Dwight A McBride

Toward the New Black Studies: Or Beyond the Old Race Man

A meditation on the present and future of Black studies, this article uses several examples to chart the institutional rise of the discipline of this subject. It is an investigation into the central hetero-normative assumptions about “the Black community.” As such, the article challenges negative perceptions about Black scholars and Black studies in the academy. Finally, it provides a genealogy of Black studies in which Black queer studies is viewed as a predictable part of the disciplines progression.

Lorem Ipsum Paris

We have to say something. Something about the horrific violence of Paris, Orlando, Istanbul, Nice, and Munich. Something as well about the horrific mundanity of the violence also occurring in Fresno, CA, Baton Rouge, LA, Falcon Heights, MN, Dallas, TX, and indeed in countless other cities across the globe. The litany of violent spectacles alluded to above—all these within only a year—seems to demand that we say something in the introduction to our second volume of James Baldwin Review. But what is there to say here about the atrocities we encounter each day? That Baldwin is still relevant? That, prophetically, he saw it all coming? That would count, in a way, as saying “something.” We can point out the ways that James Baldwin’s words and legacy were attuned to the intricate emotional and personal turmoil at stake in many of these attacks. Surely, we can join the growing chorus of voices more recently attuned to the continuing relevance of Baldwin’s trenchant criticisms: his analyses and critiques of the variety of statemaking and communitymaking forces that still work at dividing our populace along racial, religious, and national lines. These discourses, however, are apt to shortcircuit, to dwell and dissolve within their own closed loops. For to speak about Baldwin’s continuing relevance and his prophetic voice invites not only endless comparisons between him and more current writers, but also an endless array of disavowals. The conversation quickly becomes a Nostradamuslike search into whether or not Baldwin “saw it coming” or “got it right.” But, again, we have to say something. To introduce this volume’s collection of essays without invoking the current geopolitical climate of terror, police violence, astonishingly narcissistic politicians grandstanding on platforms of virulent nationalism winning the hearts and minds of too many people, and a union of Europeans on the cusp of collapsing, seems naïve at best. Surely, in the face of all these atrocities we have to say something. Like the nowobligatory moment of respectful silence, impassioned denunciations, or bereaved

Baltimore is Still Burning: the Rising Relevance of James Baldwin

The fires, this time, are in Baltimore. They ignited rather quickly, burning bright and hot in a moment of reasonable rage. Set ablaze by the death of yet another black man in police custody, “rioters and looters” set fire to several buildings, sprayed cars and buildings with wanton gunfire, and effectively shut down the city. The family of Freddie Gray, a young African-American man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while being apprehended for possession of a knife on 12 April 2015, implored peaceful protest. In a muted echo of the rage that engulfed Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of Michael Brown in August of 2014, by the time of Gray’s funeral on Monday, 27 April 2015, Baltimore was consumed with rage. Confrontations with police ramped up a notch, only to be quelled and contained, bricks and bottles being little match for pepper spray, riot shields, and helicopters. A state of emergency was declared. At the time of this writing, two thousand National Guard troops have been deployed in Baltimore, joining an equal number of additional police deployed from neighboring states. Baltimore is under a curfew, stated to last at least another week. The Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles played baseball to an empty Camden Yards on Thursday, 30 April. Fearing the riotous tremor would erupt again in such a public gathering, the iconic stadium was shuttered; no tickets or concessions were sold. The Orioles won; apparently that’s supposed to be a sign of hopeful progress. The 24-hour news cycle keeps telling us so. Despite numerous pundits calling for a focus on the “real issues” underlying both Gray’s death and the eruption of rebellious frustration that followed, the media frenzy over the events in Baltimore predictably unraveled into arguments about whether or not it was politic to refer to rioters as “thugs.” President