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2015/2016
Contents
2015/2016
1 From the Director 23 Languages at Africana
GERARD ACHING
24 John Henrik Clarke Africana Library
4 Africana Development Priorities
5 Faculty Activities and Accomplishments 25 The Institute for
Comparative Modernities
9 Undergraduate Study at Africana
GRANT FARRED 26 Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for
African Literature
10 When My Friends First Came to Visit
NOLIWE ROOKS on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye 27 Upcoming Events
11 Graduate Study at Africana
29 2015-2016 Events
NOLIWE ROOKS
13 Donald Trump Redefines Republicans’ 31 2015-2016 Co-Sponsored Events
Rules for Coded, Racist Language and
Deniability
33 Graduate Students
KEVIN K. GAINES
15 What Scandal’s Civil Rights-Era Critique 35 Jaz Nsubuga ’11: Alum Manages
Says About Contemporary Black Marketing Campaign at MTV
Women and Girls KATHY HOVIS
ONEKA LABENNETT
37 Recent Books by Africana Faculty
17 Jeremiah Grant ‘17: “I began to see what (2013-2016)
was between the world and me.”
ANNA CARMICHAEL 41 Faculty
19 Engaged Art and its Critique at Cornell
43 Keep in Touch
LINDA B. GLASER
21 From Why We Don’t Let Black Girls Rock 44 Harriet Tubman 2016
NOELANI GABRIEL
Africana Studies & Research Center Special Thanks to our Administrative Manager, ©2016 Cornell University
at Cornell University, 2015-2016 Issue Treva Levine, and our interim Graduate Field
Diversity and inclusion are part of Cornell
Assistant/Events Coordinator, Lynn Lauper, for
Design University’s heritage. We are a recognized
their expertise and invaluable assistance in
Shannon Williamson employer and educator valuing AA/EEO,
bringing this year’s newsletter to fruition.
Protected Veterans, and Individuals
Photography
Content printed elsewhere has been obtained with Disabilities.
Cornell University Communications Marketing
with permission prior to publication.
Group, unless otherwise noted.
ii 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA iii
United States and Canada to discuss benefited from a visit by Sheri Sher, Africana Center stood at 320 Wait
Avenue before it was destroyed by
“A number of events organized through and
arson on April 1, 1970. Consult our
at Africana tackled important global problems webpage for more information and
updates about this event.
and political practices, fields of inquiry, and
pedagogical issues.” It has been a pleasure to welcome
Professor Kevin Gaines, the W.E.B.
Du Bois Professor of Africana Studies and
the philosopher’s contributions to and who was a member of the first MC and History, among our ranks. His stature
place in African thought. That same DJ all women crew, and participated in and experience in the field of Africana
month, Professor Olúfémi Táíwò took the She Will Be Heard, a documentary that Studies enrich our scholarship, course
opportunity to share his research, ideas, examines the relationship between offerings, and mission as a center for
and criticism regarding the practice hip hop and women artists. Professor research and public engagement. In
and business of foreign humanitarian Noliwe Rooks will launch “Race and addition to these contributions, he
aid in Africa in non-emergency Social Entrepreneurship: Food Justice has also been active in highly visible
scenarios on a panel discussion called and Urban Reform” in the fall 2016 events and initiatives on campus, such
“Humanitarianism and Its Discontents,” semester. This course, which received as moderating a discussion with and
which the College of Arts and Sciences the Kaplan Family Faculty Fellowship interviewing Debra L. Lee, Chairman and
organized in celebration of its New in Service-Learning Award and also CEO of Black Entertainment Television
Century for the Humanities program received support from an Engaged (BET) on April 4, 2016; working closely
and the opening of Klarman Hall. With Cornell Program grant, will explore with Professor Steve Pond (Music
respect to Africana’s language program, ways to foster social equity and food Department, Cornell), a member of our
From the director senior lecturer of Yoruba, Adeolu justice by having students work Africana graduate field, to organize and
Ademoyo, and lecturer of Kiswahili, with community stakeholders, such curate Wynton Marsalis’ visits to Cornell
Happiness Bulugu, organized and held as farmers, nonprofits, and activists as an A.D. White Professor-at-Large for a
the first ever and very successful African in order to examine and propose six-year period beginning in 2015; and,
languages symposium at Cornell, which approaches for solving problems of finally, serving as the lead organizer
The 2015-16 academic year saw our North Africa, Europe, and North America. included Professors Siba Grovogui’s was attended by colleagues teaching inaccessibility to healthy food. Professor for the forthcoming dedication of the
faculty continuing to bolster Africana’s Also bringing international visibility to and Lori Leonard’s (Department of African languages at universities in the Riché Richardson has developed a original site of the Africana Center.
