Imani Perry Reviews 'Malcolm X: A Life of Re-Invention'

'Malcolm X,' by Manning Marable

Review by Imani Perry | Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, April 24, 2011

In the early 1990s, it was popular for African American teenagers and young adults to wear T-shirts with images of Malcolm X that read, "Our own black shining prince," a reference to Ossie Davis' poignant eulogy of the slain leader. At that time, the embrace of Malcolm X, particularly by young hip-hop fans, seemed a deliberate counterpoint to the sanitized, mainstream and universally celebrated image of Martin Luther King Jr.

Malcolm X was, in our iconic rendering, the unapologetic black radical voice for freedom and justice. He served an important symbolic role for a post-civil rights generation of African Americans who faced the devastating long-term effects of deindustrialization, poverty, educational inequality and mass incarceration.

Now, some 20 years later, with the publication of Manning Marable's "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," the public is being challenged to dismantle the iconography of the "black shining prince" and confront Malcolm X as an incredibly complex and at times deeply conflicted figure.

Impassioned conflicts have arisen over the content of the biography. Salacious interest in whether Malcolm had homosexual encounters; whether he and his wife, Betty, were unfaithful to each other; whether he and Alex Haley misrepresented his story in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"; and whether the convicted parties were actually the ones responsible for his murder have been matched with outrage at the manner in which Marable unflinchingly presents Malcolm X as a fallible human being.

Marable's death, just a few days before his book's release, feels like a last gasp of herculean effort, a final, noble offering from a path-breaking historian and political scientist. While the author's absence facilitates some of the melodramatic reaction to his magnum opus, we are forced to defend or decry without his input.

But in truth, although the conflict over the content has probably driven sales and attention to the book, the brilliance of this biography has little if anything to do with its apparently shocking revelations. Marable has crafted an extraordinary portrait of a man and his time. Malcolm moves through the social and intellectual history of mid-20th century black America, and his periods of growth and stagnation mirror the tides of black life.

Read the Full Review @ The San Francisco Chronicle

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Imani Perry is a professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University.

Transcending Racial Inequality: Imani Perry on the Brian Lehrer Show

from WNYC

Transcending Racial Inequality | Monday, April 11, 2011

Imani Perry, professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University and author of the new book More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States , discusses persistent racial inequality in the U.S. and the way forward.

New Book! More Beautiful and More Terrible The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States

More Beautiful and More Terrible
The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States
by Imani Perry

272 pages
February, 2011
ISBN: 9780814767375

For a nation that often optimistically claims to be post-racial, we are still mired in the practices of racial inequality that plays out in law, policy, and in our local communities. One of two explanations is often given for this persistent phenomenon: On the one hand, we might be hypocritical—saying one thing, and doing or believing another; on the other, it might have little to do with us individually but rather be inherent to the structure of American society.

More Beautiful and More Terrible compels us to think beyond this insufficient dichotomy in order to see how racial inequality is perpetuated. Imani Perry asserts that the U.S. is in a new and distinct phase of racism that is “post-intentional”: neither based on the intentional discrimination of the past, nor drawing upon biological concepts of race. Drawing upon the insights and tools of critical race theory, social policy, law, sociology and cultural studies, she demonstrates how post-intentional racism works and maintains that it cannot be addressed solely through the kinds of structural solutions of the Left or the values arguments of the Right. Rather, the author identifies a place in the middle—a space of “righteous hope”—and articulates a notion of ethics and human agency that will allow us to expand and amplify that hope.

To paraphrase James Baldwin, when talking about race, it is both more terrible than most think, but also more beautiful than most can imagine, with limitless and open-ended possibility. Perry leads readers down the path of imagining the possible and points to the way forward.

Reviews

“Imani Perry has done it again. With an uncanny ability to merge art, law, social science, and cultural studies, she weaves a powerful analysis of race in contemporary America.” -- Patricia Hill Collins, author Another Kind of Public Education

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Imani Perry is a professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. She holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization and a J.D. both from Harvard and is the author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop.

Black Women and Advertising--Imani Perry on the Pepsi "Love Hurts" commercial

'Left of Black': Episode #18 featuring Randall Robinson and Imani Perry

Left of Black #18—January 24, 2011
w/Mark Anthony Neal

In this episode of Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal is joined by activist and author Randall Robinson in a conversation about the legacy of Black activism, reparations for African-Americans and growing up in Richmond, VA with his bother, the late television journalist Max Robinson. Neal also talks with Princeton University Professor Imani Perry, author of the new book More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States (NYU Press)

→Randall Robinson is the author of An Unbroken Agony and the national bestsellers The Debt, The Reckoning, and Defending the Spirit. He is also founder and past president of TransAfrica, the African-American organization he established to promote enlightened, constructive U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean.

