Midterm Review PDF

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Summary

Review of material from the first half of the course. Very important when studying for the exam....

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MIDTERM REVIEW Understanding Race: W.E.B Du Bois introduces the topic in his piece “The Souls of Black Folk.” ● From the beginning of American time, white people set forth the condition of blackness in the world. ● Du Bois talks about a lot of practical things, such as voting rights, education, and fair medical help. ● Touches on the concept of Double Consciousness ○ One who feels his ‘two-ness,’ as an American and a Negro - two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body… ○ If you have such double consciousness you recognize being both black and American without harm. ● The black veil is a visual manifestation of the color line - individuals are able to hide behind it… ○ Living life behind the veil is seen as both a burden and a skill. ○ Veil has a double meaning. ○ GIFT of a second sight… can connect to Kendrick Lamar as he views his fame as both a curse and a blessing. ● As one learns to discover their veil, they learn what it means to be black. Aporetic Flow ● How does it feel to be a problem? ● As a white person, how does it feel to be a problem maker? Representation ● Du Bois does NOT care about gender, sexuality, religion, etc… he reduces the individual down to their core being. ○ Blackness is an all encompassing thing. ● Du Bois’s standpoint theory can then be reduced to: BLACKNESS. ○ Because there is whiteness, there is blackness. ○ Blackness vs. whiteness was never formed on its own. ● Co-Constitution is the reason Du Bois never fully gives up on America. ○ “The black experience is likened to black identity, and black identity is configured in opposition to white identity. White identity is reduced to American identity, thus making black identity an Other world.”

Methods of Representation ● Phenomenological ○ Theories of race that seek to explain the nature and essence of race by exploring the appearance of things (signs, rituals, etc.). ○ Race then is something that is OBSERVABLE and is created through experience. ○ What race IS. ● Functional ○ Theories of race that focus on the social, psychological and/or political roles that race plays in the lives of individuals or collective groups. ○ Considers the roles that race plays in everyday social encounters. ○ What race DOES. ● Critical ○ Suggests that it is impossible to search for or define race… to do so only keeps the notion of race arrested to particular thought structures. ○ Only interested in social construction and classification. ○ POWER will always be part of this analysis. Historical Context: New World Contact with Black Bodies ● In 1619, black bodies were brought to America by British colonists. This was the first contact between black and white bodies. ● 5 million Africans were stolen/purchased, loaded onto cargo ships with food and other supplies, and headed to the Americas. This travel was called the ‘Atlantic Slave Trade.’ ● Through these experiences, particular themes emerged… ○ Terror ○ Dread ○ Suffering ○ Evil ○ Pain ○ Self (reflection on thy self in a community and with others) ● Religion also began to play a huge role in slavery - used as theological justification. ○ The Bible was often cited, at first was mostly the Hebrew Bible. ○ Africans were exploited and brainwashed into ACCEPTING their brainwashing. ○ However, people of African descent do NOT forget their descent - during the Middle Passage, they held onto their own culture and diversity and blended that with the ‘religion of the oppressor.’ ● Over time, Africans began to forge their own religious sensibility between themselves and Americans. ○ ‘This World’ vs. ‘That World’

○ US vs. THEM ● During this time period, everyone was obsessed with black bodies - they mattered in material terms, as they had actual cost values. ○ The idea of black bodies pressed on white folks ego and social sensibility (complex emotional-cognitive competence and relation to surrounding people/situations). ○ Blacks were denied humanity - reduced to flesh and flesh alone. Cultural Memory - Refers to objectified and institutionalized memories, that can be stored, transferred and incorporated throughout generations. ● Culture transports a particular memory - generations and generations will tell stories, sing songs, and teach the psychological trauma that occurred in the Atlantic Slave Trade. ● Did NOT lose their culture/identity despite very explicit/intentional efforts to sever the ties between their African culture and the new American ‘life.’ ○ The Atlantic Slave Trade was a very calculated process - tried to severe the ties of their culture by breaking up families/friends, putting them on different boats and bringing them to different parts of America. ○ Ripped them of their livelihoods, culture, family, etc. - BRAINWASHED With this in mind, we cannot assume that Lamar is talking about ‘God,’ and more specifically Christianity, in his work - Christianity has changed over the years. ● Remix - Layering versus, producing a different version of a musical recording by altering the balance of the separate tracks. ● Resignification - The act or process of resignifying, or giving a new meaning to something, often with political connotation. ○ Example: N*gga Black as a Social Construction ● BLACK is a social construction, just as RACE is a social construction. ○ It is not a real thing, yet it is real at the same time. ○ Not real because humans have manufactured it. ○ However, it does have political and real world implications, so we cannot ignore it (realize what is at stake and why it matters). ● Race, Ethnicity, Social or Political Orientations - there are ways you can act black and sound black.

