Is Michelle Obama's "Ass" Off Limits?

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR
Is Michelle Obama's "Ass" Off-Limits?
by Mark Anthony Neal

At the crux of Erin Aubrey Kaplan's humorous and cute Salon.com essay, "First Lady Got Back," is the simple admission that Michelle Obama--and by extension the First Family Obama--represent a "realness" that hasn't existed in Washington political circles in some time. Indeed in a society in which the notion of "fitness" has become not only a market unto itself but a mode of regulation that defines what bodies are "fit" to represent the American body politic, Michelle Obama's body invokes a realness that is both refreshing and affirming--in the way that that Propel Water commercial from a year ago (the one with the healthy sista strolling the streets getting her walk on to the gaze of male celebrities). But that doesn't mean that Kaplan's piece doesn't conjure a more troubling view.

Never before has a First Lady's body been subject to the amount of scrutiny and surveillance as is the case with Michelle Obama; she has been rhetorically poked, prodded and groped. Many would have found such a line of coverage unfathomable and even offensive if applied to women like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, or Roselyn Carter...

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Blowback, Prop 8 style

from NewsOne.com


LEFT OF BLACK
Black Voters, White Progressives and Prop 8
By Mark Anthony Neal

In all of the euphoria over Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American President, black voters have been cast as a vital part of the electorate that made his victory possible. There has been another story developing in the state of California, as black voters in the state, according to exit polls, voted 2-1 in favor of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment which bans same-sex marriage reversing ruling made only months ago by the California Supreme Court in favor of same-sex marriage.

Black support for Proposition 8 highlights one of the many fault-lines in the alliance that swept Barack Obama into the White House. The rhetoric is being amped up as some are essentially blaming black voters-often thought as critical to a liberal or progressive voting bloc-for the revoking of same-sex marriage privileges. The rift between traditional black voters and white progressives comes at a critical juncture, as President-Elect Obama seeks the political footing for his agenda. Without a viable and visible progressive political bloc, Obama will have little choice but to govern from the political center.

Though black voters have historically been some of the most consistent members of a liberal voting bloc, they tend to be more conservative on social issues such as same-sex marriage. This was something that strategist Karl Rove understood as the Bush campaign used the shiny-ball that was same-sex marriage in the 2004 presidential to garner just enough support among black voters in a state like Ohio to turn the tide in favor of the incumbent. It was a lesson that those who sought to defeat Proposition 8 should have studied.

It is clear though that organizers did little outreach into black communities assuming that with a black presidential candidate that was supportive of same-sex marriage, (though more tepidly supportive of Proposition 8 during the campaign cycle), that black voters would fall in line. But black views on same sex-marriage are more complicated; simply reading black voters as inherently homophobic misses the complexity of an issue that, in black communities, is often tied to the absence of black men as husbands and fathers. Understood in that context, same-sex marriage goes against the belief of many within black communities that black survival is hopelessly tied to traditional marriage patterns. That said, the Black Clergy needs to be accountable for hateful rhetoric directed towards gays, lesbians and transgendered citizens (including a good many in their congregations) and for willful fear-mongering.

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Hughley vs Chappelle?

from the Chronicle.com

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Waiting for Chappelle
by John L. Jackson Jr.

DL Hughley is trying to step into that televisual void opened up by Chappelle's hasty departure from his hit cable show in 2005. Chappelle walked away from the show (and tons of money) because he started to fear that some of his provocative racial humor was possibly reinforcing American racism, not challenging it through parodic excess. Hughley's new CNN show is operating on that same racial terrain, and he hasn't quite found the right balance between biting satirical commentary and the threat of a more vapid reinforcement of our worst racial stereotypes.

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Bakari Kitwana Chats It Up with Common

"Mama Africa" Goes Home

Obama and Hip-Hop? Jeezy and MAN on NPR

from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday

Obama Hip-Hop: From Mixtapes To Mainstream

Weekend Edition Sunday, November 9, 2008 - This election season, hip-hop performers and producers flocked to their mixing boards in unprecedented fashion.

Rapper Young Jeezy and professor Mark Anthony Neal discuss the impact of Barack Obama on hip-hop.

Listen @

Byron Hurt Chats Up "Barack & Curtis"

from NPR's All Things Considered

November 8, 2008 · Byron Hurt, the producer of the Web documentary Barack and Curtis, talks about the changing face of black masculinity in the U.S. since Barack Obama's rise to power.

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Happy Birthday, Hal Jackson!