→Imani Perry is is a Professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of More Terrible, More Beautiful, The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the U.S. and Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Duke Press)

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

Is (Black) Beauty Still a Feminist Issue?

from The Huffington Post

Is (Black) Beauty Still a Feminist Issue?
by Imani Perry

Last night I read my friends' tweets about the Miss Universe Pageant. But I didn't watch it. I am an old fashioned feminist when it comes to pageants. They turn my stomach. I find them embarrassing and absurd. But I can't be preachy about my dislike.

After all, I love fashion magazines, the ones filled with fantasies of over-the-top consumption and impossible beauty and I won't apologize for that indulgence, so I have no judgment for pageant watchers. Pageants just aren't for me.

But out of curiosity this morning I looked at the Miss Universe contestants online, inspired by the internet chatter. And lo and behold I was shocked when I realized that Miss Ecuador, Miss Honduras and Miss Nicaragua, were all Latinas of African descent. Only recently have noticeably Indian and African looking women begun to be featured on Latin American television and film, and still in small numbers.

Despite substantial African-descended populations throughout Latin America, they remain even more invisible in U.S. popular culture, notwithstanding the writings of Junot Diaz, Veronica Chambers, and Rosario Ferre, among others, who insightfully depict the fabric of race, history, and culture in Latin American nations.

I must admit, I was excited, to see these brown-skinned contestants, along with those from continental Africa and the Caribbean. That excitement was similar to the thrill I had earlier this year when I encountered the work of fashion photographer, Mario Epanya. Epanya shared his photos in a viral web campaign to have Condé Nast approve an African edition of Vogue Magazine (which they refused). His models have richly colored bodies, full lips, and bright eyes. They are adorned to dramatic effect. They are frankly, stunning.

I don't quite know what to make of my reaction to this brand of Black beauty. What does it mean for me as a feminist? Third and fourth wave feminists have argued that we should reclaim make-up and sexiness, and cast aside the old image of a feminist as a woman with a naked face and hairy legs. Fine, but the reality is that our beauty culture still plays a significant role in women having poor body images, lowered self esteem, and a feeling of intense competitiveness with other women.

I have often found myself wishing that instead of encouraging every woman to feel she is beautiful (which seems to be the central marketing device of most cosmetic companies), that we could find a way to make it such that beauty is not at the center of self-esteem. Who cares if one is beautiful or not? There are so many other ways to be special, of value, attractive, interesting, sexy! As girls, we are sold an idea of an "ideal way to be" that depends far too much on surface and not enough on substance, and we tragically carry that on our shoulders into womanhood.

And yet, I find myself honestly happy about these images of gorgeous women with hair and skin and lips like mine.

As a Black woman, for centuries now, flesh like my flesh has carried the burden of presumed inferiority. Black women have been cast as hypersexual or desexualized, always available yet undesired, ridiculous and often ugly, the mules of the world. Notwithstanding a few beauty icons, public figures, and celebrities, these stereotypic representations are still common. And perhaps this is why the fantasy of a beauty culture that includes Black women has so much allure. Fantastic images of Black women who are desired yet untouchable, pristine, flawless, and admired, lie so contrary to how we have been cast throughout history. And that feels kind of good.

But of course, as enjoyable as those images can be, we must not allow them to distract us from the daily work of feminism and gender liberation. The recent reports of sexual violence in Haiti and the Congo, sexual exploitation and trafficking here in the States, honor killings in the Middle East, are each the tip of a very large iceberg. The iceberg itself is a global culture in which the devaluation of humanity and the denial of fundamental respect are all too common. Feminism is, at it's very best, a call for humanism with a global reach. Pretty is nothing compared to that.

My personal resolution on the beauty issue is this: When images of physical beauty serve to diminish the depth of a woman's personhood, we should reject them. And when they seem to restore an appreciation of that which has been devalued, or to be attached to an open sense of expressiveness, play, and fun, then we should feel free to enjoy them. But in either case, our eyes must always be focused on actual lives, not just screens and pages in a magazine.

