I"m the One Who Loves You

Curtis Mayfield wrote one of my favorite examples of Chicago soul, "I'm the One Who Loves You." Beautiful background harmony, orchestration, and arrangement. Jerry Butler, The Impressions, Santana, and Stevie Wonder have recorded versions of the song, too, although my favorite remains that of The Impressions with lead vocals from Curtis Mayfield. Here is the Jerry Butler version, which is quite moving and similar to that of The Impressions. The best version, in my humble opinion, remains the one featuring Curtis on lead. In addition to Jerry Butler and The Impressions, Stevie Wonder recorded a stirring tribute, too while Santana's falls rather flat in comparison. Major Lance, Chicago soul singer who often sung material by Mayfield, also recorded a great version! Another catchy song with the same title by Darrell Banks is also worth hearing.

R.I.P. Curtis Mayfield, your legacy lives on.

Two Versions of Catta

Bobby Hutcherson was the first to compose the Andrew Hill number in 1965, on Dialogue. Listen!

Andrew Hill recorded his composition with a large band in 1969 as "Noon Tide." Definitely worth a listen for taking the song into more interesting directions, particularly the brass.

Of the two versions, I actually prefer the latter. Something about experimental larger ensembles playing jazz moves me, like Coltrane's Africa/Brass or Oliver Nelson's The Blues and The Abstract Truth.

White Identity Politics

When whiteness is in a state of peril, which it always seems to be these days since the election of Barack Obama, white Americans quickly reveal their obsessive white identity politics. As someone of African descent living in the United States, I observe and am on the receiving end of excessive white identity politics all the time. White identity politics can be seen through any superficial analysis of American history and politics, from racial slavery to the Southern Strategy. The rise of post-racial, colorblind government and social policy also reflects white identity politics because affirmative action and any policy or program that explicitly mentions race becomes “reverse discrimination” or “racist.” Thus, any attempts by people of color or white allies to address obvious racism in institutions becomes “reverse discrimination” if aimed at dismantling white supremacy or increasing representation of non-whites. Perhaps due to the increasingly browner face of the United States, whites seem to be in an ever-constant state of fear about their potential loss of power. The election of a black president is just the beginning of the last days for them. Pat Buchanan, infamous white racist and conservative commentator, has even published an entire book about the fall of white America, echoing several of the aforementioned sentiments. White identity politics can take one of the following several forms, all expressing disappointment or resistance to the browner future of America and criticism of white supremacy:

1. I have heard many whites express anger or prejudice about the existence of all-black or people of color-focused networks and institutions, such as BET, which is no longer even black-owned. Apparently the existence of a network with mostly black television shows is “reverse discrimination”  even though ‘mainstream’ networks have disproportionately white shows, commercials, and usually pretend people of color don’t exist (except as stereotypes). The fact that BET is no longer black-owned (damn you, Robert Johnson) is usually never acknowledged by them is also troubling, because it’s part of a broader system of white economic control of channels of black culture in the US. Regardless, it’s racist and anti-white that blacks can have their own organizations, television shows, and clubs but white people can’t, even though whites obviously still have their own very exclusive organizations, clubs, professions, and define mainstream to mean normative white standards.

2. As an extension of the previous point, all-black or civil rights-oriented groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and redistributive policies directed at reversing white supremacy are also attacked by white identity politics aficionados. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard whites express anger at the very existence of organizations centered around the advancement of blacks. They also claim nobody is doing that for whites, and if they tried they would be called racist. Astonishing ignorance aside, everything in this society has been geared toward white advancement. If whites want their own racial uplift and anti-racist organizations, they should try being enslaved for centuries and denied citizenship and inclusion for another century through Jim and Jane Crow. If and when they do that, I will be more supportive of a National Association for the Advancement of White People, a moniker adopted by several white nationalist groups in the US. White resistance and discomfort attached to the very idea of organizations like the NAACP are often masked through humor, including inane jokes or finding acceptable the use of the term ‘colored people’ for contemporary African-Americans. No, I’m sorry white people, you cannot call me a colored. The NAACP was founded in 1909, an era where Negro and colored were the vocabulary, not black. Nevertheless, white identity politics asserts itself without any grounding in fact or historical context. 

Likewise, affirmative action is another charged issue for white identity politics, largely because it challenges their entitlement and privilege. Whites assume the reason for their rejection from college or some occupation is because of their race because it allows them to continue thinking they face discrimination in favor of inferior, less trained people of color. In addition to criticism of affirmative action that takes race and gender into consideration within a holistic admission policy at several institutions, white identity politics can and will appear in for funding or scholarships to attend college. Whites may argue that the reason they’re in severe debt because of college is their whiteness and, falsely assuming of course, that people of color have it so easy because college is somehow affordable because some scholarship programs are aimed only at them. Instead of directing their anger at universities and the government for jacking up the price of education and not funding higher education for all people, people of color provide a useful scapegoat for misdirected white identity politics. It also allows white America to live in a black hole where their racial privilege is sucked and the myth of meritocracy can thrive.

