Post Blackness (Group) Assignment

Elysse S. Price

Eng 4

Mr. DeWit

9/11/13-9/16/13

Post Blackness (Group) Assignment

Assignment:

Isolate an argument made in the book, sum up the logic of the argument in three sentences that capture the logic. Identify the page numbers where the argument happens in the book. Do with a partner.

Prepare a five-ten minute lesson for the class that Riffs On (a short repeated phrase), Critiques (detailed analysis and assessment of something, esp. a literary, philosophical, or political theory), Expounds Upon (present and explain (a theory or idea) systematically and in detail), that argument. Particularly draw out the Implications (the conclusion that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated) of the argument.

Argument (quotes):

“Post-Blackness is what it looks like when you’re no longer caught by your own trauma about racism and the history of Black people in the United States. Then everything is up for grabs as a possibility. Because you’re not wearing the trauma anymore. You get to use something that produced all that trauma and do something else with it.  So that’s how I’m thinking about how post-Blackness can operate. It’s not a disavowal of history, it’s just the determination that you’re not wearing all that trauma anymore and you’re not waiting for the world to be different to live your life in interesting ways.” Bottom of pg 21 top of pg 22

“The poet and Yale professor Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, who read an original poem at Obama’s inauguration, said, “The most racist thing that ever happened to me would likely be a continual underestimation of my intellectual ability and capacity, and the real insidious aspect of that kind of racism is that we don’t know half the time when people are underestimating us. We don’t know half the time when we’re being cut out of something because someone is unable to see us at full capacity. And so I presume that that happens, and has happened a lot.” She presumes this racist miscalculation of her brilliance happens quite often even though it never makes itself plain.” pg 121

Three Sentence Summary:

Acting in post-Blackness does not mean that you have to disown your personal occurrences and history. It means that you make the choice as to how to live your life comfortably without the shadows of your past hurt and or history’s hanging over you. Post-Blackness means building yourself up via your “Teflon Shield” and not allowing such negativity as underestimation, stereotypes, criticism and judgement to affect you and rule your life.

Lesson:

Expound upon:

Teflon- (Impenetrable)

A trademark for a durable plastic based on compounds of carbon and fluorine, used to coat certain cooking utensils and to prevent sticking of machine parts.

Trauma-

An emotional shock that causes serious and lasting damage to the psychological functioning of an individual.

Post-Blackness-

Being black isn’t an issue. It isn’t made to be different. It’s the same as everyone else.

Miscalculation-

To calculate incorrectly; make a wrong estimate of

2. To make an error in judgment:

Disavow (disavowal)-

To disclaim or deny knowledge of, responsibility for, or association with; disown

Insidious-

Intended to entrap, treacherous:

2. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or hidden manner:

Underestimation (underestimation)-

To judge or estimate too low the value, amount, quality, or capacity of

In “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness” Tour`e experiences underestimation himself. He is underestimated by a magazine editor when he tries to apply to the magazine as one of its writers. His value as a writer and whether or not he could be beneficial to the magazine was being underestimated.The editor tells Tour`e “I know you can write about Run-D.M.C., but can you write about Eric Clapton?” The editor does not think that Tour`e is capable of keeping the attention of a white audience through his writing because he is African-American.  By making the assumption that because Tour`e is black he couldn’t possibly hold knowledge of music by a white artist outside of Rap and Hip-Hop the editor is missing out on a very capable writer. This is because Tour`e later proves that he is capable of doing the job when he states that “Clapton in particular was a horrible example because he comes from Black music. He’s a direct descendant of the blues and a devotee of Jimi Hendrix.” and also including that “ it would be valuable to have a Black writer talk to him.” pg.99- 100 Tour`e goes on to state that it was because of his Teflon shield that the editors assumptions and underestimation did not have an effect on him continuing to pursue writing for other magazines although he never did get to write about Clapton.

The effectiveness of your “Teflon Shield” and whether or not it will stand against a certain quality of underestimation and judgement depends on how hard and how long you choose to work on building it. Tour`e tells us that “ you can never stop fortifying your shield.” pg. 106 Meaning we can always make our shields stronger than what they appear to be by continuously working on it and preparing for greater and stronger attacks than the last. Tour`e did this by believing  so much in what he knew  he was capable of doing, so much so that he didn’t allow it to affect him and lose confidence in his abilities.

Engaging the class:

How strong is your shield? Is it strong enough to withstand the next greater and stronger attack?

-Allow the class to respond

Retort:  

How do you know this?  I asked this because underestimation does not always come from someone else it could come from ourselves and penetrate our own shields. We could spend so much time building our shield and end up underestimating ourselves at the same time. We do this by losing confidence in what we’ve built, what we know and what we’re capable of. Think about that.