Draft Black Studies Not Morality Anti-B

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Black Studies, Not Morality: Anti-Black Racism, Neo-Liberal Cooptation, and the Challenges to Black

Studies nder !ntersectional A"ioms#

By $ommy %# Curry

&'orthcoming in Emerging Voices of Africana: Disciplinary Resonances, $hird (orld-Red Sea )ress, ed# Michael

$illotson*

Most Negro intellectuals simply repeat the propaganda +hich is

put out by people +ho hae large economic and political

interests to protect# . course, Negro intellectuals are in a

di..erent position .rom the standpoint o. employment/!. theysho+ any independence in their thinking they may be hounded

by the '#B#!# and .ind it di..icult to make a liing# At the present

time many o. them .ind themseles in the humiliating position o.

running around the +orld telling A.ricans and others ho+ +ell-

o.. Negroes are in the nited States and ho+ +ell they are

treated#

0#'ranklin 'ra1ier,2$he 'ailure o. the Negro !ntellectual,3 4567#

Introduction:

!n an e..ort to 8usti.y the theoretical adancement o. Black Studies as a discipline a+ay .rom the material-

historical sociology +hich re9uired a study o. the actual conditions o. Black people to+ards a more

discursie and abstract interpretations o. Blackness, the material historical-sociological .ocus o. the .ield

had to be problemati1ed as not only lacking methods capable o. dealing +ith allegedly 2ne+ and

emerging3 comple"ities o. Black li.e, but charged +ith being unable to conceptuali1e the bodies and

identities sub8ect to these comple"ities# espite criti9ue, the 2post3 discourse&s* o. inclusion, made

a"iomatic in e..ort to plurali1e ho+ +e speak and think Blackness, seeks to problemati1e Black Studies as

a discipline o. e"clusion;a nationalist relic o. masculine, patriarchal rage +hich .ocuses primarily on the

political interests and death o. young Black men and manhood, rather than Black +omen and progressie&integrationist* Black politics# $he masculini1ation o. Black Studies is essential to the neo-liberal logics at play +ithin disciplines and bet+een disciplinarity, since such a label rationali1es 2the attacks3 upon Black

Studies as being an outgro+th o. other 2dangerous3 and 2terroristic3 social moement like Black )o+er,

Black Nationalism, and Ciil Rights# $he ongoing attempts to construct Black Studies as a problem by

+hite institutions and bourgeois Black scholars alike resonates +ith the sentiment o. our day +hich seeks

to conince the +orld that Black studies is the internali1ation o. the outdated modes o. Blackness arising

.rom the 45s and 456=>s reolutionary struggles +hich ignores Black +omen, demoni1ed Black

homose"uality, and craed the po+er o. +hite supremacist patriarchy#

'or the progressie Black le.t, Black Studies represents a problem discipline, a .ield o.

e"perimentation, +here in vogue theories o. identity can be tested and multiple discourses can be

deployed against scholars resisting these theatres o. innoation?e"perimentation +hich aim to+ards

re.ormulating both the role and substance o. the discipline# 'ounded upon the notion that Black Studiescarries +ith it the patriarchal logics o. the preious Black eras, Black Studies continue to be sub8ect to

deradicali1ing gestures .ocusing on the .luidity o. racial identity and the per.ormatiity o. gender, +hile

eliding serious study o. +hite supremacy and the internali1ation o. this ethos# (hereas (omen and

@ender Studies remain decidedly +hite and paradigmatically .eminist, resistant o. hiring or studying

raciali1ed men +ho .all outside the historical category o. patriarchy and remain some o. its greatest

ictims, Black Studies has become coerced into a racial dtente, not only through the increase o. +hite

scholars in the discipline, but also through the .orced adoption o. poststructuralist and postcolonialmethods deriing .rom Continental philosophers to problemati1e the .ield o. Blackness to+ards anti-


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essentialist and hence less erroneous categorical impositions# !ronically, (omen and @ender Studies

departments as +ell as philosophy departments housing these ery same theorists &'oucault, errida,

Agamben, eleu1e, ristea, etc#* remain immune to this anti-essentialist thrust and remain racially

homogenous and ideologically committed to gender e"clusions historically dictated by their disciplinary

program#ur present day descriptions o. the crisis o. Black Studies hae identi.ied neo-liberalism as a

ma8or cause o. the .inancial and political obstacles preenting .lourishing o. the discipline# !n this schemathere is a shared concerned +ith other liberal arts programs that their contributions to the uniersity are

being dealued because o. the encroaching corporatism in the American uniersity# enry @irou">s 2Neo-

liberalism, Corporate Culture, and the )romise o. igher 0ducation: $he niersity o. as a emocratic

)ublic Sphere3 +arns that under neoliberalism 2politics are market drien and the claims o. democratic

citi1enship are subordinated to market alues3 &D==D, p#EDF*# According to @irou" these are ubi9uitous in

scope# 2As large amounts o. corporate capital .lo+ into the uniersities, those areas o. study in the

uniersity that donGt translate into substantial pro.its get either marginali1ed, under.unded, or

eliminated/+e are +itnessing/a do+nsi1ing in the humanities /Moreoer, programs and courses that

.ocus on areas such as critical theory, literature, .eminism, ethics, enironmentalism, post-colonialism,

philosophy, and sociology suggest an intellectual cosmopolitanism or a concern +ith social issues that

+ill be either eliminated or technici1ed because their role in the market +ill be 8udged as ornamental3

&@irou", D==D, p#E7E*# But the role o. neoliberalism has been underappreciated and understudied inrelation to Black politics and the D4st century articulations o. 2race#3 (hile @irou">s analysis suggests a

shared neoliberal repression upon the marked Black community o. the uniersity, Lester Spence correctly

obseres that 2+hile scholars and actiists alike increasingly use the concept o. neoliberalism to e"plain

rising leels o. racial ine9uality they/miss the +ay this dynamic is reproduced +ithin, and not simply on black communities3 &D=4D, p#4E=*# $his 2reproduction +ithin3 Black communities e"poses an unattended

aspect o. the political economy at +ork in the aluation o. discourse and ideology +ithin the uniersity#

$he current deployment o. neoliberalism in relation to the .ields o. kno+ledge and 2politics3 in

Black Studies thereby e"poses a paraontological dilemma in our diagnosisH as neoliberalism both

represents the market ontology o. corporations &our traditional understanding*, and the internali1ation as

homo-economicus &the Black sub8ect as sel.-interested economic thinker*# As %oy %ames &D===* obseres,

2!n academe, a sel.?te"t preoccupation and careerism may marginali1e or psychologi1e political struggles#

!n the present .orm o. Black Studies, it is not unusual to .ind +riters adocating .or the intellectual-interrogator as more enlightened than the actiist-intellectual &+e also .ind the in.lation o. literary

production into a .orm o. political Iactiism> +ithout analysis o. the relation to community organi1ing#

)ro.essionali1ing progressie discourse alidating it +ithin academic conersation, has a lot to do +ith

the commodi.ication o. not only Black Studies, but Black radicalism +ithin Black Studies3 &p#4JJ*# $his

analysis is not all together surprising gien the research o. 'abio Ro8as>s &D==6* From Black Power o

Black !u"ies +hich argues that the corporate .oundations like 'ord and Carnegie directly in.luenced andderadicali1ed the course o. Black Studies departments in the years .ollo+ing the Ciil Rights moement

.rom paradigms .ocusing on material-nationalist-radicalism accounts o. racism to poststructuralist-

integrationist-re.ormism accounts o. identity through post-doctoral .ello+ships and grants# !n contrast to

our present day articulations o. neoliberalism, or more appropriately the neoliberal crisis in relation toBlack Studies, +e are not only bringing attention to the e"ternality o. a +hite supremacist corporatism

+hich dealues Blackness, but the rei.ication o. neoliberal a"ioms in the production and commodi.icationo. Black radicalism by Black scholars in Black Studies#

$he actual radicality o. studying Black people, their social lies, their histories, and their

conceptuali1ations o. the +orld to e"pose alternatie isions o. Black e"istence and the cultural

possibility held +ithin has been replaced by the deployment o. moral dogmas and a religious .anaticism

propagating one>s personal politics as the standard .rom +hich all other scholars and scholarship can be

