Oct 23rd, 2016, 02:21 PM

Invisible in Academia: Black Discourse

By Faith Toran
Photo Credit: psychoanalyticdiscourse.com
Has the absence of black discourse in academic settings contributed to a lack of understanding of blackness?

After I cried, I laughed hysterically.

I was sitting with three sisters (black women) and felt peaceful restorative love in our differences. The four of us laughed, cried, and vented while speaking about truths about being a black girl/woman in this world. We saw different shades of brown telling different narratives. We saw color but did not see inequality and exclusion. There was a space for each of us. 

It made me wonder: Why is their an absence of black discourse in classrooms?

In academia, where are the black theorists that I know exist? I wonder this as I read Kant, Freire, Hegel, Castell — the list goes on. These theorists articulate the notion of blackness — when it is articulated at all — only as information about black people. Have we yet to progress academically, or is it just the curriculum I am learning?

 

Why is black literature as temporary as Black History Month? Where is the knowledge of black people? Is black history contextual? Is this academic subject indicative of lack of inclusion? I sit in class and wonder, how do I disagree with discourse by quoting black theorists that I will then have to explain? It could be a long and exhausting process. How do we begin to speak about black discourse without context? 

 


Photo Credit: hollywood.com

 

Are we tip-toeing around the concept of race? If so, why? And how? As Toni Morrison put it: "There is really nothing more to say except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

 

How do I sit at the bar and explain that it makes me uncomfortable when people say things like #blacklivesmatter but they have never read any black literature. It seems that we tend to affirm rhetoric like #blacklivesmatter, but where is the dialog after the hashtag signs come down, when the stench of mace leaves our clothes, when the internet takes a break from us as we sleep, when the black and brown bodies are finally laid to rest and the blood seeps into the concrete? Is there an understanding, accepting, inclusive, and positive space for dialog?

 

How do we enter into dialog? And has the absence of black discourse in social and academic settings contributed to a lack of understanding of blackness? 

 

IMG_3738.JPG
Image credit: Faith Toran

 

Have some blacks become anomalies that serve as mechanisms to silence black discourse? Sometimes it feels like that. Those of us who have enjoyed the luxury of a decent education often hear, "You are not like all black people". They try to humanize me by dehumanizing other black people. Hmmmmmm, what are "all black people" like anyway? Considering me invisible in the context of individualism is bizarre, but considering me as an "other", or as an anomaly, is simply ignorant.

 

We need to debunk this "all black people" notion once and for all. All black people are not the same. We don't think the same. Our names are not the same. We are not one person. Hi, my name is Faith.So how has this ignorance contributed to the absence of black discourse? Speaking as if the context of the black race has disappeared does not void out ignorance. I wonder, would you rather make me an anomaly than dismantle generalizations and stereotypes about black people? How do we generalize with language that is not being explored?

 

"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." -- Toni Morrison.

 

582148_4337741888246_258783117_n.jpg
Image credit: Faith Toran

Let's return to academia. Where am I to be found in the academic and social discourse? To quote Jamaica Kinkaid, "The blackness is visible and yet it is invisible, for I see that I cannot see it."

Should I first recommend some suggested readings as a pre-requisite to dialog?

When I read predominately white thinkers like Kant and Hegel, I am not visible. When I read Toni Morrison, Bell Hooks, W.E.B DuBois- The Souls of Black Folks, Audre Lorde, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alice Walker, The New Jim Crow and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, I am no longer invisible. There is acknowledgement of my existence and plight.

Will reading black literature serve as a catalyst to dialog, or is our ignorance so deeply anchored in discourse that it has become normalized?


Photo Credit: The Atlantic

Just Say it: Black people, laugh at yourself. Say it again. What do you feel?

Call it paranoia, but I prefer to call it truth!

If we do not have discourse about blackness, we silence any hope for significant progress. Sometimes being politically correct sounds racist. We are all humans, despite those who believed we were 3/5ths of a person. I am not angry, bitter, prejudiced, or cynical when it comes to this discourse. I am sick of the consistency of  “teachable moments”. Stop staring, ask a rational question. I don’t care if you have a black friend, as if there is some secret prerequisite to speaking with black people.

Why is it that every time I speak, you stare or gaze at me as if I am a foreign object? Why, when I walk into a room and our voices sing a righteous gospel, are we considered disruptive. Why the looks and questions as if blackness should somehow be explained? Is my hair too loud, my voice too loud, my attitude too loud, my opinion and critiques too loud? Is my blackness a disturbance? Why do you whisper when you say the word black when referring to a #blacklivesmatter protest as if you are speaking profanely? 

Black, Fuck, Shit, they are not the same thing.

Solange - Weary

 

Angela Davis

 

Are you afraid? Is black always seen as threatening because white is seen as non-threatening. If this is about fear, how do we enter into dialog about fear?

Progression and understanding are about dialog. So the final question is: How and when?