

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edge ofthe economy“ (xvi). More specifically he places in the latter category “single
mothers on welfare. single working mothers. and fathers. married and poor working folk.
the incarcerated. and a battalion of impoverished children“ (xvi). Notice how the
Afristocracy. with the exception of“intellectuals"' and “civil right leaders." is defined by
exact occupations and that these occupations are supposed to be readily esteemed and
certainly understood. as evidenced by his use ofthe end phrase “and the like.“ What

should also grasp our attention is the way in which he repeatedly defines the Ghettocracy

through a set ofqualifiers that do not apply to his description of the Afristocracy. The

Ghettocracy is directly described in terms of an economic lack (e.g.: “welfare recipients.”

39 ’5’»

“underemployment. underground economics." and “at the edge of economy“).
According to Dyson‘s reading of‘class divisions among Blacks in the United States. with
the exception of athletes and entertainers (including Hip-Hop artists). an intellectual or a
civil rights leader cannot be a member ofthe Ghettocracy. In his categories Dyson.
unfortunately. re-inscribes the differentiation Frazier outlined between work and
professions during chattel slavery. and contrary to what he may attempt to do. his
analysis reinforces a socio-economic hierarchy where the Ghettocracy exists as the base
and is defined in terms of socio-economic Stigmata. While Dyson does an excellentjob
of pointing out the obvious contradictions and erroneous information underlining Cosby‘s
rant against Blacks. or to use Cosby‘s repeated term. “these people.” whom he says are
“dragging [him] way down." Dyson‘s analysis raises more problems than it solves (58‘).
Dyson. a self-proclaimed member ofthe Black middle-class. and thus the Afristocracy.
says he wants “to provoke black folk into serious consideration. the sort [the
Afristrocracy] claim[s] the black poor should undertake. but one we in other classes may
seek to avoid“ (xv). But his introduction closes with a benevolent air that ultimately
subverts the intent ofhis analysis. To begin. Dyson repeats the presupposition that the
Black middle-class is somehow invested with the mission of economically and morally
redeeming poor Blacks. The poor must be saved and protected by the Afristrocracy.
which. whether the latter has or has not lost its mind. has a moral and cultural duty to
save poor Blacks from themselves. From the Olympian moral altitude of his privileged
Black bourgeois standpoint. he condescendingly pronounces: “I hope to lay bare the

vicious assault ofthe Afristocracy on the Ghettocracy and offer a principled defense of

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poor black folk. one rooted in clear-eyed acknowlec gement ofthe deficiencies and
responsibility, but anchored by an abiding crmzpassiong for the most vulnerable members
ofour community“ [italics added] (xvi).

African American novelists who carefully analyze Black bourgeois ideology do
not readily become academy standards. Numerous African American authors and
theorists continually urge a discussion ofthe Black bourgeoisie and how its ideals of
racial progress reinforce reactionary rhetoric and invest in mainstream vilifications of
Black culture and the criminalization ofthe Black poor. Most recently we have the
works of Elaine Brown and Toni Cade Bambara. Brown‘s The Condemnation o/‘Litt/e B
charts the rapidly increasing national incarceration rates of Black youth alongside an
investigation ofthe Black middle-class. Bambara‘s epic novel. Those Bones Are Not My
Child. delves into the socio-economics of what James Baldwin (The Evidence of‘Tliings
Not Seen) would label “The Terror“ and that the public would classify as “The Atlanta
Child Murder“ case. Through her re-telling ofthe horrific event in which numerous
Black children who lived in the central city of‘Atlanta were kidnapped and murdered. -
Bambara depicts the rampant apathy of state and federal agencies. and their affiliations
with Atlanta‘s Black officials who were equally quick to label the missing children as
delinquent and their parents as criminally negligent. We can add to the list Richard
Wright‘s lv‘ative Son. which is deemed a canonical text. and his companion essay. “How
Bigger Was Born.“ which closes the novel. and often goes unread. In the essay Wright
shares how he was initially fearful of and anticipated the criticism of both whites and
African Americans. While a reactionary white readership could easily employ Bigger‘s

character to justify virtually every racist stereotype of Blacks. Wright estimated that the

Black bourgeoisie. “did not want people. especially white people. to think that their lives
were so much as touched by anything so dark and brutal as Bigger“ (Wright 525). A
refusal among the Black bourgeoisie to acknowledge that historical and institutional
structures create Black oppression is a mirrored reflection of white racist paranoia and
this socio-political detachment is examined in the works of Gloria Naylor (Linden Hills).
Paule Marshall (Brown Girl. Browns/ones and Praisestntg/or the I/l'idow). Sam Greenlee
(The Spook ll 'ho Sat By the Door) and Toni Morrison (Song of 'Solmnon. Paradise. and
Love). Collectively these novels map out a terrain detailing the reactionary
presuppositions of Black ideals of racial progress. Each of these texts. in its examination
ofthe Black bourgeoisie. critiques how a systematic disengagement perpetuates racial
strife.

Although it may be common knowledge within Black studies that Newton and
Bobby Scale created the Panthers to defend the community against rampant police
brutality in Oakland. California. through a strategy of armed-selfdcf‘ense as a means to
establish systems of self-determination within the community. we also need to consider
Newton and Seale‘s engagement with Frantz Fanon‘s theory of the colonized subject put
forth in The Wrctched ofthe Earth. Engaging Fanon. Newton writes. was particularly
pertinent since the theorist frames colonialism by highlighting. first and foremost. the
colonized subject as he pays particular attention to the strained relationships among
colonized groups. For the Panthers. Fanon‘s articulation of the battle between the
colonized town-dweller/intellectual and the colonized that inhabit the country districts
was applied to the relationship between America‘s Black middle-class. who live in the

suburbs. and Blacks who are trapped in the nation‘s central cities. Moreover. Fanon

66

defines the interplay of factors responsible for maintaining this strained relationship. The
city dweller will clash in her/his manners of confronting the socio-political situation. and
from these comparisons. Fanon outlines the conceptual difference between progress and
liberation. To begin. according to Fanon. Black town-dwelling intellectuals only form a
rniniscule percentage ofthe native population. and they have been. in some small
measure. “pampered by the colonial regime:“ and like the settlers. the town dwelling
intellectuals pass judgment on and scorn those who reside in the country districts (Fanon

Iii/”etched 108). Also. the town-dwelling colonized population that considers itselfthe

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II

intellectual vanguard harbors a “deep seated mistrust“ of those who live in the country
(Fanon l’l'retched 109). And while this self-appointed intellectual elite is keenly
interested in heightening its position of privilege within this colonial situation. the
tremendous majority of Blacks set their sights on dismantling the system. and it is this
“antagonism“ that exists between the native who is excluded from the so-called
advantages ofeolonialism. and her counterpart who manages to turn colonial exploitation
to her account. Greg A. Thomas. writing for Presence A/ricaine. examines the continuity
and discontinuity of Fanon and Frazier and their theories about the “Bourgeoisie Noir“
(78). Thomas cites how Fanon articulated pivotal distinctions and differences between
“total liberation“ and “independence“ as opposed to “decolonization.“ “pseudo-
independence“ or “puppet independence.“ For Fanon. puppet or pseudo-independence. as
well as decolonization. are a

constitutional Charade that keeps the structure of empire intact. [and Fanon]

defined liberation as the total destruction ofthe colonial system from the pre-

eminence ofthe language of the oppressor and ‘departmentalization.‘ to the

67

customs union that in reality maintains the former colonized in the meshes of the

culture. ofthe fashion. and ofthe images ofthe colonialist. (Thomas 74‘)
Equally critical. colonial rule savors opposition and fragmentation among its colonized
subjects since it feeds on and replenishes itself by establishing systematic friction and
conflict. or what Fanon refers to here as the “compartments." contained within the
“Manichean world“ that is the colonial situation.

The political construction and maintenance ofthe antagonism between colonized
subjects is discussed at length in Gloria Naylor‘s Linden Hills and Paule Marshall‘s
Brown Girl. Browns/ones. Within these novels class is not exclusively determined by
economics. since to be bourgeois is not simply a matter of earning a designated yearly
inc'ome. George L. Jackson (Soledad Brother) and James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
both work well to introduce what happens when middle-class ideals are adopted.
Jackson‘s concept of“neo-slavery." a term he uses to understand North America‘s socio-
economic hierarchy. sheds light on Sylvia Wynter‘s depiction of Blacks who exist as
zombies — those who are controlled and trapped within a nightmarish world. Together.
Jackson. Baldwin. and Wynter set the stage for an analysis oflinguistic control that
ensures the vilifieation of Black radical theory and practice. While Sam Greenlee‘s The
Spook Who Sat By the Door. together with Morrison‘s Song ofSolomon and Love.
illustrate the maintenance of racial hierarchies. a reading of Sherley Anne Williams‘s
Dessa Rose: A Novel reveals how the colonizer / master‘s language can be radically re-
cast. rather than mimicked or embraced. in order to subvert and dismantle racial borders.

The strained relationship Fanon outlines is mapped out extensively in Naylor‘s

Linden Hills through her depiction of an exclusive Black suburban community ofthe

68

same name. Naylor analyzes how the Black bourgeoisie not only distrusts. but despises
Black culture. Linden Hills inhabitants establish their identity by disclaiming a
connection to urban Blacks by. among other things. initiating a campaign to align
themselves with the Wayne County Citizens Alliance. The organization. described as
“the Ku Klux Klan without the southern accent or sheets.“ is a northern version ofthe
Jim Crow South‘s White Citizens Council (134). Linden Hills residents and Alliance
members both want to increase zoning restrictions that will invariably. as one Linden
Hills homeowner explains. helps to “keep the dirty niggers out of our community" (135).
Linden Hills. single-minded in its perspective and collective consciousness. views
poverty as self-inflicted rather than an inevitability of national economic power structures
that collapses race into class. For those living in Linden Hills. African Americans living
in the neighboring Putney Wayne district. in addition to being ungrateful and simply
incapable of attaining any level of“success.” squander the good intentions of Linden
Hills. Residents of Putney Wayne. according to those in Linden Hills. abuse the good
intentions of‘the latter by deliberately rnismanaging social assistance programs such as
food stamps and subsidized housing — Putney Wayne has no one to blame but itself.
Disconnection defines and maintains Linden Hills. The community cannot exist
without this detachment. without a cultural divide that is depicted throughout the novel as
historical and thus not only permanent. but undeniable. Those who seek entry into
Linden Hills and those who believe their presence in the community readily exemplifies
achievement have fenced themselves within a political consciousness that mimics that
which they seek to escape. Linden Hills was constructed to serve as a safe haven for

Blacks who sought escape from white American racism. Morrison also explores the topic

69

 

of post-Thirteenth Amendment escape in Paradise. Here a hostile white world is
recalled by the residents ofa Black town named Ruby. who are the descendants of“one
hundred and fifty freedrnen who were unwelcome on each grain of soil from Yazoo to
Fort Smith“ (13). l\/lorrison‘s narrator describes the “Out There" to recall how North
American racism. defined as an all-encompassing terrorism. lurks everywhere since it‘s
embedded in virtually every aspect of American life.
Ten generations had known what lay Out There: space. once beckoning and free.
became unmonitored and seething: became a void where random and unorganized
evil erupted when and where it chose — behind any standing tree. behind the door
ofany house. humble or grand. Otrt There where your children were sport. your
women quarry. and where your very person could be annulled. where
congregations carried arms to church and ropes coiled in every saddle. Otrt There
where every cluster of whiteness looked like a posse. being alone was being dead.
(16)
Therefore. in order to survive. to simply stay alive. it was strategically essential for the
“f‘reedmen“ to create a secure space that could only be formed by deliberately and
consciously removing oneself from a hostile and terrifying space. I am well aware of
how the above passage from Paradise. with its ideas about escape and freedom. is
defined as decidedly male-centered. It is a world where women and children. the objects.
are thought to belong to the men. For the men. this sense of ownership seems necessary
in order to a maintain their own sense of humanity: without it. they fear that their “very
person could be annulled“ [italics mine]. Morrison‘s Black towns. “I-Iaven.“ then “New

Haven.“ and finally “Ruby.“ are all envisioned. constructed and maintained by Black

70

 

men and equally. Naylor‘s Linden Hills is created and supervised by four generations of
Luther Nedeeds. Each of the towns furthers mainstream ideas about the family. which
means that although women and children are present. they are backdrops within societies
managed by men. In the end however. for Linden Hills. its death and radical
transformation is activated by a woman who is literally held captive by the community‘s
founder.

I want to also establish a discussion about the connection between a maroonage

and Haven. New Haven. Ruby. and Linden Hills. We don‘t know much about the former

lf‘i’uWfl

communities since they were clandestine outposts for escaped captives during chattel
slavery. What we do know is that in many cases the maroonages — independent. self-
governed societies established by escaped women and men — were situated in areas
deemed inaccessible. were located near plantations. and were the bases of resistance and
rebellion. Members ofthese communities often staged raids on nearby plantations to
acquire needed provisions such as foods and arms or to disrupt the organization of the
plantation and the institution of chattel slavery at large. Naylor. to a greater degree than
Morrison. establishes an interesting comparison between a maroonage and Linden Hills.
and in doing so offers a critique ofthe absence of real self-empowerment within the
Black middle-class. Linden Hills. to begin. is considered by residents and founder to be a
place where escape is possible from the horrors “Out There:“ yet. what is cultivated
within the borders of Linden Hills is a nation-state whose foundation is not based on an
actual annulment of white supremacist oppression. but rather a re-inscription of such
thinking. Linden Hills is neither an outpost of. nor a flight from America; instead.

Linden Hills desperately seeks to establish a definitive cultural difference among Blacks

71

because Linden Hills believes what white supremacist thought has to say about Blacks.
Unlike a maroonage. which could be poised to effectively disrupt chattel slavery through
its activism of resistance and rebellions against the master class. a community such as
Linden Hills embraces what it claims to have escaped. This “greedy little caste system.“
to use Fanon‘s term. is a “get-rich quick middle-class that shows itself incapable ofgreat
ideas or inventiveness. It remembers what it has read in European textbooks and
imperceptibly it becomes not even the replica of Europe. but its caricature“ (175). The
Black bourgeoisie. as we can infer from Fanon. lacks the capacity to be revolutionary.
although it envisions racial progress as revolutionary. as a radical transformation.
l-Iowever. Naylor cleverly disguises the community as a maroonage. Its location is secret
and unknown to the reader. for the geographical location of Linden Hills is never named.
The narrator tells trs in the novel‘s opening line: “There had been a dispute for years over
the exact location of Linden Hills“ (1). Consider also that Linden Hills. like a
maroonage. is situated on land deemed inaccessible. Naylor situates the community on a
sharp incline. where she placed it next to a cemetery and the land itself is comprised of
tangled briars.

In essence Linden Hills is designed to be inhospitable for “certain" people. It
continuously signals a concept ofexclusion that dictates an "Us v. Them" mentality. For
example. a marble fence separates Linden Hills from Putney Wayne and the mission
board of the church of the former community for years has refused to sponsor a
Christmas party for Putney Wayne children because “all allocations for/oreign
communities [are] already tied up building mission homes in South Africa“ [emphasis

mine] (163). A neighboring Black community is designated as “foreign.“ thereby re-

tF-

asserting a distinct differentiation between themselves and Blacks of Putney Wayne
along the lines of white nationalism. Linden Hills. a community comprised of“imitation
Swiss chalets. British Tudors. and Georgian townhouses.“ is unable to locate any value in
Black culture: rather. the community"s barometer for affluence and prestige. as we will
see later. is set by Eurocentriclwhite cultural standards (10). The idea that structures
racial superiority espoused by the KKK — reworked as the White Citizen‘s Council.
transported up south as the Wayne County Citizen‘s Alliance. and finally embraced by
Linden Hills — is the establishment ofa definitive division between the good. educated.
responsible Negroes or African Americans who are better than the decidedly threatening.
criminal. ungrateful. lazy Blacks. or niggers. who. if not controlled. will destroy
everything. As result. Linden Hills residents have two immediate goals that set them in
deliberate opposition to Putney Wayne. Linden Hills homeowners want and steadfastly
believe they must work collectively with the Alliance in order to maintain the
community‘s exclusivity. 'l‘heir plot to isolate and contain their community against the
assumed destructive tide emerging from the central city is strategically designed to
compel White Alliance members to acknowledge that Linden Hills cannot possibly be
placed in company with those people from Putney Wayne.

Naylor is able to examine the distance between the suburban Linden Hills and the
central city community of Putney Wayne through her protagonist. Willie K. Mason.
Willie lives in Putney Wayne and his best friend. Lester Tilson. owns a house in Linden

Hills that he inherited from his grandmother. Willie‘s role as the novel‘s catalyst recalls

Newton‘s formulation ofthe “brothers on the block“ —- the great untapped political enervy

h
B

and thus vanguard of political activism. Through Willie we can see Fanon‘s and BPP

tr err-rear

theory at work. Willie lives on the outskirts of Linden Hills and he is our guide through
both societies. In addition to Willie‘s commentary about his life in Putney Wayne. his
friendship with Lester allows us to hear conversations taking place within Linden Hills.
Willie‘s critique ofthese exchanges reveals the racial hatred and alienation espoused by
Linden Hills.

Lester has inherited from his grandmother. Mamie Tilson. the most modest home
within the community. In turn. Lester‘s relationship with his grandmother formulates his
attitude about the community and his place within it. Lester‘s house is located on First
Crescent Drive. which is the last street of Linden Hills before entering Putney Wayne.
and it is Grandma Tilson who cautioned Lester not to ever sell “the mirror in your soul“
(59). But. unfortunately. Lester exists on the border oftwo worlds where he sustains an
identity that has proven difficult for him. While Grandma Tilson meant to protect her
first grandchild from losing himselfin materialism. her investment in Linden Hills did
little to deter her successive generations from escaping the bourgeois nightmare.
Grandma Tilson may have detested and voiced her contempt for Luther Nedeed. but she
was one of the first families to sign a “thousand-year-and-one day lease.“ a contract that
all but guaranteed her family‘s connection to Linden Hills for an eternity. Although
Lester continually complains of Linden Hills to Willie. we soon learn his complaints are
unfortunately only self—serving because he suffers from a keen sense ofdisplacernent.
The Tilson clan now consists of Lester. his mother. Mrs. Tilson. and his older sister.
Roxanne.

Lester. much to mother‘s disappointment. vows never to be like his father. who.

he says. essentially gave his life to maintain a status quo. As result Lester does not help

74

to maintain his mother. sister or the house. All that is required of Lester is his presence.
His mother and sister cannot remain in the house without him because he is a Linden
Hills heir. More so. Lester need not do anything because he has already been defined and
determined. Lester‘s life was organized for him even before he was born. For example.
we learn that his full name is Lesterfield Walcott Montgomery Tilson — a name given to
him by his mother: “I gave you a name that I thought would fit the heights I hoped you
would climb. It was a great name for what I dreamed would be a great man“ (50). The

name. intended to inspire what she believed to be a sense ofprestige. is also intended to

J F 3 It 'Tgljh“

stand in direct opposition to names “uneducated“ or “Black Southerners" give their
children that Mrs. Tilson says sound too frivolous and not well thought out. For Mrs.
Tilson. Willie. whose mother gave him the letter “K“ as his middle name. becomes
representative ofthe poor Black practice of naming. Yet Lester is really unsure about his
birth name for as he sarcastically asks his mother: “Or is it Lester F ieldwalcott
Montgomery Tilson. Mom? They had to type those letters so close together on my birth
certificate that it‘s hard to make them out now“ (50). Lester‘s name as well as the
misplaced positioning ofhis name on the birth certificate. an “official“ document. is
designed to squeeze him within a given and prepared space — a space that he says is
“hard“ to understand. While his mother uses his name to expressly call attention to the
family‘s cultural ideals. which work to separate him and by extension the Tilson family
from those whom his mother deems synonymously uneducated and Black. the
misspelling on his birth certificate. again. an “official“ document. symbolically
misspeaks his name and prompts for Lester a sense of self-alienation. The misspelling

operates as a form of self-alienation literally at the moment of his inscription within

language/culture that he comes to represent to himselfexplicitly in the terms of someone

who accepts standard English as an intellectual and moral standard —— not only a

linguistically regulativet'normative standard. but an ethical standard. as though one

arrangement of letters might not only police other arrangements. but pass judgment on

them as well. For Lester. his name represents the failed attempt of his family to

interpellate him as white. Even his skin-tone. described as “milky-yellow.“ like his birth

name and place of residence. conspires to exclude Lester from rightfully claiming what r

he believes is a true Black identity. Lester‘s identity crisis is further illustrated. His

Sill ‘

bedroom is comfortably outfitted with a king-size bed and a large window. situated at the
house‘s front that provides a panoramic view of Linden Hills. As a matter of fact. the
front ofeach Linden Hills home faces away from Putney Wayne. With the exception of
Nedeed‘s house. which faces up the hill. all the other houses not only look downward. but
more critically. their backsides face Putney Wayne. But it‘s Lester‘s possessions that
reveal his struggle with political consciousness. since he has decked his room with what
readers are expected to perceive as conflicting cultural markers. The focal point of"
Lester‘s room is a four-foot poster of Malcolm X taped over his dresser. We know that
posters are flat. one dimensional. manufactured objects designed for mass consumption.
The Malcolm poster operates here as mere dressing: a decoration. a commodity
representation that fails to capture the multiple dimensions and complexity of Malcolm‘s
life and lived experience. We learn early on that as a child Lester “wanted to grow up
and be like Malcolm X. his favorite person in all of history“ (26). Whereas Malcolm is
admired for his keen ability to accommodate new information within his revolutionary

struggles. we are given clues to recognize how Lester has remained obstinately myopic

76

and transfixed when it comes to engaging Malcolm. In addition to the Malcolm poster.
the dresser is littered with old newspapers and a hal/éset ofthe Arno Press Black History
book series. His entertainment center boasts a color T.V.. stereo. tape deck. and a
collection of cassettes featuring Malcolm X‘s speeches. When Willie comes to visit
Lester. we begin to understand the irony of Lester‘s political convictions. Lester urges
Willie to listen to Malcolm‘s speech. “Message to the Grassroots.“ so Willie can hear
Malcolm condemn “those Toms who sold out the March on Washington" (56). Lester
resents his sister borrowing his Malcolm X tapes because he‘s uncomfortable with the
possibility that they may have something in common since it‘s no secret that Roxanne is
Linden Hills incarnate. Roxanne. who holds a bachelors degree from Wellesley. and who
for years has religiously applied “bleach creams" and hair “relaxers.” claims Eleanor
Roosevelt and Diana Ross as her heroines. She considers herselfto be politically
conscious and she has paid her dues to the Civil Rights Movement by wearing an Afro
for six months and by taking Black history courses at Wellesley. Lester became
completely disgusted with Roxanne when she refused to give money for the Liberation
Front in Zimbabwe because “she reached the conclusion that the people of Zimbabwe
weren‘t ready for liberation“ (57). This last revelation about Roxanne is akin to the same
“logic" the first Nedeed applied to the Civil War when he financed guns for the
Confederacy believing that the enslaved were not ready for liberation.

As a whole the Tilsons introduce us to the hostility that frames bourgeois ideals
and formulates Linden Hills as they also typify Fanon‘s formula concerning the‘
antagonism between the native town dwellers and those from country districts. We

cannot ignore the sense of entitlement and benevolence each Tilson member exemplifies.

77

r s!

