Beyond the 'Angry Black Woman'

The Stream

The mammy, Jezebel and "angry black woman" – All are stereotypes of African American females used by whites to justify slavery and racial inferiority. But even today, why do these black female tropes continue to resurface in popular US media, and what is the societal impact of these stereotypes for African American women? Join the conversation at 1930GMT.

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to:

Franchesca Ramsey @chescaleigh
Comedian and video blogger
franchesca.net

Imani Perry @imaniperry
Professor, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University
imaniperry.com

Andrea Plaid @AndreaPlaid
Associate Editor, Racialicious
racialicious.com

Moya Bailey @moyazb
Member, Crunk Feminist Collective
crunkfeministcollective.com

Darron Smith @DrDarronSmith
Professor, University of Tennessee
darronsmith.com

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Series Launch: Scheherazade (epic)

Oil House Productions

Conceived by and starring Tanji Gilliam, Ph.D./M.F.A. (Room Tone, Blind Man Walking), the show is an epic tale of black music and musings. Executive Produced by Oil House Productions, the series also features Music Supervision by singer/songwriter/actress Nyticka Hemingway (Usher, Confessions, Koda Kumi, "Under"). The first season cast includes Hemingway, Jay Clark, Kilogram, Nakia Thomas, Tracy Agyemang, Darius Wade and Zakiya Black. Stowe, VT; San Diego, CA; New York, NY; and Trenton, NJ are among the first season locales.

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Wealth Gap Between Whites & Blacks Tripled

HuffPost Live

A study shows that the wealth gap between blacks and whites has tripled between 1984 and 2009. The median white family is 8 times richer than the median black family. Dr. Camille Charles and Jennifer Streaks join Abby Huntsman to discuss.

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Israel's African Migrant Dilemma

AJE The Stream

Does Israel have the right to turn away undocumented migrants? According to a report, Israel has secretly sent more than 1,000 Sudanese nationals back to Sudan, despite threats by Khartoum to punish anyone who migrates to Israel. The UNHCR says Israel violated a human rights convention to protect those who face persecution back home. 

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to:

Yohannes Bayu @ARDC_org
Founder, African Refugee Development Center
ardc-israel.org

Naomi Paiss @NewIsraelFund
Vice President, Public Affairs at New Israel Fund
nif.org

David Sheen @davidsheen
Writer, Filmmaker
davidsheen.com

Moran Stern
Lecturer, Georgetown University's Program for Jewish civilisation
pjc.georgetown.edu

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Promo: Sex, Desire & Pleasure in an Age of 'Scandal' on the March 4th 'Left of Black'

Tune in this Monday, March 4th at 1:30pm to watched the live airing of Left of Black's Scandal episode with Brittney Cooper and Treva Lindsey.

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Schomburg Center Panel: Marlon Riggs Retrospective

NBPC

A live discussion about the work of visionary filmmaker and race and LGBT activist Marlon Riggs with  Cornelius Moore, Rhea L. Combs, and Al Cunningham.

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Carmelo Anthony Talks Re-invention & Hurricane Sandy on the 'Charlie Rose Show'

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Jasiri X Discusses the One Hood Media Academy

1 Hood Media

Jasiri X recently sat down with talk show host Lynne Hayes-Freeland to speak about his upcoming album Ascension and the One Hood Media Academy.

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Grief Still Very Real For Trayvon's Mom

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Barbara Ransby Discusses 'Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson' @ UNC

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Black Arts Live: Race, Place & the Biographies of 8 Artists (Trailer)

Black Arts Live 

Black Arts Live! is an eBook and iPhone App curated by Tammy L. Brown, PhD. Centering on the biographies of eight, up-and-coming black literary, visual, and performance artists, this eBook/ App explores the dynamic nature of contemporary artistic production. The artists featured are as follows: Terry Boddie (Artist), Tammy L. Brown (Historian, Artist & Poet), Clo Caesar (Model), Myronn Hardy (Poet), Jameze Latrail (Musician), Temitayo Ogunbiyi (Artist), Shana Tucker (Musician), and L. Lamar Wilson (Poet).

