The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study
Post-session reflection: Divine Beauty: “The Well-Baked Man” and the Aesthetics of Race David S. Ramsey
I was reading about the new film Judas and the black Messiah starring Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stansfield directed by: Shaka King
After reading Jack Halberstam opening essay chapter: Moten& Harney made me think whether it’s possible for the undercommoms to have a undercommons: I remember in my Buddhist, ethics class one particular lady who had a reputation for extensive exaggerated monologues, with the classic response of everyone rolling their eyes spoke about a Seneca creation story. At the time I wasn’t entirely sure what the relevance was but after listening to her explain the story, her response, and the classes passive unity in not responding. I initially took offence to the creation story. Although this was not in line with my own beliefs and traditions, I felt that the story illustrated and created unity through exclusion which within itself highlighted further exclusion within already marginalised groups.
Seneca creation story
God at first created the sun and the moon. One day while walking about on the earth, becoming lonely, he said, “I will make a human being to keep me company.” He held his way until he came to an uprooted hemlock, which had raised a great pile of earth with its upturned roots. . .. God made a human being from the earth piled up among the roots of this tree . . . [but] the soil was so poor and light-coloured that he had a pale, sickly complexion. God breathed on him and he stood up and walked. Then God looked at him from behind the 132 Divine Beauty: “The Well-Baked Man” and the Aesthetics of Race roots of the tree, but not being pleased with his creation, he resolved that he would try again. God soon came to a walnut tree lying uprooted, which had pulled up with its roots a mound of black earth. From this earth God made another human being. As he looked at him, he saw that being black, he had too much color. So, God was not satisfied with this piece of work, either. Going on farther, he came at last to an uprooted sugar maple. There the earth had a fine deep color; so out of this God made the third human being, whose body was smooth and firm and of a full rich tint. And God, pleased with his looks, said, “He will do; he looks like me.” This last human being was an Indian; thus, the Indian was the native human being”
The idea creation of beauty and love is relegated to certain groups of people. Within the canon, narrative of the story it rests heavily on an aspect of American History and how it relates to Native American History; that creates a problematic relationship, how other undercommons groups find common ground and coalesce. In the case of the well-baked man tales, essentially it ethnocentrically begs the question:
“What does it mean to be ‘human’?”
Post – interactions with different marginalized groups presents a schism in how we relate to different cultures and subcultures and how and who we define as human. Our belief systems narrate unconscious as well as subconscious prejudices. History valorises ethnocentric ideologies which maintains these beliefs.
“Mythologies do not remain static, nor do cultures. When the white majority in America began to reconsider what it meant to be “American” and to recognize its own previously unquestioned biases, and when minority peoples began to shed the colonized aesthetics of the white hegemony, it changed both heaven and earth”
So how this conceptualized within the classroom?
Sociologists Troyna and Williams argue that schools have an ethnocentric curriculum meaning it gives control to English culture. Although Durkheim’s idea of building social solidarity through teaching a shared culture e.g., WWII in history classes, most of the time the culture of ethnic minorities are subdued or even ignored. As a result, this ignores cultural diversity and promotes a sense of Englandism focusing on the British empire. This leaves ethnic minority groups feeling ignored, isolated and therefore leads to them rejecting the ideals of the ethnic majority thus the undercommons or the undercommons of the undercommons.
Merton & Strain Theory believes that crime and deviance stems from the strain between the:
- The goals that people want to achieve
- The means of actually achieving them
This is because society emphasizes its apparent meritocracy, therefore, making you believe working hard makes social mobility possible, however, the truth is these goals prove to be unattainable due to barriers such as class, race, and influence. Therefore, criminality becomes a means of survival and a way of expressing their frustration at the system. However, they are further ostracized, not only by the system that wants to control them but also by their peers for not conforming to the system. As a result, they become the undercommons of the undercommons of society despite the false dreams they still strive for unrealistic goals.
Bibliography
- Pima, “The Well-Baked Man,” American Indian Myths and Legends, ed. Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz (New York: Pantheon, 1984) 46-47. 7
- Croce, Aesthetic, trans. Douglas Ainslie (London: MacMillan, 1922) 105-06. 8
- Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. J.H. Bernard (New York: Hafner, 1951) §16-17 (original emphasis).