Thread by @cvaldary

Despite the crude & inaccurate way this sentence reads, I'm going to say it: In many ways, white America needs black America far more than the opposite. There is something rich & self-renewing about AA heritage that white anglo-saxon culture really desperately needs right now.

Be patient with me. I’m drawing from Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison, et al here and if you’re not familiar with their works you’ll read this in a parochial, prejudicial way. It isn’t meant that way I promise.

Now here is the reason why this is crude and inaccurate: white America is black America and vice versa. As Murray pointed out, there is no native born black american that is not white and no native born white american that is not also black. America is a composite.

So a dichotomy in terms of skin color is just false. The better distinction to make here is, I think, between AA culture — which I’m defining as the culture developed by slaves and their descendants — and WASP culture. And anyone can be part of either regardless of skin color.

And of course even the two cultures have themselves overlapped. AA culture has historically been very Protestant, for example, but in its own distinct way.

This overlap is proof of the success of the American project: out of many, one.

But now I will speak specifically about the *musical* tradition of AA heritage which comes in part from West Africa and expresses itself in what can be called “kinetic orality.”

Kinetic orality is essentially a form of understanding and relating to life musically. It is a dynamic way of responding to life through what can only really be described as a form of musical improv. We see this in the creation of jazz and blues and hip hop, especially battle rap

Both Ellison and Murray came out of the jazz and blues tradition and observed how those traditions were metaphors for styles of being.

Here’s a quote from Murray, for example:

And another one (as you can see I have a lot of fun with note taking):

This form of musical improv can give way to what Murray called “impromptu heroism.” “...the blues idiom represents a major America innovation of universal significance and potential because it provides emblems for a pioneer people who require resilience as a prime trait”

This ability to “play by ear” is, or at the very least, has the potential to teach America writ large how to renew itself and rededicate itself to some of its most profound and enduring maxims. If there was ever a time we needed more resiliency it’s now.

Part of why I dislike @DrIbram ‘s approach is that it seems to deny this resiliency and resolve inherent within AA culture and it seems to deny how interwoven that culture is with Americana.

And, moreover, there are certain aspects of WASP culture that are hyper mechanized, rigid, and factory-oriented that are the exact opposite of impromptu heroism culture and the exact opposite of the pioneering spirit that is America.

Ironically, @DrIbram ‘s model seems to fit this mold. He views groups as stagnant, rigid entities that are fixed. He speaks of power only in the material sense — and not in the spiritual sense, and the spiritual sense has always modulated AA self-perception.

This is not to say that AA culture is itself not without its own pathologies. We know of the degradation, self-hatred, crime, and violence that have taken over our communities. But it is wrong to suggest that these are the *only* experiences.

I reject the tendency of those in the @RealCandaceO camp to see only the pathologies & @DrIbram’s lens which unwittingly obscures how integral AA heritage is to the fabric of the nation. DiAngelo’s framework reflects something deeply sick & pathological within white America.

Finally, there is something wonderful and profound about the musical tradition of AA culture. This goes back to the days of slavery and I’ll leave you this quote from Murray to chew on: