By: Ruani Ribe, ‘12

On November 4, 2008, people all over the United States rejoiced as Barack Obama was announced President and an era of change was ushered in.  Indeed, the Obamas’ race was, and still is, a popular and widely discussed aspect of the 2008 presidential election.  Having never seen a Black Democratic nominee or a Black woman come so close to gaining the title of First Lady, America closely watched and scrutinized the Obamas’ every move.  On June 3, 2008 at a rally in St. Paul Minnesota, Barack and Michelle Obama “fist-pounded”# one another, causing a media storm. Called a “fist bump of hope” (McShane), the “fist bump heard ‘round the world” (qtd. in Sklar), and even “a terrorist fist jab” (“ACTION: The Obamas’ affectionate “fist bump” is no “terrorist fist jab”) a country accustomed to kisses and hugs on the political stage became obsessed with trying to interpret this gesture. What is interesting about the fist bump is its origins in African-American street culture among men.  In this way, it symbolizes a moment where race, class, and gender intersect. This intersection was a point of serious debate and careful strategizing for the Obamas while on the campaign trail.  In order to appeal to an entire nation of voters, Barack and Michelle Obama had to carefully construct their public personas as they involve race, gender, and their respective political offices. The need to understand and interpret what the “fist-bump” signifies and to move past society’s ills as they relate to race through a “post-racial” moment only highlights how deeply embedded our stereotypes and expectations concerning race, class, gender, and the offices of President and First Lady are. Here, lies the inherent risk in hinging the alleviation of these ills on the election of a Black President.

Much of the emphasis on race, during the days leading up to the election, dealt with the prospect of electing America’s first Black president, but also discussed the extent to which Barack Obama could be considered Black, especially in relation to his wife, Michelle Obama.  Her visible African-American ancestry makes her the symbol of a “perceived ‘racial’ challenge, [which] only heightens, multiplies, and magnifies the antagonism toward her” (Horne and Horne-Wells 126).  In other words, some say her dark skin tone, in comparison to the lighter skin color of her husband, has caused her to become the site of many of America’s displaced racial anxieties.  Here, implicitly lies the issue of “colorism”, or color-based discrimination that suggests lighter skin is preferable to darker skin (Hunter 2), which in no way pits the Obamas as equals.  Historically, “whiteness is believed to represent civility, intelligence, and beauty, and in contrast Blackness and brownness are seen as representing primitiveness, ignorance, and ugliness” (Hunter 49).  In today’s society, one may no longer be as close-minded as to ascribe primitiveness or ignorance to skin color, but today’s colorism does conflate Blackness with ugliness, and dark skin still carries connotations of a sense of fear and danger that stem from these earlier ascriptions.  This fear might be magnified by anxieties over the Obamas’ ability to represent America as a whole over the Black community which their race ties them to.

While it is clear that Barack Obama is not white, his lighter skin places him on the whiter end of this color spectrum, thus one, especially one eager to see the onset of a “post-racial” society, might readily attribute civility, intelligence, and beauty, if we are to think of beauty as possessing some level of social capital and increased likelihood of access to resources and upward mobility (Hunter 71), to Obama rather than the full weight of the connotations of the dark skin on the other end of the spectrum. To add to this, it is widely known that Obama is the son of a white woman and a Kenyan Black man. In this way, Obama can be seen as occupying a middle ground between dominant whites and oppressed racial minorities  (Hunter 116) choosing to distance himself from race by downplaying his own race and avoiding racial issues whenever possible (Cooper 651-652). However, this middle-ground is further complicated considering he is descended from an immigrant father, which places him outside the “legacy of slavery and Jim Crow” and outside the history of racial oppression as it is related to constructions of Blackness in America (Hollinger 1035). For those who see him as representative of Black progress in America, this could be problematic and may contribute to views of Obama as “less Black”. In this sense, the white majority can rest assured that Barack Obama does not fully identify with the Black community of America, as a part of the anxiety over the Obamas’ race concerned their ability to represent America as a country over a biased focus which would champion the specific issues of Blacks. The construction of Obama’s race avoids outright appeals to both whites and Blacks and in this way, he gives off a sense of racelessness and quells fears of appearing “race-loyal” (Copper 653) or “too Black”.

