Somes notes on Chicano Music as a Pathway to Community Identity

This article was published in 1975 in The New Scholar, V:1 73-93. Due to the difficulties of transferring the text from a OCR PDF, only pages 73-78.

Some notes on Chicano music as a pathway to community identity

Joseph G. Nalven

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Many are the routes to personal self-image. The process of self-making, however, is

also enmeshed in the broader process of community identity maintenance and development. For Chicanos, as with other "minorities" in the United States, the community dilemma is whether to pursue greater articulation with the mainstream culture, which historically has been repressive to select ethnic groups, or to retreat into an isolationist and nationalist (of some other nation, fictive or real) position. One way out of this dilemma is to compartmentalize self-image: one face for Anglo society, another for Chicano society (or Black, Puertoriqueiio, Pilipino, American Indian, and other ethnic groups in the United States). 

The Anglo face seeks to maximize the political-economic benefits of the American system, while the Chicano face seeks to maximize the ethnic identity, composed oflanguage, customs, arts, history, and so forth. To be sure, it is not easy to seal off these "faces" into different identity boxes. Some elements become double-edged, serving as political weapons on the one hand, and as identity-integration themes on the other. The corrido, derivative of a Spanish song form, developed this double-edged quality: it is evident in the early history of the American Southwest, I in the equally oppressive context in pre-Revolutionary Mexico, and continues to the present in modern America. At the same time, other elements face inward and serve only as identity-integration themes.

It would be interesting and informative to explore the community identity process

in light of the bi-cultural dilemma mentioned above, especially as it is expressed through,

song, poetry, architecture, dance and other art forms. In this paper, I will focus on Chicano

musical lyrics as expressing different aspects of the bi-cultural dilemma: as political, community history, and cultural myth. First, though, I would like to present a synopsis of the

Chicano, community identity process in several other art forms.

COMMUNITY IDENTITY SOLUTIONS IN ART FORMS

The "community" is, in one sense, a fiction since it is but an aggregate of individuals,

and, with specific individuals, leaders or elites if you will, generating their personal

solutions to their personal life problems. However, as others in similar life circumstances find

that these solutions are satisfying to themselves, we can discern a widespread resonance to

these solutions. It is in this sense that "community" supercedes the person, and, the individual who put forth his/ her idiosyncratic solution finds many imitators and the original

solution finds itself in a variety of expressions.

In architecture, Elpidio Rocha sets forth the importance of educating persons to

their ethnic backgrounds so they can in-put into those "whose profession it is to help people

build what they are and how they live."

[t]his project was a turning point in my search for a way to include those minority groups, of

which I am a member, in the physical shaping of their environment. They have much to be proud of. They have strong ethnic traditions and an imagery which would be included in our environments. If it is true that the United States is a melting pot, then it should include all groups. It is also true, however, that in this melting pot that one should not lose his identity for it is in our differences not our likenesses that we find strength. It is unfortunate that what I have been speaking of, a humanized architecture, is impossible until the minority groups are educated in our public schools, particularly at the primary levels, to their rich cultural backgrounds. They must become proud of who they are. They must discover their identity. It is then and o'nly then we will have a truly humanized architecture in which all can participate.2

Rocha faces Anglo society and addresses the time when there would be no dilemma,

for differences of identity would be accepted and not force the minority person to choose

between one or the other, rather than being allowed to embrace both. Rocha also underlines the importance of education in the process of discovering identity: it is only with such awareness that a position of image strength can be obtained and which is necessary to negotiating within a humanized, melting-pot context.

Others address the bi-cultural dilemma, but without Rocha's optimistic foresight.

The focus is "The Role of the Folkloric Dance in the Chicano Heritage."

