[Xmca-l] Re: Blackface and Gayface

[Dr. Paul C. Mocombe]

Rob,
Interesting question, and I want to share an experience I had while a visiting professor at the historically black college, bethune cookman university.
The university has an annual multicultural program where they have the students bring in food representing the diversity (jamaican, haitian, etc.) of so-called black foods of the student body.  The native african american student body came to me protesting bcuz the white professor who organized the event ASSUMED they were bringing chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and bake beans.  So she had the program printed based on the previous years programs.  So I asked them what foods were they preparing for the event?  They told me, chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and baked beans.  So I asked them, if I had made that assumption, which I did and do, about black american cultural foods would they be upset with me?  They all replied resoundingly, no, because I am black.  They had a problem because of the fact the white professor made that assumption about black american food... 


Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note® 4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: "R.J.S.Parsons" <r.j.s.parsons@open.ac.uk> 
Date: 4/25/2016  11:11 AM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu> 
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Blackface and Gayface 

It is wonderful what you learn on xmca. I had never heard of collard 
greens before. A quick visit to Wikipedia has enlightened me: things I 
eat most days. But the category has no meaning in my life, or in that of 
any other UK resident I am aware of. We eat some, we don't eat others.

Can someone enlighten me as to how and in what way collard greens has 
become a marker of identity in the USA?

Rob

On 25/04/2016 15:37, Dr. Paul C. Mocombe wrote:
>      
> Jacob
> Now we have to get into the definition of what is black identity?  I am native haitian who grew up in the provinces where my grandparents practiced vodou and raised me to think as an african.  My world was constituted via the universe and vodou.  I simply do not believe in defining myself by my skin-color.  By white man, yes I do privilege white experiences of the earth and the ideologies and apparatuses they have constituted as a result of the experience; blackness in the west was defined in relation to that experience. So in order for me to be black in america and join the black community what should I do:
> Join a so-called black church (they discriminate against my vodou religion as in vodou we discriminate against them for they practice the white man's faith)Eat collard greens, chicken, and macaroni and cheeseSpeak AAEVwear skinny jeansListen to rap music and rb
> OR is Barack Obama a paragon for e. Franklin frazier's the black bourgeoisie?
> I am haitian and My wife is black american and we have two sons... I do not let my sons do the black church thing.  My wife attends her protestant church every sunday.  But my sons are not allowed to attend;  No AAEV in the house; we are vegans so we do not do many of the foods...
>
>
>
> Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note® 4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Jacob McWilliams <jennamcjenna@gmail.com>
> Date: 4/25/2016  9:46 AM  (GMT-05:00)
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Blackface and Gayface
>
> I do not, and never will, agree with the arguments that reject Obama's
> black identity. I find those arguments deeply problematic at minimum, and
> usually much worse than problematic. However, I do wish that those who
> argue that Obama is not black would not describe him as a white man. By the
> terms of this argument, whiteness is no more a "real" category than is
> blackness, and referring to Obama as a "white man," even if done to shock
> people, serves to feed into the very real, and not at all fictitious,
> hegemony of whiteness in America and around the world.
>
>
>