The Black And Black British Diaspora

John Howard Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, writes an autobiographical account what he passed through for a period of about 10 months. Howard has an idea that has been haunting him for a long duration of time; he wondered the various kinds of life changes that a white man would need to be labeled a Negro in the southern region of the United States. Howard wanted to acquire first hand information of the daily experiences of the African Americans in the Deep South. Black Like Me offers an account of the bad and good things that Howard went through because of the vivid makeover from being white to being black. This paper reviews John Howard Griffin’s Black like me, the paper provides a summary of the book,

George Simmel’s, ‘The Stranger’ and W.E.B. Du Bois’, ‘Souls of Black Folk’ pose very parallel arguments in understanding the role of a ‘stranger’ in society. In Simmel’s work, he examines the trajectory of the stranger through an abstract lens. He establishes a conceptual framework for the ‘stranger’ within society while Du Bois presents a more tangible illustration through the experiences of African Americans in the United States. Although each approach is discrete from the other, the theories behind both arguments are comparable.

The continued commercial inclusion of African-American images, language and music, does not eliminate double-consciousness- it may, in fact, magnify it. The stereotypes and images of Black people in America have evolved since Du Bois coined his term in 1897, but even the ever-changing understanding of Black culture leaves most African-Americans trapped in a conflict of who they are versus who they are believed to be in the eyes of America. On one hand, Africans are credited with inventing many genres of sound, dance, art and athletic styles. Although there are many groundbreaking contributions in math, medicine and science, Africans are not “popular” for these attributes. Because of this, many African-American parents keep their children from concentrating on such areas of strength as dance, music or sports in order to keep them away from a stereotypical field of study. Double-consciousness will have a talented athlete fore-go a sports career so that they are not considered “just another ball player”.

Furthermore, Biman Basu’s The Black Voice And The Language Of The Text: Toni Morrison’s Sula, investigates what he calls “one of the most significant developments in African American tradition…the formation of a class of intellectuals” (Article). More precisely, Basu is speaking of individuals like Morrison, who have not only broken down barriers for herself as a woman writer, but the others whom have followed in her footsteps to publish a rich tapestry of African-American literature. Furthermore, Basu’s investigates the conflict that arises when one class overtakes another stating that the conflict “on one hand, is between African-American and American Culture, and on the other, between this class of intellectuals and the ‘people’”(article).

Black Like Me is the incredibly interesting story of John Griffin, a Caucasian man who decided to try being African American in the south during the 60s. In this analysis paper I will be addressing the ethics of this project, his potential self-deception, his ability to pass unnoticed as an imposter, along with his courage for attempting such a dangerous project in the Deep South. His project was a success and a remarkable accomplishment for such an individual.

Marcus Garvey, a ‘proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements” (), once stated that “a people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Good Reads Quotes) He was in fact very much so right. Most people in this world care about where they come from, who they descended from and where the backbone of their identity lies. Have you ever wondered why almost most orphans tend to look for their family lines or go out in search of where they belong? It is with this very essence my quest to look for answers and investigate about two very distinct yet similar groups. The groups I examine throughout this paper are Africans and African-Americans. What I seek to find out is why two very ‘distinct’ yet similar groups of people fail to see eye to eye, judging from the fact that Africans and African-Americans look alike, originated from Africa and their histories and culture somehow intertwine with each other. The main question here really is: what are the factors that hinder the relationship between Africans and African-American people.

Many black political theorists, either through the legacy of their works, or through the explicit explanation in their text have sought to determine the role of the black intellectual ranging from renowned scholars such as Dr. Michael Eric Dyson to Dr. Cornel West. In a quest to better understand the burdens and expectations of the black intellectual, it is only reasonable to undergo a critical thought experiment into how prominent black political theorists such as Walter Rodney conceptualize the role of the black intellectual in context of constant oppression and erasure. Hence, this paper will focus on Walter Rodney’s speech “The Groundings with My Brothers” and evaluate the claims made therein regarding the role of the black

In Black Like Me, John Griffin Howard aims to reveal to white american readers that black people living in southern America face injustices that are incomprehensible to white people and are often caused by them. He does this through striking diction, appealing to Pathos, and a disheartened tone. In Black Like Me, one way that Griffin communicates that black people face injustices that are incomprehensible to white people is through his clear diction. He recalls looking at a white woman and describes the way that she talked to him as that “she spat out”, asking him, “what are you looking at me like that for” (25).