As Mexico before the Revolution of 1910 found its values in European culture, so today many Chicanos have obtained their values from the gabacho culture and its "educational" system in which Chicanos have been immersed. Mexico before the Revolution denied indianismo, the culture of its own people, while it glorified that of the European. The Chicano, Mejicano, Hispano, or whatever he wishes to call himself, has also denied his true roots. There are Chicanos who, in their eager attempt to melt into the cultural morass of the United States, have denied all that is their past, substituting the Anglo values and culture. There are also Chicanos who~ having lived and known only the Anglo (gabacho) culture, are totally ignorant of their own. They are, instead, assaulted by cariacatures of their culture. They are confronted by aspects of their culture as viewed not through their eyes, but through the eyes of the Anglo. It is distorted and changed so that he begins to feel that

he has no roots to be proud of. He is presented with a narrow, simplistic view of his heritage. 

Examples of this are the "Frito Bandito," advertisements of fiestas depicting a charro dancing with a woman wearing a Spanish costume, and so on, ad infinitum. For those who have lost touch with their culture in this cultural wasteland, danze offers a link with the past and a key to the future.

Folkloric dance is one visible means of establishing cultural identity.3 The future

implied in this quote is a persistence of the bi-cultural dilemma. Furthermore, the lack of control of media imagery and its filtering through Anglo "eyes," is but one more symptom of the long standing oppression of the Chicano community. The author suggests a solution which would use the dance as an educational medium about Chicano culture and as an affective base for Chicano identity:

Danza tells a Chicano that "La Raspa" is not the only dance Chicanos know. It tells him that there are many regions in Mexico, and that each has its own distinctive dances and costumes. Danza offers an emotional link which cannot be denied with words. No matter how much a Chicano has assimilated into this "melting pot," he still feels something when he participates in or sees a dance and community identity done with respect, understanding, and feeling. He feels proud of and respects his culture, and most important, himself.'

Despite Rocha's and the dance commentator's disagreement on the future of the bicultural

dilemma for the Chicano, both underline the importance of feeling proud. Oppression,

however mild, takes away self-autonomy and diminishes the ability to feel proud from

the standpoint of the oppressed, ethnic base. The individual can opt (sell) out, at times, and

identify with the aggressor and feel proud of the oppressor's culture as if it were his/her own.

But if Chicanos are to feel proud of their culture, what are the elements that compose it? Is it

simply bi-cultural: Mexican and American? What of the American Indian substrate which

formed a distinct matrix for Spanish-American culture? What of the infusion of African

culture, such as in the popular Afro-Latin rhythm of the cumbia?

One author, in a literary-political piece, characterizes both the Spanish and the

British as the oppressors of la raza cosmica, the "brown Spanish-speaking race."

Those traitors have tried to prevent our attaining political power because they know with this

power the race united could have cultural independence and economic benefits. El enemigo ha dirigido su atenci6n de atraer la parte nuestra parte es AJricana y Europea y al mismo tiempo desminuir la otra parte que es AMERICANA . .. The enemy has directed his attention to attract our afro european side and at the same time destroy the other, which is Indian.

Note that the ethnic equation reads: European (Spanish/ British) + African over

against Americana (Indian) .

La relaci6n entre el primero y poder blanco pueda ser denominada el indice inestabilidad que resulta en un eJecto de empujar y tirar .. . The relationship between the former and white power could be denominated the index of instability that results in a push-pull effect .... It is my thesis, for the emergence of our latinamerican people as a mature socio-cultural entity, a constant stabilizing factor must be pursued. This stability index comes from our relationship to "red" power ... Este indice de estabilidad proviene de nuestra relaci6n a poder indigena.5

Here we are presented with a third possible future out of the bi-cultural dilemma.

This view is neither integrationist, nor isolationist within the system, but a separatist position.

While the author achieves his literary effect using English and Spanish in alternating

sequence, the political effect points to " 'red' power." The author focuses on El Plan

Espiritual de Aztlan and suggests (1) an educational reconstruction and a rehabilitation of

the concept of Aztlan (a semi-legendary homeland of the Aztecs which is felt to be coextensive with the American Southwest) (2) governmental autonomy (3) and political separation if autonomy is not granted. While the means and political solution is more radical than the first two-at least explicitly so-the goal of self-autonomy and pride, and, the importance of the role of education is very similar to Rocha's and the goals of the dance commentator. For a people long oppressed, the sense of psychological autonomy might be considered spurious unless political autonomy is attached to it; the issue, then, would be "how much political autonomy?"

