Revelations and Revolutions: Reflections on 2007, Hopes for 2008

On this last day of 2007, I thought it appropriate to enter one final blog post for the year. But I wanted to do more than just offer a simple "year in review." I want to discuss the past with an eye toward the future.

I have found this year to be an extraordinary revelation as to what we might be able to do with a blog, something I started in February this year. Little did I know that it would lead to so many profound insights (and ignorance - let me not pretend I didn't find this as well) and actions.

It was through the blogosphere that I was able to engage in some critical conversations about racism, about feminism, and about the state of the world. It was through the blogosphere that I learned about the dangerous face (and history) of Blackwater within and outside our borders. It was through the blogosphere that I learned about Jena 6 (and, obviously, the rest of the media - like CNN - learned about it on blogs too! Our press is getting pretty lame, isn't it?) and how bloggers organized a national protest in response back in September. It was here that I learned the gruesome details about the Megan Williams West Virginia torture case and witnessed how many black women bloggers got together to spread the word to organize a national day of anti-silence and outrage back in October. It was also here that I learned of various hate crimes and noose hangings and can therefore attest to the FBI's latest statistics that hate crimes and hate speech are on the rise.

And while I was overseas during the Virginia Tech massacre, it was through the Internet and blogs that I was able to keep abreast of things as the story unfolded.

It was here also where I engaged in the most insightful conversations about the upcoming presidential elections, while mainstream news continues to enshrine us further into darkness with their so-called 24-hour news coverage of everything else but "news."

And, so, 2007 for me is the critical year in which I became a blogger, and being a blogger means being a writer, an informant, a critic, and a community participant (to whichever community that might be).

So, I leave you with these reflections as I also mention something that I will be doing today. I've been visiting my mother for the holidays, and my mom has been engaged with her own project for 2007: she's been reading from her Bible everyday, and she now has a goal to finish reading her Bible before 2008. She has only one book left: the Book of Revelation. I promised her today that I will help her read it in a "marathon" of Revelation-reading. How appropriate, I think, to engage in such an activity on New Year's Eve!

I'm actually excited about this activity. The book of Revelation has always been one of my favorite biblical scriptures. Part of it is its mysterious secret-coded language and vivid graphics. The other part is the simple fact that it's a book about Revelation AND Revolution. Most importantly, it's a book about anti-imperialism and what we, who favor social justice and righteousness, must do to prepare for battle against the evils of the world.

While right-wing neoconservative "family values" Christians (who coopted the teachings of a radical leader who encouraged all people to leave their families and choose the single life - HAH!) try to interpret Revelation to mean all sorts of things like "Left Behind", "Rapture," and Armageddon's final showdown with all the undesirables (usually in their minds, leftists, feminists, Muslims, and LGBTQ people - and perhaps among the white supremacists, all people of color) who will be destroyed with Satan's legions, I'd like to offer the world a different vision of that book.

Written by a prisoner (and how many testimonials from today's prisoners have you actually read?) of the apostle St. John of Patmos, who was persecuted under the Roman Empire (many believe persecuted by Nero), the author wrote this book to offer Christ's followers a vision of hope for the future and, ultimately, a vision of DECOLONIZING THEIR MINDS. For who is victorious at the end? Not the symbolic and terrible six-headed beasts, but a little LAMB! A lamb over imperial lions and dragons! Let us not overlook the simple message in such an image.

The meek shall inherit the earth. Not imperialists. Not racists. Not chauvinists. Not fundamentalists. Let us really ponder what that means (and, no, we don't need to limit the symbolism within Christianity alone).

Especially when that lamb leads multitudes to free waters (FREE waters, when in a few years, something as basic as water will no longer be available, will in fact be privatized and will ultimately lead to new kinds of warfare in which countries fight over this basic element the way we fight over oil).

While Shecodes over at the Black Women Vote! blog suggests chess as a metaphor for black women's political warfare for 2008, I'd like to add to that metaphor with Revelation as the anti-imperialist text to further deepen our personal and political strategies. In case you did not realize, those of us who are marginalized - black women, men, children, various people of color, underprivileged women, LGBTQ people - are at war. And like every justice-seeking, righteous person who knows we are INNOCENT of any crimes the unjust throw at us, we walk tall and with dignity, prepared for battle, for we have every right like everyone else, to "inherit this earth," to cherish it, and to share it freely with others, humans and non-humans alike.

I have been uplifted with some great end-of-year messages in the blogosphere - from Shecodes' previously mentioned chess post to Professor Black Woman's Forgiveness message. And while I value forgiveness, I value something else: Self-Defense. My favorite black women in history - Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells - swore by it, and so shall I. As a community of social justice seekers, we must value a collected self-defense against forces that are there to destroy us externally and internally. The book of Revelation is not that frightening, really - it's simply stating the obvious: to know your enemies and be prepared to do battle. To recognize "battling" comes in all forms - we certainly need not engage in any militaristic violence to do this, and I'm certainly not advocating such violence. Martin Luther King engaged in "battle," and he believed in nonviolence. He also spoke out against imperialism, and it was this - more than his anti-racism stance - that got him killed in the end.

We are dangerously positioned as marginalized people, but long-term strategies and long-term VISIONS will help us prevail. Audre Lorde once said, "Without a vision, every social change feels like death," so as we come to the end of another year, let's always plan for the new one. Let us keep in our minds a revelation so that we can envision the road to revolution.

Happy new year, everyone!

Black Women Vote: Political Blog

Here's a new blog that just got started this week: Black Women Vote. Looks very promising.

Beyond the Limits of Global Reporting: The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

For those of you, like myself, who are interested in gaining some local news coverage and perspectives about the assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, here is a link to Pakistan's newspaper, Geo News, and a blogger blogging in Pakistan, Five Rupees.

