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In this class, the concept of authenticity within the black community has come up time after time.  Authenticity can often shape discourse surrounding popular black cultural practices, and determining authenticity can become a tool or either inclusion or exclusion.  This week we learned about the subculture of Afropunk, the musical festival created in its honor, and the origins of Afropunk.  In the documentary Afropunk, I remember there were many themes of black people becoming immersed in the culture because they often felt excluded from other black people for “not being black enough”.  For those immersed in Afropunk, it became a way to escape the pressure of having to be a version of authenticity that they simply did not and could not conform to.  Therefore, a new type of authenticity was built through the grassroots movement that evolved into the Afropunk music festival.  In this VICE article written by Brian Joseph, Afropunk co-founder Matthew Morgan and co-organizer Jocelyn Cooper are interviewed and asked to address a recent charge made against the festival.  At the time the article was written (2015), the festival had received criticism for starting to charge people for admittance.  Initially, before reading Morgan’s opinion, I believed that charging for the festival worked to remove the grassroots, DIY, punk element of why the festival exists in the first place.  By removing this, the argument can be made that Afropunk (the festival) had lost all authenticity and original meaning.  However, Morgan raised an excellent point that allowed me to understand the reasoning for the sudden fee.  Joseph writes, “Surely a festival with a pro-Afro message is worth $70. It ties back to a common maxim: If the black community doesn't place value within itself, then who will?”

Afropunk initially started as a way to make visible the invisible through community and agency.  And while it has evolved into a more corporate version of its origins, I believe Morgan’s statement completely justifies the fee.  While charging a ticket fee does serve to alienate those who cannot afford it, it also raises the festival (and movement) to a bar that relates it to predominantly white music festivals.  While the article asks, “Is Afropunk Fest No Longer Punk?”, I believe that establishing agency through a ticket fee and visibility through a popular festival could indeed be considered punk.

-Alexie

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Rappers... Part of the Afro Punk Scene? (Matt)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuhl6Ji5zHM

The link above is a youtube video of Kanye West's Saturday Night Live performance of the 2013 song, "Black Skinhead". 

The reason I posted this video is for various reasons, mainly, the reason is the song's intent, as well as West's intent to mimic the Afro Punk... style in this performance. There are many things the song and west does to mimic Afro Punk:

Song

-The title itself: Clearly a nod to one of the general stereotypes of Punk. "Black Skinhead" as a title evokes the obvious sharpness by utilizing the term "skinhead". As Spooner points out in his origins, the punk scene when he lived in California was filled with white-racist or "skinheads" as he refers to them. However it is important to note that the term "skinhead" actually has some misconceptions. Yes, skinheads now is used to refer to the white-racist demographic. But, in global Punk culture, there are "British Skinheads" which as the name may seem, is composed of British punk fans that are NOT white-supremacist. Therefore it is interesting to ponder does Kanye West even know which way he is using the term.  

-Tone:The tone of the song seems very Punk. Sharp and loud drums, Kanye West either screams his lyrics or screeches loudly to evoke that sense of punk we have seen in the documentary. Like wise dog barks in the back ground evoke this sharpness. 

-Lyrics: Part of punk and Afro Punk as well is the lyrics. Generally, lyrics in punk speak to misconceptions of the youth, the rebellion of youth and other ways to evoke shock. Because this performance was made for live TV on a nationally broadcasted channel, West changed most of the lyrics, however, I want to present some examples from the studio track which has more substance in terms of lyrics and how they correlate to rebellion and misunderstanding: 

"For my theme song My leather black jeans on My by any means on Pardon, I'm getting my scream on Enter the kingdom But watch who you bring home They see a black man with a white woman At the top floor they gone come to kill King Kong Middle America packed in Came to see me in my black skin Number one question they asking Fuck every question you asking If I don't get ran out by Catholics Here come some conservative Baptists Claiming I'm overreacting Like them black kids in Chiraq bitch" 

Obviously it is clear from the first part of his song, he aims to hit on many of the tropes heard in Punk, mainly his perception that blacks are mistreated and still seen as animalistic to the white's perception of them. (The King Kong line, Violent black youth in Chicago, etc)

In terms of Presentation

-Kanye West himself seems to dress himself in an attire that fits the mold for a typical punk artist, tattered clothing, etc.

