How the news media falsely frames Black Lives Matter protest as riots to purposely destroy credibility, detract from movement, and divide constituencies?
Artist: Billie Holiday
Song: “Strange Fruit” (1939)
“Vocalist and composer Billie Holiday is a giant of modern American
music. Perhaps her most iconic and powerful recording is her rendition of
“Strange Fruit,” a poignant, haunting critique of southern lynching.
Holiday first performed “Strange Fruit” at Café Society in New York City in
1939 and it’s one of the first direct indictments from a Black artist—and a
23-year-old woman at that—of horrifying acts of violence committed
against African Americans by white supremacists. The song was so
controversial that Holiday’s recording company refused release of the
song to the commercial market. Her opening stanza is descriptive of the
whole: “Southern trees bear strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood
at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit
hanging from the poplar trees.”
Paul Roth, PhD student in Music, UCSD
Agenda
Reminders and Announcements
Recap: Lukes
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
Alexander I
Next Class
Reminders and Announcements
oI’ll post the slides before class.
oI’ve combined “Reading Questions” and
“Reading Notes” into a single tab in each module
on Canvas.
Recap: Lukes
Question 1: How should we think about power theoretically
and how should we study power empirically? (p.1)
Question 2: How should we characterize American politics
–as dominated by a ruling elite or as exhibiting pluralist
democracy? (p.1)
Ruling Elite Theorists Vs Pluralists
Recap: Lukes
Lukes’s Three-Dimensional Concept of Power
1. Power as the ability to make decisions and impose them on others.
2. Power as the ability to remove key issues from political debate.
3. Power as hegemony:
o Coercion + Consent
o Win-Win Discourse
Hegemonic power “prevent[s] people… from having grievances by
shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way
that they accept their role in the existing order of things” (Lukes 2005:11).
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
oWhat forms of power did you see at play in Will
Smith’s acceptance speech?
oWhat forms of power did you see at play in the
ensuing debate about who was right and who was
wrong?
Why does Alexander refer to racism in the
United States as a system of racial “caste”?
What is a caste?
What are the three systems of racial control
that define American political history?
1. Slavery
2. Jim Crow
3. Mass Incarceration
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
“The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status
relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they
are challenged” (p.21).
“Following the collapse of each system of control, there has been a period
of confusion–transition–in which those who are most committed to racial
hierarchy search for new means to achieve their goals within the rules of the
game as currently defined.
“The adoption of the new system of control is never inevitable, but to date it
has never been avoided. The most ardent proponents of racial hierarchy
have consistently succeeded in implementing new racial caste systems by
triggering a collapse of resistance across the political spectrum. This feat has
been achieved largely by appealing to the racism and vulnerability of lowerclass whites” (p.22).
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
“With each reincarnation of racial caste, the new
system… is less total, less capable of encompassing
and controlling the entire race. However, any notion
that this evolution reflects some kind of linear
progress would be misguided, for it is not at all
obvious that it would be better to be incarcerated
for life for a minor drug offense than to live with
one’s family, earning an honest living under the Jim
Crow regime–notwithstanding the ever-present
threat of the Klan” (p.22).
What is your theory of history?
oAre we better off today than in the past?
oIs history an endlessly repeating cycle of
exploitation?
oAre we worse off today than in the past?
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
1. Status relations are enforced through formal and informal rules,
institutions, and practices.
2. Resistance against the status relations is always present but becomes
particularly intense in certain periods.
3. Resistance forces change.
4. There is a period of confusion as an old system dies and a new one
hasn’t fully emerged yet.
5. The victories of the oppressed aren’t trivial, but they do not manage to
fully dismantle existing inequalities.
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
6. The dominant group tries to reestablish itself through a new set of rules,
institutions, and practices.
7. A key part of this process consists in crushing resistance by forging an
alliance with one of the marginalized groups in the system (divide and
conquer / the “racial bribe”).
8. The new system is different than the old, more limited, less total, but also
more subtle, no less violent and severe, and in some cases even more
effective.
9. Resistance brews within the system again.
10.The cycle repeats itself.
