Black Gothic, Racecraft & Witch’s Brew- Mixtape and Essay

   

Black Gothic, Racecraft & Witch’s Brew

By: Kiara Richards

Race has been used throughout American history to justify social inequalities and perpetuate a racist system of beliefs and practices that oppress and discriminate against marginalized citizens, specifically African and Afro- Americans in the US. Racism in America shapeshifts forms we see present day with individual prejudices, biases, inequitable practices, and institutionalized policies. Racism also operates in supernatural forces beyond what is visible. Studying and understanding what Ms.Jaleesa Harris identifies and explains as the “Black Gothic” terms like Social death, Afro-pessimism, and Racial capitalism give us an understanding of some of the effects of the afterlife of slavery and how it contributes to the hauntings of Black American and how the origins of race and racism are the conception of America’s social construct and capitalist systems of power dynamics and privilege.  

 

I want to explore a concept in Black Gothic that may be familiar to some but new for others, Racecraft. Racecraft, a term coined by sisters Karen and Barbara Fields from their book “Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life”, the sisters argue that “racism is not a consequence of race. It is not that people see differences and act on that difference. Instead, a person needs context to create a basis for meaning on that difference. Race is not the starting point; it is the outcome.” Racecraft is seen as an illusion of race and refers to the ways stereotypes and beliefs about race are a myth but have been used in racist motives to structure our American society. Racecraft has been used to maintain power, control, and produce profit from marginalized groups of people, especially Black Americans. Instead of race being a biological or a genetic fact it is what has been used to justify the atrocities and horror of racism in America. Like the legendary Malcolm X once said, “Ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray!” We have all been deceived and not by some type of mysterious witchcraft, but America’s Racecraft. This mystical ideology of race contributes to the foundation of Racial capitalism and continues to exist in the structures of society.  

I have put together a playlist of music with songs that align with readings and media that were covered in Professor Harris’s Black Gothic conclusion course covering such things as the subprime, financialized bodies, and repair and atonement in the forms of reparations. The title of the playlist “Black Gothic, Racecraft & Witch’s Brew.” 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0KXBTYMjhGh7BIX1tN0OQd?si=t1l-ToTgQqGP5j027DfiWA

Made In America- Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean

Made in America starts with Frank Ocean singing a ballad with the lyrics sounding like a prayer to our ancestors and predecessors giving thanks that they have been able to somehow survive and “make it” in America, alluding to the fact that America is not an equal land of opportunity and freedom. Jay-Z and Kanye add to the song bars about navigating through their inherited lives with low chances of survival and freedom beyond incarceration; they both speak to the challenges of fate in America.

Where Do We Go- Solange 

Solange sings about not knowing how to move and settle into a place of safety, a home in America. With lyrics, “We bowed our heads, We broke our bread that night,

Shook our hands” Solange describes a religious ritual experience of prayer and Holy Ghost for protection. This song reminds me of the episode 3 of Lovecraft Country, Holy Ghost.

Free Your Mind- En Vogue

This song is about prejudices and respectability politics. With the chorus singing “ Free your mind and the rest will follow, be color blind don’t be so shallow.” In William Melvin Kelley’s novel, A Different Drummer Tucker Caliban is met with racial stereotypes and urban legends of his ancestry but Tucker uses respectability politics to find liberation post-emancipation.

People Are People- Depeche Mode

This song questions the existence of prejudices and racism in society, saying that so we’re different colors and different creeds but ultimately we’re all people. It is the illusion of race that has divided us.

Freedom- Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar

“Lord forgive me I’ve been running, running blind in truth” Beyoncé and Kendrick ballad about freedom and the motivation to break away from oppression and find your own freedom as a form of reparations.

This Is America- Childish Gambino 

Childish Gambino song about institutional racism and racial capitalism is a song about Black Americans being financialized bodies for America’s profit and propaganda. This song also touches on Black culture being fed the Illusion that money, fame, and social status gives you freedom and escape from the hauntings of the Black Gothic.

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)- Marvin Gaye

Marvin’s protest to misspent American tax dollars and capitalism in America.

Black or White- Michale Jackson

Black or White a song about equality and the illusion of race and racism and the grief it causes. Michael sings, “I am tired of this devil, I am tired of this stuff, I am tired of this business”

The Blacker The Berry- Kendrick Lamar

“Six in the morn', fire in the street

Burn, baby, burn, that's all I wanna see

And sometimes I get off watchin' you die in vain

It's such a shame they may call me crazy

They may say I suffer from schizophrenia or somethin'

But homie, you made me” Kendrick raps about the identity and state of mind he has inherited from America’s institutionalism. He says, “You made me a killer, emancipation of a real n****” Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, supernatural legend of what society and police brutality created as a form of resistance, protection, and emancipation.

Changes- Tupac

Changes addresses inequality, racism, and poverty in America with an ideology that he sees no changes in America’s history of oppression. First coined in 1985 by sociologist Orlando Patterson in his text Slavery and Social Death, the phrase “social death” refers to the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society.

The Story of O.J.- Jay-Z

Lyrics like O.J. like, "I'm not black, I'm O.J." ...okay and “Financial freedom my only hope, Fuck livin' rich and dyin' broke.” In the novel,  “A Different Drummer” character  Reverend Bennett Bradshaw loses sight of what freedom is for Black Americans and becomes a contributing factor to the black bourgeoisie and racial capitalism.

Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey- Sly and the Family Stone

Racial slander and the abuse of the N-word said to Black Americans to demean them and make them inferior. In Octavia Butler’s Kindred the racial dynamics are explored between Dana and her time travels back to her White ancestor Rufus.

Strange Fruit- Billie Holiday

In the final chapter of the novel, A Different Drummer, Mister Leland, who is awakened by the sounds of Bradshaw's lynching. He hears laughter and singing, and he thinks that it is a party welcoming Tucker back. In Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday sings about Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, blood on the leaves and an awful smell of burning flesh. Lynchings continued, especially in the southern states of America, and today public lynchings are displayed in the form of police brutality and killings of unarmed Black men and women.

My President is Black- Young Jeezy Ft. Nas

In 2008 President Barack Obama was able to overcome centuries of institutionalized racism to become America’s first known Black American President. “At some level what the people want to feel is that the person leading them sees the best in them. —President Barack Obama.” Jeezy and Nas raps about the optimism for having a Black President but still highlight the struggles of oppression and lack of equality in America.

Alameda- Solange

“Black faith still can’t be washed away, not even in that Florida water” Solange sings to empower what it means to be Black and praises the physical features and culture that comes with being so and how it never leaves you. In Octavia Butler’s novel, “Kindred,” Dana had lost so much of herself through her temporal collapse and time travels back to the antebellum south. Even with the physical and spiritual loss she still survived her body even with generational trauma in her DNA, which I personally believe is a play on the main character’s name Dana.