status as a leading and generative Africana this year was Professor Carole Development Sociology, Cornell) forum northeastern United States. We look collaborative course called “The Willard
On October 6, 2015, we launched an
research center and home for scholarly Boyce-Davies, who, as president of in October 2015, “Governing Extraction,” forward to our language program’s Straight Takeover,” which will be taught
Africana Alumni Forum, which aims to
and activist engagement with a number the Caribbean Studies Association, which examined the effects of the continuing leadership and innovation in for the first time in spring 2017. The
provide distinguished alumni with the
of issues of continuing importance to organized the association’s annual Chad Oil and Pipeline Project and the these areas. course will provide students with
opportunity to describe and reflect on
Africa, the Diaspora, and beyond. In conference from June 5-11, 2016 in emergence of forms of governance opportunities to examine an important
November 2015, Professor Salah Hassan Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where it had never focusing on the extraction of oil, Faculty also made important strides historical but much misunderstood the relationship between their studies
brought together resources from the before been held. This historic meeting, gas, and other minerals. Professor in bringing their research to bear on moment for Cornell, Africana, and black at the center and their professional
American University in Cairo, the Sharjah which also featured an event with Grant Farred organized two meetings the courses they have developed and studies in the United States, when black paths and to offer students the chance
Art Foundation, and the Institute for political activist Professor Angela Davis, at Africana with invited local and taught or plan to teach presently. The students armed themselves in self- to interact with our alumni. For the
Comparative Modernities at Cornell, was the association’s most attended international scholars: the first, “African Center received word this summer that defense after occupying the student inauguaration of the forum, which
which he directs, in order to hold conference drawing scholars, students, Thinking And/At Its Limits,” was held Professor Oneka LaBennett’s spring 2016 union in 1969 and being threatened. was entitled, “Forum on Environmental
an international conference in Cairo and journalists from around the world. in June 2015 and focused on African course, “Women in Hip Hop,” ranked in Richardson’s course follows on the Justice,” Leslie Fields, Esq. (’82), the
called The Egyptian Surrealists in Global philosophy, politics, and political theory; the top ten among sixty-three college heels of one of the most significant Sierra Club’s Director of Environmental
Perspective. The two-day conference was A number of events organized through the second, a workshop entitled, courses nationwide that Elle magazine events to take place in Africana’s recent Justice and Community Partnerships,
a major cultural event in the Egyptian and at Africana tackled important global “Jacques Derrida: A Figure of African considered the “most compelling” for history, which will be the dedication and Professor Kenneth L. Robinson (’01),
capital and was attended by scholars, problems and political practices, fields Thought,” took place in April 2016 and examining the experiences of women on September 24, 2016 (Homecoming Associate Professor and Community
journalists, artists, and students from of inquiry, and pedagogical issues. These brought together scholars from the and girls. Students in the course weekend) of the site where the original Development Specialist at Clemson
1 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 2
“It has been exciting and a genuine honor to
witness, facilitate, and participate in the wide
and substantive spectrum of activities and
projects that the Center generates and sponsors
on our campus and beyond.”
University, spoke to our audience campus and beyond. I look forward to
To make a gift or for
about environmental justice and the fall 2016 events commemorating
how their educational experiences at Africana’s initial site on campus as more information about
Africana helped them to arrive at their well as to our approaching fiftieth
these and other giving
involvement in the subject. Screened anniversary of the establishment of the
opportunities visit
immediately before the forum, Leah Center and of the idea of Africana as a
Mahan’s (’88) Come Hell or High Water: field of inquiry and as a source of both africana.cornell.edu
The Battle for Turkey Creek (2013), a inspiration and aspiration.
documentary about a Mississippi Gulf
Coast community, settled by former At the same time, I am very pleased to
slaves, that created powerful alliances in announce the interim directorship of
order to protect itself from urban sprawl Professor Noliwe Rooks for the 2016- communities and for the social fabric
and contamination, provided inspiration 2017 academic year and of Professor of the United States as a whole. In a Africana Development Priorities
for the conversation between Fields Kevin Gaines’ directorship for a five-year university such as ours, the freedom to
and Robinson. The Africana Center very term beginning in the fall of 2017. I discuss these challenges openly and
much looks forward to continuing to look forward to their leadership and safely is valued and respected. Ithaca’s
provide this forum and dialogue for our expect the Africana Center to benefit now established branch of the Black
alumni and students. greatly from their experience, goodwill, Lives Matter movement held some of The Africana Studies & Research Center The Africana Studies & Research
and energy. its initial meetings in Africana’s Hoyt
faculty are extremely active researchers, Center is one of the most international
This academic year marks the end of Fuller Room. We invite you to engage
teachers, mentors, and community departments on the Cornell campus and
my term as Africana’s director. I would The year 2019 marks the Africana in this dialogue and in the many others
partners. Borrowing from our colleagues is committed to training our students
like to take the opportunity to express Studies & Research Center’s fiftieth that the Africana Center fosters in our
in the sciences, Africana is offering to understand themselves as global
my gratitude to the Center’s faculty, year of existence as a site borne of the classrooms, lecture halls, and public
courses with the idea of a humanities citizens with the skills, perspectives and
our graduate field faculty, graduate struggle against antiblack racism and spaces for the benefit of all.
based “solutions lab.” As molecular outlook engendered by international
and undergraduate students, staff, its attendant social injustices and as the
biologist Bonnie Bassler has written, travel and engagement with others from
the College of Arts and Sciences, historical origin of the idea of Africana
Gerard Aching laboratories are places populated diverse cultural backgrounds. A gift of
and our many colleagues and friends as a field of scholarship. Today, the
overwhelmingly by young people $100,000 would ensure that our majors
across campus, who have warmly Center, by the very nature of the work Director of Africana Studies
who have the energy and creativity will have the opportunity to travel
supported and actively contributed that it accomplishes, stands uniquely
to think outside the box and propose internationally and that we can host
to Africana’s intellectual, pedagogical, poised to continue to strengthen its
and test out solutions to long-standing students from other countries who
and community engagement goals. It role on our campus and beyond as a
problems. A gift of $250,000 will ensure are interested in learning more about
has been exciting and a genuine honor place for examining and addressing
that “solutions lab” style courses will be Africa and the African Diaspora by taking
to witness, facilitate, and participate the serious challenges—as our
institutionalized at Africana. classes here in Africana.