Mrs. Tilson‘s antagonism toward Blacks who live in Ptrtney Wayne is indicative of how
she relates to all Blacks to whom she feels superior. I find it interesting that Mrs. Tilson
and her daughter classically adhere to the beliefthat racial progress must also include a
regulation and denial ofthe body since the body. for the Tilson women. is defined as not
only vulgar. but more so a “thing.“ which they easily equate with the poor. Its very
presence acts as a marker of some of social/cultural deviance. Roxanne finds it obscene
to bring attention to her body and her mother scans Willie‘s body as if his physical being
will reveal all his cultural malfunctions and pathology. Mrs. Tilson insists on calling
Willie “William“ and then speculates otrt loud: “Willie is a derivative of William. Lester.
Surely his birth certificate doesn‘t have Willie on. and I like calling people by their
proper names“ (49). When Willie informs her that his birth certificate does indeed
include the name “Willie K. Mason." she then asks what the “K“ stands for. In response
to his answer that the initial alone is his middle name. Mrs. Tilson “darted her eyes over
his body“ (49). She regrets that her son is friends with Willie. who she considers “that
scum.“ because she harbors resentment for Willie. a Putney Wayne dweller who had the
audacity to cross the border and subsequently invade her home and corrupt her son who
otherwise would have attained the great heights she imagined for him. Roxanne and her
mother set themselves apart from Putney Wayne. and their disconnection illustrates the
extent to which they both view themselves as members of an exclusive class. They are
the minority vanguard whose “achievements“ will help elevate the entire race — an
ideology steadfastly adherent to W.E.B. DuBois‘s early concept ofthe “Talented Tenth.“
Grandma Tilson sold herself and by extension her family to Linden Hills. and thus

the Nedeeds. for a parcel of land. Four generations of Luther Nedeeds have been in

78

control of Linden Hills and each Nedeed maintains and adds to the family‘s wealth as the
community's first and only Black undertaker and funeral home director. Since the
second Nedeed. who founded the Tupelo Realty Corporation. the Nedeeds also decide
who receives 3 Linden Hills mortgage. And for the Nedeeds. being bourgeois is not
exclusively tied to economics:
Entrance obviously didn’t depend upon your profession. because there was a high
school janitor living right next door to a municipal judge on Third Crescent

Drive. And even your income wasn't a problem. because didn’t the realty

corporation subsidize that family of.lamaicans on Tupelo Drive who were

practically starving to put two oftheir kids through Harvard? (15)
What does qualify a family to earn a mortgage is a deep abiding “desire to res! in the soft
shadow ofthose heart-shaped trees" [italics mine] (15). Because only in Linden Hills
could a Black person “forget that the world spelled Black with a capital nothing" (I 6').
Supposedly. Linden Hills is a cultural oasis wherein a Black family can elect to remove
itself from the racism and oppression ofa white and hostile outer world. Yet. the Linden
Hills families esteem whiteness. and in doing so they vilify themselves within their
supposed retreat from whiteness. Actually it‘s Lester‘s explanation to Willie about the
“fences” surrounding universities that encapsulates the Linden Hills ideology:

“Fences. White. fences. Even at the university: big. stone fences — why? The

gates are open. so it’s not to keep anybody out or in. Why fences?" He looked at

his friends blank face. “To get you used to the idea that what they have in there

is different. special. Something to be separated from the rest of the world. They

get you thinking fences. man. don’t you see it? Then when they fence you in

79

from six years old till you‘re twenty-six. they can let you out because you‘re
ready to believe that what they‘ve given you up here. their version oflife. is
special. And you fence your own selfin after that. protecting it from everybody
else 021/ there." (45)
They have no desire to change the world; rather. they come to Linden Hills to rest where
a collective acquiescence resides and does not offer any type of confrontation with the
world from which they supposedly escaped. Nedeed men. undertakers all. profit from
sorrow and misery as they control both life and death or as The Right Reverend Michael
T. Hollis says to Willie. Nedeed “gave them a box to live in and a box to die in" (165).
The community itself is situated below and beneath Putney Wayne. Also. the community
is located on a hill and “the land didn‘t slope down on a smooth incline --— it was steep
and jagged ...The bill seemed to slope for about three hundred feet and then fall into an
abyss" (47). Moreover. the houses are situated on seven circular avenues that descend in
order. Ironically. the more expensive homes. which are deemed the most prestigious. are
located at the bill‘s base. Thus. Black upward mobility is depicted here as a downward
spiral into the abyss as one travels through Dante‘s seven circles of Hell. The Needed
men have lived at the bottom of Linden Hills where each one. named Luther (an echo of
“Lucifer"?) has been able to survey the land and those whom they have selected to live
within the community. Add also to this Christian reconfiguration of Hell the fact that the
first Nedeed created the community in seven days. When Nedeed learns ofthe city‘s
plans to seize his land. he visits each family in Linden Hills and offers them a “thousand-
year-and-a-day lease — provided only that they pass their property onto their children"

(7). Each of these factors conspires to reveal the founder‘s duplicity and corruption.

80

Linden Hills. while presented as a vanguard of racial progress and material affluence.
instead emerges as the site where Blacks are doomed and eternally trapped and sealed
within. much like the coffins provided by the Nedeeds. a hellish world.

Each generation of Nedeed men spews racial uplift rhetoric as they feed offofthe
socio-economic predicament of Blacks. The first Nedeed. as rumor had it. or quiet as it‘s
kept. used the sale ofhis family to finance his migration North where he could realize his
entrepreneurial dreams. Nedeed sold his wife and six children to a salon owner. and used
the money from the sale to purchase the land that would become Linden Hills. Several
years later when Nedeed wanted to establish a home once his funeral service proved
profitable. he returned to the South where he purchased a Black woman. married her.
brought her back to Linden Hills. and then refused to grant her freedom. The second

gger" (6). This Nedeed. the first to

\'

generation Nedeed earned the title “the rebel loving ni
attend college. became the wealthiest man in all of Wayne County due in part not only to
the family business. but also from Southern investments. The second Nedeed financed
gunrunners to the Confederacy and in “putting on airs with his blood money." added a
third level to his house (6). Finally. we cannot ignore the point that Linden Hills. as the
narrator tells us. was designed by the second generation Nedeed to serve as a “beautiful.
black wad of spit right in the white eye ofAmerica" ('9). He may have envisioned Linden
Hills to be confrontational. to defy America's belief in Black inferiority. yet. Nedeed
profits from Blacks who he said “were always out of step" and forever “crying about
slavery" (8). Within his vilifieation of Blacks. Nedeed pays homage to whiteness and
exalts its standards as he imagines the creation of homes within Linden Hills and who

might earn the privilege to live within them. As Nedeed dreams of Linden Hills‘s future.

81

he says to himselfthat the community’s success would rely on its ability to “stick an ‘er‘
on it” while at the same time he promises Linden Hills will “cultivate no madmen like
Nat Turner or Marcus Garvey ~ that would only get them all crushed back into the dust”
(I 1).

Yet. Naylor presents the community as a dying society already surrounded by as
well as defined by death. The community‘s financial base derives from the Nedeeds‘
work as funeral directors. Also there are no children in Linden Hills so. in a very
conventional sense. family lines will die off. For example. the son of Luther and Willa
Nedeed. an only child. was murdered by his father because he believed the child was not
his. We learn about the childhood of another Linden Hills resident. Laurel Dumont.
Laurel did not grow up in Linden Hills; however. when she married and her husband
moved them into the community within a house that been in his family for sixty years.
Laurel begins to isolate herself from family and friends and she commits suicide. By the
time we enter the story it is made clear that children do not live there and independent
women cannot remain. A healthy family structure within the confines of Linden Hills is
determined by and for men and so Linden Hills women meet their demise by losing
themselves under male dominion. The first Mrs. Nedeed. formerly Luwanna Packerville.
was an enslaved woman purchased by the first Nedeed who refused to free her. The
subsequent Mrs. Nedeeds: Evelyn Creton. Priscilla McGuire. and finally Willa Prescott.
are all driven insane as each becomes the consummate “Mrs. Luther Nedeed.” Their
disappearance is so complete that the wedding ring. handed down to each woman. is
imagined as a small shackle. The rings metal eerily matches the women‘s skin tone. as

does the bridal veil. which is also a Nedeed legacy.

Naylor‘s Linc/en Hills. in company with other African American novels which
draw our much-needed attention to Black middle-class structures. allows us to examine
how this community acquires its definition by refusing to acknowledge a connection with
the socio-economic plight of Blacks in America. while at the same time. the community.
as Mason observes. “feasts on [the] human heads” ofthe poor (133). Also. while the
Black middle-class proclaims as its driving force an enterprising. independent. non-
confrontational. and righteous spirit. it desperately waits in eager anticipation of the
moment(s) when white America will accept Blacks. Progress for the Black middle-class
is depicted here as occurring only through the recognition of white America. or. more
specifically. only to the degree that Blacks are deemed worthy to mimic white American
standards. When Willie and Lester. for example. encounter Linden Hills resident and
mimic man Maxwell Srnyth. Willie says ofthe encounter: “[Maxwell's] eyes seemed to
stop at the green tile on the floor in front of [my] feet. Why. it was the same feeling that
you get talking to some white people... [I] suddenly felt very invisible" (I I3). Maxwell
does not see him because Maxwell dismisses Black. IV'Iaxwell. a Dartmouth graduate and
the first Black to serve as assistant to the executive director at General Motors. has lived
a calculated life. He disavows an identity as a Black man and has replaced it with the
persona ofa colonizer. Maxwell felt it necessary to make his body and by extension his
"blackness disappear” (102). His entire existence is based on a disavowal ofhis body
because he “had discovered long ago that he doubled the odds of finishing first if he
didn't carry the weight of that milligram of pigment in his skin“ (102). Like Mrs. Tilson.
who believes she can simply look at Willie in order to see a cultural abnormality

inscribed on his body. and her daughter. who religiously applies facial bleach to lighten

her “too dark" complexion. and relaxers to straighten her “bad” hair. Maxwell has
attempted to erase his body. which he believes is a hindrance. Rather than challenging or
out-right rejecting the notion of racial inferiority. he accepts the stereotype. and so he
creates a body designed specifically to contradict the stereotype. For example. to counter
the racist notion that Blacks are inherently lazy. while in college he survived on only
three hours of sleep each night. This regimen then provides him with more hours during
the day. which he uses to further serve interests that are now aligned with those ofthe
academic institution. In addition to maintaining a 4.0 grade point average he served as
student government president and editor ofthe campus newspaper. Maxwell eventually
speaks to Willie but only to make his point about the existence of Black progress and for
Maxwell. again. progress means being accepted by whites on their terms. Maxwell
shows Willie an-eight page Pen/house spread ofa Black woman. dressed in high-heel
leopard print boots whose grasp on a chain controls a white man dressed in a safari outfit.
Maxwell closes the magazine with a flourish as he states: "And I don’t have to spell it
out. this picture is worth a thousand words. Today the Penthouse. my friends. and
tomorrow the world” (I 15-16). As Maxwell explains to Willie how an image ofa Black
woman emblazoned within the pages of Penthouse heralds the advent of racial
advancement. Willie‘s critique of Maxwell‘s gaze is a formulation of what Fanon in
Black Skin Mr’lrr'le ll/lasks describes as that terrible moment when the colonized comes into
direct contact with the colonizer: “And already I am being dissected under white eyes.
the only real eyes. I am fixed" (l 16).

We can locate a community of Maxwells in Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl,

Browns/one. through which she critiques the manner in which the “American Dream"

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determines how Barbadian immigrants define Black migrants. Maxwell refuses to
recognize the systematic racism that pushes him to work much harder than white students
whose sense of achievement is considered a foregone conclusion. Maxwell. while he
may understand on a very minimal level how he's held back because he‘s Black. makes
the huge mistake ofaltering his life in order to oppose the stereotypes he embraces. The
Barbadian immigrants accept America's exalted vision of itselfas well as its conceptions
about Blacks life. but in this case. it is the migrants from the South who must be kept at a
distance and ostracized. Set in Brooklyn during the period between the world wars.
Barbadian immigrants see themselves as tireless and industrious: Blacks who are
decidedly worthy of equal opportunity and success. Because they work and save
paychecks from several low-paying subservient jobs (they clean the houses of whites and
work as nannies and factory workers) in order make a down-payment on a brownstone.
they exalt themselves in comparison to Black migrants who mostly rent and who the
Barbadian immigrants say lack a work ethic. According to the novel‘s Seifert Yearwood.
a Barbadian shop owner. the poverty ofAfrican American migrants is self-inflicted.
since. as Yearwood points out. the migrants “work for the .Iew all week and give the
money right back to him on Sat'day night like it does burn their hands to keep it" ('38).
Once again. a clear division exists among Blacks in the Diaspora. Those who migrated
from the Southern states are not allowed to join the Barbadian Association for fear that
their very presence will undermine the Association members‘ efforts to attain political
and social status within North America. As the Association member Cecil Osbourne
explains to the membership at a weekly meeting: “We ain‘t white yet... But we got our

eye on the big time” (221). Association members joyously applaud Osbourne‘s

00
(Jr

statement. and in their acceptance of his words they share a belief of“whiteness" being
acquired. attained. or as his words indicate — achieved — as a position of honor and
prestige. Being Black. for the middle-class Black community in Marshall's novel. as the
Association‘s position implies. means being nothing. a non-entity. .Iust as Association

gale of migrant Blacks and refuse their

bk.

members deny rather than ignore the stru
membership. Naylor‘s Putney Wayne resident Willie K. Mason repeatedly talks about
how during his encounters with middle-class Blacks he becomes faceless and invisible
and yet. at the same time. he‘s perceived as a dangerous threat.

Actually. there are a few characters in Linden Hills who. like the outsider Willie.
are considered “invisible” and are erased by the community because they refuse to base a
sense ofselfon a white standard. Nedeed. as explained. is only interested in allowing
families into Linden Hills who desire to “rest" and “forget" that “the world spelled Black
with a capital nothing" (16). A few. those who do not adhere to his doctrine ofescapism.
for a briefmoment have slipped into Linden Hills. The Right Reverend Michael T.
Hollis who. much to the disbelief and disgust of Linden Hills residents insists on
sponsoring a Christmas party each year for Putney Wayne children. is ostracized. Hollis.
a graduate of Harvard's Divinity School. is now pastor of the Linden Hill‘s Sinai Baptist
Church where he soon learns that his congregation isjust as “cold" as the theology
lessons he received at Harvard. Both lack what he sought as a preacher: “What had
drawn him to the pulpit in the first place was the power between people; together they
created “God‘ — so real and electrifying..." (177). And so. still desperately clinging to
the beliefthat he can construct bridges to God by uniting people. he suggests upon

arriving in Linden Hills that Sinai. Baptist sponsor Christmas parties for Putney Wayne

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children. But for thirty years Hollis has financed the celebration himselfbecause the
church board repeatedly claims not to have the needed funds since all allocations are used
to build mission houses in South Africa. Also. Hollis continues to invite people from
Putney Wayne to Sinai Baptist Sunday service. The invitations. like the Christmas
parties. are intended to foster fellowship between the two communities. I-lowever. just as
the Linden Hill congregation identifies Putney Wayne as foreign and assumes the role of
colonizer within South Africa by constructing mission houses. the congregation reinstates
.lim Crow law when it expects visitors from Putney Wayne to sit in the back pews or in
the balcony during Sunday service. What solidifies the congregation's contempt for their
pastor is his performance at the Lycentia Parker funeral. Rather than separating himself.
the church. and in turn the community. from Putney \lv’ayne. he instead. through the
funeral sermon. chooses to bring the destructive element within their midst. Linden Hills
is the community where the residents. we must recall. seek refuge from the stereotype of
Blackness. Lycentia is a model Linden Hills citizen who. among other duties. serves on
the Linden l-Iills Beautification Project. and is secretary ofthe Tupelo Realty
Corporation. What is most revealing about Lycentia is her tireless work on gathering
petitions to keep the city from building a housing project adjacent to Linden Hill‘s. Her
husband. Chester. fondly recalls how his wife often said to him: “Chester. I‘m going to
do everything in my power to keep those dirty niggers out ofour community” (135). The
community honors Lycentia's legacy by organizing her funeral. but llollis attempts to
undermine their designs. Nedeed has instructed the choir to perform a Bach requiem. but

Hollis. who got his calling from visiting storefront churches in South Philly while a

University of Pennsylvania undergraduate. instead instructs the church organist to play

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and sing “Amazing Grace." The hymn. ofcourse. shocks the congregation. especially
because everyone in the church is aware that the church‘s musical director has repeatedly
admonished the organist for subjecting the congregation to her “inappropriate passion"
(178). Hollis digs an even deeper hole for himself with his sermon. He preaches how
Lycentia. like all those within Linden Hills. can never hope to be resurrected as was
Lazarus who escaped eternal damnation. Hollis steps down from the pulpit and shakes
Lycentia‘s coffin urging her to rise. and to take her place beside .lesus. When she does
not. Hollis explains that Lycentia is not ready and as he glares at the congregation he
asks: “Will the fancy houses. fancy clothes. and fancy cars make you ready? Will the
big bucks and the bigjobs make you ready"? No. No“ (182). The status quo is restored
only when Nedeed reads the obituary and re-gains control. As a defeated Hollis steps
aside. Nedeed reads an obituary that heralds the greatness of one oftheir own and Sinai
Baptist is saved. The gospel according to Linden Hills. read by their own savior. Luther
Nedeed. is what they yearn to hear and the very words they lean toward to repeatedly
define their world is encapsulated at a funeral. a setting that once again affirms the
community's impending demise. Linden Hills. believed to be a community constructed
to alter the socio-economic predicament of Blacks in the US. is instead and inevitably a
site where political collaboration is camouflaged. the status quo maintained and honored.
and any semblance of what could perceived as “Black” is deemed destructive and slated
for destruction. Linden Hills is a community that can only envision liberation in terms of
its own death. and insists that its undertaker serve this spiritual need by steadfastly

constructing Linden Hills as a site not of resistance. but of sterility and self-annihilation.

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To further highlight this ideological gap. this space ofself-annulment that defines
Black bourgeois political consciousness. I must include a re—telling of an incident
experienced by the late Safiya Bukhari. Well before Bukhari was named vice-president
ofthe PG-RNA (Provisional Government ofthe Republic ofNew Afrika). co-chair of
both the Jericho Movement and the Free Mumia Abu-.Iamal Coalition. and co-founder of
the prison advocacy group. MILK (IVIothers Inside Loving Kids). she. like many other
Panther and Black Liberation Army (BLA) members. recalls her awakening; the point at
which she realized that to be Black. in North America. was to be categorically denied
access to the “American Dream." a dream built not only on your economic exploitation
but your symbolic annihilation. Bukhari began to understand her status within the
confines of the United States when she worked as a volunteer for the Panthers. Her
sorority. in its attempt to help “at-risk” children through a community service project.
volunteered with the BPP's Free Breakfast for Children Program. When her sorors
initially wanted to lend their financial support to a charity with foreign interests. the
chapter president instead suggested they could start at home by assisting children in
Harlem. Bukhari. formerly Bernice Jones. who. as a college student. supported the
Vietnam War. and was busy writing essays for the campus paper in support of the war.
believed it was ridiculous to apply the term “disadvantaged" to anyone living in the
United States since people who did not “make it.” or realize the “American Dream." were
simply “too lazy to work" (Bukhari Coming onge 125). Bukhari says she came to terms
with the position of what it means to be Black in the US. — to be faceless. lost in the
“rabble.” at the moment when. as a BPP volunteer. she challenged a police officer who

was harassing a Panther member as he stood on a street corner selling the organizations

89

newspaper. lnrecalling the incident that prompted her to finally join the BPP she states:
“When I asked what was going on the police said to me that my asking questions was
obstructing a governmental process and then I said that [the Panther] had a constitutional
right to disseminate political literature” ('14). Bukhari was told to shut up and when she
did not she. along with her soror and the Panther. were arrested. Mumia Abu-Jamal
shared a similar experience as a high school student in Philadelphia. After participating
in a rally to protest the Presidential campaign of Southern segregationist George Wallace.
he 'as attacked by a group of whites. When he appealed to a police officer who was
watching the assault. the cop in turn beat Abu-Jamal. The ordeal. he recalls “kicked me
right into the Black Panther Party" (Abu-Jamal. All Things 104). Both activists abandon
a blind acquiescence to state authority through an experience that forces them to come to
terms with what Abu Jamal defines as the “undeniable reality ofAmerica” (Abu-Jamal.
Deal/7 B/(iszvums 140).

Most often. this dramatic transformation in political consciousness is figured as
being startled or jolted out ofa deep and sustained sleep. Sylvia Wynter (“Towards the
Sociogenic Principle") examines the colonized psyche. and how the mindset framing
Black bourgeois ideology can be perceived as a form of“zombification” — the walking
dead who remain trapped within a nightmarish world where their thoughts and actions are
controlled by a linguistic force. where. as I have argued. their “progress“ can only be
envisioned in terms of self-anmrlment. Drawing on Fanon. Wynter engages the theorist's
discussion of language and the colonizer. Fanon determines that “one must recognize
that “to speak‘ does not mean only to be in a position to use certain syntax. to grasp the

morphology of this or that language. It means. above. all. to assume a culture. to support

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the weight ofa civilization“ (Blue/r Skin 17-18). The colonized subject. therefore. is not
simply speaking the language of the oppressor. but assuming the “weight" of a system of
meanings. which. in turn. determines how existence and being are conceptualized.
George L. Jackson. writing from the confines ofprison where he served as Black
Panther Party Field Marshal and rallied the cause for prison reform and radical
transformation. opens his narrative Soleducl Brother with “I am pressed for time — all the
time" (3). In a later passage he writes of how be continually sent out an “SOS" [Save
Our Souls]. which his family ignored. .Iackson knew he was a marked man and his days
had been numbered because of his of activism to reform prison conditions from a
“unlivable hell to a livable hell” threatened the very nature ofthe prison system. which
derives a great deal ofits license from public sentiment concerning the treatment of
inmates (.36). .lonathan .lackson. .lr.. Jackson‘s nephew. in his “Foreword" to his uncle‘s
polemical text. explains the enormous task his uncle faced to transform the prison
system‘s treatment of inmates when he writes:
Deep down most people believe that all prisoners. regardless oftheir individual
situation. really did do something wrong... The bottom line is that a majority of
people simply will not believe that the state openly or covertly oppresses without
criminal cause. (xix-xx)
Jackson‘s letters. as well as his analysis within Soledacl Brother and Blood In My Eve.
read as if he were writing personally and in isolation to family. friends. and attorneys. but
ofcourse his letters are intended to speak directly to the Black community since he
strategically parallels his incarceration with the Black experience in general. Jackson‘s

critique of his crisis should remind us immediately ofNewton. who says prison is a

91

“microcosm ofthe outside world" (Newton 54). Black Liberation Army leader Assata
Shakur similarly notes that the “only difference between [prison] and the streets is that
one is maximum security and the other is minimum security. The police patrol our
communitiesjust like the guards patrol here. I don‘t have the faintest idea how it feels to
be free" (Shakur 60). Elaine Brown. the first and only woman to serve as BPP chairman.
extends the connection between prison. captivity and slavery along historical lines when
she refers to America‘s Black communities as the “barracoon” (Brown 2000, 69). The
term is certainly fitting when we consider that incarceration rates throughout the nation
are highest among Blacks and continue to increase as private corporations make millions
'of dollars through the ever-increasing prison—industrial complex which relies on cheap
convict labor to produce goods and services for the nation. New millennium Black
communities are therefore. according to Brown. designated as holding pens. the
barracoon. sites in which enslaved men. women. and children were confined before
making the wretched journey across the Atlantic into chattel slavery.

Jackson repeatedly attempts to reach his father. Robert Lester Jackson. a man who
came of age during the Great Depression. a period Jackson cites as a time wherein “it was
no longer possible to maintain the black self by serving. Even that had dried up”
(Suleu’ad 243). Moreover. these deleterious conditions were compounded because. as
Jackson asserts. his father's generation did not recognize they “lived in a terrible
quandary: none were able to grasp that a morbid economic deprivation. an outrageous
and enormous abrasion. formed the basis oftheir character” (-39). His father. Jackson
mournfully cites. like the countless men and women who lived through the era (ifit can

be called living). transformed into “zombie[s]." were trapped in a perpetual state of shock

(240). They were. as are successive generations of Blacks. the “neo-slaves”; those whose
economic predicament obliterates their freedom and who “shuffle away from any
situation that becomes too difficult" (240‘). Baldwin opens The Fire Nex/ Time with a
similar revelation about his father when he shares with readers a letter he received from
his uncle and namesake who wrote to the younger Baldwin on the anniversary of“The
Emancipation Proclamation.“ Baldwin‘s uncle says of his brother: “Well he is dead. he
never saw you. and he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because. at
the bottom of his heart. he really believed what white people said about him" (4).

In Praisesongfor the l/l’idow. author Paule Marshall. much like Naylor in Linden
Hills. links Black middle class ideology with death and “zombification” through her story
ofAvey Johnson. We first meet Avey in her cabin during her escape from the Bianca
Pride as she gathers her possessions swiftly in the middle of the night “working
feverishly. like someone pursued" (16). Avey has finally “awakened" after decades of
living a nightmare existence that made her estranged from her husband and herself as
well. She now escapes not from a plantation. but from a seventeen—day vacation aboard
the Bianca Pride cruise ship. Avey’s leaving angers and bewilders her friends.
Thomasina Moore and Clarice. both of whom. for Avey. suffer from the Black bourgeois
affliction described by Frazier. Thomasina. now in her early seventies and described as
once having “good hair" (18). and a skin tone the color of“old ivory.” (24) was
“pampered by a husband who been taken with her color" (27). Thomasina is a former
Cotton Club chorus girl and proud of it. and she is the one who for three years has
planned the vacations for the three women. Thomasina selected the Bianca Pride -

which. of course. means “white” pride in translation — and. as the narrator tells us. when

she. Avey. and Clarice first saw the cruise ship with all that “dazzling white steel.” they
were “awestruck and reverent“ before the vessel (15). In the end. it‘s Thomasina. with
her “colors all up.” who hollers at Avey. “That‘s why if I‘ve said it once I‘ve said it a

thousand times: it . . . don‘t . . . pay . . .to. . no . . . place . . . with .

<5

(1’

.niggers! They‘ll mess up ever‘time“ (27).

