"...[O]pportunistic use of Black culture is exploitative, a form of economism...replacing the political struggle for self-determination with a superficial rhetoric aimed at gaining concessions under imperialism." -Amiri Baraka, "Malcolm as Ideology," Malcolm X: In Our Own Image.
This morning I'm watching TV, when I see the promos for the new season of Project Runway (premiere July 12, 2006 - whoo hoo!). I'm all excited, but like a bolt out of the blue, what do the folks at Bravo send to rain on my parade? New cast member, Michael, age 28, from Atlanta. Michael, in all his sweet (eh hem) Atlanta glory, is wearing trademark new-coon aviators, with his arms folded in trademark new-coon stance. He utters 5-seconds worth of drivel about how fabulous he is, and how he's going to take the whole competition (which will be great in a few weeks when we know that he sooo doesn't take the competition).
If I see one more black man on television holding his nuts and talking about how great he is (while having absolutely nothing to back it up, of course), I will vomit. Someone is running around telling them that swagger sells. And they are listening. They say silly shit like "I'm not conceited, I just have the confidence to _______" - you can insert your choice of dumb tasks that they think they're particularly suited to succeed in accomplishing. Think Diddy. Think 50. This arrogance is often, though not always, associated with an alleged black nationalist agenda. Case in point: the militant afro-gay Karamo, who after all his damned talk was afraid to get in the water on the Real World/Road Rules challenge. Remember him? I know, barely.
I posit that this conceited black man, a caricature to be sure, is none other than our friend, the coon. He is mantan. He is Sambo. He is a fiction, a creation. We made him up to entertain white people. Again. We shuck, we jive, they film, they edit. Who do I blame for this unabashed idiocy? Kanye West, the new-coon patron saint.
1 comment:
Check out "We Real Cool" just one of the fabulous books from the bell hooks' library.
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