in the wide and substantive spectrum programming did last year—that the
of activities and projects that the deaths of unarmed African American
Center generates and sponsors on our men and women pose for our black
3 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 4
(PSP) program for fourteen years. Africana welcomed new faculty Travis L. Gosa, assistant professor of
PSP brings students from different member Kevin K. Gaines, W.E.B. Du Africana Studies, together with Erik
backgrounds and ethnicities together Bois Professor of Africana Studies and Nielson (University of Richmond) released
for six weeks of college-level classes, History, in 2015-2016. He is the author their new edited volume The Hip Hop
enrichment and orientation activities of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, & Obama Reader (Oxford University
designed to help pre-freshmen Politics, and Culture During the Twentieth Press) in November 2015. The Hip Hop
become successful Cornell students. Century, which was awarded the John & Obama Reader includes a range of
In Edmondson’s writing seminar, Hope Franklin Prize of the American new perspectives from leading scholars,
“Pan-African Freedom Fighters in Studies Association, as well as American journalists, and activists who examine the
their Own Words,” students examine Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates shifting relationship between popular
autobiographical writings, advocacy and the Civil Rights Era, which was a culture, race, youth and national politics
statements, and speeches by selected Choice Outstanding Academic Title. His through a systematic analysis of hip
freedom fighters from Black America, essays, columns and reviews on African hop and politics during the Obama era.
Africa and the Caribbean, such as W.E.B. American history, art, music, literature, As the book explores, hip hop is now
Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Jacques and contemporary culture have been altering political mobilization, grassroots
Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm published in the New York Times, organizing, campaign branding, and
X, Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Fannie Lou Ebony, The Providence Journal, American voter turnout, while politics is altering
Hamer, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Nelson Quarterly, American Historical Review, The hip hop’s dimensions and scope in terms
Mandela, Winnie Mandela, Ruth Mompati, Journal of American History, American of linguistics, culture, race, and gender –
Mavivi Manzini, Albertina Sisulu, and Literary History, Small Axe, Radical History both domestically and internationally.
Bob Marley. One student remarked: Review, Truthout, and Social Text. He has
“Edmondson’s class changed the way I lectured at universities throughout the In collaboration with the Sharjah Art
think about my life and heritage.” U.S. as well as internationally, and is Foundation and the Visual Cultures
Faculty Activities & Accomplishments a past president of the American Program at the American University
Grant Farred, professor of Africana Studies Association. in Cairo, the Institute for Comparative
Studies, organized the conference Modernities (ICM) at Cornell University
“African Thinking And/At Its Limits” Professor Siba N. Grovogui organized organized an international conference
in June 2015. Hosted by the Africana a conference entitled “Governing entitled “The Egyptian Surrealists in
Studies & Research Center, the two Extraction” with Professor Lori Global Perspective” in November 2015.
Gerard Aching, outgoing director of N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, its 41st Annual Conference, “Caribbean
day seminar was attended by scholars Leonard from Cornell’s Department of Salah M. Hassan, who is the Goldwin
the Africana Studies & Research Center professor of Africana Studies, co-edited Global Movements: People, Ideas, Culture,
specializing in African philosophy and Development Sociology in October Smith Professor of African and African
and professor of Africana and Romance a special issue of the International Arts and Economic Sustainability,“ which
politics from the U.S., Europe, the Middle 2015. The full-day forum, hosted by Diaspora Art History and Visual Culture
Studies, delivered the 2016 Society for Review of Education-Journal of Lifelong was held in June 2016 in Port-au-Prince.
East, as well several Africana faculty the Africana Studies & Research Center, in both the Africana Studies & Research
the Humanities Invitational Lecture on Learning (IRE) titled, “Rediscovering the An historic meeting, the CSA conference
members (Aching, Grovogui, Táíwò focused on the effects of the Chad Oil Center and the Department of History
March 2, 2016. In his lecture, Aching Ubuntu Paradigm in Education.” This had never before taken place in Haiti,
and Farred) and graduate students and Pipeline Project in this region of of Art and Visual Studies, as well as
drew parallels between the calls to is one of several publications to come the world’s first black Republic. Haitian
from various Cornell departments. the world, as well as emergent forms the Director of the ICM, served on
action in books by Franz Fanon, Ta- from the 2015 59th annual conference author Edwidge Danticat headlined the
The seminar papers ranged from of governance in the context of the the Conference and Curatorial Team.