-Movement: West jumping up and down, radically, etc... Evokes a mosh pit like style, seen in most rock shows.

-Background: "Not for Sale" and other tropes of Capitalism, the dogs barking and the overall dark setting once again evokes the typical tropes of Punk.

With it being clear the song aimed to present a more Punk style than any of his other songs in his library, do you think in terms of the Afro Punk scene, people from the scene appreciate his contribution? With much talk about appropriation and authenticity I feel that many who follow the Afro Punk scene will probably not appreciate the song because of West's mainstream influence and perhaps misconceptions of the scene. 

-Matt Alexis

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Tradition or hypocrisy?: The logos of the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins

       We spent this week discussing Afro-Punk and cultural appropriation. There are many poignant aspects which I found fascinating in this material. Primarily, I was interested in the idea of certain stereotypes being generated and performed by the aristocracy and hegemonies of society. Primarily, the idea that comes to mind is that of Blackface Minstrelsy. Individuals who were not black would perform certain stereotypes such as the “zip coon” or “dandified coon” as a form of entertainment. This type of degradation only added to the racial divides at the time, as it was used as a way for whites to simplify a dynamic racial tension. A modern-day example of something similar came to mind when discussing Blackface Minstrelsy. The logos of the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins paint native americans in a way that is comically inaccurate. First and foremost, the name “Redskins” is as racially charged as one can possibly imagine. Further, the ownerships refusal to change the name, citing “tradition” is equally as appalling. The Indians logo displays a face which is painted bright red with enormous teeth and a smile that would only be applicable to a cartoon character. Both of these logos represent troubling dynamics for a variety of reasons. Primarily, the failure to see and understand why these images are upsetting shows that these organizations place their brand ahead of their social responsibilities to society.

- Julian 

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When Hip Hop and Afropunk Collide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0fkIaNpzU

When asked whether or not he was a good rapper Lil Uzi replied "I'm a Rockstar." This term describes Lil Uzi and is a big part to understanding his persona. Although he is one of hip hop's rising stars he still considers himself a rockstar and has publicly shown his love for Afro-punk. This dynamic is interesting because earlier this week we read about how Afro Punk is a culture dominated by whites and often times blacks who are Afro-Punk are rejected and ridiculed by other blacks. Here this is not the case, Uzi is able to still remain extremely popular amongst the African American community although he is singing along to rock bands such as Paramore  and buying 220,00 dollar spiked chains of Marylin Manson. Does his superstardom allow him transcend the stigma within Afro punk or is something else at play here? No matter what we can not expect Lil Uzi's Rockstar persona to go away anytime soon.  

- Zach 

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Afropunk Style & Hip-Hop artists

One thing that intrigued me while watching the Afropunk documentary, and the discussion of style in the articles we read was that I could see how a lot of these sectors of Afropunk style have become appropriated and more popularized by the media. For example, Lil Uzi vert is a rapper and hip-hop artist but just the way his hair is styled, and the large amounts of body jewelry he has on, make it easy to also see him as fitting into the Afropunk scene. I think increasingly so now, it has become kind of trendy and cool to dress sort of punk, but it is not always so obvious where these trends come from, as it's typically styles white people adopt without realizing that the punk scene actually came from black culture and has been appropriated.