Not that I don't appreciate reading my regular news sources, The New York Times and the BBC, but for crying out loud, I hate to read through various comments and find readers of these news sites, who should be gaining a sophisticated worldview as we assess such tragic situations with global repercussions, interpreting such events through anti-Islamic and "the-West-is-the-best" sentiments.

As for the few feminists who think this is the time to bemoan how "backwardly sexist" countries like Pakistan are for taking down a formidable female leader, do I have to remind you all that at least such chauvinistic countries like Pakistan have been able to elect a female leader (TWICE) while we have yet to boast such a feat (please don't interpret that as a Clinton endorsement!)?

Not that I want to get into this squabble at such a time, nor do I want to get into a debate about Bhutto's vision or her politics, but seriously, I think this incident is far more complicated than the easy reductions we here in the West like to make about non-western countries. Surely explanations for Bhutto's assassination go deeper than male chauvinism and nonwestern "savagery."

Why does this issue of western representations of nonwestern nations and cultures seem strangely connected to my earlier post today on the narrow representations of black people in U.S. popular culture?

"Positive" vs. "Negative" Images? How about Complex and Humane?

One of the perks of being a college professor is having actual leisure time during the holidays, when your various relatives and friends are at work, having only had that one day - Dec. 25 - to enjoy. Of course, while they're at work, I'm recuperating from a cold that I caught either from a Christmas family gathering or the Christmas Eve candlelight service that I attended. And, part of my "busy leisure" hours included curling up in bed with my trusted remote control. It was during one of these down times that I discovered "I Love New York," one of VH1's most popular shows.

Flipping through the channels aimlessly, I came across this ridiculousness that I had heard so much about from my students this fall semester when teaching a course on women and the media. My female students of color were forever wringing their hands over this caricature of a black woman, played by Tiffany Pollard, as if somehow the character (don't even tell me that it's a "real" persona since Reality TV is not even based on reality) would bring about the entire destruction of millions of black women in this country (and, should I extend that to the world?). Now that I've seen one episode (and, frankly, that's all I really need to see, lest my brain starts oozing out of my ears because of this exposure to "Mindless Entertainment" - why, thank you, VH1, for reminding us of just how seriously we ought to take the show!), I must say how disappointed I am in my students for even taking such a caricature so seriously.

Yes, racism in this country is such that somebody white or anyone who is non-black, who has never been exposed to black people in their lives, might look upon such TV characters and assume that they represent "real" black people, but come on! Tiffany Pollard's New York is such an obvious CARTOON that you would have to be the most ignorant, dumbest, idiotic person around to even think there is something "real" about her persona. From her fake eyelashes to her wigs, down to her breast implants - even to accepting that drag queen as her "mother" - there is nothing remotely real about the show. Even the theatricality of her "suitors" (I've never seen so much "stage kissing" and "love scenes" in such a long time!) are laughable. If I didn't know any better, I would say Tiffany Pollard needs her own variety show and should be signing up for a major studio comedy movie deal. I think she has the potential for comical genius, quite frankly.

And while I would never condone such mindless, over-the-top stereotyping of black femininity - New York is the epitome of Ghettofabulous Jezebel and Sapphire combined - I do think we, as black people, need to allow some room for black performers to, you know, perform. Provided that the rest of us can recognize performance and artifice for what they really are.

And this is part of the problem with black representation in popular culture. We are so tied to an idea that our representations must be "real" or "authentic" that, when an obvious caricature is presented before us, we start wringing our hands because of our deepseated fears that non-black audiences will see such images and think they are grounded in reality. The fact that we can still find white people and other non-black people who do believe these images are "real" speaks to how deeply ingrained racism is in our society.

At the same time, I'm not sure that our usual argument - that we must offer more "positive" images to counterbalance "negative" images - will offer us any more solace. Yes, I'm planning to see The Great Debaters this weekend (or the next). Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing that movie. Yes, I'm planning to go with a cousin of mine who stated that she wanted to bring her two children to it so that they can have some "positive" images of themselves. Well, what do we mean by "positive"? Just from the trailers alone, this film looks pretty staid and noble. It basically SCREAMS at you, "See, black people, we too can be intelligent and well-dressed and well-spoken. We are not buffoons and thugs and 'hos." I mean, sure, that's a fine message (and would've been even finer if all the women didn't look like they could all pass the brown paper bag or blue veins tests), but my issue with such "positive" images is that they aren't any more complex than our "negative" images. Granted, I have yet to see the film, and when I do, I will give my full review.

Nonetheless, I would like us to be more complicated in our thinking about racial representations. After all, some of the top films that are most likely to be recognized at next year's Oscars - Sweeney Todd, No Country for Old Men, Atonement, and There Will Be Blood - are hardly what one would call "positive" images of white people, who are presented as ruthless, coldblooded killers or even cannibals! My favorite movie of 2007 - I'm Not There - isn't even grounded in reality (one could probably say the same for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd) . But I suppose that's the result of white privilege for white people, whose representations are so diverse that they can represent the noblest of characters and the lowest scum of the earth, and not one character would ever be used to stereotype an entire race of white people. If only black representations didn't have that "burden of representation."

I guess all I'm saying is this: I'd like to enjoy a movie like The Great Debaters, if it's well done and the drama is complex, but if it is designed to counter the "negative" images offered in hip-hop or reality TV, then aren't these "positive" images just as limiting? Black people run the gamut of personalities, and our lives are quite complex. If our cinema has not been able to showcase this diversity, then for God's sake, please listen to our music (and, no, not that corporatized hip-hop soul nonsense).

I would love to see films do what our music has been able to do: to tell our stories honestly and to present us for who we are: we are "complex" and "humane" people, not a caricature or stock figure that can be reduced to a "negative" or "positive" image.