Nehisi Coates, and the unfolding of the of the Comparative and International writers and Haitian intellectuals at the
contemporary African culture to global rush for oil, gas, and other mineral The conference will be followed by a
Black Lives Matter movement. He began Education Society (CIES), organized conference, along with radical intellectual
Francophone philosophy, from cinema resources. Presenters included scholars travelling exhibition entitled When Arts
his lecture with Fanon’s phrase, “Oh by Assié-Lumumba during her term and activist Angela Davis. Participating
to Frantz Fanon, and from Caribbean from universities in Canada and across Become Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists
my body, always make me a man who as President-Elect. The theme of that scholars hailed from Universities across
thinking to Karl Marx. The presentations the United States. An edited volume (1938-1965) to be inaugurated at Sharjah
questions,” and noted Coates’ central conference was “Ubuntu! Imagining a the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean,
will be published in the Journal of that will include papers from the Art Foundation in 2017 in Sharjah, UAE,
question, “How do I live free in this black Humanist Education Globally.” and Australia. A publication will
French and Francophone Philosophy in conference and additional papers will followed by an exhibition in Cairo, Egypt.
body?” According to him, these inquiries be forthcoming.
inform the Black Lives Matter movement Carole Boyce-Davies, professor of the fall of 2016. be published in 2017 by Routledge in its A two-volume publication will follow the
as the latter addresses and counters Africana Studies and English, served as Locksley Edmondson, professor of series Routledge Studies of the Extractive conference, with the first to accompany
the historical dispossession of the black the 2015-2016 President of the Caribbean Africana Studies, has participated in TOP LEFT: Professor Edmondson’s Industries and Sustainable Development. the exhibition and the second to serve as
body and undervaluation of black life. Studies Association (CSA) and organized Cornell’s Prefreshman Summer Program writing seminar students from Cornell’s the catalogue of the proposed exhibition.
Prefreshman Summer Program 2016.
5 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 6
Associate Professor Oneka LaBennett’s Afro-Caribbean history and culture. disempowers, immobilizes and collaboration among LCTL educators,
Spring 2016 course, “Women in Hip Hop,” Snorton’s fellowship project is titled, disables its recipients and acts as a and to leverage resources and strengths
received national recognition when “Embodied Legacies: Blackness and the dehumanizing force. Rather than in the LCTL community.
it was ranked #10 on Elle magazine’s Remaking of Trans History.” enhancing the capacity of recipients
list, “63 College Classes that Give Us to exercise autonomy in their own Happiness Patrick Bulugu, Lecturer of
Hope for the Next Generation.” The As part of the College of Arts and affairs, development aid in Africa keeps Kiswahili, was awarded a Consortium for
list identified “the most compelling Sciences’ New Century for the recipients dependent. Language Teaching and Learning Grant
offerings for today’s college students Humanities celebration, faculty from in spring 2016. Funds will support the
to examine the female experience,” across various disciplines shared Adeolu Ademoyo, Senior Lecturer of development of Kiswahili vocabulary
and noted that LaBennett’s course glimpses of their latest research in a Yoruba, also serves as the President exercises for Elementary Kiswahili Global
asks questions such as “What do the series of six “Big Ideas” panel discussions of the African Language Teachers Health (ASRC 1107) and Intermediate
sexual politics of rap music reveal about in spring 2016. The topic of the last Association (ALTA). The theme of Kiswahili (ASRC 2101) through Quizlet,
Black women’s conceptualizations of panel discussion was “Humanitarianism the ALTA 2015 Conference, co- an online learning platform. Quizlet
feminism? How can we apply early and its Discontents,” which brought organized with the National Council exercises will also be accessible to
‘hip hop feminism’ to understand ABOVE: Machel Montano, Award Winning Artiste; Carole Boyce Davies, Professor, Cornell University; together the diverse critical perspectives of Less Commonly Taught Languages students through a mobile app. In
current debates about Beyoncé and Etienne Charles, Jazz Musician; Ryan Leslie, Recording Artist and Producer; Emeline Michel, Singer of Professor Olúfémi Táíwò (Africana (NCOLCTL), was “The Languages of Quizlet, students will practice Kiswahili
celebrating Caribbean American Heritage Month at the White House
Nicki Minaj? How are hetero-normative Studies) and Associate Professor America in the 21st Century.” Participants vocabulary with audio-visual flashcards,
gender ideologies reinforced in hip hop Elizabeth Anker (English). Táíwò shared were encouraged to adapt the scope, games, and quizzes. The platform will
culture?” Students who were enrolled his ideas and research into foreign nature, method and pedagogy of aid and reinforce usage of unfamiliar
in the course benefitted from a visit humanitarian aid in Africa, and asserted language teaching and research to vocabulary introduced in class, amplify
Cornell Mellon Diversity Postdoctoral sustainability for those with low or fixed
LaBennett hosted with Sheri Sher, a that aid should only be given to the current state of the economy, Kiswahili comprehension and retention,
Fellowship Seminar, which accomplishes income. Students will work in concert
member of the first MC and DJ crew countries in times of emergency. “No technology, and globalization. ALTA and maximize classroom time for
the important work of preparing recent with farmers, nonprofits and community
comprised entirely of women, and country has moved its people from poor conferences aim to pursue new interacting in Kiswahili confidently.
doctoral students from traditionally activists to learn about local food
author of the book, Mercedes Ladies. to rich as a result of foreign aid,” said pathways for advocating innovative
underrepresented backgrounds in justice strategies, conduct research, and
LaBennett and her students also Táíwò, who argued that development approaches in research and practices, to
academia to excel in their intellectual propose approaches to heighten access
participated in the filming of She Will aid (as opposed to emergency aid) maximize professional exchanges and
and professional endeavors. to healthy food for senior citizens on a
Be Heard, a documentary exploring hip
fixed income in the Ithaca Area.