3. The recent 2012 presidential election provides another useful analysis of white identity politics in national mainstream political discourse. Usually seen with the right and Tea Party GOP, white identity politics is often expressed through accusations of black favoritism from Obama, as if Obama really is a black nationalist socialist Muslim born in Indonesia or Kenya. His entire presidency has faced these racist assaults and criticism from the white conservatives as well as some Democrats. Indeed, Geraldine Ferraro during the 2008 election claimed that the only reason Obama won is because he’s a black male, another example of the articulation of white identity politics emanating from a white woman! So black males have all the best perks of life in American society while white men and women don’t! White identity politics also surfaced during the Tea Party’s rise and their racist anti-affirmative action, anti-Obama rhetoric. Obama is a Muslim threat to the white Christian US and a socialist, the two worst things one could ever be. If Obama was not a black man with a “funny name” he would never face any of this birther nonsense. Furthermore, McCain was the candidate not born in the continental US, but the US unofficial colony of the Panama Canal Zone! 

Anyway, Romney et al. have used white identity politics and white racial resentment consistently throughout the campaign. From telling an NAACP audience to vote for Obama if they want free stuff (welfare queen stereotype) to the claims his life would be easier if he were Latino, the Southern Strategy and the exploitation of white racial resentment and identity politics is interwoven throughout the Republican Party and the predominantly white right-wing. Black elected officials like Obama are secretly anti-white and only looking out for blacks (although Obama has not done a single thing for African-Americans, but has given some concessions to the mainstream gay marriage movement) while white America suffers from racist affirmative action policies and savage blacks eager for welfare handouts run amok committing crimes. Clearly, white identity politics and its relevance to the far-right and center-right exemplifies the convergence of white identity politics within the broad neoliberal agenda of both dominant parties. Consequently, several so-called liberals and Democrats often espouse white identity politics in some form, not just Geraldine Ferraro.

As we have seen in examples from popular culture, affirmative action, racial justice organizations, and politics, white identity politics rears its ugly head and commitment to white supremacist institutions everywhere. This is not to say ALL whites in the US ascribe to it, but as a symptom of their white privilege, they are often unaware of it in the ways they are of identity politics coming from women, queer, and people of color. Indeed, this post was inspired by conversations with numerous white Americans and writings from them that are so critical of “identity politics,” which is explicitly racial or along gender lines, rather than recognizing the pervasive negative impact of white identity politics. As a function of their white privilege, white identity politics’ nefarious influence is seemingly rendered invisible, and critics of identity politics can continue to neglect their own privileges. Once again, it’s baffling to me how “identity politics” from women and people of color spaces can be rendered “toxic” to social justice and activism when white identity politics is the main reason we’re engaged in the above in the first place. 

To be fair, one does not have to be white to mouth the talking points of white identity politics. Based on personal experience alone, several Asian-American and African-American acquaintances have expressed the same views, but its only with white Americans has it reached highly offensive tones. To them, articulating their white identity politics can be couched in colorblind terms that still perpetuates white supremacy by rejecting the experiences of others, attempting to define others’ experience, rejecting criticism of Eurocentric academia or even writing off racial injustice’s detrimental effects on the lives of people of color communities. Perhaps this racist anti-anti-racist nonsense will die one day, but likely not soon enough.

Defining the Caribbean

A friend sent this article in French to me about defining or categorizing the Caribbean. As one would expect, some of the islanders interviewed on defining the Caribbean had differing views. From a cursory look at the differing maps representing Trinidadian, Cuban, Jamaican and Guadeloupean perspectives on the confines of the Caribbean, the Hispanophone and Francophone speakers were more likley to include coastal Central America and northern South America. Trinidadians did include coastal Venezuela, but not Colombia. Jamaicans only included Guyana and Suriname with small portions of Central America (Panama, etc.) as part of the Caribbean. Guadeloupeans, on the other hand, included a much broader definition of the Caribbean that resembled academic definitions of the "Greater Caribbean" region, including coastal South America, all of Central America, and southern Florida. Besides the Guadeloupeean pan-Caribbean view, Cuban definitions of the Caribbean were second place in terms of broadly defining the region. Cubans included southern Florida, Central America, the 'traditional' Caribbean, and northern South America's coast. Interestingly, southern Florida was not considered part of the Caribbean by Trinidadians, perhaps reflecting immigration patterns (Jamaican and Cuban immigrants have established communities in Florida). Also of note is the broad Caribbean region described by Guadeloupe considers the Gulf Coast of the US, primarily Louisiana and New Orleans, as Caribbean. This may reflect a shared francophone heritage or perhaps a broad definition of Caribbean or Antillean identity rooted in the creolite movement of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Regardless, it's fascinating how different Caribbean students, representing English-speaking "West Indians," Spanish-speaking Cubans, and francophone speakers define their region of the world. For clarification, I shall post those images of the Caribbean below:

This map depicts the 'traditional' Caribbean, consisting of only the islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles) and the French, Dutch, and British possessions in Central and South America (Belize, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana).