The Birth of Slavery
o Colonial Period: indentured servitude (23)
o Planter Elite Vs. Black and White Indentured Servants.
o Plantation farming expands à demand for land and labor
expands
o Native Americans are robbed of their land.
o Racialized views of Native Americans emerged to justify this
theft (the “savage”).
o Ultimately, slavery was instituted to meet this demand
Why were Africans targeted for slavery?
o Native Americans were in a stronger position to fight back.
o There weren’t enough European immigrants and enslaving
them would further disincentivize migration.
o Africans were relatively powerless, and disorganized, at least
initially, because they had been uprooted from their local
communities (p.24).
How did Bacon’s Rebellion Precipitate the Shift form
Indentured Servitude to Slavery? (p.24).
o Nathaniel Bacon was a white property owner in Jamestown, Virginia.
o In 1675, he developed a plan to seize Native American lands but the
planter elite in Virginia refused to provide him with militia support.
o Bacon retaliated by condemning the rich for the oppression of the
poor and inspired an alliance between White and Black bond
laborers, as well as slaves, who demanded an end to their servitude
(p.24).
o The rebellion was ended by force and false promises of amnesty, yet it
shook the planter elite, leaving them worried about the potential for
another multiracial alliance between bond workers.”
The Racial Bribe
“Deliberately and strategically, the planter class extended
special privileges to poor whites in an effort to drive a wedge
between them and black slaves. White settlers were allowed
greater access to Native American lands, white servants
were allowed to police slaves through slave patrols and
militias, and barriers were created so that free labor would
not be placed in competition with slave labor. These
measures effectively eliminated the risk of future alliances
between black slaves and poor whites. Poor whites suddenly
had a direct, personal state in the existence of a race-based
system of slavery” (p.25). [Hegemony]
Slavery Before White Supremacy and Democracy
o What role did White Supremacy play in resolving the
tension at the heart of early American “democracy”? (26)
o “The Constitution was designed to preserve the racial
caste system” (p.25).
o Federalism and State Rights (p.25-26).
“Racial division was a consequence,
not a precondition of slavery” (p.26).
Civil War, Emancipation, and White Backlash
o White people were terrified by rumors of a great insurrection.
o The stereotype of the aggressive Black man is born in this period (p.28).
o Plantation owners were concerned about the economy of the South.
o Black codes, convict laws, vagrancy laws à system of forced labor (p.28)
“While some of these codes were intended to establish systems of peonage
resembling slavery, others foreshadowed Jim Crow by prohibiting, among
other things, interracial seating in the first-class sections of railroad cars and
by segregating schools” (p.28).
Reconstruction (1860s-1870s)
o Initial White backlash was ineffective.
o Incredible expansion of civil and political rights.
13th Amendment: abolished slavery
14th Amendment: due process and equality before the law
15th Amendment: protected the right to vote
The Civil Rights Act of 1866: granted African Americans full
citizenship
• The Ku Klux Klan Acts (prohibited interference with voting).
• The expansion of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the agency in charge of
providing food, clothing, fuel, and other forms of assistance to
destitute former slaves.
• A public education system emerged in the South.
•
•
•
•
Jim Crow
Redemption (forced labor and segregation) (p.31)
“The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.C. Constitution had
abolished slavery but allowed one major exception: slavery
remained appropriate as punishment for a crime” (p.31).
Jim Crow: Three Philosophies of Race Relations
Liberalism: pointed out the contradictions of American
”democracy” and the stigma of segregation (p.32)
Conservatism: “blamed liberals for pushing Blacks ahead of
their proper station” (p.32).
Radicalism: populist approach that critiqued the way poor
Whites and Blacks had been made into political enemies to
the economic detriment of both.
Jim Crow: The Racial Bribe
“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate
effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African
Americans. These discriminatory barriers were designed to
encourage lower-class whites to retain a sense of superiority
over blacks, making it far less likely that they would sustain
inter-racial political alliances aimed at toppling the white
elite. The laws were, in effect, another racial bribe” (p.34).
