Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What it Means to Be Black Now by Touré

It’s absurd, looking back, she says, because black reality has diversified. And almost anything could trigger the loss of one’s Blackness: attending certain universities, an impressive variety of jobs, a fondness for opera, a white girlfriend, an interest in golf.

It made Blackness a quality each individual black person was constantly in danger of losing. Then the idea faded somehow into the injunction to “keep it real,” an instruction she found like being in a prison cell: In “Speaking in Tongues,” her stunning essay on Barack Obama and black identity, Zadie Smith remembers how convinced she was when a student at Cambridge by the concept of a unified black voice. Two exhibitions of his work are on view in New York City this spring: ‘Kehinde Wiley/The World Stage: Israel,’ at the Jewish Museum, March 9–Jand ‘An Economy of Grace,’ at the Sean Kelly Gallery, May 6–June 16, 2012. Cecilia, 101.5 x 226.5 inches, 2008 from Kehinde Wiley, a monograph of Wiley’s paintings of contemporary African-Americans in heroic poses, just published by Rizzoli. Destroying the notion that there is a correct way of being Black, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? will change how we perceive race forever.Kehinde Wiley: The Virgin Martyr St. He knew he could not tackle this topic all on his own so he turned to 105 of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry, Harold Ford Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, Paul Mooney, New York Governor David Paterson, Greg Tate, Aaron McGruder, Soledad O'Brien, Kamala Harris, Chuck D, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and many others.īy engaging this brilliant, eclectic group, and employing his signature insight, courage, and wit, Touré delivers a clarion call on race in America and how we can change our perceptions for a better future. He explores how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, society, psychology, art, culture, and more. Here, Touré divulges his own intimate, funny, and painful experiences of how race and racial expectations have shaped his life. In Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? he argues that Blackness is infinite, that any identity imaginable is Black, and that all expressions of Blackness are legitimate. He soon discovers that the desire to be rooted in but not constrained by Blackness is everywhere. Touré begins his book by examining the concept of “Post-Blackness,” a term that defines artists who are proud to be Black, but don't want to be limited by identity politics and boxed in by race. In this provocative book, writer, and cultural critic Touré explores the concept of Post-Blackness: the ability for someone to be rooted in but not restricted by their race.

Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What it Means to Be Black Now by Touré