What I have translated as the "Greater Caribbean" includes Mexico, all of Central America, and all of northern South America. This corresponds more with the actual history of exchange, migration, and cultural/racial miscegenation that has taken place throughout this region, from the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the Antilles to Central and South America. Another commonality of the region is the shared history of the Atlantic Slave Trade, European conquest and colonialism, American imperialism, and the use of mostly Romance languages. Although most of Mexico and Central America boast no substantial phenotypically 'black' populations outside of Panama and certain provinces of states like Costa Rica, the African presence can be seen in the colonial period and some of the music, especially the use of marimbas among indigenous peoples in the area. Colombia and Venezuela must be included because of the important demographic and cultural impact of the slave trade and Afro-descendants, too.

Cuban perceptions of the Caribbean here. It includes the Antilles as the core region and peripherally Central America and the northern coast of South America.

Students from Guadeloupe have the broadest definition of Caribbean, corresponding well with the aforementioned "Greater Caribbean" map. One could arguably push for inclusion of coastal Ecuador, the coastal lowlands of Peru, and perhaps northeastern Brazil as extensions of the Caribbean due to similarly influential Afro-descendants, although that goes beyond the Caribbean Sea.

Jamaicans view the Caribbean as essentially the "West Indies" with Belize, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and, marginally, southern Florida and Panama. Venezuela and northern Colombia are also present.

Trinidadians interestingly exclude Colombia but consider the entirety of Venezuela as "Caribbean," perhaps due to the close proximity of the nations and a history of migration and influences. However, they exclude Florida while every other group of Caribbean students included Florida. Without additional research, my only explanation for that trend is a reflection of the lack of large Trinidadian diasporic communities in Florida.

Again, the main pattern for defining "Caribbean" for many of these students is based on a large West Indian/Caribbean diasporic presence (in the case of Central American nations like Panama or Florida) and a high proportion of African-descended peoples. It would be fascinating to get the racial demographics of the Cuban students, and to include Haitians, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans, to get a fuller picture of how Antilleans define themselves in relation to each other.

The following is my initial response to the article in an email to a friend. Defining the Caribbean, like any other region or form of categorization, relies on oppositional binary thinking that does not reflect the reality or porous borders. Models of understanding the world are only models, not necessarily accurate depictions of the world as we live it. The following email to a friend is a brief reflection on that and the limitations of defining a "Caribbean" and distinguishing it from "Latin America" or the Americas.

Interesting. I never thought of Mexico as part of the Greater Caribbean. I guess in some senses it makes sense for the coastal regions of Mexico and Central America to be considered "Caribbean," even if the population of African descent is small. I know Veracruz in Mexico was one a very important port of entry for slave trading in Mexico, although the current population is not phenotypically "African" like Haiti or Jamaica. I know son jarocho music has African as well as indigenous influences, probably because it arose in the Veracruz region.

For Central America, Belize and the West Indian descendants of laborers who came to places like Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica (province of Limon is very 'black') are definitely "Caribbean." Belize in British colonial days was known as "British Honduras" and consisted of a heterogeneous population, including various peoples of African descent. I think there is a Garifuna presence as well in terms, the Garifuna being descendants of African runaway slaves and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean who were gradually resettled in Central America by the British. I think some descendants of Saint Dominguan slaves were also settled in Central America when the region was still under Spanish colonial rule (look up the black auxiliaries of Spanish royalism in the early years of the Haitian Revolution. Unlike Toussaint Louverture, they remained loyal to fighting under the Spanish name against France and Britain. Perceived as a threat to the social order in Santo Domingo and Cuba, some were resettled in Florida and Central America.

Of course, northern South American countries like Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana are always considered "Caribbean" and excluded from "Latin America." And from the little research I've conducted in Colombian, Venezuelan, and Brazilian history and race relations, the coastal regions of those aforementioned nations are "Caribbean," too. The largely African-descended populations, presence of obvious African-derived cultures (music, religion (Candomble, samba, cumbia, champeta, palenquero Spanish in Colombia, Cartagena and Barranquilla as slave ports for colonial Nueva Granada, etc.)) and the racialized geography makes it quite clear. The Chocho, or Pacific coast of Colombia, is also majority Afro-descended, ignored, and part of the racialized regionalism of Colombia. Southwestern Colombia and the Esmeraldas coast of Ecuador is also mostly Afro-descended. If one wanted to expand the definition of "Caribbean" even further, the coastal lowlands of Peru with its African-descended populations or southeastern Brazil and Minas Gerais for its African-descended populations. 

