Signs and Symbols

This photo is a few years old. African American's immediately understood the significance of the image. Significance comes from sign. Signs are symbols and symbols have meaning. In this case the meaning to this boy is the President is like him. When white folks want to touch Black folks natural hair the meaning is quite different. The photo is by White House Photographer Pete Souza.

Creating a New You!

What would it take to change your life? The story you've been living? The quality of your interactions? Making changes in your life requires work -AND- letting-go. Letting-go of beliefs and habits that don't serve you. Letting-go of hurt and anger associated with memories of painful experiences. AND... letting-go of people who bring bad things into your life.

U.S. Black Male Employment Stats

Percentage of employed, working-age 
Black males (16-64) in these cities:

    Detroit     43.0
    Buffalo     43.9
    Milwaukee     44.7
    Cleveland     47.7
    Chicago     48.3
    St. Louis     51.3
    Philadelphia     51.7
    Phoenix     52.0
    Cincinnati     52.6
    Indianapolis     52.6
    Richmond     52.7
    Memphis     53.2
    Hartford     53.3
    San Francisco     53.3
    Pittsburgh     53.3
    Miami     53.4
    New Orleans     53.5
    Omaha     53.8
    Oakland     53.8
    Las Vegas     54.2
    Birmingham     54.3
    Newark     54.5
    Columbus     54.7
    Jacksonville     54.8
    Los Angeles     54.8
    Kansas City     55.1
    Seattle     56.3
    Charlotte     56.5
    San Diego     57.1
    New York City     57.4
    Portland     57.4
    Baltimore     57.5
    Houston     58.3
    Nashville     58.3
    Denver    58.8
    Atlanta     59.0
    Minneapolis     59.3
    Boston     59.7
    Dallas     61.0
    Washington, D.C.     66.6

Information from Race and Male Employment in the Wake of the Great 
Recession by Marc Levine of the Center for Economic Development at 
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

http://www4.uwm.edu/ced/publications/black-employment_2012.pdf

The Monument Project

This is an abstract of the "Monument" Project Prof. Herndon's project. You will do some work with Prof. Herndon this summer or during the school year. Take a look and see if you have any ideas and contact Prof. Herndon.

“MONUMENT” at its core is a photographic portrait series of African American men who have reached their majority (50-60 years and older.)  Some may be well known.  Some will be lifted from obscurity.  They all will have lived upstanding lives and served as models of healthy manhood.  On one level Monument is an exhibition, a gallery collection of large photographic images.  Monument comes alive, though, when the multimedia components (video, picture stories, slideshows and audio interviews) are added.  These additional layers of information afford the viewing public access to rich media, on the web, on-demand.  The viewers can have it when and where they like, in a gallery space, online, and the stories can be made available for subsequent publication.    

The African American male is the most vilified and denigrated character in the story of the United States of America.  Yet, he continues to survive and prosper.  He has served in every role, including the President of the United States.  Yet, the American mindset that the black man has no right to honor or distinction persists in many circles.  I intend to confront that mindset, head-on.

These portraits are conceived first, as large vertical images, 7 to 8 feet tall.  These large graphic images will be created in such a way, as to avoid the trappings of ego, for the subjects and the photographer (myself.)  The purpose of the scale will be to allow the examination in detail, of the faces of these 50 to 100 men from around the country.   

Seeing the men on such a monumental scale, eye-to-eye, will conceptually force the viewer to confront their individual beliefs about the African American male.  Those beliefs will stand in clear relief when the viewer is subsequently afforded the curriculum vitae of the individuals, and interviews, as part of the exhibition.  The portraits appeal to one type of image consumer, the museum/ gallery culture and can provide legitimacy. Media coverage of the gallery exhibition will also serve to promote the larger Monument project.  The multimedia component appeals to a different demographic, the younger viewer and the Internet savvy.  It also provides an instant global potential to the Monument message. This level of access gives the ability for the “message,” of the solvency of the Black male role model, to spread further, as the multimedia elements can be digested and re-presented at a later time.  The website will be capable of accepting the work of other artists and journalists.  This will allow the text of Monument to grow into a document that the African American community can take ownership of, over time.

There is an insidious strain of thought and practice that leads us to believe or assume that we can judge a person by his appearance.  Since the early 1900’s the pseudo-science of Eugenics has claimed that “reading” physical characteristics can tell one something about the essence of a man.  Pure racism inculcates this same “knowledge” in the member of a culture where it exists.  This essentialism has been the bane of the African’s existence in the Americas.  It is my premise, this series can help put this essentialism to rest, or at the least, combat it.

The project will require a year, to a year and half, to make portraits across the United States.  During that time, promotion of the effort will build public awareness, to help gain access to significant venues and a critical examination of the work produced.  This time frame will also place us squarely in the 2012 U.S. election season, with early exhibitions prior to the election date.  As with the last election, I anticipate a healthy dose of racial animus accompanying the campaign, assuming President Obama is the Democratic candidate.

The Book List

Brainwashed, by Tom Burrell
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman
The Believing Brain,  Michael Shermer
Appetite for Self Destruction,  by Steve Knapper
Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Joan Lehrer
Brandwashed, by Martin Lindstrom
The Business of Media, by Larry Dignan
The Buying Brain, A. K. Pradeep
Buyology, by Martin Lindstrom
The Empire of Illusion, by Christopher Hedges
The End of Overeating, by David Kessler
Laughing Fit to Kill, by Glenda Carpio
Mixing It Up, by Ishmael Reed
The Political Brain, by Drew Westen
Program or Be Programmed, by Doug Roshkoff
Propaganda, by Edward Bernays
Public Opinion, by Walter Lippman
Slavery, Propaganda and the American Revolution,  by Patricia Bradley
Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry, by Mel Watkins
Technopoly, by Neil Postman
The 10 Commandments of Propaganda, by Brian S. Patrick
Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models, by Albert Bandura