Michelle Obama’s darker skin tone, on the other hand, may have made her a more likely candidate for this sort of bias in the eyes of the public. Margaret Hunter notes that “many African-Americans consider light-skinned members of the community to be less identified with other Blacks, and less interested and knowledgeable about Black culture” (Hunter 104). This idea then suggests that darker-skinned members of the community are more likely to identify with Blacks and more likely to be concerned with the Black community. Taken together, one might conclude that Michelle Obama’s dark skin caused people to view her less favorably, on the parts of both the general historical perceptions of darker skin in America, and also the perception that as a “more Black,” or darker-skinned, person she is more likely to place loyalty to her own race over her loyalty to American citizens as a whole.

Standing before an enormous crowd of her husband’s supporters years later on June 3, 2008, there is no question that her current class status somewhat distances Michelle Obama from her working-class childhood.  But it is also this new class status that has made her the prime target of attacks labeling her “as an unpatriotic angry Black woman nursing racial grievances despite her successful life story” (McGinley 722).  This comment points to one area where calling our society “post-racial” becomes problematic: in that these critics inextricably tie race to class and social status.  Citing Michelle Obama’s “successful life story” as a reason to refrain from continuing to find fault with the treatment of race in America suggests that her own life is proof that anyone from any racial or socio-economic background can rise to her level, and that race did not, and does not continue to act as an obstacle in the pursuit of this level of success.  Interestingly then, she gets “labeled uppity” (Williams 834) by critics, as if she should remain forever humbled for having been allowed to achieve the American Dream.  Barack Obama faces similar criticism, despite his own middle-class upbringing.  Though his “Meet the President” biography seems to do a little more than necessary to emphasize his modest roots, it does make clear that he does not come from the same privileged background as many of his predecessors.  It points out that he was raised by a single mother and his grandparents who didn’t have much money but brought him up with “values from the Kansas heartland” where they grew up (“Meet the President”).  Still, he has been called an elitist and his aides have worried that “his intellect can be mistaken for condescension and that his composure can seem like detachment” (Saslow).  After all, his upbringing, at least the way it is described in this biography, is in stark contrast to the Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard educations he received later in life.

Both Obama’s education and humble background were critical to presenting himself as what Frank Rudy Cooper calls the “Good Black Man”.  His intellect makes a certain degree of fairness and level-headedness attributable to him, and his composure lends itself to combating the temperamental nature that is easily attributable to Cooper’s “Bad Black Man.”  In essence, Barack and Michelle Obama’s education levels, lifestyles, and comportment are assessed with relation to their race or are used strategically to avoid fulfilling stereotypes or fears of what could potentially come from a Black President and First Lady. The focus of these sorts of discussions may be on class, but race is present, even if it is implicitly exposing the contradiction of our want to see our President and First Lady representative of a particular Black narrative and struggle, yet with the education and experience to be fit for these roles, which have been traditionally defined by the white, upper-class. For President Barack Obama, this means finding middle ground between appearing fit for the strong, powerful, and masculine role of President of the United States while avoiding stereotypes of hyper-masculine, angry, aggressive Black man and also that of the “Black Buddy”, a “safe, but non-threatening Black identity”, that is “physically Black yet lacking a racial identity” (Collins 168). In other words, masculinity is interpreted in very different ways where race is concerned, both in presentation of one’s self and in the reception of that self.