And since when must film and TV represent what's "real"? I like my fantasy and request that anyone who meets me be able to distinguish between fantasy and my reality.

Merry Christmas!

Here is one of my favorite Christmas carols in its original version:

From me to you, Merry Christmas! :)

Finishing What Hurricane Katrina Started: The Public Housing Crisis in New Orleans

For those of you concerned about the ever deteriorating situation of the poor, predominantly black residents of New Orleans, who recently lost the battle to save public housing from destruction and gentrification, here is a video, "The Battle for New Orleans Public Housing," which sheds light on the situation:



For those who wish to take prompt action on this issue, please see this site with information on the Senate Bill 1668: The Gulf Coast Recovery Act. Please also ensure that this issue is a prominent one during the 2008 Presidential campaign. Remember: it's not the race or gender of the candidate that matters but their commitment and purpose of will to ensure a democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

New Orleaneans are OUR PEOPLE!

My 100th Post! Marking the Best of 2007

In recognition of my 100th post to the blogosphere, which I entered in February of this year, I thought it would be a good idea to do my "best of the year" lists, like everyone else is doing for the month of December. Here goes! :)

Top 10 Movies of 2007

1. I’m Not There - this experimental biopic of Bob Dylan, directed by Todd Haynes, has given me a truly unique and brilliant vision of filmmaking. After viewing this, I will never be able to look at musical biopics the same way!
2. The Lives of Others - this German Oscar winner for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film debuted here in the U.S. and moved me profoundly, reminding me of the power of art to transcend any state regime and its limited imagination on what freedom really means.
3. Bamako - I have no expectations that this Sissoko-directed film, set in Mali, will get any recognition awards time within our own borders, but either way, it's a brilliant film, creatively placing the World Bank and the IMF on trial in a local African village court while also illuminating for the world the undaunted yet vital spirit and promise of Third World Cinema. Oh to create a smaller world through our big and little screens!
4. Lust, Caution - What a pity this Ang Lee film won't get the same kind of praise and critical acclaim as his Brokeback Mountain, but its passion and haunting tragedy far surpasses its NC-17 titillation.
5. Talk to Me - Thank you, Kasi Lemmons, Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Taraji P. Henson for showing us the potential of what great African American filmmaking and screen acting can accomplish!
6. Into Great Silence - Philip Groning's minimalist and slow-paced documentary about the simple lives of Carthusian monks living in the alps may not appeal to everyone, but its sincere images, sans soundtrack, revealed what "God's whisper" might sound like and what Her natural rhythms and unadorned beauty might look like, when stripped of modernity. A truly beautiful and awe-inspiring film.
7. Sicko - In a different take, Michael Moore strikes again with his latest documentary film on the U.S. healthcare system, this time without his usual antics, focusing less on his self-indulgent behavior to focus on a very broke system that requires our collective outrage to fix it. Kudos to Moore for bringing to life the pains and struggles of real life Americans who deserve the same human rights as many others in the world to a healthy life.
8. Ratatouille - Okay, so the mere idea of rats in the kitchen is certainly not conducive to good health, but I do appreciate the cleverness and aesthetic qualities of this Pixar animation, which asks us to consider the possibility of a rat, with a keen sense of cooking and quality food, aspiring to be a chef in a five-star Parisian restaurant. This definitely ranks high among Pixar's finest animation features.
9. Into the Wild - Despite the premise of an overprivileged white boy seeking a life beyond modernity as he ventures toward the wilds of Alaska, I still appreciate the important life lessons and grand cinematography offered in this Sean Penn-directed movie.
10. Across the Universe - As campy as the premise of creating a musical that dramatizes just about every major Beatles song, I do appreciate Julie Taymor's artistic vision as she revisits, through a simple tale of young love set against the political turmoil of the sixties, a period of anti-war activism, perhaps to inspire a new generation. The psychedelic scenes were definitely worth the movie ticket price.

Top Books of 2007

While I did not read as many books, outside of what I normally prepare for on the job, as I have seen movies, I did discover three important and impressive works.

1. Brother, I'm Dying - Edwidge Danticat's first memoir and perhaps her strongest writing. Her account of losing both her father and the uncle who raised her in Haiti, while also dealing with her first pregnancy, is one of the most heartfelt and gut-wrenching stories she has penned, while also revealing some of the negative effects of Homeland Security on immigrants, when her uncle dies in their custody. It hasn't happened yet, but I see, at the least, a Pulitzer Prize in Danticat's future - if not for this book, then definitely the next.
2. The Hanging of Angelique - Jamaican poet Afua Cooper pens this extraordinary historical account of an obscure black female figure in the past - a slave called Angelique, who was hanged in the 18th century after confessing to starting a fire that burned down the old city of Montreal. Illuminating an untold history of early slavery in Canada, Cooper manages to broaden African American history, its Diaspora, and new versions of the "black experience" in global perspective.
3. Erzulie's Skirt - Dominican author Ana-maurine Lara debuts with her first novel concerning two African-descended women, with roots in Haiti, who become lovers as they struggle for survival as sex migrant workers. A beautifully haunting story that weaves Vodun cosmology, especially relying on the powers of Erzulie, love goddess, as well as the goddess of war and change.

Top News Stories of 2007

I will simply list without comments.
1. The Unraveling of the Duke Lacrosse Case.
2. Don Imus and the Rutgers University Women's Basketball Team.
3. Megan Williams' Torture in West Virginia.
4. Jena 6.
5. Dunbar Village Rape Incident.

My Favorite Moments in Entertainment

Jennifer Hudson - I will always remember American Idol, Season 3 when the "shocker" of seeing the best vocalists in the bottom 3 led to Jennifer Hudson's premature dismissal. But revenge really is sweet! What a pleasure to not only see this belter deliver the showstopping "And I am Telling You I'm Not Going" in the movie version of Dreamgirls, which received thunderous applause in the movie theater, but to also see her ride this victory all the way to an Oscar - her first time out! Way to go, J-Hud!


