"Obama Won...You Can Stop Talking About Slavery and Oppression Now!"

I overheard the above comment a few days after Barack Obama's historic election victory on November 4, 2008. There was no irony or playful jest in the statement; the speaker was serious, and the look on his face said "can't we FINALLY put race to bed."




From the overly confident commentary of pundits on CNN to the interview with the "average man in the street" to the whispered conversations between friends, the question on some folks minds and lips seems to be...aren't we post-racial...yet?

WOW! YES! It happened. You are not dreaming. You are seeing it in your lifetime. 40 years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we have a black President elect of the United States. No matter your politics or who you actually voted for, you have to acknowledge the progress and social change Obama's presidency signals. But, what does it mean for race, class and even gender relations in the United States and abroad? How do we talk about race and its implications now? Barack's biography does not easily fit into the tired, worn categories we have erected around blackness and racial distinctiveness, so what does difference really mean?

These questions are important not only for those who make their living thinking, talking and writing about these issues but all of us living in and through this moment.

So, what do you think? Have we entered a post-racial era? What questions does Barack Obama's election raise for you?

Speak on it!

Ya Heard?

"That's SOOOO Ghetto?"

How many times have you heard, or even said, this? Since when did "ghetto" become an adjective and what and who is it usually meant to define? The answers to these questions are tied to common sense (stereotypical and ahistorical) understandings of links between poverty, race, residence and behavior. And, maybe, another way to categorize groups of people and reinforce artificial divisions in our society. What do you think?

Shakirah wanted to get at the bottom of these and other questions that we've been talking about in our African American studies class so she decided to step out of class and take her questions to the streets. Her mini-ethnography gives us a glimpse into how others are thinking about issues related to race, community and identity. Check out her methodology and findings below!



Here are some of the questions I posed to some of the people in my community. I asked these questions to two females ages 49 and 14, and two males ages 33 and 24. Below are the questions asked with the names, ages, and their responses?


*Describe Ghetto? What does it mean to you?

*Will we ever escape the Ghetto Mentality?

*Beyond Obama/Cory Booker do you think there are any positive role models, in the community?

*Do you think the local drug dealers are becoming the new Ghetto Activist? And if so how does this affect the community?

*Where do you see the Ghetto/Black community in the future?



Jacqueline 49 years old

Being ghetto or living in the ghetto has nothing to do with being Black, or just because you hear the word ghetto you shouldn’t automatically think of people who are African American. The ghetto terminology started in the European States in London and it was due to there poor living conditions, which were beneath the poverty line. Now that the tables have turned over time ghetto can now be viewed as a racist comment, ghetto is almost next to the word nigger. To be ghetto is to be poor and impoverished due to the riots. The word ghetto was brought about by the mainstream music, similar to how the word hoe and bitch are thrown around. Furthermore, the word ghetto means nothing to her and is just a word described by the Europeans and we just adapted to it.
Yes, we can escape the mentality of the ghetto through education. But we must first re-learn who we are being African-American and that being African-American is a culture and our culture that is rich; and has been rich even before slavery.
As role models we have Queen Latifah and Whitney Houston, which are a few of has made an impact on the African-American community. These are just some of the few people who actually came from within our community (Newark, NJ). However, if jobs weren’t so scarce and if the white collar professionals hadn’t moved out of the community, there would be a lot more positive people in the community.
As far as drug dealers becoming the next activists, children should be taught the difference. They should look past the drugs, money, and clothes; you must learn to look towards your own goals. Drug dealers in the community destroy the very fiber of the community, it kills hope, motivation, and it’s just a vicious cycle.
In conclusion, the ghetto as we see it will change and the change is going to come from education.


Chantalle 14 years old

The ghetto means to be hood, street, and people being shot. Or subjecting your-self or being around people who use broken grammar. We can escape the ghetto mentality through education. In the actual community as far as to where we live, we don’t have any role models. Chantalle stated that if we did have a model in the neighborhood, “they probably couldn’t make perfect attendance.” However, she saw Eldris Alba as a positive role model. Younger boys in the community are more likely to look up to the drug dealers in the community, which will in turn only make the community more violent. In the end, the future of the community will either be dead or in jail.