I guess at that point you might as well just call it all "Afro-Latin America," which shows how problematic these labels are since they're projections by scholars and outsiders on the peoples of this hemisphere. I guess I would realistically define Caribbean as the islands and coastal regions of states that border the Caribbean Sea and its environs. I would include coastal Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, parts of Costa Rica and Guatemala, and Belize as well as northeastern Brazil (Bahia, maybe Pernambuco?) because of the presence of significant or majority Afro-descended populations that are thoroughly 'mixed' culturally and/or 'racially.' I guess Patrick Chamoiseau and other Martinican writers as well as some negritude poets and theorists have tried to define Caribbean as rooted in 'blackness' or "Creolite," the latter referencing the mixed/creole heritage of the Caribbean as African, European, indigenous, and Asian. I suppose someone like Aime Cesaire would define "Caribbean" in a manner that emphasizes the African component whereas Patrick Chamoiseau and other Francophone writers would emphasize Caribbean as a fusion of the various peoples who inhabit/ed the region. Clearly, the latter definition of "Caribbean" sounds like the "raza cosmica" or mestizaje nationalism of many Latin American nations, which emphasize racial mixture as national identity. 

I guess it's difficult to really 'define' the Caribbean then. People have unsurprisingly criticized the excesses of negritude and the weaknesses of mestizaje and Creolite in masking racial oppression or maintaining the marginalization of certain identities, such as the African component in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and other countries. In the end, the strict separation of Latin America and the "Caribbean" based on linguistic differenes does not hold, and it's often applied randomly. Haiti or francophone islands like Martinique, for instance, are often excluded from "Latin America" but they speak Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese. As for anglophone islands like Jamaica or Trinidad, many of those peoples have migrated and worked in the Spanish Caribbean or Panama. Furthermore, peoples often spoke various languages so many older Trinidadians spoke French or a Creole because of shifting European colonial authorities. Regardless, these ideological divides between Latin America and the Caribbean clearly don't reflect reality. And I neglected to mention New Orleans and Miami. New Orleans was essentially a Caribbean society well into the 19th century, with a racial structure that mirrored Saint Domingue or colonial Haiti, not to mention it was also briefly a Spanish colonial city. Miami and parts of Florida have also been longstanding "Caribbean" regions, since African-descended slaves and free people of color have always been part of Spanish Florida's somewhat freer racial relations. Indeed, from what I can recall, African-American slaves from the US often fled to Spanish Florida before the US annexation and many African-Americans joined Seminole and other indigenous communities. 

I'm not sure why I wrote this very long, rambling email, but thanks for sharing that article. It's always interesting to see how folks from the Caribbean define themselves. I remember my mother, who never identified as Latina or Latin America, telling me as a young child that Haiti is "in South America." I remember white Americans trying to tell me that I should "identify as Latino" because Haiti is in Latin America, but I don't think they're really aware of the social and racial dynamics of Haitians in Cuba, Dominican Republic, or elsewhere.

With friends like that...

Who needs enemies? Truer words have never been spoken.

Thoughts on Woman At Point Zero

"I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. An employee is scared of losing her job and becoming a prostitute because she does not understand that the prostitute's life is in fact better than hers. And so she pays the price of her illusory fears with her life, her health, her body, and her mind. She pays the highest price for things of the lowest value. I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was was better than a cheap one. I also knew that if I lost my job, all I would lose with it was the miserable salary, the contempt I could read every day in the eyes of the higher level executives when they looked at the lesser female officials, the humiliating pressure of male bodies on mine when I rode in the bus, and the long morning queue in front of a perpetually overflowing toilet."

