... the other Black experience
What is the role of “Black” rock in the age of Obama?
If you look at the post-election electoral map, you see that 90% of the country voted for Obama. That's a multicultural, multi-generational coalition of voters that came together across many socioeconomic boundaries. Obama's victory certainly says something about where we are as a country, that there has been a shift in sensibilities. The Black rock community needs to figure out what's being said, and what that means for us. 'Cause, honestly, I want to us to part of and able to speak with relevance to this group, not once again relegated to being the freaks on the the fringes of American culture.
As Barack noted, the election wasn't the change we seek, only the opportunity to make change. The fact that the highest office in the land is occupied by a Black man shifts an important frame for everyone, particularly Black kids like my 9-year-old son. Barack's election shatters a huge and imposing glass ceiling. Certainly, as they fall, those shards of glass are shredding Black identity politics, right? Those leaders who relied on leveraging Black victimization and White guilt to hold their positions of “authority” and be gatekeepers to the community (Tavis Smiley, anyone?) are going to be marginalized. They'll look like anachronisms, so last century. The election of Obama means we've finally begun the 21st century.
Once the seemingly impossible is achieved, it's no longer impossible. But answer me this: What exactly changed? More importantly, to what degree? See, you can't really talk about the relevance of Black rock today, November 11, 2008, until you answer these questions.
The NY Times calls them Generation O. They are the 18-29 year olds and those slightly older who rallied to support this historic run. The audience--particularly the Black audience that we most want to impact--for Black rock is clearly part of Generation O.
Marketers have long called this specific group “Millennials” or Generation Y. Basically, anyone born in 1980 or later. What this means is that this generation—particularly Black kids-- have completely different cultural reference points than those of us who were born in the late 60s and came of age in the mid 80s. We remember school desegregation. For those of us in the middle class, we were aware that there was a mass entree by our parents or parents' friends into Corporate America, an environment that, in many cases, was less than inviting and in some cases openly hostile. They don't have our connection to the Civil Rights movement, whereas we are acutely aware that our parents lived through the crucible of the 1960s, and we feel a greater obligation to honor their commitment and sacrifice. And in some ways, I'm glad we went through the Afrocentric 90s so that Blacks in their 20s don't have to. In fact, the Black members of Generation O are the beneficiaries of everything that the Civil Rights movement sought to achieve: The real freedom to see themselves as individuals, not primarily as a member of a monolithic group.
Black rock is necessarily rooted in identity politics. But these days, the term that's been bandied about is “post-racial,” which describes this moment some feel we're in and one that pinpoints Gen Y's lessened connection to the identity—racial, in this case—politics of earlier generations. For Black kids, their Blackness is a fact, but they're much more self-defined by their lifestyle and the communities they've opted to participate in. In light of this, I wonder to what extent the appeals to racial pride, which is what “Black rock” can be read as—you know, Blacks doing and reclaiming rock—seem old and tired in this age of Obama.
One of the things the Black rock nation has to remember is that this election was, in fact, a repudiation of identity politics and the culture wars that defined the political environment of the Bush and Clinton years. The country wants change. But we've got to balance that with the fact that some things have not. For example, just because we have a Black president, doesn't mean that racism has gone—or is going—away. Our family in Texas called and said that at my niece's school, a bunch of kids came to school on Wednesday with Obama t-shirts: His face was crossed out, and “KKK” was written above the picture. Vigilance is still necessary. But something has changed. The spontaneous celebrations on election night in Brooklyn and cities throughout the country and the world proved that.
I predict there will be a national dialogue on change. It'll happen on a lot of levels and come through a variety of channels. The challenge for Black rock is to figure how it can be additive to this process. Look at the Black rock artists who are gaining national exposure--TV on the Radio, Santogold, Janelle Monae, Whole Wheat Bread, to name a few--and all the thousands coming behind them. Maybe the last 23 years (the length of time the Black Rock Coalition's been in existence) has been about reasserting our place on the American musical landscape. Maybe, just maybe, we've reclaimed our right to rock. If that's the case, and given where we are as a people and as a country today, maybe the next 20+ years needs to be about something else.
I just wonder what that is.
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Comment
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Comment by Raw Action on November 21, 2008 at 12:25pm -
I love this post - exactly the kinds of conversations that we need to be having in my view! How to take things forward.
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Comment by Rob Fields on November 19, 2008 at 9:05am -
Great comments, everyone, and thanks for taking time to share your thoughts. Rhyson, to your point about community: I think that's the key. As there become more and more places for alt Black kids to gather, talk and build, I think we'll ensure the continued viability of the scene and the "movement". PolariVibez touches on a similar point. You're right, too, that those of us in Afropunk/Black rock have been saying these things for a long time.
And, to Matthew's point about not being boxed in, I think it is important that we all continue to be examples of the type of Black creative freedom that we want to see in the world. Because, I believe there are a ton more folks who'll be coming over and joining this thing we're creating. We just have to keep the fires burning so that they can find us.