Hal Jackson's Sunday Morning Classics was one of my original learning labs in the 1980s--it was the place where I was introduced to the depth and breadth of black music. I owe a tremendous debut to radio personalities like Mr. Jackson, Vaughn Harper, the Gerry Bledsoe, and the late Frankie Crocker for the kind of work I do today as a scholar and critic. I still have a treasured cassette of a night in 1985 when Bledsoe and Harper just held school for about three hours.

Listen as NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday helps celebrate Hal Jackson's 93rd Birthday and 69th year in radio.

Return of the SuperSheroes

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR
Labelle's Back to Now:
Soundtrack for an Historic Presidential Ticket
by Mark Anthony Neal

LaBelle, the groundbreaking 1970s trio comprised of Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx, and Patti Labelle, literally had to be imagined. In earlier iterations as the Bluebelles and Patty Labelle & the Bluebells, the group had a solid following on the chitlin' circuit in the late 1960s. In an era that was dominated by Motown girls groups such as Martha and the Vandellas and of course The Supremes, there was little chance that the Bluebelles would ever emerge from under the long shadows cast by the Motown machine. In steps Vicki Wickham, erstwhile television producer-turned-music promoter and manager, who had initially come in contact with Dash, Hendryx and Labelle when the trio toured the UK. Wickham agreed to serve as the group's new manager after they were dropped by their label, with the caveat that the group shorten their name to simply LaBelle.

As Patti Labelle recalls in her autobiography Don't Block the Blessings, Wickham imagined a future for the group that was "bold, brash, brazen. It was going to be revolutionary" adding that the group's music was going to be "political, progressive, passionate...three black women singing about racism, sexism, and eroticism." What Wickham imagined was a future that was well before its time; the pop music world and the arguably the even more insular universe of Soul and R&B were not yet quite prepared for black women speaking directly to worldly and even more personal concerns, such as the pursuit of sexual pleasure--this in the years before the emergence black women writers such as Ntozake Shange, Gayl Jones, Alice Walker, and Michele Wallace as major figures. To their credit, and quite unlike the example set by kindred spirit Betty Davis, Dash, Hendryx and most famously Labelle continued to chart their own musical courses, even when they couldn't hold the group together in the aftermath of their greatest success, the million-seller "Lady Marmalade." Back to Now (Verve) represents the group's first studio recording since 1976.

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Barack's Cool Pose

from NewsOne.com

Cool Like Obama
by Stephane Dunn

The emails, surprisingly, began to flow in shortly after midnight and President-elect Barack Obama’s speech at Grant Park. I had told my students at Morehouse College that we would have an electronic class in lieu of our Wednesday classes. They would have to email me their reactions to our historic election by midnight Wednesday (within twenty-four hours after Tuesdays election night) come what may.

I gave them one mandate: Keep it real.

In that first wave of emails, one steady refrain stood out-I’m proud to be a black man.

The sentiment brought to mind Michelle Obama’s statement, “For the first time, I am proud to be a black American.” Her comment was much maligned in mainstream media. But among the African-American community, however, her statement was anything but unpatriotic and incomprehensible.

Michelle was signifying the historic definition, treatment, and representation of black folk as something less than first class, genuine American citizens. She was echoing W.E.B DuBois’s much referenced articulation of double-consciousness, that curious condition of being American and, yet, via the demonization of one’s own blackness not American too.

My eighteen through twenty-something black male students at Morehouse may not grasp all the historical representations of black masculinity and various names for them that have dogged black male identity in America-Zip Coon and the brute-for example. But they have come of age when the culture and music that in part defines their speech, fashion, and masculinity has been marked dangerous and dysfunctional.

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Stephane Dunn is the author of Baad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas. She teaches popular culture and African American Studies at Morehouse College.

Whither the Black Political Brokers?

from NewsOne.com

LEFT OF BLACK
Black President Era May Challenge Black Brokers
by Mark Anthony Neal

There will no doubt be a few common threads of analysis that will emerge in the aftermath Senator Barack Obama’s defeat of John McCain in the 2008 Presidential contest. Many will debate the merits of the dominance of the Democrats in the Executive and Legislative wings of government. Others will remark on the near flawless execution of the Obama campaign. Much of the commentary though will center on how Obama’s election will impact the historical role of race in our national discourse.

Many pundits were quick to say that Obama’s victory will not erode centuries of anti-black racism in this country. But conventional wisdom suggests that traditional analyses of anti-black racism as a top-down phenomenon have to be rethought when an African-American sits as the so-called leader of the free world.

Obama’s election then raises critical questions about the role and continued relevance of advocacy organizations such as the NAACP, The National Urban League, and the Congressional Black Caucus.

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