Melinda Doolittle - Yet another impressive American Idol finalist, Melinda Doolittle, former backup singer, managed to deliver, as far as I'm concerned, the best vocal performance ever on that show! When she opened her mouth to sing "My Funny Valentine," I've been a devoted fan, who plans on buying whatever album she drops. Too bad no one has signed her yet! Talent is a terrible thing to waste, but then, what do you expect from a wasteful, capitalist culture like ours? Thank God for You Tube, where I can always revisit those moments that gave me goosebumps:


The Fans of Kanye West - Say what you will about his childish temper tantrums, the man has got talent and is one of the few rappers around who keeps hip-hop from being a completely throwawayable music genre. It's great to see him leading the Grammy nominations, but I'm also empathizing with his recent loss of his mother. For me, one of the great moments in entertainment concerned, not Kanye himself, but the reaction of his devoted fans when they surrounded him with so much love and positive energy, when the rapper broke down in the midst of a dedication to his mother at a concert in Paris. Much respect, concert goers!


Alison Hinds - longtime veteran calypsonian from Barbados and one of the few female performers in the male-dominated arena of soca-calypso in the Caribbean, Alison Hinds has finally put out her first solo album, Soca Queen. A performer who loves to promote female independence and "confidence," especially in the pride we have for our ample bodies, here is a video to her anthem, "Roll It Gal," in which she urges all women to "roll it and control it." In many ways, we have seen far too many music videos where that's all we see black women doing with their behinds, but there's something about Alison Hinds, who's not ashamed to throw hers around, doing the encouragement that makes us take another look at how women can, indeed, find empowerment in seeing ourselves as sexy, not just in the way we "roll it" but most especially when we "control it."


Jill Scott - Finally, major props to neo-soul singer Jill Scott, newly divorced but not undone, as she continues to make use of her incredible instrument - her voice - to not only SANG but also speak truth to power, as she has done through some powerful poetry. I had shared a video in an earlier post, of an awe-inspiring a capella version of her poem "Ain't a Ceiling," but here, she offers an equally powerful recitation about black women's body image, called "The Thickness."


My Top 3 Blog Posts

Aside from engaging in the blogosphere and discovering some kindred spirit bloggers, like Professor Black Woman, New Black Man, Riverbend, Professor Zero, and Brownfemipower, and getting into futile fights with bloggers whom I respect, like Gina from What About Our Daughters, I am truly excited to be apart of this online community. I have also cherished my renewed interests in writing again, especially since I can find a ready audience who provide instant feedback. Here's hoping I will have the same energy for another year. These are the top 3 entries that I've posted this year, ranked in terms of the outpouring of comments, links to these postings on other blogs, and my own satisfaction with my writing.

1. A Tale of Two Mothers: Reflections - the feedback I've received on this post concerning the mothers involved in the Megan Williams case has convinced me that this will be a worthwhile article to develop.
2. Africa: This Year's "Entertainment" - this post is one that I'm personally proud of, giving me an opportunity to vent about popular culture's reduction of an entire continent to a convenient commodity.
3. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy: Black Feminism, Surrogate Motherhood, or Colonialist Fantasy? - this post happened to be my second entry in the blogosphere (but really my first substantive post), and it continues to receive comments, so I must have done something right by raising the concerns that I did so early in the year - considering the most recent developments. Insight is a beautiful thing!

So, these are my "best of 2007" lists. I'm amazed that I'm already at post #100 for the year, but I look forward to continuing with this site and maintaining the energy to keep this going. Happy holidays to you all, and thank you for visiting and reading my blog! :)

Bamako Now Available on DVD!

I was privileged to screen this brilliant film by Abderrahmane Sissako, Bamako, on my campus, and am pleased to announce that this gem of a film, which imagines and dramatizes the World Bank and IMF on trial in a local village "court" in Mali, is now available on DVD (check out the official website). Here is the trailer:



While different members in the audience saw different things, I saw how African women's labor makes the world go round, how they have singlehandedly fueled the global economy, while African men risk death and starvation to find employment opportunities (including a horrendous journey across the Sahara, only to be turned back because "developed" countries fear such "immigrants"), African children go without schooling, and African chiefs chant lamentations that need no translation (and the film provides none in this one instance) for us to understand the despair. Against this backdrop, in which the colonized mouth off eloquent speeches, and the decolonized speak or sing lounder through their silences, Sissako allows Africans to speak on their own terms in a year when everyone else, from Bono to Oprah to American Idol, thinks they can speak for them. Bravo to indigenous artists and thinkers who continue to illuminate for us a different worldview and "worldsense" of what is best for Africa.

If you have not yet seen this glorious film, I strongly recommend you buy the DVD!

Preach It! Awesome Quotes I Came Across Today

From My Pastor Sunday Morning (quoting a gospel song):
"How can I say that I love the Lord, whom I've never seen before, then forget to say that I love the one who I walk beside each and everyday?"

From Nicole Garner, on the National Women's Studies List serve (posted today, Dec. 9, 2007, 12:07 pm):
"You want to talk about how people are made to feel, what about how they are forced to live?"

From Brownfemipower, on her Women of Color Blog on "Domestic Violence in the Movies":
"What would happen, how would things change, if we began to imagine solutions to domestic violence that were grounded in life and growth rather than survival?" (Read in its entirety)

How truly edifying it is to hear and read such powerful words to start my week.

Struggling Black Colleges and Diversity in Higher Education

I must commend Oprah Winfrey, who - unlike her millionaire counterpart, Bill Cosby - chooses to inspire a different kind of dream for African American youth rather than dismiss them. Notwithstanding my previous posts that have criticized her South African school, I am commending her strengths at media. In particular, her decision to produce the film, The Great Debaters (I included a trailer on my blog in an earlier post this week), directed by and starring Denzel Washington.