8udged# ominant paradigms in Black Studies are thereby summari1ed as caricatures o. their actual aims,

the leaders and historical .igures o. Black )o+er and the Black Arts moement are caste as

unsophisticated, decadent, and parochial, regardless o. their 2radical rhetoric#3 $his tradition holds that


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truly understanding Black people can only be had in the post-structural re.ormulations o. our semiotic

re.erence o. Blackness;its categorical plurali1ation# !n this +orld, Black Studies e"ists in perpetual

tension, as antipathy to itsel.H consumed by the commitment to studying Black people through paradigms

endemic to Black li.e and the ongoing e..orts by Black and +hite scholars alike to sub8ugate the

discipline to the theoretical paradigms and interentions o. other +hite methodologies# Commenting uponthe utili1ation o. post-structural theory among A.rican American intellectuals, Ai8a1 Ahmed>s book #n

$heory obseres that the +holesale re8ection o. all nationalism as .undamentally opposed to 2critical3 post-structural thought is the product not o. theoretical adance, but the consolidation o. global capitalism

and neoliberalism, +here the resulting stagnation o. postcolonial states +hose preious eras promised

radical alternaties to ccidentalism indicate material and spiritual .ailure o. ideas beyond (estern

conscience# !t is this political reality among peoples and empires +hich droe the process +e no+ .ind

ourseles# A +orld +here cultural nationalism became 2discarded as illusion, myth, totali1ing narratie3

&Ahmed, 455E, p#E4*, and post-structuralism +as determined to be our saing grace# Speci.ically, Ahmed

remarks that

these monolithic attitudes to+ards the issue o. nationalism-shi.ting rapidly .rom unconditional

celebration to contemptuous dismissal are also a necessary outcome o. a radical theory that is

none the less pitched sel.-consciously against the +ell-kno+n Mar"ist premises and there.ore

comes to rely, consecutiely and at times simultaneously, on the nationalistic ersions o. the$hree (orlds $heory and deconstructionist kinds o. post-structuralism/+hether one said so or

not, one ineitably belieed that ideas ,culture, +as the collectie term in most mysti.ications, or

discourse/and not the material conditions o. li.e +hich include the instance o. culture itsel.,

determine the .ate o. peoples and nations &455E, p#E4*#

$he present day scholar o. Black Studies;claiming sensitiity to the need .or inclusion and

plurali1ation o. Blackness;+ields intersectional paradigms and post-structuralism +ith little regard .or

the political economy determining such proselyti1ing# $hese 2modern3 and 2enlightened3 Black Studies

scholars become prophets o. problemati1ation, the bearer o. intersectional indicationism, .ocusing all

their e..orts on discourse and ho+ the speech act and the ideas articulated by their interlocutors are

indicatie o. a particular cultural +orldie+ and ultimately one>s character# nder this paradigm, Black

Studies, rather than being a .ield o. in9uiry about Black li.e, becomes a base .rom +hich arious rhetoricand moralities are launched against at type o. pathological thinking thought to be aboriginally tied to the

.ailures o. a Black community mistakenly dedicated to an undi..erentiated racial Blackness# As such

Black Studies is no+ synonymous +ith the predetermined moralities o. plurality and discursie inclusion

&be it intersectional, .eminist, progressie or post-colonial*, rather than substantie study about the actual

conditions and li.e o. Black men, +omen and children +ho continue to be killed, marginali1ed and

impoerished under +hite supremacism# ltimately, this paradigm reinents a thesis o. culturaldepriation: suggesting that the oppression and problems o. Black people ultimately resides in their

pre.erence archaic cultural?discursie orientation oer progressie intersectional and .eminist politics#

$his essay +ould like to problemati1e three aspects o. this 2critical3 moe to+ards Black Studies# $he

.irst area o. concern is the alleged masculini1ation o. the primary te"ts and authors contributing to the paradigms o. the .ield during the 45s and 456=>s# Secondly, ! +ould like to address the popularity o.

intersectionality alongside post-intersectional concerns o. intersectionality as a method# My last section isa brie. re.lection o. radicality and our potential to delineate bet+een the cooptation o. Black radicalism

by post-structuralism and the substance o. radical Black criti9ue#

On the Masculinization of Black Studies: Caricatures and Currency

$he no+ popular historiography o. the Black )o+er moement and Black Studies takes these t+o

historically related epochs to be appositional;standing in .or each other politically and substantiely#


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$he substitution o. these terms has been used primarily as a +ay to suggest that the hyper-masculini1ation

o. Black Nationalism not only de.ined the political thinking o. the times, but determined the disciplinarity

o. Black Studies +hich is in opposition to 2progressie3 Black political theories .ocused on se"ism and

homophobia# $his incompatibility is highlighted today as a .undamental opposition bet+een the interests

o. Black men and Black +omen socially as +ell as in the uniersity# o+eer, the .irst interentionscalling .or attention to the particular aspects o. Black +omen>s e"periences under slaery and the

iolence that .ollo+ed under %im?%ane Cro+ism +ere not unlike the methodologically distinct .rom theother studies o. their day +hich +ere primarily drien by material historical accounts and the political

economy o. Black labor# 'or e"ample, Bonnie $hornton ill>s &4565* 2$he ialectics o. Black

(omanhood3 relies heaily on %oyce Ladner>s analysis o. labor and political economy in $omorrow%s

$omorrow to attend to an irreconcilable contradiction surrounding the Black +oman;2the historical role

as a laborer in a society +here ideals o. .emininity emphasi1ed domesticity#3 &p#JJ7*# ill>s early +ork

highlights the structural &economic, historic, and political* e"clusion o. Black +omen .rom .emininity

through noting that the 2dominant image o. black +omen as Kbeasts o. burdenK stands in direct contrast to

American ideals o. +omanhood: .ragile, +hite, and not too bright3 &p# JJ7*# Similarly )hyllis M#

)almer>s &45F7* 2(hite (omen?Black (omen: $he ualism o. 'emale !dentity and 0"perience in the

nited States,3 o..ered a material history o. Black +omen images and an economic argument using

income to sho+ that +hite +omen hae historically had a +age adantage oer Black men and Black

+omen as +ell as access to the +ealth o. +hite men# $his economic reality places Black +omen outsidethe spectrum o. +hite .eminism and Black men outside the patriarchal paradigm# 0en eborah ing>s

2Multiple %eopardy, Multiple Consciousness: $he Conte"t o. a Black 'eminist !deology,3 +hich argues

against additie and ! +ould add apriori &triple 8eopardy* .ormulations o. race, class, and gender, states

that interactie models o. Black +omen>s oppression must be empirical and situational# She insists that2the importance o. any one .actor in e"plaining black +omenGs circumstances thus aries depending on

the particular aspect o. our lies under consideration and the re.erence groups to +hom +e are compared#

!n some cases, race may be the more signi.icant predictor o. black +omenGs statusH in others, gender or

class may be more in.luential3 &45FF, p#EF*# n.ortunately, under the current gender regime in the

academy such nuance and particularity is not insisted upon#

Rudolph Byrd>s prologue o. his coedited anthology $raps: African American &en on 'en"er an"

!e(ualiy entitled 2$he $radition o. %ohn: A Mode o. Black Masculinity3 sees Black masculinity +ithout

attention to Black .eminist consciousness as emasculating masculinities;a type o. 2masculinity +hichachiees its po+er and legitimacy through the denigration o. others3 &D==4, p#F*# Because Black

masculinity in its archaic .orms neer attended to se"ism and homophobic, Byrd suggests that Black

manhood is in need o. a radical progressiism +hich 2does not stand in opposition to the progressie

goals o. .eminism and the rapidly deeloping .ield o. 9ueer theory3 &p#4=*# )ointing to the egregious

e"amples o. se"ism in the Black )o+er moement by 0laine Bro+n and Angela ais, Byrd dra+s the

reader>s attention to the struggle Black +omen had in the Black )o+er moement so that this imagery can.rame the discussion and controersy surrounding Michelle (allace>s $he Black &acho an" he &yh of

he !uper)oman &456F* +ithin the pages o. $he Black !cholar the .ollo+ing year# 'ocusing speci.ically

on Audre Lorde>s response to Robert Staples>s &4565* 2$he Myth o. the Black Macho: A Response to

