Journal Article Paper

In the article; “Reading Race and the Difference It Makes”: (Post) 9/11, Black Performance, and Cultural Production (Melancon, T., 2014), the author tells of pre 9/11 and post 9/11 race relations and the ties it has to the overall African American community.  The article touches on several forms of Black Performance, and Cultural Production and expressions in the black community from musical, political, film, stage and so on.  The author looks at how African American used these various forms of expression and their social influences to protest and bring light to important social issues that were typically overlooked or passed over by the mainstream media outlets.

This particular author sheds light on how racial relations were before and after 9/11 and the effort that it had not just in the African American community but other ethic and minority groups as well.  The author also focused on how when the United States began waging war on terror how this so call war would not be the new platform for racial discrimination and bigotry for others who did not embody what was perceived to look like or be quote unquote “American”.  The article go’s as far as to suggest that waging a war on terror abroad has actually increased domestic terrorism on U.S. soil as well.  This highlights the racial divide that was once thought to have been all but forgotten and added full too a smoldering fire and ignited a whirlwind of hatred and intolerance for others.

 Drawing upon two distinct and contemporary forms of black performance—Lupe Fiasco’s “Words I Never Said” and Sergeant Shamar Thomas’s Occupy Wall Street demonstration—this article engages these very issues regarding race, cultural production, and black performance. Not only does it do so to elucidate the conspicuous shifts in race in light of and in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, but also to explicate the extent to which black performance—through racial embodiment, aesthetic form, and protest or revolution vocalized—contests prevailing racial politics, engagements, and propaganda regarding race (post) 9/11.  The author uses these two artist works to explain the state of mind that exist within the black community pre and post 9/11.  Yet, race has invariably played a consequential role in America. Not only has it been essential to maintaining power structures and demarcating otherness but also in narrating what (and, by extension, who) constitutes American identity domestically and abroad. While race has operated as such, its manifestations have not been fixed, uniform, or absolute over time.

I am in arrogance with the author in several of the points that he has demonstrated throughout the article.  Being that I am a young African American male who has his own business and who has also dabbled in the music and TV industry,  I find that he makes several valid points on how race relations were before and after 9/11 and how it affected black performance and cultural production.  I agree on this theory that before 9/11 happen race relations were on the backburner and were dealt with on a case by case bases meaning if we all got along then everything was fine but when race relations became strained we only dealt with it when it became national news.  The attacks on 9/11became a launching pad for a new wave of hatred and bigotry throughout our country and gave people a new crusade to shift there deep seated racial hatred towards. I also shear author outlook on how the African American community has used all forms of artistic avenues to express their political and personal views on the war and racial tension between different other ethic racial groups as well as its own.  I agree with the author when he suggest that Sgt. Thomas’s Occupy Wall Street demonstration, as does “Words I Never Said,” exposes the shifts—transparent and nuanced—in instantiations and topographies of race and US identity (nationally and militaristically) in light of and in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. This moment is embroiled with matters of American and US identity, as well as security, in an increasingly diverse racialized and globalized world. These performances expose what is inscribed and at stake in the systematic war on terror, as well as U.S. enactments and approximations of both terror and war—broadly and narrowly defined—(post) 9/11.

This article is very important in my eyes because it sheds light on several injustices that has been brought on by racial divide and prejudice before and after 9/11.  It show how black performers have used their talents and showcases as political shoeboxes to speak out against these injustices to shed light on what is going on within their lives and communities.  It sheds light on how the so called war on terror has lost focus on what it was intended to do which was seek out the people who were responsible for the attacks on 9/11, instead it is now used as a rallying cry for all people who dislike others who they believe not be American or who may look, think, act or worship differently than the way we do or think they should because of their race, religion, or nationality.  This article is a very interesting read that will challenge your way of thinking about the attacks on 9/11, African American performers and their roll in politics and how it changed the course of race relation in America.

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Melancon, Trimiko. ""Reading Race and the Difference It Makes": (Post) 9/11, Black

Performance, and Cultural Production." <i>Franklin University Journal of Popular Culture. Jun2014, Vol. 47 Issue 3, P489-502. 14p.</i> N.p., 24 June 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.