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Accusing Black Americans of Appropriating African Culture

http://sjwiki.org/images/6/62/Cultural_appropriation.png

The picture is presumed to be of two white Americans appropriating the culture of Native Americans. The paradox is that Whites were the reason for the mistreatment and eradication of Native people due to colonization. The article "Accusing Black Americans of Appropriating African Culture" is a rather complex one. To one who doesn't understand cultural appropriation, they would not be able to make a distinction between Africans and African Americans. African Americans, especially during the Civil Rights Era, used African Aesthetic in order to further connect themselves with their African roots. However, the problem posed is that African Americans can not traced their heritage back to their African roots, which further creates the issues of wearing African based clothing yet not understanding the meanings behind wearing such clothes. What I gathered from the article is that Appropriation does not equal appreciation.

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Accusing Black Americans of Appropriating African Culture

http://sjwiki.org/images/6/62/Cultural_appropriation.png

According to the article, it would seem that African Americans appropriating the culture of Africans seems to be viewed in a very negative lime light because they "unable to trace their heritage without the help of a DNA test". I agree with the fact that there is appropriation to the degree in which the African Aesthetic is used for everyday fashion, and also that it can negatively misrepresent some of the clothing that was worn for specific ceremonies. However, the article is written in a which that turns the appreciation of African roots into a form of diaspora disrespect. Although appropriation is viewed as negative, there are also several meaningful benefits to appropriate a culture. This is a very complex topic to talk about because the appropriation of a culture to someone outside said culture is viewed as disrespectful, yet living in America makes it very difficult not to appropriate. 

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Individual Authenticity (Isiah)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7iRH1HpwxE

This is a link to a video of one of Eminem's rap ciphers in which he completely freestyles for close to 7 minutes. Eminem, as discussed through several readings and class discussions, is one of the various white rappers who have made a quiet a name for themselves in the rap industry and also hip-hop culture. Eminem, arguably one of the best lyrical rappers, was raised and consumed by the ghettos of Detroit, Michigan along with economic issues. With that being said, throughout the movie "8 Mile", one of the most noticeable commonalities within all the sense in which Eminem raps, is that he is constantly one of the only, if not the only, white person in the area at the time. There has been a lot of controversy about Eminem's success and one of the beliefs behind it is that he is trying to mimic black culture through hip-hop. However, in the same way James Spooner talks about his story and that he believes his authentic self is through his love for punk rock. James essentially battles with  having an interest in what is popularly consider music for white people, yet it was started by black culture. Eminem battles through something similar since he has an interest in rap and it is consider music dominantly for black people. 

Isiah Taylor 

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Colin Kaepernick and black/post black clothing

In class Wednesday we talked about different examples of post black clothing including the one of the two mentioned shirts. The one specifically mentioned was the Afro-pick shirt. 

To Tulloch, the shirt has a powerful critical text:

"The Afro comb, simple though it may appear, was an axial power in the practice of Afro hair creation, and the tool that in theory would liberate black hair into a hairstyle that encompassed black self-determination and self-definition. " (283)

Originally, I was going to associate how Kaepernick's hairstyle (afro) during the 2016 NFL season symbolized this quote and on his stance on what he was protesting. 

But I thought of something else:

Prior to the 2016 season, Kaepernick was not a very active player for the 49ers since his 2013 season where he led his team to the Super Bowl. Not only did he play as much, he was not as very popular as well. However during his protests and expression for better accountability and care for the African American community, something strange happened: His jersey sales increased at a rate similar to the height of his popularity in 2013. It became clear: People were buying his jersey. I've seen both sides: Some ignorant members in the white community bought his ($100) jersey just to burn or disrespect. However to many of my black friends and from what I saw in the black community, many blacks bought his jersey as a sign of support and respect for what Kaepernick was doing for the black community; PLEADING for everyone in the United-States to examine that there are clear civil issues in the black community that no one outside of the black community fail to acknowledge. To me, people that are wearing his jersey are doing so in a way to represent a new addition of post-black clothing to demonstrate that even after post-civil rights era, his stance shows more freedom of expression. 

