Nubian has a great post I've only belatedly come across, about her and similar blogs' lack of recognition, marginalization, cooption (in terms of their ideas), and so on. More than once I've felt the same way, though for me it has little to do with recognition and more to do with a desire for dialogue and engagement, which has only periodically come. I take this is part of being neither fully insect nor fowl, not showing enough flesh or sharing personal information, not mentioning celebrities frequently enough nor tapping out interesting enough philosophical or political posts in advance of their broader discussion on the net. I also don't remain within a few obvious constituencies though I do return to regular concerns. All in all, I don't expect a lot of readers and would imagine that most blogs that are regularly posting certain kinds of material yet who don't have natural or particularized constituencies wouldn't have them. So what does a blogger who wants to contribute and shape certain types of discourses do? Nubian poses this importan question. Check out what she has to say.
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Mendi O. of Sweat has a very brief but important piece up on the "disaster at Duke," as she terms it. It quotes scholar Wahneemia Lubiano on the need for ways to present the everydayness, the prosaicness, the regularity and routine, of racism, racial, sexual, class and gendered hierarchies and violence. I strongly agree and can attest that we all live it. It's in our blood, our bodies, our bones, the streets we walk and drive, the school rooms and cubicles we inhabit, the images and sounds that are integral to our lifeworld. There is everything that precedes and follows the spectacle, that doesn't pass unnoticed, to all of us, even as it allegedly, seemingly does....
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Coming from her, the comment surprised me some, because she generally seems to get a lively dialogue going around most (or all) of her posts. Cooption, of course, stings; but those are the breaks, to some extent, and how is silence a better option???? I love what you're doing here, John, and haven't missed a post (Ok, some of the sports ones ...); but you're right, it's a heady and eclectic mix. I get the feeling sometimes that you yourself are often so busy that certain discourse don't get shaped because there's simply not enough time in the day (to respond to new comments, write a new post, hold down the job/life).
ReplyDeleteKai in NYC
I am a regular reader of your blog. As a writer and a voracious reader, I look forward to your posts (even the ones about sports) because I don't know what you're going to introduce me to that day. My literary world has been enhanced by your intelligence and knowledge. I agree with Kai in that providing, on a regular basis, the kind of critical discourse you speak of would, indeed, be quite time consuming.
ReplyDeleteGerard in Miami Beach
I've just discovered you, thanks to Prometheus 6. I've had similar thoughts aout the traffic on my own blog. I like the freedom of being able to explore a range of ideas and subjects. I look forward to reading you. As for blac(k)ademic, she's a regular read for me. I'm thinking about the issues she raises in the context of the consciousness-raising she's trying to accomplish. I think has something to do with her dissatisfaction. No real conclusions yet, but I'm glad she decided to stay in the game, as her most recent posts indicate.
ReplyDeleteKai, Gerard and Professor Kim, I appreciate your comments. Part of what I think Nubian is talking about is the continued absence in the public domain of the kinds of perspectives she presents and fields on her blog, and the failure of those who may occasionally borrow from her or seize on her ideas to then engage her directly or actively and to be honest about the limits of their supposedly mainstream or majoritorian aproach. It can be disheartening, though the important thing is to keep putting the ideas out there, which I hope she does.
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