The American presidency is usually framed through “experience, toughness, feistiness, stubbornness, [and] grit” (Cooper 650) in the vein of traditional masculinity, however, while these characteristics are admired in the American [white] presidency, they evoke a certain level of fear when attached to Black men.  Cooper argues that Obama’s race in conjunction with fulfilling the typical masculine characteristics of the American presidency would cast him as the angry, “Bad Black Man.  In order to avoid this stereotype, and in turn, avoid losing voters, Barack Obama had to feminize many aspects of his public persona.  In this sense, his “restraint, calm demeanor, collaborative style, willingness to speak with enemies, and finely honed language” (Cooper 650) helped to distance him from the “Bad Black Man” images associated with people such as Black Nationalists or Al Sharpton in that all of these people’s politics are exclusive, race-affirming and condemning towards whites.  In feminizing himself in order to construct a Black masculinity that was palatable to the American masses, he risked appearing not manly enough for the Presidency, yet Cooper notes that as a Black man, “Obama had more room to negotiate a partly feminized masculinity.”  Further, lest critics cast his feminine characteristics as evidence of homosexuality#, he had his marriage and picturesque family to thwart those claims.  Still, as his feminization tactics are largely attempts to distance himself from race, he risks fulfilling other stereotypes, specifically of what Patricia Hill Collins calls the “Black Buddy,” one who’s Blackness is only present externally, but not on a behavioral or cultural level (Collins 168) and therefore, appearing as an insufficient representative of Blacks. In deemphasizing his masculinity, Obama is “stripped of the seemingly dangerous parts of Blackness, leaving the useful parts of difference to satisfy the tastes of a multicultural America” (Collins 168).  If this is what people view as post-racial about Obama, one should question whether it is race we are trying to move beyond or if it is the differences caused by separate racial identities and cultures.  The Black vote was heavily skewed in Obama’s favor, but appearing “in conformity with dominant, White sensibilities” and too detached from Black culture could have cast him as an insufficient representative of Blacks and as using race to his advantage.

To digress slightly, it is interesting to consider Barack Obama’s campaign involvement with popular culture in trying to understand why Blacks did not perceive him as a “Black Buddy” of sorts.  As both Blacks and whites may attribute “authentic” representations of Black culture to the over representation of images of Blackness in popular culture that stem from stereotypical images of working-class Blacks.  Maybe then, Barack Obama’s level or engagement with popular culture during his campaign placed him, to some extent, on the level of these perceivably “authentic” Blacks.  Additionally, it may have been doubly advantageous in that it made him more prominent in the minds of Americans while acting to place some distance between himself and the elitism and stuffiness of dominant [white] political culture.  We might also understand the “fist-pound” gesture as being representative of Black culture and popular culture simultaneously, much like his gesture during a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, which alluded to Jay-Z’s “brushing dirt off your shoulder” #.

Michelle Obama is not exempt from appearing unfit for the role of First Lady as a Black woman. The stereotype of the angry Black woman, or what Patricia Hill Collins calls the “‘bitch’”, pits Black women as “aggressive, loud, rude, and pushy” (Collins 123) and “is designed to defeminize and demonize them”(Collins 123), both of which would be quite tactful for critics who wish to show Michelle Obama as incompatible with the First Lady role. Even the more positively connoted “Bitch with a capital ‘B’”, “super-tough, super-strong women who are often celebrated” (Collins 124) that has been associated with Michelle Obama is problematic. That “she was considered too outspoken and too critical of her husband, and perhaps not as domesticated as many of the public would like” (McGinley 722) serves to contribute to fears that she is capable of her own, independent agenda and further, to emasculate an already feminized President. In the face of criticism, fears mounted that she could ruin “her husband’s chances for presidency, tainting him as ‘too Black’” (McGinley 723). In conformance with the traditional role of First Lady, which “personifies domesticity and traditional womanhood”, who is “regarded as a good wife and mother” and in more recent history, is credited with pursuing some sort of social cause, as long as it is compatible with the President’s policies (Watson and Eksterowicz 366), Michelle Obama adopted a more “feminine” image as the election drew nearer and began to place emphasis on her own struggle to balance work and family and her goal to help American women do the same (De Nies). Now, Michelle Obama is probably most well-known for her fashion sense, which is uniquely affordable and accessible, perhaps to combat the attribution of materialism associated with Black women (Collins 126), and has received considerable press on how she structures family time, chose a school for her children, and created a home in the White house (McGinley 723). While this might be seen by some as retrogressive (Williams 842) especially succeeding such active First Ladies as Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama’s race affords her less freedom to portray herself as active and independent minded, since most stereotypes masculinize Black women as the anti-thesis of the feminine “lady”, a status that then becomes attainable only by white women (Williams 841-842).