But Avey. not insulted by the former Cotton Girl‘s rant. instead “[t]o her surprise
found she was smiling... as if. instead of an insult. the woman had said something
complimentary“ (27). Thomasina. as Frazier writes ofthe Black middle. class “rejects
identification with the Negro masses“ and idolizes whiteness as a fetish. whereas Clarice.
in comparison. “has developed a deep-seated inferiority complex” because of her
“Blackness“ (Black Bourgeoisie 24). Avey is aware that Clarice will readily assume that
her friend‘s leaving is her fault and her fault alone. When Clarice hears Thomasina tell
her that Avey is leaving the trip. Clarice responds with a reflex. Clarice has learned to
move her body into the room‘s nearest corner. and when she numbly shakes her head her
“shoulders slope down and the burdened look adds years to her face” 23). Clarice. we
learn. has endured a husband leaving her. her only child. a straight-A student. dropping
out ofa predominately white college. and the long and painful illness and death of her
mother. Now hearing the news of her friend‘s departure. as with all of life‘s other
disappointments. Clarice‘s first and only reaction is to feel responsible: “Wasn‘t she in
some way to blame? Her dullness. her rampant flesh. her blackness...“ (24).

Before leaving the cruise ship Avey wrestled with the dilemma of not knowing
herself. She didn‘t miss the idea of her family struggling to survive: she in no way

romanticized her family‘s poverty; her husband‘s daily despair trying to find and

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maintain work. or the cold apartment that always threatened the lives of her baby girls.
Rather. what finally urged Avey to leave and try to snatch her life back was her dream
about her great Aunt Cuny. What made the dream so startling in the first place was that
the last time Avey dreamed was in the mid-sixties. She experienced her last dreams. or
more specifically nightmares. when they were conjured as a “rerun” ofthe “nightmare
images from the “evening news“ (31 ’). Years later. in her sleep she saw. yet again.

The electric cattle prods and lunging dogs. The high pressure hoses that were like

a dam bursting. The lighted cigarettes being ground out on the arms ofthose

sitting in at lunch counters. . .The bomb that exploded in the Sunday school quiet

of Birmingham in ‘63 went offa second time in her sleep several nights later.

And searching frantically amid the debris of small limbs strewn around the church

basement she came across those of [her daughters] Sis. Annawilda. and Marion.

And it was the Sunday in her dream when Sis was to have recited “The Creation”

in the annual program. She had learned all twelve stanzas by heart: “...And God

said I 'm lonely slil/...l '1! make me a man... f” Avey Johnson had ceased dreaming
after that. (31 )

The horror and crisis of life in North America plagued her sleep. until the
nightmares abruptly stopped. Years later Aunt Cuny appears and prompts Avey to
remember how. as a child. her aunt took her to the shore and shared the re-telling ofthe
“The Landing” ofthe Ibos. The Ibos: women. children and men. Aunt Cuny tells Avey.
were enslaved Africans brought to the shores ofthe United States. The captors had
shackled the Africans with leg irons and when the Ibos came ashore they all stopped and

each took a long hard look around. What they saw. Aunt Cuny said. was all that was to

come: “The slavery time. 'mancipation and everything after that right on tip to the hard
times today. Those Ibos didn‘t miss a thing. Even seen you and me standing here talking
about em" (38). The Ibos also looked at the captors “and when they got through
studying ‘em. when they knew just from looking at ‘em how those folks was gonna do. do
you know what the Ibos did? Do you. . . . ?“ (38). They decided to return home and so
they turned around and began to walk on water. When the Ibos reached the large ship
that brought them from the Continent. which was now anchored in the deep water. they
just kept “stepping“ ('39). Avey remembers asking her aunt how it was possible that the
Africans didn‘t drown. and the wish that she could have “reached up that day and
snatched the question like a fly out of the air and swallowed it whole” (40). Aunt Cuny
responded: “Did it say Jesus drowned when he went walking on the water in that Sunday
school book your mamma always sends with you?“ (40). Aunt Cuny is ofcourse
signifyin and Avey understands the lesson being imparted here. Signifyin. a “speech
act.“ operates on several levels within Black English. The speech act of Signifyin.

Gene ta Smitherman writes. relies on a verbal “indirection“ (26) “delivered with a
definite purpose in mind“ (229). Thus signifyin operates on at least two distinct levels.
The act is most often employed. as in the case of Aunt Cuny. as a way to pronounce a
“social commentary on the actions or statements ofsomeone who is in need ofa wake up
call“ (Smitherman 26). Avey‘s question reveals that she has learned to unconsciously
privilege Christian folk tales as truth and therefore exempt them from interrogation. As
such. Avey questions why the Ibos did not die. which it would not have occurred to her to
ask of Jesus‘s walk on water. Her query also calls into question the integrity of her aunt.

and by extension her foremothers. who passed the account of the Ibos from one

96

generation to the next. And. finally. Avey's question misses the entire point ofthe re-
telling. Smitherman. like Wynter. turns to Fanon‘s Black Skin, While Masks to provide a
connection between language and culture. Again. according to Fanon. to speak a
language means to speak a culture. to support a particular “way ofthinking.“ He
continues with the assertion that “in every country ofthe world. there are climbers. the
ones who forget who they are. and in contrast to them. the ones who remember where
they came from“ (qtd. in Smitherman 66). A system of language can work to distinguish
the climbers from those who remember. and Avey‘s question signals how she has been
taught. by her mother. to forget. or more specifically to forget in order to embrace a belief
system that erases her culture. The point ofthe story ofthe Ibos was not to settle the
empirical question of whether or not it is possible to walk on water: instead. what is
essential in this re-telling is how the people understood the impending predicament and
decided not to endure the horrors. The Africans were themselves self-determined and in
control oftheir own fate and destiny.

Avey for a long period failed to remember her time with her aunt. and in the
interim. she grew older. married. and built a life centered on acquiring material
possessions. Her husband. Jerome. who she once fondly called “Jay.” also became
unknown to her during the family‘s struggle for economic security. Jay‘s passions began
to dissolve. Where he once looked forward to coming borne after working several jobs
each day to listen to his music and dance and make love with Avey. he later began to
admonish other Blacks for “cuttin up and having good time“ as if he no longer
recognized the necessity ofa break from life‘s hardships (132). Speaking to Thomasina

and her husband. Jerome. not .lay. once remarked: “If it was left up to me I'd close down

97

every dancehall in Harlem and burn every drum! That‘s the only way these Negroes out
here‘ll begin making any progress” (132). It was during these moments that Avey no
longer recognized her husband. and when she looked at him. she carried with her the
eerie feeling that she was bound to a stranger — an entity that had taken over her
husband‘s body whose soul was dead and forever lost. Jay‘s long years training as an
accountant afforded Jerome the means to move his family out ofa small apartment in
Brooklyn into a large suburban home in “kl/hire Plains” [italics added] and it was during
this time that his “change” became most visible to Avey. She recalls how even though
his voice was the same the things he said. and tone he used. changed dramatically. and
she often wondered “who had slipped in when he wasn‘t looking and taken up residency
behind his dark skin: someone who from the remarks he made viewed the world and his
fellow man according to a harsh and joyless ethic” (131). In the end. for Avey. Jay had
died long before Jerome. and when she looked into the face of.lerome as he lay in the
casket. Avey‘s last thought was a fear of looking into the “sealed“ face ofthe man who
everyone thought was her husband. As they offered her condolences. they also
“congratulated her on how well she had held up in the face ofher loss” (133 .

As he closes his critique ofhis father. Jackson poses an essential question — a
question infused with an urgent hope — a question Jackson longs to find an answer to. but
at the same time. he appears fearful of the answer. He asks. ofhis father: “How do you
console a man who is so unapproachable?” (Soledad 241) Jackson. not willing to let his
father‘s generation be lost forever. is able to wrestle from the crisis some consolation
when he reflects. “I forgive them. I understand. and ifthey will stop their collaboration

with the fascist enemy. stop it now. and support our revolution with just a nod. we’ll

98

forget and forgive them for casting us naked into a deleterious world“ (Jackson. So/edad
243). Jackson underscores. here. that the Black bourgeoisie is formulated not only in
terms ofeconomics. but. even more fundamentally. in terms of social ideals. Consider.
for example. that the Barbadian immigrants of Brown Girl. Brovr’nslones were working-
class and poor. as were the first inhabitants of Linden Hills. Their economic status.
however. does not preclude them from adopting middle-class sentiments. Again. how
we speak reveals an ldCOIOg}-’. a system of beliefthat defines our perception of society as
it determines our position within society. To speak a particular language ultimately
means to support the weight ofa particular culture.

In order for this lost generation of Blacks to offer the nod Jackson seeks. this
generation. must. on a critical level. begin to acknowledge how an enforced system of
language has conspired to effectively camouflage the reality oftheir socio-political

ge must. to ensure its continuation. forbid

hr

condition and how the structures ofthis langua
the activation ofa new language. a new terminology. designed to help us re-define the
socio-political reality ofNorth America. Thus. we cannot miss the significance of
Baldwin‘s uncle. who says that Baldwin‘s father was defeated because he really believed
what white people said about him. Baldwin‘s father was crushed under the weight ofa
system of language. This aspect of linguistic captivity is a central theme within Black
radical theory and strategy. If language has the capacity to construct or (re)arrange a
sense of being. language can also be reformulated and used as tool. a course ofaction. to
(re)articulate a subject position. 1 am reminded here of how it has been pointed out that
the possibility of freedom was made an impossibility because ofa lack ofdefinition. I

speak here of Harriet Tubman. who reportedly said that she could have freed countless

99

others if only they realized they were enslaved. Similarly. Black Liberation solider
Assata Skakur points out that “to become free. you have to be acutely aware of being a
slave” (Shakur 262).

According to Black radical theory. even the bare formulation ofthe problem of
self-determination. or self-definition. is beyond the Black middle-class. Many theorists
have noted that this segment ofthe community privileges the ideals and values ofthe
ruling class. Malcolm X‘s critique of the 1963 March on Washington details how the
event lost its urgency and explosiveness once the Black bourgeoisie seized control of it.
Malcolm X. on the occasion ofthe formation ofthe Organization of Afro-American
Unity. called for a re-wording ofthe predicament of Blacks in America. He asserted that
Blacks should begin to fight for human. rather than civil. rights. Within this context and
similar to Jackson. Malcolm criticized Civil Rights Movement adherents who “follow/[ed]
the rules ofthe game laid down by the big bosses in Washington. DC. the citadel of
imperialism“ (X Final Speeches 42). In his autobiography. Malcolm re-classifies the
1963 “March on Washington.” as the “Farce on Washington” (284). The March he
writes. began as a

“black powder keg” created out of a national bitterness [that] was militant.

unorganized. and leaderless. Predominantly. it was young Negroes. defiant of

whatever might be the consequences. sick and tired ofthe black man‘s neck under

the white man‘s heel. (X 284-85)

The event. he continues. lost its sense of urgency. The government. fearful ofthe March.
wanted “Negro leaders” to stop the event. and when the “leaders” explained they were

powerless to stop the March. it was hijacked. Instead ofa “powder keg“ or an “angry

100

riptide” the event became a “gentle flood.” an “outing.“ a “picnic“ (X 286-7). The focus
shifted. he continues. due in large part to the intervention ofthe Black bourgeoisie who
initially rejected the event because they wanted to disconnect themselves from poor
blacks — the angry revolutionists. Secondly. he explains. since the March in its inception
was designed as an open confrontation. the event. according to the Black middle-class.
would validate white America‘s fear of Blacks and this validation would disrupt the
possibility of integration and progress. Thus. under the complete supervision of Black
leaders who worked tinder the direction ofthe government. the March‘s spontaneity was
completely stripped away. Malcolm reports:

The marchers had been instructed to bring no signs—signs were provided. They

had been told to sing one song: “We Shall Overcome.” They had been told how

to arrive. when. where to arrive. where to assemble. when to star! marching. the

route to march. (X 286)

Malcolm‘s critique ofthe March. like his 1965 speech in Selma. tells us that a
position of power and authority is maintained by the ruling class. This class constantly
monitors and attempts to define Black political strategy and it is able to do so with the
help ofthe Black middle-class. When Black activism emerges from the Black working-
class poor it is conceptualized by the ruling class and the Black bourgeoisie as pathology:
3 diseased mental state poised to corrupt an otherwise healthy social order. Thus. Black
rebellion within this system of language is deemed utterly senseless and essentially
criminal. Therefore. it is not surprising that Naylor‘s Luther Nedeed is fearful of his
community of Black elites producing a Marcus Garvey or a Nat Turner. Such individuals

in his estimation “would only get [Linden Hills Blacks] crushed back into the dust“ (1 1 ).

101

The same mentality rears its head in Toni Morrison‘s The Songr o/‘Solomon. when
Milkman admonishes his friend Guitar forjoining the secret society. “Seven Days.” The
“Seven Days“ is a fictional counter-terrorisrn group first established in the South. and
then transported to the northern states. The “Seven Days“ consists of seven Black men.
Each man is assigned a day ofthe week and he must respond to the random murder of
Blacks by whites. lfa Black woman is killed by a white man on a Tuesday. the Seven
Day member who is assigned to Tuesday must on the same day ofthe following week
randomly kill a white woman. Guitar explains that the group “help[s] keep the numbers
the same“ (155). Milkman is immediately appalled by the Seven Days. Just as Nedeed.
without question. defines a Turner or a Garvey as a “madman.“ Guitar instantly labels the
Seven Days as deviant. Milkman urges Guitar to let the authorities handle the murders
instead ofthe Seven Days.

Added to the list ofexamples ofmiddle-class Black complicity is Joy. of Sam
Greenlee‘s The Spook H‘ho Sat By the Door. .on. whose husband “is the only Negro
doctor in the white hospital in Chicago." is angered by the “damn Freedom Fighters” who
she says have prompted several Blacks. including her husband. to lose their integrated
jobs (Greenlee 237). Although Joy is married she rekindles the love affair she had with
Dan Freeman. She and Freeman dated when they were both undergraduates at Michigan
State University. But Joy. without hesitation. in order to maintain her status as a
“doctor‘s wife.“ turns Freeman over to the police as soon as she learns Freeman has re-
organized the street gang of Black youth into a paramilitary group. Finally. I think it
interesting how Morrison depicts Black revolutionary groups and/or individuals as either

insane or envisioned through the eyes of Black middle-class characters who are

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positioned as insane. This configuration appears in her most recent novel. Love (2003).
To summarize. the character May who is the daughter-in-law of Bill Cosey. a wealthy
Black hotel owner. projects her madness onto the social protests ofthe 19505 and 605.
Through May. Morrison adds an interesting critique ofthe Black middle-class.
Morrison‘s narrator explains that in times past. May
had been merely another loud defender of the colored-owned business. the
benefits of separate schools. hospitals with Negro wards and doctors. colored-
owned banks. and the proud professions designed to service the race. Then she
discovered that her convictions were no longer old-time racial uplift. but
separatist. “nationalistic.“ Not sweet Booker T.. but radical Malcolm X. (80)
May mourns the passing of Booker T. Washington‘s “sweet“ era of racial uplift that calls
for Blacks to prove their worth to white America. and she is troubled by the similarity of
her beliefs to the emergent and potentially dangerous philosophy of Malcolm X. She
designates Malcolm as abnormal. or more readily. a deviant distortion of racial progress.
May‘s insanity is directly linked to a misreading of Malcolm X‘s philosophy. To drive
the point further. May lives her life based on the ardent beliefthat someday. and very
soon. hordes of poor Blacks will senselessly storm the hotel. burn it down. and kill all the
“Uncle Toms” within. As the Black Power Movement gains momentum. May‘s insanity
increases in equal measure. She begins to hide “money and silverware in sacks of Uncle
Ben‘s rice.“ and in a pitiful and desperate attempt to safeguard her bourgeois life. which
is represented as trivial and frivolous. she also squirrels away “useless packets of last
New Year‘s cocktail napkins. swizzle sticks. paper hats. and a stack of menus“ (Morrison

81-82). May‘s pointless hoarding of useless items uncannily mirrors the bourgeois

 

consumerist attempt to achieve liberation through consumption. manifesting itselffinally
in an insane beliefthat such hoarding of goods can protect her from danger and ward off
the (imaginary) revolution.

In M’retehed ofthe Earth. Fanon writes that the oppressor‘s status emerges out of
the dispossessed body ofthe oppressed. and in the hopes ofrealizing its full potential. the
oppressed must dismantle/kill the enslaving sociopolitical order since violence. he writes.

ge of violence must take on a new

\'

is a “cleansing force“ (94). For Fanon the langua
definition — one created and reconfigured by a new system of language that will bring
into being “the veritable creation of new men“ (Fanon 36). And since. as he continues.
the ruling class comes into being and ensures its identity through “a great array of
bayonets and cannons.” (36) it “understands nothing but force" (84). Fanon thus
identifies the dialectic according to which death generates life as he proclaims: “For the
native. life can only spring up again out ofthe rotting corpse of the settler” (93). Fanon‘s
call to arms. this “onward march“ ifyou will. brought about through the formation ofa
new political consciousness with deliberate effort. abandons a pacifist doctrine. which is
also a stance reliant on acquiescence (132).

Fanon says the bourgeoisie. who reside in the “enemy‘s camp“ perhaps more
mentally than physically. have been reared to adOpt the language and. by extension. the
culture of the colonizer. When faced with the dilemma of confronting the limits ofthe
regime. the Black bourgeoisie are beaten at the outset. Their persistent inability to
recognize the social reality of what it means to be Black in the United States allows them
to disconnect themselves from poor Blacks and to believe that the use of violence (by

anyone other than the government) is impetuous and unlawful. This abhorrence of

104

violence is. in reality. a stupid beliefthat the government. no matter how oppressive.
must be granted an absolute monopoly on violence. a belief so ideologically ingrained
that the Black bourgeoisie is unable to even recognize government violence as violence.
Violence in the hands of the United States government is somehow transcendent. a
different sort ofthing altogether. whether it involves the imprisonment and forced labor
of Blacks at a rate that makes them the most highly incarcerated population in the world.
or the slaughter of an entire village of Vietnamese in the name of freedom. Instead of
settling for the language of oppression. which is characterized by this refusal to recognize
official violence as violence. this rhetorical duplicity through which violence
masquerades as a repudiation of violent means. or a belief in non-violence. Black radical
theory seizes and re-signifies the language of violence. Black radical theory instead
recognizes that. in reality. violence is not only materially. but symbolically. necessary to
establish and maintain the racial status quo. yet this same violence. by its very nature.
exceeds the racial order that it enables. and therein exists its revolutionary potential. A
language that disavows this disruptive truth is exchanged for one that highlights it. that
unceasingly forces a recognition of this dirty secret that is necessary for the continuation

of an oppressive racial order.

Let‘s \‘v‘orry the Line:
Ending the Service of Black Women in the Literary Imagination

My examination of literature by Black female writers proposes to understand how
Black women writers. according to Cheryl A. Wall (ll’orrring the Line 2005). “worry the
line.“ As a popular expression “worrying the line“ means to destabilize. or to restructure
the boundaries of identity. culture. or tradition through the introduction or recognition of
voices which have been too readily dismissed and classified as different. or as “other.“
Through this process of recognition we effectively restructure a given discourse. which
has been constituted through such exclusions. and in doing so we privilege a new way of
speaking. looking. and thinking. While the phrase is most commonly used in relation to
Black musical traditions. Wall turns to Stephen Henderson (Unde/standing the New
Black Poe/rt" 1972). who clarifies that worrying the line is “the device ofaltering the
pitch ofa note in a given passage... A verbal parallel exists in which a word or phrase is
broken tip to allow for affective or didactic comment” (6). Sherley Anne \lk'illiams (“The
Blues Roots of Contemporary A fro-American Poetry“ 1978) defines “worrying the line”
as changes in voice and pitch. the addition ofexclamatory phrases. changes in word
order. and the repetition within the line itself... As a technique worrying the line may be
used for purposes of‘emphasis. clarification. or subversion (6). Wall reads acclaimed late
twentieth-century writers Audre Lorde. Paule Marshall. Toni Morrison. Gloria Naylor.
and Alice Walker. whom she situates “on the cusp ofthe new century“ — a time wherein
Black women‘s intellectual genius concerned itself with the “recuperation and
representation ofthe past four hundred years ofblack peoples‘ lives in the United States

and throughout the African diaspora“ (5 ). These women writers persistently offer

106

sociopolitical critiques that would otherwise go unacknowledged by the mainstream in
that they create a much needed. and for many of us. a long-awaited. “rereading“ of
cultural mores and their affinity with American literary traditions. Wall is interested in
the ways Lorde. l\/'larshall. l\*lorrison. Naylor. and \W’alker engage “in the act of looking
back. of seeing with fiesh eyes. ofentering an old text from a new critical direction“ (6).
Walls‘ approach is highly reminiscent of bell hooks‘s “Oppositional Gaze“ (1992) where
she discusses the impt‘n‘tance and necessity of Black female spectatorship and how the
very act of looking and defining (speaking and affirming) or for that matter. refusing to
look and categorically dismissing (speaking and denouncing) all create spaces for
confrontation and transf‘ormation. Putting her theory into play. hooks revisits Sapphire.
the Black female character ofthe Amos n 'Andj‘ radio and later television series.
Sapphire. a serviceable character. was there to soothe an audience steeped in white
patriarchal ideals. She was used only as a foil to “soften the images ofthe black male
characters that. in each episode. were depicted as “vulnerable. easy going. funny. and
unthreatening to a white audience“ (120). While Sapphire. hooks continues. served as the
consummate “bitch — nag“ for an American listening and viewing public. Black women
embraced Sapphire on their own terms. Rather than allowing themselves to be
manipulated into envisioning Sapphire as a woman to be despised and laughed at. they
instead understood Sapphire‘s frustrations and resented the manner in which she was
mocked. and the extent to which depictions of Black women were used as a violent
assault against their own personhood.

\N’ithin their literature Black women writers worry the line by adhering to an

Oppositional Gaze. and in doing so they have taken on the enormous task not only of

107

displacing or disrupting the imaginary continuity ofa tradition. bttt ofsimultaneously
establishing a new continuity. As the women of whom hooks writes took Sapphire in as
their own. Black women writers most often create cataclysmic breaks that seek to
overturn not only degrading images attributed to Black women. but within this frame to
unsettle their readers who may be unable to deconstruct images of Black women because
they have been taught to be comforted by these images.

Bttt degrading depictions of Black women are bound neither exclusively to
television nor have they remained perpetually transfixed only within the era ofchattel
slavery. nor. for that matter. can they be ascribed as an affliction from which only white
Americans suffer. They have also appeared with nagging persistence throughout the
African American literary canon. Toni Morrison writes at length about America‘s
literary traditions in Playing in the Dark: 14 'hileness and the Literary Imagination ( 1990).
She asserts that when we think about the beginning of America‘s literary history we need
to consider that

nothing highlighted freedom —- if did not create it — like slavery. Black slavery

enriched the country‘s creative possibilities. For in that construction ofblackness

and enslavement could be found not only the not-free. btrt also. with the dramatic

polarity created by skin color. the projection ofthe not-me. The result was a

playground for the imagination. (38)

The quintessential American traditionally identified as white and male has been
largely formulated and reinforced through a literature written by white males for a
predominately white reading audience. And Morrison asserts that the quintessential

American identity is based on ideals of“autonomy. authority. newness. difference and.

108

absolute power.“ and that these collective ideals “became not only the major themes and
presumptions of American literature. bttt each one is made possible by. shaped by.
activated by a complex awareness and employment ofa constituted Af‘ricanism“ (44) that
she defines earlier as “strongly urged. thoroughly serviceable. companionably ego
reinforcing. and pervasive“ (8 ). l\/lorrison identifies an Af‘ricanist presence as endemic
within the American literary tradition. stating that for a long time she has been interested

in the way Black people ignite critical moments of“discovery or change or emphasis in

literature not written by them“ (7).

gram. 4.1-1... .

And it is here where I am able to establish a kinship between the theories set forth
by Walls. hflorrison. and hooks. and to extend their ideas by offering an analysis of the
African American literary imagination. I want to understand in what ways Black women
characters are configured by Black male writers when critical moments ofdiscovery are
ignited. What happens to and what is done to the Black woman when a quest for freedom
is attempted by the Black man who seeks autonomy and individuality amidst a
sociopolitical order that categorically denies Black personhood. Moreover. within this
context I want to think about how. in turn. Black women standing at the crossroads of
race and gender will signify on the language of freedom and liberation and its assumed
kinship with ideas of masculinity and patriarchal authority which are central within the
African American literary canon.

Returning to Wall and her contemplation ofthe African American literary
tradition. she considers how scholars have set forth competing theories: “Where one

perceives texts as responding to their precursors or as signifying on them. tradition

 

constitutes a theoretical line in which texts produce and are produced by other texts“ (I 1 ).

