Critics generally don’t associate Black people with ideas. They see marginal people; they see just another story about Black folks. They regard the whole thing as sociologically interesting perhaps, but very parochial. There’s a notion out in the land that there are human beings one writes about, and then there are Black people or Indians or some other marginal group. If you write about the world from that point of view, somehow it is considered lesser. We are people, not aliens. We live, we love, and we die.
Toni Morrison (via blackcontemporaryart)
Apart from being an on-point observation by the great Toni Morrison, this quote struck me as topical in two ways.
It reminded me of an interview with Saul Williams on the entertainment and pop culture podcast Studio 360. He talked with host Kurt Anderson about the early cancellation of Holler If Ya Hear Me, the musical based on the music of Tupac Shakur, axed on Broadway after just one month. He made a similar point to the quote above: A lot of the bad reviews came from critics going into the performance with preconceived notions about what a “Tupac musical” will be like, expecting some kind of 90s gangsta reenactment. Critics who focused on what was actually happening on stage gave much more favorable reviews. The culture clash that led to the early closing of the musical wasn’t on stage – Saul Williams convincingly made the argument that rap, especially narrative, story-telling rap, is a good basis for a musical play – but in the audience. Broadway audiences aren’t quite ready.
Saul Williams also argued that the theme of the musical, young Black struggle and violence, is still a current problem. That’s my second point, representation of poor, young Black life in middle-American pop culture is still rare, problematic, and desperately needed. Literally: The current events in Ferguson and their mainstream media coverage are insult and second injury to the local community, revealing deep, racist wounds in American everyday life.
Thoughts?