hop’s relationship with women artists. Noliwe Rooks, associate professor of
ENGAGED CURRICULUM GRANTS AWARDED
Africana Studies and Feminist, Gender C. Riley Snorton, assistant professor of
Associate Professor Riché Richardson
and Sexuality Studies, and the incoming Africana Studies and Feminist, Gender
has developed a new course for next
Interim Chair of Africana Studies for and Sexuality Studies, won the coveted A team of Africana faculty are among include living case study scenarios
year entitled “The Willard Straight
the 2016-2017 academic year, guest National Endowment for the Humanities select recipients of Engaged Cornell’s that involve students, faculty, and
Takeover.” The course will focus on the
edited a special issue of NKA: A Journal Schomburg Center Scholar-in-Residence inaugural Engaged Curriculum Grants, community organizations as conscious
complex history related to this famous
of Contemporary African Art published by Fellowship 2015-2016. Fellowships announced fall 2015, which support partners working toward solutions in
incident from 1969, when black students
Duke University Press on the subject of funded by the Center allow recipients to work that places community-engaged food, social, racial, and economic justice.
occupied the student union on campus
“Black Fashion-Art. Pleasure. Politics.” She be in residence with access to resources learning at the heart of the Cornell Throughout the courses, students
during Parent’s Weekend and, when
also received the 2016 Kaplan Family at the Schomburg Center and other student experience. Knowing that will become familiar with community
threatened, returned with firearms in
Faculty Fellowship in Service-Learning centers of The New York Public Library. it takes time and effort to develop leadership skills, ethics, and strategies in
self-defense. This pivotal event, one
award to support a fall 2016 course, The program encourages research mutually beneficial partnerships with these fields. Africana team members are
of the most important in Cornell’s
“Race and Social Entrepreneurship: and writing on black history and community organizations, faculty Associate Professor Oneka LaBennett,
history, remains misunderstood and
Food Justice and Urban Reform.” The culture, facilitates interaction among from the Africana Studies & Research Associate Professor Noliwe Rooks,
misrepresented. The main goal of this
course will examine food justice in participating scholars, and provides Center are building relationships with and Professor Gerard Aching. The
course is to make a scholarly framework
Ithaca and surrounding areas and widespread dissemination of findings social justice/cultural organizations in community partners for these learning
available in which students might
explore innovative approaches to through lectures, publications, and Ithaca and New York City, which will experiences are Groundswell Center for
reinforce and expand their knowledge
bring about social equity and justice in colloquia and seminars. It encompasses be central to two Africana courses that Local Food and Farming in Ithaca and
of this topic. Richardson was also
relation to food availability, access and projects in African, Afro-American, and will be tested as capstone experiences CaribBEING in New York City.
selected to participate in the 2016-17
for Africana majors. Both courses will
7 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 8
BELOW: Grant Farred,
Director of Undergraduate
Studies at Africana
LEFT: Nobel Prize-winning
author Toni Morrison, M.A. ‘55,
during a visit to Cornell
immediately important to me in part
because I am an only child. My parents
divorced when I was five and I split years
between the two of them. They lived in
different regions of the country and year
after year I moved from the West Coast
to the South and back again. I changed
When My Friends schools every single year. From first
grade through the eighth, I was always
the new girl. I never started a school
Undergraduate Study at Africana First Came to Visit
year knowing a single soul. Though
I always made friends, I never once
NOLIWE ROOKS ON TONI MORRISON’S THE BLUEST EYE anticipated seeing any of them during
the summer. I was always leaving in the
summer to start my new year with my
It was a very good way to end the One of our majors, who also worked Our undergraduate program provides By the time I was ten I had both inhaled and join the characters to sit at their other parent. I spent a lot of time alone.
2015-16 academic year. At our May in the Africana office, Noelani Gabriel, a wide range of courses on Africa and inhabited a lot of books. I knew well fictional kitchen table and drink milk When I read The Bluest Eye, I understood
graduation, two of our minors, did an independent study exploring and the African diaspora in the fields the escape of imagining myself as one out of a Shirley Temple glass. Shirley and for the first time that I didn’t need to
independently of each other, went out black women’s mental health at Cornell of literature, art history, philosophy, of Nancy Drew’s friends who sleuthed. I I were already regular acquaintances. read in order to escape loneliness. My
of their way to tell me that a class they which was directed by Professor Rooks. international relations, history, sociology, understood the shape shifting required We met weekly on Sunday mornings to time alone could transform.
