Fading To Post Modern Blackness
—review written by Alvin Sanders, executive director of EFCA Samaritan Way
Unpacking "Post-Blackness"
Rolling Stone contributing editor Toure’ is not one to shy away from breaking Black racial norms in his racially rowdy book, Who’s Afraid of Post Blackness? The title refers to the notion that in the 21st Century there exists a new understanding of the Black identity. He interviewed 105 well known Black personalities from a variety of vocations on his journey to unpack “Post-Blackness.”
Post-Blackness like most terms under the Post-Modernist umbrella is an attempt to redefine meaning. Toure’ borrowed the term from the art world where Black artists were envisioning a way to practice their craft without being pigeonholed into the genre of “Black Art.” So to define their shows and artistic pieces they constructed the term Post-Black. This term is not to be confused with the more controversial “Post-Racial,” a term which suggests that race does not play a significant role in America anymore. Post-Blackness is contrarian to such a notion. (“It doesn’t mean we’re over Blackness; it means we’re over our narrow understanding of what Blackness means.”)
New Racial Day
Racially Toure’ believes one age has ended and another begun (“the age of Obama”). When using this term he is not talking politics but rather using it as a signifier of a new racial day. Obama’s racial identity is “rooted in, but not restricted by, his Blackness,” as interviewee Dr. Michael Eric Dyson puts it. Obama’s refusal to engage in racial identity politics, while at the same time maintaining a strong connection to Black America, has been nothing short of political revolution. By taking such a posture he was able to move from fighting the power to being the power. The same could be said of the President’s good friend Oprah Winfrey. (“She ruffled a lot of Black feathers by turning Blackness inside out and allowing it to breathe in the white world on its own with little explanation or apology.”)
Oprah and Obama
For the author both Oprah and Obama serve as metaphors for a new generation of Blacks that refuses to be pigeon-holed into a stereotypical racial Black narrative. This generation vigorously defends their rights to individualism while at the same time value the history of the collective Black experience. Concerning that experience, they refuse to be limited or totally defined by it. This is the author’s core argument. (“The number of ways of being Black is infinite” and “what it means to be Black has grown so staggeringly broad, so unpredictable, so diffuse that Blackness itself is undefinable.”)
Of course the “age of Obama” and corresponding Post-Black posture doesn’t necessarily sit well with all. For instance Dr. Cornel West and luminary Tavis Smiley have been super critical of Post-Black posture and have publically accused the President of ignoring issues specific to the Black community. Really the charge is Obama has not been Black enough. Anyone who has been Black for more than a few minutes knows this charge is not limited to politics. There are “racial police” in all venues enforcing all kinds of chameleon like rules of Blackness.
"You ain’t black!"
One incident the author talks about happened while he was a college student at Emory University. At 2:30 am he entered into a discussion with some fellow Black students concerning always being stuck with cleaning up after a party. A linebacker sized Black man who wasn’t even in the conversation silenced the whole room by shouting angrily “Shut up, Toure’! You ain’t black!” He talks about the embarrassment of being charged with being an Uncle Tom and reflects on the racial wrestling that followed. Toure’ desires this type of attitude to be eliminated. (“I wish for every Black-American to have the freedom to be Black however he or she chooses and to banish from the collective mind the bankrupt, fraudulent concept of ‘authentic’ Blackness.”)
The affect?
So how does the Post-Black dynamic affect us? Historically seven major denominations comprise the traditional Black church. Blacks have also had a significant presence in historic white denominations such as the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, United Methodist, and Roman Catholic churches. Over the last century most of the perspective of the Black Christian experience has arisen from those two groups with good reason.
Today we need to acknowledge the existence of a significant Post-Black church movement. Over the last 40 years Blacks have found Christ through white para-church ministries such as Navigators, Intervarsity, and the like. Many have matured in their faith within evangelical independent Bible churches, been educated in predominately white seminaries, and found homes in white denominations looking to become multiethnic. This group has a set of distinctives that differ from the historic Black church. Will the Post-Black Christian generation be grafted into the overall Black church experience?
Rooted in, Not Restricted By…
I have a significant dog in this fight. Post-Blackness presents to us the idea of being rooted in, but not restricted by, Blackness. I would have to say that is where I live. Like most in my shoes I have historic roots in the traditional Black church, but possess a Post-Black Christian identity. Black church, is there room for me?
*The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church; The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church; The Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church; The National Baptist Convention, USA., Incorporated (NBC); The National Baptist Convention of America, Unincorporated (NBCA); The Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC); and The Church of God in Christ (COGIC).
