African American Literature: after(almost) thoughts

Having very nearly completed African American Literature with Dr. Thomas I have been left with a better understanding of not only the literature we studied but also the role that African American Literature should have in the classroom. 

I suppose partly why I enjoyed African American Literature so much is because many of the authors believe what I believe about art, that it is not simply for art's sake.  In fact, I'm pretty convinced that if the world was a peaceful place without injustice or poverty I'd spend the rest of my days running my own restaurant, serving my favorite foods, and offering artichokes as an alternative to side salads.  Yes, that is a life that lives in the back of my mind but it is not one that I will ever know, nor could I stand it in the world that we reside in.  If everything was right in the world I'm afraid I would probably read pop fiction and maybe even begin to develop a taste for romantic comedies (blech), but, I mean, without the world as it is, would there be anything other than pop fiction and romantic comedies?  In a perfect world would or could art ever fullfill me more than a beautifully presented artichoke?  No.  No!

Secondly, I must admit that I have a sort of disdain for many English majors, it is true, and even when I realize I shouldn't I still do.  There is a sort of arrogance among a number of English lit majors (which I realize may also be partly attributed to age because I am speaking of people in their twenties) who believe that all great literature was written in English.  When my sister was majoring in English she complained that an English professor was teaching "too much" Black literature in American lit class.  "This ISN'T African American Literature class" she said, as if that is the only place where African American literature belongs.  We quarreled as we always have.  I have known a number of lit majors with similar views and many who overlook African American literature and a whole hell of a lot of other books to rush and proclaim that Hemingway or Tolstoy (not English, but still) is the best novelist in human history.  And to that I can only say, how many novelists have you actually read?  I mean, nothing against Tolstoy, but really, there's a WHOLE WORLD OUT THERE! and they were very young and inexperienced.  I suppose English majors really got under my skin because I, too, loved literature and to me they were mutilating it.  It was like a man taking a woman and cutting out her breasts and replacing them with implants, sucking out her fat, dying her hair, and painting her lips, cutting her tongue and gouging out her eyes, and then saying, "Look at her: Women Are Beautiful."  But that is not a woman!  That is a Frankenstein!  That is a part of a woman, terribly distorted into a monstrosity of patriarchal creation.  That is what literature is without international voices and without African American voices.  And American literature without African American voices is a disfigured version of our literary history.

So, I have struggled with when and where African American literature should be taught.  I mean, it should be taught EVERYWHERE.  Where women literature is involved African American women should be doing a huge portion of the speaking.  Where American literature is concerned, well, I have already stated my opinion on that.  African American literature, some would argue, shouldn't even exist because African American literature IS American literature and so, why the separation?  And to that I would say my African American Literature class has helped show me why.  Although African American lit should be incorporated in all areas of American literature I now FIRMLY BELIEVE that African American literature should be a FOUNDATIONAL course for all students in The United States of America.   

To explain why I believe this I must discuss my previous experience in literature courses that briefly touched on African American authors.  I have had several of those and they have often involved disgusting and depressing discussions where students completely misunderstand the author's intention or where they look down on the author and reject the anger of an African American author as unwarranted. 

For example, in Professor Agy's Short Story and Novel course we read many different authors of different time periods.  She was a good teacher who tried to provide a historical background for each story.  However, clicking on a link about Emmit Till and the civil rights era did not provide the context that students needed.  I believe students read this and still believed that racism, especially violent racism, were merely isolated acts in small pockets of Southern communities. 

I believe this because of the responses to two authors the students developed.  In those posts we were to discuss James Baldwin's autobiographical notes and Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to be Colored Me."  Baldwin's notes, although a far cry from the most radical and confrontational literature to emerge from the African American community, was still too confrontational, too angry.  Too angry.  Angry. ANGER.  That was the word I remember being repeated.  Almost everyone, it seemed, had a problem with his anger, as if his fist had risen from the pages and punched them in the face.  And I suppose it had. 

