I really liked this weeks reading because it stressed the importance of diction and methods when advocating for change. The author’s initial description of revolutions v abolition reminded me of the quote “I don’t want a seat at the table I want to break the table”. Shange’s framework of viewing the current black experience as the “afterlife of slavery” is very productive in working to change peoples’ perspectives of the effects of slavery being long ago and black people being far removed from it. I think its a great example of how language can be a powerful tool to elicit change.
Too often, black movements are co-opted into broad people of color movements, completely disregarding the unique experiences and relationship to the state black people have. Abolition anthropology is a great area of study that I think prevents this from happening; it establishes a field of study in which incomparable nature of chattel slavery’s effects are a given and the methods to overcome the harm are a given. This area of study then provides the means to continue pushing for the end of black oppression without there being the ability to water down or broaden the message.
Shange’s use of dystopia reminded me of how often I see aspects of everyday life described as dystopian. I think a lot more people are becoming aware of how unreal aspects of the late stage capitalist society we live in are, and this word is used to describe them. The first thing that comes to mind is the US military advertisement that frames each of the different roles as super heroes, calling a man standing in front of a tank with a gun “the thunder maker”. I often think about how this propaganda will be a question on a future kids APUSH test.
Bernard Break
I wish (and I’m sure there is) a modern equivalent to the methodology book. I find it really ironic that he talks about learning derogatory names for ethnic groups after calling Inuit people a derogatory name. I never thought of using surveys beyond simple questionnaires for an ethnography. These types of surveys reminded me a lot of something a psychologist would do, I like seeing how applicable anthropology is to other areas of study and how it overlaps with so many other disciplines.
Back to Shange
Not even a few pages into the chapter hearing about the death’s of two of the Robeson kids was so heartbreaking and a testament to the importance of abolition.
Being that my research is about black communities at Vandy I think I will use Shange’s methods of reassigning names to people. When describing Robeson’s curriculum and graduation requirements, Shange ends the passage with “A win indeed”. I found this super interesting because it comes across like a backhanded compliment given her earlier remarks about how winning is the goal in neoliberal revolution as opposed to quitting playing the game through abolition.
Besides the Davis quote, I had never seen the many faults in the STPP model. But again this goes back to the importance of language. Robeson as a whole, not that they try to, will never be an abolitionist place of education. Not only are the teachers committed to operating within the system but this structure of schools as a whole is inherently capitalist. The way school is done in America, the way classes are structured, the way you have to not only pay but have the grades for college, it’s beyond the point of fixing. The structure of the education system needs to be rethought, another instance of breaking the table rather than being offered a seat. Students at Robeson are being offered a seat at the table, but the table needs to be broken.