Hick Hop and Cullud Policemans: Ramblings on the US South as a Scapegoat

“'Cause they’re used to fantasy, and it’s what they do to dream, call it ‘fiction addiction’ ‘cause the truth is a heavy thing” ~Big Boi, OutKast
I’m southern. There’s my disclaimer.

I’ve been marinating on the relationship between African American life and southern “fault” since my thesis days. I’ve come to the conclusion that, in similar fashion to blackness in white America, the south is the scapegoat for all ills associated with African Americandom. In likeness of the homie William Shakespeare, bull shitteth.

(In)Glorious Mongrels: Musings on Postracial America Pt. I

Postracialism in the United States is an assumption of a multicultural, racially tolerant society that does not rely on race for construction and understanding of (ethnic) identity. A post-racial community looks to a utopic vision of racial harmony instead of attempting to correct or acknowledge the culturally traumatic experiences and multifaceted tropes of suffering that construct racial communities. President Obama’s election reinforced this dream state, supposedly inferring that “we” (meaning all of us, Americans) elected a president of color. What this does not take into consideration, as Mark Anthony Neal points out, is the painfully calculated and strategized showcasing and performance of Obama’s masculinity. If American society is unable and/or unwilling to acknowledge racial heritage in the construction of identity, how is racial tolerance and harmony possible?