---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Philips <philips@mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Date: Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 7:29 AM
Subject: Herman Cain, anti-Blackness and Gender
To: H-USA@h-net.msu.edu
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 09:43:04 -0600
From: Kelvin Monroe <phrccino@hotmail.com>
Subject: Herman Cain, anti-Blackness and Gender
Morning,
About 5am this morning (and for a few days now), I caught snippets of NPR and the "Early Show" on CBS, and they were talking about the Cain's accuser coming forward--I thought to myself: "they are going to get this brutha!"
What disturbed me, is the seemingly hyper-white backlash to Obama (a shadow of his former "self") perhaps, vetted through and against the bodies of Troy Davis, Herman Cain, and Conrad Murray--and to keep it global, the geographically-Black bodies of Uganda and Libya.
Because of what's been happening in the media over the past months, and because it is all so thick with convergent cuts and augments of political agendas and regimes of sexualized racial schemes, this raised quite a few questions in my mind:
--To what extent should one be concerned about the anti-black discourses surrounding the bodies of Herman Cain and Dr. Conrad Murray--as they appear, narratively, and utilized in the media?
--How does Cain's accuser's *looking-for-work-in-the-90s* ruse (early 90s marked an almost violently discursive white male backlash against an increased public presence of women, affirmative action, increase of undocumented persons, etc.) functions in a racialized social formation--where upwards of ten percent of "white" americans are unemployed and in fact, disgruntled--notwithstanding that Black unemployment has consistently remained at almost 30% in the last 28 years or so?
--In noticing that Professor Anita Hill has spoken on the Cain controversy, how can we begin to think about C. Thomas' usurping of race (the "lynching narrative"--a lynching he survived, no doubt, but to what political ends), to silence Professor's Hill's already repressed gendered narrative--which is largely owned by White feminists: a narrative now seemingly occupying & fueling much of the media's discursive aggression towards Cain? (vice president Biden was also complicit in the assault against Professor Anita Hill).
--What does it mean that Gloria Allred, a celebrity-status attorney and White feminist, is representing Cain's high profile accuser (Allred also represented Nicole Brown Simpson; more, the 2 or 3 times I have watched her simply silence, shut down,and humiliate Black-women-plaintiffs--against white defendants--on her show)?
--In what ways are Cain and Thomas' co-opting of a racial narrative confluent in attempting to mobilize Black sentiment--from a black majority that Thomas' rulings did not favor, nor Cain's own neo-con platform?
--How can we also begin to understand Obama's anti-Black (anti-human) military policies (re: Uganda, Libya) as politically articulating context for what James Snead refers to as the code of mythification--re: Herman Cain, Dr. Murray, Africa)?
I am sure there are other implications here that I am overlooking. These questions are in draft form, in order to facilitate ways of synthesizing what's happening into my current courses. Thanks for your time.
Best,
KjM.
How should two people treat each other
If they both know God?
Like a musician touching [her] violin
With utmost care
To caress the final note.
~Hafiz
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Visit H-USA www site:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~usa
***************************************************************
Please send your question or comment about the USA
in plain ASCII text to H-USA on-line editor John Philips:
<philips@mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Please include your name and (if appropriate) affiliation.
******************************************************************
To post to H-USA send your message to h-usa@h-net.msu.edu
Visit H-USA www site:
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***************************************************************
From: John Philips <philips@mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Date: Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 7:29 AM
Subject: Herman Cain, anti-Blackness and Gender
To: H-USA@h-net.msu.edu
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 09:43:04 -0600
From: Kelvin Monroe <phrccino@hotmail.com>
Subject: Herman Cain, anti-Blackness and Gender
Morning,
About 5am this morning (and for a few days now), I caught snippets of NPR and the "Early Show" on CBS, and they were talking about the Cain's accuser coming forward--I thought to myself: "they are going to get this brutha!"
What disturbed me, is the seemingly hyper-white backlash to Obama (a shadow of his former "self") perhaps, vetted through and against the bodies of Troy Davis, Herman Cain, and Conrad Murray--and to keep it global, the geographically-Black bodies of Uganda and Libya.
Because of what's been happening in the media over the past months, and because it is all so thick with convergent cuts and augments of political agendas and regimes of sexualized racial schemes, this raised quite a few questions in my mind:
--To what extent should one be concerned about the anti-black discourses surrounding the bodies of Herman Cain and Dr. Conrad Murray--as they appear, narratively, and utilized in the media?
--How does Cain's accuser's *looking-for-work-in-the-90s* ruse (early 90s marked an almost violently discursive white male backlash against an increased public presence of women, affirmative action, increase of undocumented persons, etc.) functions in a racialized social formation--where upwards of ten percent of "white" americans are unemployed and in fact, disgruntled--notwithstanding that Black unemployment has consistently remained at almost 30% in the last 28 years or so?
--In noticing that Professor Anita Hill has spoken on the Cain controversy, how can we begin to think about C. Thomas' usurping of race (the "lynching narrative"--a lynching he survived, no doubt, but to what political ends), to silence Professor's Hill's already repressed gendered narrative--which is largely owned by White feminists: a narrative now seemingly occupying & fueling much of the media's discursive aggression towards Cain? (vice president Biden was also complicit in the assault against Professor Anita Hill).
--What does it mean that Gloria Allred, a celebrity-status attorney and White feminist, is representing Cain's high profile accuser (Allred also represented Nicole Brown Simpson; more, the 2 or 3 times I have watched her simply silence, shut down,and humiliate Black-women-plaintiffs--against white defendants--on her show)?
--In what ways are Cain and Thomas' co-opting of a racial narrative confluent in attempting to mobilize Black sentiment--from a black majority that Thomas' rulings did not favor, nor Cain's own neo-con platform?
--How can we also begin to understand Obama's anti-Black (anti-human) military policies (re: Uganda, Libya) as politically articulating context for what James Snead refers to as the code of mythification--re: Herman Cain, Dr. Murray, Africa)?
I am sure there are other implications here that I am overlooking. These questions are in draft form, in order to facilitate ways of synthesizing what's happening into my current courses. Thanks for your time.
Best,
KjM.
How should two people treat each other
If they both know God?
Like a musician touching [her] violin
With utmost care
To caress the final note.
~Hafiz
******************************************************************
To post to H-USA send your message to h-usa@h-net.msu.edu
Visit H-USA www site:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~usa
***************************************************************
Please send your question or comment about the USA
in plain ASCII text to H-USA on-line editor John Philips:
<philips@mail.h-net.msu.edu>
Please include your name and (if appropriate) affiliation.
******************************************************************
To post to H-USA send your message to h-usa@h-net.msu.edu
Visit H-USA www site:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~usa
***************************************************************
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