Psychology and Black Liberation in Richard Wright’s Black Power (1954)

2018 ◽  
pp. 198-210
Author(s):  
Dorothy Stringer
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Freudian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Psychic Life ◽  
Travel Writings ◽  
Black Resistance ◽  
History Of

In his travel writings on the Gold Coast/Ghana, Richard Wright drew on two psychological theories—Freudian psychoanalysis and the implicit psychology of African American literary tradition—to describe the relationships among colonialism, state power, racial identity and psychic life. Dorothy Stringer’s essay notes that while Wright’s rationalism and belief in modern progress often prompted him to question, and even condemn, the local cultures and political systems he encountered, his emphasis on actual and historical trauma (above all the traumas of the slave trade) also allowed him to understand daily life, quotidian relationships and minor economic transactions as political in nature, as continuous with a broad history of black resistance, and as tools for projecting a different future for black people.

‘Race’ and Resistance to Policing Before the ‘Windrush Years’: The Colonial Defence Committee and the Liverpool ‘Race Riots’ of 1948

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Fevre
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Black People ◽  
National Level ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Race Riots ◽  
Black Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Abstract Between 31 July and 2 August 1948, Liverpool experienced three nights of racial violence on a scale not witnessed since the end of the First World War. Despite being initiated by white rioters, the so-called ‘race riots’ of 1948 were more significant in terms of the relationship between the police and Liverpool’s black population. Previous studies have sought to understand why and what happened during the riots; however, there has been little analysis of the aftermath. This article looks specifically at how black people responded to the ‘race riots’ in 1948 and argues that this episode led to a period of heightened political activity at a local and national level centred around the issue of policing. It focusses on the Colonial Defence Committee (CDC) that was formed immediately after the riots to organize the legal defence of individuals believed to have been wrongfully arrested. In its structure and organizational methods, the CDC represented a prototype of the defence committees that became a hallmark of black political opposition to policing during the 1970s and 1980s. Examining the aftermath of the Liverpool ‘race riots’ in 1948, thus, offers new perspectives on the historical development of black political resistance to policing in twentieth-century Britain. On the one hand, it reveals a longer history of struggle against racially discriminatory policing, which predates the ‘Windrush years’ migration of the 1950s and early 1960s. It also highlights the historical continuities in the way that black resistance to policing manifested itself over the twentieth century.

Revisiting Richard Wright in Ghana

2018 ◽  
pp. 181-197
Author(s):  
Kevin Kelly Gaines
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Black People ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
Political Consciousness ◽  
The West ◽  
James Wright ◽  
African People ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
History Of

Kevin Kelly Gaines’s reprinted essay on Wright’s Black Power reminds readers that Wright rejected the myth of a transhistorical, transnational black cultural unity. On this point, Wright’s thinking converged with that of other black Marxist intellectuals in exile, including Padmore and James. Wright instead proposed a form of pan-Africanism founded on a shared history of oppression and a critical, dialectical consciousness of the situation of blacks in the West. The latter would have to give pride of place to the emergent political consciousness of African people, even if some of its elements would be radically foreign to New World black people. Bridging the historical differences would not prove impossible, however. After all, as Gaines observes, by the time Wright’s first daughter, Julia, reached adulthood, she had joined the black expatriate community in Ghana. It had supplanted Paris for intellectuals and artists seeking to join a black-led struggle informed by global ideals of anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism.

Prison Power

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Corrigan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Black People ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

Prison Power centers imprisonment in the history of black liberation as a rhetorical, theoretical, physical, and media resource as activists developed movement tactics and ideology to counter white supremacy. In highlighting imprisonment as a site for both political and personal transformation, Prison Power underscores how imprisonment shaped movement leaders by influencing their political analysis and organizational strategies. The book suggests that prison became the critical space for the transformation from civil rights to Black Power, especially as southern civil rights activists faced setbacks in achieving equality. In centering the prison as a locus of political inquiry, Black Power activists produced autobiographical writings, essays, and letters about and from prison beginning with the early sit-in movement. Prison Power introduces the critical optic of the “Black Power vernacular” to describe how Black Power activists deployed rhetorical forms in their writings that invented new forms of black identification and encouraged support for black liberation from prison. In using Black Power vernacular forms, imprisoned activists improved their visibility while simultaneously documenting the racist abuses of the judicial system. This new vernacular emerged to force various publics to acknowledge and end the massive brutality perpetrated against black people in prison and in the streets in the name of law and order thereby helping to shore up support for Black Power organizations and initiatives.

scholarly journals Black Lives Matter! Nigerian Lives Matter!: Language and Why Black Performance Matters

Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Adelakun
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Black Performance ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Racial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Original Production

This essay explores performance as a language by looking at its appropriation by other cultures, and the associated history of the crafted phrases that are borrowed along. I start by noting that to create awareness of the massacres that have recently occurred in some parts of Nigeria, commentators, both in and out of the country, and activist-cum-protesters created the term “Nigerian Lives Matter.” They appropriated from “Black Lives Matter,” the American-originated advocacy movement that campaigns against violence and brutality against black people. I show that these forms of lexical interchange are possible because of non-Americans’ familiarity with America’s racial history, and black performance liberation expressivity, which they have been acculturated into as a result of their long exposure to American culture. Beyond phrases however, I argue that black performance itself is a language that has a global resonance among minorities. To illustrate this further, I do a close reading of This is Nigeria, a recent music video released by Nigerian lawyer turned artist, Folarin Falana (Falz), alongside a version of the original production, This is America, also recently released by Donald Glover (Childish Gambino). Both songs continue in the older tradition of African and African American transatlantic political relations through music, the shared understanding of the similarities of anti-black oppression, and the formation of aesthetics that mediate the advocacy of black liberation. The songs are also a pointer to how black advocacy might continue to unfold in contemporary era.