While Michelle Obama began to fit the fashionable First Lady mold that we have come to expect because of past First Ladies like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, her controversial image faded into the background.  The iconic “fist-bump”, on the other hand, sparked conversation because it was different—even as America stands for inclusivity and embracing difference, the media coverage alone is evidence that no one knew what to do with this seemingly out of place gesture.  It was analyzed and dissected in exactly the same way that the Obamas’ camp knew they would be picked apart on the basis of their race.  None of this is to say that the Obamas meant to downplay or exploit any aspect of their identities, but in their careful projections of their identities as they relate to race, they also had to figure in class and gender.  If the image of post-racial is constructed by altering perceptions of various other things, all that this is evidence of is a certain amount of fluidity in each of these constructs, but certainly not a society that is beyond race, or any other markers of difference.  Not even Obama himself is post-racial.  His attempts at remaining in-between Black and white are only effective because of the stereotypes and rigid notions we have of gender and race.  When gender, race and class are no longer the basis for determining who is fit and not fit for roles like the President and First Lady, then we might be on our way to being post-racial.  We may be past de facto racism in the US, but the days leading up to the election show evidence that colorism still exists.  Furthermore, the attention to both Barack and Michelle Obama’s backgrounds demonstrate that class is tied to certain levels of authenticity concerning race, and finally, the negotiation of their images between various gendered Black stereotypes to ensure public approval reveals that gender biases are deeply entrenched in perceptions of race, as well.  For right now, calling this point in American history post-racial completely ignores the large role that both class and gender played in this election and downplays the many inequalities and disadvantages that still exist there, especially when they are combined with race.

]]> http://pennlbb.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/the-fist-bump-race-gender-in-the-obamas-2008-campaign-trail/feed/ 0 pennlbb The Fist Bump http://pennlbb.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/featured-artwork-kai/ http://pennlbb.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/featured-artwork-kai/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:48:23 +0000 pennlbb http://pennlbb.wordpress.com/?p=331 ]]> By Samira Alston, ’13

The Little Black Book selected Nana-Yaa Misa, president of African Rhythms and co-founder of M.A.P.S. as Miss Independent for fall ‘ll. We had the opportunity to ask her about her family’s cultural contributions to her college experience, future goals, and advice to future students at Penn.

LBB: I was also wondering what your goals were, did you want to go straight to med school or take a year off, or something else?

NM: I’ve always wanted to take a year off to relax and live, but I realized that as you get closer to that point, you have to find a job and I have to say that it is intimidating and overwhelming and though I still don’t know what I want to do, I really want to travel. Though I’m scared to travel and to step out of my box, I really want to. I’m thinking about Botswana or Senegal, especially because I have found a love of Senegal because some of the dances that we do in African Rhythms are from there. At the same time, I want to branch out of Africa and I am thinking about places in South America and Europe.

LBB: So you mentioned that you grew up in Ghana, tell me about that and the experience of coming to the United States?
NM: I lived there for twelve years and came to the United States in eighth grade. I went to school in Bethesda and I lived in Silver Spring. However, I finished 6th grade in South Africa. I feel like the biggest cultural shock was communicating with adults. I was raised to give extreme respect to adults so much so that I had a fear of communicating with people that I classified as ‘adults’. So it was really surprising because in 8th grade, not only were people communicating with the teachers, some were rude and talked back. It was good and bad because it allows students to talk to the teachers about ideas and points but also allows them to be disrespectful. Even to this day, I have a little trouble with it. Another culture shock was how ‘free’ everyone was and I remember that my mom would always find a reason for us not to go out or why something was dangerous. I even remember that she didn’t want us to learn how to drive! To this day, I don’t know how but I do want to learn eventually.

LBB: What else do you do on campus?

NM: My friends and I started M.A.P.S. (Minority Association Pre-Health Students) during my sophomore year of college. We wanted to start a group where minority students could come together collectively for resources and advice. It is a chapter of an already established national organization. I am also a part of Onyx Senior Honor Society.

LBB: What advice would you give young black women, who aspire to enroll or are enrolled at Penn?

NM: When I came to Penn, initially, I was intimidated at first because I was a minority who didn’t come in with the privileged background that many have here. It was a long time before I learned that I was here and that I deserved it. I learned that I am not only here as a Black woman, but also as a student, an individual and an intellectual. I advise other upper and underclassman to definitely own your experience, acknowledge and appreciate your background, yet remember that you are a part of a larger community.