had taken in Africana was “the best” Another May graduate, Jacquelynn and anthropology and a variety of to spend an entire day imagining myself smile and tap dance our way through
they had enrolled in at Cornell. These Jones, who had Professor Richardson analytical approaches and methods to be one, and then another of Louisa hardship before rushing together toward The Bluest Eye was the first book to help
students, and others, remarked on as her advisor, will start an MA at that train students to view such fields May Alcott’s Little Women. When Edgar our triumphant ending. For the first time me to understand the mundane and
how transformative their experience Brown University in fall 2016. Next in light of Africana’s long tradition of Allen Poe’s House of Usher fell, I lived the characters in a book came forth from immediate nature of evil, the fragile yet
in Africana had been and how it had year, we look forward to senior theses interdisciplinary study, scholarship, for days with a self-congratulatory their world to join me in mine. They kept precious nature of Black girl friendship,
shaped their decisions about their future. being written, for instance, by Abram and public engagement. Our gateway satisfaction for disbelief well and me company. They occupied me. They and the truth of the matter about love
These responses are an endorsement of Alebiosu, supervised by Professor Táíwò; courses to the major and minor willfully suspended. were friends who whispered secrets and and its ability to both protect and
the work being done in Africana classes Nicole Mensa, supervised by Professor continue to inspire students, and we revealed everything I thought a ten- destroy. There would of course be other
and a testament to our ability to teach, Grovogui; and Anthony Halmon, look forward to their increased ranks in However, it was not until I read year-old girl needed to know about how works that deepened those truths and
reach and serve – pedagogically, socially, supervised by Professor Gaines, and to our classrooms and lecture halls. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye that I she should see the world, and how the revealed others but that story and those
politically – a diverse student body. I the projects which they will showcase understood the difference between my world saw her. I was illuminated. friends were the first to introduce me to
would like to thank all my colleagues for for the department in their April 2017 inhabiting the world of a book, and a the power of literature. For me, that first
their commitment in the classroom. thesis defenses. Grant Farred book inhabiting me. When turning those I think that the relationship with love is still the truest.
particular pages, I didn’t need to leave the children in The Bluest Eye was so
Director of Undergraduate Studies
9 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 10
Sasso, Kanyinsola Obayan, and Marshall
Smith, all passed their initial exams
admitting them to candidacy, the
Q-exam. Their work focuses on the
tension between Afropolitanism and
indigenous forms of knowledge on the
African continent; literary studies of
Black girlhood in Cuba, Haiti and Brazil;
the meaning and range of Black ethnic
identities in the United States; and
Black literary studies in French and the
Caribbean in relation to Louisiana.
Collectively, in the past year our students
have won competitive fellowships,
grants, and residencies. In addition,
a number of them have presented
at national and even international
conferences and have all moved closer
to successfully completing their degrees.
For these reasons, we believe that the
future of graduate study in Africana is
very bright indeed.
Graduate Study at Africana
Noliwe Rooks
Director of Graduate Studies
Our doctoral program is ready to enter that, beginning in the fall of 2016, we and U.S. Black liberation struggles;
its third year and this spring we admitted will offer a graduate minor available to formations of gender, Blackness and
our third cohort. It is now clear that the graduate students currently enrolled race in Colombia, South America; and
PhD program in Africana at Cornell is in any doctoral program at Cornell. queering race and gender in U.S. Black
poised to make a mark on the scholarly Interested students will take four literary studies.
landscape that is the global study of courses in Africana, including our two
Blackness in Africa and her diaspora. introductory seminars, and have a These incoming students, Zifeng Liu,
Given our newly defined research member of our graduate field on Afifa Ltifi, Amaris Brown, and Natalia
Applications are
fields in Gender and Sexuality, Africana their committee. Santiesteban, will join the second
Political and Philosophical Thought, year class, Kristen Wright and Mayowa open for Fall 2017
Global Black Radical Tradition, Black The four newest students who will join Willoughby, whose scholarly work admission at
Feminist Thought, Youth and/or Popular us in the fall are themselves diverse focuses respectively on Black feminist
Culture Studies, and Literary, Art and in terms of where they call home, playwrights and their melding and africana.cornell.
Visual, Performance and Cultural Studies, encompassing four of the seven interventions in literary theory and edu/graduate
we believe our doctoral program is as continents. In addition, they have history, and a project on Blackness and
rigorous, stimulating, and relevant as scholarly projects that span the globe. Arab identity in Turkey.
Their intellectual interests include:
it is geographically broad. Given our
feminism, Blackness and religion in Finally, this year our first class of
depth and breadth in these areas and
Tunisia; Maoist China, propaganda, students, Marsha Jean-Charles, Nadia
others, we are pleased to announce
11 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 12
“When Trump and many of his supporters say
The investigative journalist Jane Mayer they refuse to be “politically correct,” they want
has noted the irony of the far-right, anti- to eliminate public taboos on racist, sexist and
government billionaire Koch brothers’
bigoted speech.”
objection to Trump’s xenophobic,
authoritarian campaign. Mayer reminds
us of the Koch-financed “grassroots”
opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
As Atwater explained: It seems fitting that Duke has figured
Then, in 2010, the Koch brothers had no
problem whatsoever with the hate- [Y]ou start out in 1954 … saying ‘n*****, in Trump’s own effort to go beyond
filled mob atmosphere of a rally on n*****, n*****.’ By 1968, you can’t say the GOP establishment’s disturbing
Capitol Hill, where some whites yelled ‘ n*****’ -- that hurts you. So you say protocol of dog-whistle appeals to
homophobic and racial slurs and spat stuff like forced busing, state’s rights…. white prejudice. When Trump and
upon three African-American members You’re getting so abstract now, you’re many of his supporters say they refuse
of Congress. talking about cutting taxes, and all these to be “politically correct,” they want to
things … are totally economic, and eliminate public taboos on racist, sexist
The use of racial euphemism in US a byproduct of this is Blacks get hurt and bigoted speech.
politics goes back to President Richard worse than whites…. Because … saying
Even more concerning than his
Nixon’s Southern strategy. Using coded “we want to cut this” is much more
legitimizing hate speech is Trump’s
appeals to “law and order” and fear of abstract than the busing thing, and …
complete denial that his words have
crime to demonize Black demands for saying ‘n*****, n*****.’
