Showing a subtle understanding of diaspora, as applied in contemporary scholarship, discuss
its significance in exploring the complexities of the ‘Black diaspora cinema.’
It is essential the word diaspora for you to understand its value and the things it has impacted.there is a term was used in Jewish history when Israelites were forced out of their home and move through the western hemisphere of the world. The name is generally focused primarily on African Americans, a movement that took place as a universal stand against racism, injustice, and slavery (Ladson-Billings, and William).
The African diaspora is a broad term, and there are several ways to look at it to grasp the concept behind it fully. Firstly, it can be viewed as a conceptual tool, one that talks about a specific group of people with similar backgrounds, histories, and experiences. That said, the historical construction of the term is emphasized to get a feel for its rise. The second method of viewing diaspora is through a more political view, one that references a kind of identity formation and the feeling of belonging to a community that transcends national, cultural, and historical boundaries. These two methods usually go together because historically, the development of the term as a conceptual tool has been a part of a more significant political role of creating solidarity among people of African descent.
The main tying factor of this is the evil terror brought onto Africans who were enslaved and treated with absolutely zero mercy. This act of brutality was met with the harshest forms of discipline that no human being should ever have to through. As distasteful and brutal as this time was for Africans, they still found ingenious ways to share their experiences through many notable works of poetry, literature, and music. These works of art take the reader through their times and horrific experiences as slaves and present it through different styles, telling us about critical themes of race, identity, heritage, along with others. A notable author I was privileged enough to study who left an imprint on me was James Baldwin. In his short story, “Going to Meet the Man,” the author recalls a few times of where he had to deal with “All the singing they do… he could not remember the first time he heard it; he had heard it all his life. It was the sound with which he was most familiar- though it was also the sound of which he had been least conscious- and it had always contained an obscure comfort. They were singing to God.” (Teaiwa 15). This quote was incredibly memorable because the main character is recounting a time where slaves were locked in a jail cell being beat to death but still managed to find the energy, love, and will to keep singing.
The resiliency of black people is unmatched, and this is an excellent example of that. It also shows the character and culture that began to develop among African Americans with music and singing evolving into a hugely influential and unique art form that has carried the sound of hope and freedom. African Americans haven’t always been regarded as people who shared a standard tie and culture. Still, as a result of the diaspora, it created the formation of political and cultural movements held together through a variety of things. Furthermore, the diaspora has two aspects to it; the process and condition. In terms of it being a process, this is because it happens through movement and migration, and continues through cultural production and a political struggle.
The concept of diaspora has been extracted from people’s experiences and then shaped into metaphors for alienation, home, and a few other relationships of home vs. away and alien vs. native. Arguably, one of the greatest things to come from the African diaspora is the literature that described it. Black literature is a relatively new and unique genre of writing that has evolved and revolutionized the understanding of black history, taking us on a journey of their lives. Through novels, narratives, poems, and short stories, black authors have contributed significantly to their renewed piece of work in which give the world insight and knowledge of humble beginnings to power and grit. It was almost inevitable that blacks would create their genre of literature as they faced cruelty and marginalization like no one else. Being forced to move from a place they called home, African Americans and blacks still managed to create something out of nothing, shaping their legacies and identities, forever printing it into history.
Analyze, with attention to the film’s intricately woven critical, social, historical, and ideological strands, the intersections of sexual, racial, and cultural politics in Young Soul Rebels.
White sees as dominant in the gay setting is to provide representations that challenge a status quo that prefers black/white sexual relations to be culturally doomed. The following extended reading of Julien‘ s only mainstream feature film Young Soul Rebels (1991) seeks to refute the notion that white domination and objectification of black men form some kind of inevitable structure to interracial fantasy and relations, or argue that Julien’ s soul utopia draws up some alternative templates for sexual and racial identities. These concerns (more thematic than visual) are not, so distanced from Julien’s stake on the jubilee celebrations and the anti-fascist demonstrations in Young Soul Rebels.
There he also uses historical footage to frame black alienation from little England’s nationalistic pride day: Chris is filmed in slow motion, alone, running across the empty housing estate as the patriotic inhabitants listen to the Queen’s speech indoors. Ken’s murderous threats of black hatred are juxtaposed with the Queen’s self-congratulatory speech that recalled her own coronation at which the Empire and Commonwealth had come to London. The traveling is in both directions this time, the Queen argues, asserting in true colonial bad faith that Britain can claim to be making its fair share, a claim that taps into the white collective conscience and is approved with rapturous applause. Compare that smug rhetoric with the 2004 annual Christmas speech for the BBC extolling the virtues of ethnic tolerance and multiculturalism, and the extent to which the British royalty has been subjected to a Blairite gloss of shallow tokenism becomes clear. This is the terrain of Gilroy’s pertinent vision of Britain post-empire, tom between melancholia and conviviality.
Julien’s s revision of the nation is far too upbeat to end bitterly, though, or even to provide a fixed doxa for interracial sexuality. He adds an open-ended, utopian coda (perhaps too sentimental, but then why not?) picturing an alternative vision of collectivity, less shaped by politics than by friendship. Wiping down the damaged records after the riot at the anti-fascist gig, the soul boys, accompanied by Billibudd, Tracy, and her friend, are drawn into the last dance. The dance-floor is figured as the dreamed-of space in which racial conflicts and sexual anxieties vanish (albeit momentarily). Stuart Hall remarks on how the white boy is tentative at first, learning to copy the others. “It has the tentativeness of emergence for me, a kind of utopian emergence,” he concludes. “It seemed to me to refer to the whole of the rest of the film, but not to be an attempt to conclude it. It’s not the representation of an ‘imagined community’ so much as the construction of it.
Julien’ s club sequences at The Crypt of the late 1970s film real collective pleasure as the aggression of punk makes way for Caz, and Chris’ soul set inducing a riot of joyous bodies screaming and shaking their stuff. In between the conversational snatches that gently move the plot along while conveying a sense of the cultural mix of the club (Tracy’s staid friend is shocked to see two punk boys kissing), Julien accomplishes the necessary ideological work. He films a moving tableau of red, white and blue — the suitably hip clothes (the soul boys’ US baseball shirts and neckties, the girls’ elegant dresses, Union Jack underwear sewn on the back of a punk boy’s jacket), the sheer sexiness and vitality of the ensemble dancers and the luminous cool blue background lighting. This is the lovers’ first meeting: Julien’s shot/counter-shot is particularly effective at catching the two boys’ mutual desire to look at each other — as Billy intently watches Caz DJ-ing, he glances up coyly embarrassed by Billy’s gaze. In contrast to the relative freedom and diversity of The Crypt, Young Soul Rebels also offers a neat comparison by showing us the conservatism of a specifically gay club, entry to which is almost barred for some young black kids until Billibudd intervenes to persuade the bouncer to let them in. Once inside, the racism is extended to the passing sneers and ogling black man.
Music is a powerful art form that has been used in cultures all over the world for centuries. It has been used for storytelling, entertainment, celebration, religious ceremonies, and sociopolitical commentary. Within each culture, the music that is shared often reflects the ideas and beliefs of the collective culture. Pat Ruiz, 28, has an eclectic music background, but he closely identifies with the Los Angeles Punk Rock scene. He shares many of the beliefs ingrained in the punk scene, including anti-establishment, protest, and questioning authority.
Music is an integral part of cultures and subcultures all over the world. In the United States alone, there have been many different movements of musicians, protesting the government. From Bob Dylan to Black Flag, there is a recurring theme that exists in present-day music and will persist in the music of the future. Music gives people a voice to express their feelings and beliefs and will continue to unite people in all cultures. Ruiz believes that his involvement and appreciation for punk rock music has shaped him into the man he is today. The music gave him an outlet to express himself growing up and a way to connect with other like-minded people.
Although these folk artists are very different from the aforementioned punk bands, it is essential to note that they all had similar beliefs. In fact, the Wobblies sang a song with lyrics that had a very similar message to “Fuck Authority” by Pennywise. The lyrics are as follows; “we can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn, that the union makes us strong, solidarity forever” (Szatmary, 1999). These lyrics are a call to action for the American people. Pennywise’s lyrics echoed the same type of message over forty years later. Although it was a different era, the musicians used their music to give a voice to the American people who were in opposition to the government.
From an outside perspective, punk rock music can seem like a savage form of music that promotes violence. However, from an insider’s perspective, it is the complete opposite. Ruiz explained that he feels a great sense of brotherhood and comradery when he goes to punk shows.
Work cited
Snead, James A. “Repetition as a figure of black culture.” Black literature and literary theory. Routledge, 2016. 59-80.
Teaiwa, Teresia K. “Native thoughts: A Pacific Studies take on cultural studies and diaspora.” Indigenous diasporas and dislocations. Routledge, 2017. 15-36.
Butler, Judith (1990), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York, Routledge.
Julien, Isaac [1992] (2000), “Black Is, Black, Ain’t: Notes on DeEssentializing Black Identities” reprinted in The Film Art of Isaac Julien, New York, the Center for Curatorial Studies.