Because of their efforts at Hollywood exposure, Wiley College, the subject of this film, has now received instant celebrity, has garnered new resources and even a Walmart-funded scholarship, an endowed chair position, and a sudden increase in student applications, according to the New York Times. And that's all before the film has even opened across the country!

Good news for Wiley College, but what has me more concerned is the way that it, like so many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), have been struggling for survival. On numerous occasions, Wiley College has almost closed its doors, as have so many others. The great irony, considering that one of the members of Wiley's award-winning debate team, James Farmer, Jr., later went on to found the Congress for Racial Equality in 1942 and lead the civil rights struggle toward racial integration, is that school desegregation is responsible for the great evacuation of both black students and faculty from HBCUs into more mainstream colleges and universities. When I was a high school senior, I had included, among a diverse listing of colleges and universities (including Ivy League institutions) that I had applied to, three HBCUs on my list - Spelman, Howard, and FAMU (because a cousin of mine from the U.S. Virgin Islands was attending there at the time, having been recruited to play on their basketball team) - but it just so happened that a state university offered me a "minority" scholarship that proved the most feasible and fiscally made the most sense (HBCUs can be costly).

Later, when making decisions on dissertation fellowships and going on the job market for tenure-track positions, my dissertation adviser - a prominent black female senior scholar - promptly told me that I wouldn't want to teach at an HBCU because they tend to be "run like old plantations." Hmmmmmm.

So, here I am, at a public university, now in a position to "recruit for diversity" as my program welcomes graduate applicants for admissions, and I'm now reading an article about the intense struggle for HBCUs to stay alive, while I bemoan the state of my own university in not doing enough to diversify our student body and faculty staff. If mainstream colleges and universities are doing very little to diversify, and if HBCUs have so few students and top-notch black faculty to hire that they are on the brink of closing their doors forever, then where are our students and faculty of color? What are the unique challenges that each type of higher education institution faces?

And no sooner do I read this article than I read two posts from Professor Black Woman, one containing an open letter from the former Africana Studies chair at Rutgers University protesting the dismantling of his department, and another one on the pathetic ways that mainstream colleges and universities recruit for diversity. In other words, the realities seem rather grim for students and faculty of color in both HBCUs and mainstream colleges and universities, proving - at least to me - how the problems of racism are so real and our struggles to dismantle it so overwhelmingly necessary.

At the same time, I am an advocate for diversity through and through - at all college campuses. I think it's time for HBCUs to recognize that, at one time in their history, they were necessary beacons of hope in a hostile environment of legal racial segregation. Interestingly, we're still very much a segregated society, but if we're going to achieve the "dream" of integration (is it still a goal?), then both campuses are going to have to be committed to the "dream" of diversity. It's time for HBCUs to consider recruiting across a diverse range of racial and ethnic groups and international students and faculty. I know one college, Lincoln, did such a thing because it had to, when it opened its doors to a number of working-class white students who attended as "commuter" students, never really getting into the predominantly black cultural "student life" of step shows, superb marching bands during halftime shows, and other aspects that have defined the HBCU atmosphere, a la Spike Lee's School Daze or the recent HBCU films of late, like Drumline and Stomp the Yard. Still, such recruitment is necessary; I'm not saying that HBCUs need to stop focusing on educating black students, for their legacy is truly an important one, and the dignity they instill in black college students is immeasurable, but somehow both HBCUs and non-HBCUs really need to think seriously about what a critical mass of diverse student and faculty really brings to their institution.

There are pros and cons with learning in a segregated environment. One of my current graduate students, a Spelman grad, once came to me in a panic earlier this semester, because she was experiencing the "culture shock" of going to school in a predominately white setting, where she is now the "only one" in many of her classes - so unlike her undergraduate experience. I calmed her down by telling her to face reality: that the higher up one goes in their education and even in their profession, the higher the chances of racial isolation. That this will continue to be the case until all institutions start making diversity a serious goal. In the mean time, it is what it is, and she would just have to learn the negotiations of surviving and striving, sometimes in a racially hostile environment. To make strategic friends and find "safe spaces" where she could socially interact with other students of color.

She has definitely found ways to do this, but I was still concerned that, having spent her undergrad years at an HBCU had not prepared her for the realities of life in these Americas, creating "safe spaces" that don't necessarily build up resistance strategies for when black people have to interact with white people and others. At the same time, I have also observed that, having come from one of the prominent liberal arts colleges in this country, this same student is so self-assured and confident. She walks with that pride of being a "Spelman woman," and she unhesitatingly speaks her mind. I've seen her discombobulate both her white student colleagues and professors, who have felt the need to "apologize" often, whenever she questions - in bell hooks fashion - the ways that they exclude certain issues and texts in their discussions. It's an attitude that I have not noticed in my other students of color at my university, who have unfortunately learned to keep their mouths shut and mumble under their breaths, so soon have they learned to accommodate themselves in a predominately white and at times hostile setting. My HBCU-educated student has a certain confidence and dignity that I don't find in my state-university-educated students. And, while this may be due to the simple fact that she's a graduate of Spelman and not some more marginalized school that does not carry the same prestige (for one can also observe the same confidence in black students educated at Ivy Leagues and other prestigious institutions), I do recognize that there is both an attention to black students' abilities to excel (which does not happen at non-HBCUs) and engraving of heritage pride that HBCUs offer, which I would like to see get transferred over to non-HBCUs.

The struggle to desegregate education should not have the collateral damage effect of seeing HBCUs close their doors, especially since non-HBCUs have certainly not opened the windows as the back-up alternative for black students and faculty. Obviously, school integration and the struggle for diversity must be a main topic for the new anti-racism movement in this 21st century.