Finally, I think this is all well and good. But we also might want to ask how we can better impact adn engage in this dialogue about change that will be happening in the larger society. I feel like what we've talked about here speaks to how we keep our community going, and it will be critical, I think, to set a course that's about shaping the tone and tenor of whatever discussion takes place. In many ways--and I know I'm having trouble articulating this--when it comes to this larger discussion, it's not about the music, but about our participation in that discussion. I have this notion that our relevance will be tied to the extent to which we are engaged outside of this music community.
I don't know. I need to think about it some more. Maybe I'll be clearer next time.
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Comment by Matthew on November 13, 2008 at 5:43pm -
Well said Rhyson. To be honest i made a consorted effort not to allow AP to be boxed in. I chose to let the community define itself and it seems to do that very well. The thing is we should be allowed to change and evolve with out ridicule. I'm sure i've been criticized for it in the past because a band i've booked hasn't been punk enough, but that was the point. If all the bands where punk then we would exclude a whole group of other alternative brothers and sisters that just want to be down. Its funny that Santogold has been mentioned. I actually met James indirectly through Santi whom i was managing at the time. Santi (Santo Gold) had an amazing punk band called Stiffed. I couldn't get any one to sign the band despite the amazing amount of press she had gotten around the band. I was told numerous times that their was no audience for alternative black music by record executives. I encountered the same situation with Cree Summer. Now I didn't grow up here so I'm not bound by the same set of rules. All i saw was this amazing talent and truly believed as i still do that their is a hugh audience out there. So i set out to create a platform for alternative black talent of all kinds. I used to say, Afro-punk is for every one outside of Hip-Hop and R&B. That helped me sale it to people that just had the literal term stuck in their minds Afro-punk, Black Punks. Away with the boxes, LETS GET FREE. Isn't that the point....
Matthew
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Comment by Rhyson on November 13, 2008 at 2:47am -
"The concept of afropunk has grown into something a lot larger than the intial need for afropunk. Just because that initial need "seems" to become more obselete daily dosen't mean that the individuals of a community that can be loosley defined by the words "afro" and "punk" will become obselete."
Couldn't have said it better.
"TV on the Radio, Santogold, Janelle Monae, Whole Wheat Bread, to name a few--and all the thousands coming behind them"
I think we're the next great genre of music. The worst thing Afro Punk can do is abide by a strict interpretation of what the genre is supposed to be about. I'm attracted to the movement because it doesn't seem to want to box itself in.
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Comment by PolarVibez on November 12, 2008 at 3:15pm -
Rob,
I was asking myself some of the very same questions you've touched upon in this blog. To be Black in America is to be marginalized enough. But then to know that you just don't completely fit into some premanufactured mode of blackness is to be pushed even further to the fringes. So the whole time you're basically out there alone trying to figure everything out, you're constantly telling yourself this is who I am, I'm different and there's nothing I can do about it but just be myself. In a sense you feel like your under attack So you get defensive. You define yourself. It's like some kinda wall is put up between you and anyone who tries to define you. Your used to fighting. And then you wake up one day and all the walls you've built up seem useless because it seems like no one is trying to tear them down anymore. For me, race was always the elephant in the room. It's just there. We go around and try not to talk about it but eventually it will show it's face and sometimes that face is very ugly. I don't sit down and say, "today i'm going to write a song about gentrification" or "Hmm, I feel like writing about white supremacist today" . Those songs just happen because they are part of my reality. They were in my mind lurking around then a line just comes out of nowhere and before I know it, I've got a song. So what do I do with these songs now? Just shove them in a box that says "every thing that mattered before Obama"? Obama has been president elect for a week. I've been Black in America for 30 years.
It's going to be interesting to see what kind of changes we will actually see over the next couple of years. When things are shitty and people are rallying around some rebellious cause it's easy to have things to talk about. It's easy to be clever and subversive or overtly angry because there is so much to subvert and be angry about. But is a more "utopian" environment more of an artistic challenge for many who've been part of an alternative community? I won't say it is for me personally because I just don't talk about any one thing the most. The reality of a post-racial, post Bush-shit world would just mean I could talk about certain things less. But in a sense Afro-punks are kind of in a position to say "we've been telling y'all this all along"."Let's get pass these boundaries". The concept of afropunk has grown into something a lot larger than the intial need for afropunk. Just because that initial need "seems" to become more obselete daily dosen't mean that the individuals of a community that can be loosley defined by the words "afro" and "punk" will become obselete.
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Comment by Rob Fields on November 11, 2008 at 12:05pm
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Dwayne:
I think Black rock is ahead of the curve, but I also want to make sure it stays there and, most of all, stays current with the mood and sensibilities of the times. That it will is not necessarily a given.
In terms of the NWA post, that's one of the challenges that our community will have to contend with. While I'm happy to be here in America and demand full participation in the opportunities that this country affords, I don't think that we should give thanks 400 years later for being stolen from our families and disconnected from our culture. That was an horrific act, and this country is only where it is (in such a short period of time) because of the free labor it was able to extract from slaves and their descendants. So, while I understand the desire to take advantage of the opportunities here on NWA's part, I think the way that they express and rationalize it is very misguided.
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