Hurston, on the other hand, was easier to swallow mainly because I think she is easy to misread.  I interpret much of her early attitudes towards racism to be a result of her having grown up in an isolated and all Black community where her identity was not continually degraded by Whites.  I also believe that her own disinterest in the actions of Whites and her embrace of her heritage is mistaken for some sort of absolution for white supremacy.  Reading, or misreading, Hurston's essay becomes a cathartic experience for the readers who were left feeling rattled by Baldwin.  Anger, we are often told, is one of those unacceptable emotions.  There are drugs for people who feel too much anger.  Anger is not civilized.  It is not appropriate!  It has no place in the classroom, certainly, that is something we've been taught since we were children.  Anger is not justified unless, I suppose, the dominant authority says it's justified.  It's justified when your anger is directed at another country, competing with us or attacking us, or it's justified when directed at a pedophile or rapist -- you know, someone who we are allowed to be angry with.  James Baldwin was a black man and he was angry with the dominant culture of white supremacy.  Although the autobiographical notes we read did not state this, he was also a gay man who was also angry with racists in the gay community.  He was a man who was fully entitled to all the righteous anger he could muster.  But!!!! Make no mistake, he was an artist who reached out to the reader and explored the human condition, he was not the angriest nor most radical of African American authors or activists.  But for my classmates he was still TOO ANGRY. He simply didn't deserve to be that angry.

So, I suppose that for students who lacked a foundational understanding of African American history or literature Baldwin's relatively mild criticism was a punch in the face. 

So, I wasn't sure what would happen with African American literature.  I wondered, would I spend the entire semester rehashing the same arguments that occurred in Short Story and Novel, World Literature, or Poetry and Drama? And and-and-and-and! it wasn't like that at all!  Yes, on the one hand people who came to the class did so knowing what they were getting into but it is still taken by people only wanting credits for their associates degrees, and there are still students who don't care enough to do their own work, so, not everyone -- if even anyone -- entered wanting to be African American lit scholars.  And although there were many times where I disagreed with many students I did see a much more thoughtful discussion occurring, I did see people opening to ideas.  And so far, one of the final discussion projects I've read is about a student's new understanding of Malcolm X.

This students prior beliefs surrounding Malcolm X are similar to almost every white student I've ever known who receive the same sort of Malcolm vs. Martin education that I received (the one where Malcolm always comes out looking like an enemy).  I actually once thought that this was specific only to white American schools but once, when I was watching a BBC program on educational reform, there was a teacher in the background presenting the Malcolm vs. Martin argument in almost the exact same context that I received it in my overtly racist school.  (How naive of me not to realize that even European nations aren't getting it right.) 

I believe that these new understandings were only reached because of the way in which we focused EXCLUSIVELY on African American literature and history.  By tracing the initial works to it's modern conclusion students are better able to understand, to interpret, and to empathize with African American authors that they would otherwise reject as too angry or discard as hate filled, failing to examine the source of anger.  The literature was extremely powerful and even more so when coupled with history.  The portions on lynchings were given more gravity by the use of some very disturbing images in which, what seems like, entire TOWNS joined together to MURDER African Americans, and then posed for the most surreal and disturbing photos I've ever seen.  When these acts were committed by police, judges, and politicians, it should be obvious that white supremacy trumped any loyalty to our nations laws. 

And so, in my experience, it is impossible to engage in productive or remotely accurate discussions regarding African American literature or real world issues, such as, the teaching of Black Vernacular in schools, the drug war, the police, the inner city, civil rights, social assistance, historically Black colleges, or equal opportunity employment with a person who has no foundational understanding of African American history.  Without that understanding these sort of conversations quickly become dead end dialogues blocked by racist assumptions and stereotypes.    

But, when African American literature is given center stage a deeper understanding can occur and meaningful discussion can follow.  If students, all students seeking a degree, were required to take African American Literature (and PLEASE take it before you take another lit class where your ignorance is going to be a roadblock) I believe that racism could and would decline in this nation.  But for now, racism festers and spreads throughout white communities where many view history within the time frame of their own life and who also view that history through the very narrow window that is their own life experience.  And make no mistake, this tumor resides among conservatives AND liberals. 

Even if a student is not seeking a traditional degree they should be required to take African American literature because many of these students will seek certification in a field where they will eventually come into contact with African American coworkers and customers.  Plenty of companies in the future will settle expensive lawsuits as a result of their own racism, whether that racism is intentional or not.  I do believe that there are people who truly do not know why what they say or do is so offensive and upsetting but if they took African American literature they would develop an understanding.  So, whether a student is seeking a traditional degree or career training anyone can benefit from a course like the class I took.  While many colleges increase their focus on job readiness, to ignore African American literature simply because it is a part of the liberal arts program would be missing the tremendous value it can bring to a workplace, any workplace, where racism can lead to hostile work environments and potential payouts in the millions.

For me, this course has changed my interest in literature, it has focused my attention to African American literature in a way that it had not been focused before.  Yes, I have read some African American literature in the past and modern antiracists like Cornel West and Damali Ayo but this sharpened my interest in not just the activism and nonfiction, but also the narrative fiction, plays, and even poetry.  And there is still so much more to learn.