Fighting the Folklore of White Supremacy
In my October 22 post, “Critical Social Justice vs. The Omni-American Vision,” two days before the first broadcast of the “Combating Racism and Antisemitism Together: Shaping an Omni-American Future” event, I ended the excerpt from my interview with the editors of the Free Black Thought platform with a provocative critical, opposing comment.
“J," a professor who shall remain anonymous, responded from the perspective of college students who analyze social and racial issues through the lens of Critical Race Theory (which some call Critical Social Justice) or an Ibram X. Kendi-style anti-racism. I begin this post by repeating that critical commentary, which ends by accusing The Omni-American vision and project with supporting white supremacy.
As you can imagine, I disagree and detail why.
J.
So, here's one thing I could imagine some of my students saying. They would say look, we admire the intentions behind the Omni-American project. It's very important that we connect oppressions, the oppression of racism with the oppression of antisemitism for example, so that we unite in a common fight. However, we take issue with this concept of the “Omni-American.” That sounds a lot like “All Lives Matter,” a lot like “I don't see color,” a lot like “there's only one race, the human race.” But the fact of white supremacy means that we don't live as if there's one race, the human race. We assign different values to different people, based on their race, and we lift up some at the expense of others, especially black and brown people. So, to talk about “Omni-Americans” is to let the oppressors off the hook, because it's telling them we're all one big family, so let's just have a hug and forget about oppression. You don't have to give up any of your privilege, racism is over, you’re off the hook.
They might say, as well, that “Omni-Americans” erases the specificity of the black experience, the specificity of the Jewish experience—we’re all just Omni-Americans—and that in itself is white supremacist.
Greg
We're talking about young people, so first I want to acknowledge their sincerity. I would say a few more things, however.
I would say: you are assigned to read The Omni-Americans by Albert Murray. Once you read The Omni-Americans, you will see that one subtitle of that book is Some Alternatives to the Folklore of White Supremacy. Not only was Murray critical of white supremacy, but he also went to the root of what it is: folklore. And he had a phrase: “the folklore of white supremacy and the fakelore of black pathology.”
So, he's critical of those who focus on Black folks and only pathologies, as if such phenomena were confined exclusively or primarily to Black folks. And after exposing what he calls social science survey technicians as the promulgators of this folklore and fakelore, he asks: why is it that so-called white middle-class norms are the basis of evaluating this “black pathology,” but the “control group” is never asked this: why isn't the behavior of the so-called white middle class in alignment with the values found in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights?
Isn’t that where optimal American behavior is described? We know that we’ve got a long way to go to fulfill the social contract contained in those documents, right? So if folks who are ascribed as white are the measure of behavior, but don't match up to that, why aren’t they judged thereby? There are all sorts of passages in The Omni-Americans where he is highly critical of those who identify with “whiteness,” as it's called today. So, not only does this event not erase a critique of what he called the folklore of white supremacy, not only does it not erase Black American history and culture, it’s founded on and grounded in that history and culture!
A Cultural Complement: Black-Jewish Relations today
And it certainly doesn't erase Jewish American history because we’re against antisemitism and embracing another stage in the relationship between the two groups of individuals. Our movement is a cultural complement to a period of American history—the Civil Rights era—where there was a close collaboration between Black Americans and Jewish Americans. In jazz, there was and is a close collaboration also. We'll talk about that throughout the event. Here are some examples: Louis Armstrong wore a Star of David throughout his life. I [told] the story of why on Sunday, October 24.
There’s Jewish American Benny Goodman, who had Black American jazz greats such as Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson in his small group, and even in his big band, at a time when integrated bands were not the thing. There are example after example of this within jazz. And the influence isn’t uni-directional; Itamar Borochov, an excellent jazz trumpeter, will feature his quartet for the two days. The live studio, where the full-scale production [happened], is based in Israel. Itamar lives in the US but is in Israel especially for this event. He’ll discuss the profound influence of Black American jazz masters on his own development.
So I would disagree with and counterstate those claims. I would insist that they read the book for themselves. I’d end by saying that it goes back to E pluribus unum, “out of many, one.” You've got the many—the many are real and the many are important. You're not going to erase the many and only consider the “one” human race or American identity that erases distinctions and differences. Yes, there’s one human race, but we've got what Murray called idiomatic variations in culture. So different groups of people in different places at various times develop different idioms and ways of being and speaking and living and eating and dancing and making music, and so forth. That's culture. So our emphasis is on culture over race and racial essentialism.
Positive relationships between people of different cultures, such as myself and Aryeh Tepper, a lecturer at Ben Gurion University in Israel—the two of us put this event together—are the foundation of the Omni-American ethos. How are you living your life and what are the relationships that you have with other people?
Greg and Aryeh Tepper in Israel
Grammar and Perception
In grammar, there’s first person, second person, third person. First person is individual, subjective. The second person is dealing with more of “we” space and interactivity or intersubjectivity. Then there's the third person, which is an “it.” So we could say that the third person is where the structural and the systemic exists, objective reality. I would caution and urge young people to not only focus on the structural and the systemic. The interpersonal and intersubjective, which is where culture lives, is crucial too. And there’s your own development of your individual self to be the best you can, in communication with others, in dealing with intergenerational trauma, in learning emotional intelligence, and what I call cultural intelligence. That is your individual responsibility, but also you strive to have mentors along the way. You need that, for sure. That’s why top executives, even once they’re in the C-suite, have coaches. As great as Wynton Marsalis is, I once went to his apartment near Lincoln Center, and he was taking a composition lesson from a classical composer.
I am well aware of where so many young people are coming from because I studied Critical Race Theory in grad school, at which time agency was key. Folks who are marginalized need agency. The difference between now and then, it seems to me, is the implication that, according to some leftist activists and academics, so-called marginalized folks have little or no agency.
Up to now, in terms of my own public profile, I've been more in the rhythm section, in a support capacity. I still am, in terms of pushing the ideas of what I call the Ellison-Murray Continuum, but it’s time for me to take a more of an out-front lead instrument stance moving forward.
J.
You're ready to do your solo.
Greg
Hell yes. In the jazz tradition, it’s not just playing and sounding like someone else, it’s about you making your own statement and expressing your unique voice. But this is far from being about me. Take a look at the partner list on our event website. We’ve got a long list of partners, including Free Black Thought, FAIR, Braver Angels, Institute for Cultural Evolution, the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and many, many more. This is a collaborative effort.
This event will be an annual occasion, with other content and events in between, so we can really start to move together as a coalition and movement. This event will live far beyond October 24-25, which is our maiden voyage. But we’ve got a long-term vision that we're enacting. I hope folks reading this will watch the broadcast so we can have this experience together. I appreciate FBT for giving me a platform to share my thoughts…as a free Black American man.
The event referenced above, and promoted on these pages over the past few weeks, was very successful. To view the first day’s event—from which we shared a photo essay about last Monday, and that concluded with an award presentation to Wynton Marsalis—click here. For day two, with contributions from Thomas Chatterton Williams, John Wood Jr., Nick Jankel, Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Pamela Paresky, Andrew Zimmern, Ephraim Isaac, Zak Stein, and others, click here.
If you take the time, we promise that you’ll be inspired and energized by the launch of an Omni-American movement!