Angry Black 'eminists,3 Byrd maintains that Audre Lorde>s &4565* 2$he @reat American isease3 isinstructie because it recogni1es that 2black male consciousness must be raised so that he reali1es that

se"ism, and +oman-hating are critically dys.unctional to his liberation as a black man3 &p#45*# $heimplication o. this brie. summation .or Byrd is that 2!n the lies o. Angela ais and 0laine Bro+n, as

+ell as in the issues +hich emerged +ithin Lorde>s criti9ue o. Staples, +e .ind disturbing eidence o. an

orthodo"y that con.ines Black +omen to only the most traditional roles3 &D==4, p#4E*#

Similarly, Nikol Ale"ander-'loyd>s 2(e Shall ae ur Manhood: Black Macho, Black

Nationalism, and the Million Man March,3 maintains that the debates surrounding Michelle (allace>s

Black &acho +ere misplaced# espite the criticisms o. (allace>s book ranging .rom Black male and

.emale historians, sociologists, economists, and artists, Ale"ander-'loyd dismisses the critics o. (allace

en masse as concerned more +ith her character and charges that 2most critics aoided a direct attack or


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close reading o. her argument3 &D==7, p#46D*# $outing the Black &acho as 2a book o. great ision3

&p#46E*, Ale"ander-'loyd ultimately concludes that (allace succeeds in sho+ing that 2Black )o+er

ideology as a political discourse that .rames Black liberation as a 9uest to achiee manhood, and asserts

&and this is the truly scandalous part* that the se"ual politics that de.ine Black po+er ideology are actually

borro+ed .rom +hite societyGs racist imaginations3 &D==7, p#46F*# !ronically, Ale"ander-'loyd remarksthat all the criticisms o. (allace>s +ork, no matter ho+ 2strident or popular, sere as a commentary on

the inability o. Black political thinkers to assess the operation o. gender in their o+n rhetoric as opposedto legitimate assessments o. (allaceGs +ork3 &D==7, p#467*, yet she seems to be completely una+are as to

ho+ her de.ense o. (allace>s te"t seres to rein.orce an illusion that only Black men +ere adamantly

against this speci.ic discussion o. Black Nationalism gien that she only o..ers the .irst and last names o.

Black male critics, and only discusses the criticisms o. Black male opponents o. (allace, speci.ically

Robert Staples, Mole.i Asante, and Maulana arenga#

'ocusing almost e"clusiely on the disagreements and scholarship produced in the 456=>s,

canonical te"ts continue to use this moment to .rame the need .or an intersectional &Black .eminist*

interention into the culture o. Black se"ismH supposedly demonstrated by Black men in their criti9ues o.

(allace# 'or e"ample, )atricia ill Collins argues in Black Feminis $hough &D===* that 2$he irulent

reaction to earlier Black +omen>s +ritings by some Black men, such as Robert Staples>s analysis o.

Nto1ake Shange>s choreopoem, 'or Colored @irls (ho ae Considered Suicide, and Michele (allace>s

controersial olume, Black &acho an" he &yh of he !uperwoman, illustrates the di..iculty o.challenging the masculinist bias in Black social and political thought3 &p#6*, but her account here is

incomplete as +ell as inaccurate# Like the +orks and authors mentioned aboe, she attempts to perpetuate

a historical narratie aimed at masculini1ing the criticisms o. (allace>s te"t# Collins suggests to readers

that it +as only Black men +ho reacted negatiely to the Black &acho and that the reaction o. Black men+as due primarily to them being Black, male, and se"ist# o+eer, een a brie. surey o. that May?%une

4565 issue o. the Black !cholar reeals that Black +omen also critici1ed (allace>s +ork and Shange>s

poem, deploying arguments ery similar to that o. their Black male counterparts# %ulianne Maleau">s

2$he Se"ual )olitics o. Black )eople: Angry Black (omen and Angry Black Men3 argued that 2Shange>s

choreopoem is 8ust a poem, nothing more, and a poem is not a polemic,3 and that (allace>s +ork, 2her

book is being hyped because it is +hat +hite people +ant to hear &!s @loria Steinem>s characteri1ation o.

it as the book o. the F=>s anything more than +ish.ul thinking*3 &4565, p#7J*# Sherely A# (illiam>s

2Comment on the Curb,3 agreed +ith Staples arguing that 2Shange and (allace do not .ully understandthe culture they set out to describe and e"amine3 &4565, p#J=*# Actually, the harshest criticism o. the time

did not come .rom Robert Staples, it came .rom )aula @idding>s article, 2$he Lessons o. istory (ill

Shape the 45F=>s;$he Black Macho and the Myth o. the Super+oman (on>t#3 @iddings accuses

(allace>s +ork o. .urthering a +hite supremacist agenda rooted in an agenda ridden reisionism o. Black

history# @iddings argues,

(allace might hae bene.itted .rom a more care.ul look at the story o. So8ourner $ruth &one o.

the KAma1onsK she describes*, particularly as it parallels the situation today# An e"slae, $ruth

+as inoled +ith the 45th century .eminist moement, or the su..ragette moement as it +as

called# Led by politically minded, middle-class (hite +omen like 0li1abeth Cady Stanton, the

moement +as .acing deterioration +ithin its ranks especially as it began to compete .or attentionand support +ith the more .undamental issue o. the day: Black rights and abolition/ (hen it

looked as i. Black men +ould get the ote be.ore +omen +ould, Stanton sho+ed her true colors,

een going so .ar as to say it +ould be better .or a Black +oman to be the slae o. an educated

(hite man than o. a Kdegraded, ignorant, black one# $ruth didnGt go to that length, but she echoed

StantonGs basic sentiments# (allace 9uotes her speech at an 4F


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o.. the 9uote# Another part o. the same speech clari.ies the perspectie .rom- +hich So8ourner

$ruth spoke: 2(hite +omen are a great deal smarter and kno+ more than colored +omen, +hile

colored +omen kno+ scarcely anything# $hey go out +ashing, +hich is about as high as a

colored +oman gets, and their men go about idle, strutting up and do+n, and +hen the +omen

come home, they ask .or their money and take it all and then scold because there is no .ood# !+ant you to consider that, chilGn3 &4565, p#J4*#

espite the harshness o. this criticism by @iddings, Ale"ander-'loyd>s &D==7* a.orementioned

+ork only cites this @iddings article inso.ar as it mentions that the Black &acho +as 2eralded as the

book that +ould shape the 45F=>s by then &s# editor @loria Steinem3 &p#46D*# $his citation and

paraphrasing not only misrepresents @iddings actual +ork, but again is an e"ample o. ho+ many Black

.eminist authors erase the criticisms o. authoritatie Black +omen academics to presere the mythologythat all o. the criticisms against (allace +ere +aged .rom and drien by the se"ism o. Black men# !n

sociology speci.ically, Black +omen intellectuals reacted harshly to the decades o. +ork already

solidi.ied and the empirical +ork by Black men and +omen being ignored by (allace>s te"t# !n La

'rances Rodgers-Rose>s pre.ace to $he Black )oman &45F=*, she like Collins argues that historically

Black +omen hae been +ritten about by +hite social scientists +ho 2hae not lied the e"perience o.

Black +omanhood, nor hae they made an earnest e..ort to be introspectie learners3 &p#44*# According

to Rodgers-Rose &45F=*, 2it has only been in the past 4= years or so that the negatie perceptions o. Black +omen hae seriously been challenged# $he +orks o. Bell and )arker, Billingsley, Cade, Crutch.ield,

ais, @utman, arley, and $erborg-)enn, ill, %ohnson and @reen, Ladner, Lerner, Mossell, Noble,

Staples, and (alker are all part o. the gro+ing social scienti.ic literature that 9uestions the alidity o. the

preailing characteri1ations o. Black +omen3&p#44*# Regret.ully Rodgers-Rose notes that:

None o. these authors has had the impact on the general public that Michelle (allace created

+ith her book Black &acho an" he &yh of he !uperwoman# !t could indeed be real that this

book, published in 4565 by a ma8or publishing house, is destroying the reisional +ork that the

preiously mentioned scholars hae done on Black +omen and the Black .amily# ne must ask,

(hy this book at this particular time (hy hae people paid more attention to +hat (allace had

to say than to Ladner or Cade Could it be that 8ust as Black +omen +ere beginning to consider,

re.lect, and ealuate &see (ilson>s article* their e"istence in the country .rom a perspectie o.their A.rican past and slae history, those 2.orces3 that +ould hae them ignorant o. that past sa+

.it to con.use them, to negate +hat they +ere beginning to see as their purpose or mission in this

country3 &45F=, p# 44*#

(hile Black .eminists hae o..ered a history telling o. the hostility to+ards Black +omen>s

concern and resistance to+ards the study o. Black +omen during the decades marking the decline o.