Image: from The Great Debaters.

The Graceful Elegance of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater

I'm so excited to learn that this holiday season I'm going to get a chance to see Alvin Ailey Dance Theater ...again. And, in particular, their classic African American dance performance, Revelations... again. I never get tired of watching this truly exquisite and profound choreographed tribute to our ancestors. For those of you who have never seen this show live, I proudly give you the You Tube version. This segment from Revelations is known as "Wade in the Water," my absolute favorite part of the show. Enjoy! (Obviously this week, I'm in an artsy frame of mind.)

This Could Get Me in Trouble ... But Whatever

From the art series, "Line Up," by Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, on exhibit in the show, Multiple Interpretations, at the New York Public Library. See Full Review.

Pedestals and Auction Blocks: On Black and White Women

I found myself dragged into an online debate of late, which began as a response to the story, as reported in the New York Times, about male fans at the New York Jets' football game on Sunday, November 18, who mobbed a group of women - demanding that they bare their breasts. When one woman started to, then changed her mind, the group of men turned violent by spitting and hurling bottles.

What seemed to be a clear cut scenario of sexual harassment soon turned into a debate about whether or not the women involved had any "agency" in being willing to expose their breasts to this raucous crowd. I found myself losing patience very quickly because I'm growing rather tired of so-called sex-positive feminists trying very hard to deny that there are real power dynamics in place that do victimize women, as a result of our culture's expectations for readily available and accessible women's bodies to be displayed, ogled at, and even violated. To acknowledge that such a culture exists in no way negates or refutes a woman's "agency" in wanting to display her breasts to a crowd of boorish men. However, my concern with such arguments is that this line of thinking ignores something more sinister in this scenario. The violent acts occurred because some of the women REFUSED to show their breasts. They said NO. And, as a result, the harassment ensued. We could say, at least I would, that if the women did consent to the sexual display of their bodies, that sexual harassment is still an issue here. But, what really bothered me by our discussion is the way that some of the women in the online debate seemed hesitant and downright timid to call the situation what it is. Their clinging to an argument of "women's agency" had me concerned that, if they were in a real-life situation where they were being harassed, they wouldn't know what to do, because their instincts at self-preservation and dignity have been numbed into thinking that, by consenting to sexual display, they would in fact be able to obtain empowerment.

What the hell has happened?

I spoke to a friend about this, and she told me the issue was a racial one, believe it or not. A large majority of the women debating were white, and my being black, she believed, created dissonance in the way we understood the situation. She reminded me, and I'm now thinking more about it, that, when it comes down to discussions about sexual objectification, harassment, and violence, white women argue from a legacy of the "pedestal" while black women argue from a legacy of the "auction block."

Hmmmm.

In other words, those who come from the legacy of the "pedestal" know the oppressive nature of being "adored," "worshipped," "revered," in short, what it is to be a "trophy" wife or woman, completely objectified and held up to higher standards of femininity. When Kate Millet and Germaine Greer in the early '70s advocated that white women step down from their pedestals and reclaim their sexuality, which had been repressed in order to remain on those pedestals, they opened up a space for white women to claim some of the same "sexually liberating" behavior of their male counterparts and opted into the "free love"/"free sex" movement.

Black feminists by contrast reminded us that the "auction block" is ever present and that our history is one of sexual "oppression" more than "repression". The class divides of this argument were clear: middle-class black feminists told us, if we're going to emancipate ourselves from the hypersexual stereotypes surrounding black womanhood, we would need to do all that we could to keep our pants up, our dresses down, and our tops buttoned up to our necks as we "climb" onto the pedestals our white sisters eagerly stepped down from, while our working-class and working-poor black feminists - at least those who were freed from Black Church dictates (usually because they had to contend with the sexual advances of many of those men in the church, pastors included) - insisted that there was no "free love" to be had. If we were going to be "ho's," we had better make sure we got paid (reparations from slavery, of course).

See how different these perspectives are? White women who stepped down from their pedestals didn't really pay attention to whether or not the new space they were stepping into was the auction block their black sisters wanted to escape from. And black women, we just looked at the pedestal as the only space to escape to. Meanwhile, both groups need to work hard at destroying both landmarks and insist on moving into new terrain.

Interestingly, our earliest white feminists in this country got their start in the abolitionist movement precisely because they understood that the pedestal and the auction block were two sides of the same coin. What stunted their momentum for an interracial sisterhood, unfortunately, was the usual racism that found them taking offense that black men, through the 14th Amendment, got the vote before they did, so the latter part of the suffragist movement became a white supremacist base for arguing that women should be able to vote just because they're white.

So, here we are, two centuries later, talking over each others' heads rather than talking to each other. I wonder how we can recognize both agency and victimization in conversations about women's sexual representations and experiences. I think about this, even when talking about history. I remember, for example, sharing an "auction block" story to my students, in which I described one narrative about a slave woman called Sukie, who during her sale on the auction block in Virginia, was having her teeth examined, as per usual in such auctioning of slaves in our country (you can imagine the extreme objectification and dehumanization of this). However, Sukie, in a moment of resistance, decided to engage in some obscene and shocking behavior by lifting up her skirt and challenged the slave buyers to "check out the teeth down there."

It's a great story, and of course my students ate it up. In particular, my white female students, who battle with the "pedestal" legacy, immediately viewed this story as one of transgressive and "sexually liberating" behavior. My concern about such reactions is that they conveniently ignore the forces behind Sukie's decision to "act up." The reason why Sukie, according to the narrative, was sold in the first place was because she beat the crap out of her master, who tried to rape her. And he was just one in a series of slaveowners who have subjected her to sexual violence in her life, hence leading to her rather combative attitude and behavior. In other words, it's dangerous for a woman on her "pedestal" to look to the woman on the "auction block" as someone who has found ways to "misbehave" or be "subversive." She's misbehaving precisely because of the systemic forces that have kept both women on their pedestals and auction blocks.

