Black+Bourgeoisie+page



=__I. Black Bourgeoisie__= by Amiri Baraka (1934 - )

has a gold tooth, sits long hours [1] on a stool thinking about money. sees white skin in a secret room rummages his sense for sense dreams about Lincoln (s) [5] conks his daughter's hair sends his coon to school works very hard grins politely in restaurants has a good word to say [10] never says it does not hate ofays hates, instead, him self him black self [14]

=__II. Biography:__= After graduation, Amiri joined the U.S. Air Force where he became a weatherman and a gunner at bases in Puerto Rico and Germany, later moving to the Lower East Side in New York City. He was part of a growing movement, called the Beat Generation, which was a group that was challenging the morals and establised codes of the country. He saw these people as outsiders, just as he saw himself, so he quickly joined. While involved he met and later married his wife Hettie Cohen. With her, he began to edit //Yugen,// an avant-guarde literary magazine and later started Totem //Press//, another literary magazine. In 1960, was slipping away from and Beat Generation, but when he went to Cuba, which at the time was under Fidel Castro, he witnessed many social activists which persuaded him to finally abandon his spot in the Beat Generation. After moving back, he began to take an increasingly large role in the social happenings in Harlem. From 1961 to 1963, he worked closely with Diane Di Prima on //The Floating// Bear, a literary magazine. In 1965, Baraka divorced his wife and then moved to Harlem. There, he started the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School where he put on anti-white plays that were intended for an African American audience. After his theatre company proved to be a failure, he moved back to Newark and married African-American poet Sylvia Robinson, who is now known as Amina Baraka. He decided to take another try at creating yet another theatre company called the Spirit House which put on plays about opressed African Americans as well as other topics. In 1968, Amiri Baraka co-edited //Black Fire: an Anthology of Afro-American Writing,// which was put on as a benefit for the Black Panther Party. That same yar, Baraka decided to become Muslim and changed his name to Imanu Amiri Baraka (imanu means spiritual leader). Taking hold of his new Muslim roots, he started Kawaida, a Muslim African-American Organization. That same year, he became chairman of the Committe for Unified Newark which lasted until 1975. He later became the chairman and founder of the Congress of African People which was a Pan-African organization that was located in 15 cities and became a successful organization. In 1974, Baraka adopts a Marxist Lennist movement and decides that he should drop the Muslim spiritual name Imanu. Baraka came to his view on Marxisim because, "I came to [...] as a result of having struggled as a Nationalist and found certain dead ends theoretically and ideologically, as far as Nationalism was concerned and had to reach out for a communist ideology." Amiri Baraka has received many prestigious awards including the PEN/Faulkner award, a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation and a fellowship from the Guggeinheim foundation. Amiri Baraka has also had a biography published about him including his life and works. He has been teaching Africana Studies at the State University of New York located in Stony Brook since 1985. Baraka currently lives with his wife in Newark, New Jersey.
 * Amiri Baraka** was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey on October 7, 1934 into a middle-class family. At his high school Baraka was one of the very few African American children, an issue which caused feelings of alienation for him but was a great source of pride for his parents. After graduating from high school in 1951 he was awarded a scholarship to Rutgers University, though a year later he transfered to Howard University. There, he earned his B.A. in English. Though his time at Howard was very beneficial, he later criticized the University, saying, "Howard University shocked me into realizing how desperately sick the Negro could be, how he could be led into self-destruction and how he would not realize that it was the society that had forced him into a great sickenss."



