Drs. Frank Wilderson and Todd Burroughs joined us again for another powerful installment of an ongoing discussion. This time, in the context of Wilderson’s latest book Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonism, we continued along previously developed themes of liberation struggles, the power of mythology and the role media play in protecting a “structure, [which] he argues, is based on three essential subject positions: that of the White (the ‘settler,’ ‘master,’ and ‘human’), the Red (the ‘savage’ and ‘half-human’), and the Black (the ‘slave’ and ‘non-human’).”
In his discussion of popular films such as Monster’s Ball and Antwone Fisher Wilderson helps us understand the political function, which has real material impact, of cinema in protecting the sanctity of an “Anti-Blackness,” which according to Jared Sexton, “is carefully distinguished here from White supremacy, is not only an ideology and an institutional practice; it is also a structure of feeling with pervasive effects.”
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Greetings,
The Honourable John Henrik Clarke once made a comparison about speeches by Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He gave both of them props but said that when the masses went home, they could recount the message conveyed by Brother Minister Malcolm, albeit in their own words…i.e. his message was reaching the masses.
In the case of MLK, however, he alluded to the fact that while folks enjoyed and received his word, the message may not have been all that clear.
“…but what did he say?” This is how he put it.
My point is Jared, that you and some of your distinguished guests mean well and have something to say, but sometimes ya’ll sound “too white.”
Not to be confused with intellectual. Too many vague suggestions, unnecessary big words…who do you wish to reach? I see elements of Hip Hop being represented in your work…do you really think the youth can overstand what you and Dr. Frank Wilderson were talking about?
This European so-called education system has many of us speaking in that “greek-language of argument & confusion.”
I mean this in all love, brother.
Peace,
AfroA