Table Of Contentthe trouble
with
Post-Blackness
t h e t r o u b l e
wit h
Post-Blackness
edited by
Houston A. Baker Jr.
and
K. Merinda Simmons
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
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Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Excerpt from “Gwendolyn Brooks” in Don’t Cry, Scream by Haki R. Madhubuti (Chi-
cago: Third World Press, 1969), reprinted by permission of Third World Press © 1969
Haki R. Madhubuti.
Excerpt from “What Color Is Lonely” in Songs of a Blackbird by Carolyn Rodgers (Chi-
cago: Third World Press, 1973), reprinted by permission of Third World Press © 1969
Carolyn Rodgers
Excerpt from “Someone Leans Near” in Five Poems by Toni Morrison (Las Vegas: Rain-
maker Editions, 2002), used by permission © Rainmaker Editions. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The trouble with post-Blackness / edited by Houston A. Baker and K. Merinda
Simmons.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-231-16934-9 (cloth : acid-freee paper) — isbn 978-0-231-53850-3 (e-book)
1. African Americans—Race identity. 2. African Americans—Intellectual life. 3. Afri-
can Americans—Social conditions—1975–. 4. Social change—United States. 5. Identity
politics—United States. 6. Post-racialism—United States. 7. African American philoso-
phy. 8. United States—Race relations. I. Baker, Houston A., editor. II. Simmons, Mer-
inda, 1981– editor.
E185.625.T76 2015
305.800973—dc23 0214013811
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket design by Noah Arlow.
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed
since the manuscript was prepared.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Dubious Stage of Post-Blackness—
Performing Otherness, Conserving Dominance
K. Merinda Simmons
1
1. “What Was Is”: The Time and Space of Entanglement
Erased by Post-Blackness
Margo Natalie Crawford
21
2. Black Literary Writers and Post-Blackness
Stephanie Li
44
3. African Diasporic Blackness Out of Line:
Trouble for “Post-Black” African Americanism
Greg Thomas
60
4. Fear of a Performative Planet:
Troubling the Concept of “Post-Blackness”
Rone Shavers
81
5. E-Raced: #Touré, Twitter, and Trayvon
Riché Richardson
93
vi CONTENTS
6. Post-Blackness and All of the Black Americas
Heather D. Russell
110
7. Embodying Africa: Roots-Seekers and the Politics of Blackness
Bayo Holsey
144
8. “The world is a ghetto”: Post-Racial America(s) and the Apocalypse
Patrice Rankine
162
9. The Long Road Home
Erin Aubry Kaplan
188
10. Half as Good
John L. Jackson Jr.
194
11. “Whither Now and Why”: Content Mastery and Pedagogy—
A Critique and a Challenge
Dana A. Williams
209
12. Fallacies of the Post-Race Presidency
Ishmael Reed
220
13. Thirteen Ways of Looking at Post-Blackness (after Wallace Stevens)
Emily Raboteau
243
Conclusion: Why the Lega Mask Has Many Mouths and Multiple Eyes
Houston A. Baker Jr.
247
List of Contributors 257
Index 263
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors wish to thank those who helped make the present collection a
reality. We are grateful for the tireless efforts of Natalie Baggett, program
coordinator and administrative assistant at Vanderbilt University. Every
aspect of the project has benefited from Natalie’s efficiency, communica-
tion skills, and indomitable organization. We thank Stephanie Li of the
University of Rochester for conceptualizing a symposium bearing the title
of the present volume. Professor Li secured travel and accommodation
funds and honoraria from the Humanities Project of Rochester for all the
volume’s contributors. She then orchestrated an exciting one-day intel-
lectual exchange at the university on April 11, 2014. It goes without saying
that Stephanie Li and Natalie Baggett worked in tandem on some impor-
tant logistics. Vanderbilt University English Department graduate stu-
dent Andrew Hines encountered our project at its inception. His archival
skill and shrewd analytical competence provided a fine inaugural bibliog-
raphy for our work. At a later phase Andy was indispensable in resolving
documentation anxieties. Our colleagues at the University of Alabama
and at Vanderbilt have been generous and encouraging. We extend spe-
cial gratitude to colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies at the
University of Alabama, the Culture on the Edge research collaborative,
and to those in the departments of English and African American and
Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt. Our indebtedness to our editor, Jennifer
Crewe, and Columbia University Press is unbounded. Jennifer encour-
aged our project from the outset. Her publishing team is a professional
assembly to be envied.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
While we have been fortunate in all our institutional navigations, we
could not have achieved such a fine collection without the individual
graciousness, punctuality, and brilliance of our contributors. They repre-
sent the best standards and practices of collective intellectual enterprise.
We cannot praise or thank them enough for making our job so seamless
and rewarding.
Finally, we extend sincere and personal thanks to Vanderbilt Univer-
sity professor Charlotte Pierce-Baker, who invited us into her home to
work. She advised us on the construction and tone of our enterprise. She
shared insights and critique that made our collaboration more astute. We
also benefited personally from the kind support and company of Nathan
Loewen and Arlo Simmons-Loewen.
If we have overlooked anyone who helped and inspired us to complete
the present project, we apologize.
the trouble
with
Post-Blackness