Resistance Against Jim Crow
Civil Rights Movement
Emphasis on economic grievances
Civil Rights Movement evolves into a Poor People’s
Movement (p.39)
Martin Luther King: a multiracial alliance (p,39)
The Racial Bribe: “Law and Order”
Next Class
o I’ll see you on Zoom on Thursday.
o Read Alexander II (17.5 pages)
o Collective quiz on Alexander I and II on Thursday
Take Care of Yourselves and
Take Care of Each Other!
Artist: The Watts Prophets
Song: “What is a Man” (1971)
“What Is A Man” by the Watts Prophets was released in 1971. The
song (or spoken word and song) looks at both social justice issues
in the US on the heels of the Civil Rights movement as well as
abroad with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. The Prophets are
considered to be rap’s first true artists and they were hugely
influenced by the Watts Rebellion in 1965. Their song title points to
another complicated social justice issue of the time: the
prototypical Black revolutionary was male and left little room for
women. From this tension emerged a powerful generation of
Black feminists, including Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade
Bambara, Toni Morrison, and countless others.”
Paul Roth, PhD student in Music, UCSD
Agenda
Reminders and Announcements
Recap: Alexander II
Ciccariello-Maher and Morris
Next Class
Reminders and Announcements
Spots with good wifi on campus?
Recap: Alexander II
Mass Incarceration
The rhetoric of “law and order” emerges in the late 1950s as a
strategy against the Civil Rights Movement.
Republicans knew exactly what they were doing.
A disproportionate share of the costs of integration and racial
equality were borne by lower and lower-middle-class White people.
This made them ripe for a new “racial bribe.”
”Law and Order” à “War on Drugs” à Mass Incarceration
Recap: Alexander II
Nixon à Reagan à Bush Sr. à Clinton
Poverty becomes racialized: “Welfare Queens”
Crime is covertly racialized: “Super Predators”
The Racial Bribe: It’s White people’s taxes that are paying for
programs that support ”lazy people” and criminals.
The message: If we put them in jail, they’ll no longer be a threat to
you.
Punitive legislation à Mass Incarceration
Maher: How do the mainstream media and police
departments portray riots?
They argue that violence is unacceptable on moral grounds?
They argue that riots don’t work in bringing about change.
They argue that riots harm communities.
They argue that riots are illegitimate because they are carried out
mainly by “outsiders” and “thugs” (p.3)
”Riots provide a read-made image to the media that emphasizes
the “negative” over the “positive” (meaning the “violent” over the
peaceful”).
Ciccariello-Maher’s Critiques
Violence is unacceptable on moral grounds
What is your reaction to this?
Ciccariello-Maher’s Answer:
Violence is necessary (He is not a pacifist).
It is an acceptable strategy to survive and attempt to change a
system that hates you and is trying to exploit or kill you.
It also just works
Ciccariello-Maher’s Critiques
Riots don’t work in bringing about change.
What is your reaction to this?
Ciccariello-Maher’s Answer:
Riots work.
Nonviolence on its own has never worked (p.3).
The view that nonviolence works is often premised on a problematic
understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.
Riots Work
Examples
Oscar Grant (January 1, 2009)
Mike Brown (August 9, 2014)
Freddie Gray (April 19, 2015)
We could also add George Floyd (May 25, 2020)
“While riots can undeniably win concrete concessions, it is this
demonstration effect that matters most, despite being more long-term
and difficult to measure, making Ferguson a catalyst for militant
resistance nationwide” (p.6).
Ciccariello-Maher’s Critiques
Riots harm communities
What is your reaction to this?
Ciccariello-Maher’s Answer:
“The police–not to mention capitalism–have done far more…
damage than any riot could” (p.5).
Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore (p.5):
$1 million in uninsured losses
$1.5 billion in foreclosures from the recession
Kimberly Jones
Ciccariello-Maher’s Critiques
Riots are carried out by “outsiders” and “thugs.”
What is your reaction to this?
Ciccariello-Maher’s Answer:
The cops are usually the real “outsiders” and “thugs.”
Baltimore PD falsely claims that various gang members have united
to “take-out” law enforcement officers.
In the early 1990s, the LAPD tried to undermine a truce among
gangs.
Kimberly Jones
Ciccariello-Maher’s Critiques
Riots lend themselves to negative portrayals in the media
What is your reaction to this?
