'Left of Black': Episode #30 featuring Mark Naison

Left of Black #30 w/ Mark Naison
April 18, 2011

Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by Fordham University Historian and activist Mark Naison in a wide ranging discussion about growing up as a White American embracing Black culture, the emergence of Black Studies on predominately White college campuses, the Bronx African American History Project and his infamous appearance on Chappelle’s Show.

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→Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

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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.

Syllabus: Black Satire

Black Satire
Duke University
AAAS 199S
Fall 2010
Monday/Wednesday 11:40-12:55 am
Languages 08

Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D.
Ernestine Friedl Building, room 243F


TEXTS

Tuff—Paul Beatty
Angry Black White Boy or The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay—Adam Mansbach
Erasure—Percival Everett
Oreo—Fran Ross
Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America—Bambi Haggins
Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery—Glenda Carpio
Black No More—George Schuyler
The Boondocks: All the Rage—Aaron McGruder


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will examine contemporary and historical expressions of Black Satire in Popular Literature and Culture. Given the social and political constraints that Black Americans were confronted with satire became a fertile arena for artists, writers, musicians and intellectuals to offer commentary about mainstream society as well as the inner-workings of Black life. Using examples from the late 19th century until our contemporary moment, the course will examine how various figures used satire to challenge the status quo and to offer more complex views of Black identity and culture. The course will use the work of earlier generations of satirists such as George Schuyler and Ollie Harrington, as well as contemporary examples such as novelists Percival Everett, Paul Beatty, and the late Fran Ross, cartoonist Aaron McGruder, comedians Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, Chris Rock and others.

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.

Read the Full Essay @