1995 Lecture Notes from English 260 - The Black Arts Movement

LIMITATIONS TO THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT Christianity--is considered a religion to keep Blacks in their place because of.... * worldly emphasis (not direct)--not action * Eurocentric bias (the casting of God as a white man * representation of the Black church as inwardly focused on self-perpetuation * representing the Black church for only its own perpetuation (lack of environment) The blues was rejected for advocating a resolution and accepting it. The Nation of Islam (NOI) countervail any Christian influence because..... * Islam was a religion native to Africa for Christianity was foreign and Europeanized * Islam was never connected to slavery or slave trade * Islamic minds would have minds in orderly structure * Islam ministered Africans who were not of the Christian faith who were criminals * The N.O.I. had an economic program that led to empowerment. * Islam helps Muslims underpin the Islamic conversion from other religions. The Black Power Movement died because...... * intervention and disruptive tendencies of the American Government to stop Black political groups such as the BPP (Black Panther Party) * the arrest(s) and scare tactics (e.g., Cointelpro and other counter-insurgency tactics) that drove away Black leaders from the country or from freedom to jail. * the war in Vietnam--black males were drafted to the highest because of their severe belligerency-- and it led to political impotence. Blacks died more than Whites in the war in Vietnam. * Riots in Kent State and Jackson State universities were also caught in the middle. There was no sustain political or artistic Black movement after 1973, even after the Vietnam ended. Reasons... * Integration helped--discrimination laws were enforced * Sharing of space--now allowed a certain aspect of Blacks to integrate with whites. They could also live in various integrated committees in a different model or perspective of African-Americans who witnesses to leadership points. If blacks come through in white places with more resources then it will be a leadership that would be much more stable.