 

109

Robert Stepto (From Behind the Fed 1979) asserts that the African American literary
tradition is bound “historically and linguistically“ to a “pregeneric myth“ where
mediations about “the quest for freedom and literacy“ are played out (xv-xvi). We can
also allocate space here for Henry Louis Gates. Jr. In her reading ofGates‘s The
Signifying ill/()H/{CJ‘ ( 1987). Wall argues that African American texts “revise. contest. and
parody elements in preceding texts“ ( 1 1 ). If we proceed from the premise that a tradition
is an on-going conversation wherein texts speak to or against each other. and that the
African American literary canon has devoted specific attention to ideals of liberation and
freedom. in what register is this conversation spoken? When we think about the trope of
liberation within the history of African American literature. which spectatorship has been
privileged and at whose expense? Wall provides an answer when she outlines the extent
to which Black women writers engage in a call-and-response to a Black literary tradition
where a male perspective is made not only normative. but exalted “through classics
which have ignored or dismissed as insignificant the experiences of Black women“ (1 1 ).
In order to understand how Black female writers situate characters in order to
look back with fresh eyes and see old texts from new critical directions. we can examine
the canonical texts of Frederick Douglass‘s chattel-slave narrative. My Bondage and Mr
Freedom (1855 . and Richard Wright‘s twentieth-century neoslave novel. :‘v'ative Son
(1940). In comparison to these works I include a reading of Sherley Anne Williams
neoslave novel Dessa Rose (1987). I argue that within Douglass‘s influential
contemplations about literacy as “the pathway to freedom.“ the symptomatic suppression
ofthe role of his mother. Harriet Bailey. in instigating an interest in literacy distinguishes

his evaluation of Black women throughout the text. Douglass‘s ambivalent relationship

110

 

to Black women marks a crisis of patriarchy. It is a crisis that is felt through the erasure
ofBlack women‘s agency and realized through Douglass‘s reiterative identification with
white “masters“ as they commit acts of violence on the bodies of black women. Wright.
like Douglass. defines liberation as the domain ofthe individual esteemed as male and
\K’right‘s Bigger Thomas envisions liberation as a variation ofslavery. While Bessie
Mears cannot be self-determined because her subjugation defines the license and freedom
of others. Bigger‘s attempt to achieve ownership of self. to attain mastery. repeats the
terms of‘ his own enslavement in his acts of" violence against the one he envisions as
"other“— the Black woman. Bessie. But. as I will show. Bigger‘s life experience is
inextricably and undeniably linked to the “other“ he attempts to master. Finally. I select
Dessa Rose not simply because the novel features a Black female protagonist. but
because \k’illiams honors the necessity of Black female resistance. not only to white
power. bttt to the tradition represented by the texts of Douglass and Wright. The
protagonist. Dessa. refuses to merely serve as sublimated backdrop for the staging of

male-centered performances of liberation. instead becoming a lethal warrior in the cause

of"self-definition.

Douglass and Wright

Douglass‘s mother is a ghostly presence throughout the text. with her
appearances taking on a spectral quality both literally and figuratively. She first emerges
in the narrative in distinctly otherworldly terms. as an absent presence that haunts. ofall
things. J. C. Prichard‘s anthropology text The :N’a/ara/ History ofrlrlan. Douglass‘s

interest in this text focuses on a specific illustration that he describes indistinctly only as

111

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IF m
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a “figure“ that has “features [that] so resemble those of my mother. that I often recur to it
with something of the feeling which I suppose others experience when looking upon the
pictures of dear departed ones“ (52). That he should identify his mother with a
characteristic illustration of an African in an ethnology text indicates not only that he has
a merely generalized or idealized notion of his mother. which could be explained by the
fact that he barely knew her as a child. bttt tells us something about his own psychic
investment in her that goes far beyond any such empirical explanation. We learn from

Frederic May Holland‘s (Frederick Douglass the Black ()rator 1 895) biography of

,_._.F__.
F .‘hnm‘
.. . .

Douglass that the picture to which Douglass refers is the picture ofa man. “King
Rameses the Great.“ The fact that Douglass identifies his mother with the picture ofa
man. and an African king. underscores the fact that her appearance in the text occurs in
order for Douglass to cover an absence. that ofa father to whom he can attribute his “love
of letters“ as a Black man. That is to say that Dduglass. as a man ofthe Victorian era.
understands tradition as a patriarchal inheritance passed from father to son (we should
remember. in this context. his refusal to allow his first wife. Anna Murray. a Black
woman. to learn to read). Because his father is. according to his narrative. white (and.
also according to Douglass. quite possibly his “mt-tster“). and Douglass‘s avowed purpose
is to proclaim the intellectual capacity of Blacks in the face ofa racist tradition that
refused to acknowledge Black intelligence. Douglass is caught in a bind. In short.
Douglass‘s ideological coordinates regarding patriarchy and race are clearly at odds in his
attempt to formulate his identity as a Black intellectual. This problem ”first enters the text

with the introduction of his mother:

 

I am quite willing. and even happy. to attribute any love of letters I possess. and
for which I have got — despite of prej udiccs -— only too much credit. not to my
admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity. bttt to the native genius ofmy sable.
unprotected. and ttncultivated mother - a woman. who belonged to a race whose

Uement and

0—
br

mental endowments it is. at present. fashionable to hold in dispara

contempt. (58)

In Douglass‘s opening clauses of‘this passage. we can read a distinct reluctance to
concede that he inherited his literacy and intelligence from his “uncultivated“ mother.
despite his evident need to do so due to his “admitted“ white paternity. Perhaps we
should note not only his palpable discomfort in attributing his literary prowess to his
Black mother. as opposed to his white father. bttt add the observation that the only two
words he italicizes in the passage are “not“ and “mother“ -— not mother. Combined with
the fact that he wistfully identifies his mother with the image not only ofa man. but an
African king. we must conclude that Douglass‘s comments about his mother are defined
by the symptomatic effects ofthe crisis ofa properly racial patriarchy.

Such effects are echoed in especially violent form in passages in which Douglass
narrates acts of violence inflicted upon black women by white men. While such
passages. like the passage in which he introduces his mother. have a clear polemical
purpose in the context ofthe abolition movement — the lurid imaging of instances of
sexual depravity induced by the institution ofslavery. intended to shock a Christian
audience — Douglass‘s own psychic investment in such scenes exceeds and to some
degree dismantles such a rhetorical explanation. In a scene with just such a professed

purpose. Douglass describes the brutal abuse inflicted upon his aunt. Esther. an enslaved

woman. Douglass attempts to distance himself from the f‘iendishly excessive pleasure of
“old master“ (Captain Anthony). bttt through an examination ofthe formal qualities of
this passage. we get a distinct sense of Douglass‘s participation in this scene ofdesire that
problematizes such an absolute distinction between the pleasure of old master and that of
Douglass. From a hiding spot. Douglass secretly observes old master whipping a half-
naked Esther. The voyeuristic Douglass‘s detailed description of Esther‘s body as it is
being whipped is troubling. and throughout the scene Douglass focuses his narrative gaze
on her naked “breast“ and her “back and shoulders. naked to the waist.“ the viewpoint
that he attributes to and shares with the master. While Douglass assigns an obscene
“delight“ to old master during this sexual abuse. it would seem that it is not only old
master who is delighted with the scene (87). We see a distinct slippage between the
personas of Douglass and old master in Douglass‘s identification with old master‘s
thoughts and gaze — Douglass locates himself“in“ old master‘s consciousness. both in
describing the entire scene from old master‘s vantage point. and in interpreting the scene
exclusively through old master‘s thoughts. For Douglass. as for old master. Esther
becomes a mere body in this scene. l-ler pain is rendered exclusively through the view of
Douglass/old master. There is no attempt to enter the viewpoint or thoughts of Esther.
l-ler pain is rendered only through the materiality of her “shrieks and piteotts cries.“ and
interpreted only from the vantage point of old master‘s pleasure (87). Moreover. old
master‘sjoy in this act of sexual torture bleeds into Douglass‘s voyeuristic pleasure in

$-

narrating the events when Douglass describes the tantalizing epithets“ that old master
hurls at Esther as he whips her (87). In this odd choice of words. given Douglass‘s

professed purpose ofmoral condemnation. we witness Douglass‘s fttll participation in the

114

sadistic pleasure of master — not only assuming old master‘s viewpoint. but seemingly
fully identifying with the pleasure that defines it.

Douglass‘s voyeuristic description of the lurid details ofthe scene not only disrupt
the straightforward condemnation ofthe sexual violence he witnesses. btrt additionally-1'
reveal his own difficulties in producing a clear identification with either the black woman
or the white man. On one level. he condemns this sexual violence in the most adamant
terms and is troubled by his inability to intervene. On this level. he identifies himself
consciously. morally. with the enslaved woman. On another level. however. he identifies
with old master. I-le assumes old master‘s gaze on Esther‘s body. and relates the scene
exclusively from this vantage point and through old master‘s thoughts. As Esther is
reduced to a brutalized body. her pain is interpreted through the lens ofthe pleasure it
affords to old master. a pleasure which Douglass assumes as his own when his
terminology blurs the boundary between himself and old master — are old master‘s
epithets “tantalizing“ to himself or to Douglass? I assert that Douglass‘s confusion in this
scene. identifying on the level of form with old master. an identification that conflicts and
even contradicts his identification with Esther on the level of‘content. is the same
confusion of identification that we witness in the passage about his mother. His
attribution of his “love of letters“ to his mother is reluctant to say the least — why does he
need to affirm his “willingness“ to do so at the start ofthe passage? Why does he only
acknowledge his white father with the grudging term “admitted“? Why does he identify
his mother with an image ofa man in the same passage? The strange use of italics — to
emphasize the words “not mother“ —— a term that obviously undermines the conscious

intent ofthe passage — seems to play the same role as the description of sexual abuse as

 

“tantalizing“ in the passage about Esther. That is to say. these words strikingly
emphasize the other formal resistances to Douglass‘s professed message in each passage.
Douglass‘s crisis of patriarchy. first evident in the passage about his mother which is
simultaneously about his lack ofa proper father. reiterates itself in the passage about
Esther. and in other passages which involve violence against Black women. A Black
father. whom Douglass seems to require in order to lend a firm sense ofcontinuity and

propriety to his intellectual inheritance. makes itself felt in his uneasy and disavowed

identification with white male violence against Black women. Douglass is able

 

simultaneously to experience horror and pleasure in such situations because he is
confronting the trauma ofa lack at his own subjective origins.

One ofthe most telling repetitions ofthis originary trauma occurs in Douglass‘s
fight with Covey. “the negro breaker“ (205 ). Despite Douglass‘s claim that he achieves
individuality and freedom through literacy. it is through an act of violence that Douglass
claims his “manhood.“ In an episode that Douglass interprets as a sort of primal scene.
the crucial point ofhis empowerment and his ascendancy into manhood. the adolescent
Douglass must claim his birthright by beating Covey in a fight. In a telling turn-of-
phrase. Douglass claims to have “mastered‘ Covey (248). Douglass elaborates that “I
was a changed being after that fight. I was nothing before: I WAS A MAN NOW“ (246).
Douglass confronts his lack ofa proper father — or paternal function — from whom to
claim his manhood in this light. If his mother gave him a love of literacy. this gift

amounted to “nothing“ in Douglass‘s words. until Douglass becomes what he describes

 

alternately as a “man“ and “master“ through his defeat of the brutal white father figure.

Covey. Douglass figures becoming a “man“ as assuming the explicitly white male

116

function of"master.“ Significantly. becoming man/master can only take place in the
noted absence of Caroline. a woman enslaved on Covey‘s farm. who. according to
Douglass. could hav c master ed me very easily“ had she chosen to intervene on the side
of Covey [italics mine] (245). Douglass‘s mastery. and his subsequent assumption of
manhood. is dependent upon the absence of the Black woman. who could “easily“ have
overcome and mastered Douglass. thereby preventing his own mas/err. His tt’tastetj'. in
short. is once again cast into question with the re-entry on the scene of struggle of the
Black woman.

The attempted erasure of the Black woman is also centrally evidenced via the
pairing ofBigge r Thomas and Bessie Mears within Richard Wright‘s Natire Son. While
Douglass‘s ambivalent and perhaps unconscious relationship to Black women invariably
reveals a crisis of patriarchy made apparent throughout his quest for freedom. Wright‘s
protagonist instead proceeds with deliberate malice and forethought. The incessant
brutality inflicted on Bessie is glaringly deemed throughout the text as justifiable. ifnot
ne ssary. for Bigger to escape a racist North American reality and for the State to
maintain its repressive control ofa Black population. To begin. Bigger and Max‘s
conversation about Bessie‘s death is exceedingly short. and. within his comments. Bigger
explains and Max readily accepts why Bi rgge er has murdered Bessie. Bigger says simply:
“I knew I had to kill her and I did it. I had to get away“ (408). Bttt Bigger ‘sjustification
and the attorney‘s sreaction to Bigger sjttstification for her murder is not considered
alarming. C onsider the narrative perspective. After Bi rgger' rh ias raped and murdered
Bessie. the narrator explains that Bigger “walked to the window and stopped. waiting to

hear someone challenge his right to do what he was doing. Nothing happened‘ [italics

117

mine] (275). Overall. Bessie‘s rendering displays a collective utilization and sharing of
the Black woman‘s body in that Bessie not only haunts and feeds the imaginations of
others bttt. also. this repeated psychic investment is used by and against Bigger in his
quest for sociopolitical autonomy. Bessie repeatedly emerges as a presence used to either
persuade Bigger of his authority or to instill a sense ofprivilege in others. This
management and control of Bessie is made more apparent through the fact of her

proscribed alienation. Although multiple characters interact with each other. and through

conversations voice their thoughts and insights. Bessie is not afforded this opportunity.

An alienated Bessie functions within the narrative only as a site at which others can
articulate their freedom: she exists only within definitions determined by others. and
while she is restricted to speaking only with Bigger. he always dictates the conditions of
their meetings. Equally. while Bigger murders Bessie to ensure his flight. “to secure his
own individual f‘ate and goal. his own peculiar and untranslatable destiny.“ her murder
simultaneously serves the needs ofthe State (528). Mainstream media. law enforcement.
and thejudicial system. all working in collusion. seize Bessie‘s remains and place her
body on public display to convict Bigger of what a reactionary. hate-fueled America
deems a “greater crime“ (528). By entering Bessie as “mere evidence“ in the case to
convict Bigger of Mary‘s murder. the State attempts to reinforce the belief‘that Blacks are
both criminal and savage. On one level. Bigger is deemed a threat who must be executed
in order to ensure public safety. More importturtly. however. Bigger is a necessary
sacrifice to the institutional economy of racial oppression — he must be destroyed by the

state not because he is really a threat to the sanctity of white \N’Olll'dllllOOLl. but in order to

reinforce the stereotype of Black savagery that is necessary for an economic order based

118

on racial oppression. We see Bigger ‘s sacrifice of Bessie re-doubled at the level of the
criminal justice system. Just as Br 1gge er can only come into a sense of his own existential
destiny through the destruction of Bessie. the state must destroy Bigger in order that the
economic “freedom“ of men like Dalton can bea ssured. But whites extend no
compassion whatsoever to Bessie. Bessie merely operates as evidence in a murder case
that validates a white psychic need to maintain a psychotic fear of Blacks.

Within this male-centered text addressing themes ofliberation and freedom.
readers are expected to not only forget about Bessie. but to accept what she endures as
commonplace as ifshe is created only to be written out of existence and obliterated from
the text without consequence. Consider for example. the unavoidable focus on her body.
the manner in which her corporeal being is envisioned by others. Bigger.to oge ether with
other characters. think of Bessie only when their own sexual dreams of“future“
possibilities arise. Recall the clipped btrt nonetheless revealing conversation between
Marv Dalton and Bigger .Bigge r. Mary and .Ian are in the closed quarters ofthe car after
having left Ernie‘s Kitchen Shack where Bigger saw and grudgingly spoke to his
girlfriend. Bessie. Bigger is now alone in the car with Mary and .Ian. and the drunken
Marv w ho is being kissed and held by Jan and who knows that Bigger is watching them
through the rearview mirror asks Bigg er about his girlfriend.

Y ou got a girl. Bigger“ Mary asked.
“I got a girl.“ he said.

“I‘d like to meet her sometime.“

119

 

He did not answer. l\»'lary‘s eyes stared dreamily before her. as ifshe were
planning future things to do. Then she turned to .Ian and laid her hand gingerly on

his arm. (86)

Bigger denies Bessie. He may answer that he has a girlfriend. but does he not tell Mary
her name or for that matter explain to Mary that she inadvertently met Bessie who was
also at the restaurant and that Bessie came over to their table in order to speak to him.
Bigger has effectively erased Bessie. bttt her presence. the idea of Bessie is made
possible through a verbal silence and physical absence. Bigger does not speak her name.
and Bessie is not physically present. bttt Bessie dramatically emerges once she is
conjured within the drunken sexual desires of Mary Dalton. whose thoughts ofa Black
woman prompt her to imagine “future things to do“ as she makes out with her white
boyfriend.

It is important here to return to Douglass. As Douglass witnesses his aunt Esther
being tortured. he identifies not with her. but with her tormenter. the white male master.
Before Douglass begins to recount the sexual torture carried out against Esther at the
hands of‘Anthony. Douglass goes into detail about his aunt Esther‘s physical beauty by
comparing Esther to the white daughters of another “master.“ This comparison is
significant in terms of our present argument because Douglass seems only to think about
the white women sexually through the prism of Esther. and. more specifically. on the
occasion of her sexual abuse. Douglass evaluates the white women erotically only when
two things occur to the black woman: first she is reduced to a physical object. as
discussed above: next. having been made into a purely material presence. she is tortured.

and Douglass voyeuristically enjoys her torture through an identification with her

120

l"

c
I

 

torturer. Only when she is reduced to body. and this reduction to body is emphasized
through her agony. can she be sublimated to serve as a catalyst for Douglass‘s erotic
evaluation of white women. We can say that the same scenario takes place in the scene
with Mary. Jan. and Bigger. It is the erasure and sublimation of Bessie that allows them
to engage in their sexual imaginings within the closed quarters ofthe automobile.

ln both ofthese canonical texts. ill/r Bondage and Mr F reca’um and Nalive Son.
the Black woman. unlike the white male or for that matter the Black male or the white
woman. is the one who ultimately lacks sexual authority because she is denied this
authority. and it is this denial that replenishes the authority of others. Esther‘s pain. her
lack of control. her silencing and her forced submission “delights" the white master. and
the voyeuristic Douglass aligns himself with this master. As Bigger watches Mary and
.lan. and Mary becomes aware ofBigger‘s witnessing. he is drawn into this sexual
dynamic in which the Black woman is made silent and is controlled because she exists
only in the imaginations of others who possess the power to dream of“future things to
do.” This configuration appears early in the text during the theater scene when Bigger
masturbates as he thinks of Bessie and immediately afterwards he watches a newsreel
which features a shot of Mary and Jan on vacation in Florida where the camera catches
the white couple on the beach hugging and kissing. What ties this scene to the one that
comes later is that Bigger acts as a voyeur who thinks of"future things to do" when the
newsreel voiceover enters to speak Bigger‘s sexual desires aloud: "Oh boy! Don't you
wish you were down here in Florida?" (35). h‘loreover. Bigger masturbates before
watching Jan and Mary. and as he does so he refers to his penis a "nightstick" as he

thinks. again. of Bessie. Within these sexual dynamics. one aspect remains a constant —

the Black woman is pttt into service and these "future things to do” always signal the
empowerment ofothers brought about through a destruction ofthe Black woman. via
Bessie. in various forms. Buddy. for example. informs Bigger that now that he has a
better job. he can get a “better gal" than Bessie. And when it appears that Bigger's plans
to toss Bessie aside may be ruined by Vera. who says that she will warn Bessie. Vera's
fate. without hesitation. is linked to the older Black woman when Bigger threatens to
break \v’era‘s neck ifshe dares to do so. It is apparent throughout that Bessie simply
cannot exist as an equal. Any act ofauthority on her part. or on her behalf. will simply
not be tolerated. or any expression of personhood emanating from or for Bessie is not
only deemed unacceptable but. more so. her destruction is defined as vitally necessary.
Bessie cannot be self-determined because her subjugation defines the license and
freedom of others. [it perhaps the most telling moment. the narrator explains that Bigger
“feells] the worth of himself in [Bessie's] desperation" (168,). In an earlier passage
readers are told how Bigger despised and was threatened by Bessie when she thought
only of herself: that he "wished he could clench his fist and swing his arm and blot out
and kill. sweep away the Bessie on Bessie‘s face and leave the other helpless and yielding
before him [to] know that she was his and to have and to hold whenever he wanted to"
(159-60). There is an explicit and unambiguous splitting of Bessie within Biggers mind
at this point. and the act of murder. through which he claims his existential freedom. or
his “own peculiar and untranslatable destiny” in \lr’right‘s words. is directly attributed to
his awareness ofthis splitting. He seeks. in killing her. to "sweep away the Bessie on
Bessie‘s face." which he attempts to do through her murder. in order to liberate the

imaginary Bessie. “the other" who would be “helpless and yielding before him." Bigger

~
5.

l23

murders Bessie in order to liberate himselfthrough the catalyst ofthe sublimated Bessie:
he must kill the actual Bessie. it seems. in order to guarantee his possession ofthe
imaginary Bessie. through whom his fantasies ofabsolute domination can be envisioned.
through whom he can imagine himselfto be free. The paradigm of ownership through
which Wright depicts this moment ofexistential freedom prompts us to recall that
Douglass‘s own imaginings of freedom are based on an identification with the “master"
as he tortures Esther. and that his own ascension to “manhood“ is also imagined as a form
of“mastery."

Bigger literally tosses Bessie s body down an airshaft t. and the narrator tells us
that this act is Bi rgger s"right." W hen Bessie 5 remains are brought into the courtroom.
Bigger confesses to himself that not once had he thought ofher because he w as
concerned only with how a white public would react to his having murdered a white
woman. lt rs not that Biggc r thought of Bessie second to Mary rather as Bigger rev eals.
he had not thought of Bessie at all. Moreover. the State does not conceive of Bessie’s
murder as crime in- -and- of itself because her remains appear only evidence to convict
Bi rgger rofmurdcring Mary Dalton. the white woman. Moving "outside" ofthe text.
consider also that Bessie is effectively excised from the author's essay. “How Bi rgger
Was Born." Wright makes at least passing reference to virtually all his other characters.
but Bessie is absent in this text. Yet. despite. or rather because of. all the evidence
concerning Bessie. and the extent to which she appears as one who is rendered
paradoxically as an absent presence. a close reading of \ulii c Sun reveals that Bi rgger s
quest is inextricably tied to and defined by Bessie. Therefore. wenced to "worry the

line" by understanding Bessie's significance within this canonixed text about Black male

 

 

liberation. For it is Bessie. the Black woman. through whom Bigger's sociopolitical
predicament is articulated; and. it is Bessie who. throughout the novel. is held in
perpetual bondage.

Arr/ire Son reads as a narrative about a young Black man living in twentieth-
century North America who "felt the need for a whole new life and acted out ofthat
need" (527). The life ofthe protagonist and his need for escape and self-emancipation. as
well as his relationship with every character. is determined by a psychological state of

alienation. George Jackson (Solar/ad Bro/her W90). like Richard Wright. understands

 

this sense of self-alienation that largely defines what it means to be black American as
being essentially linked to an economic order that Jackson designates “neo-slavery." A
variation‘on the Marxist concept of wage slavery. the psychological predicament ofthe
neoslave is that of relating to himself as an object. Marx. in The Cf]‘lll7dl"f.$'.\'(’. argues that
a person becomes a wage slave under capitalism because he or she comes to experience
the process of“living labor." or the creative process through which one interacts with the
world and transforms it to meet human needs. as an object to be bought and sold. at
which point living labor is transformed into “objectified labor" (259). This leads the
laborer to experience his or her own essentially human activity as a reified thing. for
under capitalism "the fact that surplus labor is posited as surplus value ofcapital means
that the worker does not appropriate the product of his own labor: that it appears to him
as u/ien /)I‘()/)Ul‘l_t'u (260). Her own activity appears to her as an object. separated from the
"totality" of her being. which is "owned" or "appears as the property ofcapital" (360).

The laborer therefore comes to view this part of herself as an object separate from herself.

 

which finds its "animating zmirr' elsewhere." in “the machine/1v of fixed capital" (260).

124

This process leads to experiencing oneself as an object. or "positlingi oneselfas an
other”: one experiences oneself as an “alien objectivity." and locates one‘s subjectivity
elsewhere. as "an alien subfeelivilj' (ofcapitalf‘ (26] ). The wage slave therefore
experiences his relation to himself as that of an object being regarded by an alien
consciousness. .lackson. like Marx. defines the condition of the laborer under capitalism
as essentially that ofthe slave: the wage slave is simply a slave subjected to a more

efficient system ofalienation. Grouping both “chattel slavery" and “nee-slavery" under

I?“

the broader category of“slavery." .lackson states the “slavery is an economic condition

w
..A

15""

which manifests itself in the total loss or absence of self-determination" (251 ). This total
loss of self-determination is enabled by a total loss of the self. for the "cultural links to
the established capitalist society have been a lot closer than we like to admit.” adding that
"we are bonded to the fascist society by chains that have strangled our intellect" (254).
Nee-slavery is a state ofalienation. of being an object. or chattel. under the scrutiny of an
alien consciousness.

