Kwanzaa 2007-08

I prepared our Kwanzaa table today. It's something I've done for the last fifteen years or so. In the late 1980s, I observed with my family and various community groups. That period was also when Kwanzaa became commercialized--one of the reasons why I stepped back and focused more on the private observances at home. Unless they can commit to Kwanzaa's seven principles, I can't see how JC Penney, McDonalds and other corporations can genuinely celebrate Kwanzaa with the black community.

Kwanzaa is a "first fruits" celebration---not a religious holiday or substitute for Christmas. It is a time to reflect on the harvests of the year, how the extended family is doing, and the state of the black community at large.


It is a communal time to say, "I will do better. We will do better."


UMOJA (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

KUJICHAGULIA (Self Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

UJIMA (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and to make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.

UJAMAA (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit together from them.

NIA (Purpose) To make as our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

KUUMBA (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it.

IMANI (Faith) To believe with all our hearts in our parents, our teachers, our leaders, our people and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Is Denzel Still a Race Man?

My friends know that Denzel Washington in my favorite actor. I haven't seen the new movie, The Great Debaters, and I didn't see American Gangster. I'll probably go and see this new movie once the holiday traffic calms down. It opens on Christmas Day.

I came across this really interesting essay by Mark Anthony Neal, a cultural critic and Professor at Duke University. I've always admired the roles Denzel has played---which is one reason why I have not seen American Gangster yet. Neal's take on the matter is intriguing. The text from his blog follows. The full essay appeared in the Washington Post on December 23.


RACE MAN
Does Denzel Always Have to Represent?
by Mark Anthony Neal

Sunday, December 23, 2007; Page B02

For most of his career, Denzel Washington has been the epitome of a "race man" -- a well-mannered, well-intentioned role model thoroughly committed to black uplift. He's maintaining that tradition in "The Great Debaters," a new film in which he plays a champion debate coach in the segregated South.

But his recent portrayal of the murderous Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas in "American Gangster," following his Oscar-winning performance as the corrupt cop Alonzo in "Training Day," has shaken his standing as a race man -- and has prompted speculation that, after years of playing characters who symbolized African Americans' mainstream acceptance, he's finally selling out to a commercial culture eager to make a buck off of portraying black men as thugs.

That's not how I see it. To me, the more important question that Washington's career choices raise is: Why, as the nation grows to appreciate the many different ways of being black, do we still need race men at all?

"Race man" is a term from the beginning of the 20th century that describes black men of stature and integrity who represented the best that African Americans had to offer in the face of Jim Crow segregation. It has lost some of its resonance in a post-civil rights world, but it remains an unspoken measure of commitment to uplifting the race. Race men inspire pride; their work, their actions and their speech represent excellence instead of evoking shame and embarrassment. Thus the pundit Tavis Smiley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson (even with an illegitimate child) can be race men, whereas the comedian Dave Chappelle and the rapper/mogul Jay-Z can never be.

Sidney Poitier had impeccable race-man cred. The legendary black actor was one of the first to achieve mainstream success, and he never wavered. In films such as "The Defiant Ones" (1958), "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and even "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), he made us proud to be black. At the height of the black-power movement, when his articulate, educated and even affable characters were often measured against fiery political icons such as Malcolm X and the Black Panther leader H. Rap Brown, some blacks felt ambivalent about Poitier. But the actor's willingness to support the civil rights movement appeased those who wanted a more radical image.

There's little doubt that Poitier and contemporaries such as James Earl Jones and Raymond St. Jacques influenced Washington in his choice of roles. Early in his career, he was often drawn to the part of the heroic do-gooder; his roles in "Cry Freedom" (as the martyred anti-apartheid hero Steve Biko) and the Civil War epic "Glory" (which won him a 1990 Academy Award for best supporting actor) displayed his gravitas. The tear he shed when his character, Pvt. Trip, was flogged in "Glory" lent black men a depth of humanity not seen in American cinema before or since.

In his collaborations with director Spike Lee, Washington complicated the race-man ethos. No longer defined solely by their willingness to stand up for their race, characters such as Bleek Gilliam ("Mo' Better Blues"), Jake Shuttlesworth ("He Got Game") and Detective Keith Frazier ("Inside Man") represented the new race man, whose main emphasis was on being manly. These characters were self-absorbed and selfish and demanded the respect they thought they deserved. Still, many black audiences embraced them, if only because Washington had earned their trust, especially after his signature collaboration with Lee on the film "Malcolm X."

But that trust began to erode with Washington's portrayal of Alonzo in "Training Day." When he finally won the coveted Best Actor Oscar for that role, on the same night that Halle Berry won Best Actress, much was made of their being rewarded for portraying characters who demeaned African Americans. And yet it was easy to give Washington a pass, because the Motion Picture Academy had ignored his more celebrated roles as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and Malcolm X.

Black Snakes and White Women

It was one of those lazy Saturday afternoons---gray and cold. I plucked a borrowed DVD into the player and there she was---a white woman being pulled on a chain by Samuel Jackson. Black Snake Moan(2006) is a provocative movie to put it mildly. I was drawn into the plot by a blues-singing Jackson and, yes, the taboo theme of white women and black male sexuality. It is the ultimate taboo in America. The movie, structured around the plot of Lazarus(Samuel Jackson) taking it upon himself to save Rae(Christina Ricci)from the woes of nymphomania and wickedness---to put it lightly. The sexualized images on screen tease the tenuous taboo line by showing Rae's heightened sexuality in the presence of black men. It is indeed racy. Watching the plot unfold, one wonders whether Lazarus will succumb to the temptation. But he is guided by an almost religious zeal to save Rae from sins of the flesh. Lazarus has his own sin too. His wife leaves him for his younger brother and this propels him into a biblical obsession--mixed with drinking and blues singing--to find answers to his sudden fall.
Saving Rae, thus, becomes his path to redemption. After finding her on a back road one morning in a skimpy blouse and white panties, Lazarus takes Rae into his home to nurse her wounds. When he discovers that she has a tortured soul to go with her bruised face, he chains her to the radiator. He does so with all good intentions---he wants to save her from sexual demons and an abusive childhood. Perhaps it is this image of a disrobed white woman in chains that keeps the viewer on edge. Admittedly, I watched the screenplay meander through this plot, wondering when sheriff deputies in this deep southern Tennessee town would drag Lazarus out of his house. Rae's boyfriend Ronnie(Justin Timberlake) who has returned from a failed entry into the army, does finally come to rescue her and points a gun at Lazarus, thinking that he has taken his woman. But Lazarus prevails. He saves Ronnie from his anxiety-filled life and arranges for the couple to be married by his preacher friend.
I liked Black Snake Moan despite it's unrealistic plot. The power of redemption boils over and the white and black together narrative sees light with a twist. It is one that places a black character in the center and as the healer who saves the day.