The two keywords I have chosen are "African" by Kevin Gaines and "Culture" by George Yudice. Although there were various keywords that I could have chosen, I felt these two were probably at the heart of my FYP which addresses how much race leaders have had to accommodate within the white mainstream culture in America and, since there appear to be no memorable race leaders now, whether class and culture are more important than political activism.
The African chapter helps to conceptualize the relationship of African Americans to Africa itself, not just in terms of the slave trade, but in the historical and on-going complex relationship. I found a comment by Frazier particularly interesting that 'the traumas of enslavement and the rigors of urbanization' have all but extinguished the tie to Africa. Since the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X believed in ties with the African brotherhood and Booker T Washington and Martin Luther King Jr were more ingratiating to the American culture, this could be useful in assessing attitudes, particularly as the former two were from the more urban north.
The culture chapter is also vitally important since it is the culture of America that freed slaves and now modern day African Americans have to work within. Reading this chapter gives an idea of how wide the word 'culture' can be and historically how it has been defined through anthropological and social analysis into the political, with arguments as to how valuable anything that is not the dominant culture is.
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I believe Jo's FYP subject to be a particularly good lens through which to view the transition from modernity to post-modernity in American Studies discourse. The intellectual shift (see my presentation blog) which resulted from America-as-locus to America-as-network-node is very apparent amongst black writers (Paul Gilroy springs to mind). The 'post-racial' ideology which has emerged in recent years is linked to the visibility (lack of) of a specifically black civil rights movement according to some civil rights experts (John Powell is my most recent source). The trend toward a Pan-African, 'Black Atlantic', etc. viewpoint highlights how the focus of study has shifted away from the purely geographic toward a global thematic approach.
ReplyDeleteThe overt racism within U.S twentieth-century culture provided a focus for black civil rights activism (assimilation and separatism) but, in recent decades, that focus has been subsumed by a culture which has adopted a 'colour-blind' ideology. Black civil rights appear to be a casualty of universalism as the specificity of their historioloy becomes a node within another global network - universal human rights.
I feel as though Jo's choice of keywords are very useful in her FYP. "African" helps to relate to the FYP as it looks at the various issues that people of African descent have had in America. It is useful as it contrasts the view on one hand that African-American's wish to return to a more African-based culture with the view that African-Americans wish to assimilate to a more American, Western culture.
ReplyDeleteCulture is also useful as it looks at the different interpretations of the word and looks at how important the dominant culture is, especially in a country like America which is made up of many different cultures.
The keywords used are definately specific to Jo's FYP choice and they give good guidelines into what Jo is looking at. Having looked at African myself, it was very interesting to see how yes there is an on-going complex in the minds of African Americans for this quest to discover their heritage. The relationship with the continent of Africa is close to their hearts and there is a feeling that "america" is not supportive of this. Its was also interesting to see the comparison of figures in the past who either want to become part of this african ideologily (malcolm x) or who are more concerned about fixing things at home and not concentrate so much on africa (MLK)
ReplyDeleteThe culture essay ties into these ideas as well and i think it is the big issue that we deal with in American studies, the diversity of the country which makes it so interesting, complex and unique to study.
These keywords show a helpful insight into the beginnings of Jo's FYP. African American's and their culture is evident in modern society with the spawning of the controversial term 'wigger'. Terms such as these show that black culture has indeed become mainstream, not through conformity, but individuality. My personal knowlege usually spans from the cinematic side which, though often less respected, does show mass culture ideas of consumerism. The film American History X saying 'black has become cool', and Crash prothesising that 'rap is perpetuated by the white man allowing self derpicating racial slurs by black men to keep themselves down.' This could be seen as showing how the non dominant culture still effects society.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that there are no immediately recogniseable black rights political activists in modern America. Obviously Obama springs to mind but he is very different to those political pressures of the past. MLK and Malcolm X fighting for rights they did not have, whereas equality is so widely accepted that it seems unecessary to fight for. The New Orleans flooding is the most recent thing I think of to stretch racial tensions in America. I like Jo's point of the success of Racial leaders depending on their assimilation into white culture, as well as the geographical origins of the individuals. Overall this was in insightful look into the beginnings of Jo's FYP.