So far we have explored three possible futures for a way out of the bi-cultural

dilemma. Central to each future was the attainment of a feeling of pride: this was the result of self discovery, ethnic performances, actual political autonomy and/ or a re-creation of the

past. The concept of Aztlan is one such re-creation of the past: the present-future image of a Chicano homeland, the "United States of Aztlan" as it were, is transformed into a heritage of the past, which, in turn, legitimizes it as a future (goal). The process of revitalization

Chicano music reshapes the past for the purposes of the present seeking a better future. This running together of different temporal images sometimes results in science-fiction vision-scapes.  Chicano muralists in San Diego have already painted dazzling re-creations on the foundations of the Coronado Bridge, which rises out of a community identified primarily as Chicano.

Not all Chicanos are familiar with Aztlan, and of those who are, not all adhere to it

as a viable goal. But the concept has been a dynamic centerpiece to several painters, dancers, poets, musicians, urban planners and the like. While I will not focus specifically on Aztlan in the musical pieces selected, I will draw on a shared feature, namely, the manipulation of temporal planes in order to suggest a revitalization of the past. This process is exemplified, of course, in using education to discover (or reshape) oneself in the past iI]. order to better orient oneself to the future. Anglo culture has been infamous, alongside all other cultural groups, for this re-shaping process: witness the re-interpretation of the United States Constitution to meet the needs of the present, or of the legend of George Washington's honesty, or further, the hoopla attendent with the impending Bicentennial. I mention this only to point out that the re-interpretation of the past to meet current needs is not restricted to Chicanos or other minority groups, but is common to all societies: the critical difference for groups who have been oppressed is that they lack the ability to apply those re-interpretations in the present and so must reserve them as future goals-unless they are willing to play the fool/genius and treat the present as if it were the future, as with many groups who have sensed the end of the earth or the second coming and have given up the chores required in everyday existence.

CHICANO  MUSIC AND ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY IDENTITY

The songs I have selected include a corrido, a ma7ianitas and a cumbia. Each of

these has roots in mainstream Mexican culture. However, these traditional Mexican (which

once politically covered the United States Southwest) forms are infused with Chicano themes and images, the difference being in the Chicano's bi-cultural heritagq of Mexico and the United States. At issue in these songs is the transformation of the Chicano community's self image.There are many other songs that are not explicitly involved in this image making

process, and there are many composer/ performers that place themselves outside thi~ transformational process as well. Music heard in the barrio ranges from the Latin, hard-rock sound of Santana and Malo to ranchera music coming out of north Mexico. Thus, the musical pieces included here represent only a segment of Chicano music and of the Chicano self image; the focus of the songs to be discussed is on the projection of a transformed or transforming community identity.

THE CORRIDO:  POLITICS OF THE OPPRESSED

The most provocative of the three examples to be presented is Valentin de la Causa,

a corrido. It is a modernization of the Mexican, revolutionary corrido, Valentin de la Sierra.

As with many corridos, though not all, Valentin de la Causa is a historical ballad centered on

a political struggle and the fate of the heroic figure within it.'The traditional Valentin was in

the Mexican Revolution of 191 O-a rebel who had been caught by the Federal troops and

refused to cooperate. The modern Valentin has been transposed to a barrio in southeast San Diego-a Brown Beret who had been shot by the police. We might expect to find the issue of social justice counterbalanced with inspiration and group unity in statements about the corrido. 

Rumel Fuentes, writing in El Grito, expresses this dual function of the conido:

I see the corrido as a means of exposing evils and injustices and relating the truth about things as they actually happen .... but the real meaning lies beyond words and discussion. The meaning will be in a corrido singer who trembles as he sings and the acknowledgement of understanding by a big smile and a loud grito (shout) by the listener. It is here that the deep secret of the corrido is sung, and only true Chicanos will understand it fully and completely and get the true meaning not found in books written about corridos and corrido singers.6

It is fairly easy to express what the injustices are that generate the political

struggle, even if it is only to say it is a struggle between the haves and have-nots. However,

the "secret" of the corrido lies in the difficulty of being able to verbally express how the corrido generates community solidarity. Being a "true Chicano" refers to a lived experience, an experience which remains opaque to verbal explications. We must ask, though, how accurate Fuentes' claim is: is there no way to see through this glass darkly, this secret of the corrido?

