Kelley's Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!

Finally read Kelley's Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!, a fascinating but rather short book on the 'culture wars' and the complexities of race and class in American society and its relevance to sociological discourse, government policy, academia, and the urban underclass. Kelley, himself a product of this 'ghetto' underclass, the son of a Jamaican working class woman who grew up in Harlem and Washington Heights in the 1960s and 1970s, makes it quite clear that he sets out to dismantle the myth of the 'culture of poverty' thesis, coined by Moynihan and other white academics and policymakers who sought to pathologize working-class black urban life, make absurd generalizations, and obscure the role of racism, economic restructuring, and anti-poor policies (from the War on Drugs to welfare reform and tax cuts for the rich) in the creation and maintenance of racial inequality in the United States.

In addition, Kelley, whose biography of Thelonious Monk I thoroughly enjoyed two years ago, includes some humorous references to black popular culture and history, such as 'the dozens' (particularly how academics mistakenly reduce it to some form of ritualized tradition), Clinton (George, that is), and the practices of play, entertainment, alternative forms of labor, and the gender dynamics of these aforementioned aspects of Black Urban America. Of course, Kelley is quick to nuance his claims and endeavors to avoid essentialism, much to his benefit as an academic and scholar attempting to 'defend' the 'underclass' and his roots. What struck me the most about his book are some interesting insights and claims backed by various forms of evidence from statistics, sociology, and history to buttress his perhaps idealistic and naive hope for a much stronger, united Left cognizant of the nuances of race, class, gender, and sexuality. I will share two of the most interesting points below.

1. Did you know the origins of the 'afro' as a popular 20th century hairstyle actually begin in the black feminine urban chic and bohemian circles? Black bohemian woman artists, such as Odetta and Nina Simone began sporting afros in the late 1950s and early 1960s, well before afros were incorporated within the masculinist black nationalist discourse of the late 1960s and Black Power. Indeed, some of the earliest black women who wore their hair in natural afros actually found a more receptive crowd in whites than blacks, too! I suppose it's not that interesting, but it really does show how easily styles can be shifted or appropriated into other forms and have their meaning twisted.

2. Kelley's commentary on the pitfalls of much of the critiques of identity politics around in the late 1980s and early 1990s was very insightful and reminiscent of much of my experiences with some white self-proclaimed progressives and socialists in Madison. Though they rarely alluded to any form of 'neo-Enlightenment' radical universalism, the sentiment of the white authors, nearly all white men (gee, no surprise there!) often complained about 'identity politics' or 'the politics of identity,' and scoffed or dismissed notions such as 'white privilege' (all the while expressing some personal discomfort or feeling of exclusion in the caricatures of 'identity politics' they reduced anti-racist and feminist fields of thought and activism). Kelley's criticism is on point, in my humble opinion, since he demonstrates how so often these white leftists, nearly all white men who, in the works reviewed by Kelley, actually sought to blame 'identity politics' (in the form of black nationalism or feminism) of the late 1960s as the cause for the balkanization and failure of the Left! Can you believe it? That absurd argument survives in a much smaller form by some of these white (mostly male) leftists, though many are aware of the obvious fact that class is hardly the universal banner some make it to be. Indeed, one of the great points that Kelley and some friends of mine have made is how often people ignore how experiences of class in the US are tied to race, ethnicity and gender, and class itself is an identity based not only on statistics or numbers, but self-perception, culture, occupation, and various other 'identities.'

Don't get me wrong, Kelley is not saying 'identity politics' is the solution to dismantling the importance of markets in determining human outcomes and creating some form of utopian society. He is merely challenging many of the unproven and contradictory claims made by disproportionately white male critics of 'identity politics,' often falsely attributing some extreme reductionist notion to black feminists for instance, while ignoring how black women's organizations have been some of the most pro-working class, pro-union, and interested in abolishing all potential forms of oppression (as one black feminist organization adopted in its slogan!). Also, by ignoring how class is raced and gendered, these white leftists overlook the long existence of racism within working-class white communities, unions, and how many white working-class unions and groups were tied to specific ethnic identities, such as the The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Unions roots with Jewish and other white ethnics in New York. In fact, this union was teaching black and Puerto Rican woman Yiddish in the 1950s, that's how tied that union was to an ethnic/racial identity! So, obviously class is raced and gendered and class unity couldn't convince white Southerners to side with ex-slaves during Reconstruction or Jim Crow, and neither could white feminism include black and other women of color.

Shockingly, so often are these white critics of 'identity politics' often guilty of the very crimes they attribute to feminists and people of color organizations and theories. They generalize the vast forms of feminist and racial justice thought, when such a thing as 'black nationalism' varies in strands from the conservative Nation of Islam to socialist, pro-labor unions such as DRUM in Detroit. Instead of being so dismissive or ignoring the work of many strands of 'identity politics,' white progressives should welcome the wide array of contributions to understanding social relations they make in the hopes of forming long-lasting, inclusive coalitions rooted in communities, labor, and organizing to avoid making the same mistakes of the past. Indeed, some even go as far to assert the weakening labor movement to the continued emphasis on whites and males in a rapidly changing labor force where African-Americans, women, and other people of color are more likely to be working-class, in a union, or engaged in labor struggles.

Overall, a good book and well-researched. Instead of a white and/or academic gaze on the black poor and working masses, Kelley succeeds in giving the reader an insider's look that is inclusive of various forms of leftist, feminist, and black nationalist perspectives. Read this, my next Kelley book will be his most recent work. Besides this, check out Hammer and Hoe for a look at black Southern Communists in Alabama during the Great Depression. I read that about two or three years ago for an African-American 20th Century History course and thoroughly enjoyed it.