Je ne suis pas Charlie

I do not support the actions of today's gunmen who shot and killed staff members of the notorious magazine Charlie Hebdo.* But I am virulently against the ways in which this incident, much like many related incidents, has been immediately taken up by Western states and mainstream media outlets as evidence of the superiority and preciousness of Western democracies and freedoms and furthermore, as reason to heighten the suspicion of and violence towards not only Muslims but any person with a complexion that could be confused as Muslim-ish/Arabic/Middle Eastern/ etc etc etc. Very quickly- with the help of our new means of communicating mass and at times unthinking solidarity- the hashtag #jesuischarlie went viral, linking African Americans struggle against racist cops and the racism of the American state and judicial system that upholds their authority, with the bigoted "drawings" of a French magazine. It was tragic what happened to the staff members whose lives were viciously ended by - what has been reported to be- the actions of Islamic fundamentalists. But what is perhaps more tragic is the rapid consumption of progressive activist tactics opposing state violence against historically oppressed people in the name of supporting a racist media institution and the racist state whose "democratic" policies have failed and continue to fail those citizens not deemed worthy of their liberte, egalite, fraternite.

typical french racism

Thus far, the only decent article to discuss the broader implications of the attack on Charlie Hebdo can be found here.












*I've looked at a bunch of the work published in Charlie Hebdo and it is terrible (terribly drawn, not funny in the slightest and also racist). I won't associate it with the press                                                                      or art.

"disrupting business as usual"- the badass activists of Oakland

article

Music and the politics of place- Broken Deer and Theesatisfaction

Alright-- so these two seemingly very different albums- Polaraura, by Broken Deer and Sandra Bollocks Black Baby, by Theesatisfaction- share an interesting thematic connection. The songs "My Heart's in the Highlands" and "Born Identity" both discuss, in very different words, references and sounds the way we understand our identities, our destinies, our histories, our dreams and visions as connected with our respective space. Both vocalists are women and through their lyrics we glean that their being women bears some importance. My Heart's in the Highlands is the title of an 18th Century Robert Burns poem about attachments and longing for the highlands of the "North", but the song in question (which was recorded in and drew influence from Whitehorse, Yukon- a "forgotten wilderness- within themselves") contains different lyrics- ones that reflect a more mysterious and feminine relationship between the land and the artist. The sounds Broken Deer generate are absolutely beautiful and searching and expansive and solitary.
The second track is from Theesatisfaction (for the life of me, I could not get the html link to embed in this post--

 %$#%$#a.ekt ahbvl.ea vr$%^$*

.... i'm over it though.. so I've attached a link to the webpage where you can play the track).

"Born Identity" is similar to "My Heart's in the Highlands" insofar as it makes great use of minimalist sound composition and it is explicitly dealing with the topic of identity as it is formed through one's space and place. Stas, however, does not paint a picture of solitude with her words. Her space is that into which she is born and takes claim of, not through some seemingly deep historical, mystical or natural connection, but through articulating her familiarity with the city she inhabits by way of chance and with which she continues to identify, by choice. Her world is loud and crowded, while Broken Deer's is absolutely silent, save the violent sounds of nature.

It's hard for me to not think about how the history of race is present in these songs. -- but since I know far too little about the politics of the former artist I will abstain. Both songs (and BD's video) are nonetheless stunning.

 

**Apologies if this post is jumbly.. I wasn't planning on writing tonight update:

Robin D. G. Kelley- A great academic

In response to the question of how he incorporates his text Race Rebels into his teaching, he humbly responds:
"I may have taught Race Rebels twice in my career. Still, there are some themes that come up in my teaching that relate directly back to Race Rebels, as well as to all of my books during that period. My objective has long been to unearth movements that had been driven underground or erased from popular historical narratives, and to recover their ideas. Race Rebels, more than my other books, is about unearthing what is sedimented below the surface. In the classroom, I’m not necessarily trying to construct a new master narrative but encourage students to figure out what people thought, felt, and how their ideas and visions of what is possible changed over time—irrespective of how big or influential the movement. I resist dividing Black movements into categories like “integrationist/separatist; resistance/accommodation; nationalist/socialist, etc., but instead try to get beyond the public performance of consent and push students to understand that motives for human behavior are not reducible to material conditions or ideology. I hope that students come away from my History classes recognizing that evidence for these kinds of movements is always fugitive, ephemeral, flashes rather than full-blown illumination. It’s like writing history by strobe light."

* rest of article

Poppy Day- the politics of remembering

Remembrance Day always conjures up strong emotions in me. I have no personal attachments to the celebrations, in so far as I don't have anyone in my family that I know to have fought in the "world wars" and the blind nationalist support for commemorating Canadian historical achievements that I espoused throughout my elementary and secondary schooling has long since waned. What's more, my work as a historian has sharpened my attentions to how people in the colonized parts of the world and their oppressed and racialized brethren experienced these "great" wars of the 20th century. It's clear to me (and many others) that governments (and Hollywood) exploit the collective emotional weight that this day bears, but by simply pointing this out, we do not erase the weight. 

I don't wear a poppy because I feel that it represents an exclusive remembering- one that excises from popular memory the lives and deaths of those not considered of the 'Great White North' (or civilization in general) and one that omits the histories of racial and class violence before, during and after the World Wars in the West. I do, however, remember on this day the sacrifices that were made during these wars, as well as the histories that were frantically written to capitalize on such loss.