Let me turn to an interview with Reuben Ruiz, the author of Valentin de la Causa,

- 'who offered several avenues to understanding Chicano musicians, their music and the

a udience. Reuben places the corrido within the framework of the ranchera, which he sees as the archetypal song of Mexico. Corrido scholars would not use this popular framework and would trace the corrido independently of the ranchera. However, Reuben orders Mexican music within the concept ranchera and from this perspective, he puts forward alegda as the affective element which links the audience and performer. Alegda, for Reuben, is a central attribute of the ranchera.

We usually like rancheras because they seem to express more alegria. Alegria means more or less like something very happy and gay, and also, at the same time, something very sad, which is sort of contradictory. But a very sad thing can sometimes make you sort of happy or vice-versa.'

This contradictory quality is clearly seen in the audience's response to Reuben's

and other performers' corridos. The tragedy and sadness in the storyline is not reacted to in

plaintive notes, but by "yelling" (Reuben Ruiz) or "a big smile and a loud grito " (Rumel

Fuentes). The audience does not shout at random, but at lines which provide the sense of

shared oppression and of continued resistance. In particular, Reuben identifies several points in Valentin de la Causa which draws out the audience's response:

And they really dug when they hear this verse about the marrano, the pig, or the tio taco (Uncle Tom) thing, they dig it. Or about the 800 young militants in the barrio, they really relate to this. That's when they all start yelling when we get to this little part.8

While others I have interviewed understand what Reuben has labeled the element

of contradiction in alegda, most do not use the term alegria in this sense. Perhaps this terminological usage will remain idiosyncratic and not become cultural-in the sense of being

widely shared. However, by pointing to the contradictory quality between song statement

(injustice) and audience response (yeIling, shouting)- in that there is no logical reason to expect that response, but rather an affective one-and which he would say that "something sad makes you happy," Reuben gives us insight into the "secret" of the corrido.

And, if we pursue Reuben's perception of himself in relation to his audience and to

other performers, we may also be able to delineate where the boundaries of "true Chicano"

lie.

The canci6n ranchera is something that revolves around my everyday life. Every time I sing I relate what I'm doing everyday, it tells me who I am, what I've been and what I want to be. I really express myself through the ranchera . ... A lot of time I , just on purpose, will sing a ranchera. Let people know where I'm at. I'm never going to forget.9

The ranchera, evidently, is a key into Reuben's world-view. It serves not only as a

vehicle of musical expression, but is also a source of self-expression and self-satisfaction, and, as a badge by which he wants society to recognize him.

The ranchera has a special meaning especially for the average person, 'the average Chicano tends to relate, the hard-working guy tends to relate his tragedies or his happiness with the ranchera. 10

Reuben perceives the ranchera as the song of the Chicano masses, a vehicle for expressing life's fortunes and misfortunes , both in a social and a personal sense. Moreover, he uses it to demonstrate his link with the disadvantaged Chicano.

There are some guys who started playing the guitar, started with rancheras and they got into

progressive jazz, and they feel too embarrassed to playa ranchera now, or sing one. They think it's too under their level. Now I feel real bad for people like that, because they seem to have forgotten where they really come from. .. Like they felt, (the ranchera) was simple because it relates to poor people and they consider themselves playing progressive jazz or latin jazz and they don't want to degrade themselves or relate to the poor people because they are already down with the game. II

Thus, we find a ~orrespondence between the kind of music a performer plays or

will play and the social strata he identifies with. In passing, we should note that what Reuben refers to as simplicity is not a technical simplicity of the music, but a perceived quality of the audience. Also, Reuben posits self-fulfilment for himself in the ranchera, while he attributes disdain for those who've passed onto progressive or Latin jazz:

"Me ahuitan." Me ahuitan means "I don't dig it," or "it's out of my class." Or, in other words,

" I'm too good for you." They won't say it out like that, but that's more or less the interpretation I get."