Black )o+er and the rise o. Black Studies, other Black scholar-actiist accounts tell a di..erent story#

%oyce Ladner>s $omorrow%s $omorrow, originally published in 4564, +as a pioneering study o. Black girls

in St# Louis in the 45s# Ladner>s +ork utili1ed the theoretical .rame+orks o. (#0#B# uBois and the

da+ning methodologies o. Black sociology articulated in her later +ork $he Deah of whie !ociology

published t+o years later in 4567# !n $omorrow%s $omorrow &456D*, Ladner argues that 2Black +omen

do not perceie their enemy to be Black men, but rather the enemy is considered to be the oppressie

.orces in the large society +hich sub8ugate Black men, +omen and children3 &p#DF7*# Another critic o.(allace>s te"t +as a no+ erased Black .emale actiist +orking +ith the So8ourner $ruth rgani1ation in

Chicago, !llinois in the 456=>s named Alison 0d+ards# 0d+ards +as the author o. 2Rape, Racism and the

(hite (omen>s Moement3 &4565*H a .i.ty-.our page publication primarily dedicated to re.uting the

racist logic o. Susan Bro+nmiller>s Agains *ur )ill: &en, )omen, an" Rape &456J*# 0d+ards &4565*

argued that (allace>s te"t .ails on multiple scholarly grounds: 2logical and historical, Mar"ist and

'reudian3 &p#E4*# Lacking the theoretical nuance o. 'reudians +ho attend to se"uality among historical

and unconscious concerns, 0d+ards remarks that 2!t is hard to take seriously a treatise on Black history


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+hich reduces E== years o. slaery and oppression, on the one hand, and surial, resistance and

reolution, on the other, to the indiidual maleGs pursuit o. indiidual male po+er to be attained by irtue

o. a &supposedly* superior indiidual male se"ual organ# !t is, in .act, capitulation to the +orst aspect o.

both +hite supremacist and male chauinist se"ual stereotypes3 &D=4=, p#E4*# espite the .ailings o.

(allace>s +ork, 0d+ards is sympathetic to the issues she discusses, ho+eer, she +arns that the supporto. +hite .eminists like @loria Steinem and Susan Bro+nmiller signal the .ailure o. the te"t and its

cooptation by +hite patriarchal racism# 0d+ards &D=4=* is clear in this regard#

(hat is disturbing about Black &acho is not so much its analysis o. male supremacy in the Black

moement, but the use to +hich portions o. the +hite .eminist moement +ill &and hae* put such

an analysis# !t is one thing to speak o. unity in the +omenGs moement and to+ard that end to

emphasi1e solidarity +ith Black +omen# !t is 9uite another .or +hites, een i. asked, to 8oin aBlack +oman in an all-out attack on Black men, on the Black moement, and on Black +omen

+ho hae re8ected the (omenGs Moement# $he task o. +hite reolutionaries, +hether they are in

the .eminist moement or in other sections o. the moement, must be to support Black liberation,

not to look .or +ays in +hich Black +omen can be split o.. .rom Black men in order to s+ell the

ranks o. the +omenGs moement# $he latter is the 8ob o. the ### ; or the #S# goernment

&p#ED*#

!n short, the disciplinarity o. Black Studies, its relationship to the se"ism o. the Black )anther

)arty speci.ically, and the ideology o. Black )o+er more generally, is much more complicated than the

a.orementioned te"ts present# $he reality is there are many di..erent impressions o. this era and none o.

them +ill be ans+ered to the serice o. Black people i. +e create mythology to 8usti.y our reading o.

history, rather than criteria .or +hat constitutes eidence .or ho+ +e see history itsel.# $his is not to deny

that se"ism like any other social ine9uality &classism, chauinism, homophobia, een anti-Blackness*

e"ists in Black Studies or +as internali1ed by members o. the Black )anther )arty# !t is ho+eer a denial

o. causality +hich suggests that the .ailures o. one historical moment is essential to the discipline or the

male bodies +ithin it# iian erdell @ordon>s 2Black (omen, 'eminism, and Black Studies,3 .or

e"ample, has argued that 2Although many BOlack +omen hae been ictimi1ed by an unanticipated

se"ism by BOlack men/such +omen in Black Studies hae o.ten .ound e"tensie support .rom other o.

their male and .emale peers +ho hae +orked together to combat such destructie .orces &D===, p#4s analysis o. Black Studies comes alongside her obseration o. the near complete re8ection o.

Black +omen &hired or studied* in (omen and @ender Studies department during the same time#

A similar case can be made .or ho+ +e understand the actiism o. the +omen in the Black

)anther )arty# Regina %ennings speaks about se"ism in the leaders o. the party in her essay 2A.ricana

(omanism in the Black )anther )arty: A )ersonal Story &D==4* +hile also commending her comrades,

the Black men, +ho de.ended her and belieed that the liberation o. +omen +as a necessary componento. Black liberation and reolutionary pra"is# $he deelopment o. Black )o+er Studies has created a

+hole ne+ perspectie +hich complicates the assumed marriage bet+een se"ism, Black masculinity, and

the rise o. Black Studies during this reolutionary era# (orks by )eniel %oseph &D=4=aH D=4=b*, $imothy

B# $yson &D==4*, and anielle Mc@uire &D=4=* complicate not only ho+ se"ism +as understood by these

actiists, but also the relationship arious actors and organi1ations had to Black +omen and the se"uality

o. Black men# Rondee @aines dissertation # Am a Revoluionary Black Female +aionalis &D=47*

documents 'ulani Sunni Ali>s leadership role in the Republic o. Ne+ A.rica started by Robert '#

(illiams# $hese +orks call .or a reealuating o. our current history and the mythology +hich

oerdetermines our reading and relationship to the actiism throughout arious disciplines#

$he theoretical utility o. these te"ts cited aboe +ill ineitably .all ictim to the pre8udices the

reader brings to this controersial debate in either direction# Regardless, the a.orementioned analysis is

not +ritten as an apologia;it makes no attempt to rescue this historical moment .rom itsel.;but it does

seek to e"pose the mythology obscuring our study o. Black people +ithin that moment# Speci.ically, these

debates aim to sho+ the inaccuracy and error o. attributing to Black men and Black Studies a character


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and disciplinary elos rooted in the ideology o. a political party +hich e"isted oer .i.ty years ago#

Contrary to Black .eminist historiography and theories, arious +orks sho+ that Black men hae not only

historically resisted +hite patriarchal ideas o. masculinity &Blee P $ickamyer, 455JH unter P ais,

455D, 455E*, but according to 0elyn Simien>s &D==6* 2A Black @ender @ap Continuity and Change in

Black 'eminist Attitudes3 many hae een surpassed Black +omen in some areas o. gender a+areness#$his research points to the change in the Black public opinion, and a deelopment o. arying sentiments

and political thinking in our contemporary moment# Contrary to the insistence o. anti-nationalist +orks+hich insist on an ahistorical determinism casting Black men as misogynists, and Black Studies as their

disciplinary home, the comple"ity o. Black social li.e resists such essentialism# $he study o. Black people

re9uires us to see the trans.ormations +ithin Black li.e, and demands an interrogation o. the gender

category itsel. +hen it is deployed to a..i" priilege, patriarchy, and ignorance to persons and disciplines

through the ery same logics deployed by racism and imperial colonial history to 8usti.y the

back+ardness and danger o. Black bodies the +orld oer# As @reg $homas correctly notes in $he !e(ual

Demon of olonial Power &D==6*:

er the last seeral decades, commerciali1ed gender and se"uality talk in (estern academia has

had little or nothing to say about the neo-colonial conte"t in +hich it is produced# $he material

and symbolic condition is instead embraced as an ordinary .act o. li.e# $his geopolitics o. empiremay be best illustrated by the ili.ication o. nationalism &or nationality* in no+-standard

discussions o. se"ism and homophobia# $he nationalism ili.ied is typically the nationalism o.