I have never held hands beneath the stars.
I have never felt fingers caress my knuckles
While stars winked at me.
The pressure of palms in prayers of longing,
The pain of the release, praise of security,
These feelings are foreign.
I have never seen moonlight grace brown skin,
Neither his nor mine, neither in this life nor the last,
But I imagine it is to live for.
I am more or less in the daylight,
Sun beating on shoulder blades like Congos,
Under which I am absorbing letters.
Or in the midst of those who are.
The turn of the page like a waltz.
Or an embrace, or these things of which I’ve no knowledge.
The closest I’ll come as of now is between those covers.
The bindings and ink enclose my mind with possibility.
Till experience meets awareness

The digital version of the magazine can now be viewed online, physical copies will be distributed on Penn’s campus. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted for the fall issue, we are all so incredibly proud of how it all turned out. In the mean time, consider submitting to the winter issue of LBB, which will be released in February 2012. An official call for submissions will be made sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The online version of the magazine can be found here

The LBB sat down with a lady sporting one of the most magnificent voices on campus to find out what it’s being the only girl in an otherwise all boy band, what a ‘run’ is, and her future plans in the music business.

MAJOR/MINOR:

Marketing major, French minor.

LBB: FAVOURITE SINGERS:

Kristan: Male: Stevie Wonder

Female: Teena Marie (Rick James’s right hand gal)

LBB: FAVOURITE ALBUM:

Kristan: Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall (and she proceeds to get up and do a little M.J. dance)

LBB: FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO:

Kristan: Snoop Dogg Sensual Seduction

LBB: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SINGING?

Kristan: I actually started singing in high school. The first time I really sang in a show was in my Junior year. We had this random interim band teacher and he tried to put a group of girls together to sing for our annual arts festival. So he created this trio and I had to sing James Brown “I Got the Feeling” So that’s the first time I sang for some people.

LBB: DID YOU SING BEFORE, WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? AT HOME?

Kristan: When I was younger my grandma used to make me sing when I came home everyday day. She used to make me put on these fake concerts. She would pick songs and I would just sing and perform them for her. We would do it everyday for like an hour or two hours.

LBB: SO YOU GUYS WOULD HAVE THESE SECRET CONCERTS?

Kristan: Secret concerts everyday after school. It started when I was about like 6 when my grandparents moved in with us. Yeah she used to like torture me. She just liked my voice ever since I was little. My parents didn’t even know I sang until I was 15…16.

LBB: SO WHAT ABOUT SINGING DO YOU MOST ENJOY?

Kristan: I just love the feeling I get, the gratification I get when I perform one of my original songs and people are like, “That’s so beautiful.” “That’s so great.” “I can relate to that.”

LBB: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO SING OTHER PEOPLE’S SONGS?

Kristan: It’s fun. As long as it’s done in good taste. I’m really particular about singing songs that are not degrading to woman or anything like that. I guess, I just want people that talk about real stuff. I usually don’t like songs that are mainstream. Every now and then I’ll do something that’s fun and mainstream, but I really like songs that are about love, and social change and sh*t.

LBB: WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING THE ONLY GIRL IN AN OTHERWISE ALL-BOY BAND?

Kristan: It’s interesting you know they got crazy egos. Men are crazy. They like to yell at each other and stuff and I’m just kind of like the calm, quiet, laid back one most of the time. Every now and then they test me and I have to go off. But for the most part it’s cool. They’re like a bunch of big brothers and I’ve always related to dudes. They are less catty than girls and stuff. Plus I’m not really in competition with them, because I’m a singer and they’re all rappers and musicians.

LBB: SO WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT INSPIRATION?

Kristan: Well I would say one of the main reasons I’ve always stayed in Inspiration is – because it’s difficult to balance a band, and being in an a cappella group, and trying to sing solo stuff – but the sound you can make singing with a bunch of voices is absolutely incredible and is something you can not replicate by yourself. Plus the friends that I’ve made, and the traditions. There’s a rich tradition there in that group, and a history that I feel we have to preserve since we’re the only black a cappella group on campus. The only one that is doing music of the African Diaspora. I think that’s something I’m just glad to be apart of.

LBB: SO YOUR SOLO CAREER?

Kristan: Last February at the Arts Garage I sang two original songs; Run Away and another song called Break Down. They were really just personal songs and the response I got from the crowd was just insane. I have the videos posted online and a lot of people commented on them and said like “I love that” or whatever so that felt really good. And I’ve written a solid collections of songs. I want to do a CD, but it’s just a matter of getting the people together to record it.

LBB: WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO AFTER GRADUATION?