consequences. His rallies have become
equality, Nixon triggered a mass exodus
of white southern Democrats angered Much of Trump’s support comes from rituals of hate and physical violence
by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into the this constituency, forged during the against outsiders and people his
Donald Trump Redefines Republicans’ Rules for Republican Party. 1980s and 1990s, motivated largely by supporters disagree with. Trump insists
Coded, Racist Language and Deniability white racial fear and loathing. Atwater’s that he is not responsible for the chaos
Ronald Reagan announced his notorious “Willie Horton” ad yoked the we are witnessing. And now he has
KEVIN K. GAINES campaign for the presidency in crimes of an African-American man to predicted there will be riots if he doesn’t
Philadelphia, Mississippi, where civil Democratic Party nominee Michael get the Republican nomination.
rights workers were killed by white Dukakis. Though widely condemned,
Where would we be without plausible the candidate’s rallies, when they aren’t campaign of 1948. Caught up in the Of course, not all of Trump’s supporters
supremacists in 1964. Though polarizing, the ad helped propel George H.W. Bush
deniability? A gift from the Reagan asking protesters to share the blame. occasion of Thurmond’s 100th birthday, are afflicted with the sickness of racism.
such manipulation helped advance to victory in 1988.
presidency that keeps on giving, that In fact, Trump’s combustible appeals to Lott claimed that the nation would have Many have legitimate economic
Reagan’s anti-government, tax-cuts for
phrase lowered the bar for truthfulness white racial resentment have long been been better off had Thurmond won and the rich, deregulatory economic agenda, Though his 1990s campaigns for grievances. Job flight, falling wages,
and accountability. The concept gained a staple of conservative politics. What’s somehow prevented civil rights reforms. whose benefits did not trickle-down to statewide office in Louisiana were the Great Recession and Republican-
currency after Ronald Reagan used it to new is that Trump refuses to back down For transgressing the rule of deniability white, blue-collar supporters. unsuccessful, David Duke ran viable led cuts of the social safety net have
absolve himself of involvement for the from racist and xenophobic statements. with his expression of hidebound views, campaigns as a Republican and plunged many into a desperate struggle
Iran-Contra scandal. The verbal arsonist Lott fell on his sword. It was Republican Party political attracted funding from a national to survive. Tragically, those who have
Conservatives horrified at Trump’s front-
Donald Trump has done away with the operative Lee Atwater, however, who network of contributors spouting benefited so little from backing the
plausible part, and even the deniability runner status may be nostalgic for a One wonders how Lott must feel as perfected the alchemy of turning base, racism and anti-Semitism unvarnished GOP establishment are now submitting
part as well, reserving the act of denial time when rules of coded language and Trump’s poll numbers rise with each anti-Black racism into electoral gold. enough to make Republicans uneasy. to the dangerous manipulations of a
only when he has been accused of deniability -- a reprehensible practice, seemingly damning statement, and Toning down the racial demagoguery Duke stoked the resentments of poor demagogue unworthy of their support
inciting riots. to be sure -- regulated how their side of even after incidents of violence at his of a Thurmond or George Wallace, and struggling whites, even those on and unfit for office.
the aisle communicated their views on rallies. Trump continues to rack up
Atwater mined the racial fears and government assistance themselves,
For its part, the GOP establishment race. Just ask Trent Lott, who resigned primary delegates -- despite bigoted and Kevin K. Gaines is the W.E.B. Du Bois
resentments of whites with a subtlety by portraying African Americans
is deep in denial, viewing Trump’s as Senate Majority Leader in 2002 after authoritarian attacks of Mexicans and Professor of Africana Studies and History.
that proved effective in national, as well as undeserving beneficiaries of
incendiary rhetoric as the main bipartisan objections to his unguarded Muslims -- and his reluctant, winking This article originally appeared on and has
as statewide elections. government programs and worse.
cause for the unmasked racism and praise of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s pro- disavowal of an endorsement from the likes been reprinted with permission.
occasional violence that have marred segregation third party presidential of Ku Klux Klan spokesman David Duke. Copyright, Truthout.org.
13 2015 - 2016 AFRICANA 14
What Scandal’s Civil Rights-Era artists, such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin respectability, marital status, is not immune to such blowback.
Gaye, and Sly and the Family Stone, is adherence to a patriarchal family Herein lies the contemporary sting
due to the “strong sense of nostalgia structure—have traditionally of Scandal’s nostalgic universe:
Critique Says About Contemporary
[of] these songs.” So although Kerry marginalized African American With every narrative choice she
Washington (who plays Pope) was women from the status of “lady.” makes, Rhimes holds the weight
Black Women and Girls born in the Bronx at the dawn of hip- Black feminist scholars such as of a history of stereotypical
hop’s materialization, Olivia and Fitz’s Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham have representations of Black femininity
love affair unfolds to tracks by Otis noted that in the Jim Crow South, on her shoulders. Indeed, in her
ONEKA LABENNETT Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Booker little Black girls were socialized celebrated Emmy Award-acceptance
T. and the M.G.s. to understand that the bathroom speech, Viola Davis counted Rhimes
labeled “Black Women” was for them and Washington among the Black
“…Do the impossible, raise an African American girl who felt as fully entitled to own the world as much as Like its soundtrack, Scandal’s and the one labeled “White Ladies” women who have precipitated more
any white man,” I recalled that line, uttered in a recent episode of Scandal, when I saw the viral video of a central premise transports us to a was off limits, a stark example barrier-breaking roles for Black
white South Carolina school police officer violently ripping a Black teenage girl from a desk, then dragging pre-Obama White House. It offers of entrenched racial/gender women actors.
