Alternative Perspectives of African American Culture and Representation in the Works of Ishmael Reed

ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AND REPRESENTATION IN THE WORKS OF ISHMAEL REED A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of Zo\% The requirements for IMl The Degree Master of Arts In English: Literature by Jason Andrew Jackl San Francisco, California May 2018 Copyright by Jason Andrew Jackl 2018 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Alternative Perspectives o f African American Culture and Representation in the Works o f Ishmael Reed by Jason Andrew Jackl, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in English Literature at San Francisco State University. Geoffrey Grec/C Ph.D. Professor of English Sarita Cannon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AND REPRESENTATION IN THE WORKS OF ISHMAEL REED Jason Andrew JackI San Francisco, California 2018 This thesis demonstrates the ways in which Ishmael Reed proposes incisive countemarratives to the hegemonic master narratives that perpetuate degrading misportrayals of Afro American culture in the historical record and mainstream news and entertainment media of the United States. Many critics and readers have responded reductively to Reed’s work by hastily dismissing his proposals, thereby disallowing thoughtful critical engagement with Reed’s views as put forth in his fiction and non fiction writing. The study that follows asserts that Reed’s corpus deserves more thoughtful critical and public recognition than it has received thus far. To that end, I argue that a critical re-exploration of his fiction and non-fiction writing would yield profound contributions to the ongoing national dialogue on race relations in America. I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS Reclaiming the Past, Redressing the Present: Ishmael Reed and Misrepresentations of Afro American History and Culture....................1 Chapter 1. Mumbo Jumbo: A Neo-HooDoo Counter Narrative of Western History 25 “Writin’ is Fightin’”: (“The New”) Black Aesthetics and Critical Responses to Mumbo Jumbo........................................................................ 34 “The Black Tide of Mud will engulf us all”: Jes Grew and Paranoid Western Civilization...................................................................................... 46 “The White man will never admit his real references”: Western Appropriation and Suppression of Other(ed) Cultures...............................56 “The Work of its Word”: Keeping Jes Grew Growing ...........................................69 Chapter 2. “Old fights” and the Myth of Black Pathology: Reed Confronts Hypocrisy and White Racial Framing in the U.S. News Media..............................71 Toxic Talk: Reed Takes Imus and Corporate Media’s Racial Double Standard to Task.............................................................................................72 How Racialized “Token” Spokespeople Help to Perpetuate Discrimination in the Mainstream News Industry.......................................82 From Racism to Classism: The “Tough Love” Stance of “Mind Double” Elites.................................................................................... 87 “Don’t Believe the Hype”: Recapitulation and Alternatives to Corporate Interest News Outlets............................................... 97 Chapter 3. Buffoonery, Villains, and Victims: Reed Challenges Misportrayals of Afro Americans in Hollywood............................................................................104 From Minstrelsy and Birth o f a Nation to “Mister” and Madea: A Brief History of Anti-Black Racism in American Entertainment Media 107 The “Goldmine of Opportunity”: How the Degradation of Afro American Culture Sustains Hollywood..............................................124 Hollywood’s White Savior Complex and Afro American Cultural Narratives Appropriated by Euro American Writers..................139 “Black Pathology” on the Syllabus: The Wire as a Contentious College Text.................................................................................................. 148 Conclusion. Ishmael Reed’s Contentious Counternarratives to the White Racial Framing of Afro American History and Culture............................ 154 Reed and Ridenhour “Fight the Power” ................................................................ 155 Reed’s Legacy of Cultural Detective Work and the Neo-HooDoo Aesthetic 157 Reed Reconnoiters American News and Entertainment M edia........................... 163 What Lies Ahead: Mumbo Jumbo as an Afro futurist Text, Subverting the Mainstream, and the Underclass Media Army.......................................... 173 Notes.......................................................................................................................................186 Works cited............................................................................................................................200 1 Reclaiming the Past, Redressing the Present: Ishmael Reed and Misrepresentations of Afro American History and Culture Ishmael Reed is a prolific, incisive, and innovative writer whose work over the past fifty years has not received the critical consideration it deserves from literary scholars and the reading public. His work and worldview are often dismissed by his critics as “bourgeois” and (rather ironically, given Reed’s political views and style of writing) “reactionary.” Perhaps Reed is critically misinterpreted because of his fervent opinions on race relations between Afro Americans and Euro Americans, or his insistence on questioning and problematizing normalized Western accounts of history, or his belief that Afro American literary aesthetics are too often rigidly and categorically defined and saddled with prescriptive expectations of what black writers can and “should” write. In Wendy Hayes-Jones’ assessment of Reed’s work (“Fifty-Eight Years of Boxing on Paper,” 2012) she notes that Reed “has a long history of getting involved in artistic and personal disputes about racial tensions and the role and responsibility of artists in America” (Hayes-Jones 14), much to the agitation of some of his more vocal critics, including linguistic scholar John McWhorter, who complains that Reed is merely a “fading anachronism” preoccupied with “old fights” (Going Too Far 11). Indeed, Reed’s outspoken critiques have engendered opposition from a variety of writers, as well as literary and feminist critics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, he directly engages with his critics, as he makes clear in the introduction to his 2003 2 essay collection Another Day at the Front: Dispatches from the Race War, acknowledging that “Some will agree with the arguments [he posits],” while “others will disagree. Some of these disagreements will become vehement. I welcome this” (Another Day xliv). Given Reed’s efforts to expose and redress misrepresentations of marginalized groups in the historical record and American news and entertainment media, it is reasonable to say that his openness to opposition reflects his interest in productive dialogic exchanges on topics such as Eurocentrism, the tensions between monoculturalism and multiculturalism, the racialized and disproportionate distribution of power in politics and the media, and other issues relevant to race relations in America. Early in his career, in the late 1960s, his style and contributions were widely considered avant-garde and a notable boon to the development of black aesthetics. However, his consistent refusal to endorse an essentialized form of Afro American writing, and his propensity for criticizing ideologies or behaviors that challenge civil rights or distort the American public’s perceptions of Afro Americans or Afro diasporic culture has resulted in what French scholar Sami Ludwig observes as a “whole generation of scholars [who have] ignored Reed’s work” (Ludwig 6). In the following study, I argue that short-sighted critical dismissal of Reed’s writing does a disservice to the reading public and his potential audience, as it limits proper exposure to and consideration of his dynamic, insightful work. As Ludwig notes, critical resistance has caused Reed to be: [R]elegated to the second line of novelists, still known by name but less read and less discussed. While a comparable author like Maxine Hong 3 Kingston still gets her books reviewed in The Guardian and The New York Times [...] Ishmael Reed’s work is blissfully ignored by these powerful mainstream culture brokers. (Ludwig 6) My assertion herein is that, despite critical biases which denigrate or altogether disregard his work, Reed’s impressive catalog of novels, poetry, plays, and critical essays are highly worthy of a wider public audience, broader scholarly recognition, more objective critical analysis, and a more significant presence in the curricula of postsecondary literature programs here and abroad. While there are many noteworthy aspects of Reed’s work, I maintain that one of his greatest strengths as a writer is his use of a particular trope that distinguishes his work in ways which support my appeal for a more thoughtful, critically inquisitive approach to his writing. What I refer to in this study as Reed’s “signature trope” is his method of challenging misrepresentations of non-Euro cultures in Western accounts of history

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