Kristan: I love music and I think it’s always going to be a part of my life. And if I’m given the opportunity to do it as a profession then of course I’m going to take advantage of that. But my primary focus right now is trying to do something that would be related to marketing or advertising, because those are my two passions. I know I’m going to always be doing music on the side. I plan on launching my own record label once I make enough money with marketing and stuff.

LBB: WHAT’S IT LIKE HAVING THE LAST NAME SOCK?

Kristan: Hahaha. People made fun of me when I was running track. They used to say, “Sock it to em’ and I didn’t get it.” But it’s not weird having the last name Sock…well it is weird but I’m used to it. My nickname is K-Sock.

LBB: DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR CRAPPY SINGERS TO IMPROVE THEIR VOICE?

Kristan: Just listen to good singers and try to mimic them. It’s funny because a lot of people say, “I really like the way you do your runs”, but I would just spend hours mimicking the way people do their runs. Like Coco from SWV has this run in I Get So Weak that I would just run over and over and over again. So if you like someone’s run in a song just practice it over time and you’ll get good at it.

LBB: WHAT’S A RUN?

Kristan: A run is um…like when you…like…

LBB: LIKE “AAAAAHAHAHAHA”?…

Kristan: …yeah like that.

LBB: THAT’S HARD TO EXPLAIN. HAHAHA

Kristan: Yeah it’s hard to explain.

All Photos by Rhaisa Kai.

Rhaisa: Who is Poetic Republic?

Greg: My man Opp Ques, I’m the Rembrandt, my man Ashanti on drums, Brian Robinson on bass, BJ who can never be gay on keys, DJ Dot, and Angelo Huff, the Huffinator on guitar.

Rhaisa: What made you start Poetic Republic?

Ques: PR was born from the people because the people don’t know what they want to hear until you give them something to listen to. So we’re poets first. We’re emcees first. So the art is there first. But the republic part, we speak for the people. They don’t know what they want to say, they don’t know what they want to hear, so we’re here to give them to listen to and go home with and soak in their souls.

Rhaisa: But how do you know that they don’t know what to hear?

Ques: It’s evident in the radio. They listen to that crap a million times a day and they think they love it. But when something new comes on they like, “aww this my joint.” But why is this your joint when the same ten songs that came on before was your joint too. This is completely different than that. It’s the same repetitive, degrading, murderous message to our people and to all people. And they soak it in. But when they hear us, they like, “that’s that real, this is what I need in my life.” Me and Rem used to sit outside of clubs and talk to cats, Rastas and stuff, talking to us about our beliefs. And our beliefs mean nothing to anybody, but they wanted to know what we were in to because they said our stuff touched their soul and they never heard nothing like that before. So that’s the whole reason why Poetic Republic is as big as it is when we come on stage because we know that the people don’t know what they want to hear because after we get off stage, they love it. They take that out with them and they soak it in.

Rhaisa: Were you afraid to make new things like this because you have your snap music and that’s come out, and now you have to compete with that. Are you trying to be mainstream?

Ashanti: I am not trying to be mainstream. I am not trying to be anywhere above what’s out right now. Mainstream to me is that degrading and murderous stuff ad I don’t want to be that. I want to play good music, I want people to vibe, I want people to understand my message that poetic is trying to send. I just want it to feel good. I want people to come up to me off stage and have people tell me that I made them feel good tonight.

Rhaisa: So who are your influences?

Angelo: Coltrane, Miles Davis, Christan Scott. But as far as the old hip hop goes, cats like Nas, the Wu, the cats that were bringing it real and rugged. The cats that naturally touched me and my peers on a level where we aspired to be like them. Not be like them as far as sound, but as far as the way they lived when they touched the mic. Or be like Miles who could turn his back and still have everyone’s attention.

(Ques agrees)

Rhaisa: (to Ques) I notice you turn your back a lot, are you doing that because of Miles or are you doing that because of other reasons?

Ques: Cuz it’s not about me, it’s about the music. You don’t need to see my face, but what comes out of me. A lot of times, we get in that zone. I’m just zoning. Because honestly for me, it’s a spirit that moves through the music and I believe in that wholeheartedly. So when I’m zoning, I’m away and I want you to feel what’s coming out of me, that’s all the matters.