Ciccariello-Maher’s Answer:
This view has little to say about whether “peaceful” protests
work.
Riots don’t “lend themselves.” Media channels and
personalities choose what to cover.
What is Ciccariello-Maher’s critique of
nonviolence?
It doesn’t work in the context of systemic
oppression.
It is a ruse that simply reinforces the authority
of those who are in a position of privilege.
What is Ciccariello-Maher’s critique of Ta-Nehisi Coates?
Coates insists “that his goal is not to question nonviolence, but
simply to call the bluff of those who insist on nonviolence while
brutalizing Black communities. But by attempting to leverage
hypocrisy to impose ethical behavior on a white supremacist
state, Coates runs the risk of neglecting a very Fanonian insight
that his own writing often confirms: namely, that under
conditions of white supremacy, ethics is impossible” (p.7-8).
“The only “credible threat” that matters to police and political
elites is the threat posed when communities take to the streets”
(p.9).
Riots work… but the fight goes on
“if street rebellions can lead to partial victories, we need to
remember that these victories are just that: partial.”
”Every concession is at the same time a containment
strategy.”
“But without the threat of insurgency in the streets, no
charges would ever have been brought in the murder of
Freddie Gray–and if in the euphoria of celebrating the
arrests, we forget that they measure not the justice of the
system but our own power in the streets, then all is lost.”
Morris: How does collective behavior
theory view social movements?
”The theory disdained social movements
as crowd phenomena: ominous entities
featuring rudderless mobs driven hither
and thither by primitive and irrational
urges” (p.3).
The Civil Rights Movement (CRM)
“The creation of crisis-packed disruption
by means of deep organization, mass
mobilization, a rich church culture, and
thousands of rational and emotionally
energized protesters delivered the
death blow to one of the world’s most
brutal regimes of oppression” (p.13).
What Does Resource Mobilization Theory Argue?
oMobilizing money, organizational efforts,
and leadership matter more than
grievances.
oMarginalized people depend on the
good will of more affluent groups and
movement entrepreneurs to provide
resources.
What Does Political Process Theory Argue?
oSocial movements are a struggle for power.
oMarginalized groups cannot effectively access
established formal institutions or resources.
oAs a result, they must employ innovative disruptive
tactics.
oBecause marginalized groups are generally weak, they
depend on “external windows of opportunity.”
What Does Indigenous Perspective Theory Argue?
o Both Resource Mobilization Theory and Political Process Theory attribute
the success of social movements to external factors
o Social movements are struggles of power.
o Resources matter, but they come largely from within the community.
“The agency of movements emanates from within oppressed
communities–from their institutions, culture and creativity. Outside
factors such as court rulings are important, but they are usually set in
motion and implemented by the community’s actions. Movements
are generated by grassroots organizers and leaders… and are
products of meticulous planning and strategizing” (p.15).
Theories Focused on Culture and Emotions
o For movements to develop, a people
must first come to see themselves as
being oppressed.
o This awareness is not automatic.
Violent Vs Non-Violent Tactics is Not the Right Question
oDominant elites will eliminate violent and nonviolent activists in equal measure.
oThe real lesson from the CRM is to avoid relying
too heavily on a single charismatic leader.
oThis is why Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives
Matter eschewed centralized governance.
Differences Between the CRM and BLM
oBLM is global
oBLM is more diverse
oBLM is less centralized: it’s “decentralized,
democratic and apparently leaderless.”
The Challenges BLM Faces (p.21-22)
o“Can a decentralized movement produce the necessary
solidarity as protestors face brutal repression?”
o”Will their porous Internet-based organizational structures
provide secure spaces where tactics and strategies can
be debated and selected?”
o”If protesters are not executing a planned tactic in a
coordinated and disciplined manner, can they succeed?”
Next Class
o I’ll see you on Zoom on Thursday.
o Read Marx (4 pages)
o Collective quiz on Ciccariello-Maher, Morris, and Marx
on Thursday
Take Care of Yourselves and
Take Care of Each Other!
Artist: Billie Holiday
Song: “Strange Fruit” (1939)
“Vocalist and composer Billie Holiday is a giant of modern American
music. Perhaps her most iconic and powerful recording is her rendition of
“Strange Fruit,” a poignant, haunting critique of southern lynching.