I think of this story too when contemporary women, arguing from a very protected space that might force them into sexual repression, immediately look to the woman who engages in public spaces of the sexual marketplace as some example of "feminist resistance." A woman who works the pole or poses in magazines or behind the camera might have different choices and reasons for entering sex work, but the class differences between the working-poor woman who is in survival mode, who gets paid to have someone urinate on her, then self-medicates to move on to the next customer (which then becomes cyclical because now she must work to finance her fix) and the middle-class woman who engages in sex work because she's angry at her daddy, mommy, church, neighborhood, and anyone else who told her to deny her sexual impulses, certainly necessitate that we talk about these issues through complicated lenses. One woman is stripped of a great deal of political, economic, and social power, while the other woman is just finding ways to "rebel," and I think it's high time that our "pedestal" women stop hopping over to the "auction block" for some temporary "release" from the pressures of the pedestal. When are we going to work together to dismantle both?

Sure, we can argue back and forth as to whether or not a woman who strips or works in pornography or in escort services is in fact empowered to do what she does. If she, in fact, is in someway more "liberated" than other women. The only thing a sex worker is, compared to the average woman, as the prostitute in Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero says, "a woman without illusions." She knows that the pedestal (be it whiteness, marriage, romance, etc.) and the auction block (be it slavery, trafficking , or sex work) are the flip sides of the same coin. And, no amount of sexual exploration and conversations about "agency" is going to change that. As former stripper, Jocelyn Taylor once wrote, "I wasn't going to find my sexual liberation in a mafia-owned strip joint."

Or, as Audre Lorde would say: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."

Image: "White Ebony" by Angele Etoundi Essamba.

Black History Finally Coming to a Movie Theater Near You!

Wow! I'm absolutely elated to learn that one of my favorite Black History stories - that of Touissant L'Ouverture who led former slaves in the Haitian Revolution, who rose up against their slaveowners and whipped Napolean's behind - thus leading to Haiti's formation as the first independent black nation in the western hemisphere (we'll ignore for the moment its contemporary state as the poorest nation), as well as to the growth of the U.S. due to the Louisiana Purchase that Napoleon sold to finance his war against this small island, is going to be made into a film! Yes! Finally!

It's called Touissant. Directed by the radical activist actor, Danny Glover, and starring my favorite actors Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Angela Bassett!

OK, there is a bit of a wait. It's not due out until 2009, but let's be glad to have something to look forward to!

In the meantime, I guess we can settle for a different Black History month movie, due out in a few weeks: The Great Debaters, featuring some other of my favorite actors, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, some cute young newcomer men, who I need to pay attention to, and the now mature Jurnee Smollett, who impressed as a child actress in Eve's Bayou, back in 1997.

Here's the trailer:



Sigh. This is such lovely news, especially in light of the more depressing news of the likes of Don Imus returning to radio, boorish sports fans of the New York Jets terrorizing women at a game two weeks ago, and the slow decline of our culture into porn and black buffoonery. Nice to know that there are still some dignified men and women working in entertainment who can offer some counter narratives and a reminder that, in history, black men and women once resisted, against all odds, and kept their dignity.

Don Imus Returns After "Well Paid Leave"

This just in from Professor Black Woman, whose post says it all. How and why do white men, who perpetrate hate speech, continue to get treated as "victims" of racial abuse? Let's think about that. Don Imus, returning to radio on Monday, got treated as a poor, suffering "victim" in this whole controversy, while the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, who were targeted by his "nappyheaded ho's" comment, suffered through hate mails and death threats.

Does this even make any sense? In my previous post, I worried about the fictional character, Anton Chigurgh in the new movie, No Country for Old Men, representing a new form of masculinity. And, all he represents is the truly messed up way that we accept perpetrators' complete disrespect and disregard for other people's bodies and dignity.

Yeah, I'm linking up Don Imus and Anton Chigurgh, because while movie audiences want to be upset that this fictionalized serial killer gets away with murder and the $2 million he was in pursuit of, can we at least ask why Imus, who was supposedly reprimanded for his hate speech in a so-called "firing" from his on-air job, got paid while he was off the air, so that he manages to return to work after a "well paid leave"? I see no justice in real life, so I don't see why movie audiences should be offended when our movies don't show it there either.

A Week Later, Still Pondering No Country for Old Men (Spoilers)

Serial killers are such snobs. They look down on other people, and their utter disregard for human life and their complete dislike for human beings and humanity is apparent in their psychopathic attitudes and behaviors. And, yet, it's curious to me why we tend to turn them into folk heroes, especially movie serial killers. Perhaps the snootiest among these heroes is Hannibal Lecter. Yet, in many ways, the average Joe can tolerate such a snooty bougie-boo whack job like Hannibal because, let's face it: It doesn't matter how vintage the Chianti he drinks, there's just no changing the simple and brute savage fact that the man eats people, and there's just no pretending at elitist superiority with such a moral failing. His elitist pretenses are even more tolerated because it's a joke, and so we can appreciate the outlaw nature of his murderous appetite.

I'd be curious to see if we'd be able to tolerate the latest movie serial killer, Anton Chigurgh, in the Coens Brothers' film, No Country for Old Men, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, who has his own pretenses (he likes to give his victims the illusion of a choice to live or die) but whose own vulnerabilities showcase his loner status and his complete dysfunction in interacting - on a simple human level - with other people. Often, snobs are just hiding behind major social inadequacies, and some really are misanthropic people who can get by with little social contact, shy away from intimacy, surround themselves with good books or music, and cause no harm to anybody. Better yet, if they're artistically inclined, they might make great artists - just give them a good paintbrush, guitar, piano, book and pen or laptop, or camera, and they might find a way to intimacy through their art. However, as Toni Morrison once said about the sociopathic Sula in her second novel of the same name, "Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous." Granted, it seems like the dangerous woman becomes a serial lover (Sula uses sex to express herself), while the dangerous man becomes a serial killer.