Bigger‘s job as a chauffer exemplifies such alienation in that the objectification
of his labor defines him and. though it. his “owner” controls virtually every moment of
his life. Even the "surplus" money he receives for his labor is controlled by his
employer. Henry Dalton. who uses Bigger‘s salary to dictate Bigger's life and the lives of
his family members. Bigger lives in a one-room. rat infested apartment with his mother
and younger siblings. The apartment building is managed by the South Side Real Estate
Company. which is owned by Dalton. According to Dalton‘s instructions. Bigger will be

on twenty-four hour call as the family chauffer. So that Dalton will have ready access to

 

his service. Bigger will sleep in a back room above the kitchen in the Dalton house. and

his clothes and food will be provided for him. In terms of his weekly wage. Dalton will
pay Bigger $25. and it is Dalton who determines how Bigger will spend the money. As

N-v

Bigger's owner instructs. "The extra $5 is for you You can give the $30 to your

Vb

mother to keep your brother and sister in school" (57). Bigger exists in a state akin to
chattel slavery because his labor is property owned by another. and the predicament in
which this leaves Bigger is that he can only envision liberation as an act of violence
against another reified being. Bessie. that elevates him to the class ofowners. Like
Douglass. who believes that "|e]verybody... wants the privilege of whipping somebody
else" (73). and who can only envision becoming a man as an act of violent "mastery" that
is based explicitly on the absent presence ofa black woman (Caroline. who is present but
who refuses to intervene. although she “could have mastered me very easily" [245] ).
Bigger can attain freedom only through an act of violence that is simultaneously an
erasure ofthe Black woman. or “the Bessie on Bessie‘s face" (360). Bigger defines
freedom in terms of an individual. esteemed decidedly as man whose authority and
privilege determines and directs the lives ofothers. As the narrator informs us. Bigger
“[olf late had liked to hear tell of men who could rule others. for in actions such as these
he felt that there was a way to escape from this tight morass of fear and shame that
sapped at the base of his life” (130). Bigger‘s act. like that of Douglass. is one of
ownership and mastery. Furthermore. his regard for Bessie would seem to precisely
mirror his experience of himself. as an object under the scrutiny ofan alien
consciousness. and the act of violence by which he seeks to attain a state of freedom -

keeping only the part of Bessie that is absolutely submissive to his desires — reveals that

he can only envision this state of imaginary state. this attainment of liberation through an

126

 

 

escape from alienation — as an act of ownership. lf Biggers violence against Bessie rs art
acting out ofthe psychological violence of his self—alienation. of his regarding himself as
an object subject to art alien power. he can only envision his escape from this state.
ironically. as a more perfect state ofownership. somehow cleansed of self-division.
Bigger can only picture his liberation as a purified version of his enslav ement: purified
through separating that part of himselfthat he regards as an object owned by another
from himself: projecting it from himselfonto Bessie: and then annihilating it by
murdering Bessie. llis liberation ts. froma psvchological standpoint structurally
identical to his alienation. distinguished only by a mystical well-being and self-
fulfillment that he imagines will result from his act.

lf Bi tgget rod res ever accede to a greater wisdom in the novel. or come into a sense
of ltis own existential uniqueness. it is through an awareness ofexactly this sort ofirony:
Bigger. the neoslave. can only envision liberation as a variation of slavery. Early in the
novel. he expresses an awareness ofthis predicament that simultaneously foreshadows
his murder of Bessie: "1 le knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter
fully into his consciousness. he would either kill himself or someone else. So he denied
himselfand acted tough" (9). The act of self recognition is. for Bigger sr.imultaneously
an act of murder. Alternately. the act ofmurder holds the possibility for Bigger of
coming into a full knowledge of himself. Self-recognition is. even more tellingly. the
equivalent of suicide. or self-annihilation. We can decisively state. then. that his violence
against Bessie is not only a murder. but a suicide. an act of violence against himself. an
act of self- annihilation that IS identical for Br rgger rto an act of self-recognition. Yet. an

act ofsuicide is also. for Bigger. an act of violence against art other. an other that is

 

himself. Perhaps this is Toni r\/1orrison‘s meaning when she writes that Black slavery
provides the condition for "the projection of the not-me" (38). The act of violence
against Bessie through which Bigger comes to an awareness of his unique destiny is.
according to this assessment. the psychological equivalent of the act ofviolence ofthe
slaveholder against the slave: it involves the creation ofthe selfthrough projecting and
then attempting to destroy that part ofthe selfthat is irredeemably other. And it is. of
course. through Bessie. the Black woman. the "serviceable other" to borrow l\/lorrison‘s
phrase. that Bigger comes to the self-annihilating recognition of his predicament. Bessie
had often described to Bigger. on returning from long hours of

hot toil in the white folks‘ kitchens. a feeling of being forever commanded by
others so much that thinking and feeling for one's self was impossible. Not only
had he lived where they told him to live. not only had he done what they told him
to do. not only had he done these things until he had killed to be quit ofthem: but
even after obeying. after killing. they still ruled him. He was their property. heart
body and blood: what they did claimed every atom ofhim, sleeping and waking; it
colored life and dictated the terms of death. [emphasis mine] (383-84)

Bigger‘s status as "their property." it would appear. dictated not only the terms of life and

death. but the terms of self-recognition.

Williams, Morrison, and Cleage
1n the realm of Black women's literature. Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose
signifies on the dialectic of mastery and liberation as a literary trope. Mae 0. Henderson

("The Stories of(O)Dessa“ 1997) sets the stage in clarifying this novel's act of

128

signification by drawing our attention to Williams‘s “Author‘s Note.“ in which Williams
explains how her novel enables her “to own a summer itt the nineteenth century" (15).
Williams‘s Dessa Rose. Henderson adds. is dedicated to “the era ofthe 18203 [which]
was the period ofslave unrest. marked by memories of the massive conspiracies led by
Gabriel Prosser itt 1800 and Denmark Vesey in 1822 and fearfully anticipating events
such as those leading to Nat Turner‘s insurrection in 1831" (288). More specifically.
Henderson explains how:
Williams intervenes into a male story of resistance and locates her work within a
historical and contemporary dialogue of race struggle. By dedicating her story to
a Black woman scholar and activist. Angela Davis. and prefacing it with a quote
from Davis‘s article. “Reflections on Black Woman’s Role in the Community of
Slaves." Williams links her heroine to a tradition of violent resistance to
oppression extending from the nineteenth into the twentieth century. (288)
Entering into this conversation. I would add that Williams also takes aim
explicitly at Frederick Douglass by choosing to open her first chapter. “‘Dat‘ky." with an
epi graph from Douglass's Narrative ofthe Life ofFrederie/r Douglass. “You have seen
how a man was made a slave. . (15 ). We can say that the story of Dessa Rose dwells
within this ellipsis. The story of liberation continues and liberation cannot be so easily
categorized as achieving "manhood." Douglass may attain his liberation through a
specific act of violence. as his fight with Covey is intended to illustrate. but Williams
understands that this violence can be re-cast as revolutionary because it is not reserved
exclusively for mett: that is. its meaning is not determined by men. it can be re-signified

to provide an entirely different frame for envisioning liberation. And within this context.

129

 

in her ellipsis. Williams opens space to signify on Douglass. By exposing the
performativity of violence that is disavowed both by the symbolic order of the southern
planter class and Douglass himself in his struggles to overcome his missing father by
placing himself in the category of"master." Williams effectively displaces their
understandings ofthe role of violence in sustaining slavery. Rather than simply
reinforcing a pre-existing and absolute order of race-based slavery. Williams shows how
violence is required irt order to perform the role of master. With Dessa Rose we witness
that a reiterative violence is shown to be necessary to sustain the distinction between
master and slave. an insight that exposes the instability ofmastert' — in other words.
Williams exposes the act of violence on the part ofthe master as a crisis of authority
because this authority can only be established by an act that simultaneously exposes its
absolute contingency. And unlike Bigger. who envisions such mastery as a male-

centered gesture meted out against a Black woman at her expense and destruction.

Unations

'—
b

Williams‘s character Dessa Rose effectively dislocates gender artd “racial" desi
so readily attached to concepts of freedom and self-determination. Dessa is enslaved
only within the psyche ofher captors. and we immediately learn that Dessa does not
privilege the captors‘ conceptualizations. Dessa instead proceeds with deliberate purpose
by eradicating any attempt to objectify her being and in the process ofdoing so she
frustrates and dismantles traditional and assumed positions of power. It is also important
to note that Dessa has been reared within a community of Black women whose collective
resistance is critical. 1n Native Son and in Bondage. such a community is made non-
existent. Douglass”s aunt is depicted as one-dimensional and flat. and exists only within

her "piteous cries and shrieks.” Once she has been tortured we do not hear about Esther

again. since her existence serves a singular purpose. In Native Son there may be an
attempt to bring about an understanding between two Black women characters. Bessie
and Vera. but the two are quickly and forever separated by Bigger whose control and
management of his "girlfriend " is envisioned throughout the text as a prerequisite for his
individual freedom. In Dessa Rose. however. we are given a clear indication that Black
women working in unison against a common enemy have re-appropriated the ownership
of their bodies and their lives. and within this context. we understand that Black women
and men exist mutually not only in love and respect. but in rebellion and revolt as well.
Readers meet Odessa. or Dessa. following her capture for having led a slave
revolt in which
the toll in life and property had been horrifying. Five white men had been killed.
Wilson [the slave driver] himselfhad lost an arm. Thirty-one slaves had been
killed or executed; nineteen branded or flogged: some thirty-eight thousand of
dollars in property destroyed or damaged. (22
Added to the chronicle of“damages" is Wilson‘s insanity. The slave driver slipped into
insanity following the uprising since he simply could not endure the idea of Blacks
challenging and destroying the authority of white men. To compensate Wilson's
financial loss and to re-establish racial boundaries which will hopefully release him from
mental torture. the court delays Dessa‘s execution so her newborn child can be handed
over to Wilson. The pregnant Dessa now sits shacked in a root cellar where she has to
endure the tedious interrogation of Adam Nehemiah. a white northerner who researches
slave rebellions for his soon to be published slave management guide. Nehemiah dreams

that the publication will afford him an invitation into the wealthy southern planter class.

It is durittg her encounters with Nehemiah that readers also learn that prior to the
revolt. Dessa was sold to Wilson because she attacked her master in retaliation for his
having murdered Kaine. her lover. This point is highly significant within our discussion
of serviceable Black women when we recall how Anthony responded to Esther‘s claim of
sexual authority and choice. and also how Bigger responds to his sister when he hears her
say that she plans to tell Bessie that her brother is going to toss her aside for a “better

gal." In terms oftheir relationship. Dessa and Kaine are in control. not the master who

thinks he reserves the right to determine which of his slaves will either to satisfy his

 

sexual desire or be coupled to increase his capital. When Dessa recalls her life on the
plantation she makes it a point to tell her interrogator: "[Kaine] chosed me Masa aint
had nothing to do trid it. It Kaine what picked me out and ask me for his woman"
[emphasis mine] (19). So Dessa's claim for a lover not only supercedes “Masa‘s”
preference. but also Kaine must acquire Dessa‘s permission. Following her moment of
self-affirmation. which Nehemiah completely fails to recognize because his political
ideology simply cannot register Black self-empowerment. Dessa recalls two other critical
points. She explains how she and Kaine having chosen each other is no small matter
considering how "Masa" would often couple enslaved women with the enslaved Tarver
who was "known fo makin big babies on lil gals" (19). She then speaks of Aunt Hattie.
the house slave who administered a “root" to Tarver that stops his "seed from toucltin
Carrie Mae" (19). Nehemiah hears that "‘negroes actually had some means ofpreventing
conception" (19‘). And what Nehemiah gleans from this infortttation is the possibility of
his obtaining this contraceptive root. which would then allow him to sell it directly to

"southern gentleman" who would surely profit from such a root. but who could not admit

 

 

possessing such a root (19). While Nehemiah dreams of the possibility of profiting from
what can only be considered the rape of Black women. Dessa instead understands that the
root affords Black women some measure of power within a system that feeds Offthe rape
and control of their bodies. This reference to women controlling their bodies also
appears in Morrison‘s Beloved. beyond the case of Sethe determining the lives of her
children. Like Williams. who sets her sights on re-writing slave revolts by designating a
woman as the one in charge. l\.'1orrison looks back at the case of Margaret Garner.
Through her te-telling hv'lorrison is able to provide insight into the lives ofenslaved
women. and a key point of this re-telling is to confront a historical depiction of
submissive slave women who live out their lives as “breeders” and in turn guarantee the
financial security of the oppressor. Garner‘s claim of motherhood bears witness to and
levies charges against the system that holds them in bondage. lvlorrison provides a
profile and explains what drew her to Garner:
Margaret Garner. a young mother who. having escaped slavery. was arrested for
killing one her children (and trying to kill the others) rather than letting then be
returned to the owner‘s plantation. She became a cause eelehre in the fight
against the Fugitive Slave Laws. which mandated the return ofescapees to her
owners. Her sanity and lack of repentance caught the attention ofAbolitionists as
well as newspapers. She was certainly single-minded and. judging by her
comments she had the intellect. the ferocity. and the willingness to risk everything
for what was to her the necessity of freedom. (xvii)
What Morrison does not include in this passage. but what she certainly highlights in her

novel. is that Sethe's decision to take the lives of her children is not an isolated act.

_I
b)
b)

Sethe's assumed "single-minded" act. her intellect. ferocity and willingness to risk
everything for her freedom. is the continuation ofa legacy of resistance handed down to
her from her mother. Sethe. we learn. inherits her resistance and rebellion from her
mother and front the woman who tells Sethe about her mother. Sethe learns about he:
mother through "Nan." the African woman who “spoke the same language as Sethe‘s
ma'am spoke." and who was together with Sethe‘s ma’am “from the sea" (74). Both
women were raped during their wretched journey across the Middle Passage. and
according to Nan. Sethe‘s mother who was impregnated several times by white captors.
and. in every instance. after giving birth "threw them all away" (74). Nan explains
further: "Without names. she threw them. You she gave the name ofthe Black man. She
put her arms around him. The others she did not put her arms around. Never. Never”
(74).

This same configuration of Black women banding together in order to maintain
control oftheir lives appears in a slightly varied fornt in Pearl Cleage's Flt'in ”est. a play
whose setting takes place in the early 19005 and is based on the re-casting of actual
events. The play offers a re-telling not only ofthe 1866 riot itt Memphis. Tennessee
where countless Blacks — women. children. and men — were murdered by marauding
white lynch mobs who also set fires to Black neighborhoods. but also offers a depiction
ofthe great Black migration into the western states. In Flt’in ll'est. a family comprised of
Black women attempt to begin a new life. They set about the task of building a town to
serve as a safe haven for Black women and their families. Cleage revisits these two
events by placing a family ofsisters. Sophie. Fannie. and l\r’1innie. center stage who. after

the riot. decide to leave the city in order to settle out west in Kansas where they establish

 

themselves as homesteaders in the new. all-Black town ofNicodemus. Once they reach
their destination they meet the elderly Miss Leah. who becomes their surrogate mother.
Miss Leah was born into slavery and as a child barely out of puberty she was forced by
the master to have children. She had ten children while she was enslaved and all ten were
sold away from her. Like Nan. who schools Sethe and learns of resistance from her
mother's actions. and Aunt Hattie. who assists the Black women in Dessa Rose with her
roots. Miss Leah is the necessary link to the past for the women homesteaders of
Nicodemus. She is the one whose historical perspective informs and reminds the sisters
of what Black women have had to endure. ly'loreover. Miss Leah is also the one who
insists that time ltas not itt anyway erased their problems. and she is not at all deterred
from using violence to protect herselfor her loved ones. When Miss Leah. for example.
hears about the lynching ofa Black man in New Orleans and how his murderers tossed
the victim‘s dead body onto a street in a‘Black neighborhood. she quips: “Don‘t those
New Orleans Negroes know how to use to a shotgun‘.’" (37).

When a dilemma arises that threatens to destroy their lives as self-governed
women. it is Miss Leah‘s statement about the lynching that foreshadows their solution.
The youngest sister. Minnie. has married Frank Charles. who passes for white and in
years past has moved Minnie to London where he believes he can escape his
"Blackness." But when Frank and Minnie return to the United States so he can see his
white dying father who then refuses to bequeath his "illegitimate" son an inheritance.
Frank conspires to sell the land owned by his wife and her sisters. What makes matters
worse is that Frank beats Minnie while she is pregnant with their child. and during one of

his assaults he forces Minnie to sign over the deed to her portion ofthe land. The sisters'

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frustrations and fears are multiple and mounting. The quickly realize that Frank feels that
his "white blood" affords him the right to treat the Black women as if they are his slaves.
and his interactions with the sisters grows progressively demeaning. During his visit he

refers to the all-Black town as "Niggerdemus." a racist designation he borrows from
whites. l-le refuses to carry his own luggage because he readily expects one ofthe
women to serve as his beast of burden. His wife promptly unpacks his clothes and when
the family has finished with dinner. Frank sits at the table with the ease ofa master who
is catered to. Finally. in his most insidious gesture. he tells white men that Minnie is a
Black slave whore that he won in a card game. Like Bigger. whose self-hatred and
alienation is channeled into repeated assaults against Bessie. Frank. who aspires to be the
white master. denigrates Black women to access his imagined birthright. And Frank
believes he cart sell their land because. irt his estimation. these Black women were foolish
in the first place to even think that they possessed the authority to be landowners. let
alone engineer oftheir own fate and destiny. This reversal of fortune is absolutely
absurd. unthinkable. and unacceptable for a “white" man who has been unjustly cheated
out of his rightful inheritance. The sisters. in turn. fear that iftheir land is sold they will
not only lose their home. but they will have to return to a white and hostile world in order
to eke out a meager and degrading existence. Added to this possible nightmare is the
very real possibility that Frank. in beating Minnie. may kill her as well as their unborn
child. Therefore. Sophie. Fannie. Miss Leah. and Minnie devise a plan and succeed in
killing Frank. It is lvliss Leah who determines that Frank‘s crime is only against Minnie.
but Black women in total: "We can‘t let nobody take our babies. We‘ve given up all the

babies we can afford to lose. Do you understand what I‘m sayin‘ to you?" (61 )

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1n Dessa Rose. it is similarly the battle for the ownership of Black women that
ignites Dessa's attack on “‘lvlasa" as well as the revolt on the coffie. During her sessions
with Nehemiah. Dessa reveals that "Masa" broke Kaine's banjo because Kaine went
against his wishes and began a life with Dessa. It is not that “Masa” wanted to choose a
partner for either Kaine or Dessa. but rather that he \ ranted to sustain his position as
"Master“ by keeping Dessa for himself. When the pregnant Dessa returns from the fields
and learns that Kaine. the father of her child. is near death after “Masa” has struck him on ‘
the head with a shovel. following Kainc's attack on "1\»"1asa" for having smashed his prize l
banjo to pieces. Dessa attempts to kill “Masa” and nearly succeeds. She also tries to kill
"Masa's" wife. but Aunt Lefonia stops Dessa. Dessa turns her rage against the white
woman because she called her “Masa‘s slut." and Dessa and Kaine‘s unborn child
“Masa‘s bastid" (41 ). The white woman automatically assumes that her husband has had
sex with (raped) Dessa and that the child is his. Although the woman is mistaken. it does
not matter that she‘s wrong in her assessment. Rather. what infuriates Dessa is that the
white woman has defiled Dessa and Kaine‘s relationship. Dessa will not tolerate anyone
on arty level denigrating and denying her right to choose a lover for herself. Such an act
works to profess a claim on her body. ultimately defining her body as an object.

The revolt on the coffie. led by Dessa. is prompted by an attack against a woman.
During this rebellion. the slaves are able to critically turn a violent sexual act against their
captors. The narrator explains how the women and men planned and succeeded in their
escape:

The other white men didn’t even rouse up as the guard thrashed off into the

underbrush with Linda. but everyone on the coffle was awake. Every night since

137

h'lontgomery. one ofthe white men had taken Linda into the bushes. and [the

slaves] had been made wretched by her pleas and pitiful whimpering. The noise

from the underbrush stopped abruptly. Then came the rattle ofchains and above
it a dull thud. startlingly loud in the stillness. and the rattling ofthe chains again.
ln his lust and alcoholic daze. the guard had failed to secure the chain after he
removed Linda from it. Linda appeared in the clearing. her dress torn and
gaping. the bloody rock still clutched in her rnanacled hands. All hell broke out.

(61 )

This scene is significant not only because Dessa and the others successfully exploit a
moment of weakness in the slave drivers. turning it into a moment of self-empowerment.
More to the point. an act of sexual violence through which the order ofslavery is
complacently re-enacted is re-signilied. The act through which an order of power is
preserved is exposed as infinitely fragile not only in physical terms. but in terms ofits
meaning: the meaning ofthe act of rape is turned against itself. just as the violence ofthe
act is turned against its perpetrator.

So. even before she meets Nehemiah. we know Dessa has already defied the
system that seeks to control her. The dilemma for Nehemiah is that he needs Dessa to tell
him how and why she led the revolt. But Dessa‘s re-telling completely subverts the
language on which Nehemiah relics to maintain his assumed position of authority as a
white male. Dessa challenges Nehemiah at each turn. and. as is the case with Wilson.
Nehemiah. during these confrontations. is slowly stripped of his authtirrity. It is Dessa.
not Nehemiah. who sets the parameters oftheir interaction. and who also dares to make

the interaction a battle.

For example. as soon as Nehemiah enters the root cellar Dessa moves into the
corner and Nehemiah commands her to stOp as he reminds her that her life has been thus
far spared only because she is pregnant. He automz-rtically assumes Dessa‘s move into the
corner is a retreat. a surrender. but she “ereet[s] Nehemiah‘s statement with the flick of

»

her eyes almost as though he had been a bothersome fly and her eyes a horse's tail
flicking him way” (30‘). In this passage 1 am reminded of Frantz Fanon‘s (Blue/r Skin.
l/l’hile Alas/cs 195.2) critique ofthe "imperial eyes.“ When Fanon. as the colonized
subject. is viewed by his colonizcrs. he feels “dissected under white eyes. the only eyes
that see. I am fixed” (1 16). These eyes are meant to reduce Blacks to a limited. closed
state ofnon-being. a vision seen through a lens clouded by hatred and contempt. or a
negation through which one‘s own essential humanity is established. As with the concept
of double-consciousness. Fanon explains that he is consciously aware ofthe reduction of
his selfthrough the gaze. This configuration, however. is reversed when Dessa "flicks
her eyes" at Nehemiah. since her gesture marks the white man who dares enter her spare.
her presence. as insignificant. non-descript. Dessa‘s look signals her dismissal of him
and marks his verbal threat as empty. Nehemiah. having been stripped ofthe privilege to
see and thus define. retreats and loses himself because the enslaved woman's response
totally tcrrorizes the aspiring slave master‘s conceptual frame of being.

Again we turn to Fanon for insight. According to Fanon. the oppressor will
immediately reSpond to a shift in power. “'[blut the possibility ofthis change is equally
experienced in the form ofa terrifying future in the consciousness ofthe colonizers" (36).
Dessa‘s response "outrages" and “infuriates” Nehemiah to the point where he strikes her.

and. in doing so. he claims to break one ofthe cardinal rules of“slave management."

 

Nehemiah says: “11 was seldom necessary to strike a darky with one's hand and to do so.
except in the most unusual circumstances. lowered one almost to the level of random
violence that characterized the actions of the blacks among themselves" (Williams 30).
Samira Kawash analyzes the self-dcconstructing nature of such pronouncements in
Dr's/oeu/ing (he ("o/or Line. Kawash‘s examination draws our attention to how acts of
violence are continually used to safeguard the “essence" of the color line. Yet these acts
ofviolence simultaneously call into question the essentialism that frames the concept of
race.

I find a striking similarity between the physical violence Nehemiah uses to
maintain his whileness as he tries to recapture his authority of Dessa. and an analysis of
violence Kawash applies to a scene from the 1959 film. lmilalim? (if/Jife. Within her
exploration ofthe "paradoxical persistence ofthe color line against itself." Kawash
outlines how white men. positioned to be the direct inheritors of state power. rely on
physical violence to maintain racial borders (Kawash vii). However. acts ofphysical
violence used as means to preserve racial hierarchies inevitably dismantle the very racial
borders they are intended to defend. According to Kawash. if racialized physical
violence is used to bring a person back within the boundaries of race. it then follows that
the boundaries do not provide the required metaphysical absolute. or are not. in this
sense. real. since they can be transgressed. and require acts of violence to safeguard their
“essence.“ In other words. how is it possible for a person to step outside the boundary-f in
the first place if it is closed and sealed? It is possible because racial “essence." propped
up as a primary factor to establish and maintain the culture of whiteness and naturalize its

sense ofauthority. is a self-contradictory and self-deconstructing idea. In other words.