Holiday first performed “Strange Fruit” at Café Society in New York City in
1939 and it’s one of the first direct indictments from a Black artist—and a
23-year-old woman at that—of horrifying acts of violence committed
against African Americans by white supremacists. The song was so
controversial that Holiday’s recording company refused release of the
song to the commercial market. Her opening stanza is descriptive of the
whole: “Southern trees bear strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood
at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit
hanging from the poplar trees.”
Paul Roth, PhD student in Music, UCSD
Agenda
Reminders and Announcements
Recap: Lukes
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
Alexander I
Next Class
Reminders and Announcements
oI’ll post the slides before class.
oI’ve combined “Reading Questions” and
“Reading Notes” into a single tab in each module
on Canvas.
Recap: Lukes
Question 1: How should we think about power theoretically
and how should we study power empirically? (p.1)
Question 2: How should we characterize American politics
–as dominated by a ruling elite or as exhibiting pluralist
democracy? (p.1)
Ruling Elite Theorists Vs Pluralists
Recap: Lukes
Lukes’s Three-Dimensional Concept of Power
1. Power as the ability to make decisions and impose them on others.
2. Power as the ability to remove key issues from political debate.
3. Power as hegemony:
o Coercion + Consent
o Win-Win Discourse
Hegemonic power “prevent[s] people… from having grievances by
shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way
that they accept their role in the existing order of things” (Lukes 2005:11).
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
oWhat forms of power did you see at play in Will
Smith’s acceptance speech?
oWhat forms of power did you see at play in the
ensuing debate about who was right and who was
wrong?
Why does Alexander refer to racism in the
United States as a system of racial “caste”?
What is a caste?
What are the three systems of racial control
that define American political history?
1. Slavery
2. Jim Crow
3. Mass Incarceration
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
“The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status
relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they
are challenged” (p.21).
“Following the collapse of each system of control, there has been a period
of confusion–transition–in which those who are most committed to racial
hierarchy search for new means to achieve their goals within the rules of the
game as currently defined.
“The adoption of the new system of control is never inevitable, but to date it
has never been avoided. The most ardent proponents of racial hierarchy
have consistently succeeded in implementing new racial caste systems by
triggering a collapse of resistance across the political spectrum. This feat has
been achieved largely by appealing to the racism and vulnerability of lowerclass whites” (p.22).
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
“With each reincarnation of racial caste, the new
system… is less total, less capable of encompassing
and controlling the entire race. However, any notion
that this evolution reflects some kind of linear
progress would be misguided, for it is not at all
obvious that it would be better to be incarcerated
for life for a minor drug offense than to live with
one’s family, earning an honest living under the Jim
Crow regime–notwithstanding the ever-present
threat of the Klan” (p.22).
What is your theory of history?
oAre we better off today than in the past?
oIs history an endlessly repeating cycle of
exploitation?
oAre we worse off today than in the past?
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
1. Status relations are enforced through formal and informal rules,
institutions, and practices.
2. Resistance against the status relations is always present but becomes
particularly intense in certain periods.
3. Resistance forces change.
4. There is a period of confusion as an old system dies and a new one
hasn’t fully emerged yet.
5. The victories of the oppressed aren’t trivial, but they do not manage to
fully dismantle existing inequalities.
What is Alexander’s Theory of History?
6. The dominant group tries to reestablish itself through a new set of rules,
institutions, and practices.
7. A key part of this process consists in crushing resistance by forging an
alliance with one of the marginalized groups in the system (divide and
conquer / the “racial bribe”).
8. The new system is different than the old, more limited, less total, but also
more subtle, no less violent and severe, and in some cases even more
effective.
9. Resistance brews within the system again.
10.The cycle repeats itself.
The Birth of Slavery
o Colonial Period: indentured servitude (23)
o Planter Elite Vs. Black and White Indentured Servants.
o Plantation farming expands à demand for land and labor
expands
o Native Americans are robbed of their land.
o Racialized views of Native Americans emerged to justify this
theft (the “savage”).
o Ultimately, slavery was instituted to meet this demand
Why were Africans targeted for slavery?
o Native Americans were in a stronger position to fight back.
o There weren’t enough European immigrants and enslaving
them would further disincentivize migration.
o Africans were relatively powerless, and disorganized, at least
initially, because they had been uprooted from their local
communities (p.24).
