Call for Papers

Ninth Annual Black History Conference

Modern Blackness and the New Jim Crow(s)

Commemorating the legacy of Malcolm X

Sponsored by:

 Africana Studies

Art Department

History Department

Modern Languages and Literature

Luther College Diversity Center

February 15-16, 2012

Conference Rationale

In Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica, Deborah A. Thomas explores Jamaican identity in the late twentieth century. Her insights chart the movement of Jamaican identity from revolutionary blackness in the early days of Jamaican independence to what Thomas calls ‘modern blackness which characterizes the post-colonial Jamaican identity.  Thomas argues that modern black identity is influenced by globalization, nationalism, and youth culture.

The 9^th Annual Black History Conference at Luther College explores the emergence of modern blackness throughout the African/Black Diaspora.  In this context, modern blackness is characterized not only by regional political economies but also by the emergence of black culture as a global commodity.  Black people and their cultural products are in demand.  Such demand includes global markets for black music, black ‘style,’ sports, language, and the marketing of black bodies. 

As both post-industrial and developing economies focus on tourism and cultural production, black identities are being constructed by technology, migration, and ideology.

The global reach of cultural production raises interesting questions about how blacks represent themselves, how they speak, how these representations change based on where they live, what “black” means historically, and what ‘being black’ or African-descended means for contemporary individual and cultural identity.  Globalization and cultural production is redefining what it means to be black in the post-industrial, post-colonial age. How whites respond to black cultural production and how blacks perform their cultural identities, how the African Diaspora responds to or contests ideologies of race and nation has changed.  This conference explores this phenomenon.

To some extent, the proliferation of black cultural products and the success of black elites such as President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey paint a hopeful picture of American life.  We are enjoying black talent, paying good money to be entertained by people like Jay-Z, John Legend, Usher, Beyonce, and others as we watch legends in the making like Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, and LeBron James.  But even as these super stars attain wealth, political power or social and cultural celebrity status, writers such as Michelle Alexander remind us that we have significant issues that the US needs to address. 

In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness, Alexander argues that we have not overcome our legacy of racial caste; rather, we have merely refashioned it.  She argues this point with respect to mass incarceration which has replaced Jim Crow as a mechanism of social control; a way to perpetuate voter disenfranchisement, racial segregation, economic exploitation, and social discrimination in housing, employment, education, and public benefits.

Could the Jim Crow aspect of modern blackness explain some of the contemporary disillusionment felt by working class and low-income blacks with respect to education and middle class aspirations? Could ‘black speak’; i.e., speech patterns or pronunciations that some consider to be nonstandard English be catchy and even eloquent in pop music but undesirable; i.e., indicative of lower class or intelligence, elsewhere?  Does linguistic stigmatization result in documented cases of job discrimination? Is the idea of modern blackness existing simultaneously with new Jim Crow(s); i.e., ways that black people are segregated and disadvantaged by the intersection of race and class, a more viable framework for understanding the American experience of race in the twenty-first century than colorblindness or post-racialism?

 The conference will explore these questions by looking at broader aspects of racial disparity including income and health care.  Issues related to linguistic profiling and educational failure will be explored.  Finally, the conference will explore the cultural implications of ‘booty blackness’—the sexualized performance of black bodies and the implications of such performances for black gender roles and sexuality.

As the conference explores modern blackness, it wants to celebrate contemporary expressions of artistic and cultural excellence by artists of African-descent. In short, the conference will explore the idea of black identities in the age of globalization.

Legacy Honoree

Malcolm X has been chosen as the legacy honoree because he exemplifies the impact of modern blackness in the age of globalization.  After a tumultuous childhood, Malcolm X became a drug dealer, con-artist, and armed robber.  While in jail for his crimes, Malcolm became a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam in America. After Malcolm was released from prison, he became the Nation’s most effective and charismatic leader.  Through his efforts, the Nation’s membership grew as Malcolm helped establish chapters throughout the US. Minister Malcolm advocated self-defense along with economic and political independence for black America. Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, became El-Hajj Malek El-Shabazz and spoke about the need to organize and resist oppression.  After returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca and starting a new organization for racial justice, he was assassinated in 1965.

Today, many consider Malcolm X as a counterpoint to the movement for inclusion advocated by Martin Luther King.  But Malcolm represents more than opposing sides of the struggle for black equality.  Through the use of his image and name, Malcolm X has been redefined as a cultural icon in a global world.   In this way, his legacy embodies many of the contradictions that this conference seeks to explore.  In life, Malcolm’s intellect, ambition, travel, and the needs of his family helped him reinvent himself and his story. In death, his reinvention has gone further through film and media. As others are inspired by his commitment to racial justice on an international scale or by the evolution of his faith, Malcolm X has become a cultural icon in a global age.  During his lifetime, Malcolm X was a revolutionary; today his struggle for racial justice is known worldwide through his official website, iconic images, a US postage stamp, a feature film, numerous cultural products and even a cell phone app that includes many of his most famous quotations.

Art Exhibit, Gallery Reception and Gallery Talk featuring Salah Mubarak

Salah Mubarek is a water colorist who has painted since he was a child in Ethiopia.  Since the early 1990s, his work has focused on portraits and still life paintings of various subjects. More recently his figurative abstractions represent both the complexity of layers and textures and the simplicity of artistic emotion.  Salah describes his work in this way:  “My work derives its inspiration from personal experiences . . . while some of my work is celebratory and loud with enthusiasm . . . the unifying theme . . . is a message of the universal promise of hope.” 

Salah’s work embodies the sheer joy of visual expression and the subtle interplay of culture and medium.

Selection of conference papers

The Conference Committee will review all abstracts and select those that address issues of race and globalization or Malcolm X and his contributions to ideas about ‘black’ identity, faith, and race.  The committee will also consider papers on economic and social disparities among African-Americans and ethnic profiling as well as abstracts on the impact of media and forms of cultural production on black life and national identity.

Submitting a response to the Call for Papers

The Conference Committee invites proposals for papers and presentations.

Deadline for submission of a vitae and a maximum 250 word abstract is November 30, 2011.  To submit a proposal, please e-mail a recent curriculum vitae and a one-page abstract about your proposed paper or presentation to Sheila Radford-Hill, Executive Director of the Diversity Center at radfsh01@luther.edu or Martin Klammer, Chair/Africana Studies Department at klammerm@luther.edu.  For more information, call (563) 382-1014.