Not LL Cool J, BUT......Neal!

This morning we stretched our legs uptown to Harlem as we recovered from a fiercely competitive, yet much needed, late-night soccer match. (The French were especially fierce, but no head-butts were reported. Soraya may have hit someone, but not with her head.) Strolling down the historic Malcolm X/Lenox Blvd, we peered into the window of a brand new apartment building that boasted advertisements for new apartments at "The Langston." "Join the Renaissance!" "Real homes for real New Yorkers," the sign reads, below a picture of two white parents, cradling their child, thoughts of Wall Street stirring their pocketbooks for the "steal" of an apartment in Manhattan for a mere $600,000. This is the reality of development in Harlem: Bill Clinton's offices, a new trendy "W" hotel, double-decker tour buses, and new apartment buildings surge uptown, eager to buy up Harlem's historic names and heritage and slap them on their advertisements, while many black people face a stark reality of sharp rent increases and high-priced lifestyles they cannot afford.

Neal Shoemaker is President of Harlem Heritage Tours, an alternative, community-based tour company he founded by accident several years ago. While taking us around historic sites such as the Apollo Theater, Hotel Theresa, and a statue of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., he also brought us by his friends' hot dog and refreshment carts, waived and hollered at his neighbors, and poked fun at the tour buses that gave people a colonialist's gaze of his streets. Neal gave us a good sense of the issues that Harlem is facing: that the profits of economic "development" rarely stay in Harlem; that people are being forced out of their own homes, neighborhoods and histories; new charter schools that seem to provide some success for youths; a fractured black community failing to negotiate class divisions; and the growing urgency for community organization. Neal provided us with a lively, hilarious, and very human view into the neighborhood he, his parents, and his grandparents lived in, as well as a powerful voice for local tourism and its potential impacts for beneficial social change. Even as he expressed alarm at the changes in Harlem, Neal mixed charm, a small mustache, and some fine dance moves with his social commentary, reflecting a strong tradition among black Americans for bringing the light together with the heavy.

Our toes slapped Malcolm X Blvd to the impressive Schomburg Centre (http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html) , the most comprehensive collection of historical texts and documents on the cultures of the African diaspora in existence. As we viewed historical charicatures and stereotypes of black Americans, as well as a countering section of positive attempts at self-representation, we discussed contemporary representations that reflect the continuities of history. German stores still sell chocolate bars with an dark-skinned orientalist figure on the wrapper and France continues to drink Banania, a chocolate drink with a "big-lipped" black smile on the box. Many French and Germans ask for "nigger heads," chocolate-covered cream desserts served in bakeries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. have recently had several "blackface" incidents, in which white students painted their bodies and faces black. The colonialist roots of these representations somehow still echo in contemporary pop and consumerist culture.

After enormous portions of mouth-watering soul food at the world famous Sylvia's restaurant, we hit the subway downtown to Brooklyn. On the train, we reflected (quite seriously) on alternative ways of introducing a girlfriend or boyfriend. Partner? Signifiant other? Lover? A wink and a smile? Gregor made the incisive suggestion: "What about teammate?" We believe that we have come by successful progress in this endeavor.

Following this enlightening discussion, we met documentary film-maker Shola Lynch. After producing the award-winning Chisholm '72, about Shirley Chisolm, the determined and idealistic black woman to run for the presidency (people think it is a big deal that Hillary and Barak are running today!), she produced a short series on prisons for CNN. We could write pages about the plight of black Americans with regards to the prison system in the U.S.--their incredible overrepresentation, the private corporations reaping millions from government contracts to build more and more prisons, the racist outcomes of enforcing "tough on crime" laws, mandatory minimums and the "war on drugs," the disenfranchisement of the right to vote for thousands of black Americans who are convicted of felonies; prison labor, the cost to tax-payers, and the costs to prisoners' families. There is something incredibly insidious about the culmination of forces that allow some to profit off the violent regulation and management of very specific populations and there is something pernicious about American society's neglect for the very real needs of people living in poverty and people who cannot enter the society to which they have already paid debt. We are daunted by how deeply embedded punishment has been woven into this society, and are more than concerned at the recent spread of similar approaches to crime, poverty and the "integration" of racial minorities in France, Britain, and other countries.

After Doreen bought two raspberry coffees (she HATES raspberries!) from a deceptive street vendor, we moved on with heavy and tired shoes to the Rotunda Art Gallery in Brooklyn for the opening of an exhibit by artist and teacher Duron Jackson. He spoke eloquently about the effects of our prison system on his brother's life and is attempting to deal with the troubling 10-year sentence of a 17 year-old black high school student named Genarlow Wilson, from Atlanta, for consensual oral sex with a 15 year-old girl. We also learned about the difficulties of conveying the complexities and depth of our thoughts through creativity. Our group had mixed reactions to the exhibit, which consisted of a decentered black print of a naked body on a white page, a large picture of Genarlow, an abstract aerial view of a prison, and the thick smell of grass and dirt on the ground.

We are struggling to connect these events as well as the myriad other speakers and visits we have had the privilege to engage. But we do have questions about the relations between these issues. What are the relations between representations of black Americans and other minorities and such extraordinary incarceration and recivisim rates? What can we glean from Neal's wit, strength, and smile? How do we respond to systematic disenfranchisement and deprivation of minorities through creativity and thoughtfulness? Perhaps we can work through these questions in the alleged debreifing session tomorrow...

Soraya, Doreen, and Thomas