How did Bacon’s Rebellion Precipitate the Shift form
Indentured Servitude to Slavery? (p.24).
o Nathaniel Bacon was a white property owner in Jamestown, Virginia.
o In 1675, he developed a plan to seize Native American lands but the
planter elite in Virginia refused to provide him with militia support.
o Bacon retaliated by condemning the rich for the oppression of the
poor and inspired an alliance between White and Black bond
laborers, as well as slaves, who demanded an end to their servitude
(p.24).
o The rebellion was ended by force and false promises of amnesty, yet it
shook the planter elite, leaving them worried about the potential for
another multiracial alliance between bond workers.”
The Racial Bribe
“Deliberately and strategically, the planter class extended
special privileges to poor whites in an effort to drive a wedge
between them and black slaves. White settlers were allowed
greater access to Native American lands, white servants
were allowed to police slaves through slave patrols and
militias, and barriers were created so that free labor would
not be placed in competition with slave labor. These
measures effectively eliminated the risk of future alliances
between black slaves and poor whites. Poor whites suddenly
had a direct, personal state in the existence of a race-based
system of slavery” (p.25). [Hegemony]
Slavery Before White Supremacy and Democracy
o What role did White Supremacy play in resolving the
tension at the heart of early American “democracy”? (26)
o “The Constitution was designed to preserve the racial
caste system” (p.25).
o Federalism and State Rights (p.25-26).
“Racial division was a consequence,
not a precondition of slavery” (p.26).
Civil War, Emancipation, and White Backlash
o White people were terrified by rumors of a great insurrection.
o The stereotype of the aggressive Black man is born in this period (p.28).
o Plantation owners were concerned about the economy of the South.
o Black codes, convict laws, vagrancy laws à system of forced labor (p.28)
“While some of these codes were intended to establish systems of peonage
resembling slavery, others foreshadowed Jim Crow by prohibiting, among
other things, interracial seating in the first-class sections of railroad cars and
by segregating schools” (p.28).
Reconstruction (1860s-1870s)
o Initial White backlash was ineffective.
o Incredible expansion of civil and political rights.
13th Amendment: abolished slavery
14th Amendment: due process and equality before the law
15th Amendment: protected the right to vote
The Civil Rights Act of 1866: granted African Americans full
citizenship
• The Ku Klux Klan Acts (prohibited interference with voting).
• The expansion of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the agency in charge of
providing food, clothing, fuel, and other forms of assistance to
destitute former slaves.
• A public education system emerged in the South.
•
•
•
•
Jim Crow
Redemption (forced labor and segregation) (p.31)
“The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.C. Constitution had
abolished slavery but allowed one major exception: slavery
remained appropriate as punishment for a crime” (p.31).
Jim Crow: Three Philosophies of Race Relations
Liberalism: pointed out the contradictions of American
”democracy” and the stigma of segregation (p.32)
Conservatism: “blamed liberals for pushing Blacks ahead of
their proper station” (p.32).
Radicalism: populist approach that critiqued the way poor
Whites and Blacks had been made into political enemies to
the economic detriment of both.
Jim Crow: The Racial Bribe
“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate
effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African
Americans. These discriminatory barriers were designed to
encourage lower-class whites to retain a sense of superiority
over blacks, making it far less likely that they would sustain
inter-racial political alliances aimed at toppling the white
elite. The laws were, in effect, another racial bribe” (p.34).
Resistance Against Jim Crow
Civil Rights Movement
Emphasis on economic grievances
Civil Rights Movement evolves into a Poor People’s
Movement (p.39)
Martin Luther King: a multiracial alliance (p,39)
The Racial Bribe: “Law and Order”
Next Class
o I’ll see you on Zoom on Thursday.
o Read Alexander II (17.5 pages)
o Collective quiz on Alexander I and II on Thursday
Take Care of Yourselves and
Take Care of Each Other!
