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Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cornel West, Barack Obama Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cornel West, Barack Obama: Giving Voice and Purpose to African American Subalterns by Randall Meisenhelder April, 2017 Director of Thesis: Dr. Reginald Watson Major Department: English Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Cornel West, and Barack Obama are influential figures who advocate for drastic changes, especially for repressed and oppressed African Americans. The texts selected all respective to the aforementioned authors, The Ballot or the Bullet, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Strength to Love, Race Matters, Democracy Matters, Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope all contribute to the thesis’ claims. Analysis of the selected texts is aided by New Historicism and Gayatri Spivak’s article Can the Subaltern Speak? New Historicism’s application to the texts reveals that history, politics, and culture impacts the daily struggles of disadvantaged African Americans. Living in a hegemonic postcolonial society, African Americans are interacting with systems intentionally designed to silence and subjugate them, contextualizing them as subalterns according to Gayatri Spivak’s theory. These two theories help reveal the similarities between the authors, primarily the means and ends they desire: giving voice and mobility to African American subalterns through religion, politics, and prophetic proximal advocating and collaboration. Malcolm X, King, West, and Obama advocate for intellectual, spiritual, and hands-on leadership that will shift public focus away from shackling fallacies to freeing truth. These texts reveal that all four authors passionately faced powerful and stubborn opposition. The authors’ persistence despite opposition is accompanied by unwavering and unapologetic love for African American subalterns relegated to the fringes of an American hegemonic society. It was and is apparent to me that minorities’ voices have been relegated to the margins and that elitism and racism perpetuate this today. What became more apparent through investigating the primary texts is that too little changes between the two time periods, and that the negative impacts of the postcolonial systematic creating of subalterns has created cyclical poverty and nihilism. Progress has been made since the first slave ships broached America’s shoreline; but, throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, corporate interests and sensationalist money-fueled media machines have shielded, blinded, or at least fogged public perceptions of race relations in America. As evidenced by the texts, Americans are misinformed, partially due to willful ignorance, but also due to complex media and political biases. The authors contend this will change through the power of religion, the influence of politics, and the practicality and intimacy of prophetic leadership engaging with subaltern communities. Through these three focal areas, readers see congruence rarely associated with these four authors. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cornel West, Barack Obama: Giving Voice and Purpose to African American Subalterns A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Degree in English by Randall Meisenhelder April, 2017 © Randall A. Meisenhelder, 2017 Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cornel West, Barack Obama: Giving Voice and Purpose to African American Subalterns by Randall Meisenhelder APPROVED BY: DIRECTOR OF THESIS: ________________________________________________ Reginald Watson, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: ________________________________________________ Richard Taylor, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: ________________________________________________ Seodial Deena, Ph.D. CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH: ________________________________________________ Marianne Montgomery, Ph.D. DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: ________________________________________________ Paul J. Gemperline, Ph.D. Acknowledgements Firstly, I want to thank my wife and our families for their continual support. Without their support and assistance, I would not have finished my classes or this thesis. My wife’s example of academic dedication is influential and drives me to perform to the best of my ability. I also want to thank Dr. Watson, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Deena for advising me through this process. I especially appreciate Dr. Watson’s support from beginning to end. Despite our many scheduling conflicts, we were able to discuss the ideas. I have much to learn, but thank you for helping me. Our conversations aided my understanding of this process and these authors. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: Historical Context and Misrepresentation ......................................................... 16 Chapter Two: For the Love of God.......................................................................................... 40 Chapter Three For the Love of Country ................................................................................... 61 Chapter Four: For the Love of Man ......................................................................................... 85 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 100 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................ 115 Introduction If we must die—let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die—oh, let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe; Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! (McKay, “If We Must Die”) America is a postcolonial hegemony that intentionally represses some African Americans. Throughout this study, I analyze how the four authors interacted with unjust systems, and how they confront injustice, advocate for others, and collaborate so others may continue the confronting. The epigraph above captures the essence of all four authors’ selected texts: bold confronting of injustice while passionately urging kinsmen to unite. I present the passionate authors as foils of each other who refuse to allow oppressive forces to continue intentional subjugation. Two theoretical perspectives aid these goals: New Historicism and Gayatri Spivak’s subaltern theory—in this theory Spivak contends that postcolonial societies intentionally create unrepresented and marginalized groups she calls subalterns. New Historicism encourages connecting historical and political circumstances to people’s daily lives, especially those in groups who are detrimentally impacted history and politics. It is because of America’s intentional repression of African Americans that Gayatri Spivak’s theory of subalterns is appropriate for this study. Of course, American society has progressed and not all African Americans are subalterns; however, it is the appropriation of false images and identities that perpetuates the status of subaltern for impoverished African Americans, especially poor African American youth. The authors’ texts show that groups of African Americans are in cyclical poverty that has created nihilistic mentalities in which the marginalized believe their poverty is inescapable, evidencing their status as subaltern. American colonialism has relegated impoverished African Americans to the fringes, psychologically and financially. Psychological image appropriation is the lynchpin between the authors and Spivak. Spivak discusses misrepresentation and image appropriation extensively in Can the Subaltern Speak? Spivak’s theories work well with the authors’ texts as they contend that American society, like other postcolonial societies, subscribes to “the assumption that there is a pure form of consciousness,” which belongs to the dominant group, not the impoverished minorities (Can the Subaltern Speak? 80). In America, this “pure form of consciousness remains an idealistic bedrock which, dismissed as a second-order problem, often earns it the reputation of racism and sexism” (80). The authors desire to aid these subalterns by changing society and consciousness; accomplishing this will utilize similar means for a similar end. Though the authors have been historicized as disparate, they advocate similar goals through similar means. Their differences are apparent; their commonalities are often overlooked. In regards to postcolonialism and subalterns, Spivak discusses image projection from the powerful to the subaltern. In Can the Subaltern Speak? she calls this image projection “hegemony of desire” and “false consciousness” (69). She also discusses similar ideas of false representation and re-presentation, which chapter four will discuss in detail. To combat the intentional or unintentional creating of subaltern subjects, postcolonial societies must provide 2 avenues for mobility and voice; otherwise, silence and stagnation perpetuate. The authors contend this misrepresentation occurs in postcolonial America.
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