            Nawal El Saadawi’s novel, Woman at Point Zero, is an interesting look at sexism in Egyptian society. Though not a very strong novel in terms of literary merit, since it’s an endless list of terrible experiences with sexism and exploitation of women that hammers its nail on sexism repeatedly. Saadawi, famous Egyptian novelist, feminist, and doctor, criticizes female genital mutilation, the imprisonment of women through the institution of marriage, capitalist exploitation, and male pimps in the sex industry, nevertheless is lacking in style. A frame story, the novel consists of what seems to be Saadawi herself interviewing the prisoner, Firdaus, a former prostitute who murdered her violent pimp and resisted the imprisonment of women through Egyptian culture and society. There are numerous patterns and some attempts at literary merit, as well as several instances of righteous indignation on the part of Firdaus against her sexist employers, lovers, pimps, police, an Arab prince, and abusive parents and relatives.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but feel that the novel’s main function is to relay several instances of sexism in Egyptian society. Believe me, I have no problem with reading about these often gruesome depictions of violence and patriarchy, but, the plot does not actually seem to have any artistic merit beyond depicting and shouting to the world that sexism is widespread in Egypt. However, it may also perpetuate the notion of Arab or Islamic exceptionalism in extreme patriarchal societies. That is unfair, racist, and also hypocritical when one considers widespread sexism in “Western” societies. But perhaps I am being unfair myself in a critique of the novel as lacking any substance beyond unveiling the oppression of women in 20^th century Egypt. That alone is revolutionary and worth supporting, especially in conjunction with the activism of Saadawi in her personal life.

Alex La Guma's A Walk in the Night

Alex La Guma's short novel, A Walk in the Night, is a fascinating read on Cape Town's colored District 6, early 1960s apartheid, and the destructive impact of racism and hatred on human society. Instead of writing a formal analysis or review, I shall dsecribe interesting aspects of La Guma's novel, featuring the unnecessary and immoral murder of a colored youth with kinky hair, white supremacy, the cosmopolitan world of Cape Town, and apartheid's negative effects on society, essentially driving violence and murder.

Cape Town's District 6, prior to it's forced evacuation of the "Colored" population under apartheid rule, which has been discussed in previous blog posts about "Mannenberg" or "Cape Town Fringe" by Abdullah Ibrahim, is the setting for the story. Though a "Colored" district where only mixed-race people are supposed to reside, an alcoholic and out of work Irish actor lives in a tenement with several impoverished Coloreds. District 6 also houses shebeens, restaurants (some owned by Indians or other Europeans, such as the Portuguese) and hosts international guests of color. In fact, Puerto Rican shipworkers from the US almost get in a brawl with Colored gangster-wannabes. In addition to European, Indian, and American workers seeking cheap thrills through South African prostitutes and bars, the white police officers possess a permanent volatile presence in the District. Though despised, Constable Raalt and his driver cruise around, harassing store owners and pedestrians, often out of rage at personal problems as well as their hatred for "hotnots," exacerbating relations between white and Colored South Africans under apartheid. Since the apartheid state required strict segregation of the races, pass laws, and white supervision and curtailment of non-white movement, the white police in District 6 operate like an occupying force, similar to their present role in many US African-American or Latino urban communities.

Cape Town, city of beauty and center of the Colored population, is important in terms of race relations because Coloreds outnumbered Black South Africans in this time. Indeed, the population of Cape Town is still mostly "Colored," yet in this novel, the "Colored" seem to be racialized as "black." Perhaps this varies with skin color and physical features, so that the kinky-haired Willieboy becomes a "hotnot," but one of the police officers refers to all the "Coloreds" as "hotnots," derived from "Hottentot," which refers to the indigenous peoples of the region, the Khoikhoi. Thus, distinctions between Black and Colored South Africans are not as apparent in this novel, perhaps due to the simple fact of a small Black population in Cape Town in the early 1960s, or because of the broadened definition of "black" during the anti-apartheid movement to foster unified resistance among the non-white populace. La Guma also came from a Communist Colored background, perhaps also impacting his racial identification with the Black majority in an effort to overturn centuries of division and self-hatred for the African heritage of South Africa's Colored. However, this was years before Black Consciousness, so perhaps I am reading too much into this. The professor of the course I was required to read this for definitely presented this way, though, describing everyone as "black" despite the differences in South Africa's racial structure.

The novel links the infidelity, racism, segregation, and labor exploitation. Michael Adonis, the character who murders the Irishman, is fired from his job by a white overseer, thereby turning his heart to hate of all whites. However, the exploitation and expropriation of Colored labor is another inherent part of apartheid's longevity. Though Black South African miners, domestics, and others are not present in the novel, the Marxist themes of exploitation of workers are present in Michael Adonis being terminated from his work, complete white control of the economy, and the lives of the numerous members of the community of the novel. The married couple living in the same building as are struggling to live while the mother becomes pregnant, representing hope for the future, nevertheless live a life of material poverty despite the laboriousness of the family. Likewise, Willieboy's life under an abusive father or the homeless acquaintance of Adonis, provide clear evidence of an underpaid, exploited, abused, subject people whose community is reduced to patron-client relations with whites, substandard housing, and crime. The excessive policing, more reminiscent of slave paddyrollers than any sense of protection or justice, exemplify the ruthlessness of apartheid and racial hatred within a broader system of capitalism.