140

ue/s of violence intended to preserve the assumed natural boundaries of racial hierarchy
simultaneously point to the fact that race is a per/(rrnzum'e — if such boundaries were
absolute and dictated by nature. such violent acts would not be required for their
preservation. The racial essence. then. is always retroactively posited by the
perforrnative act — it requires the performative act for its existence. yet it cannot
acknowledge such a need without dismantling its assumed absolute necessity and
naturalness.

Racial violence plays a similar role in perforrnativcly establishing the color line in
the confrontation between Nehemiah and Dessa. and Dessa. drawing attention to this
disavowed performativity through her actions. enrages Nehemiah. Nehemiah. infuriated
by Dessa‘s look. slaps her because the flick of her eyes draws attention to the profound
fragility of his racial authority. Dessa. the enslaved woman. is able to fix and objectify. a
right reserved only for imperial eyes. through an act that reverses the process of negation.
recognized by Fanon. through which the white male establishes his own essential being.
At the moment when Nehemiah slaps Dessa. he shares company with Wilson. the slave
driver. who has gone insane as result ofthe revolt. Nehemiah is crazed by Dcssa's
blatant dismissal of him. Dessa‘s response to his command and. in turn. Nehemiah's
reaction to her response of his command signifies the moment when Dessa Rose is no
longer the (hing. the objectified. that "darky." and Nehemiah is crazed by this very
possibility. l-ler defiance and immediate refusal to acknowledge. let alone accept. his
presumption of power is materialized when his order for her to move out ofthe corner
and into his presence back fires. The would-be slave master becomes the non-being. he is

not worthy of Dcssa‘s. a slave woman’s. glance or consideration. Nehemiah. in order to

141

bring Dessa within the borders ofthe color line. in the quest to secure hcr within the
configuration of what Aime Cesaire calls "thingfication." immediately slaps her. But
again. Nehemiah's violent physical reaction. designed to put Dessa back into the realm of
"blackness." is doomed as soon as the slap is applied. Nehemiah tells us that "to strike a
darky with one‘s hand lowered one almost to the level of random violence that
characterized the actions ofthe blacks among themselves." An odd figuration of
hicrarchal borders that seem to be in flux emerges here. While Nehemiah believes
violence operates to the extent that it inevitably [mrers him to the status of being Black.
which points to the idea that the borders do actually exist. his ideology. regulated by
ideals of racial superiority. informs him that his whiteness precludes him from being
Black. He is only able to re-establish the color line upon which his authority rests
through an act that simultaneously violates the very racial boundary it instantiates.
Nehemiah‘s slap can only establish racial hierarchy to the extent that it radically
dcstabilizes it at the same time. Nehemiah's ineffectual attempt to evade this realization
with the qualifier "almost" (an act of violence “lowered one all-nos!" to the level of
blacks) dissolves in the face of Dessa's resistance.

The final confrontation between Dessa and Nehemiah takes place during yet
another interrogation session when Nehemiah asks Dessa what her story about Kaine has
to do with killing white men. The question is repeated since Dessa affectionately and
rcbelliously recalls her life with and her love for Kaine. Exasperated by Dessa's story
because in his estimation it has nothing to do with the revolt. Nehemiah interrupts her and
asks: "And what does that have to do with you and the other slaves rising up against the

y

trader and trying to kill white men?" (3()) But before he can even finish the question.

142

Dessa. who has been described as "the 'fiend.‘ the 'devil-woman‘” because she has
“attacked white men and roused other niggers to rebellion.“ interrupts the interrogator
when she directs her "devil eyes and devil-stare" at Nehemiah and with righteous
brilliance proclaims: "1 kill white mens...l kill white rnens cause the same reason Massa
kill Kaine. Cause 1 can" (Williams 20). Dessa‘s proclamation invariably shuts
Nehemiah down since her “bald statement seemed to echo in silence" (Williams 21 ). He
is left speechless because his white identity is founded on the foreclosure of any language
that would allow him to comprehend Dessa's appropriation of power and authority.
Dessa‘s statement bluntly draws attention to the fact that the act of violence that
establishes and maintains the order of slavery is conceptually indistinguishable from the
act of violence that overthrows the same order. because both retroactively posit their own
justification. Dessa claims her self-determination through this act of re-signification and
re-delinition. through her definitive act of rejecting the rhetorical duplicity defining the
discourse ofthe master.

By looking back with fresh eyes on historical moments. the works of Williams.
Morrison. and Cleage address the sexual violence inflicted on women. and demonstrate
how the sublimation of Black women as the “other" has been repeatedly employed within
the African American literary imagination to define Black liberation as decidedly male-
centered. Within the African American literary tradition women have been used to create
spaces of privilege and authority for others. But these Black female writers. within their
re-creation of historical moments. activate a political consciousness that refuses to render
Black women as the voiceless and serviceable other. Their re-signification ofa racist and

patriarchal tradition is crucially based on the recognition ofthe fragility. arbitrariness.

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and ultimate contingency ofthe acts that reiteratively construct them in this fashion. The

struggle of political authority and self-definition must begin with this recognition.

144

"Our Presence is Felt Like the Black Panther lylovement“:4
Hip-Hop Always Rides with Black Radical Momentum

Through Yes. Yes Y'all: The Experience .r’liusic Pro/eel '3' Oral Hislorv off-lip-
Hop Iv Firs/ Decade (Fricke and Ahearn 2003) those who lived in the South Bronx during
the 1970s tell us how Hip-Hop began. I am especially interested in DJ Kool Here‘s
comments. since he is recognized as an originator of the artistic/cultural tradition. Here's
recollections about the beginning ofthis culture work well to open an analysis about the
generational links between the traditions revolutionary origins. its affinity with Black
youth cullure-knowledge and social history. and its solidarity with the Black Radical
Movement. more specifically the theory/"praxis ofthe Black Panther Party (BPP) and its
clandestine military component. the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Herc provides the
necessary space to focus on Hip-Hop artists who re-appropriate tools commonly reserved
for the state. These artists. hailing from economically impoverished central cities.
transform these tools into sites of resistance and pleasure that disassemble oppressive
political structures. Hip-Hop is the conduit through which Black youth culture celebrates
itself. and within these moments ofpleasure comprehends its sociopolitical history and
re-creates spaces ofdefiance and resistance. In the Yes. Yes )"al/ '3 chapter “Rocking:
Gangs and the Beginning of Hip-Hop." Herc remembers how music became the
soundtrack for his moments ofjoy and acts of defiance which defined his childhood in
Jamaica.

My mother was studying for nursing in New York. and she used to bring back

records from Motown. Smokey Robinson. And James Brown came to the island

one time. "I Feel Good" at the time was a hit record. and I fell in love with that

record. Also. .lamaican music was a big influence on me. because there was a lot
of big sound systems they used to hook up and play on the weekends. I was a
child. ya know. looking.‘ seein‘ all these things going on. and sneakin‘ out my
house and seein' the big systems rattling the zines on the housetops and stuff.
(Fricke and Ahearn 25)
His mother. on her visits back to .larnaica. brings home lylotown‘s music. just as .larnes
Brown‘s music is brought to the island. It was James Brown. hailed as the "Godfather of
Soul." who. during the Black Power t‘ylovement. told us to "Say It Loud - l‘m Black and
I‘m Proud!" Herc feels Brown‘s “I Feel Good." Fond recollections of coming home.
which include not only his mother. but l\«'lotown and Brown‘s hit as well. are then
harmoniously blended with Reggae. All these elements are intertwined within a space of
pleasure where. as a child. Here is able to see "all these things going on" out there when
he's "sneakin" out ofthe house. Herc tells us he remembers the “big systems" owned by
his people emitting booming sounds. rattling "the zinc rooftops" ofthe poverty-stricken
area. The music. the very sound ofthe people. announces their presence and defies their
poverty. The Black child sees what's going on "out there" in the world and seeing here is
not simply to gaze. but rather to understand. to articulate. to know. While this music
serves as a cultural prism through which Herc understands the world. he perceives that in
the music. in its very being. is also somehow transgressive. The syncretic blending of
musical traditions in the Jamaican ghetto produces a music that transgresses cultural.
sexual. and musical boundaries that are supposed to define him as poor and Black. You
have to appreciate the dexterity of Herc's statement. What we‘re told here is that Hip-

Hop. is fluid. is in constant motion. since it is all at once intimately familial. aspirant.

146

joyous. perceptive. and defiant. Afrika Bambaatta. also a Hip-Hop pioneer. speaks of the
culture in similar terms. The DJ grew up in the South Bronx where he says there was a
lot of unity and social awareness. He remarks that James Brown's "Say It Loud — l‘m
Black and I’m Proud.“ Sly and the Family Stone‘s “Stand!" and “Everyday People" were
inspirational. Bambaataa continues: "being aware ofwhat was going on in the late
1060s [. ..] just being a young person and seeing all this happening around me. put a lot
ofconsciousness in my mind to get up and do something" (Fricke and Ahearn 44).

But what we hear on contemporary radio. coupled with what we see through

 

weekly-televised video countdowns. perpetuates the prevailing narrative that Hip-Hop
has departed from its inspiring and revolutionary roots. For mainstream America. Hip-
Hop cultural tradition. if it is grudgingly defined as such. is perceived as having been
commercially co-opted. Hip-Hop has been confused with mainstream “hip-Pop." which
is a multi-billion dollar industry that sells virtually everything from sugary breakfast
cereals to shampoos for natural blond hair. to SL’VS for white suburban fathers. This
national view of Hip-Hop positions people to assume that all Black youth. because they

are the creators of Hip-Hop. are obsessed with conspicuous consumption. This logic then

 

dictates that Black youth are categorically apolitical and they lack the capacity to
understand and critique their social condition and to formulate tactics designed to address
their social condition.

Tricia Rose defines rap music as “a black cultural expression that prioritizes black
voices from the margins ofurban America" (2'). More specifically. in framing an analysis
of how the music of Hip-Hop operates as a continuum ofchattel slave narratives. Quincy

T. Norwood. writing for l’roua’ Flesh: New A/i‘ikan Journal of'C'zil/ure. l’oli/ies and

147

 

C'onseiousness. reminds us that "music has always narrated the experiences ofpeOple of
African descent in the United States" (1 1. Writing from a global perspective which
understands Hip-Hop as a cultural force poised to combat the exploitation of"Plantation
America“ as it tells the stories "among the Black poor in the cities of African Diaspora."
Greg Thomas alerts the reader to how Hip-Hop “still fits the definition of 'neo-slavery'
mapped out in Soletlacl Bro/her: The Prison Letters o/(Jeorge Jackson" (3005. 3). Hip-
llop is a historical phenomenon that formulates a legacy ofsurvival and resistance.
Within this context. to understand Hip-Hop is to comprehend the necessity and daring
spirit of"talking back" against the insult and assault ofbrutal Eurocentric oppression.
This spirit of resistance is defined by the lgbo word .'\7:agwalu, a term lfi Amadiume uses
to explain the process of“‘mov[ing] beyond a critique of racist European anthropologists
and their work" (4). A symmetry exists between Amadiume‘s call for a “dialogic
literature" that will "re-invent” conceptions about Africa and the Diaspora. and the
emergence of Hip-Hop. For Amadiume there is a need to stop relying on a Western
anthropological episterne. which was
racist from the start and was not intended to serve an African interest. Rather.
[anthropology] was intended to humiliate and insult Africans by classifying them
as primitive and savage “Them/Other" to the European “We." Africans are
consequently correct in being ashamed of associations with this subject. In this
we face a dilemma because. unfortunately. a lot ofthe archival information that
Africans need in order to move forward is trapped in this subject. (Amadiume 3)
Hip-Hop co-pioneer Afrika Barnbaataa provides a response to Amadiume‘s call. As a

child watching the movie Zulu. Barnbaataa was “inspired" by the sight ofseeing "Black

148

people standing up and lighting at a time when we were only in Heckle and .leckle roles"
(Fricke and Ahearn 130). Barnbaataa views Zulu not in terms of an imperial iconography
that would designate the movie's violence as African savagery: rather. he understands the
violence of Africans as a form ofcollcctive resistance to racial oppression. Barnbaataa.
like Fanon. reverses the imperial gaze. conferring on himselfthe power to define.
lvlorcover. he is able to engage this strategy of resistance not only because as a Black
man he is. in Fanon's terms. a "negation" ofthe white man‘s being. an integral part ofthe
dialectic of whiteness. but because he is looking at the movie with fresh eyes. from the
standpoint ofan independent cultural and epistemological perspective created by Hip-
Hop. We might add that the eclecticism so evident in Hip-llop‘s roots provides a
strategy for overcoming the dilemma of"archival in formation" formulated by
Amadiume. lfthere is empirical and historical information contained in the annals ofa
Eurocentric tradition such as anthropology. it might not only be re-defined through an
oppositional gaze. but incorporated into the alternative epistemological frame provided
by Hip-Hop.

The term :\':agwalu continues to define Hip-Hop as a form of resistance. In his
memories of the early 19805. William Eric Perkins says his daughters "ignited [his]
interest in rap which "exploded on the subways and throughout the city's concrete
jungles" (1996. vi). Perkins credits Hip-Hop as a generational transition whose jolt
pushes the listener to comprehend and define the socioeconomic predicament of central
cities. ln "I‘m Gonna Pimp Whores!" L. H. Stallings introduces her theory ofthe “Hip-
Hop neoslave narrative." and the sclf‘lproclaimed “Black girl living in the 1980‘s

Southern-fried poverty" reveals how as a child she ”lifted" a Donald Goines book from

149

her aunt (2003. 176). As she read. the then seven year-old Stallings saw the "blunt.
violent. sexual. gritty realism" unfold before her (176). More pointedly. during her
readings ofGoines. Stallings unites the writer‘s message with the lines from legendary
rap battles.

1n sharing how they came to love and understand Hip-Hop culture. these
individuals make links with family members. and out ofthis personal connection move
into a critique of Black life. Both Here and Stallings mark the beginnings ofthis
knowledge through acts that defy the rules —— Herc disobeys the rules of his home. and
Stallings “lifts" Goines's book because she understands that as a child she’s not supposed
to engage its contents. Yet. Stallings word choice here. “lifting." means so much more.
When Herc says he loved James Brown's "I Feel Good.“ we have to attend to how the
song. its title. and its lyrics. impact the Black child. Just as well. Stallings taking the
book. which is lil/ed. also works to lift the reader since the reading elevates her
perception of the socioeconomic situation of Black life in the [LS But these connective
relationships did not begin with the emergence of Hip-Hop: rather. they exist within a
legacy ofthe music created by Blacks. Take. for example. Toni Cade Bambara's
portrayals of music. rebellion/resistance. and family in Those Bones .4 re No! Mr ("hi/cl.
Her novel depicts the Atlanta Child Murders and features parents who search for their
missing child. Sundiata. Sundiata's father. Spencer Rawls. or "Spence." believes that the
forty Black children who have been murdered were killed by white hate groups that have
recently been holding conventions in Atlanta. Spence is rightfully frustrated because
Atlanta‘s police department. the media. and city hall have been withholding information

from and lying to the parents about circumstances surrounding the children's

I—fi
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disappearance and deaths. In addition to the forty murdered children. the Bowen Homes
Day Care Center. located within an Atlanta housing project. is bombed. Four children
and one teacher are killed in the blast. and many are injured. Atlanta mayor l\/1aynard
Jackson. the city's first Black to hold the office. “reduces the massacre to a five-word
fraud: nothing but a tragic accident“ (299). Additionally. the Fulton County medical
examiner predicts to reporters that he is certain that the metal fragments found in the
bodies ofthose killed in the blast were not fragments from a bomb. No one is handcuffed
because a crime has not been committed and the parents‘ outrage is exacerbated when it
becomes clear that the police refuse to establish a link between the day care center
bombing and the serial murder oftheir Black children. Given these responses by public
officials. Spence faces the huge reality that the city. and the agencies which run it. do not
consider his child precious or worth worrying about because his child is Black. To regain
himself. his strength. to recall a state of mind wherein he feels self—empowered and in
control. Spence remembers a 1968 concert he attended as a young man at college campus
in Florida. where Nina Simone. “Nina the Nasty. the Black Sorceress." ignited her
audience:

[Nina] told the audience slyly that the bookers had begged her not to get

"militant." not to sing inflammatory songs. Then she laughed and held up the
check. striding across the stage waving it. The suckers had paid her already.
Riiight. the crowd roared. "Mississippi Goddamn!" "Pirate Jenny." She looked

out from the keyboard toward the administration building. singing. “I don't expect

to see anything standing in the morning." (Bambara 300)

'J r
O——‘

Spence remembers this specific performance because he wants to recapture the rnilitancy
ofthe moment that will in turn help guide him through the lies and red tape of city
government that has a chokehold on his life and the life ofhis children. He wants to send
the message that he cannot be controlled and so easily lied to. Just as Simone refuses to
ignore her political beliefs just because she got paid. Spence refuses to accept all the
double-speak about Atlanta's emergence as the economic jewel ofthe South. Atlanta‘s
re-birth. he knows and cannot ignore. has been bought with the death of Black children.
and the general exploitation ofthe entire Black community.5 Spence is charged by
Simone‘s performance and it was Kwarne Toure (ne' Stokely Carmichael) ofthe Student
Non-Violent Coordination Committee. who once referred to Simone as the “true singer of
the civil rights movement“ (Simone 1991 . 98). Her cover ofthe songs “Mississippi
Goddamn!" and “Pirate Jenny“ are explosive in their indictment of white racism. Again
recall Amadiume’s use of l\'":agrt'alu — Simone‘s performance. as Spence recalls it. "talks
back." In “Mississippi Goddamn!” She asks. "Can't you see it / Can't you feel it It‘s
all in the air/ I can‘t stand the pressure much longer / Somebody say a prayer." The
"pressure" is defined here by the racial injustice enacted throughout the Jim Crow South.
and the song issues the warning. "Oh this country is full of lies / You all gonna die and
die like flies." ln “Pirate Jenny.“ Simone is the Black woman character working as a
maid in whites-only hotel. It is Jenny who fools the patrons as she emerges as the leader
and commander of"a ship / The Black Freighter l [that] turns around in the harbor /'
shootin‘ guns from her bow." Both songs performed by Simone speak ofrebellion and

revolt. Both songs speak of self-defense. and in the case of"Pirate Jenny." ofarmed self-

defense. And "Mississippi Goddamn" and “Pirate Jenny" both help Spence to understand
a way out of his predicament.

Black communities. their inhabitants. are under siege, and Black youth are alert
and responsive because Hip-Hop is the vehicle created by Black youth as a proclamation
oftheir awareness. The police oversee Black neighborhoods. inner-city schools operate
as penitentiaries. and Black children. in ever increasing numbers. are tried and convicted
as adults. Elaine Brown. former BPP chairman. chronicles the history of US. policy and
its centuries-long tradition ofdealing with Blackness as being inherently marked with
criminality-z And within this frame. the controlling network also restricts our recreational
spaces. the sites ofcollective pleasure. leisure and artistic expression. As result. Blacks
are forced to resourcefully escape the network of control in order to reclaim and establish
recreational space. This intervention is marked by the community's ability to understand
that it is held captive within a larger society that constructs and maintains systems of
racial control as it refuses to acknowledge the very maintenance of this construction.
Hip-Hop. because of multiple restrictions placed on Black youth. is consciously political.
It resists mainstream cultural values. and replaces them with its own aesthetics to
celebrate Black youth culture. Hip-Hop culture includes rap. as we well know. but there
exist other central artistic expressions within the tradition. We cannot ignore the
significance of the art of deejaying. When Trica Rose writes that “hip hop transforms
stray technological parts intended for cultural and industrial trash heaps into sources of
pleasure and power." we should be reminded ofthe implications of“‘deejaying." since
deejays who customarily lacked the funds to purchase the necessary sound equipment

were instead resourceful in re-appropriating tools or re-designing the "garbage" of

fJr
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commodity culture (Rose 33 . Although it wasn't “garbage" at that particular moment.
Grandmaster Flash remembers that as a child he would hide himself within his house
where he would take apart various household appliances in order to see how they worked.
l-lc disassembled the washing machine. his older sister's radio and hair-dryer. and his
parents stereo. As a young man looking to create a sound system. he would have to
piece it together from discarded spare parts. And ifthis was not innovative enough. Flash
would create a technique that would become emblematic of Hip-Hop music. He was
mesmerized by that small space in the song that is referred to as the “get down part" or
what is now called "the break." It is that moment in the song. customarily no more than a
few seconds. when the music kicks in at full force. Flash dramatically extended this
moment of musical pleasure: "And this particular part of the record...unjustifiably. was
maybe five seconds or less. This kind ofpissed me off. 1 was like. “Damn. why-"d they
do that‘? You know. So in my mind. in the early seventies. l was picturing. ‘Wow. it
would really be nice ifthat passage of music could be extended to like five minutes"
(Fricke and Ahearn 58). This musical renovation invariably impacts the rhythm of the
dance. Since Flash was able to extend the break of one song. creating "break music." he
could then both extend and thread together the breaks of several songs. As result. the
“get down part" was greatly accentuated. and for those on the dance floor. their corporeal
enjoyment knew no bounds.

Graffiti artists andr'or writers and break-dancers are equally integral to Hip-Hop.
Graffiti writers. creating within the South Bronx and llarlem during the late 70s and
throughout the 80s. "altered concrete walls. abandoned buildings and public

transportation. . .creating masterpieces amidst urban rubble" (Kelley 44). Bambara

knowingly incorporates graffiti writers whose “glistening statements" are accompanied
by the gospel music floating from the nearby church. Mount Moriah Tabernacle (31 1).
Through “their urgent communiques to the neighborhood." the writers “urge the people
to unite their wrath and take control ofthe city before it was too late" (313). In similar
fashion. Kelley outlines how through their artwork writers critiqued and confronted New
York's lvletropolitan Transit Authority policy. which charged high subway fares and ran
substandard trains into the Bronx and Harlem. The writers were not just protesting the
high fares and the condition ofthe trains reserved for their neighborhoods. for these
aspects oftheir relationship to the city government were merely a symptom ofa larger
problem. the hostile relationship established by the New York municipality with the
Black and Latino communities. In Hip Hop Immor/als: Iii-"e Go! Your Kids. graffiti
writer James Top explains the skill required ofa successful graffiti artist. and within his
explanation examines the defiance that defines Hip—Hop:
The guys back in the days. they use to be real hard-core gangsta guys because you
had to remember you had to break into the yards. If you was weak or soft you
wasn‘t about to be nobody. You had to have heart. We used to call it ‘Rackin
Up." If you couldn‘t steal paint then you wasn't gonna be in the game and don‘t
worry about being the King. Now you had to get into the yard. Once you in that
yard you breaking the law. There's a live third rail that adds dangers beside the
police. Then what was intimidating was those big ass fuckin trains.” (Top 3004)
Top‘s description of how writers had to steal the spray paint in order create their art is
reminiscent of Stallings who spoke about lifting the Goines novel from her aunt and Here

who sneaks out ofthe house despite his mother‘s orders. But disobeying the law. as Top

'JI
Ur

describes it. is a badge of honor. He explains that graffiti artists were able to mark only
after they first painted and received praise in their projects. Painting in the yard. where
they defied the cops and by extension city government. was the pinnacle and marker of
success. There is a definitive resistance here. for graffiti artists re-signify spaces that the
city has marked for discipline and control as pleasurable.

Also. Top includes a critique of poverty and the definition of“crime." Perhaps.
Top suggests. it is a “greater" crime not to acknowledge the factors responsible for
creating a poverty-stricken area. and why specific residents are forced to pay higher train
fares while they ride on substandard and thus. dangerous trains. The writers could not.
and therefore would not. pay for the paint and they had no problem in lifting the
necessary materials to create their art. The writers were not at all deterred by the idea of
breaking the law: instead they sought out the opportunity to do so and took pleasure in
the act. In fact. this act not only re-signifies sites of discipline and control as sites of
pleasure and resistance. but draws attention to the unlawful pleasure supporting (and
required of?) the enforcement of racial discipline.

It is obvious that law here is concerned about property and maintaining financial
power. rather than the welfare of Black people. But again. because the writers were
Black and Latino and they dared to offer social commentary. MTA responded by
initiating an aggressive campaign to denigrate their artistic expression by criminalizing
the writers. The MTA deployed attack dogs. arrested artists. and allocated $34 million to
construct. around the train yards. a fence topped with razor-sharp barbed wire designed to
ensnare and shred the writers‘ bodies. As he recalls the acts of terror directed at the

Panthers by the police. Mumia Abu-Jamal (3004) informs us of how Paul Redd. a Los

Angeles Panther who served as the chapters Deputy Minister of Culture. had his right
hand brutally broken by LA cops when they learned Redd‘s artwork. which appeared in
the BPP newspaper The Black l’an/her. received praise from the community. Rather than
allowing State brutality to suppress his creative defiance. Redd taught himself how to
draw with his left hand.