-Matt Alexis

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This song by artist Frank Ocean came out in 2017, and begins with the the lines,

“My guy pretty like a girl

And he got fight stories to tell

I see both sides like Chanel”

Ocean famously came out as bisexual a few years ago, and has been considered one of the most prominent queer figures in hip hop, R&B, and rap (as he often switches between the genres).  In this song, he touches on the subject of duality by comparing himself to the fashion house Chanel, which has a logo featuring two C’s facing opposite directions.  To Frank, his bisexuality allows him to engage in the black male experience in a different way from his straight and hyper-masculine counterparts in the music world.  By embracing the duality of his sexuality through his music, Ocean echoes the artwork of Kehinde Wiley.  Wiley’s work focuses on blending black masculinity with beautiful, sensitive surroundings.  This helps break down the image of the hardened black male, an image that has contributed to oppression by white supremacy and to repression within the black community.  Through his music and his image as a queer black man in the music community, Frank Ocean seems to personify the fictional black men Wiley depicts in his paintings.

-Alexie

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Kaepernick and Post Blackness (Matt)

In class this week, we have discussed many post-black shirts as symbols of critical text through Tulloch's readings. Especially the Afro-pick shirts. Part of the critical text of the shirts is how it takes an object like an afro-pick and uses it to represent an era (late 60s, early 70s):

"The Afro comb, simple though it may appear, was an axial power in the practice of Afro hair creation, and the tool that in theory would liberate black hair into a hairstyle that encompassed black self-determination and self-definition." (Tulloch 283).  

When I first started to write this post, I wanted to correlate Kaepernick's decision to grow his hair in a natural state (afro) and how it was meant to obviously replicate the same idea as the above quote from Tulloch states. Kaepernick (I will nickname him 'Kaep' for the rest of the blog post), was very vocal about his protest and his reason was very sound and reasonable: The lack of accountability in the United-States government/police to help assure equal protection/care for the black community. Agree or disagree, but most of his motives was to advocate and empower the black community....

.... But then I remembered something very interesting that happened this season when Kaep did his protests: 

A little background for people who do not really follow NFL football; Kaep's highest point of play/performance was in 2013 when he led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance. However, the past few seasons(years), his play and relevance dipped SIGNIFICANTLY. Because he did not play that much and because he was not popular since his 2013 season, his jersey sales were very low. However this season when he demonstrated his protests and his expression for the black community, his jersey sales increased.

It is clear: His vocalness and publicity helped increase jersey sales. However, the biggest question is "Why and WHO is buying these jerseys?" I've seen both sides. Angry white people bought his jersey... just to simply burn it or disrespect it. Yet many African American friends of mine bought his jersey as a symbol of support for his cause. Not only my friends but other blacks on social media bought and wore his jersey for the same reason: To represent and show support for his cause. 

It would be easy to say Kaep's afro represented the era of black power, but I find it interesting his Jersey is a modern piece of clothing that represents Post-black clothing. To me now, I find the Kaep jersey as a similar piece like the Afro pick shirts, a representation of black power and black pride. 

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Mickalene Thomas Art

http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/artists/mickalene-thomas/press_release/0/artist_selected#1

This link is a slide show of some of Mickalene Thomas' art that are elaborate paintings of black women composed of rhinestone, acrylic, and enamel. These paintings are relevant to our readings in multiple ways. To start this is an example of "post black" where this art almost exclusively shows ideals of black beauty and celebrates black feminism in a way that would not have been possible before the civil rights movement. Thomas celebrates black beauty through her work and shows a sense of heightened empowerment in doing so. These paintings also contrast Wileys' in the sense that in Wiley's paintings his subject matter is mainly black men. Thomas features black women through a different style but both using blacks as the main focus of their work in a post black era. 