Visualizing Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kymberly N. Pinder
Keyword(s):  
Public Art ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Churches ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Liberation Theology ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
Black Public Sphere ◽  
History Of

This book explores the visualization of religious imagery in public art for African Americans in Chicago between 1904 and the present. It examines a number of case studies of black churches whose pastors have consciously nurtured a strong visual culture within their congregation. It features examples of religious art associated with some of Chicago's most historically significant black churches and art in their neighborhoods. It considers how the arts interact with each other in the performance of black belief, explains how empathetic realism structures these interactions for a variety of publics, and situates public art within a larger history of mural histories. It also highlights the centrality of the visual in the formation of Black Liberation Theology and its role alongside gospel music and broadcasted sermons in the black public sphere. Finally, the book discusses various representations of black Christ and other black biblical figures, often imaged alongside black historical figures or portraits of everyday black people from the community.

Hoodies on the Floor

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Platt
Keyword(s):  
Police Brutality ◽  
Black Representation ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Bill Sponsorship ◽  
History Of

This paper examines how black members of Congress (MCs) have recognized police brutality as an issue on the congressional agenda from 1973 to 2016. Using a dataset of every bill introduced by black members of Congress during the period of study, I show that, in general, police brutality has not been an important component of black MCs’ legislative portfolios. Instead, it is an occasional focus of bill sponsorship in response to discrete, highly salient incidents of brutality and murder. These findings are contextualized through a broader discussion of black representation as a tactic for black liberation and the similarities between the history of anti-lynching legislation and the contemporary fight against police brutality.

Itumeleng Mosala: Giving Theology Its World, Feet and Hands

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takatso Mofokeng
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
History Of ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

Worthy of celebration is the contribution made by Itumeleng Mosala (hereafter Mosala) to the Black Methodist Consultation, the theological community in Southern Africa, and the Black Consciousness Movement. This article attempts to give theology its world, feet and hands in the person of Mosala. The article departs from the narration of the history of Mosala. It locates Mosala within township life and Old Testament scholarship. Furthermore, the article searches for suitable and effective weapons of intellectual struggle in light of Mosala’s life. The aim of this article is to celebrate the indelible footprints that Mosala made as he communed with black people.

Religion, Race, and Humanism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony B. Pinn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unitarian Universalist ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lorraine Hansberry

This chapter explores the history of humanism within African American communities. It positions humanist thinking and humanism-inspired activism as a significant way in which people of African descent in the United States have addressed issues of racial injustice. Beginning with critiques of theism found within the blues, moving through developments such as the literature produced by Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, and others, to political activists such as W. E. B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, to organized humanism in the form of African American involvement in the Unitarian Universalist Association, African Americans for Humanism, and so on, this chapter presents the historical and institutional development of African American humanism.

scholarly journals The History of Adversity and Collective Strength of Individuals of Mexican Ancestry in the United States: A Scoping Literature Review and Emerging Conceptual Framework

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Araceli Orozco-Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
The United States ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Trauma Narratives ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Scoping Literature Review ◽  
History Of ◽  
Baseline Knowledge

Recently, Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) have encountered an escalation in adverse social conditions and trauma events in the United States. For individuals of Mexican ancestry in the United States (IMA-US), these recent events represent the latest chapter in their history of adversity: a history that can help us understand their social and health disparities. This paper utilized a scoping review to provide a historical and interdisciplinary perspective on discussions of mental health and substance use disorders relevant to IMA-US. The scoping review process yielded 16 peer reviewed sources from various disciplines, published from 1998 through 2018. Major themes included historically traumatic events, inter-generational responses to historical trauma, and vehicles of transmission of trauma narratives. Recommendations for healing from historical and contemporary oppression are discussed. This review expands the clinical baseline knowledge relevant to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of contemporary traumatic exposures for IMA-US.

The Role of the Representative: Some Empirical Observations on the Theory of Edmund Burke

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau ◽  
John C. Wahlke ◽  
William Buchanan ◽  
Leroy C. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
History Of

The problem of representation is central to all discussions of the functions of legislatures or the behavior of legislators. For it is commonly taken for granted that, in democratic political systems, legislatures are both legitimate and authoritative decision-making institutions, and that it is their representative character which makes them authoritative and legitimate. Through the process of representation, presumably, legislatures are empowered to act for the whole body politic and are legitimized. And because, by virtue of representation, they participate in legislation, the represented accept legislative decisions as authoritative. But agreement about the meaning of the term “representation” hardly goes beyond a general consensus regarding the context within which it is appropriately used. The history of political theory is studded with definitions of representation, usually embedded in ideological assumptions and postulates which cannot serve the uses of empirical research without conceptual clarification.

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