Rhaisa: What is zoning? Make me feel what you feel when you’re on stage.

Brian: I got to quote one of my favorite bass players, the bass player from Tower of Power. He established it like this: a group of friends walking down the street, and someone threw a brick through a window and screwed up the whole vibe you guys had going. It’s just this unspoken connection that everyone has with the crowd, with the people. Everything locks into place. You feel nothing but what you are doing at that exact moment. Nothing matters, no cares, no worries. It’s completely stress-free 25, 45 minutes – however long it is – it is the absolute best feeling in the entire world.

Rhaisa: So if you were not known past the borders of Cleveland, would you still feel satisfied?

DJ Dot: It doesn’t really matter how many people know for me, it just matters what good I do through my music and through my life. If I was ever known outside of Cleveland, the question is: did I do my job for the people right here where I am. That’s how I would like to be judged.

Rhaisa: Have you guys ever felt frustrated? Was there ever time when you were like fuck music, I’m sick of it.

BJ: It’s not really no frustration because when you’re around a group of guys doing the same thing and trying to get to the same place that you’re trying to go, there’s no frustration because we’re all working together and everyone’s on the same page. That’s why you have rehearsals, because when you meet and come together, there’s no frustration because everyone’s on one chord. And that goes back to the rules and being in the zone with everyone doing their part, so there’s no frustration because we’re all coming together as one.

Rhaisa: But past the rehearsals. What about the music you hear on the radio that you have to compete with?

Ques: That is definitely frustrating because the powers that be originated a sound, like these are the people that have been around in the game since it started and they were producing that real back in the day. But now because hip hop is such big business where you could drop one song and be rich for the rest of your life, they switched their mind. It’s become such big business that all else doesn’t matter. So yes, it’s frustrating in a sense where I’m shopping my demo to a label that is representing the real, or has at one point, and they’re turning my demo down just because I’m not talking about shaking your booty in the club or smacking my girlfriend, or killing my mom or some other type of craziness. They always need some type of controversy to sell records. They don’t believe in longevity, they don’t believe in the spirit of the music anymore. That’s frustrating to us. That’s why when you see us on stage, you see us going crazy because we do this so hard, we live this everyday. I would call off from my job every single day if I could and rock the stage in front of 5 people or 20,000 people. I would do it everyday because the music matters, the people in front of me matters.

Angelo: For me, the biggest frustration is when people have that power to reach that many people, and when they reach that many people, they just have a fucked up message. The message will actually be garbage. That’s what I’m frustrated with. Me, if I had that much power, I would be doing so many positive things. But a lot of these cats be doing negative things because the music business is a business. It’s a plastic hallway full of pimps and hustlers. Everything is so cut-throat nowadays.

Rembrandt: The major thing is that people like sex, violence, and guns a lot. But the thing about Poetic is that we’re the best. We got the best players, we work hard and it’s going to shine through eventually. They can’t stop us man. They tried to, we couldn’t even perform in this place [The Grog Shop] two years ago.

Ques: They wouldn’t even let us in the doors.

Rembrandt: But it’s a lot different now. We got the best people and we’re just going to keep it moving. We the best, we the best, we the best (laughs).

Rhaisa: If there is a musician in the past who we all know about, who do you think would represent you? If you were reincarnated, who would you have been?

Angelo: I know mine, Joe Henderson. He’s a saxophonist from the ‘50s to the late ‘90s. He was a jazz saxophonist for Blue Note. Yeah, he would probably be me. If you are reading this interview or listening to it, go home and get a Joe Henderson album and it don’t matter which one.

Rembrandt: For me, it would be Scott Joplin. An innovative classical, ragtime, jazz, blues composer. And Prince. I don’t wear clothes like that, but he’s the greatest artist ever. He’s not dead yet but I do cut the seat out of my pants sometimes though on the weekend.

Rhaisa: Umm, that’s a little too much information. But thank you, I’m sure the ladies will like it.

Brian: Charles Mingus

BJ: I would have to say that it would be my grandfather Frank Edward. He was a well-known jazz musician, but he was killed when my mother was nine years old, so I never got the chance to meet him. But I go to Washington State, or Kansas where he’s from, and see little articles about him. So that’s how I got the gift because it’s in the bloodline.

