“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.
you bring up an interesting point with regard to 'fearlessness' being a divisive aspect of Baldwin's New Negro. Using Johnson as a rallying point, Baldwin applies a kind of charismatic, prideful aspect to the New Negro identity that isn't quite the same as Locke's. However, like you mentioned, one quality that they both share is a sense of autonomy and self-sustainability without the confines of white sociocultural dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteFirst off I would just like to comment that your blog is very well written! Now as for the content of your analysis, I agree with Baldwin's claim that Jack Johnson represents the "New Negro" identity through his life as an entrepreneur. Your analysis of how the way in which Johnson lives his life for himself and against the status quo defines him as a New Negro is strong. I really like how you acknowledge the differences between your two text but then ultimately end with how they both speak to Jack Johnson as an influential "New Negro" whose has helped resist the constraint of white society.
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