Haasim Daniels 33 years old

The ghetto can be seen as low class, urban, and filled with people who learn from the streets or who only know nothing more then street knowledge. We as African-Americans can escape the ghetto mentality; we are already doing it now, through hip-hop music and Obama. We definitely have several role models: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Quincy Jones as far as music. The drug dealers are the least of out worries and are not the next ghetto activist. As far as the future of the community, we are eliminating each other. It’s to the point to where we’re even letting the cops know by informing them of when we’re going to take each other out. (Comment was made due to the recent shootings that have taken place in Newark, that were gang related)

Dreamer 24 years old

The ghetto is described as hard, bootleg, an area where people make due with what you got in the ghetto. Every Black person isn’t street/ghetto and don’t have that mentality. Any Black person who can make a difference is someone to look up to. When it comes to the downfall of the community due to drug dealers; you have some who give back to the community and you have those who are only in on the take and only care about their monetary gain. We can stand out on top if we work together to help build the community, but how can we look toward the future of the ghetto if we cant even help ourselves as well as each other out. Other races stick together and help each other, why can’t we as Black people do the same?

-Shakirah A.

What do YOU think? How would YOU answer Shakirah's questions? Did you notice any generational or even gender issues in her interviewees' responses? What questions would you ask your friends...family...neighbors?

When the Rainbow is Enuf...

In our African-American Community class a few weeks ago we discussed the Black Arts Movement and compared it with the Harlem Renaissance. Both movements focused on themes of racial pride, political empowerment through cultural awareness and the celebration of blackness. Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Zora Neale Hurston and Ntozake Shange were just a few of the names mentioned that day in class. Most were unfamiliar with these women's words even if they may have previously heard their names. Keshea L. did some exploring, some digging (archeology of the poetic) and found some more information about Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange and her ground breaking work, For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. This is her take on what she read. Maybe it will inspire you to do some investigating of your own....



I was deeply touched by the play, "Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf" because it deals with several issues that black women face during our lifetime. These issues of love, rape, abandonment and abortion can either make a woman stronger as she journeys through the spirals of life, or tear her down into the nothing that society once characterized us as. The play links men as the reason for these issues that cloud the lives of black women yet reveals the need for codependency on our male counter-part. Ntozake Shange comprised this choreopoem because of what she went through but decided to use her experience as a strengthening tool that made her into the woman she is today. The play shows that we, as black women, may not have any control over what happens in our lives, but have the power of deciding what direction we choose to allow it to take us.

-Keashea L.

Talisa B. discovered the article, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston and wrote the following response. You can find Zora Neale Hurston's article
here.

I really liked this article, I thought that this article was really humorous and it brought up a lot of things that people unconsciously wonder about. Hurston starts her article off with humor, saying, “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief”. This is hilarious because African Americans are always saying that they’re part Indian, if they have “good hair” they’re part Indian. If they have lighter colored skin, they’re part Indian. Light colored eyes, they’re Indian and it’s just so funny to me because in actuality half of us don’t know what we are or are not. She goes on to say, “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you”. This too is funny to me because within the African American community when you mess up or you are not doing the best you can there is always someone there telling you how people suffered and fought for you to do this or that. It’s also funny because African Americans also try to use slavery as an excuse when they feel like someone’s holding them back stating, “my people suffered such and such years and …”



Hurston also talks about when she became colored stating, “I remember the very day that I became colored,” this statement seemed funny at first; because how can you remember the day you became colored? People don’t just become colored, they’re born that way, so I thought that maybe she was saying she remembers the day she realized she was colored. This made me think, when do people realize that everyone is not the same? That some people are African American, Hispanic, Italian, Jewish, etc? In today’s society children learn that everyone is different at a young age through books and TV shows like, “Barney” and “Sesame Street” but when Hurston was a child she didn’t have that, so when did she realize she was colored and how did she know that was different from being Hispanic, Italian, Jewish, etc? She also brought up how she doesn’t always “feel” colored stating “I do not always feel colored…I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background”. I think this is very true, if you think about it when you're around a group of people who aren't judgmental and are looking at you as a person, you know your identity as a man or woman, black or white, etc.; but you’re not really conscious of it you just view yourself as a person. But when you're with people who are constantly picking out you're differences that’s when you notice that your black or white, man or woman, etc.  All in all I thought that this was a really good article, the only thing that I really didn’t understand was the end part when she was talking about the music and the colors.

-Talisa B.

What is your favorite play? poem? artist? What MOVES and INSPIRES you?