The earliest movements for repatriation by Black Americans in the late nineteenth-century reflected the ways in which the gratuity of violence of both colonialism and slavery created a dialectical tension between Black Americans and Continental Africans. The psychological and social effects of this violence manifested in the concerns W. E. B. Du Bois discusses in relation to double consciousness. Amongst the most important of them would be the ways in slavery and colonialism had shaped Black Americans perspectives of themselves, Continental Africans and Africa as a land. While many Black Americans are representative of this process, people such as Martin Delaney, one of the first proponents for Black Nationalism, and Robert Campbell, a teacher at the Institute of Colored Youth in Philadelphia, exemplify the attitudes taken up by Black Americans in the late nineteenth-century and how both behavioral and structural violence shaped their understandings. Through the conceptual framework provided by people such as Du Bois, E. P. Skinner, Frantz Fanon and Frank B. Wilderson, III, one can begin to understand how these movements not only were a product of the ideologies of Black Americans, but also the products of white supremacist, anti-Black ideology.

This Thursday, 5:30pm at the Sheldon Museum of Art, we will welcome Alexandre Da Costa as the third Humanities on the Edge lecturer in a series themed around the question “Post-Racial Futures?” Da Costa will contribute to this ongoing inquiry with a lecture titled “Towards a Hemispheric Critique of the Post-racial” which will presumably pick up on a focal theme in his recent research publications, that is, an examination of “post-racial ideology” in the Americas, through a relational rather than comparative framework, as a “hegemonic force shaping the simultaneous reality of race, racism, and colonialism alongside their institutional and everyday disavowal” (“Thinking ‘Post-Racial’ Ideology Transnationally” 476). Da Costa combines an interrogation of post-racial ideology in Brazil with its symmetrical counterpart in America to show how this sort of ideology functions similarly across the Western Hemisphere despite the singularity of its local inflections due to the

This idea has taken on many different forms over the past century and a half, and its discourse has evolved alongside the major works of prominent figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Delany, and Marcus Garvey. A common theme among these thinkers is the notion of historicizing the development of black culture relative to diasporic movements in the preceding centuries. However, they differ significantly in their visions and aspirations for the culture at large, as well as in their interpretations of how peoples of African descent should behave with respect to the dominant (primarily white) societies in which they live and function. In particular, earlier scholars like Du Bois tended to “sustain their faith in a partnership with white allies, wagering that [their] commitments to ‘civilization building’ ... would hasten the day when they and their race would be respected as equal partners” (Ewing 16). In contrast, Garvey, a contemporary of Locke, supported a radical agenda for African independence, and a mass migration to bring peoples of African descent back to Africa (Ewing 76).

It is essential to note that the term African Diaspora does not describe any single event, group of people or set of customs. It represents a current state of being for many citizens of the world and provides context for understanding the social structures and intercultural relationships of the world we live in today. Collin Palmer provides great insight into the context of diaspora. He writes that there have been several movements, massive migrations of people, throughout history. There is no single “diasporic movement or monolithic diasporic community” to be studied, but rather a confluence of people, events and ideologies that span thousands of years, across every continent. Each period of movement, each diasporic stream, happened for different reasons. Palmer’s approach to the African Diaspora begins with a look nearly 100,000 years into the past. He identifies five major streams, with the first African diaspora that occurred as a

The Black man has a long history of slavery, violence and general tension in the United States. Although there have been amendments to legislation to allow for some equality, there is still progress to be made. In the meantime, civil rights movements have given birth to organizations such as Nuwaubianism, that aim to keep the Black community together. Using ethnographic research, techniques such as field observations, interviews, and literary analysis I will conduct an autopsy of Black Nationalism relating to the epistemological concepts surrounding Black

In a decade’s time, Marcus Moziah Garvey entered United States, at the age of 28, and cultivated the American Negro through his oratory that is seen as the awaken of Black Nationalism. Garvey’s work does not end in America, he’s efforts were world-wide but not limited to Africa to Nova Scotia, and South America. It has been stated that Garvey raised more money and grew a membership than any other Negro organization to date. Coined as the Black Moses, Garvey’s stated “I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.” Garvey evoke the message to his listeners that black skin was not to be shamed but black skin exemplifies national greatness. It is stated that his

“How can I be proud of my Jamaican roots, when my ancestors had been slaves”? This question asked by a woman with Jamaican roots followed British novelist Andrea Levy for a long time. She wondered how anyone could be ashamed of his or her legacy and thus the foundation of her book, The Long Song, was laid. However, writing the book was a more difficult task than presumed. Levy considered many things at the preliminary stage of the book as she knew that she didn’t want to write yet another historical novel about slavery. This is the reason why she chose to write the “behind the scenes”-essay, The Writing of The Long Song. Herein she elaborates and discusses the process of writing her book and raises important