the coloni1ed, not the coloni1er +ho inents nationalism as a bourgeois .orm o. rule# ence,

many people come to see Black 2nationalism3 as synonymous +ith any gien eil/(hite

nationalism is neer conceied or mentioned as such, by contrast, let alone castigated as the

ruling .orce o. the globe# (hy is this canonical criticism o. se"ism and homophobia couched as a

criticism o. coloni1ed 2nationalism,3 in its insurgent mode &p#47=*#

Nationalism, or more accurately the sel.-determination o. Black people collectiely, cannot be allo+ed to

be demoni1ed in oo .or the conenience o. presering or perpetuating the social, and thereby cultural,

and con.igured;and allo+ed;political sentiments o. the day# Black politics as +ell as Black

disciplinarity inso.ar as they re.lect the dialectic and antithetical motiations against the stagnation o.empire to+ards liberation resist moral categori1ation# Because these moements, and our study o. these

moments, call .orth 8udgment, +e must be re.lectie upon the imposition o. set categories &like race,

gender, or class* as +ell as utopian enisions +hich take the end o. progressie politics to be the

embodiment o. one>s personal ideological commitments# $hese set o. problems, the hermeneutical

dilemma o. Blackness looking upon itsel. +ithin disciplines committed to anti-Blackness and racial

ac9uiescence instead o. Black sel.-determination, stand against study#

Too Big to Fail: A Note on Intersectionality, ost!Intersectionality, and the Coo"tation of #i$erging

Theories in the Study of Black "eo"le#

$hough relegated to .ootnotes, )atricia ill Collins &455F, p#D


9/21

ontologically .i"ed to+ards Black male priilege, disregarding those multiple cases +here Black +omen

sociologically demonstrate economic, political, and educational adantage oer their male counterparts#

Rather than being an empirical articulation o. disparity among oppressed populations through arious

matrices o. oppression and disadantage, current intersectionality theory assigns ontological disadantage

to Black .emale e"istence despite decades o. eidence sho+ing that Black men su..er greater systemiceconomic disadantage due to unemployment and incarceration &Ste+art P Scott, 456FH Mincy, D==s recent article entitled 2!ntersectionality ndone: Saing !ntersectionality .rom

'eminist !ntersectionality Studies3 &D=47*, she argues 2sub8ect centered3 analysis ultimately dilutes the

po+er o. intersectional .rames#

'raming social li.e not as collectie, but as the interaction o. indiidual social entrepreneurs,

neoliberalism denies preconditions leading to structural ine9ualitiesH in conse9uence, it

congratulates itsel. .or dismantling policies and discrediting moements concerned +ith

structures o. in8ustice# $hus neoliberal assumptions create the conditions allo+ing the .ounding

conceptions o. intersectionality;as an analytical lens and political tool .or .ostering a radical

social 8ustice agenda;to become diluted, disciplined, and disarticulated &p# E=6*#

Blige>s +ork recogni1es the distance today>s notion o. intersectionality has .rom its original theori1ation#

Like the poststructuralist turn be.ore it, intersectionality>s sub8ect drien analysis disregards actual

materiality .or the ontologi1ing o. historical disadantage despite .acts to the contrary# !t makes empiricalin9uiry irreleant to the ultimate and predetermined conclusion o. the analysis# $his .i"ed kno+ledge and

conclusion is thereby taken as absolute truth, and incentii1es academic communities to regard indiidual

claiming intersectional identity as e"perts, not by their kno+ing o. the social .acts surrounding their

e"istence, but through their physical being itsel.# 2!ntersectionality, originally .ocused on trans.ormatie

and counter-hegemonic kno+ledge production and radical politics o. social 8ustice, has been

commodi.ied and coloni1ed .or neoliberal regimes# A depolitici1ed intersectionality is particularly use.ulto a neoliberalism that re.rames all alues as market alues: identity-based radical politics are o.ten

turned into corporati1ed diersity tools leeraged by dominant groups to attain arious ideological and

institutional goals3 &p# E=6-E=F*# nder the neo-liberal regime o. the academy and the staunch ideological

rei.ication married to disciplinarity, intersectionality has become representational rather than analytic# !t

represents a particular body, rather than the relationship raciali1ed bodies hae to arious systems +hich

hae historically strati.ied societies#

!t is +idely accepted that intersectionality +as introduced by imberle Crensha+>s

2emarginali1ing the !ntersection o. Race and Se": A Black 'eminist Criti9ue o. Anti-iscrimination

octrine, 'eminist $heory, and Anti-Racist )olitics3 &45F5*# !n that essay, Crensha+ is speci.ically

concerned +ith Black +omen>s e"perience o. discrimination# She argues that: 2Black +omen sometimes

e"perience discrimination in +ays similar to +hite +omenGs e"periencesH sometimes they share ery

similar e"periences +ith Black men# Qet o.ten they e"perience double-discrimination-the combined

e..ects o. practices +hich discriminate on the basis o. race, and on the basis o. se"# And sometimes, they

e"perience discrimination as Black +omen-not the sum o. race and se" discrimination, but as Black


10/21

+omen3 &45F5, p#4E5*# ne o. the problems o. understanding oppression as being particular to or actie

only on indiiduals chosen as the sub8ect implied under intersectionality is that it .ocuses on demographic

categories &race and gender* +ithout any attention to the larger processes that operate to de.ine the

particular case o. race and gender in the gien conte"t?society# 'or e"ample, +e say +e are interested in

studying the Black +oman, but +hat Black +oman are +e talking about $he large class o. sociallymobile highly educated Black +omen that empirical studies like )enner and Saperstein>s 20ngendering

Racial )erceptions &D=47* argue hae become kno+n as the 2educated +oman,3 or are +e talking aboutthe socially marginali1ed impoerished Black +oman# !ntersectionality, or rather that idea o.

intersectionality +hich suggests that Black +omen, and only Black +omen hae a uni9ue causal

relationship to oppression, rests on a disclosure o. reelatory kno+ledge to the +orld by the Black

.emale oracle, not research +hich can be socially challenged and debated socially# !ntersectionality

declares apriori that it is only Black +omen +ho hae this special relationship and can eri.y or reeal

these realities# !n more practical terms, intersectionality as a political tool argues that despite the empirical

realities and arious asymmetries o. social li.e +here Black +omen can and do hae some adantages

oer Black men, these material demographic adantages are o. no conse9uence +hen one considers the

2special oppression,3 e"perienced by Black +omen# Since +e cannot eri.y the truth o. such claims, +e

are no+ bound by disciplinary morality to trust, and not 9uestion, the causal relationship that only Black

+omen hae to the +orld#

$his paradigm insists that identity politics, the speaking o. 2this3 oppression is synonymous +ith

eri.ication o. said oppression, and .urthermore that 2this3 oppression is o. greater magnitude and

seerity, because it is speci.ic to the Black +oman?.emale, and there.ore out+eighs the empirical and

material oppressions obsered# !n short, intersectionality loads the stack so to speakH implying that

because o. 2this3 ultimate 2intersectional3 oppression only e"perienced by Black +omen?.emales, all

other race?class?gender bodies ultimately hae an adantage or priilege in relation to them# $his +as

precisely the danger )eter +an pointed out in 2%e..rey ahmer and the Cosynthesis o. Categories,3

scholars +ho +rote about intersectionality responded to marginali1ation by creating ne+ marginal

categories that, by their ery nature, themseles encourage the idea o. categorical hegemony##by

.ocusing, .or e"ample, on the particularities o. black +omenGs e"perience, intersectionality stands

in danger o. pushing to its margins issues o. class, religion, and able-bodiedness, as +ell as issueso. se"ual orientation# $hus, +ithout a more deeloped theory o. ho+ to K.actor inK these issues, as

Crensha+ predicted, intersectionality stands in danger o. perpetuating the ery dangers to +hich

it alerted +ith regard to male dominance in racial discourses, and +hite supremacy in .eminist

discourses3 &4556, p#4D6s applicability and methodological soundness, intersectionality

remained largely una..ected# nlike other theories +hich respond to criticisms as a de.ense o. the original

position, Crensha+ has neer responded to multidimensionality or cosynthesis &post-intersectionality*

theorists# ninterested in diersi.ying the sub8ects o. primary concern &Black +omen*, intersectionality

theorists deeloped apologetics claiming that the intersection o. race, gender, and class +as the ultimate

oppression, and as such +as the sub8ect par e"cellence in any diagnosis o. oppression# By .ocusing on one

sub8ect materially, intersectionalists +ere able to suggest other groups could be studied as more priilege

analogs to the Black .emale e"perience# By making their in9uiry the ultimate moral?political cause,!nstead intersectionalists hae simply assimilated the methods and criti9ues o. other scholars as their o+n#

Because intersectionality +as neer deeloped as a .ull theory by the original theorist, there +as no

articulated method o. applying intersectionality to other bodies besides the Black +oman# Championing

the study o. 2the Black +oman,3 centering her e"perience in all conersations about race or gender

become a alued ideological statement +here simply uttering the +ords race, class, and gender indicated

the progressiism and rightness o. the speaker# !ntersectionality became a correct political stance in itsel.

and criticisms +ere dismissed as immoral# $his allo+ed intersectionality theorists to coopt the +orks o.