Reuben Ruiz, we should note, sees the career of the performer in terms of levels or

class. Whether he means social class in an economic sense or a musibal elitist sense is not

clear. Rumel Fuentes, by contrast, sees his career of musical enlightenment in terms of

culture, in addition to class, going from "nice, good American music" back to " 'low class'

Mexican music." Fuentes' account of his self-discovery through musical type complements

the picture presented by Reuben Ruiz. Instead of looking at the progression within a strictly

Chicano framework, Fuentes brings in the bi-cultural element and uses social class in a clearly economic sense:

As I entered school in Eagle Pass, Texas, and my acculturation process (brainwashing) began, I began to forget the "low class" Mexican music and was introduced to the "nice, good American music." Also, I learned to play the guitar and some piano. I became a "rock and roller" singing songs that I now see as very simple compared to the corrido. Then I "discovered" the corrido when I grew older and started to listen to Chicano music again. I began paying more attention to the corridos my father sang and played with his guitar. 13

Further,

the corrido as music, in this area, is sometimes considered more as a low-class people's

musIc. The reople that lIsten to. thiS . musIc are the hardworking lower class people.

This musIc is considered taboo In middle or upper Mexican Americans homes although

there are more exceptions as time goes by. 14

[Nb. The balance of this article will be posted by December 15, 2018.]

Comic Con: Thy Name is Diversity

Having grown up in a Brooklyn housing project, having been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, having become a cultural anthropologist and doing research on the US-Mexico border, and now teaching a class with a textbook titled: Cultural Anthropology, Appreciating Diversity, I am not surprised that I looked to Comic Con as a place of diversity and a way of looking at the world as diverse.

As I sit here writing out my thoughts about diversity and Comic Con, I decided I had better check out what ‘diversity’ means. 

Definitions

I opened my American Heritage Dictionary (First Edition, 1969) and found two major definitions for ‘diversity’:  different and variety. That’s close to what the Latin root word ‘diversus’ meant for several thousand years with some other nuances ─ separate, opposite and hostile. I went online and checked out the American Heritage Dictionary (Fifth Edition, 2012).

Has anything changed in the forty odd years between these editions? Yes, there was a new element in the definition: The condition of having or including people from different ethnicities and social backgrounds. And in this current edition, there is no mention of separate, opposite or hostile. This is a curious evolution of how we now bend the word to mean inclusiveness as well as shedding notions of separate, opposite and hostile. Some etymological research might be well worth the effort.

Attendee Imagination

But when I went to Comic Con this year, I was again entranced by the geekiness and freakiness of how many attendees imagined themselves in cosplay (costume play).

Comic Con 2018, Photos by Joe Nalven

Happenings
Outside the Exhibition Hall, there were numerous panels. Some took on the contemporary notion of diversity explicitly into account: Border Narratives: Voices from Beyond the Wall; Diversity and Comics; The Black Panel; Comics Are for Everyone … Aren’t They?; Comics and Geek Items for the Blind and Visually Impaired; Diversity in Tech and Gaming; and Super Asian America. Supergirl announced that real-life transgender activist Nicole Maines would join the cast, playing a transgender woman whose goal is to protect others - a Superhero named Dreamer.

At Comic Con’s large Hall H two black female moderators were added, Yvette Nicole Brown and Aisha Tyler. But Brown pointed out she had been involved in Comic Con for some time: “'I am overjoyed to see that so many nerds of color, especially women, are getting a chance to shine on the main stage at Comic-Con, but I don't see it as new.  I've been blessed to attend Comic-Con as a panelist since my series Community made its debut back in 2009.” 