However, hope for the future remains, despite the wrongful death of Willieboy and the ongoing existence of apartheid. La Guma ends with the following, "Franky Lorenzo slept on his back and snored peacefully. Beside him the woman, Grace, lay awake in the dark, restlessly waiting for the dawn and feeling the knot of life within her." Amazingly, La Guma ends on an optimistic note, despite Willieboy's death and Michael Adonis giving in to hate.

Early "Haitian-Americans" in US History

1. Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable, Haitian founder of the city of Chicago. He is venerated by the Haitian and African-American communities of Chicago. Indeed, my favorite Chicago museum is named after him.

2. Pierre Toussaint, currently under consideration for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Born in Saint Domingue, he came to New York with his white French owners. After attaining freedom, he married a woman from Haiti and started one of the first orphanages in NYC, helped with fundraising for the first cathedral, and contributed money for the first Catholic school for blacks on Canal Street.

3. Saint Dominguan refugees, including whites, people of color (gens de couleur) and enslaved blacks going to New Orleans in the 1790s and in 1809 had a tremendous impact on Lousiana culture. Sanite Dede, a free woman of color from Saint Domingue, was a prominent Vodou priestess. In addition, the calindas and bamboula dances of New Orleans in addition to Vodou are likely due to Saint Dominguan influences.

4. Les Citoyens de Couleur de Philadelphie, a political organization initiated by Saint Dominguans, fought for the advancement of African Americans as part of the Saint Dominguan refugee population in the Northeast.

5. In Louisiana in 1795, Jean Etienne Bore revolutionized the sugar industry by designing new methods for its manufacture. In 1803, he became the first mayor of the city o New Orleans. Did I mention he was a man of color?

6. James Pitot, a former refugee from Saint Domingue, succeeded Bore as the city's second mayor.

7. In Baltimore, four colored Saint Dominguan women, Elizabeth Lange, Marie Magdelene Baas, Marie Rose Boegue, and Marie Therese Duchemin, established the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the world's first Black religious community, and founded the School for Colored Girls. After its founding it 1829, the school became a national institution.

8. John James Audubon, ornithologist, was born in Saint Domingue to a French and Creole woman. He moved to Pennsylvania as a result of the Haitian Revolution and the death of his momther.

9. Homer Plessy, the "octoroon" who sat in a white section of the train, was partially descended from Saint Dominguan refugees in Lousiana.

10. W.E.B. DuBois is a descendant of Haitians through his father, who immigrated in the mid-19th century. One of the leading activists and scholars of African America is a product of the Haitian Revolution. Thank you, Haiti!

High School Writing Response on Kafka

The following earned me the full 30 points. My high school World Literature teacher deemed it "wonderful, thoughtful and well researched response." He required us to write several brief response pieces to the various assigned readings over the semester to ensure we were reading since he didn't give quizes or tests. I have shared a brief commentary on The God of Small Things in the past, which can be viewed here.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a satire that speaks specifically to the societal change wrought by the Industrial Revolution and the spread of a secular commercial culture. According to this Marxist perspective, Gregor's transformation and treatment by his family is a metaphor for the callous attitude of the bourgeoisie towards the conditions of the proletariat in industrial Europe.

At first his family takes care of him, especially Grete who is the only one who enters his room to feed him. The family also makes sacrifices by taking in tenants and looking for jobs.  But when Grete realizes the futility of the situation and the financial problems that arise, even she decides to abandon her brother. Her callous treatment eventually causes her to stop cleaning Gregor's room and no longer care about his health (Kafka 42). In addition, his father throws the apple which mortally wounds Gregor, but no one attempts to remove it, suggesting that they do not value his dignity as a fellow human, but his labor which supported the family (38).

Furthermore, Gregor always was a bug in the industrialized European world. His metamorphosis is only the physical manifestation of his complete devotion to his occupation and the loss of his soul. Indeed, it is revealed that Gregor never missed a day of work (12). According to Marxist theory, this represents the problem of the laborer in the modern world because he is alienated from what he works slavishly to create because he cannot afford it himself. Gregor also works to support his destitute family, not himself, which is comparable to the proletariat who toil to make the bourgeoisie wealthier. As a result, his physical transformation into an insect is perfect for his insect-like qualities as a laborer in an industrialized world. His existence as an inferior laborer in an economic system which only benefits the wealthy suits his transformation into an insect, the vermin of the earth.

Homenaje A Los Embajadores

Beautiful Colombian music based on a Haitian song!

En haiti o en nueva york
lo mejor de hoy,
en cualquier parte del mundo
lo mejor de hoy
si se trata de un bolero , o un mambo, o un compas
toda la gente puede decir
lo mejor de hoy
el mejor se esta escuchando
lo mejor de hoy

Black Is Beautiful

Interesting song...very influenced by African-American Black Power and Civil Rights music. Indeed, the song lacks any semblance of characteristic Brazilian samba, entirely adopting the Black Power anthems of the United States. Unfortunately, the singer, Elis Regina, is a white Brazilian and the song is about her desire for a black man to integrate with her European blood...I get the sentiment, but the lyrics should be changed.

