The Product of the New Negro in Black Leadership

According to the narrative presented by Jacob U. Gordon in Black Leadership For Social Change, Gordon asserts how African American leadership roles in America, have always strive to seek out a mechanism to achieve social change. I do not deny that the African American community does not have their own type of leadership, due to the fact that it is vital to realize that we have had a complex historical narrative simply in the U.S. This narrative highlights the fact that we were once, a species that did not have the right to be deemed “humans.” Simply from taking this approach while studying African Americans in their entirety as a community, one is confronted with the same reality that can be seen in all minorities, this notion that we need to find a system that works for ourselves if we ever want to change society. Gordon asserts that leadership theories and practice excludes black leadership, which causes individuals to question what “leadership” does not possess to lead to the emergence of “black leadership.” Gordon’s definition of black leadership places emphasis on the group solely as he recognizes that the leader is dependent upon the group of people since they are the ones who are fighting for social change. Within Gordon’s definition of “black leadership,” he advocates for the fact that this “group response” is a product of the notion that they all have a shared struggle that stems from the color of their skin. The leaders throughout our own black historical narrative demonstrates that a lot of individuals possessed the characteristics of this New Negro identity. My thesis observes the stories of our own past leaders and how one would conceptualize their own leadership style by looking at Peter G. Northouse’s four styles of leadership. The question arises if this perception of black leadership still exists today and would we account for this “group” response.

            The New Negro identity plays a huge role in the formation of “black leadership,” as the masses as well as the leaders are trying to raise up the community, and fight back against a long system of oppression. But on this journey to figure out how blacks today, define and respond to “black” leadership, I believe that we lost this so-called “New Negro” identity. This is due to the fact that we are not able to come together, because there is a lot of aspects that now have to be considered when try to look at our identities individually. For example, our skin color linked the whole black community in terms of being marginalized and oppressed. Yet in present-day there is a lot more that makes up an individual such as gender and sexuality, and if the movement does not include these factors, people are more likely to not participate. Since we cannot come to a common ground, we as a people cannot formulate a “group” response or goal, in which we are not able to take a stance against our own oppression. From this outlook, this form of black leadership vanishes in our current society. As Alain Locke states in The New Negro, “…it is the rank and file who are leading, and the leaders who are following,” (Locke 7). Keeping this quote in mind, it is hard for the group to lead if they cannot acknowledge their differences and move pass this and the leader can be moved by the group, in which he is following.  When putting the New Negro identity in conversation with Gordon’s definition of “black leadership,” the overarching question becomes who is represented in this “group” response and if all walks of life are truly represented.     

                

A Connection Amongst Different Ideas Of An Identity

“Outside the ring, various postfight celebrations and castigations enacted a call and response between black feelings of restlessness and resistance against Jim Crow America and the spectacle of Johnson as a mass cultural object of both erotic desire and detestation that extended far beyond his sport” (Baldwin 6). According to Baldwin's narrative of the New Negro, Jack Johnson is one of the many, he believes represents the “New Negro” identity due to the fearlessness, he seemed to convey to the world as seen through his actions. Within Baldwin's narrative, this notion of “the marketplace intellectual life” is coined, which refers to the “variety of cultural formations that are usually understood through the division of labor which usually overlaps” (Baldwin 6). The importance of the marketplace as far as the New Negro was concerned was due to the fact that having this type of entrepreneurial role, allowed for them to provide their own mechanism to have control over their own life. The fact of the matter is that the New Negro in terms of Baldwin's narrative, is intended to have a sense of power that cannot be taken away from them and entrepreneurship seems to be the right route. This notion is what can be seen in the life of Jack Johnson, since his life produced a sense of pride since he lived by his own rules, which can be seen by things such as the white women, he would purposefully dates. This emphasis on entrepreneurship in terms of the New Negro that Baldwin alludes to differs with Alain Locke's notion of the New Negro due to the fact that his perception deals with the notion of self-expression. The New Negro in his eyes is one who is an artist that exposes “the internal world of the Negro mind and spirit,” which tells the true narrative of their reality instead of anyone else trying to convey something they do not understand (Locke xxv). Though both narratives, seem to be stating to different ideas, it is important to realize that they both have a connection. Baldwin and Locke's perceptions of the New Negro, still hint on the notion of having control over something that the New Negro can call their own. In terms of Baldwin's narrative, this deals with the fact of entrepreneurship, which is a type of business that is self-made and allows the owner to have a sense of pride that they have something they can call their own. According to Alain Locke, the New Negro is able to utilize their own voice to be able to express the reality of their past and address what will be happening in the future. The connecting theme among the two authors is this notion that now the Negro has the potential to have control over their own lives, and no longer have the dominant white society define them.

