I found the article at this site:
http://hcs.harvard.edu/~perspy
Remember before you read this that I am not advocating any particular viewpoint
in posting this!
Talking About a Revolution
By Ciara Torres
I spent first semester studying the FBI's dismantling of the Black Panther
Party and Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba. As a result, I have become
increasingly uneasy with revolutions, not because the world's present state of
affairs is satisfactory, but rather because revolutionaries, like authoritarian
dictators, justify the use of violence as necessary to achieve political
objectives. This is unacceptable in either case; human beings should be able to
find ways to compromise, accommodate, and respect each other.
I was quite intrigued to discover that Digable Planets' second album, Blowout
Comb dealt with communism and Black Power, the very same issues that I had been
studying. At first, I was shocked that these themes were on a Digable Planets
album, since Butterfly, Doodlebug, and Ladybug were marketed as 1993's most
non-threatening black band. Their soft sell netted the Digable Planets' first
album a gold record and a Grammy.
But it appears the Digable Planets were mismarketed. Call it fortuitous damage
control for their record label. The band members-Ishmael Butler, Craig Irving,
and Mary Ann Vieira-are not the nonchalant hipsters the music industry made
them out to be. The DP's are a bit more communist and separatist than that. The
three members were not pleased with their representation. For instance, Butler
told The Washington Post, he "expects, resents and rejects the comparison to
Arrested Development. First of a ll we're not talking about peace and happy
vibes on our record at all." When asked what had influenced the group's world
view, he responded, "the socialists and communists that were here in America
during the civil rights movement.";
The group's views are pro-black to the extent of excluding other groups.
According to Village Voice writer Dream Hampton, who claims to know the three
members of the band personally, "They're down with cop-killing....If you
thought they were into the integrationalist (black and white) politics that
somehow gets passed off as universal humanism, you'll be plenty disappointed to
know that when they're not preaching the scientific socialism of Fanon and Mao,
they're giving us straight superiority à la the Five Percent Nation of
Gods and Earths."
Their separatism can be found in their own words: "Our art is something that we
take very seriously, that's our music, and our concern with the Jewish
community isn't great enough to be injecting them into our music."
But Digable Planets seemed to be more thoughtful, articulate, and precise than
the average rap group. Their first album, Reachin' A Refutation of Time and
Space, did not glamorize violence or misogyny, the plagues of much modern
music. Even the album's title was impressive for
its intellectual source: a radical metaphysical formulation by Latin American
author Jorge Borges. When they were preaching unity on Reachin', most thought
they meant across racial boundaries, not within them. Blowout Comb makes it
clear that there is a black "us" and a white "them."
A lot of people who are put off by gansta rap's violence, objectification of
women, and racial antagonism against non-blacks ironically embraced Digable
Planets as a positive alternative. Blowout Comb seems to be just as hateful as
gansta rap but on a more intellectual level. Digable Planets' message is more
potentially dangerous than that of the gangsters of rap because they are
offering a radical critique that goes completely against America's present
economic power structure that could end in a destruction of the system. Gansta
rappers are after all consummate capitalists.
The Image
How did this hip, non-threatening facade originate? First of all, the hit
single from the DPs' first album, "Rebirth of the Slick (Cool Like That)"
featured little racially charged material. The song was noted for its use of
live jazz, not for its lyrics. The phrase "I'm black like that" which in
another context might have implied a call for black separatism, came in the
midst of nonsense rhymes which rendered the phrase meaningless. Butler explains
part of the confusion this way "Every time we explained in an interview what
the insect thing [their m.c. names] was about, which was a theory based around
socialism, communism and revolution, it never made it onto the printed page.'
On Blowout Comb the group explicitly incorporates a group of images
that might set middle America back on its heels. These images include: Black
Power, the Black Power Salute, the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, the
Watts riots, revolutionary vanguards, camouflage fatigues, bullets, Malcom X,
Fidel Castro and Chairman Mao.
The Digable Planets' radical stances reflect their politically active
upbringings. Butler is the son of a black leftist who teaches at the University
of Virginia. Doodlebug, a.k.a. Craig Irving, is a son of former Black Panther
Party member Mwanza Sekou. He told The San Diego Union-Tribune, "We were
fortunate to have parents who were politically active in the '60s and '70s.
