A review by colin_cox
Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? by Mumia Abu-Jamal
5.0
The title to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? appears, not surprisingly, as a rhetorical statement on the systematic abuse people of color have and continue to suffer at the hands of a predominantly white ruling class. However, after reading Abu-Jamal's book, the question feels less rhetorical because the answer is simple: no. By Abu-Jamal's estimation, anyone in a position of power who does not use that power and influence to affect change is implicated in the rather real answer to this seemingly rhetorical question.
For example, his diagnosis of the University of Oklahoma's failure to use the Sigma Alpha Epsilon scandal as a "teachable moment" speaks to the idea that swift punishment laced with tough talk is not enough. Before I proceed, it is perhaps necessary to explain the particulars of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon scandal. In early 2015, a video surfaced showing ASE members performing an abhorrent racial song that referenced lynching, used racially insensitive language, and implied that students of color would never receive admittance to the fraternity. In response, OU expelled several students and suspended the ASE chapter at OU. As a rejoinder to the particulars of OU's punishment, Abu-Jamal writes:
The University of Oklahoma, founded in 1890, could have used this as, well, a teaching moment, about the way racism moves from one generation to the next, and how closed systems in groups perpetuate harm against their fellow Americans.
The university, while disclaiming the racism, could've used its history department to teach the roots of such social injustice in American--and Oklahoman--history. If it has an African American studies program, it could've been a time to shine, by providing a study program for members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
But, first and foremost, it could've defended the First Amendment principle of freedom of speech, and used the light of reason to flush out the power of racist hatred.
Instead, a 19-year-old is marked, perhaps for life, with the brand of racism, for being drunk, stupid, and mean. After the shock wears off, bitterness will fill his soul.
Colleges and universities, of all places, can't jump the gun for PR reasons. They must use opportunities to teach, to enlighten, to broaden consciousness for all students.
Even those--especially those--who love to sing about hanging n***ers. (157)
Here, Abu-Jamal suggests that harsh punitive measures exist as nothing more than rhetorical cover designed to protect the modern university from the worst of all possible outcomes: low enrollment numbers. Like Abu-Jamal, I cannot help but think the humanities has a significant role to play in shaping the moral and ethical aptitude of its students. Regrettably, OU's history department was not afforded that opportunity because the modern university, thanks in no small part to the capitalist injunction to maximize profit and productivity, has become synonymous with the workplace itself. The university has lost the indispensable imperative to correct and by extension shape its students, especially when they behave like bigoted idiots. Instead, they are treated as if they are in the workforce, which not only cripples the university as a site for necessary ethical and moral inquiry, but it also distorts students' perceptions of what the university should be.
I acknowledge the precariousness of this argumentative position. I have, in effect, just argued that racists and bigots, especially in the situation I described above, deserve patience and leniency. But I offered such a lengthy quote to show that Abu-Jamal believes so too. The abuses that people of color experience can be ferreted out and corrected. According to Abu-Jamal, racists and bigots cannot be ignored because that does not solve the problem. The lines of discourse must be open, and the university is a perfect place to do so.
Abu-Jamal's Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? is a scathing critique of power structures in America that disproportionately benefit a select class of individuals along, more often than not, unambiguously racial lines. But as his essay on ASE suggests, race is not always a determining factor: class and economics are, and until we transcend capitalism and the ruling class that profits the most from its most objectifying tendencies, black lives will continue not to matter.
For example, his diagnosis of the University of Oklahoma's failure to use the Sigma Alpha Epsilon scandal as a "teachable moment" speaks to the idea that swift punishment laced with tough talk is not enough. Before I proceed, it is perhaps necessary to explain the particulars of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon scandal. In early 2015, a video surfaced showing ASE members performing an abhorrent racial song that referenced lynching, used racially insensitive language, and implied that students of color would never receive admittance to the fraternity. In response, OU expelled several students and suspended the ASE chapter at OU. As a rejoinder to the particulars of OU's punishment, Abu-Jamal writes:
The University of Oklahoma, founded in 1890, could have used this as, well, a teaching moment, about the way racism moves from one generation to the next, and how closed systems in groups perpetuate harm against their fellow Americans.
The university, while disclaiming the racism, could've used its history department to teach the roots of such social injustice in American--and Oklahoman--history. If it has an African American studies program, it could've been a time to shine, by providing a study program for members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
But, first and foremost, it could've defended the First Amendment principle of freedom of speech, and used the light of reason to flush out the power of racist hatred.
Instead, a 19-year-old is marked, perhaps for life, with the brand of racism, for being drunk, stupid, and mean. After the shock wears off, bitterness will fill his soul.
Colleges and universities, of all places, can't jump the gun for PR reasons. They must use opportunities to teach, to enlighten, to broaden consciousness for all students.
Even those--especially those--who love to sing about hanging n***ers. (157)
Here, Abu-Jamal suggests that harsh punitive measures exist as nothing more than rhetorical cover designed to protect the modern university from the worst of all possible outcomes: low enrollment numbers. Like Abu-Jamal, I cannot help but think the humanities has a significant role to play in shaping the moral and ethical aptitude of its students. Regrettably, OU's history department was not afforded that opportunity because the modern university, thanks in no small part to the capitalist injunction to maximize profit and productivity, has become synonymous with the workplace itself. The university has lost the indispensable imperative to correct and by extension shape its students, especially when they behave like bigoted idiots. Instead, they are treated as if they are in the workforce, which not only cripples the university as a site for necessary ethical and moral inquiry, but it also distorts students' perceptions of what the university should be.
I acknowledge the precariousness of this argumentative position. I have, in effect, just argued that racists and bigots, especially in the situation I described above, deserve patience and leniency. But I offered such a lengthy quote to show that Abu-Jamal believes so too. The abuses that people of color experience can be ferreted out and corrected. According to Abu-Jamal, racists and bigots cannot be ignored because that does not solve the problem. The lines of discourse must be open, and the university is a perfect place to do so.
Abu-Jamal's Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? is a scathing critique of power structures in America that disproportionately benefit a select class of individuals along, more often than not, unambiguously racial lines. But as his essay on ASE suggests, race is not always a determining factor: class and economics are, and until we transcend capitalism and the ruling class that profits the most from its most objectifying tendencies, black lives will continue not to matter.