11/21

other scholars under their rubric# Athena Mutua characteri1es this in 2Multidimensionality is to

Masculinities +hat !ntersectionality is to 'eminism3 saying that 2through the process o. a multitude o.

scholars e"plaining, interpreting, and using intersectionality, the theory +as broadened, turning many o.

the criti9ues into mere e"pansions and elaborations o. the theory, a theory that Crensha+ hersel. initially

sa+ as transitional3 &D=47, p#7JJ*#Methodology +as not the only concern .or postintersectionality theorists, ho+ intersectionality

depicted the Black male as a priileged sub8ect +as also 9uestioned# 0"tending her criticism o.intersectionality, Mutua insists that arren utchinson>s insights in 2!dentity Crisis: !ntersectionality,

Multidimensionality, and the eelopment o. an Ade9uate $heory o. Subordination3 &D==4* has not been

.ully appreciated# utchinson argued that 2Multidimensionality complicates the ery notions o. priilege

and subordination3 &D==4, p#74D* largely assumed to be categorical in intersectionality# utchinson held

that Black male identity is much more comple" and nuanced than intersectionality presents gien the

history o. murder, se"ual iolence, and incarceration speci.ically linked to Black masculinity# 2/By

.ocusing on intersecting Ipriileged> and Isubordinate> categories,3 utchinson &D==4* .ound that

the heterose"ual stereotypes that in.orm the Kse"uali1ed racismK endured by all people o. color#

Lynching, .or e"ample, +as .re9uently I8usti.ied> through a racist, se"uali1ed rhetoric that

constructed black males as heterose"ual threats to +hite +omen# $hus, heterose"ual status,

typically a priileged category, has sered as a source o. racial sub8ugation# $his historycomplicates the apparent stability o. priileged and subordinate categoriesH the meanings o. these

identity categories are, instead, conte"tual and shi.ting &p#74D*#

utchinson>s +ork +as meaning.ul, but ignored precisely because his historical analysis o. the categories placed upon Black male se"uality re.uted the notion o. gendered priilege +hich +as a bedrock o.

intersectionality# As he says 2!ntersectionality/ typically considers +omen o. color subordinate relatie

to men o. color and +hite +omen# $he inclusion o. se"uality hierarchies in a multidimensional analysis

destabili1es this .rame+ork &utchinson, D==4, p# 74D*# $he calculus presented by intersectionality theory

holds that Black men are srucurally adantaged by their gender, but disadantaged by their race#

utchinson .oundationally disagrees +ith this methodology .or calculating and determining the categories

o. priilege# Recently, Althea Mutua has reinigorated uchinson>s +ork .rom oer a decade ago#

Mutua>s most recent +ork in this area argues that the categorical assertion o. Black male adantage oerBlack +omen necessitated by Crensha+>s system is anti-empirical?apriori, and inaccurate +hen studied

empirically#

(hen intersectionality +as applied to black men, it +as initially interpreted to suggest that 2black

men +ere priileged by gender and subordinated by raceH3 that is, black men sat at the

intersection o. the subordinating and oppressie system o. race &black* and the priileged system

o. gender &men*# !ntuitiely this notion seemed correct# !t also seemed to support the dominant

social and academic practice o. e"amining the oppressie conditions that black men .aced .rom a

racial perspectie# Qet, the interpretation o. black men as priileged by gender and oppressed by

race appeared incorrect in our obserations o. racial pro.iling###+hile this interpretation o.

intersectionality seemed to capture some o. the di..erentials bet+een +omen and men in the black community, as in +age di..erentials .or e"ample, it did not capture the harsher treatment black

men seemed to .ace, not only in the conte"t o. anonymous public space that o.ten characteri1ed

racial pro.iling, but also in terms o. higher rates o. hyper incarceration, death by homicide and

certain diseases, suicide rates, and high unemployment as compared to black +omen & D=47,

p#7EE-7EJ*#

ere again the problem o. eri.ication rears its ugly head# (hile Black .eminism has continued to assert

Black male priilege apriori, a study o. the arenas traditionally associated +ith societal adantage .ailed


12/21

to yield any eidence o. Black male priilege sociologically# !ntersectionality, and the

multidimensional?post-intersectional criti9ue o. its position, di..er oer the categorical reductionism o.

all social reality to the gender hierarchy thought to e"ist bet+een male and .emale, and the idea that actual

kno+ledge o. this systems can only originate .rom the Black +oman?.emale sub8ect#

espite the e"plosion o. the categories o. gender in addition to race and class claimed to beaccounted .or through intersectional discourse in the F=>s and 5=>s, the social, economic, and political

position o. Blacks changed little due to the eer present conditions o. racism# (hile there is no denyingan economic eleation o. a small segment o. Black people to the ranks o. the middle class since the birth

o. intersectionality, the reelation o. the social constructieness?contingency o. race and gender hae

done little to address the codi.ied position o. Blackness +ithin the political economy o. America>s

empire# Such a reality demonstrates contrary to the initial impulse o. intersectionality theorists that

despite the multiplication o. categories to describe an actual sub8ect, or population, these entities remain

empirically una..ected by the comple"ity o. the language in the description and continue to endure the

primary e..ects o. their social condition# ltimately, intersectionality demands a antian physiognomy to

account .or the history, intent, and character o. the sub8ects set in opposition to the Black .emale# $his

logics, +hich .ocuses solely on the body o. the sub8ect 2seen3 is rooted in the oer-representation o. the

body itsel. in the (estern imagination# $he Black &male* body is oerdetermined by history such that the

sociological and contingent problems o. Black male social li.e become metaphysical and there.ore

ontological problems o. Black male e"istence# As yeronke ye+umi has articulated in hergroundbreaking te"t $he #nvenion of )oman, 2the biological determinism in much o. (estern thought

stems .rom the application o. biological e"planations in accounting .or social hierarchies# $his in turn has

led to the construction o. the social +orld +ith biological building blocks# $hus the social and the

biological are thoroughly intert+ined# $his +orld ie+ in male dominant discourses, discourses in +hich.emale biological di..erences are used to e"plain .emale sociopolitical disadantages3 &4556, p#7J*#

Because the body is seen to be its 2se"ual di..erence3 and this di..erence is predetermined to indicate

social position, the se"ual biology o. the sub8ect eer-presentH 2the conception o. biology as being

eery+here makes it possible to use as an e"planation in any realm, +hether it is directly implicated or

not3 &ibid#*# $his biocentric conceptuali1ation o. gender .ounded upon (estern man is immune to the

splintering o. its substance through race or class# !ntersectionality reproduces the (estern determinism o.

