African America

African America Identity.
In modern America may African American identify with many celebrities they look at as a move forward for them as a people. Also, many celebrities take it upon themselves  to speak for the community because they don't have a voice.

The best and most recent example is the 50th Super Blow halftime show with Beyonce performing, her song Formation. She took inspiration for her outfits from the "black panthers"  which were active between 1966 until 1982. Also, Beyonce and Jay-Z spent tens of thousands” of dollars to free protesters who could not pay their bail following anti-police brutality demonstrations in Baltimore, Ferguson and Missouri. They also heavily back pressure group  "Black Life Matters". Black Life Matters was started in 2013, was a direct outcome of the Ferguson killings. They have many chapters across America and it going in size massively, this mainly due to social media their #blacklifematters has been tending for the past 3 years pretty much constantly. They've even got a chapter in Canada, this suggests that it feels like the issues it's just limited to America. By going to their website it's heavily influenced by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X, they were seen as having more of a confidential view to dealing with the situation and being "pro-active" with violence.

But places like Baltimore, Ferguson and Missouri have been seen as a new form of separatism. As large groups of white people have moved out of this places due to high crime rates and low employment, it's been said the black community are unable to do this due to long-standing history and not having the saving and money to do so. These are also the main areas that have the most amount of police brutality complaints.
http://blacklivesmatter.com/ 

African America

The African-American Affairs Commission 

The main aim of the AAAC is to promote and improve the economic development, education, health and political well being of the African-American community in the State of Connecticut. This was formed due to an increasing awareness of economic disadvantages faced by African American males in the United States.  

The website is clearly for against Separatism as it wants African Americans to have what it would describe the same economic development and stability as everyone else in the State of Connecticut. However the fact that this website/Commission was put together does suggest that there was and perhaps still is separation between African Americans and white people. Although separatism is a different discussion altogether the website shows that it wants to close the gap between the different societies.  

When looking at assimilation it is evident that the AAAC is an advocate of it and is striving for the African American community to be like the other communities/societies. They perhaps feel that African Americans don’t have the same opportunities as whites in Connecticut and felt this Commission was needed to improve the lives of African Americans. They want to improve the lives of African Americans within the community which would make them more alike with other groups within Connecticut.  

The AAAC is a One Connecticut partner which highlights the negativity around separatism and with the step towards cultural assimilation. This coalition of more than 60 state and community based organisations are committed to public action, advocacy and education that promote a better quality of life of all for all Connecticut residents. The coalition is there to ensure that the state does not single anyone out regarding its policies and practices.  

http://aaac.cga.ct.gov/aaac/index.php

African America

Kendrick Lamar is a 28-year-old hip hop artist from Compton, CA that has risen to the become one of the most prominent figures in the contemporary rap game. His latest full length project, ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, incorporates many issues that himself and the wider black community face in American society. In the record, ‘The Blacker the Berry’, Lamar speaks of the deep rooted racism that lingers from the eras of slavery and reconstruction and his apparent issues with the notion of assimilation.

The opening of the record says, ‘Some white some black, I aint mean black. I want everything black’. This certainly alludes to Kendrick’s dissatisfaction with the idea of assimilation. It appears that he sees the notion of a diverse society of whites and blacks as problematic. Similar to the ideology of Marcus Garvey (whom he later mentions) and Malcolm X.

The final verse of the record presents similar issues. (It should be noted that Kendrick’s delivery becomes more aggressive and emotive in this verse.)

The lyric, ‘This plot is bigger than me, it's generational hatred. It's genocism, it's grimy, little justification. I'm African-American, I'm African.’ highlights Kendrick’s identification as an ‘African’ and speaks to the notion of separatism that Malcolm X alluded to, especially later in his life. Malcolm X became keen to re align the African heritage of African Americans. He felt that the abandonment of tribal names and languages from the colored (not just black) mans culture should be re-kindled in a land exclusive to colored men and women. Kendrick alludes to this belief in this lyric and suggests that all African Americans are affected by the residual prejudice and racial hatred of slavery and reconstruction via a ‘generational hatred’.

The verse continues to list the binding stereotypes that he believes constrict the growth of black communities in American society:

So don't matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers
Or tell Georgia State "Marcus Garvey got all the answers"
Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day
Or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays
Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements
Or watch BET cause urban support is important

I think its interesting here how Kendrick links his work to aspects of the black power movement of the 60’s and 70’s and then contrasts that with more contemporary perceived avenues of black success, ‘Michael Jordan endorsements’. This emphasizes the notion of the ‘trap’ society that many African American rappers talk about in their work and how assimilation still might only offer success/celebrity to African Americans via the sport and entertainment industries. 