Break-dancers were also targeted when they were arrested during performances
on the charge ofeither "disturbing the peace or attracting undesirable crowds" (Kelley
68). which. ofcourse means even those who watched and enjoyed the performances were
implicated. The breakers knew the score. and as a result altered performances. They
preferred to perform on city streets. and sometimes within malls rather than accepting
invitations to perform in the gymnasium ofthe Police Athletic League (PAL). Breakers
stayed clear ofthis venue since activities held at the PAL gymnasium were used by the
police as means of surveillance ofthe community. “Whenever local police were looking
for a suspect. kids hanging out in PAL facilities were questioned" (Kelley 67.).

According to the culture of American hysteria. the perceived criminality of Blacks
stems from the idea that Blacks. as Kelley and Brown clarify. are inherently
culturally/racially dysfunctional. This belief supports the rhetoric that poverty is self-
inflicted rather than the result of systemic economic oppression. Along these lines. Black
activism. whichever form it takes. either pacifist or armed-selfdefense. is targeted for
destruction. The US government automatically assumes that activism initiated by
marginalized groups is pathology: a diseased mental state poised to corrupt a healthy
social order. Thus. strategies and acts of resistance have historically been judged as

b

seditious and demented. The LES government‘s reaction to Nat Turner and John Brown.

immediately come to mind. as well as COINTELPRO‘s acts of aggression to
“neutralize." to name a few. the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNlA). The
BPP. the BLA. the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). the American
Indian lylovement (AlM ). and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAL). Also.
consider that LES. law. despite numerous efforts to the contrary. steadfastly refuses to
recognize the existence of political prisoners in this country.

Abu-Jamal. who became a Panther at age fifteen. orates from the penitentiary on
"1 lomeland Security and Hip-Hop." a spoken word piece on Immortal Technique‘s CD
ln-unor/al Technique: lft’t/‘()lllll()l7(ll:1' Vol. 2. Abu-Jamal raps about the conditions
responsible for igniting Black youth to create what we now call Hip—Hop. He states that
llip-Hop arises from a generation that is “at best. tolerated in schools. feared on the
streets. and almost inevitably destined for the hellholes of prison" (Immortal Technique
3003b). Abu-Jamal provides a vital link for our discussion of how Hip-Hop carries‘on
strategies activated during the Black Liberation Movement ofthe late sixties and early
seventies. Abu-Jamal zeroes in on Hip—Hop‘s origins because he knows the experience
of‘today-"s Black youth repeats the experiences ofthe young men and women who came
together and established the BPP and later. the BLA. Abu-Jamal writes that when lie was
attacked by the police as a teenager. the experience “kicked [him] straight into the Black
Panther Party." and his spoken word piece about the origins of Hip-Hop emphasizes the
familiar. brutal relationship between government authority at all levels and Black youth
(All Things Censored 104).

The current trend is to criticize and dismiss Black youth and its culture as

apolitical. Popular opinion generally maligns Black youth on two fronts: either Black

youth culture possesses an inability to comprehend its own deleterious social conditions.
or Black youth culture continuously engages in activities that perpetuate its own racial
oppression. Either presupposition masks the public’s fear of recognizing any continuity
between Hip-Hop and the popular liberation struggles ofthe sixties and seventies. It is
interesting. therefore. to discover the similarity of such criticism to criticisms leveled
against the Panthers. They were called irrational. politically misguided. and seditious.
BPP founder Huey P. Newton writes. “life does not always begin at birth. My life was
forged in the lives of my parents before 1 was born. and even earlier in the history ofall
Black people. 11 is all ofa piece" (Newton 11). Similarly. Hip-Hop did not simply
appear in the late 19705. Hip-Hop is a progeny of Black musical/cultural traditions:
Jazz. Reggae. Blues. Rhythm and Blues. Gospel. Funk and 00-60. Hip-HOp not only
recalls the oral traditions and rhythms of the Continent. but it also emerges out ofdistinct
political landscapes that impact Black life.

Together the BPP and the BLA struggled against racial and cultural oppression to
achieve self-determination for Blacks. The organizations were positioned to eliminate
the factors responsible for constructing the socioeconomic predicament of US. Blacks
while they also embraced cultural traditions otherwise denigrated by white supremacist
psychosis. Evelyn Williams. Assata Shakur‘s aunt and attorney. recalls how a teenage
Assata (who Williams called "Joey“ until she came to comprehend the validity of her
niece‘s activism) responded to her complaints about the racist judicial system: "I would
return home with daily complaints about the maze of inequality in which Black
defendants were trapped. and [Joey] would listen in complete agreement. designating me

the last angry woman" (E. Williams. 1993. 1 19). It is not that Assata‘s political activism

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germinated solely because of her aunt‘s critique of the legal system; instead. it-is
important to reestablish how family works in a significant capacity to spark political
awareness which encourages political activism. Later. when Assata appeared in court.
Williams explains how Assata put her solidarity with Black culture in full view as a
measure to contest state “authority” and its set of restrictions. What Assata wears in
court and how she greets her comrades virtually transform the space otherwise controlled
by the State to crirninalize her political and cultural self—definition. She is supposed to be
crushed under the weight ofstate authority that believes it can dictate not only what she
should wear. but also how she should position her body and how she is expected to relate
to those in the courtroom who came to support her. Assata appeared in court wearing
African dresses and matching head-wraps provided by her mother. Williams writes:
"[Assata] walked into the courtroom each day smiling with a power-fisted greeting to her
friends and supporters who filled the courtroom at every trial as ifthey had gathered for a
social event" (E. Williams 84).

We can locate a comparison in contemporary society with its vilifieation of Hip-
Hop in terms of how Black youth are continually criticized and admonished for their style
of dress. Within Hip Hop. the body itself becomes the site where resistance and a refusal
to adhere to what is deemed “proper" and “respectful” is contested. Hip-Hop gear draws
attention to the body. makes it the center ofa fluid system of signification. therefore
dislocating reified mainstream meanings attached to the body. and the Black body in
particular. Hip-Hop culture embraces multiple strategies of re-signification. not the least
of which is labeled “antitype” by Michael Eric Dyson. Antitypes disrupt mainstream

meanings attached to the Black body by highlighting the ambivalence that the Black body

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inspires in its role of underwriting this mainstream system ofmeanings. An antitype will
characteristically underscore the fetishistic role that the Black body serves within
mainstream American ideology. propping this ideology up at its foundational point.
where meaning folds in on itself. In short. an antitype forces a recognition ofthe role ofa
given image in concealing a knowledge of paradox within one's ideology. An antitype
will confront the viewer with an image that is held as a fetish. or a sel/ievidenl sensual
Iru/h (of Black degradation. for instance) that works. through its “self-evident” nature. to
disguise fundamental paradoxes within mainstream ideology. An antitype. in this
confrontation. will force the viewer to some recognition ofthe thing in question as a
fetish by confronting the viewer with his or her own ambivalence regarding the sign or
object: that is. the very thing taken as a sign ofdegradation is simultaneously a thing that
is irresistibly fascinating. That such logic is at the center of mainstream attitudes toward
Blackness seems undeniable — witness the mainstream success. for instance. of“gansta
rap.” the way that the signifiers of evil within American cultural dernonology are at the
same time the very objects of fascination for white America. This means. as Dyson
points out. that "the line between stereotype and antitype is barely discernible. a point not
always lost on its creators” (33 ). Many rappers. for instance. engage in this complex
game ofsignification through dress and bodily ornamentation. which will confront the
audience with images of Black male or female sexuality that simultaneously inspire fear.
terror. and fascination in white (and Black bourgeois) America; or embrace signifiers that
demonstrate the indistinguishability. on a purely an empirical level. ofa sign as a marker
ofcriminality from a sign as a marker of resistance to oppression. As Dyson discerns.

such complex representational practices involving the body "seek to play with negative

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portrayals of black life in order to explore. and... unmask them” (34). This is a strategy
of representation that Hip-Hop shares with the tradition of Black resistance. and that
Assata engages in her courtroom performance.

In addition to her choice ofclothing. it is also important to note that when Assata
is sentenced to life in prison for the death of New Jersey state trooper Werner Forester.
the presiding judge tags on an extra thirty-three years to the life-sentence because Assata
refused to stand when he entered the courtroom. Again. she utilizes her very body to
defy the system.

But the sentence holds no authority in Assata‘s estimation. and her determination
to escape is solidified by her daughter. who tells her mother. “You can get out here if you
want to" (A. Shakur 358). Even the circumstances surrounding the conception and birth
of her daughter. Kakuya. are defined by defiance. She and her comrade and “co-
defendant." Kamau. who is Kakuya‘s father. refuse to remain silent during court
proceedings. As a "punishment" Assata and Karnau are sequestered alone in a room.
Now alone. they transform a site ofincarceration to one of physical intimacy. The Coup.
with vocals by Silk E. has just released a song that could have easily served as a
soundtrack for Assata and Kamau. ln “Baby Let‘s Have a Baby." a woman soulfully
encourages her lover:

Baby let‘s have a baby before bush do somethin‘ /crazy / Baby lets have a baby

before bush do somethin‘ lcrazy / 1 don‘t want the world to blow before we get a /

chance to let our love grow ./ 1 don’t want the world to blow before we get a /
chance to let our love growl I really don't want to fuss and fight Baby we might

have numbered nights. (The Coup 3006)

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The Coup‘s song. and the situation between Assata and Kamau. speak volumes about the
sexual politics of the Black Power Movement and Hip—Hop. The Movement and Hip-
Hop equally address mainstream notions concerning sex and sexual desire. The Panthers
were adamant about eradicating “bourgeois cancer" with its conventions and norms that
repress physical pl rasure. Hip-Hop artists. particularly female emcees. now most notably
Lil' Kim. have been categorically denounced within the mainstream media through
continual attacks against the sexual politics oftheir music. For the Black Power
lylovement. and equally Hip-Hop. sexual empowerment and self-proclaimed pleasure of
the body must be present within the perspective of sociopolitical revolution. Returning
again to The Coup. they make this imperative clear in the cut. “Laugh / Love / Fuck." the
single which also appears on their latest CD. "Pick A Bigger Weapon." and opens with
the chorus: “I‘m here to laugh. love. fuck. and drink liquor And help the damn
revolution come quicker" [emphasis mine] (The Coup 3006). The arrival ofthe
revolution is mated with sexual orgasmic pleasure. The revolution is defined as a
physical act and as a release. or more significantly an ecstasy of revolution. We can
define Assata and Kamau's union in sentimental terms by saying that the two “fell in
love" while sequestered alone in the room. However. their union takes on far greater
implications once we take into account the radical politics of sex and corporeal pleasure
amidst a conservative and sexually repressed society that thinks it holds dominion over
Black bodies.

Assata‘s sentencing was designed by the state to not only destroy Assata. but to
spread wide-sweeping fear throughout the Black community at-large. In addition to

facing what was intended to appear to be an endless tangle of state and federal

indictments. arraigmnents. and trials. Assata was initially confined and isolated for more
than a year. She was denied virtually all social contact; received inadequate medical
attention. was fed nutritionally deficient food. and was only allowed outside when she
went to court. The incarceration is structured to weaken her physically and to make her
believe that she is alone and forgotten. but Assata shares life with her daughter. Williams
reports how between the ages of three and four Kakuya had
long child-adult conversations during the daily phone calls Assata made during
her second stay in Rikers... [Kakuya] also knew the beautiful brightly colored
blankets that covered her and her doll’s bed. as well as the many dresses and coats
she wore. were knitted for her by her mother. Assata's paintings and handmade
birthday cards decorated Kakuya's room. and a pillowcase on which Assata has
embroidered the words "Break De Chains" was never moved from its special
place on her bed. (E. Williams 174)
Assata and Kakuya — the Black mother and her child — are significant. Their relationship
directly defies the prison system used by the state to punish those it deems criminal.
Assata. as a Black Liberation Army combatant. was made the criminal because she
confronted racist state power and she knew the officially regulated interactions with her
child were designed to disrupt the bond between a Black mother and her child. Yet
Assata and her family made sure that where Kakuya lived. slept. how she dressed. and
how she engaged art. including greetings celebrating her birth and existence. all came
from the mother who sings of liberation. Assata‘s relationship is political because of its
devotion and direction. A woman confronts her captors so she can celebrate Black life.

and this confrontation is decidedly political in its intent when we consider how the

164

reproductive rights of Black women in the US. has endured a continuum of exploitation.
During chattel slavery the birth rate ofenslaved women was exploited to increase the
slaveholders and the nation's wealth. while today. it is presumed that "the key to solving
America‘s social problems is to curtail Black women‘s birth rates" (Roberts 7).
Abu-Jamal also discusses interactions with his family. When he is first cast into
the “bowels ofthis man-made hell." physical contact is not allowed with visitors. His
daughter. because of her age and sensitivity. is not brought to visit him. During
l-lamida‘s first visit where she sees her father restricted and out of her reach. Harnida
becomes defiant. Abu-Jamal tells us his daughter
burst into the tiny visiting room. her brown eyes aglitter with happiness. stopped.
stunned staring into the glassy barrier between us: and burst into tears at this
arrogant attempt at state scparation....her petite fingers curled into tight fists.
which banged and pummeled the Plexiglass barrier. “Break it! Break it!" she
screamed." (Live/roll? [)ealh Row 33
l-lamida's response to seeing her father held back from her is swift and rebellious. When
we juxtapose Hamida‘s experience to how Assata builds a loving relationship with her
daughter. despite state hostility and intrusion. we can begin to see the factors that
formulate Hip-Hop. Both Hamida and Kakuya had first-hand experience in seeing their
parents crirninalized for their acts of resistance. Children who came ofage during the
seventies and eighties. as did Harnida and Kakuya. often recognize their oppositional
status to state repression. Hip-Hop Artist Mos Def. writing in response to the LS.
Department of Justice's May 3. 3005 announcement that it issued a $1 million bounty for

.n . _. .. . ( _ . . .. . _
the capture of Joanne C hesrmard. [src] ‘ says that as a child hrs frrst memory of Assata

Shakur was the “‘Wanted‘ posters all over [my] Brooklyn neighborhood“ (Mos Def 1 ).
Assata escaped from prison in 1979. Def says he couldn‘t believe the information on the
posters that informed the community that Assata was “armed and dangerous.“ Instead he
says. "When 1 looked at those posters and the mug shot ofa slight. brown. high-cheek-
boned woman with a full afro. 1 saw someone who looked like she was in my family. an
aunt. a mother" (Mos Def 1 j).

Tricia Rose says Hip-Hop attempts to “negotiate the experiences of
marginalization. brutally truncated opportunity. and oppression within the cultural
imperatives of an African American and Caribbean history. identity. and community"
(Rose 31 ). While Rose's assertion is insightful. the term “negotiates" does not set well
here since the term. used in this context. relies on equal shares of control and direction.
Hip-Hop understands how negotiation is impossible within a racialized socioeconomic
order historically reliant on the subjugation of Blacks. Instead. Hip-Hop culture seizes.
rather than negotiates. the tools of the oppressor and re—appropriates them to disassemble
and overthrow the repressive forces. And. since Hip-Hop's defiance can be traced to the
Black Power Movement and emerges out of and exists within a technological age. Hip-
Hop re-appropriates these venues.

Evelyn Williams recalls. for example. how political prisoners consider their legal
situation following an arrest as "simply a microcosm ofthe larger society‘s imprisonment
ofall its Black citizens. and extrication from it must be defined by stratagerns of political
correctness" (E. Williams 84). Political prisoners. as Williams also learned from her
niece. will not adhere to or recognize the court‘s authority. and thus “will not conform to

the rules ofthe court. to rules ofcrirninal and civil procedure. or. ..rules ofevidence. not

166

to mention rules of prescribed courtroom decorum" (E. Williams 84). However. what
does take place is an act of re-appropriation as a means to activate self-determination.
Assata Shakur‘s statement. “To My People." broadcasted on Black radio stations in New
York and New Jersey. for example. was written on America’s “Independence Day. July
41"." Assata wrote the statement while imprisoned. after reading newspaper clippings in
which it was “obvious the press was trying to railroad [her]. to make [her] seem like a
monster" (A. Shakur 49). Assata‘s statement calls out and then subverts the ideal of
American “independence" since she spoke from prison about July 4‘". Equally important.
her message was relayed through a medium regulated by the state to propagate its

0e was broadcast on radio stations formatted to appeal to

h
9

agenda. And because her messa
a Black audience. it "talked back“ to the state. signaling that Blacks are keenly aware of
state control and that they have the means to oppose this control.

Hip-Hop is a network of artists who innovatively take the same tools available to
the mainstream and recast them to create artistic expressions crafted through radical
resistance. Comedian Dave Chappelle's weekly half-hour. “Chappelle's Show." on
Comedy Central. was unrelenting in its exposure of America‘s racism. His program
often ope 'ated as a form ofguerilla warfare. According to Che Guevara. the guerilla
fighter "fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in
ignorniny and misery“ (Guevara 10). While Chappelle may not brandish a gun. his
sketches do. however. set their sights on dismantling “the conditions of the reigning
institutions" (Guevara 10). Chappelle‘s character Tyrone Biggums. who is addicted to
crack cocaine. subverts mainstream attitudes about drug addiction. Americans are most

comfortable with rnaligning and maliciously poking fun at those who are addicted to

crack because they disregard the humanity ofthose addicted to crack. Yet. Tyrone. the
trickster figure. time-and-time again strikes back at these presuppositions. Tyrone is
featured in a sketch where he speaks at an inner-city elementary school as part ofa
national “Drug Awareness Week." He tells the children that drugs and alcohol have
ruined his life. As he begins to explain the various ways to get “high" we see the
students vigorously taking notes. Tyrone‘s school visit. viewers are told. has been made
possible through funding provided by the Reagan administration. Born in DC.
Chappelle grew up during the Reagan regime. The comedian. no doubt. remembers the
administration's anti-drug program that was spawned from Nancy Reagan‘s shallow
response to drug use when she told American children to “.lust Say No.” Tyrone is a
critical character that does not allow us to turn our backs on the horror of crack addiction.
and at the same time Tyrone disassembles the national narrative constructed specifically
to debase those who smoke crack. We have been programmed to concede crack as one
of. if not the major problem. plaguing the Black community. and to also envision crack
addiction as the sum total ofthe individual — as ifthe drug itselfhas the absolute power to
obliterate a person‘s worth and possibility. The crack addict. we are told. and sometimes
too readily accept. inherently lacks a sense ofself—restraint and self-worth. Thus. those
who are addicted to crack are perceived as self-destructive. and their crime somehow
comes to represent a crime ofthe entire Black community.

Years earlier. Tupac Shakur resisted and then revolutionized the terminology
attributed to crack addiction when he rapped in “Dear Mama" of how his mother's
addiction did not preclude her status as “Black Queen." Shakur‘s mother. Afeni Shakur.

as we know. has a long history of political activism as a Black Panther leader. Evelyn

168

Williams notes that Shakur‘s activism continued following her work with the BPP.
Tupac‘s song reveals how his mother‘s love and protection was not destroyed by her
addiction. And given this point of information we cannot ignore how her activism
influenced the power of her son‘s political voice. As case in point. Abu—Jamal. within his
discussion ofthe legacy ofthe BPP. concludes I'l’e ll'ant Freedom with the heart-felt
letter written by the then pregnant Afeni Shakur who. as a member ofthe Panther 31. was
imprisoned in the city jail when she wrote ofTupac. as "the unborn baby (babies). within
my womb" (Abu-Jamal. Live/rout Death Row 344). Within the same frame. as the
sketch of'l‘yrone informs us. a drug addiction does not exclude someone fiorn presenting
an insightful social commentary concerning the country‘s duplicitous policy regarding its
assessment of"street" drugs and its impact on the Black community. In yet another
sketch. Chappelle exposes the existence ofa racially biased U.S.1aw system. and to do
so. he flips the script. The Black man who sells drugs is afforded every single
opportunity to beat the charges set against him. as he faces a more than lenient due
process. while the white CEO is brutally assaulted at every turn. Also in defiance of his
producers. Chappelle featured a sketch where a crew of Playaz travel back in time to the
era ofchattel slavery where they encounter a group of Black enslaved men and women
who ask. “When will we be free?" The Playaz respond: "How bout now?" as they shoot
and kill the slave master on the spot. Also. each program features a performance by Hip-
Hop artists. and Chappelle extends the connection between activism and Hip-Hop beyond
his weekly program. Chappelle is featured as the guest editor ofthe October 3004 issue
ofthe Hip-Hop magazine XXL. The issues features an interview conducted by Chappelle

where he speaks with artists M-1 and stic.man of Dead Prez. Common. Talih Kweli. and

169

Kayne West. Chappelle mentions how he met M-1 and stic.man at a Black August
benefit concert. The Black August benefit concerts raise funds and awareness about
political prisoners throughout the Diaspora and have been held in New York. Cuba.
South Africa. and Brazil. Chappelle. who proclaims Dead Prez as his “favorite group of
any genre." used the heat from the duo's "Hip Hop" track for his program (131 ).

Although it is aired on a major cable network. “Chappelle‘s Show" is designed for
a “core fan base." as. he says. “our own meeting place once a week" (Comedy Central
3004). The program is unrelenting in its objective to disrupt and dislocate white power
structures. It consistently features issues impacting the Black community in order to defy
institutionalized and de facto racism. Ivloreover. the program unites Hip-Hop with a
revolutionary perspective. “Chappelle‘s Show." to my recollection. has yet to feature a
segment focusing directly on the Panthers. but the program does operate through a Black
radical philosophy of resistance. As the Playaz sketch reveals. the program is not afraid
to understand the connection between armed self-defense and liberation.

However. as Abu-Jamal writes. the [1.8. now. as in the past. is unable to recognize
the impact ofthe Panthers. since the country treats the BPP as an “unwelcome member.
sort of like a Stepchild." because Panthers “made Americans feel many things. but safe
wasn‘t one ofthem“ (Abu-Jamal. 11 'e Want Freedom 7). Public outrages directed at Hip-
Hop always charge that the culture is sexist and materialistic. But at the same time when
the mainstream does pay attention to Hip-Hop it routinely classifies it as nihilistic noise.
Radical Hip-Hop is simply not for the mainstream since the genre is an expression of
Black self-determination. Also. a core belief in the necessity of rebellion and armed self-

defense is the very stance that prompts alarm and pushes these artists into the margins.

170

But of course these groups and solo artists are marginalized. and seldom appear on video
countdowns or receive radio rotation. Their messages resist the exploitation of Black
culture as they expose what Elaine Brown has termed America‘s “rhetorical duplicity";
the language oftoday's "New Age Racism (Brown Condemnation 138). New Age
Racism is a language that speaks about racial inclusion through a dialogue based on the

we relies on the delusion of

h
K.—

beliefthat the nation has overcome racism. and yet the langua
white supremacy. According to Brown. “New Age Racism" impacts public policy and
legislation since its rhetorical strategy is based on declaring racism as a thing ofthe past.
As consequence. New Age Racism “dissolve[s] blacks’ unity of purpose. a unity that
represents the greatest potential threat to the New World order. to the powerlessness of
one" (Brown. (,‘ondei-nmttion 331 ).

Just as Assata Shakur‘s message and Afeni Shakur's letter are written in the hopes
that the goal ofthe BPP/BLA will not be forgotten but carried on by successive
generations. Dead Prez (DPZ) tell us in their collaboration with The Coup oftheir need to
"remember Huey [Newton]. Bobby Hutton. Fred [Hampton]. and ‘ern" (Dead Prez
3003b). As a matter of fact. Hampton's son. Fred Hampton. Jr.. collaborates with Dead
Prez on the duo‘s “Hood News" track. DPZ refers to their message as “gangsta." Yet.
with DPZ. there is a deliberate and sustained awareness ofthe various significations of
their use ofterminology and phrasing. It may be "gangsta." but the term is based on
Black political knowledge. not imperialist consumerism. Gangsta here could refer to the
“O.G's." the “original gangstas." read also as the “originators" and innovators of Black
liberation struggle throughout the Diaspora. DPZ is paying homage to those countless

individuals. women and men. who throughout history rebelled against chattel slavery.

171

nee-slavery. and now. neo-colonialism. Thus. gangsta. or the "original gangsta" — the
“0G" — could be Assata Shakur. I‘V’lalcolm X. Huey Newton. Fred Hampton. or Marcus
Garvey. all of whom serve as inspiration for their music. Hip—Hop artists are skilled in
pulling together a strategy to define the racial nightmare that is America while also
providing a message designed to inspire the people. On one hand they attack the
enslaving forces ofcapitalism. while at the same time. they produce messages designed
to encourage. Thus. the term "Revolutionary Gangsta" is more than fitting. The title.
like the complex imperative of Hip-Hop. brings together a commitment to the theory and
praxis of Black liberation and remains infused with the knowledge that the people have
the power and energy to access and seize the tools ofthe oppressor.