2othered3 bodies# !ntersectionality simply chooses to speci.y that +ithin the category o. Blackness, all

Black men like their +hite counterparts, are predestined to be adantaged because o. their biological se"&male* to Black +omen# $he intuitieness o. the conclusion, its reproduction o. the ontological opposition

bet+een male and .emale only .ound in the (est, suggests that the analytic basis o. this method re9uires

.urther attention#

It%s Not &adical Because 'ou Say So: The Caricatures of Black Studies in the Ser$ice of Moral

#eter(inancy)

$here is a mythology at +ork in ho+ Black people think about the utili1ation o. kno+ledge against the

structures o. racism and +hite supremacy that result in the ineitability o. anti-Black death# !n the

academy and the concentric communities that center scholarly kno+ledge as the basis o. discourse, there

is a practice among arious leels o. students that de-radicali1e the potential o. these criticisms to make

meaning.ul change in the structures and mentality o. all those inoled# $he Black undergraduate and

graduate student lacking the pro.essional credentials to assert their opinion as true, or insight.ul, as the

product o. scholarly research, utili1es mimicry to conince the listener o. the rightness o. their position#

!n taking on, or parroting, the radical literature o. their heroes and heroines, they strie to trans.orm the

insights o. these? their pro.essors, la+yers, actiists into a ne+ morality# $his morality seeks to escape

any practical debates about the construction and constructing o. a ne+ +orld, or ne+ consciousness# 'or

these students, repeating the sacred te"ts o. high intellectualsH the manipulators o. post-structural

te"ts?postcolonial discourse?psychoanalytic theories o. death, li.e, po+er, gender, the Black +oman,


13/21

capitalism, bare li.e, estibularity, and o. course race, seek to conince the +orld that as disciples o. these

te"ts, they &the poor, the Black, the .emale, the marginali1ed student* in .act do hold the key to

understanding the +orld beneath them, as they are no+ eleated to the realms o. theory, .rom the

perspecties o. their gods +ho reside in the !ory to+er#

$he mistake Black theorists make in understanding the ine..ectieness o. their theories totrans.orm the +orld is .undamentally rooted in the actuality o. the +orld be.ore them# espite the

radicality;the &ne+* content, the &reolutionary* ideas, and the &e"istential* ethicality; o. the proposedtheory, there is an apriori belie. by the 2radical &Black* theorist3 that the oppressor class, be they: +hite,

bourgeois, or maleH the people the theory is directed to+ards, are in .act moral people able to be

persuaded, coninced, and trans.ormed through their o+n capacities and recognition o. the 2other

realities3 su..ered by the oppressed# $here is an erroneous belie. that Black theory can be understood,

acted upon, recogni1ed by a person that can understand, or a ne+ly emerged person that can no+

understand, the perspectie o. the 2representatie o. the oppressed3 speaking to them# (hy is this case

(hat is it in the act o. criti9uing +hites, the bourgeoisie, or men that make the oppressed beliee

.undamentally that these groups can change 'or the people +ho are 2actually oppressed,3 2materially

oppressed,3 2silenced,3 or the Black male +ho is killed?dead and cannot speak, but only be spoken about

by the academics +ho use his death as a symbol;a catalyst;o. conersation +ith +hites, this belie.

does not e"ist# But .or this group, Black theorists and their parrots, +ho are the 2representaties o. the

oppressed3 that merely act as sleeping dictionaries, or in the case o. Black men, talking monkeys this belie. is substantiated by an ancient .aith in reason and the modern hope o. discourse#

A Black intellectual sociali1ed to imitate +hite theories and by e..ect the pre-established

semiotics that signi.y 2intellect3 as the basis o. their discourse +ith +hites under the banner o. radicality,

pessimism or anti-racist realism is o. the greatest concern# !n its brute reality, this discursie replication+as the primary concern o. Carter @# (oodson>s $he &ise"ucaion of he +egro &4577*# Contrary to the

pop culture summation o. (oodson>s 4577 +ork, (oodson +as not primarily concerned +ith the general

education o. Blacks by +hites, (oodson +as concerned +ith the 2highly educated Negro,3 +ho in

studying the ideas .ounded upon +hite understandings o. philosophy, economics, la+, and religion,

sought to apply this kno+ledge to the Black community# 2$he educated Negro hae the attitude o.

contempt to+ard their o+n people because in their o+n as +ell as in their mi"ed schools Negroes are

taught to admire the ebre+, the Latin and the $euton and to despite the A.rican3 &(oodson, 4577, p#4*#

(oodson>s comment upon the disciplinary?ciili1ational basis o. 2theory,3 is pro.ound, despite beingalmost a century old# $he highly educated Negro, the same culprit o. 0# 'ranklin 'ra1ier>s 'ailure o. the

Negro?Black !ntellectual, seeks to distant themseles .rom the Black community +ho remain mere

ob8ects o. study# Seeing themseles as ontologically di..erent .rom the other-Black-ob8ects they study,

these Black theorist&s* speak to +hite gatekeepers and members o. their o+n intellectual class +ho

re+ard them .or the adamancy and spread o. the ideas o..ered as morality# By claiming to be enlightened

and spreading 2truth3 the post-structural?intersectional theorist need not kno+ about the actual conditionso. the people they speak o., they need only present these bodies and their conditions through the theories

accepted by their particular discipline and?or disciplinary community# Black Study e..ectiely becomes

the process o. con.ining?distorting?reising Black li.e to .it theory# As Ahmed reminds us, 2.acts re9uire

e"planations, and all e"planations, een bad ones, presume a con.iguration o. concepts, +hich +e proisionally call Gtheory,G !n other +ords, theory is not simply a desirable but a necessary relation

bet+een .acts and their e"planations3 &455E, p#7E*# !t is +hen this theory is considered to be ontological ;.undamental and necessary to the .acts they seek to e"plain;that they become apriori and ideological#

!t is this paradigm .rom +hich the theory +e concern ourseles +ith, and its e..ect upon the actual study

o. Black people, are placed at odds +ith Black Studies# Since the ontological claim is apriori, it dismisses

the need .or the study o. Black li.e since it takes the relation bet+een the .acts o. Black e"istence and

theories proposed to be necessary to the Black bodies obsered# $he truth concerning Blackness thereby

becomes reelation o. some constant unchanging principle +ithin Blackness rather than the study o.

structures, historically conditioned and dynamic, upon Black peoples# $his bourgeois .anaticism oids the


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+orld o. actual Black people and replaces them +ith Black sub8ects .ound +anting .or kno+ledge,

recognition, and the politics o. the 2Black theorist-obserer#3

!n the cases o. intra-group criti9ues like that o. Black .eminism, or Black 9ueer?9uare theories o.

Blackness, the reaction o. the Black theorist becomes peculiar# no+ing that the ob8ects o. their criticism

are po+erless, in the sense that they do not generate the ideologies or control the institutions that allo+them to be patriarchs, o+ners, or capital 23 oppressors, these criti9ues construct the Black community

as the masculine e"tension o. the Black male>s pathology# $he Black community then is not dynamic, butdespotic# !n its discursie rendering o. the gender and se"ual dynamics that produce homophobia and

se"ism, Blackness is masculini1ed, so that the creation o. the image needed to gie teeth to these accounts

resonates +ith the negrophobia o. the +hite listener# !n other +ords, these theories are not geared to+ards

the cultural and psychical trans.ormations in the Black community, as seen .rom the perspectie o. those

in these communities, but rather they e"ist in methodological and derelictical crisis &Curry, D=44aH

D=44b* being .undamentally geared to+ards the .ormulation o. accounts that epistemologically conerge

+ith theories gien by the academy so that these re.lections about Blackness gain currency +ith

mainstream academic thought and gien the title o. 2theory#3 $his process is alued een though the cost

o. making these theories recogni1able resulting in pathologi1ing the community these theories are

supposed to re.lect# $his is not to say that there is not homophobia, se"ism, classism, colorism, and other

mani.estations o. deriatie po+er di..erences maintained by +hite supremacism in the Black

community# !t is to say ho+eer, that isolating gender to .emales as i. Black men do not su..er .rom theirhetero-maleness, or making 9ueerness?9uareness into a uniersal correctie to Blackness +ithout

attending to the class di..erential o. those 9ueer?9uare speakers and the impoerished heteronormatie

Christian Blacks they speak about only perpetuates the conceptual and actual distance that 2highly

educated Negros3 hae .rom the problems their theories claim to represent# Suggesting that the Blackcommunity can be seen through its problems, +ithout attending to the causes o. these phenomena, is in all

reality an erasure o. the comple"ity o. Black li.e# $hese 2theories3 are in .act demanding that the actual

lies o. Black people be erased, eradicated, and demoni1ed .or the conenience o. theoretical

coherence?currency amongst other 2educated Black elites#3 'or the narratie o. grand theories like Black

.eminism, or 9ueer theory, or Mar"ism to remain legitimate, the comple" lies o. Black people +ho .all

out o. their uniersalist accounts hae to be censored# $he desire to censor that +hich does not support

2the grand narratie,3 is +hy .undamental aspects o. anti-Blackness, and routine aspects o. Black li.e

remain unattended to in Black scholarship# $his e"purgation o. te"ts, topics, and themes to re.lect that+hich is 2theoretically permissible3 is +hy the se"ual abuse o. Black men and boys by Black men and