=__III. Annotation:__=

The title gives us the subject of the poem. Bourgeoisie is a word for "middle-class" that evokes negative images of European revolutions, of stuck-up and sophomoric white businessmen. Combined with "black", it comes close to becoming oximoron - such a class of blacks does not exist. However, the alliteration makes the words seem logical together. A gold tooth is a rather disgusting show of luxury. Instead of using the gold tooth to replace a decayed one, he's showing off how rich he is, and it's rather repulsive. Also, the poem starts out without a subject to show that Baraka is not talking about a specfic person, but rather about the whole class in general, and using one person as an example. //**__2 on a stool thinking about money.__**// Again, all this guy does is think about money and how he wants more. //**__3 sees white skin in a secret room__**// He wants to be white and be able to go into places that are for whites only; places he isn't allowed into. //**__4 rummages his sense for sense__**// The black bourgeois feels that what he's doing is unnatural and against his very nature. He can't find the "sense" in what he's doing. Also, the second "sense" could have a double meaning as a homophone for "cents" meaning he wants more money. //**__5 dreams about Lincoln (s)__**// Once more, we have money (pennies) and also the idea of President Lincoln as the freer of slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. //__**6 conks his daughter's hair**__// This is like the gold tooth. He has money, so he wastes it on straightening his daughter's hair. Also, if straight hair was "perferred" back then, he might have been trying to make some money off of his daughter by using her as bait to get a wealthier black man. __//**7 sends his coon to school**//__ "Coon" is a slang term for a black man. Baraka is most likely talking about the son, and if the black bourgeois calls his son his coon, he probably thinks that he is a nobody. Also, sending a son to school is what is expected of a white rich man, another example of this guy wanting to be white. __//**8 works very hard**//__ __//**9 grins politely in restaurants**//__ __//**10 has a good word to say**//__ All of a sudden, we’re hit with some lines that make it seem that this guy isn’t that bad after all and he can be pretty polite. However, being polite was more of a “white” thing to do, so again, he’s doing things a white person would do. After the previous two lines, we had the impression that he was a very polite man. Upon reading this line, we get a serious disappointment - he betrays our expectations, he doesn't do as we think we would. That applies to all this strange being does - his very existence is wrong, unnatural. Ofay is a slang term for the white man used by blacks, so while the majority of black people disliked white people, this guy does not because he wants to be like them. Our black bourgeois hates the fact that his skin is not white and would rather be a person. Also, the incorrect grammar in the last line could hint at the lower education the average black person received and that a black man may never escape the path of all blacks.
 * __Title: Black Bourgeoisie__**
 * __//1 has a gold tooth, sits long hours//__**
 * __//11 never says it//__**
 * __//12 does not hate ofays//__**
 * __//13 hates, instead, him self//__**
 * __//14 him black self//__**

__//**Notes to the poem as a whole:**//__ - The only word that is capitalized is Lincoln, making it stand out in the text. - Every line is a new facet of the bourgeois's life, but they all come together to show how contradictory it all is.

=**__IV. Publication of "Black Bourgeoisie"__**= Frazier's //Black Bourgeoisie// served as one of his most controversial books and was met with bitter reviews from both the middle, professional, and white class. Originally published in France as //Bourgeoisie Noire// in 1955, it was translated into English in 1957 as //Black Bourgeoisie//. Frazier's intention for this epic work was to point out the failure in the typical black middle class, portraying them as solely dependant on capital and participating in a predominant white workforce. His goal was to terminate the myths stating that the black businessmen were making leaps and bounds to a separate black economy. Along with Frazier, Imamu Amiri Baraka wrote his short poem "Black Bourgeoisie" (featured in Frazier's novel) to portray blacks as "self-hating materialists", claiming their attempt to mimic whiteness was disgraceful. This particular poem recieved criticism from many for his harsh criticism on the middle class in 1954.

The book has an obvious communist slant, as the word bourgeoisie is often used in Marxist thought to describe well off individuals who are "enemies" of the worker.

Many feared he was too harsh on wealthier black Americans, and this would cause a division between the poor and rich during an important struggle against racism. The fact that this book was published in the height of the cold war against the communist Soviet Union should not be forgotten either. This poem is not soley a critique on racism, but is for economic reform and internationalism. It speaks not only of black equality, but worker equality. It should be viewed, and was viewed, as a piece of black communist literature. Several events also occurred around the same time this poem was published. Rosa Parks had set the civil rights movement off with a run, as Martin Luther King Jr. entered the scene. This poem, a critique at how some blacks accepted racism, was published when the civil rights movement had finally truly started. Although Frazier published the book, the poem Baraka wrote was a mere reaffirmation on the broader ideas expressed in the book.

