A thoughtful, personal essay by photographer Hank Willis Thomas makes the case that the cultures of America’s inner-city black communities, once dignified by the gains of the civil rights movement, have been steadily degraded over the last three decades by corporate capitalism.
The piece begins below and deserves a full reading despite its length. —ARK
Hank Willis Thomas at The Root:
The generation before me was defined by soul. Soul was a virtue born out of the spirituality of gospel, the pain of blues, and the progressive pride of being the standard-bearers of civil rights. They were stylish like Shaft, but noble like Martin. They sang on Sunday mornings, after “sangin’” on Saturday nights. They pressed their thrift store suits with so much starch that the bare-threaded knees were as stiff as if they’d just bought them new at Brooks Brothers. Almost everyone was poor, so there wasn’t any shame in it.
Not my generation. We were defined by “cool,” an emotionally detached word that provokes a cold response to the world with a narrowly focused ambition for its ice, its bling, and its things. We heard stories of our parents and grandparents fighting for the right to be fully recognized Americans. We saw some folks from the neighborhood come up—way up. They became ballers, rappers, hustlers, actors—even a few doctors and lawyers. On TV we saw it happening right before our eyes: the Jeffersons, the Cosbys, Jesse Jackson running for president, and Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Whitney Houston dominating the airwaves.
But the majority of us saw the dreams, passions, and hopes of our parents dashed by the regression of a Black community linked to the welfare system, project housing, rising unemployment, deteriorating education, addiction, and an increase in Black men in the penal system. Good Times and What’s Happening!! were funny in the 1970s, but by the eighties they were in reruns and the joke seemed to be on us.
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By SarcastiCanuck, March 19, 2012 at 1:47 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Nice jab at the corporations.They con and seduce regardless of race,creed or color…But only if you let em….
Report thisBy wrldtrvlr, March 19, 2012 at 6:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
There’s a grain of truth to many of the comments I see
Report thishere. In an effort to elevate the next generation
higher than what we experienced, the effort to make
things easier for them seems to have wrecked havoc on
their aspirations. If one has a sense of entitlement
(as in from their parents), why then should they
understand that the world at large owes them nothing?
I do not see this as just a failing of the Black
community, but our society at large.
By moonraven, March 18, 2012 at 1:11 pm Link to this comment
Jazz is not the exclusive territory of African-Americans.
You have to climb pretty high to get over Chet Baker—who, when he died in Amsterdam, just floated out the window like an angel.
What destroyed black cool was more COINTELPRO than capitalism.
Report thisBy gerard, March 18, 2012 at 10:15 am Link to this comment
Well, Patrick, there’s jazz. You’d have to climb pretty high to get over that one!
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, March 18, 2012 at 8:15 am Link to this comment
No story here, in rich affluent neighborhoods having a soccer mom van or a new beamer is the status symbol.
Why should owning a status symbol be any different for blacks than anyone else?
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, March 17, 2012 at 5:47 pm Link to this comment
Did you want me for something?
Report thisBy gerard, March 17, 2012 at 3:59 pm Link to this comment
I would suggest that it is not only black culture that has been degraded by corporate capitalism. In fact, the question might be asked (on the basis of evidence) that there has not been anything that coud legitimately be called “white culture” to degrade.
Report thisIn the early days of colonization there were remnants of “Irish culture”, “German culture”, “Italian culture” and such and little effort was made to retain them. In fact, the “thing to do” was to get rid of them. On the whole, Blacks have done a much better job holding their own and seeding the over-all “majority culture” than others,
and we are all much richer for it. They ARE somebody—whereas, ... well, sift through it all and what’s left? Wars, divisiveness, fear, forced conformity, blah-ness, with here and there a lone genius popping up. There once was a mythical something called “Democratic Vistas” == “I Hear America Singing” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” etc. == but .... what happened?
At least that’s the way it seems to me.