And that's my own interpretation of Anton Chigurgh (played brilliantly by Javier Bardem in one of his best roles to date, who I'm sure will be nominated and might even win an Oscar for this role), who travels the lonely, barren dirt roads of Texas like a monster on the loose, listlessly killing small animals and any person who gets in his way, with a metal air compressor that makes relatively little sound. I couldn't help but think: replace that metal air contraption with a camera, and he might've been a great photographer instead of a murderer since he observes the world and the people in it with such an intellectual distance. Instead, he destroys rather than creates. Anton is so cold, so weird (that hairstyle and that mechanical way of talking), and so evil, you just fill up with dread every time he appears on screen. He scared the crap out of me! In a way that all the Hollywood "bad men" of various thrillers and horrors don't. The evil of those villains - from Norman Bates' mommy-obsession to Michael Myers' he-can't-ever-stay-dead-and-either-has-metallic-balls-or-doesn't-have-any-to-speak-of-because-he-just-gets-back-up superhuman ridiculousness - seems so banal and fabricated when compared to a flesh-and-blood-type villain like Anton, and what haunted me about this guy more than the others is his real vulnerabilities. More than anything, it's not the way he kills people that left my blood running cold but the way he refuses humanity in his weakness. There's so much in the hardcore masculinity of this refusal that made me think of a world that has become truly nihilistic, bleak, and completely terrifying. And, if men can find heroism in such a character, then we're all in trouble!

I'll mention one scene as an example. After presumably killing the wife of a main character (I'll get to that scene in a moment), this monstrous psychopath calmly leaves the premises, casually checking the soles of his boots to make sure he has no blood on them (possibly) and proceeds to his car, driving along with a sort of self-satisfied look on his face. Then, out of nowhere, a car just crashes right into his. Just like that, he's a victim of a car accident, completely in disarray with a broken arm (the bone jutting out in a ghastly way), and two young boys riding their bikes come onto the scene offering help. Anton of course refuses help, tries to fix his broken arm and asks one of the boys if he could use his shirt as a sling for his arm. The boy helps out, and Anton reaches into his pocket to offer him $100. The boy is like, "Dude, you don't have to pay me. I want to help." Anton insists. The boy is still refusing help, and only accepts the money because Anton would not have it any other way. Handing over his blood-soaked money (in more ways than one), Anton limps off and away from the scene of the accident.

This occurs very near the end of the movie and has contributed to what many moviegoers find to be a rather jarring and unsatisfying ending. In some ways, the ending is unsatisfying because, after such a killing spree, we need to tie up loose ends. We want our killers either gunned down in a hail of bullets by our good hero, or we want him arrested and jailed. We need to know that they are safely contained somewhere - six feet under or in prison. Our killer not only seems to walk away from all the killings he has committed in the two hours of this movie, he also walks away from what seems to be his "just" fate. How righteous would it have been if he had died in that car accident, proving that a higher moral force and poetic justice still prevail. But we don't get a tidy ending, in fact the tag line for the movie is: "There are no clean getaways," and the car accident symbolically makes this manifest.

But, more than that, I think audiences were disappointed because, now that his psychopathic rampage is not contained through death or prison, we are left to ponder something far more dangerous: that of the artist/misanthrope/sociopath with no "art form" and no humanity, let loose, making up his own rules, and living truly as an outlaw, that same folk hero we like to celebrate...until we actually cross paths with him.

My issues with the car accident scene is the way that Anton, so in need of being in control and being completely autonomous, cannot even allow himself to be beholden to some young boys who want to help him when he's a victim of a car accident. He needs to feel like he has controlled the situation by shoving the $100 bill in the boy's hand (this is one out of the $2 million that has led him down the path of carnage in the plot). It's not the first time we see him in a vulnerable state. When he's injured in the leg after a gun battle, he sets up a car explosion outside a pharmacy to distract everyone as he loots the place of all the medical supplies he needs to heal his wound. He will be beholden to no one. Either that or he just doesn't have any friends because he never learned to make any (which is really sad when you think about it).

What an incredibly creepy and lonely existence. No wonder he has to kill to establish intimacy with others. Yet, what is fascinating about this film, and I have to credit the Coens with going a little deeper with the serial killer trope, is that, when least expected, there are those who are willing to call him on his crap. Why doesn't Anton kill the boys, after grabbing the shirt that he needs? Is there a limit to his murderous ethic?

Moreover, when showing up at the home of Carla Jean, the wife I mentioned above, he gives her a "choice" to call heads or tails in a coin toss, and based on the call, she will either keep her life or lose it. In such a god-like approach to his killings, he lets Carla Jean know he's got all the power. However, Carla tells him he's full of it because it's not up to a coin toss. It's up to him, and he does not have to kill a human being. He just doesn't. She refuses to play the game, and interestingly, this refusal seems to mess with his feeling of being in control. While we are not shown whether or not he in fact kills her (and we're just given vague hints that he did), we do witness instead the illusion of control and, at the least, resistance. I'm fascinated by this portrayal of masculinity/femininity because it took his interactions with this one woman and two young boys, who unmask the power behind his hard masculine superkiller facade.

Behind the evil is a truly screwed up man, walking off with a limp and broken arm because he can't allow himself to be human and allow others to treat him like one.

While movie critics are hailing this film for portraying the "realities" of an America in post-9/11 bleakness, I think it's more accurate to say that it's far more successful in showing a culture and nation on the brink of economic and moral collapse, so beholden are we to money more than we are to each other.