Artist: Bessie Smith
Song: “Poor Man’s Blues” (1929)
“This is the great Bessie Smith—known as the “Empress of
the Blues”—and her “Poor Man’s Blues” released in 1929.
Early African-American blues singers provided social
commentary for their mostly African-American audiences
and Smith was one of the best-known singers of her time. In
this song, the “poor/rich” divide could easily be understood
as “Black/White, ” and scholars indeed locate some of the
first pointed Black protest music in Smith’s songs. ”
Paul Roth, PhD Student in Music, UCSD
Agenda
Reminders and Announcements
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
Recap: Golash-Boza
Hannah-Jones
Next Class
Reminders and Announcements
oI’ll post the slides before class.
oI’ve combined “Reading Questions” and
“Reading Notes” into a single tab in each module
on Canvas.
Will Smith and Chris Rock Incident
oWhat did Will Smith represent as an idea before
the Oscars incident?
oHow was the incident racialized and gendered?
oWhat does Will Smith represent after the incident?
Recap: Golash-Boza
The importance of reflexivity.
”Race” is a social construction.
The idea of race emerges with colonialism.
Race and racism are mutually constitutive.
Racist ideologies and racist structures are mutually constitutive.
Racist ideologies are false beliefs (e.g. Color-blind racism)
Racist structures are practices and instantiate and reproduce those
false beliefs.
Recap: Golash-Boza
Hegemonic Whiteness: naturalizes racism and racial inequality
Example: ”controlling images”
Although racialized identities emerged with colonialism, many have
been reappropriated.
Intersectionality makes discussions of race concrete because it
focuses on lived experience.
What is Hannah-Jones’s central goal in this article?
“No one cherishes freedom more than
those who have not had it” (p.15)
The Myths of American History: Independence
Why did the colonists go to war with Britain?
“No taxation without representation.”
Hannah-Jones
Preserving the institution of slavery was a central
motivation and enabler.
The Myths of American History: Civil War
Why did the Civil War Happen?
The North opposed slavery and the South wanted
to preserve it.
Hannah-Jones
The North did not contest slavery.
Lincoln initially had no intention of abolishing it.
The Myths of American History: Economic Wealth
How was the wealth in this country built?
Through hard-working, entrepreneurial (White)
immigrants seeking a better life for themselves.
Hannah-Jones
Through slave labor.
The Myths of American History: Democracy
How did democracy in America emerge?
Those same (White) immigrants believed in
freedom and were seeking self-governance.
Hannah-Jones
Democracy in the US is 50 years old, give or take,
and still an ongoing project full of contradictions.
It was built by Black people.
The Myths of American History: International War
How do we usually frame what American soldiers are doing when
fighting wars abroad?
They’re spreading democracy and defending our freedoms.
Hannah-Jones
During WWI and WWI, federal government officials were
concerned that Black soldiers would expect more freedom upon
their return.
There’s a welfare state for veterans, though most Black soldiers
were excluded from it.
The Myths of American History: the American Dream
What is the American Dream and How do You
Achieve it?
Individualism + Meritocracy
Hannah-Jones
The game has always been rigged and premised
on exploiting Black people.
Are the mainstream stories about America
complete falsehoods?
Not completely.
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
The ideal of unalienable human rights was first established,
explicitly, in the US.
White Allies: Virginia Foster Durr, Julius Waties Waring.
But we must not lose our critical lens…
Hannah-Jones and her Father’s Devotion to the American Flag
“So when I was young, that flag outside our home never made
sense to me. How could this black man, having seen firsthand the
way this country abused black Americans, how it refused to treat us
as full citizens, proudly fly its banner? I didn’t understand his
patriotism. It deeply embarrassed me” (p.2).
I had been taught, in school, through cultural osmosis, that the flag
wasn’t really ours, that our history as a people began with
enslavement and that we had contributed little to this great
nation…. That my dad felt so much honor in being an American felt
like a marker of his degradation, his acceptance of our
subordination” (p.2).
Why did her father have such a strong devotion to the
American flag?
“My father knew exactly what he was doing when he raised that
flag. He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest
and most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the
United States simply would not exist without us” (p.3).