Ques: I would have to say that it’s a mix between Nat Cole because of the class that he gives off, the elegance of his voice and the diligence in mastering his craft. That man would stay in the studio and pump out music after music after music. And I would have to say Hendrix because the brother’s nuts, and I would do anything on stage, wear anything, play anything to make any track sound good. Making beautiful mistakes.

Ashanti: I’m so mad you said Hendrix because you completely stole mine for the exact same reason. But he completely stepped outside of his element. He picked up a guitar and decided that he wanted to play it, and I go pretty much with that same mindset, I just want to be different. I don’t want to be the run of the mill. I don’t want people to look at me and say, “there’s goes another brotha.”

Rhaisa: So no one would be a female musician? Are y’all being a little sexist right now?

Ques: Well, I got a little Billie in me.

~Rhaisa Kai.

2. Gnarls Barkley’s second album The Odd Couple, set to release April 8, 2008

3. The movie Notorious, about the life of rapper Notorious BIG, starring Angela Bassett as the slain emcee’s mother, Anthony Mackie (the dude from She Hate Me) as Tupac Shakur, Derek Luke (the dude from Antwon Fisher Story) as Sean Puffy P. Diddy Combs, and introducing Jamal Woolard as Biggie (I wonder if that is the young man who played Biggie in his video for “Sky is the Limit”). This is set to release January 16, 2009 by Fox Searchlight Pictures. (Yeah, we’ll be waiting a minute for this one. But seeing that it is already the middle of March, I guess the wait won’t be that bad.)

~Rhaisa Kai.

However, since I’ve started talking about this more freely, I’ve had people tell me that “I’m better than that” or that my displays of sexuality disgust them, and I was very confused by these reactions. It wasn’t like I was talking about sex in a graphic manner or that out of the blue, I would start telling them about some special sex technique to really get things heated up. I would simply talk about the issues we underwent as people who were too afraid to talk about sex and its effects openly. I know that it is quite accepted to discuss between friends, but when it comes to discussing it with our parents, our children, or someone else who were are not that close to, we tend to close up and get uncomfortable.

So when I told someone about opinions and he responded: “You’re better than that,” I started realizing how closely tied my race, gender, and current status in life was with the words that were coming out of my mouth. And suddenly, I thought about how deeply the ethics of Black respectability are still intertwined within our lives and how we had to be twice, even three times as good as anyone else in order to be seen. And I understand where this comes from within my own family. My grandmother reads on the third grade level because she was born in the Jim Crow South where Black people weren’t seen as deserving of a decent education. And now I, just two generations removed, am a student within an ivy- league institution. But within this upward mobility, the pressure not to mess up has come down hard on my shoulders because my family is the epitome of struggle, and they are not trying to have me go backward. However, the problem enters when my thinking goes outside of the bounds of “respectability” and seeing that talking openly about sex has long been seen as a trait of the neighborhood ho, it’s hard to fully accept and listen to my views on sexuality. And with this being coupled with the long history of Black women being seen as lascivious beings who will readily entice any man that walks past, my family wants me to break free of that image. And I respect that.

Nevertheless, I’ve gotten slack from young ladies my age who, whether they know it or not, are still locked into this mind frame of being seen as respectful at all times. And I realized that a Black woman talking about her sexuality and being open with it is still seen as taboo on our campus. And again, who wants to mess her reputation because I know that I don’t. But I feel that the problem comes when we almost immediately see her as a woman who messes around with a lot of guys simply because she is not afraid to own that aspect of herself. I have been guilty of this myself, so I’m not out here to bash people. But I am saying that it is time to stop seeing this as a touchy subject that only “loose” women are willing to discuss. Now, I am not telling Black women to become sexually free in the sense that they are willing to share their bodies with anyone, because it is too dangerous for all that, and the fact that people between 15 and 24 are being affected HIV the most attests to the danger. But we do need to start seeing ourselves as sexual beings and not being ashamed of it because we’re Black, or because we’re women, or because we’re trying to rise as far as possible within our careers. For too long, we as women, especially those who are Black, have been oppressed with the teaching of how we should be pure as possible so that men or White people can’t find dirt to hold it against us and our growth. But the only way to break that mold is to own your womanhood, no matter how you define it and not allow people to create those aspects that make us who we are into separate entities that are in conflict with each other because they aren’t.

~Rhaisa Kai.