Follow Imani Perry on Twitter: www.twitter.com/imaniperry

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Imani Perry is Professor in the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University

Race and Presidential Politics

from the Huffington Post

Who's Afraid of the Big Black Wolf? Race and Presidential Politics
by Imani Perry and Eddie Glaude, Jr.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."-Theodore Roosevelt

We would do well to heed President's Roosevelt's words today. They assume a robust conception of democratic life - that the sentiments of Americans are not so easily manipulated; that our responsibility for our way of life extends beyond our own selfish concerns. That with rights come responsibilities, and with freedom comes duty.

The history of African American struggle has added to this view that everyday, ordinary folk can transform the order of things; that a gathering of committed persons can make a real difference and meaningfully extend the body of rights and the scope of freedom for all of us.

If we take seriously this democratic ideal, how must we evaluate this administration's stance on issues of race?

To be honest, President Obama is scared. He refuses to substantively engage the bare fact that race continues to haunt our society, even when pushed to do so by racial incidents or manufactured news stories. He appears to believe that his own race can serve as a proxy for genuine concern. But the truth needs to be told.

In his Urban League address, Obama dismissed the idea of a national dialogue about race (commissions, academic symposia, etc. are cast aside as ineffective). He suggested instead that genuine conversations about race should take place around water coolers at work and at dining room tables. While it is true this sort of talk is meaningful and needed, we must also publicly address the persistence of racial inequality. Refusing to do so renders the subject, to a certain extent at least, a private matter - a matter of our hearts instead of policy.

But to think about our "racial habits of the heart" as a private matter is to lose sight of how those habits - and the dispositions and distributions that follow from them -- impact policy. In dismissing a national response to the persistence of racial inequality, President Obama neglects to address a persistent failing in the promise of American democracy. Our loyalty to the American public, and our obligations as citizens, should lead us to hold him to account for this neglect. Civic virtue demands as much.

Some suggest that the racially tinged attacks on the President from the right, and the mere fact of his blackness should protect him from any critiques on issues of race. Such claims are absurd. As the President of the United States, Obama is entrusted with the responsibility to navigate us through all of our national challenges. Of course, we should be sensitive to his particular challenge as the first African American president, but we must be responsive to the millions of Americans whose fates are also highly determined by their racial group membership. Silence, to echo President Roosevelt, would be "morally treasonous."

Race continues to matter, and reveals its manipulations in employment, housing, health, education and criminal justice. African Americans have an unemployment rate that is double that of the national average.

African Americans can expect to live 6 years fewer than other Americans and there are nearly one million incarcerated Black people in the United States. The force of racial inequality is heightened further in the impact of this economic downturn. We might all be on a sinking ship, but for those under the deck, the water engulfs more quickly.

President Obama and those in his administration seem to have made the political calculation that any serious talk about racial inequality would doom his presidency. If he does talk about race, his method has been one of indirection: a "lifting all boats" strategy.

Such an approach renders invisible the way race continues to impact the life chances of fellow citizens and deepens our national neurosis. If we follow this path, Americans, irrespective of whether they or racist or not, will continue to make the choices that result in racial inequalities.

President Obama is not unique in this approach. In general, the ideal of democratic life is being held captive by triangulating politicians in the White House and the relentless pursuit of greed throughout the rest of the country. But who would have thought that under our first African American president, race matters would be worse?

So what is required of us in this moment?

The burden lies on us to refuse political calculation when it stands in the stead of honest dialogue and political responsibility -- whether it comes from Republicans or Democrats, tea partiers, or our President. The words of Walt Whitman come to mind: "a nation like ours...is not served by the best men only but sometimes more by those that provoke it--by the combat they arouse." We must address directly racial inequality in this country. And such an effort would not amount to a call for reparations, as John McWhorter suggests rather, it would be a genuine effort to usher in a new era for our nation.

Imani Perry on Hip Hop Politics and Poetics

A New “YGRT” Podcast:
Imani Perry on Hip Hop Politics and Poetics

Listen HERE

Imani Perry: Embracing Precious

We . . . yearn for the stories of those who sustain humanity and decency in the face of devastating poverty and marginalization . . . for those stories . . . are, after all, far more representative of Black life than the wreck that is Precious’ life.

Embracing Precious:
The nuances and truths in the individual and collective stories we tell
by Imani Perry

These are strange days indeed. We are firmly into the 21st century, and yet the 80s are haunting us. For African Americans it is yet again a decade of dream and deferral.