-Zach 

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Ohio School Hair Bans

http://blackgirllonghair.com/2013/06/ohio-school-bans-afro-puffs-and-braids/

This article I found I felt related well to this weeks readings as it discusses the bans of certain hairstyles at an Ohio school. Recently I feel like there have actually been a lot of news stories coming up of schools that police and prohibit black hair. This related to what we read about Apartheid, and the photograph of the young schoolboy in a blazer with an Afro. There were rules preventing afros and other hairstyles in schools in South Africa, but this policing really hasn't gone away. This sparked a bit of a hair movement around school children, as twitter became filled with girls protesting by keeping their Afros and going to school regardless of the rules. 

Isabelle Tietbohl

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Black Power Fist

https://www.buzzfeed.com/nielaorr/what-does-the-raised-fist-mean-in-2017?utm_term=.mc1EMLWA9#.dk9BPJjxE

I thought this Buzzfeed article would be interesting to look at after we talked about the fist being represented on the t-shirts from Tulloch's reading.  The black fist was a symbol of the black power movement and was used to represent strength, power, and solidarity.  However, this symbol continues to be used today in many different forms in our society from the Women's March to Trump's Inauguration Speech.  This may also be related to ideas of black invisibility and how people steal from black culture everyday, but it also confuses what the power fist is supposed to mean and I think the different ways it is now being used kind of lessens its meaning, which makes me question these t-shirts and if they are still helping to portray a message today or if that message gets confused with different populations and is just left without meaning.

Kelsey Hutchinson

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Prison Gestures (Isiah)

https://vimeo.com/79060120

This is a small clip from the TV series "Prison Break". It is relevant to the Sagging Pants article because there are several facets of prison adornment and lifestyle that are addressed in the article. The video that explains the section of the article is that ways of wearing or using clothing in prison can suggest one is available or open to homosexually activity. Theodore (T-Bag) is portrayed as a "boss" when in prison and everyone respects and slightly fears him, except for the main character. As a way of demonstrating his affection and "dominance", he shows his pocket in order to provide safety and pleasure to whomever grabs it. This is only one of the many forms of potential homosexual activity, but it is the first thing I thought of when reading that specific section of the article. 

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School Uniforms and The Styled Black Youth (Julian)

This week was spent examining various case studies presented by Carol Tulloch in her article, “Style-Fashion-Dress: From Black to Post-Black.” She unpacks the significance of several graphic t-shirts ranging from the apartheid era to Obama’s presidency. Yet, I found the most fascinating image to be one taken by Syd Shelton in 1976 of a young black male teenager in his school blazer. Tulloch goes on to detail what the blazer stood for at various points in time, ultimately stating, “To wear school uniform is to project the educational desires and status of a school and its pupils” (Tulloch 292). In this case, wearing a blazer was about exuding a certain image, one of intellect, passion to learn, and a sense of belonging. The moment I saw this photo I could not help but recall a similar dynamic in one of my favorite TV Shows. Will Smith attended Bel-Air academy in “Fresh Prince” which was a wealthy, predominantly white, high school. Instead of wearing the assigned blue blazer, he decided to flip the jacket inside out to show off a vibrant design which matched his outgoing personality. Soon, other students began to emulate Smith’s style because they too thought it was “cool.” In the photo taken by Syd Shelton, Tulloch explains how the teenager used his hair to “feed his self-respect” and as a way of showcasing his styled self. I find a comparable example in Fresh Prince as Will thrived on attention and being well-liked, thus he continuously styled his body in unique ways to catch the eye of others. Above, I have included an image of Smith in his patented school uniform which he wore everyday much to the dismay of Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv. 

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Tulloch (19-32)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv3FBT4bcbw

The video is of the Soweto Uprising, one of the many riots that were the direct result in Black British young men being interiorized by their peers because of their style and adornment. Tulloch discusses how Sad Shelton, young black male, was stereotyped and place into a negative image because he wore a blazer to school while maintaining his Afro (a hairstyle still popular in the 1970s). The image of Syd Shelton himself "tugs on social and social meanings to the uniform in Britain". The combination of the African diaspora along with the educational notions through the blazer created a completely different group of students, which was viewed negatively to the majority.