Demonic displays inside and outside the Convention Center

Millennials versus Gen-Xers and Boomers
As a further check on my understanding of diversity, I went online and found an interesting article: Diversity and inclusion are more than just buzzwords or boxes to check. . .  Millennials Have A Different Definition Of Diversity And Inclusion.

"Inclusion for boomers and gen-Xers is the business environment that integrates individuals of all . . .  demographics [gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation] into one workplace. It’s a moral and legal imperative, in other words: the right thing to do to achieve compliance and equality, regardless of whether it benefits the business."

For millennials "[c]ompared to older generations, [millennials] feel it’s unnecessary to downplay their differences in order to get ahead."

Aha! I got it. This is similar to Jimi Hendrix's lyric to "wave my freak flag high" - except for the millennial that flamboyant attitude is in the average workplace and exhibited by a growing employee majority. What is new is the institutionalization of the 1960's attitude. That visual shout out is rampant in Comic Con displays.

What caught my interest

With those definitions and attitudes towards diversity in hand, I can go back to the notes I took at several of the panels.  So, how did these various notions of diversity play out at the Comic Con panels I attended?

A caveat:  My selection of topics reflects a personal view and in no way pretends to substitute for the vast number of studies and conversations about the history, popularity, artistry and the like that comics have generated. With that said, here are some points that I found interesting and that dovetail with some of the topics that come up in the class I teach - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.

Teaching with Comics
I decided to begin my adventure at Comic Con with a panel dealing with comics as an instructional technique. The topic was more robust than I anticipated - from setting up a certificate program within a university to comparing the learning experience between standard literary texts to comics to social agendas embedded in the comics' materials. Not surprisingly, there was a de-emphasis of Superman's original motto of Truth, Justice and the American Way (first appearing in 1938) with the current popularity in social thought embedded in  Wonder Woman's liberty and justice for all regardless of race, color and religion (first appearing in 1944).

Critical Race Theory and the Comics
Jonathan Flowers, Southern Illinois University, one of the presenters on the panel of Teaching with Comics, explored how we come to grips - or fail to do so - with issues of inequity and race. Exploring Flowers background on the web, I found that he was also interested in Japanese aesthetics and Chinese Confucian theories. In retrospect, his presentation was a narrow doorway into his much wider understanding. 

This graphic raises an important question

Flowers' perspective was aimed at broadening the 'diversity' of the content and consumption of comics as multiculturalism. As stated in his slide presentation, comics was a means of "cultivat[ing] a critical consciousness in students through developing their awareness of their social relations . . ."  His point was more clearly expressed in his reference to the work of Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility). DiAngelo criticized the notion that 'objectivity' is defined by White people as what is normal or as the "universal humans who can represent all of human experience."

If one accepts DiAngelo's premise, as does Flowers, then objectivity must be replaced with a multiplicity of perspectives - multiple ethnicities as well as similar understandings from gender, religion, etc. that devolve from one objectivity to intersectional ones. Perhaps I overstate the kaleidoscopic result that comes from denying a presumed singular objectivity .  .  . but whoever thought that Whiteness was one objective point of departure? That understanding was unified in some totality - White or otherwise?
  
A friend and anthropologist once described a British anthropologist in a Southeast Asian conference who challenged a Chinese anthropologist. The Chinese anthropologist stated that only Chinese could understand Chinese and that British or other Western researchers could not fully and faithfully transcribe the Chinese experience. This, by the way, is analogous to the Whiteness argument made by DiAngelo, which emphasizes that the personal bias developed from one's personal enculturation and social relations frames one's worldview - as a prison rather than a flowering garden.

We might ask ourselves: Isn't the point of anthropology to decenter one's personal bias and begin anew from the other's way of life - Chinese or otherwise? Perhaps that is not possible; perhaps that is an illusion.

But then, what of the British anthropologist's reply to this ethnocentrism within one' 'scientific perspective':  'If you are a Chinese male in his 40s or 50s, you cannot possibly understand the life and thinking of a toddler or adolescent Chinese female.'  So, the argument of moving away from Whiteness or Chineseness by substituting multiculturalism is only partially successful since that multiculturalism ends in a multiplicity of different worlds, none of which can understand each other. One set of problems is substituted for another.

