"Oh my God, is that a Black Card?/I turn around and reply 'why yes/but I prefer the term African American Express'"

I am guilty of that which I am about to point out, but there are too many words being used.

At the conclusion of this week's reading, my one thought was that there is too much talk.  I have no doubt that somebody more talented and transcendent than me (Nietzsche, The Buddha, Muhammad, Patti Smith, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, your grandmother, John Cage, Winnie The Pooh) could say something knee-bucklingly captivating, ethereally pithy, and totally countercultural on this and everybody would just flip.  They probably already have, but they got droned out as us regular people tend to overtalk on the important stuff.  I've already admitted to it, but let me once again acknowledge the groaner irony of using too many words to make a point about using too many words.  So...

From where she stands on Delpit's shoulders, Carter sees beyond her colleague's claim about extant dominant culture codes.  From there, she leads us to a question that has not been specifically asked, namely: what other options exist besides learning those codes?  And more specifically, what happens when people willingly cling to their own non-dominant codes?  For Carter, whose ultimate goal is for schools to "...acknowledge and affirm the multiple capitals that exist" (76), the results speak plainly: to assimilate is wise and probably dangerous, but "Noncompliant believers require some guidance on how to maintain multiple cultural competencies in order to facilitate cross-cultural interactions" (76).  In light of that, her research has uncovered that those favoring non-dominant codes are setting themselves up to live in a repetitive pattern - chasing and maintaining authenticity in terms of non-productive code acquisition.

As she presents it, the eponymous "keepin' it real" is at best a misguided behavior pattern aimed at securing identity and belonging in the black community.  At its worst, it's a passive, non-participatory way for blacks to allow the propagation of stereotype and their own continued ghettoization.  Early on, the author presents her thesis: instead of non-dominant blacks using their capital (cultural cache) "...for long-term economic gain, they use cultural capital to maintain group identity and distinctive cultural boundaries" (49).  In other words, poorly.  In the pages that follow, she quotes from interviews with high-school aged blacks, some of whom are focused on this process and reveal (self-consciously or not) that neither "acting" nor "being" black has any cultural cache because it means ascribing to non-powerful codes.  Adrienne Ingram, a young student struggling against this vortex, even equates black vernacular with stupidity (58).  In not so many words (ha), to keep it real means to voluntarily participate in cyclic self-hegemony.  

She does, at one point on page 53, equate the behaviors patterns of keeping it real with, um, the revolutionary ideals on which the USA was founded.  Which is also probably true and dangerous.  Her research uncovered that authenticity is partly looking the part and mostly acting the part (54), and vaguely suggested that people who speak black vernacular and standard English are bilingual.  Not surprisingly, however, fluency in black vernacular does not impart the kind of weighty significance on a person's character  that speaking an additional language normally does.  In fact, she returns to her metaphor when claiming that  that blacks' deficiencies in school are due to their capital being undervalued (65).  Almost like getting ripped off by a moneychanger.

In response to her section on cultural capital in context (60), I felt that others should do the talking.  In the Eric B. and Rakim song "In the Ghetto," the 2nd verse hones in on his point: "I come correct and I won't look back/cuz it ain't where ya from, it's where ya at.  I learn to relax in my room and escape from New York/and return through the the womb of the world as a thought."  As does this line from the 3rd: "Rhymes I make give me real estate for me to own/wherever I bless a microphone."  Similarly, on his excellent 1999 record, Mos Def visits the issue of metaphysical community in the song  "Habitat."  "We all got to have a place where we come from/that place where we come from is called home/And even though we may love this place on the map/It ain't where ya from it's where ya at."  Each of these talented emcees is raising the idea that how one defines oneself ought to have much more to do with things spiritual and universal than things mundane and jejune (like labels and definitions).  In that vein, I present the Nikki Giovanni poem "Ego Tripping (There May be a Reason Why)" set to music by the Sacramento hip-hop duo Blackalicious featuring Erinn Anova's voice.


In an segment of his television miniseries America Beyond the Color Line, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.asks Reginald Hudlin, the director of Boomerang and House Party when black folks will be in a position to greenlight films.  Mr. Hudlin says that it's difficult for 2 reasons: 1, that to be a studio executive (and therefore be in a position to greenlight) one must be possessed of a skillset that incorporates "drinking," "whitewater rafting," and otherwise schmoozing with the other execs.  Add to this "assimilation" a degree of industry tenacity "aggressiveness" to get the job done.  The trouble is that when aggressiveness is put into play by a black person, it comes off as scary to white folks.  And 2, even though the industry is driven by what the last major success was, when that success is a black film, it doesn't generate the same kind of greenlighting buzz at the Monday morning executives meeting.  In other words, it is an "invisible success."
Some are none too happy with his journalism, however.  


Some things I could use help with:
1. What would Carter say about other instances of non-dominant code acquisition (comics, horror movies, model building)?

2. The way Carter served up dominant culture markers rubbed me the wrong way.  To me, she insinuated that Eliot, Plath, Beethoven, and the MFA are musty.  It's lazy, if everything is white, she could have used use less stereotyped examples.  Reach a little.

Blackalicious - "Ego Trip by Nikki Giovanni"

And follow this link to hear Nikki Giovanni read her poem in her own words...

Eric B and Rakim - "In The Ghetto" - wait a while for the vocal to come in

And a mostly accurate lyric sheet

Mos Def - "Habitat"

And a mostly accurate lyric sheet