Construction of Black Meaning ● How BLACK maintains/holds power in the social world. ● Christianity was largely the rationale behind white folks coming from Britain and

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exploiting the land and the people. ○ Can Africans be ‘civilized?’ ○ “Slaves obey your masters” ○ This created tension within Christianity. Important NOTE: The single most segregated time to this day is 11:00 am on Sunday mornings. ○ Conventional wisdom holds that Christians, as members of a ‘universal’ religion, all believe more or less the same things when it comes to faith. ○ Yet, black and white Christians differ in significant ways - there are racial differences in belief and practice among members. How were whites supposed to humanely treat black bodies? Did they deserve humane treatment? ○ Clearly they were not treated this way when first brought to America, and this treatment stuck around for hundreds of years. ○ Produced race as a social construction… ○ Jim Crow Laws, which were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern States, and were enforced until 1965. Distinct Racial Consciousness - Idea of free blacks was unimaginable… Lynchings also carried ritualistic qualities that helped to define blackness. ○ Put on display, commemorated in postcards and sent to family members/friends. ○ Very gruesome, and almost sociopathic detachment from the violence that it held… did NOT see African Americans as anything other than black bodies. ○ This reinforced the idea that blackness is a PROBLEM. ○ Example: W.C. Williams did the right thing and turned himself in for a crime, yet he was still lynched. This terrified black folks because they realized that they did not have the same treatment, and maybe never will. The prominent component of white social life in the pre-reconstruction era led to outright fear… white people had an incredibly difficult time trusting blacks even after they gained their freedom. Eventually led to the ‘Great Migration’ - huge numbers of black people began to move from the rural south to the north, with the first migration occurring in the 1940’s. ○ Literally RUNNING away from the WHITE TERROR being inflicted in the south. ○ If it wasn’t for the mass lynchings/trauma/instilled fear, blacks wouldn’t have migrated to these big cities in the Northern part of the country (think Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, etc.) ○ They were poor as ever but finally had some room to breathe, a new found freedom? Soon after, the Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the African-American community since the abolotion of slavery - was an expansion of communities in the north.

○ Accelerated as a consequence of the social/cultural changes in the early 20th century. ○ Begin to see the expression of two competing religions in America. ○ “A nation’s religion is it’s life, and white christianity has been a direct failure...” - DuBois ● Whiteness emerges as its own ‘religion’ - race/racism preserved its own distinction. ○ Does race matter more than people’s religious sensibility? Black Religion ● Historians defined the Black religion as an invisible institution - Blacks assembled to worship under a shroud of secrecy because such gatherings were outlaws by those who had the mind to know if a slave filled spirit, it would be a matter of time before he/she came into a sense of self. ○ Reduced African Americans to ⅗ of a human being, to claim they didn’t have a soul. Massas were paranoid the blacks would escape if they realized their existence. ○ Yet, Blacks began to gather and practice religion - did it in secrecy on the plantation fields. ● White people during this time did NOT know how to live life without the oppression of black bodies/worship of black bodies. ● Clarence 13X (Father Allah) started a religion that branched off of Islam, known as the ‘5 Percenters.’ ○ God, the Black Man, and the Five Percenters - Believes 10 percent of the world knows the truth, and those elites opt to keep 85 percent of the world in ignorance... Those left -- the Five Percent Nation -- are out to enlighten the world. ○ Important Note: Islam becomes hip-hop’s religion of choice. ○ HARLEM becomes MECCA - a place of great capacity, with skill/creativity… ○ HEAVEN means escaping to the NORTH - Massa believes they’re practicing religion, but really they’re plotting a revolution. ○ North becomes a place of escape, and the geographies take on a spiritual significance. ○ These ‘code words’ are used in hip-hop alot, and are direct examples of resignification. ● When Kendrick raps about Compton, is he really talking about Compton, California? Or is there a bigger story? A bigger meaning? ● “Arm, leg, leg, arm, head this is God body” - 5 Percenter belief/idea. ● “What up ‘G’?” - used in hip-hop a lot, started as a reference to God but over time is being translated into ‘gangsta.’ Anthony B. Pinn coins the idea that “The study of black religion is the study of culture itself…”

