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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2011)
news Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? B orn in Boston on March 20, 1971, Touré is a cultural critic for MSNBC, as well as the host of a couple of shows on Fuse-TV: “Hip Hop Shop” and “On the Record.” A contributing editor at Rolling Stone, his articles appear regu- larly in publications rang- ing from The New York Times to The Village Voice to The New Yorker. Touré is also the author of a collection of essays called “Never Drank the Kool-Aid,” a collection of short stories called “The Portable Promised Land,” and a novel titled “Soul City.” He serves on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee, and is a member of the adjunct faculty of the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. A devoted father, Touré lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with his wife, Rita, and their two children, Hendrix and Fairuz. Here, he talks about his new book, “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?” kw: I really enjoyed reading “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness,” and I have a lot of my own questions for you, as well as a lot from my readers. T: Whatever you want to talk about is totally cool. kw: What inspired you to write the book? Let me guess, the incident in college where somebody embarrassed you by say- ing, “Shut up, Touré! You ain’t black!” T: Yeah, that was definitely an inciting incident. I had already been thinking very actively about what it means to be black since I was very young. So, that sort of got the ball rolling, but the more specific influence C eLeBriTY was the success of Barack i nTerview Obama which was an indication to me that something had changed in by Kam terms of race and what it meant to be black in Williams America. We are not post- racial, but some things have changed. For instance, I think the younger generation has a more progressive attitude, and that definitely played to Barack’s favor. kw: Harriet Pakula Teweles says: It’s one thing for artists to feel that blackness can mean anything. But how can so many in the period you describe as post-blackness give up being boxed in by race if they have neither the educational nor economic opportunities to leave the ghetto locality? T: What I’m saying is that you have the ability to embody blackness however you wish. I believe Harriet’s right that you see greater opportunity for education and advancement as you go up the class scale, but America is the land of rapid class ascen- sion within a generation, within a decade, even within a year. So, I don’t think this only applies to middle-class black people. If you go into the ‘hood, you’ll encounter a huge variety in terms of blackness. kw: In the book, you talk about being from Boston, and how your parents taught as a child you that some areas of the city were dangerous for blacks. I learned that the hard way when I was in law school there in the Seventies, like the time I was refused service in a pizzeria because I was black. T: That highlights the stupidity of racism. You were simply saying: “I’m just trying to Page 8 The Portland Skanner September 21, 2011 give you money for the thing that you pro- duce. I’m not looking to start a fight; I’m trying to engage in the commerce that you do every day.” And they’re response was, “We don’t want your money, because you’re black.” Unbelievable! kw: Troy Johnson asks: Do you see any value in the government census trying to keep track of people by race: black, white, etcetera? If so, how can we truly become post-racial?? T: I don’t think the goal is to become post-racial. I don’t want a world in which we’re not thinking about race. I want a world where people are proud to be who they are, and where everybody feels com- fortable imposing the beauty of their culture on America. The goal is that prejudice based around those differences ends. Post-racial- ism is not the goal, because it’s not even possible. kw: Rene Harris says: One time during a Twitter interaction with you, you freely used the actual n-word, but only referred to a slur against Jews as the k-word. When I questioned you about it, you never answered. Care to clarify now? T: I remember that interaction. It tran- spired a long time ago before I made a per- sonal decision to not use the n-word any- more. Twitter is a very particular venue where it can be very easy for someone to misunderstand something that you’ve writ- ten. So, you have to be very careful when you are dealing with really incendiary ideas. For me to use the n-word as a black person is not going to be as potentially controver- sial as using the k-word. It can be tricky, if someone reads my tone wrong. But there’s a big difference between using a word and talking about that word. kw: Judyth also asks: What key quality do you believe all successful people share? T: The ability to take a “no,” because in order to become successful at anything, you’re going to experience a lot of setbacks and a lot of doors closing. kw: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: What message do you want the public to take away from your book? T: Two things: First, I want the black peo- ple made to feel like outsiders because they like opera or sushi or scuba diving to know that they’re not weird and that they are black. You can do black and be black in any way you choose. And secondly, I want the self-appointed, volunteer identity cops to be frozen in their tracks, because they’re not really doing the race a service. It’ time for them to take off their badges and let people be black in whatever way they see fit. Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com
