Arts Notes on Black Ideology: Part One
posted by on August 15 at 12:15 PM
There is no innocence. What we see and read everyday is the result of system of power relations. Because the ideological system is meant to reproduce these relations of power—relations between those who express power and those who are oppressed by it—every belief must be confronted, first, with the question: Why does such and such a person believe such and such a thing? What is it about them (their background, social standing) that makes them believe this instead of that?
An example: In a new movie by
called What Black Men Think, several people are asked: “Are there more black men in college or in jail?” Invariable the belief is that there are more black men in jail than there are in college. The answer, however, is this:
In 2005, according to the Census Bureau, 864,000 black men were in college. According to Justice Department statistics, 802,000 were in federal and state prisons and jails, Morton said.Between the ages of 18 and 24, black men in college outnumber those incarcerated by 4 to 1. Still, the idea that the opposite is true stems from an image that has been perpetuated, Morton said, by the government, the media and the black leadership.
So why does the bulk of this society want to believe what is not true over what is true? A closer look at the question will certainly reveal that the false belief has more economic value for those in power (even black power) than the other belief, the one closer to the truth. The false belief, its perpetuation, it general acceptance, is an expression of economic exploitation.
There is no such thing as naked racism. Racism is an effect not an essence. The most unfortunate (or crippling) belief for a black person to hold is that white people (or certain white people) actually hate the color of their skin. As if the hate of the skin came first and economic exploitation followed. That belief is nothing more than a distortion of the fact of power.
So, I think this is implied by part of your statement (it's hard to tell because your slog writing is so fucking lazy), but you do know that part of the reason people believe there are more black men in prison than in college has to do with popular antagonism towards the racism of the criminal justice system -- right? Believing that our government spends more on prisons than it does on schools doesn't necessarily imply anything negative about prisoners or school children.
I saw an interview with Morton. The "more Black males in jail than in college" stat is so often quoted because the person/s responsible for that research looked at Black males between the ages on eighteen and FIFTY FIVE. With any race, more non-college age people (ie ages 25-55) will be in jail than in college. Thank you Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, for being the primary perpetrators pushing that incorrect stat. Way to "uplift the race"
Sharpton, Jackson, et al. are in fact PART of the power structure that provides the oppression they need to become necessary. A certain level of outrage must be maintained, in order to keep their support alive from underneath, while it is also maintained from above.
This role was set for them as an alternative to actual power. Blacks were expected to address power through the auspices of organizations like the NAACP (founded in 1909). This is still the most popularly-understood meaning of the phrase "black political leaders" today.
But real black political leaders are, you know, POLITICAL LEADERS -- Ron Sims, Larry Gossett, Barack Obama. And the real power in the black community is with them, and with business CEOs and the like, not with unelected intermediaries. Unfortunately, the real seat of black power gets no play in the media, since it is only the old way of thinking -- the NAACP, for instance -- that the media understands.
"So why does the bulk of this society want to believe what is not true over what is true?"
That was pretty clever, Charles, how you made the subtle logical leap from "believe" to "want to believe".
I wish you were in jail.
Goddamn it Chuck, I...
Oh wait, for once I agree with everything you said. Never mind. Carry on.
"...864,000 black men were in college..."
Wow, that's a lot of football & basketball scholarships...
@7
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW!!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNNNNNNN!!!
That was racist. You're an asshole.
But I laughed. I am an asshole.
(@7)
It is interesting to me that a few here try to use the insulting method of calling somebody by their non-preferred name -- Chaz, Chuck, etc. in order to undercut them.
Is this intentional? If so... why are you such an ass?
@9
I think you meant #6.
As for 'being such an ass': It's okay. Charles laughing at us as we speak. I truly believe that he gets the same amount of enjoyment out of our replies as we do with his posts. It's like a relationship, you know, the one where one of the partners is beating the other partner, but they both find it funny? Yeah. That one.
@2 and others: Jackson and Sharpton are easy (and fair enough) targets here, but they're not alone. For example, I've heard this claim as an argument for crack/coke sentencing parity and full drug legalization. "Facts" like this often go unchallenged in social science departments everywhere.
I call him chaz cause its a slant rhyme with ass
I call him Chuck because I detect an air of snooty academic pretentiousness in his posts, (which usually annoy the fuck out of me) and I think calling him "Chuck" acts as a counterpoint to that snootiness because most snooty permanent-grad-student commies academics like Charles don't use names like "Chuck."
It's far less severe than some of the bile aimed at posters around here, so I don't really see it as being an "ass."
(@10) thanks Mr. Poe, ya - meant 6
And Gotcha, #13 - thanks for the reply
I kind of wonder if Charles does find it so amusing. If itīs all an inside joke God itīs annoying!
Judah, if Charles is so lazy why do you always read what he writes and often comment on it?
Isn't that what a good writer does? He writes to provoke a response from the reader and you respond. Weird!
I thought this was a great post. Thank you Charles.
mj, by your standards ann coulter and dinesh desouza would be great writers. being a loony polemic doesn't make a good writer, even if you agree with them.
If someone asked me the jail/college question, I would immediately assume that they were liberals about to teach a little lesson about racism in American society, and so I would assume that the answer was "jail." No one asks a question like that unless they have an agenda they want to push (as this Slog post shows).
more pity party orgy for the blackman which demands that the guilted whites of the world fall down and grovel before mr and mrs blackman begging for forgiveness and lapping up their guilt baptism as mr blackman pisses on whitey's head and mrs blackman smugly smirks
now dosen't it feel good to be a guilty whiteman you dumb stupid whitesheep
bend over whitey and take it up the ass again deny your race and culture and embrace everything black. learn to talk black, learn to walk black, learn to speak black
because the black race is the superior culture and humanitys salvation
excuse me while i vomit
@18 You are an idiot!
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