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Excerpts from 'King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis'

Democracy Now

 

In a Black History Month Special, we air excerpts of a rarely seen Oscar-nominated documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the rise of the civil rights movement. Produced by Ely Landau, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, is made from original newsreel footage and other original video footage shot of marches, rallies and church services. "King" was originally screened for one night only in 1970 in more than 600 theaters across the United States, but has rarely been seen since. We air extensive footage of the film, featuring a historic look at the eight-year period that led up to the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. 

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Mini Moments with Big Thinkers: Christopher Emdin

Teachers College

Professor Christopher Emdin. He talks about using rap and hip-hop as a science teaching tool, and he demonstrates a rap he created for physics.

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Scholarship, Advocacy, and Activism: Duke Faculty Perspectives on Human Rights – Nancy MacLean

Franklin Humanities

Professor Nancy MacLean draws connections between her studies of twentieth-century political movements and human rights in the United States.

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FAAN Mail Talk Back: K'naan & Self Censorship

FAAN Mail

On December 8, 2012, Somali born Canadian hip hop artist K'naan wrote an Op Ed in the New York Times about how is record label (A&M/Octone Records) has pressured him to censor his message. In his powerful and honest essay, K'Naan questions the meaning of success. FAAN Mail responds to his words in this talk back.

"I now suspect that packaging me as an idolized star to the pop market in America cannot work; while one can dumb down his lyrics, what one cannot do without being found out is hide his historical baggage." - K'NAAN

Link to Op Ed: http://goo.gl/MCl4S
Music credit: "People Like Me" by K'Naan. 2010 A&M/Octone.
Check out K'Naan here: http://www.knaanmusic.com/

FAAN Mail (Fostering Activism and Alternatives Now!) is a media literacy/activist project formed by women of color and based in Philadelphia. Together with our allies, we critique and create media with social change in mind.

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Left of Black S2:E20 | Critic Greg Tate Talks Black Science Fiction, Consuming Black Culture & the Late Butch Morris

Left of Black S2:E20 | Critic Greg Tate Talks Black Science Fiction, Consuming Black Culture & the Late Butch Morris

To understand the impact of Greg Tate, one need only consult the words of fellow critic Michael Gonzales, who on the occasion of Tate’s 50^thbirthday wrote: “For better or worse, if it were not for Greg Tate, there would be no Bonz Malone, Harry Allen, Joan Morgan, Kris Ex, Scott Poulson Bryant, Toure, Danyel Smith, Michael Eric Dyson, Karen R. Goode, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, Smokey Fontaine, Jon Caramanica, Jeff Chang, Amy Linden, Tom Terrell, Mark Anthony Neal, Tricia Rose, Sasha Jenkins, DJ Spooky (aka Paul Miller), Dream Hampton, Miles Marshall Lewis, Aliya King, SekouWrites, Kenji Jasper, Oliver Wang, Cheo Hodari Coker, Keith Murphy or myself.”  Gonzales offers high praise for one of the singular critical voices of the last 30 years.

The author of several books including the classic Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America (1993)  and the edited volume Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture (2003), Greg Tate joins Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal(via Skype) in a rousing discussion of Black Science Fiction, being a “gourmand” of Black Culture and the significance of the late musical conductor Butch Morris.

Tate is the longtime conductor of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, a former Village Voice Staff Writer and currently Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.  Duke University Press will publish Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader next year.