Hillbrow, Johannesburg

The following post is based on the above Aljazeera video about life in contemporary Hillbrow, accounts from a friend of a friend who visited Hillbrow a few years ago and an article by a South African white sociologist. Check out "Race Relations and Racism in a Racially Diverse Inner City Neighbourhood: A Case Study of Hillbrow, Johannesburg" by Alan Morris. My friend of a friend visited Hillbrow with an Indian Muslim from Botswana and their car was apparently stolen, although it was not parked in Hillbrow. My friend told me the following about his friend and the Indian Muslim's adventures in Hillbrow via google chat:

My friend was there

  said it was interesting

  but akin to hell

  beggars

  crowded and teeming

  prostitutes everywhere

  lots of abortion stores

  churches

  street foodit was active and really cool

  but evidently a very dangerous place

  saw people simply laying on the ground

  passed out drunk

  or high

From the little research I've done into the history of this fascinating Joburg neighborhood, its transition from whites-only to black slum parallels the transformation of many cities in the US. By 1986, the apartheid government abandoned any attempts to prevent black migration into white-only parts of the city as defined under the Group Areas Act. Black townships were already overpopulated and Hillbrow had excessive available housing for squatters and tenants. During the economic upsurge of the 1960s, the trendy white neighborhood of Hillbrow experienced excessive housing development, including high rises, so it was inevitable that colored, Indians, and blacks would defy the Group Areas Act in search of better housing. Facing economic recession in the 1980s and 90s, the South African government was unable to invest in housing for black South Africans so the movement toward Hillbrow accelerated in 1982 when the Supreme Court banned prosecution and eviction of non-whites living in white neighborhoods unless housing could be found in that person's own racial group's defined areas. Indeed, conditions were so horrible in black townships and "Bantustans" that black flight to the inner-city led to blacks living in squalid conditions in rooftop domiciles in places like Hillbrow before the apartheid government gave up on preventing interracial neighborhoods in Johannesburg. However, the article I read focuses on the brief period in the early 1990s before massive white, colored and Indian flight, when whites were still almost 20% of Hillbrow's population in the early 1990s.

Relying on survey data from residents in the neighborhood, it becomes clear that income, race, age, and the amount of time individuals lived in the area impacted their attitudes towards racial difference. Since apartheid South Africa defined cities and urban spaces as white and civilized, blacks were only accepted in the city proper to provide servile roles, such as domestics or maids for white families. However, with the collapse of enforcement of the Group Areas Act, white South Africans who grew up or spent the majority of their lives in neighborhoods such as Hillbrow, living in a world where the only blacks they saw in the neighborhood were domestics and servile, the shift to majority-black by the end of the 1980s shattered their definition of public space. These hordes of Africans were perceived as harbingers of urban decay, uncivilized, criminals, and their racial pride or references to the ruling ANC party, threatened the comfortable worldview of white South Africans. The elderly, especially those too poor to move out, displayed the most overt racism. Indians and Colored also voiced anti-black prejudice and stereotypes, which is to be expected given their intermediate status between blacks and whites in the apartheid racial hierarchy. In fact, Indians, colored, and whites mostly accepted the negative stereotypes of Africans as dismantling urban, civilized respectability and maintenance of public spaces. Thus, ALL Africans are blamed for unorthodox uses of doors, poor upkeep of property, using one-bedroom flats for entire families, and hosting parties late into the night.

Regardless of the plethora of stereotyping and perceived threats whites and others felt about the African majority in Hillbrow, most races lived in apartment buildings that were monoracial or mostly occupied by the same race, so social interactions and friendships were often limited to people belonging to the same race. As mentioned previously, however, class dynamics come into play since whites and others were more tolerant of racial difference if their neighbors were more educated or seemingly close to dominant notions of proper city living. Younger whites, especially those moved to Hillbrow more recently, tended to be more liberal and often enjoyed civil if not friendly relations with black residents. Indeed, some whites described blacks as being kinder or more well-mannered. Whites terrified by black rule and the militant attitudes of black South Africans describe the situations in the street as being the most dangerous, not interactions in apartments. For instance, whites sometimes felt forced into showing deference for the blacks who, under apartheid, were once forced to move out of the way of whites on the street. Of course, one must also keep in mind that the white South Africans, who reported racial incidents occurring far more frequently than other races in Hillbrow, were likely exaggerating some of their interactions with blacks due to stereotype threat. According to the study, Africans reported racial incidences at the lowest frequency, but given their position as the majority in Hillbrow in the 1990s, whites, colored, and Indians were likely compelled to show some semblance of respect or acceptance for blacks on the streets or risk actual violence, physical or verbal.