her and slamming her to the floor. Americans a nostalgic fantasy world norms. Thus Mrs. Obama’s status
in which we can attempt to reconcile is dependent on her embodying When Scandal acknowledges the
our disbelief at Michelle Obama’s gendered conventions that have racism Black women and girls
The line resonated with me, and Part of Scandal’s appeal rests in how former White House communications presence as “Mom-in-Chief.” In many historically been the exclusive face, even in “post-racial” America,
many other Black women I know, it depicts a dark sense of nostalgia director, political fixer and President ways, Pope is Michelle Obama’s endowment of white women. By it reveals that we can neither be
because it cast the protagonist Olivia for an era in which the only hope Grant’s true love, will never become alter ego, embodying all that she is situating its improper romance recognized as “ladies,” nor “feel fully
Pope’s entire persona as a “what a Black woman had of being the a legitimate member of the First not. On Scandal, the Black woman within a nostalgic past, Scandal entitled,” like white men. Images
if” scenario within and beyond the president’s partner would be as Family. Debuting three years into sharing the president’s bed is not nods to those Civil Rights-era such as that of the Spring Valley High
program’s confines: What if a Black his mistress—a plot belied by the the Obama presidency, Scandal the respectable-but-approachable intersections of race and gender, School student being ripped from
girl-turned-woman actually felt legitimacy of Michelle Obama’s was at once avant-garde and a “Southside girl,” and moral compass while simultaneously contesting her desk, or that of a white police
that entitled? What would it mean historic role, yet bolstered by the throwback—it featured the first to the president that is Michelle them. In so doing, it hopes to present officer in McKinney, Texas forcing
for how we interpret a powerful unfulfilled promise of a post-racial female African American protagonist Obama. Olivia is a childless, career- Black women as complex heroines, a Black teenage girl in a bikini to
Black female character like Pope, America. This immensely popular on a network drama in almost 40 minded home-wrecker who fell in fettered by the interconnections of the ground at a pool party, collapse
who is involved in an affair with the show’s longue durée relates the years, but it eschewed the reality love with, and helped rig an election race and gender, but determined to the divide between Civil Rights-era
president of the United States? And impossibility of Black women of Michelle Obama’s historic post for, a Republican president. Of surpass the accompanying barriers. historical footage and contemporary
what might it mean for real Black and girls—especially those who for a blast-from-the-past plotline course, these are facile dichotomies race/gender politics. In this way,
girls who get in trouble with police, do not meet the standards of that smacked of Thomas Jefferson that situate Obama as little more ShondaLand is a world in which Scandal’s universe is exposed, not as
such as the Spring Valley High respectability—being able to enjoy and Sally Hemings (a connection than a “dutiful lady” and Washington’s Black women are both powerful and a nostalgic one, but as very much of
School student? the privileges and the power that Olivia acknowledged in Season 2). character as a “woman of ill repute.” flawed—for all of her lip quivering the here and now.
have historically been the exclusive While it routinely features ripped- In actuality, early depictions ridiculed and melting into the arms of the
Last week’s Scandal teaser put domain of their white counterparts. from-the-headlines subplots, Obama as “militant,” while more president, the unladylike Olivia is
regular viewers on edge by For Pope’s character, that privilege Scandal’s narrative thread portrays recent commentators undermined a mighty Washington player who
Oneka LaBennett is Associate Professor
suggesting an impending wedding amounts to the temerity of admitting and transgresses Civil Rights era her influence on school lunch accomplishes the impossible every
at the Africana Studies & Research
between Pope and the president. she is in love with the president, but racial-gender norms in which Black programs and racialized her body week. The fallout Liv faces after she
Center. This article originally appeared
Thursday’s episode will reveal if for regular Black women and girls women did not get to be “ladies,” in one fell swoop. Critiques that the publicly admits to being Grant’s
on the Ms. Magazine blog and has
the show’s bold move to expose like the South Carolina teenager, it let alone, The First Lady. At a time Obama daughters’ skirts were too mistress (with Aretha Franklin’s 1967
been reprinted with permission.
Fitzgerald Grant and Olivia Pope’s amounts to expecting that you will when hip-hop dominates popular short provided further “evidence” of single “Do Right Woman—Do Right
affair will result in a seismic shift to be treated with the same level of music (and TV, on shows like Empire), the First Family’s unsuitability. Man” providing non-diegetic sound),
its narrative thrust—one premised dignity afforded to white teens. Scandal’s Motown-era soundtrack is centered around her “hav[ing]
on the impropriety of a Black woman underscores the nostalgia on which The tropes that Obama, and the audacity to be born female and
who dares to imagine life as the For the past five seasons, Scandal it is predicated. Executive producer Pope, would have to successfully Black.” And, as a New York Times
president’s partner. has derived its dramatic tension and creator Shonda Rhimes has said marshal to be considered worthy article situating Rhimes as “an angry
from the notion that Olivia Pope, her intentional use of classic soul of inhabiting the White House— Black woman” revealed, even she
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