No one more than Black people has lived up to the ideals America
purportedly stands:
Hard work
Democracy
Entrepreneurship
The Beginning of American Slavery (p.3)
August 1619: Jamestown colonists purchased 20-30 African
from English pirates.
12.5 million Africans would eventually be kidnapped from their
homes and brought to the Americas.
”The largest forced migration in human history until WWII” (p.3).
2 million did not survive the journey.
What were the two central contributions of enslaved
people to economic development and wealth
accumulation in the United States?
They powered the cotton industry à global capitalism
They built the railroads à the industrial revolution in the US
“They grew and picked the cotton that at the height of
slavery was the nation’s most valuable commodity,
accounting for half of all American exports and 66 percent of
the world’s supply” (p.3).
Enslaved Black people also built… (p.3-4)
The White House
The Capitol
Our most prestigious universities
Wall Street
The Contradictions of American Democracy
The Declaration of Independence
“All men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights.”
Enslaved black people:
Could not legally marry
Had no claim to their own children
Had no legal standing in most courts
Could be raped and murdered with without legal consequence.
Could own nothing, will nothing, and inherit nothing.
Jefferson and the founders knew…
“Jefferson’s fellow white colonists knew that black people were
human beings, but they created a network of laws and customs,
astounding for both their precision and cruelty, that ensured that
enslaved people would never be treated as such” (p.5).
How does Hannah-Jones know they knew?
“In Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he
tried to argue that it wasn’t the colonists’ fault. Instead, he blamed
the king of England for forcing the institution of slavery on the unwilling
colonists and called the trafficking in human beings a crime…. Yet
neither Jefferson nor most of the founders intended to abolish slavery,
and in the end, they struck the passage” (p.6).
The Constitution
“The Constitution protected the “property” of
those who enslaved black people, prohibited the
federal government from intervening to end the
importation of enslaved Africans for a term of 20
years, allowed Congress to mobilize the militia to
put down insurrections by the enslaved and
forced states that had outlawed slavery to turn
over enslaved people who had run away seeking
refuge” (p.7).
The Ideal of Freedom + Slavery =
A Hardening of the Racial Caste System
“This ideology, reinforced not just by laws but by racist
science and literature, maintained that black people
were subhuman, a belief that allowed white Americans to
live with their betrayal” (p.7).
“By the early 1800s,… white Americans, whether they
engaged in slavery or not, “had a considerable
psychological as well as economic investment in the
doctrine of black inferiority” (p.7).
What does Hannah-Jones tell us about the Civil War and
Lincoln’s Legacy?
He initially opposed Black men joining the Union’s war effort.
He explicitly stated many times that the North had no interest in
abolishing slavery.
He changed his mind only when it was clear that the war wasn’t
going well for the North.
He proposed a mass deportation of Black people after the war.
He blamed Black people for the war.
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
During this period, Black people led the way in one of the most vigorous
expansions of political and civil rights in this country.
Egalitarian state constitutions in the South.
More equitable tax legislation.
Laws prohibiting discrimination in public transportation and housing.
Public school system.
13th Amendment (1865): outlaws slavery
Civil Rights Act (1866): Recognizes citizenship for Black Americans
14th Amendment (1868): Birth-right citizenship.
White Backlash to Reconstruction
Once federal troops leave the south…
Violence (KKK)
Voter suppression (literacy tests)
Election fraud
Black people prohibited from serving on juries or testifying
against white defendants.
Segregation
Overthrow of democratically elected biracial governments
Who Benefitted from the Struggles of Black Americans for Political
and Civil Rights?
Poor white people
“White Southerners of all economic classes, on the other hand, thanks in
significant part to the progressive policies and laws black people had
championed, experienced substantial improvement in their lives even as
they forced black people back into a quasi slavery…. It was the poor
white man who was freed by the war, not [Black people]” (p.11).
Everybody Else
“Black rights struggles paved the way for every other rights struggle,
including women’s and gay rights, immigrant and disability rights” (p.4).
Next Class
o I’ll see you on Zoom on Thursday.
o Read Fields I (18 pages)
o Collective quiz on Hannah-Jones and Fields I on
Thursday
Take Care of Yourselves and
Take Care of Each Other!