1980’s Era: Reagan Administration ● The Reagan administration had a concrete impact on the black middle class. White people see his presidency as a time of growth. ● In the 1980’s crack cocaine was introduced to the US, but more specifically in urban areas. ○ Oliver North was ‘supposedly’ the one who brought cocaine into the US. ○ Under Reagan, cracked down on drug crimes and incarceration - at an all time high. ○ The war on drugs has NEVER been about drugs. Kendrick Lamar brings up questions of life or death as fundamentally RELIGIOUS questions… ● Think of hip-hop as an alternate mode of meaning making. ● Lamar choses to be a politician, a secular, a philosopher, etc… all at the same time? ● Although hip-hop has gone global, cannot forget its local roots. Black Meaning - Black bodies inherit a double task of response over time/space. ● Black religion is expressed in a way that emphasizes black stories of life, pain, celebration, etc. ● Thus Lamar’s identification is with a specific group of black people.

Section.80 Bristout claims that Kendrick Lamar is “the voice of his generation, and more appropriately, black America…” and that his album Section.80, “contextualizes an entire generation in the form of a novel” where each track tells different and multiple aspects of the story. ● Kendrick Lamar is part of a POST CIVIL RIGHTS GENERATION. His voice becomes a GPS for a generation in need of “upheaval and understanding.” ○ He isn’t just talking TO them, but he is ONE of THEM. ● Lamar opens the album with “Fuck Your Ethnicity” and closes it with the refrain “Thug Life!” ● This album is a reminder to a nation that was seemingly put to sleep. ****READ SONG ANALYSIS ON SEPARATE DOCUMENT!

Functional Theories of Religion: Focus on WHAT religion DOES. Does not care if God is real or not, but rather focuses on what belief or practice does to a community/social construction. Empirical Reality: Religion is a social entity - refers back to society. If you say something about GOD, you are really just saying something about HUMANS. ● Tupac was not talking about his experience with God, but was using him as a tool to animate something else. He is commenting on social justice and the political system set in place. Race vs. Religion: The two are more similar than they are different - used to make up a Totemic Theory. ● Emotion ensures that vision takes on life. ● Emotional Effervescence - Collective emotional response, think of a community feeling something TOGETHER when sharing an experience. This makes up the totemic theory. ○ Community gains sense of religion through the totem. ○ Internally - Community has a sense of identity, and identity must be maintained and protected. ○ Externally - Regular humans have emotions that get the best of then, communities start to fight? ● Everything that reinforces and protects the totem, is named to be sacred. ● Everything that threatens the totem is deemed profane. ● Social identities operate as modern day totems.

Features of Sacred vs. Profane: The sacred vs. profane distinction is arbitrary, and there is always an antagonist in the relationship. ● The two are pro-constituted, which means we do not have one without theother. ● Produces social homogeneity - will always be an insider group and an outsider group. Politics of Representation: When an artist symbolizes, speaks, or advocates on behalf of their own group members or the self. Strategy of policing others, and the behavior of other group members, such that representation of one group member becomes representation of another group. Who is Kendrick Lamar? What is he repping? How is he repping it? ● He is representing both HIMSELF and a larger group - Compton and the 80’s generation. Speaking on behalf of what he has witnessed while also telling a fictional story to relate

to others. ● [subject ←→ representation of subject ←→ self represent] ○ When they are in tension, we have a crisis of representation. ○ Is there a LIMIT on what rap can talk about? ○ People don’t like rap because it talks about the ‘bad’ in the world, but that is the reality. ● Hip-hop is the only art form that is contested over WHO the rapper is and what they’re rapping about. ○ Society will identify and chain people to a certain construction… the role of the artist is to CHALLENGE those identifications. Ramifications of Representation ● When something is represented as invisible (something or someone). ○ Where are the women in Kendrick's music? Are they invisible? If not, how are they represented? ○ Becomes problematic and viewed as ‘cancel culture.’ ● When something is represented as essentialist - every entity has a set of attributes that are reduced/necessary to its identity and function. Spaces of Representation ● Kendrick - The character that is a representation, who is also the artist. The character inside the art. ● Lamar - the name we use to describe the artist we are criticizing. Should we separate the person from the artist?