The 'answer' that guides Jonathan Flowers' approach to teaching comics from a multicultural perspective

However, we return to Flowers' methodology. Can we use comics to encourage the students' to broaden their worldview?  If students asked such questions as 'Who is this comic for?' 'Is this comic for me?' 'Is this comic for everyone?' Those are useful questions for the students to engage with the materials presented by the instructor. And one could readily agree that each student would benefit from introspection about themselves within their social context as well as the histories of humanity that are similar and different from their own.

But what of the view that somehow Native American, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Jain, Protestant, Straight, Gay, etc. students would not benefit from the canon of Western literature from Homer, Plato, Catullus, the Old and New Testaments, etc.? Doesn't Western tradition mean more than 'Whiteness' as the assumed 'normal' standard?

'Whiteness' as the assumed reference for 'objectivity'

I suggest the following perspective as a different way to understand contemporary US culture to the one that Flowers and DiAngelo argue for.

A Counterpoint:  Being trapped in history versus confronting the frightening possibility of freedom
Shelby Steele, speaking on White Guilt is Black Power and Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, was interviewed by Mark Levin recently. I was interested in one of his comments as a different point of departure taken by Jonathan Flowers.

After the panel concluded, I went to Flowers and recalled one of the key parts of Steele's comments: 'Before it was a question of Black unity and protest; no more, it is now up to us as individuals to get ahead. Our problem now is not racism, our problem is freedom.'

Flowers thought about my question - it was about teaching with a message, comics or otherwise. Was the central issue for students about "inequitable power" in society - whether as Black or other ethnic group, or gender, religion? Or was the central issue one of freedom and responsibility?

Flowers said: "These are alternative paths." 

His answer reminded me of a text that I use to teach about human nature. Three Confucian scholars several centuries before the common era, opine on human nature: one says that humans are born with goodness (Mencius), another the opposite (Hsun Tzu) and yet another said that human nature was neutral (Kao Tzu).

More from the Steele interview
Steele observed (my paraphrasing) that 'Yes, I had to recognize my father being discriminated against by the unions. But we can't change the past. We live in the present. What other system are you going to go to? Some would argue that we need some reparations for [US] history, but we see other peoples getting set free and they didn't get paid back. We're not going to get perfect justice. The oppression of Black Americans is over with. Yes, there are exceptions. Racism won't go away - it is endemic to the human condition, just like stupidity. But the older form of oppression is gone and we should each pursue our lives as we wish. Blacks had adapted to oppression and many were heroic in responding to that. But now we are free. And as existentialists would point out, we are responsible for our own development. Before it was a question of Black unity and protest; no more, it is now up to us as individuals to get ahead. Our problem now is not racism, our problem is freedom.'

Shelby Steele interviewed by Mark Levin / July 15, 2018

Juxtaposing Jonathan Flowers' presentation at Comic-Con with Shelby Steele's interview on the Life, Liberty & Levin television show is not meant to signal one view as right- and the other wrong-headed, but to underscore the importance of seeking out those thought-provoking analyses of thinking about topics such as liberty, equity and why and how the world is the way it is and ought to be.

On the second day of Comic-Con, I decided to venture into another difficult topic - one that connects with observing other cultures.

Cultural Appropriation: Is it ever OK to borrow or steal from another culture?  
Pablo Picasso is often quoted as saying, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." This could plausibly mean that great artists take risks in transforming the world around them and not merely copying as if the painting imitated a photograph. Even so, that transformative process - while likely legally supportable under US law - could be questioned as ethically suspect. 

Consider Picasso's African-influenced period in the early 1900s. Compare the faces of the two women on the right in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) with the Fang mask (19th century Bantu art that could be seen in Paris at that time). Picasso's style in these mask-like faces can be described as "racial primitivism" that Picasso saw as a way to
"liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force."

              Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (left)                                                                 Fang mask (right)

Comic Con Panel:  Comics, Costumes and Cultural Appropriation

Susan Scaffidi, Fashion Law Institute, provided an overview of the problem and the tension between creatives and the practice of borrowing elements for one's own work. Her definition for cultural appropriation is: "Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission." (Emphasis added.)