Also published in 1969 in his own poetry anthology __Black Poetry 1961-1967__, Baraka's book was criticized as "anti-sematic, homophobic,misogynist, and racially exclusive" and contributed to the Black Arts movement.  media type="youtube" key="20lsAxvsrLQ"

=__V. Literary Criticism__=

Amiri Baraka has long been considered by many critics to be a very opinionated and politically driven poet, who uses whatever means necessary to take stabs at his opponents via his literary works. In context with "Black Bourgeousie," he demonstrates this attribute in how he identifies the self-hate within this 'class' and thus the paradox of its existence. He is a firm believer that Euro-American society and culture has become so ingrained in the minds of African-Americans (or preferrably Blacks in this case), that they can no longer identify themselves. He maintains that one must strip away societal layers to determine one's identity. This is why he chides many "Back-to-Africa" supporters: unbeknowst to them, they are driven by colonial interests passed down from their previous, European captors. He is definitely adept at pointing out contradictions and hypocrisy within others' actions, which have consequently made many readers angry and his works controversial. Because of the issues and ideas that Baraka covers, one might think that his tone comes off as slow and angry. On the contrary, however, Baraka’s works are quick and fast paced, and his work is actually less masterful when read at a slower pace. To quote one critic, Clyde Taylor, “[they are] [q]uick poems, light on their feet, like a fancy middle-weight.” Indeed, a poem by Amiri Baraka has the speed and grace of a middle-weight boxer, throwing quick jabs and punches while staying fast and light. This is arguably the perfect way to describe how Baraka’s poetry works. At first glance, it is simply a quick and breezy, but upon further inspection, there are quick punches and stabs being thrown throughout the work. Perhaps this is why Amiri Baraka has used sarcasm and satire throughout his poem and works, as an attempt to mask his overall idea to untrained and ignorant racist minds. However, not all criticism of Baraka shows him in a positive light; some critics view Baraka as a poet whose opinions have blinded him to what true art may be. Baraka has long been opposed to the capitalist government of the United States, and as such, he views any form of art that is endorsed by a mainstream as trash. Furthermore, most art that he accepts is somehow twisted in his mind, and to quote Douglas A. Ramsey, “comes to him transformed through Marxist-Leninist dialectic into ideology and sociology.” Personally, we think that this author has a very valid point on how Baraka responds to popular culture. He compares basically any music that isn’t jazz to capitalistic and oppressive ideals, which is a very close-minded and unhealthy attitude. It very interesting that Baraka is in a stereotypically open-minded culture of poetry writing, when he has some of the most ignorant and un-accepting ideas about art and music.

=**__VI. Bibliography__**=

Munro, John. "Black Bourgeoisie at 50: Class, Civil Rights, and the Cold War in Black America." __Seven Oaks Magazine__. 3 March 2005. Z Net. 20 February 2007. 

Ramsey, Douglas A. "Los Angeles Times Book Review." __Gale Group__. 1987. Galenet. 26 Feb. 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?YBE=A.D.&locID=rose29034&srchtp=advathr&c=10&NR=baraka&stab=512&ai=U13008516&docNum=H1100004153&bConts=16047&vrsn=3&OP=contains&YDE=A.D.&DYQ=is&ca=1&ste=16&BYQ=is&tab=2&tbst=arp&n=10&GD=any

Roney, Patrick. "The paradox of experience: Black Art and Black idiom in the work of Amiri Baraka. " __African American Review__ 37.2/3 (2003): 407-427. __Platinum Periodicals__. ProQuest. Lower Merion Libraries. 1 Mar. 2007 <[|http://www.proquest.com/]>

Taylor, Clyde. "Modern Black Poets." __Gale Group__. 1973. Galenet. 26 Feb. 2007 [|

"Amiri Baraka." __Poets.org: From the Academy of American Poets__. 2007. Academy of American Poets. February 24, 2007 <[|http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/445>.]

"E. Franklin Frazier and //Black Bourgeoisie//." __University of Missouri Press__. The University of Missouri. 24 February 2007. <[|http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/fall2001/teele.htm]>.

"Imamu Amiri Baraka." //DISCovering Biography//. Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 25 February 2007 <[|http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC>.]