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

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Episodes of Left of Blackare also available for free download in @ iTunes U

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Tell Me More: A Struggle For The Identity Of Puerto Rican Music

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Ella Baker and the Limits of Charismatic Masculinity

Ella Baker and the Limits of Charismatic Masculinity

by Pascal Robert | HuffPost Black Voices  

In perhaps one of the most important biographies of a civil rights leader published, Professor Barbara Ransby has conveyed the epic life and struggle of a woman whose sheer skill, leadership, and ability to mobilize the marginalized and dispossessed to full participation in their fight for human dignity is almost unprecedented in American history. In her book, Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement, Professor Ransby documents the life of Ella Baker, a black woman born to a middle-class family in North Carolina in 1903 who, after witnessing the staunch spiritually based dedication of her mother to serving the poor in the South, transforms into a sheer force of will that worked with all the major civil rights organizations of her time, and helped mobilize to create two of the most crucial to the Civil Rights Movement: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Before we continue to heap a single praise or Hosanna to men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Wyatt T. Walker, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. Du Bois, or any of these other gentlemen we idolize as embodiments of masculine heroism, we should know about one woman, of many, who had more wisdom, courage, and vision then almost all of them: Ms. Ella Baker.

What made Baker's method of organizing both effective and revolutionary is that it completely dismissed the traditional paradigm of leadership that had plagued the black community from its earliest history in North America, stemming mostly from the black church: Charismatic masculine leadership based on oratory and exhibitionism. Baker believed in empowering the most common person, whether a sharecropper, teenager, or illiterate vagrant with skills to make demands on the political establishment. Baker believed that people did not need fancy leaders with degrees and pedigree to tell them what was best for them. She believed in giving people the power to choose their direction and make demands, and put pressure on institutions without depending on big shots with fancy suits. In her book, Professor Ransby notes:

"At every opportunity [Ella] Baker reiterated the radical idea that educated elites were not the natural leaders of Black people. Critically reflecting on her work with the NAACP, she observed, "The Leadership was all from the professional class, basically. I think these are the factors that have kept it [the NAACP] from moving to a more militant position."

Moreover, Ella Baker was very critical of the hotshot black preachers who seemed to mesmerize their audiences with soaring oratory, then leave and expect others to implement an agenda. As Ransby further notes, at one point Ella Baker asked Dr. King directly "why he allowed such hero worship, and he responded simply, that it was what people wanted. This answer did not satisfy Baker in the least."

Ella Baker did not mince words on her thoughts of Dr. King's leadership style and vocally spoke out on its limitations:

"Baker described [Dr. King] as a pampered member of Atlanta's black elite who had the mantle of leadership handed to him rather than having had to earn it, a member of a coddled "silver spoon brigade." He wore silk suits and spoke with a silver tongue.

[...] In Baker's eyes King did not identify enough with the people he sought to lead. He did not situate himself among them but remained above them.

[...]Baker felt the focus on King drained the masses of confidence in themselves. People often marveled at the things King could do that they could not; his eloquent speeches overwhelmed as well as inspired."

The limitations of this charismatic masculinity noted by Ella Baker are profound, particularly in today's political age when we have a president like Barack Obama who often tries to channel the traditions of charismatic leadership and oratory from the black tradition. Ironically, Obama has been as anemic in delivering real change and effective at stifling progress as Ella Baker worried Dr. King would have been. So perhaps in a strange twist, we have found a similarity between King and Obama after all.

Often in America, when discussing prominent black trailblazers who fought the injustices of segregation and racial oppression, we see the same images of a variety of men. I somewhat jokingly call them our superhero black male icons. This phenomenon mimics the more noxious western patriarchal fascination with viewing history as a series of events being shaped and guided by the hands of a strong capable man embodying all our fantasies about leadership, masculinity and sometimes fatherhood.

The danger of such imagery is that it often both obscures and denies the scope of nuanced factors, issues, and circumstances in shaping the events from which our societies were born. Furthermore, such narratives often exclude any consideration of female agency in effecting the great events that have transpired over time.

Barbara Ransby should be applauded for putting a halt to this tradition and setting the record straight with her towering biography Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement. As a man still troubled with patriarchal sexist notions, this book opened my eyes to ways in which the role of women are often neglected and intentionally obscured. Let us all read the story of Ella Baker and make sure such injustices do not continue.

Follow Pascal Robert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/probert06

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“Question Bridge: Black Males” Exhibit Opens at Missouri Historical Museum w/ W. Kamuau Bell & Mark Anthony Neal

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