In this definition, Picasso would be seen as a "cultural appropriator" - a step beyond being influenced by African (Bantu) culture, of stealing, to use Picasso's own words. But here we are using a 21st century prism to judge the practice and sensibility of 20th century artists. To be sure, many European nations had colonies in the less developed world, including in Africa - so why wouldn't they borrow (or steal) from those cultures? 

Even cultural anthropology with its theorizing in its infancy in the late 19th century, Edward Tylor and Henry Morgan spoke of primitive and ancient cultures evolving from savagery to barbarism to civilization. Guess who the savages were? Guess who the civilized were?

Are we any "better" about cultural appropriation today? Is it just part of the creative process?

Scaffidi also presented examples of Pharrell Williams (2016) wearing an American Indian headdress (and for which he apologized) and the fashion designer Marc Jacobs (2016) who had his models were dreadlocks-styled wigs.

Marc Jacobs use of dreadlocks in fashion show              Pharrell Williams dressed in American Indian headdress

Even more interesting was Scaffidi's note about the lawsuit between an African artist (Lina Iris Viktor) and the Black Panther movie music.  (See details below.)  On the same panel was Douriean Fletcher, jewelry designer for Black Panther, who was a jewelry designer for the Black Panther movie. Douriean spoke about her learning experience in South Africa and being interested in understanding the cultural and spiritual significance of the local art. One dilemma she encountered was whether it was acceptable to adapt local art to the needs of the corporation making Black Panther. She recounted having a conversation with a local artist who said he wanted her adaptation to be accurate. Her example fits within Scaffidi's definition of getting permission. The lingering concern for working with a large corporation is, of course, a separate concern.

Joseph Illidge, Executive Editor at Valiant Comics, provided a partial answer to the problem of making such missteps from within the corporate framework. The conscious addition of staff and executives with a variety of backgrounds would tend to catch such problems before production got locked into a narrow window of understanding and presentation. 

The Black Panther lawsuit

"A Black Panther lawsuit is testing the cultural exchange between Africans and African-Americans," Lynsey Chutel, May 30, 2018

For all its box-office success and cultural significance, Black Panther has had to dodge a lot of uncomfortable issues around cultural appropriation. Now, one of the most celebrated elements of the Marvel film, its original soundtrack, is under fire for alleged creative theft.

Just days after Kendrick Lamar released the song “All The Stars,” British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor filed a lawsuit (pdf) which alleges that the rapper conducted “willful brazen, and extensive unlawful” copying of her artwork for the music video. She’s also suing others that participated in the production, such as singer SZA (real name Solana Imani Rowe), the music video’s director Dave Meyers, and Top Dawg Entertainment.

In a response filed on May 18, Lamar and his fellow defendants argue that “alleged use of the artwork did not proximately cause any of Plaintiff’s alleged damages,” or any profits for Top Dawg entertainment. They added that any of the “alleged infringements were innocent,” and constituted as “fair use.” Both have asked the New York district court for a trial by jury.

The case doesn’t just bring up questions over what constitutes creative theft—it highlights the skewed relationship between African-American artists and their African counterparts, even when they’re working toward the same vision.

To create the ideal of Wakanda, the film’s director and designers referenced contemporary Africa, but sewed together a patchwork of pan-African elements, which were taken from various communities with no real reference to their origins. Viktor’s claim is that she can clearly recognize her own designs among this cultural mish-mash, at least in the music video.

Conclusion
Thousands of attendees came to play in the Comic Con sandbox and were justly rewarded. But there was much more at play in the panel discussions and their connections to wider discussions in academia and the media. This art blog touched on a small element of the many faceted enterprise known as comics - particularly as it related to the diversity of persona whether of the attendees or in the content of comic books, and whether copying another's diversity was fair game.

Consider the following thought for re-entering a discussion about diversity for next year's Comic Con:  "Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?"  Desmond Tutu