Our Love Is Here to Stay

It's been a minute since I've listened to Lester Young or Teddy Wilson, but the two bring a smile to any listener's face. Every fan of Billie Holiday's best period (in the 1930s, I believe) will know that it is Wilson and Young who made her music light up with excellent accompaniment, solos, and passion.

The Crack in Space

The Crack in Space is one of those lesser known but intriguing Philip K. Dick novels. Reading it today, one can see how Dick was struggling to see solution to the second-class citizenship reserved for African-Americans and other people of color. Set in the late 2000s (ca. 2080, I believe), this world is currently overpopulated but the Cols ("Coloreds" or POC) outnumber whites. Whites, however, have dominated US politics and the first Black man with a chance of becoming president, is running on the Liberal Republican ticket (The States Rights Democrats are clearly descendants of the Dixiecrats, while the other party represents a fusion of liberal Republicans and Northern Democrats).

The Liberal-Republican party supporters willing to vote for Jim Briskin, the black candidate, sound a lot like the stereotypical white liberals who supported Obama in 2008 and 2012, while the States Rights Democrats have ties to a white nationalist group, CLEAN, and resembles the GOP under Obama's presidency. Dick even understands the mentality of the 'lower fringe' of white America, which is more supportive of CLEAN.

Long story short, the novel twists and turns in surprising directions (accompanied by hilarious dialogue and frustrated realistic personalities of workers in the 21st century) and contact with a race of hominids from an "alter-Earth" forces humans to rethink the divisions of race. Their brush with these 'Peking Man' types ("Pekes") helps the humans come to terms and do the unlikely: vote for a black man. However, Dick is too clever to let it end on these optimistic terms. The problem of overpopulation and lack of work continues, and electing a black president will not save the world.

In this regard, I find Dick's novel fascinating since it conflicts so much with what I believe happened after Obama's first election. The hopes, fervor, dreams of a post-racial America were omnipresent back then. However, while Dick shows in the concluding chapter some degree of interracial solidarity with Cols and Caucs celebrating Jim's victory, the absolute uncertainty of the world continues. Thus, despite this novel's structural problems, it provides a fascinating science fiction prediction of the travails of the first black president. 

Picking Up the Pieces

I haven't heard this class in several years. It reminds me of that middle-aged African-American man who was paid by my mother ca. 2004 to do odd jobs around the house or with repainting it and the garage. This man, Ronnie, was always blasting this song when I saw him painting. 

Modern Politics

Modern Politics, a series of lectures given by C.L.R. James in 1960 (in Trinidad, land of his birth), is a fascinating overview of Western political thought and C.L.R. James explaining his view of the world. While his Marxism is a definite part of the lectures, it's profoundly interesting for how James views the legacy of direct democracy from the Greek city-state (as well as Aristotle and Socrates) and the influence of Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Marx in paving the way for a a solution to the problem of modernity (as he saw it in the 1960s). His belief in the dialectic and the power of the masses and revolution to create change also explains more persuasively why James held such a high opinion of popular culture and art meant for mass consumption by writers and artists. Such a perspective on literature, art, aesthetics, and the culture industry is welcome after reading Adorno's writings on US culture industry and jazz. His commentary on fascism, the Social Democratic Parties, Stalinism, and issues of race and gender are fascinating, particularly in the ways in which James does not speak directly to the countries of the world undergoing decolonization (Cuba and Ghana do appear frequently, however, as does the specter of the Cold War and imperialism from both blocs). One wonders to what extent the relationship between James and Williams shaped how much James felt comfortable saying overtly about labor and colonialism within the West Indies...

State Capitalism and World Revolution

CLR James's State Capitalism and World Revolution is a short but dense critique of Trotskyism, Stalinism, and the state capitalist dominant order of the world (as it was in the post-WWII period in an era of Fordism and planned economies with bureaucrats administering capital). Much has changed since the neoliberal order, but James offered profound critiques of limited definitions of socialism which assume state-owned property and industry rather than private control automatically meant a transition from capitalism and labor exploitation. As scholars like Matthew Quest have indicated, James's perspective here is central for understanding workers must have direct control of the means of production rather than bureaucrats, otherwise socialism is not achieved. James spends too much time basing his theory of state capitalism upon Lenin's criticisms of bureaucracy and nationalization for my taste, but this is a key insight upon which the failures of the Russian Revolution, Tito's Yugoslavia, and numerous other revolutionary moments provide learning moments on the central importance of the emancipation of labor.

In addition to the theory of state capitalism, James develops an intriguing idea in the final chapter. Philosophy, according to James, must be proletarian in order to overcome the role of the division of labor in manual and intellectual workers. If this division is not overcome, bureaucracy and bourgeois rationalism can only culminate in state capitalism, fascist reaction, and the reactionary (anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic) Christian Humanism. One wonders how this plays out in terms of bureaucracy, the neoliberal phase, and the contemporary crisis we face globally. How useful is the theory of state capitalism for today and where does one begin to see the future of the emancipation of labor in a post-Fordist economy?

Samba Jazz

A stirring samba-jazz composition from a Brazilian saxophonist and his band, this is just as addictive as Cannonball Adderley's "Jive Samba." Jazz is truly global culture...

1804: The Hidden History of Haiti

1804: The Hidden History of Haiti is one of the very problematic but surprisingly better documentaries on the Haitian Revolution. While less accurate and featuring far fewer serious 'experts' than an older PBS documentary on the same subject, it actually does a better job connecting Haiti to the struggles of black people who are interested in pan-Africanism, black nationalism, Afrocentrism, and black struggles of today. And despite some of its absurd and nonsensical claims, it has a general structure or coherency which is an affirmation of Haiti and black people. This is great and noble, even though I am not interested in hotepism, Afrocentrism, or black nationalism. 

However, the documentary's numerous flaws, inconsistencies, and errors also weaken something with noble intentions. Early in the documentary, one of the Haitian 'experts' claims Africans were living in the island of Hispaniola before Columbus, but without offering any real proof. Then, another Haitian who participated in the film made numerous errors while the former offered a narrative on the Bois Caiman ceremony I never heard before (contradicted by rapper Akala, whose more plausible narrative was never fully explained by the film's narrators or guests despite the differences between the interpretations). By far, Akala was the most intelligent, perceptive, and interesting person in the documentary, despite the presence of Gerald Horne (the random Afrocentrist academics are of very little to me here, nor is Tariq Nasheed). The appearance of so few Haitian intellectuals, historians, and scholars severely weakened this documentary, and will likely limit its credibility to those who study the Haitian Revolution or Haiti itself. Perhaps even more heinous, the positive descriptions of Vodou are matched by caricatured video footage that does not resemble Vodou ceremonies in the least.

As a product of the same people behind the Hidden Colors series, there are some hilariously outrageous and absurd statements. Apparently, the month of August "electrifies" our melanin so that August is a favorite choice for revolutionary action among black people. The attempt to turn Wyclef Jean into some kind of saint was also hilariously absurd and further weakened the film, though it does at least try to incorporate some Haitians like Bello, Danto, and Jean into the story. But why didn't the filmmaker try to reach out to contemporary scholars of the Haitian Revolution or expand on the analysis beyond Makandal, Toussaint, and Dessalines? There was potential here for a better film, but no luck.