Consider that. among other works. Franz Fanon‘s The I’I’retched ofthe Earth was
required reading for all Panthers. Fanon‘s l’f'i'C/Ché’d finds its way into Hip-Hop via the
film Bani/modal. In the film. the revolutionary Hip-Hop group. the “Mau Maus." lead
by "Big Blak Afrika." who is portrayed by Hip-Hop artist Mos Def. audition for a
television variety program. During their audition they perform their song “Blak lz Blak."
in which they rap about social injustice and responses to Black exploitation. Fanon‘s
theory of revolution is evoked in “Blak Iz Blak" during the first chorus when the Mau
Maus exclaim. “The way Frantz Fanon put it / They lucky I ain‘t read 1'1 'retched yet!"
(Lawrence “Blak lz Blak"). By channeling 1'1 'retched. the BPP were able to import
Fanon's strategies to dismantle European imperialism in Africa into “principles and
methods acceptable to the brothers on the block" (Newton 1 1 1). BPP praxis was borne
out of contemplations about the Diaspora. The organization initiated a program ofself-

defense where BPP members “trailed cop cars in the Black neighborhoods armed with

guns. tape recorders. cameras. and law books" (Abu-Jamal. We Want Freedom 67).
While the BPP “Police-Alert Patrols" were designed to eliminate police brutality in the
Black community. the initiative was instrumental on other critical levels. The BPP also
served notice to police agencies that it could no longer monopolize violence as a means
to systematically brutalize Blacks with impunity. Also. the Black community was well
aware of institutionalized racism that sanctioned police attacks. but BPP patrols
mobilized the community so it could control confrontations with the police. instead of
being victimized by these encounters. And within this context. the patrols were
instrumental in demystifying police authority. What developed was the strategy George
Jackson would term “counter-terrorism" — “a facet of urban people‘s guerilla warfare"
that is to be implemented within a nation where violence is reserved only for the
“omnipresent administrator" (Jackson. Blood in My Eye 34). Counter-terrorism.
therefore. destabilizes the oppr‘essor‘s sense of security and privilege. In r‘v’egroes with
Guns Robert \ly’illiams offers an example of the impact of counter-terrorism. He recalls
how a crowd of whites in Monroe. South Carolina was immobilized by gun-wielding
Southern Blacks who were defending themselves against a white mob. Williams writes
of how one elderly white man. who began “crying like a baby." had to be led away when
he realized the police were not going to arrest Williams and his comrades in arms (R.
Williams 10).

When asked to explain their name. “Dead Prez." M-l. who takes his name from
an assault rifle. explains: “For me. Dead Prez means Dead Bush. Dead George Bush —
straight up hole in the head. You know what I mean?" (DJ Cloak. forthcoming). As

straightforward as M-1 ‘5 response may be. Dead Prez is not exclusively interested in

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taking out Bush. as if his death and his death alone would instantaneously usher in the
liberation of Blacks. Rather. M-1 ‘5 response works in unison with Fanon‘s assertion:
“For the native. life can only spring up again out ofthe rotting corpse ofthe settler"
(Fanon. ll're/ched 93). The goal is to destroy imperialist authority and privilege
symbolized by the office ofthe president. Perhaps Safiya Bukhari clarifies this point
when she recalls how her BPP comrade Cetewayo told her “[t]o deal with the principle
and not the personality" (Bukhari. “Coming of Age" 10). According to stic.man. “Dead
Prez" signifies on US. administration and policy. He explains: “We recognize Bush and
Clinton and the dudes ain‘t bringin no life in our community. They dead to us — they
policy. they system is dead" (Dead Pres: It 's Bigger than Hip-Hop). M-l/Mutulu
Olubalu and stic.man/Khnum Olubala met in Tallahassee. Florida. and their messages
showcase a flow reminiscent ofthe Panther's southern roots. The BPP may have
officially started in a northern state. but “the young folks who established and staffed the
organization came from predominately Southern backgrounds and therefore had to have
suffered a kind ofdual alienation" (Abu-Jamal. III 'e l/I’ant Freedom 6).? It was the
children. whose families attempted to escape the racial terror ofthe South and
encountered the same in the ghetto‘s “up North." who started the BPP and moved into the
BLA. BPP Los Angeles chapter‘s Deputy Minister of Defense. Geronimo ji-Jaga. grew
up in lower Louisiana. As a child he learned the value of armed self-defense and
solidarity. His uncle was a member of Marcus Garvey/"s Universal Negro Improvement
Association. and the deacons of his church armed themselves in order to protect the
congregation from the Ku Klux Klan. ji-Jaga also cites how the church deacons inspired

the formation ofthe Deacons ofDefense. After graduating from high school.ji-Jaga

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enlisted in the army and fought in Vietnam. He states very clearly that he did not enlist
out of a sense of patriotism; rather. his “Elders." the church deacons. who had fought in
World War II and Korea counseled ji-Jaga and his classmates to do so because they were
now the "young soldiers." The Elders then instructed ji-Jaga to return to the war at
home:
Martin Luther was like the god ofthe older people. and Malcolm X was like our
god. We were the young crazy people. But we respected the Elders. and we
loved Martin Luther King through the wisdom of the Elders. But when Martin
Luther King was killed April 4. 1968. the Elders of Louisiana. Mississippi. Texas.
Alabama. Georgia. Florida. sent out a call. We can talk about this now. We were
told to come home. And we came home (ji-Jaga 75)
Dead Prez‘s “Food. Clothes + Shelter pt. 3" encapsulates the Deputy Minister of
Defense‘s ideas concerning the “Elders" and war. The songs title. taken from the BPP‘s
“Ten Point Program." opens with the sounds of rapid gunfire. and a bomb explosion that
are all elements used to suggest war. But war. as ji-Jaga‘s Elders understood it. was not
only taking place overseas. it was being waged in their communities. And as DPZ raps.
the Black community is held under siege and occupied by the police force. Also. the
lyrics pay tribute to the Southern elders who pass their wisdom on to the young to
recognize the necessities oflife: The rapid-fire rap begins:
Undercover pigs jurnpin outta cabs / niggaz get nabbed l I seen it wit my own
eyes in Tallahassee Florida l where I was raised by my elders / who taught me the

fundamentals of food. clothes. and shelter. (Dead Prez 3003b).

175

M-1 and stic.man migrated to New York and work with the National People‘s
Democratic Uhuru lylovement. an organization defending the rights of“Africans." And.
as the two will tell you. although born and raised in the United States. they are African
since “aint no point in time have we became Americans" (Ablo 1 10). The term “African
American." M-I continues. “came from the middle-class movement to assimilate" (Ablo
1 10). M-1 and stic.man consider centuries of brutal racial oppression throughout the US.
a clear indication that Blacks living in the confines ofthis country never were and never
will be citizens under this national regime. This assertion is the driving force behind their
CD. Turn Off the Radio: The Mixtape Volume I that includes the tracks “That‘s War"
and “We Need a Revolution."

We can turn to Technique — a solo artist who in the beginning of his career
opened for Dead Prez. Although Technique does not directly refer to his style ofmusic
as “Revolutionary Gangsta." the artist does see himselfin opposition to the "candy
rappers” who dominate radio and video airplay. Born in a military hospital in Peru.
Technique now lives in Harlem. The inside jacket ofTechnique‘s CD. Revolutionary
Vol. 3. features full-page artwork by Alton Fletcher. who depicts a full-scale
assassination at the White House. Fletcher's art is reminiscent ofthe artistic vision ofthe
Black Panther newspaper under the direction of Emory Douglass. the organization‘s
Minister of Culture. From the late 1960s to the early 19705. Douglass was responsible
for creating artwork framed by a “protest aesthetic aimed at convincing audiences of
black power" (Doss 175 ). Douglass created drawings designed to demystify state
authority by “mak[ing] the people aware ofthe character ofthose who oppress us" and

directing them to understand that they had “the right to destroy the enemy" (Doss 183).

I76

For example. the November 31. 1970 issue of the Black Panther featured a montage
drawing depicting various members ofthe Black community shooting the police. Placed
at the center ofthe artwork is a photograph ofa BPP rally. and framing the rally are
drawings of Panthers and non-Panther members. women. men. and children alike. ending
the lives of police officers. Blazoned across the piece is the message. “WE HAVE TO
BEGIN TO DRAW PICTL7 RES THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE GO OUT AND KILL
PIGS" (Doss 176). In other artistic renditions Douglass would routinely recast the police
as hanged pigs. and he would include the actual badge numbers ofthe cops who harassed
Blacks in the neighborhood.

To return to Techniques CD jacket. at the center of Fletcher’s art is a drawing of
George W. Bush. who sits at his desk in the Oval Office. A plate piled with cocaine is
placed before him. and Bush has taken a fatal gunshot through his eye. The office is
riddled with the dead bodies of Bush. Sr.. Donald Rumsfeld. Dick Cheney. and Osama
Bin Laden. Tom Ridge and Colin Powell are also present. but unlike the others. Ridge.
although shot. remains alive. and Powell. who has not been shot. lies in a corner alive and
blindfolded. Among the piles of money that litter the floor is a scattering of
rnemorandurns with the following titles: “CIA." “9/1 I Report." “Iran Contra."
"ANTHRAX." and “MU MIA." The staging is critical. The viewer is intended to
recognize on one level the markers of collusion that transpire within the Oval Office.
The presence of Bush. Sr. within this scene exemplifies the legacy ofcorruption
emanating from the White House. No doubt a diabolical meeting was in progress when
the revolutionaries arrived — given the fact that America‘s leaders. past and present. were

enjoying illegal drugs. counting their blood money. and reviewing memos documenting

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insidious manipulations. lies and cover-ups. The site of America‘s seat of power and
prestige has been revealed as the nation‘s base headquarters of corruption. The
per5pective not only disrupts the readily assumed sanctity and authority of the Oval
Office. but also exposes its inhabitants as treacherous and thus marked for obliteration.
Like Technique. M-1 and stic.man set their sights on the nation's capitol when they
classify Bush. the CIA and the FBI "as the real terrorists" in “Know Your Enemy" (Dead
Prez 3003b). Two more important points need to be made in reference to Fletcher's
artwork. which is really a form ofgraffiti writing par excellence. Ridge is depicted as
sitting immobilized in the corner with a look of dismay and astonishment as he stretches
his hand out toward the person who has blazed his way into the room. While the image
features Ridge‘s alarm at the audacity ofthis assault. we need to recognize that Ridge.
together with his co-conspirators. has been caught off guard. Everyone is supposed to be
caught offguard here — not only those in the office. but also those of us who witness the
depiction. This point directs me to the image ofthe blindfolded Powell. Both Elaine
Brown and Amiri Baraka. through their critique of the careers of Powell and Condoleezza
Rice. discuss how New Age Racism promotes Powell and Rice‘s positions within the
Clinton and Bush administrations as indicators ofracial progress. Baraka. in “Somebody
Blew Up America." asks in the rhythmic/fearless flow and dialogue of Hip-Hop. “Who
know what kind ofskeeza is a Condoleezza?" (Baraka line 94). while Technique
proclaims in “The 4‘h Branch": “The new age is before us. yet the past refuses to rest in
its shallow grave" as he proclaims Rice is “just a new-age Sally Herrrirrgs" (Immortal
Technique 3003). Brown defines both Powell and Rice as “New Age House Negroes"

who have served and sustained structures of white power within presidential

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administrations. The two espouse and validate US. policy. The very presence ofthese
“New Age House Negroes" is used to validate US. policy as racially inclusive. As
Brown writes:

More than merely advocating and sanctioning government policies that

contributed to and maintained the wretched state ofghettoized and millions of

other poor blacks. there had now come to be a new crop ofNegroes who.
positioned to actually influence the outcome of government activity. were actively
undermining the cause of improving the lot of blacks in America. (Brown

C'ondemnation 330)

Rice. who has aggressively served both Bush administrations. steadfastly ignores the
extent to which poverty is racialized. Thus. Rice. as Brown reports. opposes affirmative
action programs. since she believes that this country already operates on a system of
equal opportunity. Brown refers to Powell as “Clarence Thomas with a gun." Powell.
she writes. was moved from the “field" of battle into the White “house" once he
demonstrated for George Bush. Sr. his “readiness to kill for American oil companies"
(Brown ('omlemnation 336).

M-1. stic.man. and Technique signify on America‘s exploitation of Black culture.
Technique. for instance. samples from a Disney rendition ofthe children‘s fable.
"Pinocchio." Technique laughs on the cut. when he proclaims this song is for the kids — a
re-telling of the children’s story of power and of who controls the strings. Technique
raps about his objective to maintain control ofhis talent and vision. He explains that his
track “Freedom of Speech" has dual meaning: “I refuse to let the labels control me. just

like I won‘t let the government do so to my opinion" (lrnrnortal Technique 3004a). DPZ

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makes a similar assertion. ln "lt's Bigger than Hip-Hop." DPZ targets how corporate
America attempts to enslave l~lip-Hop artists by controlling public perceptions of Hip-
Hop. This observation is initially established within the song "Turn Off the Radio" that
opens the CD. It is here where Dead Prez raps that radio airplay is dominated by those
songs that are used to spread the misconception that Hip-Hop is exclusively about “party
and dance." As a tradition. Hip-Hop takes immense pleasure in “party and dance"
because it is an essential element of Hip-Hop. Black youth understand the brutal
opposition they must face in order to survive in North America — a terrain where they are
cordoned off within the nation’s central cities and are expected not only to live without
joy. but to repress any hope ofescaping. Hip-Hop at the same time expresses Black
youth's culture awareness of their condition. and provides the site where they can "talk
back" and can experience the ecstasy of rebelling against these sociopolitical

machinations.

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Conclusion

Throughout my dissertation l traced the significance ofthe Black Radical
l\"lovement and its impact on contemporary literature and culture. By using Black radical
theory as an interpretive lens. I was able to look back and to see old texts with fresh eyes.
from a new critical direction. African American literature. beginning with chattel slave
narratives. has devoted attention to the pathway to freedom. to paraphrase Frederick
Douglass. These early texts. centered on ideals of freedom and liberation. sought to
establish a Black identity opposed to racist white American presuppositions regarding
Blacks. But the authors ofchattel slave narratives. which were politically conscious in
their focus. sought the attention and support ofconscientious white America in order to
realize this emancipation. By detailing the horror ofslavery. Black authors appealed to a
white reading audience. and in doing so. aligned themselves with mainstream cultural
values. Within her appeal to white Northern women. for example. Harriet Jacobs
(Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl) re-inscribes conservative bourgeois models of
subjectivity. Throughout her text. .lacobs attempts to expose the sexual Oppression of
Black women. but her strategy relies on an adherence to middle-class ideas of not only of
virtue. but also ofclass distinctions. and a doctrine of pacifism. .lacobs virtually
apologizes to her readers for becoming pregnant while enslaved. and at the outset she
attempts to establish a kinship between herselfand her readers by evoking her white

‘6.

—
hr

heritage. which then allows her to establish her quest for freedom as a right and privile
A textual analysis of Frederick Douglass‘s Mr Bondage and My Freeu’mn and Richard
Wright‘s ;\='ulive Son proved that conventional interpretations ofthese canonical works

readily conceptualize liberation as a male-centered prerogative. My critique ofthese

181

classics. however. reveals that Black male liberation. within the context ofboth chattel
and neo-slavery. is made possible through the subjugation of Black women. Within Mr
Bondage and .xlv'ulive Son. we witness a bourgeois mentality that invariably defines
liberation as an act ofacquiring absolute dominion over the “other." In their attempt to
gain full membership within American society. the Black bourgeoisie can only envision
liberation in terms of ownership. which. in these canonized texts by Black males. results
in a reiteration ofenslavement. A ritual ofownership must be performed to claim full
personhood. a ritual that is enacted as sexual violence against Black women. Moreover.
bourgeois norms of subjectivity. when adopted by the Black middle class. require the
disavowal ofthe actual socioeconomic condition of Blacks. The Black bourgeoisie can
only envision its inclusion in American society. can only establish its full membership
within the elite “master" class. on the condition of objectifying the majority ofpoor
Blacks as “other." 1 asserted that this formulation. exemplified by Douglass and Wright.
of"master" and "other." resides at the center of male-authored texts. Within this context.
the pre-existing social hierarchy is re-configured in terms of gender wherein Black males
authors adopt an unconscious identification with white male “masters" through the
subjugation of Black women.

But by the late twentieth-century. Black literature began to talk back on multiple
fronts. This generation ofauthors located their voices through the language ofthe Black
Power hrlovement. which was infused with the teachings of F rantz Fanon (The ll'reIe/zed
(if/lie Earl/7). Robert Williams ('r’vegl'oes will? Guns). and Malcolm X (The .4ulnbiugrup/zj'
(g_f'..-‘\/lu/eu/m X). This Movement. borne out ofa response to state oppression. included the

militancy and strategy ofarmed-selfdefense advocated by the women and men of the

182

Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. These organizations demystified
state authority by showing the Black community that it and could and should defend itself
by any means necessary. The BPP and the BLA organized “survival programs"
throughout the country that included police alert patrols. breakfast programs for children.
food and clothing drives. sickle-cell clinics. ambulance services. political education
programs. and a clandestine network that engineered the escape of political prisoners
from the nation‘s penitentiaries. All these activities bolstered a broader campaign of self- ‘
determination. set against a society that defined Black life as meaningless and captive. 1
Panthers and BLA soldiers armed themselves in order to protect their community from
the onslaught of police assaults and a biased judicial system. and they were equally
adamant about excising the “bourgeois cancer" of the Black middle-class.
On these subjects Elaine Brown was indispensable. Her narrative. A Taste of
PUH’L’I‘. is introduced through the proclamation that continually manages to outrage and
create trepidation: “I got all the guns and all the money." A Black woman in control of
the largest revolutionary organization in the entire history ofNorth America. which
managed to bring fear to white America and the Black bourgeoisie alike. The former
BPP chairman’s extensive research of the economic and ideological structure of slavery
in North America was essential to this project. Brown would announce throughout The
('mu/ermzu/ion of'LiII/e B: “The goal offreedom must return to the top of our agenda.
For it is the only business ofthe slave" (357). By calling our attention to the 13”1
Amendment to the US. Constitution. which re-defines rather than abolishes slavery.
Brown provides insight that reinforces George Jackson‘s (So/edad Bro/her) theory of

neo-slavery. Both revolutionaries assert that the subjugation of Blacks within the

183

confines ofcontemporary America is determined through a system of brutal
socioeconomics. The large majority of Blacks in the United States are cordoned off in
central cities where state-inflicted poverty serves the needs of the state. Brown draws
attention to the incarceration rates of Blacks in US. prisons. where the incarcerated serve
as slaves within the mammoth prison industrial complex. And yet. Assata Shakur
(As-said) and Huey Newton (Revolutionarr’ Suicide) both remind us that in terms of Black

existence in North America. prison is merely a microcosm ofthe outside world.

#4
l

1. Franklin Frazier (Tl-re Black Bourgeoisie). Fanon. and Malcolm X worked well
in theoretical union in their indictment ofBlack bourgeois consciousness. While Fanon
spoke about the “native intellectuals." the “faithful followers" who do their best to get on
within the framework ofthe colonial system" [emphasis mine] ('l'i'reielred 1 12). Frazier
and Malcolm identified contemporary Black elites as the descendants ofchattel house
slaves who aligned their interests with white masters. Brown continues the discussion
about Black collusion by specifically reporting on the careers of several "successful"
Blacks whose rise to fame and fortune. which was bought at the expense of inflicting
further damage throughout the Black community. On this point. Brown. together with
Frazier. Fanon. and Malcolm are clear. Black elites. through their doctrine of“racial
progress." directly impede the process of empowerment for Black people. The activities
ofthe Black bourgeoisie maintain the status quo. They are subsumed within an ideology
that misinterprets America as a safe haven founded on an egalitarian model.

The literature that followed the Black Power Movement was receptive to the era.
Literature was employed as a meeting place where Blacks began speaking to each other

about their shared experiences within the Diaspora. Writers no longer attempted to

184

appease a white reading public because the focus was on issues impacting Black life. and
this introspective literature included an array of works that dealt specifically with
political struggle and a quest for liberation. Authors began talking about past events with
a new reverence. Nat Turner’s rebellion and the Haitian Revolution were re-visited in
Dessa Rose (Sherley Anne Williams). The bourgeois ideal of“racial progress" and
"integration" were exposed as sheer hypocrisy in The Spook who Sat by the Door (Sam
Greenlee) and Linden Hills (Gloria Naylor). Acts of self-defense were considered an
undeniable necessity rather than psychosis. as in case of Fly/in l’i’est (Pearl Cleage) and
the “Seven Days" of Song ofSo/omon (Toni Morrison). And white America was put on
notice instead of being appealed to. Toni Bambaras Those Bones are Not Ally Child and
Tayari Jones‘s Leaving Atlanta are communique’s that alert the nation that the horrifically
systematic murder of Black children mobilizes the community to action rather than
making it submissive and catatonic with fear.

lndisputably. Hip-Hop continues this tradition of rebellion and defiance. All the
ingredients are there — the language. the strategy. the spirit of resistance. the demand for
self-definition. Hip-Hop. the culture created by the children whose parents and
grandparents activated the Movement. has embraced their foreparents‘ revolutionary
ideals. Musical artists such as Dead Prez and visual artists such as Alton Fletcher create
specific and deliberate links to the Black Panthers and other revolutionary groups in order
to articulate their messages within a tradition in opposition to bourgeois notions of
subjectivity as ownership. By embracing the unlawful pleasures contained in acts of
resistance. such artists construct identities and libidinal connections that are both in

opposition to and outside ofdominant norms of personhood. citizenship. and subjectivity.

Endnotes

I In a telephone interview with CNN. US. Representative John Conyers from
Detroit. recalls that Parks worked as member of his staff when he was first elected to the
House of Representatives in 1964: “I think that [Parks], as the mother ofthe new civil
rights movement. has left an impact not just on the nation. but on the world. She was a
real apostle ofthe nonviolence [sic] movement." John Conyers interview with CNN.
October 25. 2005..

3 Within his formulation of Bigger Thomas. for Native Son. author Richard
Wright pulled from his childhood memories in Mississippi and Tennessee the
experiences ofyoung Black men living in the Jim Crow South. He recalls two young
men whom he titles “Bigger No. 3" and “Bigger No. 4":

There was Bigger No. 3. whom the white folks called a “bad nigger." He carried
his life in his hands in a literal fashion. 1 once worked as ticket —taker in a Negro movie
house (all movie houses in Dixie are Jim Crow; there are movies for whites and movies

for blacks). andmany times Bigger No. 3'came‘to the door and gave my armaihard pinch
and walked into the theater. Resentfully and silently. I'd nurse my bruised arm.
Presently. the proprietor would come over and ask how things were going. l‘d point into
the darkened theater and say “Bigger‘s in there." “Did he pay?" the proprietor would
ask. “No. sir." I‘d answer. The proprietor would pull down the corners of his lips and

speak through his teeth: “We'll kill that goddamn nigger one ofthese days." And the

episode would end right there.

186

And there was Bigger No. 4. whose only law was death. The Jim Crow laws of
the South were not for him. But as he laughed and cursed and broke them. he knew that
some day he‘d have to pay for his freedom. (508).

‘i M urnia Abu-Jamal (it 'e Meant Freedom 2004) discusses how the question of freedom
and liberation have always remained the central question within radical activism (l 7).

4 From Lil‘ Kim‘s "The Jump Off." (2003).

5 Elaine Brown‘s The Comlemnation of'Little B (2002) chronicles at length
Atlanta's quest to reassert it economic might following the Civil War and how this
objective recapitulates racial oppression in the twentieth century and beyond.

6 The United States government refuses to recognize the name “Assata Shakur."
In her narrative. Shakur writes: “The name JoAnne began to irk my nerves. 1 had
changed a lot and moved to a different beat. felt like a different person I felt like an
African woman and rejoiced in it" (185'). Shakur designates “JoAnne Chesimard" as
her “slave name." By referring to Shakur as “Joanne Chesimard" and not as “.loAnne."
the US. government not only misspells her first name. but re-establishes the slave which
she chooses to reject. In doing so the US. government. in issuing the bounty. appears
determined to enslave her when we also consider how the bounty operates as a re-
instatement of nineteenth-century Fugitive Slave Laws.

7 1n the section. “Southern Roots" Abu—Jamal (2004. 6) outlines key BPP
personnel and their Southern origins: BPP co-founder and Minister of Defense Huey P.
Newton and Los Angeles chapter‘s Deputy Minister of Defense Geronimo ji-Jaga.
(Louisiana): BPP co-founder and Chairman Bobby Scale and Central Committee member

Kathleen Cleaver. (Texas); Minister oflnformation Eldridge Cleaver. (Arkansas): Chief

187

of Staff David Hilliard. (Alabama): New York chapter Section Leaders Assata Shakur
and A fcni Shakur. (North Carolina); and The Black Panther Editor Elbert Howard

(Tennessee).

188

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