The closing lines, So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street?
When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?, show how Kendrick identifies with a problematic assimilated society. African Americans continue to be directly discriminated against by non-black Americans in the forms of police brutality ect. However, the last line similarly speaks to the prominence of black on black hatred and crime, which I think Kendrick – along with many in black communities – would attribute to the conditions created by the failure of black assimilation and integration into American society.

Moving On

Arthur Rothstein, “Moving On” 1936

Here we can see a family ‘moving on’ with the police officer there to ensure that they do leave their home. The picture shows people either loading or unloading belongings from the back of a truck. Given the title ‘moving on’ one would assume they are loading the items onto the truck rather than unloading.

The most interesting figure in the picture is represented by the police officer. A man who enforces the law who seemingly is quite contempt with the situation. It's as if he does this quite often and does not feel any remorse for the people he has to see leave their home. You get the impression that despite how difficult some of the items may have been to load onto the back of the truck he would have stood motionless and offered no help at all. The cigar only enhances this view in that he does not care for the people leaving. A man of the law should really, be as helpful as possible but he just stands by watching enjoying his cigar.

From the image we don't know how many people are actually being moved. This could be just one persons stuff and therefore would have to get help from nearby people to load their items onto the truck. There doesn't appear to be any young people in the image which may suggest that perhaps a couple are being forced to move. Then looking at the image we can see help is being offered and still the police officer would be likely to do nothing to help out.

Great Depression Photography

I love this photo, so much. Personal I find the photo inspiriting. It really highlights how things don't change father will always do a son's hair and it will alway annoy son, no matter what age. It just simply shows a side of the depression which people didn't think existed people, were still just
people. Their kids still had there the first word, walk, that life moment still happened. Life didn't stop for these people it was just so much harder than it should have been. Along with it shows how people are so resilient, it shows possible another side other of the American dream that could be seen as just trying and moving forward and better things will come. It's that idea of if we keep moving than better things are to come.
Also, I think this how he wanted people to see him. But this isn't how people show him and his son, the other photo was shown more. It's just like these people were shown at there worst and people who show would forget that they were actual people.

Depression photography

This photo shows a mother and child at the side of the road. We don't know if they have stopped for a moment or if they're stranded due to running out of petrol or because of car troubles but it can clearly be seen that they are on the move.

I chose this picture as it shows how a family which used to have money and wealth and now are having to move on to a new place with uncertainty of whats to come. This past money and wealth is seen through their belongings such as them having a trailer full of their belongings. The way in which the mother, in her fur collared coat and nice hat, and child, dressed nicely with clean clothes and is wearing, also presents their past wealth. 

The way in which the mother is gazing could be because she is doesn't want to be photographed and is ashamed. It could also be to show how she's looking into the distance and wondering what to do next or where they are going to go next to start a new life. Also, the way in which she is holding the baby’s dress symbolises maybe the way she's holding on to hope for america and that it will get better.

Depression Era Photography

Walker Evans: ‘Floyd and Lucille Burroughs’ 1936

Floyd and his daughter pictured above have a particularly interesting symbolic meaning in relation to the Great Depression.

You can see the extent of their poverty by examining their clothes, especially Floyds. He wears fairly ragged garments which show the signs of a lack of wealth and an unsanitary lifestyle. Probably due to the lack of running water and irrigation. Lucille is dressed more neatly which ill come to later.

The lack of shoes is not to overlooked. The fact they have no money for shoes is indicative of the desperate lack of wealth that farm families dealt with from the late 20’s through the 30’s. If you were to crop the bare, dirty feet out of this photo it would convey different emotions. However, Evans decided against preserving the dignity of the Burroughs’. Thus, to a degree, this text can be read as a propaganda piece. Almost advertising the despair of a great number of Americans. When read this way, Floyd and Lucille become examples of Lawrence Levine’s ‘perfect victims’. For Levine, the medium of photography, ‘makes a greater claim on our credulity than other types of documents.’ And so he says that depression era photographers like Evans sought out to capture people who conveyed the despair in the situation whilst missing the fact that, ‘they filled their days, as we fill ours, with the essentials of everyday living’ as well as great strength of character and spirit.

The way in which Lucille is presented in the image says a lot to me about American pride. She is clean, as she can be, and is dressed in smart, feminine clothes. She is also sat up on a chair out of the dirt and grime. I think that she represents the resurgence of – or undying – values that are the foundation of the American self, especially in the agricultural, primitive lifestyles of ‘old America’. Similarly, it expresses the intangible unselfishness of parents who will give everything – even when that is nothing – to protect their children and give them self respect.