The Freedom Exemplified in Dreams

While reading about the various accounts of leaving the South, in what was known at the time as the Great Migration, it was interesting to see that Isabel Wilkerson went beyond the typical narrative. In Robert Joseph Pershing Foster's narrative, he demonstrates this “escaping” of a life that has been constantly challenging in the South. Robert is described as an intelligent man that wants to practices medicine, yet the reality that surrounds him does not allow him to be able to so. Similar to the other accounts in the book, Robert is trying to escape the effects of the Jim Crown laws. It is intriguing to see that Wilkerson draws a lot from the narratives of others, by showing the reasoning of why others migrated to places like California such as Mantan Moreland, who made a name for himself, but witnessed a man who was hanging from a tree, and decided to fled (Wilkerson 186). Each individual that is mentioned in this narrative, has made a good life for themselves, which is only a testament of how the Great Migration was necessary. Robert's narrative seems to resonate with “Dream Variation” by Langston Hughes, due to the fact that freedom seems to be overall theme. In “Dream Variation” by Langston Hughes, he states in the first four lines,

“To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,

To whirl and to dance

Till the bright day is done..." (p. 143). 

Hughes is speaking of a time, where the black individual is free to do whatever he or she pleases. In Robert's narrative, he could not simply “fling” his arms open and dance in a place of the sun in the South, which is true for any black man or woman in the South. This idea can be seen in the fact that Robert was not free to practice medicine, though he was considered “smarter” than a lot of white doctors. Wilkerson asserts that “...he imagined there was a whole world just waiting for him to get there, people living the high life in Los Angeles and building businesses in Oakland,” (Wilkerson 188). This conceptualization of “people” is important due to the fact that it refers to black people like himself. It is no surprise that blacks in the South, did not live luxurious lives, but the manner that this movement to the North, is constantly perpetuated as a place of promise. Wilkerson alludes to the notion that there were more than 462,000 “colored” people already in California, who migrated before Robert, in which he never knew (Wilkerson 187). For the black individual to “fling” their arms open, they would have to feel a type of safety, which can only be achieved by being free of the white man at least in a minimal way. Hughes discusses having the ability to rest beneath a tree on a cool evening (Locke 143). He continues by asserting the line, “Dark like me,” this does not simply allude to the night, but also refers to the black community surrounding him. This connects with conceptualization of “dream” in line 7, where the dream of many black individuals coming from the South, were there was no opportunities, is this hope that the North had more opportunities and people that looked like them. True freedom can be seen in this last line “Black like me,” this is why Robert changed his name. Since the black community has shed themselves from the constraints of the South.

Franklin's Self Assessment

My first year at UCSB, I was Undeclared, but I had been completely convinced that I wanted to be a radiologist. So I was taking math and science courses. Within the first two quarters, I had noticed that I was not getting the grades that I felt I should be getting, so I became a Sociology major. A friend of mine had asked me about my reasoning of not taking a Black Studies course, and like most people, I assumed that I knew everything about black history. My friends told me I knew nothing, and after taking my first Black Studies course, I truly saw that I knew nothing about the true historical narrative of this country. In Spring quarter of my sophomore year, I took Black Studies 1 with Professor  Robinson. If I had to take one thing away from this course, it would have the be when he told the class that history is a “closed” text. At first, I really had to think about it, then I was in awe since he was telling the truth. I had never taught to myself that the author determines what goes into the book. I saw the significance of the concept, since it truly limits interpretation and tells one side of the story. It was not until Black Studies 1, where I heard about events like the Nat Turner Rebellion. After my experience in Black Studies 1, I decided that I would do the minor, and it lead me to taking courses such as Black Studies: 4, 7, 38B, 118, 128, 153, 169 BR, and 171. For example, I loved taking Black Studies 4 with Professor Gaye Johnson, because she took an approach that I did not see in my other classes. She encouraged a lot of discussion and for this course, it was interesting to see what others were thinking. I still remember to this day that “racism is a system of advantages based on race.” This course seriously made me re-evaluate this normative belief that everyone is “racists.” From simply taking this course, I took 3 more courses with Johnson, and changed from a minor to a major. I found myself engaging in discussion in class and thinking about the various issues within the course in a complex manner that helped me write great papers. The fact of the matter is that I love the type of papers that I have the opportunity to write in Black Studies, since they are complex, and requires the student to really think about the topic at hand and draw connections across history.
    Black Studies is definitely not the easiest major, but I truly believe that there is no such thing as an easy major. But I have come to appreciate the existence of the program, since it is truly displays a narrative that is hidden from the history books. It is interesting to think that a lot of times, the knowledge that we learn in high school is shaped in a way that makes us believe that we know everything. Yet when coming to college, we really believe that subjects such as black history is only stories about slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and Martin Luther King. This was my reasoning of why initially I thought I knew black history, but I knew nothing about my own history. Yet being a Black Studies major has truly given me a new outlook on the world, and it allows me to draw conclusions from our past and present.