Their philosophy was based on communist ideas and socialist ideas....They read
a lot of Engels, Hobbes, Marx, Sartre, [and] Camus." These young black men
should know the importance of precision and the ramifications of making
revolution a unifying battle cry.
There is nothing wrong with returning to a "black is beautiful" aesthetic. In
an age when the self-esteem of black children is at an all -time low, black
artists should remind the black community of their beauty and potential. The
problem is that they throw around these names and symbols with the same
deftness as other rappers throw around the words "whore" and "money." For
instance ";When I was a youngster, ate jazz and black. Freedom had a pistol it
was just like that" or, "I got the ball. And I roll a little Panthers through
these project halls...phat, fly sneakers and camouflage." In the context of
rhyming free association, the relevance of the allusions is jumbled, if not
lost.
Even though the symbols on Blowout Comb are more up-front than in their first
album, the Digable Planets' message is by no means lucid. The group claims, "We
made a concerted effort to be more literal and less abstract." But they still
need an expository essay attached to the liner notes to explain which
revolutionary tenets they are supporting.
The Revolution's Leaders
I do not accuse the Planets of being insincere, just unforgivably unclear. On
Blowout Comb, they cite the revolutionary leaders Malcom X and Fidel Castro in
such ambiguous ways that the listener can't tell if the name just made a catchy
rhyme or if they mean to embrace the thinkers' ideologies full-heartedly. These
thinkers are too historically important to treat lightly, especially since each
of these leaders had some ideas that can be construed as "pro-violence."
The African American leader Malcom X went through two distinct phases. In the
first he was a speaker for the Nation of Islam. He distrusted and disliked
white people whom he called, "blue-eyed devils." He advocated self-defense "by
any means necessary"; and would not rule out the possibility of a race war.
That Malcom X could have led blacks into a violent clash with white citizens.
The second phase started after Malcom X made a pilgrimage to Mecca. After
deciding that some white people were redeemable, he broke with the all-black
Nation of Islam. Unfortunately he did not live long after breaking with N.O.I.
Which Malcolm X the Digable Planets embrace thus makes all the difference.
Digable Planets also use communist images throughout their work. Their eighth
song ends "Welcome to this class. Black 7700 ... My introducter-instructor
is Castro." Another song includes the phrase, ";Fidel, foment the New York
boroughs." Fidel Castro is among the world leaders who have shown that is
possible to fuel a revolutionary movement with hatred-and the destructiveness
of such tactics. One of the reasons Castro came to power in the first place was
that his predecessor (Batista) was so corrupt and politically bankrupt that he
had to rely on human rights abuses to keep the Cuban population in line. Once
Castro came to power almost all members of the old government were tried by
tribunal in football stadiums and on live TV. Those who were found guilty were
sentenced to death by firing squad. Commenting on the killings, Castro
characterized them as "revolutionary terror." Do the Digable Planets embrace
that revolutionary terror for the streets of America? I hope not. But it is not
clear that they do not.
Responsibility
In addition to invoking these leaders, Blowout Comb includes images from the
Black Power movement. For instance, "Fro's so bold, Panther cool... Put my fist
right up, right up against the fascists." The symbols of the Black Power
movement need to be analyzed, not co-opted. The Black Power movement was
successfully and unduly vilified by conservative members of the United States
government and the press corps. For instance, Black Panther members were
repeatedly arrested on bogus charges that made them seem much more violent than
they were. Most of the Black Power Movement advocated self-determination,
responsibility, and blacks' caring for black communities without outside help.
These goals might become even more necessary if Newt Gingrich's new welfare cuts
go through.
But some elements of the Black Power movement were undeniably racist. We need
to look back to see what worked and what did not. We need to consider what was
a reasonable demand (certainly, there were reasonable demands that are still
not being met) and what was a exclusionary racist demand. We already know that
many of the most angry, hopeless, disenfranchised young blacks are armed. It
wouldn't take much dialectical teaching to redirect their rage from black on
black crime to a more "revolutionary" attack on suburbia. All it would take is
a vanguard to teach them where to aim the guns. Returning to the prescriptions
of Malcom X circa 1962 is not what the nation needs because that can only
result in unfair racially based revolutionary terror. If we return to Malcolm
X, it must be to the enlightened Malcom X who knew it is not necessary to hate
another group's community in order to rebuild your own.
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