______________________________________________________________________________ good kid, m.A.A.d. city Title of the album has two meanings. The first is ‘my angry adolescence divided,’ and the basic standout meaning is ‘my angel’s on angel dust.’ This album is noted as a short film by Kendrick Lamar, a cinematic that tells a gripping specific narrative. It’s a day in the life of the protagonist, K.Dot, as he becomes Kendrick Lamar and in it, hooks up with his girl, robs a house, and goes through misadventures, which makes him question hood politics. ● Whiteness is invulnerability juxtaposed with the vulnerability of blackness. ● Sense of entitlement/privilege. ● Understanding that whiteness is just as diverse as blackness - both are heterogeneous. ● The DISTANCES that white people create stem from their racial anxiety. ○ Whiteness is grounded in structures of denial and/or guilt.

Definition of Whiteness: Whiteness is considered the standard, or social default, to which all other races are compared too. Yet, with white heterogeneity put aside, whiteness shares privileges, entitlement, and overall dominance. ● Whiteness is derived from POWER and DOMINANCE: ○ “Aggrieved entitlement” and “white rage” are but two forms of white self-defense against the perceived threat of a shifting demographic on U.S. soil31 that unsettles the often unconsciously assumed value of whiteness as normative and of the white individual and social body as dominant” (Peach). ● Because there is whiteness, there is blackness. ● White cannot relate to black experiences - experiences can be shared but cannot be taken as your own. There is a difference between whiteness and white people - but if you attempt to distinguish white from black, there is an ethical problem. How does Lamar view sin in light of humanity? ● “I am a sinner, who’s probably gonna sin again…” ● Lamar grew up with blurred lines between the sacred and the profane. ○ Album cover of Section.80 illustrates this antagonistic relationship. ○ Baby bottle vs. 40oz. ● Lamar tries to project himself as the good kid in the mad city and uses religious notions to set himself apart from the others. ● Yet he still ‘rides’ for his city of Compton - the place of SIN. ○ He is a product of Compton, but is struggling to be in Compton and not a part of it anymore. ○ Begins carving an image for himself and distinguishing himself from other artists. ● He wrestles with the street culture - he is from the hood, was a victim of 80’s generation and Compton, but doesn’t want to glamorize that life through his lyrics. ○ Had a familial experience that helped him stay out of the ‘gang life’ - is that what helped him escape and NOT sin? ● The entire album good kid, m.a.a.d city is a self portrait - how Lamar got through Compton and how he is different. He sets himself apart from the other black men in the mad city. ○ Still carries survivors guilt. ● Being a good kid in a mad city was HIS confession (relates to sinning) Sin - Separation from God

● Christian position on HUMAN CONDITION. ● Sin is not an action, but a state of being that we are born into. Humans are born sinners, and that’s why God is present. ● Humans use sin to keep God good.

Standpoint Theory A feminist theoretical perspectived, coined by Sandra Harding, to emphasize the empistomologies of women’s knowledge. Your own category of experience shapes your perspective - it is experiential. ● Standpoints are always intersectional - have axes of social difference. ○ Used as a marker to emphasize the fact that black women's experiences were different than white women’s, but also different than white and black men alike. ○ When you take a particular standpoint, every piece of social difference has to be taken into account. ● Standpoint theory will problimitize the object and the subject - example would be rap music objectifying women and forgets they are too a subject. Creates women as the problem, but men are also at fault for making women a means of instrument. ● POWER creates different groups in society. ______________________________________________________________________________

Essays/Thinkers: Du Bois - Our Spiritual Strivings ● Double Consciousness - Sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others. ○ Blacks don’t live life as the real them, they live in the shadow of whites. ○ They are free men, but still locked up in prison or their race. ● The Veil - Represents the color line. ○ Curtain/separation between whites and blacks. ○ Feel like they have different identities. ○ Both a blessing and a curse. ● Importance of freedom Pinn & Driscoll - Int...