One of the major limits of Morris's study, however, is the lack of attention given to immigrant communities established in Hillbrow. He mentions Nigerians and Francophone Africans, who appear in the documentary, actually, but their interactions with black South Africans is not analyzed. Neither are the details of the Indian and colored flight from Hillbrow analyzed, although given their position in the racial hierarchy, most were able to escape to suburbs, like whites. Morris actually concludes the study by showing how, just as in the US, the inner-city became equated with crime and blackness, leading to suburbanization becoming the symbolic space of whiteness and middle-class respectability. Although the reverse seems to be the trend now in the US, South African cities like Johannesburg are experiencing the same type of urban-suburban migration once idolized in the US. Given the horrendous and corrupt management of the ANC, it's no surprise people of all races would want to escape the muggings, homelessness, rape, vacant buildings, and frequent blackouts that plague life for inner-city Johannesburg. Yet Hillbrow continues to be a center for African immigrants and refugees working in South Africa. The Aljazeera feature includes interviews with Nigerian and other immigrants, some escaping war, others poverty, who find a way to survive in Johannesburg despite the frequent problems. Police corruption and targeting of immigrants, as well as xenophobic attacks from other black South Africans, hardly contribute to Hillbrow as an ideal place of escape either. Either way, these immigrant communities find a way to survive in the once beautiful Hillbrow neighborhood, which may experience revitalization in the near future, although that is likely wishful thinking on the part of some.

In the future I will have to conduct some research into the immigrant communities in Johannesburg, South African suburbanization, and race relations between and among Indians, colored, and blacks. Who knows, perhaps I'll make it there myself one day to see the wondrous ruins of inner Joburg, which is reminiscent of Detroit in some ways (white flight, disinvestment, poor governing, and blight). The numerous examples of ailing infrastructure, barred former businesses, and inferior services is hardly new to South Africa, or the US, for that matter. The National Party clearly showed they were not investing in housing for black South Africans while simultaneously ensuring widespread rural poverty that triggered urban migration. For racists and conservative whites, the example of Hillbrow, once one of Johannesburg's best neighborhoods, reduced to a site of crime, undocumented immigrants, substandard housing and services, is irrefutable evidence of the inevitable consequence of racial integration or black rule. The same can be seen in the US, where the presence of blacks in majority white neighborhoods is a sign of declining property values and criminality. Redlining and racism are not considered as likely factors in the aftermath of white flight, but clearly parallels between the Johannesburg and US cities reveal entwined racist institutional structures.

The following link is a great example of the collapse of one of the best examples of high rise apartment complexes, Ponte.

Uncanny, Or, the Maintenance of Racial Stereotypes in Media

Apparently the photographer for the shoot wanted the magazine cover of LeBron and Gisele to allude to the adjacent image. Do things really ever change? How would people feel if anti-Semitic magazine covers clearly referring to Nazi and other offensive propangada images were used? Of course, that is likely to not happen since Jews are white and anything that goes too far with issues such as the Holocaust require more respect and "political correctness" than blacks deserve. Thus, the perpetuation of images showing black males as ape-like brutes going for your white daughters, even if they're white Brazilians, illustrates the ongoing demeaning, publicly acceptable societal views of blacks. Remember the New Yorker's cartoon showing a murdered ape as Obama? This is essentially the same.

Bat Macumba

Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes have recorded this fun song. Macumba is an Afro-Brazilian religion, as well as a musical instrument. Gilberto Gil was also in an official position in the Brazilian government, Minister of Culture or something like that. Enjoy!

He also worked with Jorge Ben, my all-time favorite Brazilian artist. Check out "Filhos de Gandhi," which alludes to an afoxe in Brazilian Carnival. The song and the group is full of allusions to Afro-Brazilian religion and culture, including numerous orixas. Check it out!

Besta é tu

I love this song

Nana

Moacir Santos wrote one hit from his Coisas album that was covered by everyone in the 1960s. The Afro-Brazilian jazz genius's "Nana" is but one instance of his splendid writing. Check out this early version here. Os Ipanemas, a samba-jazz group, also recorded a cover with lyrics in the beginning that's worth hearing. I also highly recommend Wilson Simonal's vocal version, from his bossa nova period. He's Afro-Brazilian and a great singer! And last but not least, Edison Machado recorded a decent version, too.

Here are other versions I like less, but still worth hearing
Mario Telles
Eurmir Deodato actually does a good cover.

Tributo a Martin Luther King

Afro-Brazilian samba and pop singer, Wilson Simonal, sings a tribute to Martin Luther King.

And here is a live version!