Black +omen in our ery o+n communities, een +hen sho+n to us by the memoir o. Ant+one 'isher>s

Fin"ing Fish &D==4*, or historically +ith the rape o. Black men by +hite men and +omen documented by

$homas 'oster>s &D=44* article 2$he Se"ual Abuse o. Black Men under American Slaery,3 remain

ignored and denied by the intellectuals ?disciples o. these moralities?theories# (hat the presence o. these

ideologies sho+, in Black debates about Blackness, is that the presence o. Black bodies, and Black oices,do little to change the dominant po+er structures in society, or the academy alike#

$he 9uotidian repetition o. the trinity, 2race, class and gender,3 does nothing to challenge, uproot,

or reorient (estern categories o. kno+ledge# !n .act, the adoption o. these categories only e"tend the

0urope>s ta"onomic claim oer Black bodies, distorting them epistemologically, oer-determining themontologically, and con.ining them politically# Accepting these categories ergonomically contoured upon

the bodies and anthropology o. +hites only reproduces, or rather indicates the rei.ication o., +hitesupremacist logics upon Black in9uiry &Luguones, D=4=*# $he decision to 2see3 and 2understand3 that

+hich +as deemed Black and non-human through the machinations created by the +hite human indicates

that the contingency o. +hite cultural inentions, and the anti-Blackness carried +ithin, has hae been

eleated to the status o. uniersal and nature human &social* delineations# )olitically, this commits Black

theorists to the legitimacy o. +hite re.ormist apparati +hich .it these categories used to describe

disadantage# nder these +hite anthropological categories, the Black thinker asks .or &human*

recognition, demands the &e9ual* rights o. citi1enship, cries out .or the &8ustice* thought to be held in the

rule o. la+, despite their claims o. radicality +hich suggest that Blackness is .ounded only upon iolence,


15/21

inisibility, and tyranny# $hough ackno+ledged rhetorically, the positionality o. the

coloni1ed?ciili1ed?+hite is taken to be the end o. the racial su..ering .or the natie?unciili1ed? Black# !n

short, race, class, and gender demands us to attend to the e"tent that +e are racially, se"ually, or

economically disadantaged .or not being recogni1ed and embedded +ithin empire as +hite, not a

diestment in that +hich is presented as natural, but in .act only the cultural inentions o. +hitesupremacist ta"onomies#

$he liberal translation o. racism-+hite supremacy, se"ual e"ploitation, and economic depriationinto race, gender, and class .unctions as an outstretched hand allo+ing the +hite imagination and the

0urocentric canon an opportunity to grasp onto the problems created by the 0urocentric order o.

kno+ledge that produced them# $hese realities o. dehumani1ation are originally rooted in the racist

anthropology that essentiali1ed hierarchy into se"uality and ordered capital and property around these

prior diisions# $his is +hat is meant in the distinction made in 2n erelict and Method3 &D=44a*

bet+een pseudological criticism and culturalogical .ormulations o. kno+ledge +hich create and situate

kno+ledge, and the theories used to e"plain Black e"istence, upon the relation Blackness has to the +orld

immediately, rather than its assimilation into the +orld by the e"tent to +hich it adopts the standards and

pathologies o. occidentalist anthropology &e#g# humanity, gender, unconsciousness, etc#*# )seudological

criticism is not meant to oerthro+ the systems o. kno+ledge, or 9uestion the e"istence o. the oppressor

class# !t seeks recognition .rom them and as such proceeds to engage +hite consciousness, or Black

moral?ideological sentiment as the basis o. claiming to 2trans.orm3 the sub8ect matter o. the criti9ue# $heBlack theorist, as pseudological adocate, is no+ propagandist: +here arguments are not based on the

rigor by +hich .acts concerning Black li.e are e"plainable through a particular theory, but rather ho+ a

said theory is alued a"iomatically;being pre.erred to all other e"planations simply there is goodness

associated politically +ithin disciplines and the concentric Black emanating .rom the uniersity that seethe +orld .rom this particular ie+# $he inherent goodness or badness o. a theoretical is dangerously anti-

social# Situated as a means by +hich the recogni1ed morality o. theories creates and e"pands its

.ollo+ing, rather than communities able to critici1e, test, and e"amine the claimed relationship bet+een

itsel. and the .acts o. Blackness in the +orld#

$his tendency must be resisted by culturalogical constructions o. kno+ledge and real BLAC

RA!CAL!SMH a radicalism like that urged by Sylia (ynter &D==


16/21

another transcendent signi.ied3 &D==s +ork +as tantamount to being 2seen3 as

pro.ound criti9ue# Morality there.ore stands in .or rigor in the disciplinary an"iety to+ards a 2Black3

Black Studies and buttresses the popular recognition &the con.irmation bias* o. these good alues shared bet+een scholars +hich stand in .or actual argument#

!n short, Black Nationalism +as accused o. being 2entrapped by racial essentialism +hich by itsreersal o. the (estern de.inition o. Blackness had come to depend on the absent presence o. the (estern

.rame+ork it sets out to subert3 &(ynter, D== criti9ue o. Black

)o+er?Nationalist Aesthetics simply recentered the metaphysical .rame+ork by +hich ontology is ie+ed

in the (est, (ynter concludes that it +as in .act 2@ates> poststructuralist actiity itsel. +hichO depends

on the absent present o. the ery same (estern .rame+ork that it +as also ostensibly contesting3 &ibid#*#

Similar to the analysis o. Ai8a1 Ahmed>s #n $heory, (ynter points out the disciplinary, and hence

political, normali1ation o. Black Nationalism as irreerent rhetoric&s* +ith little theoretical content able to

substantiely proide an alternatie to (estern metaphysical problems o. MAN# $his reductie reading o.

Black )o+er?Nationalism outside o. its aims to+ard decoloni1ation &o. kno+ledge and society* is the

natural de.ense mechanism o. +hite disciplinarity# According to (ynter, the recognition o. Black )o+er>s

trans.ormatie cultural substance is incomprehensible in our present order o. kno+ledge .or t+o reasons:

2the .irst is due to the imperiousness o. our present disciplines to phenomena that .all outside their prede.ined scopeH the second, to our reluctance to see a relationship/bet+een the epistemology o.

kno+ledge and the liberation o. a people3 &D==


17/21

$he a.orementioned problem o. 2thinking Blackness,3 theoretically is the product o. +hat Le+is

@ordon &D==s re.lection is not

in its correctie ision o. thought +ithin the uniersity, but its articulation o. the conse9uences su..ered in

2our thinking3 about Blackness through the codi.ications o. anti-Blackness trapped +ithin the +orks,te"ts, and histories o. 0urope# Blackness, +hen le.t to be accounted .or +ithin thinking o. the Black

theorist-obserer, and ! +ould add teleological impetus assigned to Black 2Man3 as homo poliicus, andhomo economicus, inscribes the racist presumptions o. a barbarous Black nature incapable o. re.lectie

thought and alternatie orders +hich emerge .rom their e"istence that can sustain a ciili1ation# !t is to

presume that the Black political can only be the imitation, assimilation, and preseration into the realm o.

(estern man# $his is +hy (ynter re8ects (estern man, gender, +hite anthropology, precisely because she

understands that this is not a matter o. .ocus as i. reason is uniersal, but cultural construction, since

reason like man is the contingent product o. 0uropeGs aspiration to KB0#K (ynter &D==s institutionali1ation o. itsel. in terms o. its then epochally

ne+ sel.-conception or sociogenic code as Absolute Being &+hether in its .irst .orm as homo

poliicus, or .rom the nineteenth century on+ard, in its purely supernaturali1ed .orm as biocentric

homo oeconomicus, +ith both ariants oer-represented as i. they +ere the human*, thereby, thatthe ma8ority o. the darker-skinned peoples o. the earth &all o. +hom +ere no+ to be incorporated,

+illy nilly into the (est>s epochally ne+ conception o. the human and its correlated .ormulation

o. a general order o. e"istence* +ould come to be seen, kno+n, and classi.ied, as +e also came to

see, kno+, and classi.y ourseles, not as other human beings but, instead as Natie, Negro,

Black.ellas, and ultimately, Nigger thers to the $rue uman Sel. o. the (est>s Man &p#4E


18/21

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Documents

Draft Black Studies Not Morality Anti-B