Back in the ‘80s, for the young Black and college educated, the doors of corporate America and other professions opened up and broadened the spectrum of the Black middle class like never before. But also, back in the ‘80s, crack cocaine and the aftermath of deindustrialization crippled areas of concentrated blackness in major urban centers.

Now in the 21st century, a new Black elite floods the popular imagination as Capitol Hill, the president and his administration become more and more colorful. But also now, in the 21st century, the recession hits Black communities hardest, and at the intersection of devastating rates of imprisonment, joblessness, and inadequate education lie a critical, hurting, mass of Black Americans.

Then came Precious.

The film, released in the Fall of 2009 elicited a flurry of responses. The debates over the film were complex, nuanced, impassioned. In fact, among the Black intelligentsia there seemed to be more discussion about Precious than there was about President Obama’s education agenda, the stimulus package, or rising unemployment and imprisonment. That was troubling. But then again, it is easier to fire off a blog post or provide a commentary about a movie than it is to write a concise response to a complicated web of policy, law, and economics. However, I believe the film elicited so much engaged response precisely because it highlighted the challenge of this moment when it comes to race in America.

The film tells an individual story, a poignant one, about an abused young woman in Harlem in the 1980s. If we attend to the individual story, fictional though it may be, our hearts go out to Precious. We see in her story personal resilience, possibility, healing. Those are good things.

The film tells a collective story. The story it tells is about the devastation that the 80s wrought on Black communities, and the failure of the public school system to provide a path out for “the underclass.”

In both the collective story and the individual story, there is truth. There is a real Precious out there. The story is fictional, but it is human. The problem is that fictional stories, especially ones on film, don’t just stand as individual stories, but they do “representative work.” They become part of the way we make sense of the world in which we live. The story of one novelist or filmmaker’s imagination becomes the story of entire groups of people or “types” of people. This is especially true when the kind of social location depicted in the story is remote from the experience of the majority of the viewers.

Read the Full Essay @ Afro-Netzien

Duke University Law School Presents: "Hip-hop culture: a convenient scapegoat or a contributor to inequality?"

Mills Conversation Series: "Hip-hop culture: a convenient scapegoat or a contributor to inequality?"

March 21, 2008 -- The Jean E. and Christine P. Mills Conversation Series on Race continues at Duke Law School on Wed., March 26, with a panel discussion on the variously controversial and conciliatory aspects of hip-hop culture.

This event will begin at 12:15 p.m. in room 3041 and is free and open to the public. The Law School is located at the corner of Science Drive and Towerview Road on Duke University’s West Campus, with parking available at the Bryan Center. A light lunch will be served on a first-come, first-served basis.

Three distinguished scholars will lead the discussion on the inter- and intra-racial implications of the hip-hop genre. Duke Professor of African & American Studies Mark Anthony Neal has written extensively about black and hip-hop music and culture in works that include That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Professor Imani Perry of Rutgers Law School, the author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop, focuses her scholarship on race in law and culture. Professor Mario L. Barnes of the University of Miami School of Law, is a specialist in the areas of criminal and constitutional law and race and the law.

Co-sponsored by the Program in Public Law, the Jean E. and Christine P. Mills Conversation Series on Race is endowed by Amos Mills ’72 with a view to opening lines of communication and improving relationships among people of different skin colors and backgrounds.

The series is organized by Professor Trina Jones, whose own scholarship and teaching focuses on issues related to diversity, colorism, and employment discrimination. The topics for the March conversations were selected, she said, to take a discussion of race out of a strictly black-white paradigm and demonstrate the complexity of race relations in the United States between and within racial groups.

“In addition to examining how whites react to the ‘browning’ of America, we have explored how other groups of color respond to the recent influx of Latino and Latina immigrants ― which actually isn’t a new phenomenon ― through our first two events,” said Jones. “We are acknowledging some of the underlying perceptions of threat, particularly as they relate to the competition for low-paying jobs, and access to social services ― such as health care and education ― that can present a challenge to lower-income Americans."

With a particular view to initiating a dialogue across age groups, the March 26 discussion will acknowledge the cross-racial appeal of hip-hop, Jones said. “It is perceived to be a black art form, but huge numbers of suburban white youths also participate. In addition to taking account of its much discussed negative aspects, we will be examining hip-hop’s opportunities for cross-racial interaction and even healing.”Webcasts are or will be available of all events in the Mills Conversation Series on Race.

For more information, contact Frances Presma at (919) 613-7248.