Reflective Essay: How Geography Happens To Black People
Some people are never afforded the opportunity to have someone share a thought that is so profound, it changes the trajectory of their life. Not due to lack of interaction in receiving a message such as this. On the contrary, philosophical wisdom exists everywhere, but only for those willing to receive the message. Indeed, I experienced one of these moments during a casual conversation with my thought-mentor Dr. Kimberly Brown. We were discussing why I had not elected to declare a major and how she could guide me towards a decision. Then, in this moment of boundless examination, when I hinted at my growing love of space she said, “Well, you know April, geography happens to black people.” My soul was immediately frozen, captured by the revelation
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that space happens to black bodies? I paused again, gazing at my thought-mentor, in an attempt to extract the heartiest part of her statement. Still immobile, unable to speak, she smiled with inquiring eyes and said, “Go out in the world and figure it out.”
I share this story since it is significant to understanding what led me to dedicating my life to exploring how geography happens to black people.
I was so struck by Dr. Brown’s statement, that I use it as an academic compass to examine the ways in which I study black geographies, while articulating their significance. Especially with the rise of recent academic discourse that concentrates on the intersectionality of black identity. Often, when scholars investigate the complexities of identity, the focus is directed towards race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, mental or physical illness, religion or disability. Each of these aspects of social identity, help to better understand individual experiences of oppression and dominance-hierarchy in society, over collective assumptions that structural discrimination is universal and felt in the same ways by all people of color. Although this framework is a momentous paradigm in academic contexts, it neglects to incorporate the significance of placed-based identity. Particularly, how space constructs social identity and the ways in which local dominate systems impact black individual and collective selves. When scholars attempt to understand structural racism and individual agency, “the where” can alter how we cognize environmental influences on social interaction. Further, space acts as a social construct in tandem with other social constructions that have been used against the black body. Therefore, “the where” becomes crucial to recognizing how space exists within societal hierarchies, perpetuating inequality across various
scales. Certainly, black bodies over an extended time-space, have become connected to spaces that have been pathologized, based on dominant ideological discourse that situates African-Americans as a threat to social morality and societal organization. As well, the racialization of space has kept blacks confined to erected geographies of anomie, preventing many from moving upwards on the social strata, creating a caste system for the permanent underclass. More specifically, spaces termed the ghetto, hood, inner-city or favelas, that were made for this reason, confirm why they must exist in hierarchal societies. To elaborate further, placism is described as a belief that one should purchase from people or businesses that are situated closely to where they live. However, I offer up a new way of defining placism as a form of discrimination against spaces that are racialized and built on ideologies of sociospatial pathologies connected to blackness, that were created so that they could support the need to spatially marginalize people of color. This is only brushes the surface of what Dr. Brown’s statement meant, reaffirming the importance of discerning the intricacies of black geographies. Still, this was a concrete framework to build upon as well as a starting point for me to explore the individual and collective agency of black bodies in these spaces and the ways they respond to how geography has been used against them. Most scholarship that I have engaged with detail these responses through political, economic and social resistance. Even more, information that explores how culture fits as a form of confrontation is also present. Yet, even these discourses neglect the fullness of black responses that directly antagonize spatial isolation and the how “the where” relates to black life. Therefore, I seek to uncover how these lost conversations through the ways that black people use culture to detail their experiences with space and how black culture and space are interdependent. Consequently, space forms how black culture looks, sounds, feels, tastes and smells. It influences every aspect of the production of black culture due to the ways in which space impacts individual identity and local societal systems that determine life-narratives. For example, although blues has expanded through the spatial diffusion of culture, it still denotes a specific place (Dockery Plantation), sound (harmonica and bottleneck guitar), look (poor and working class black sharecroppers and chain gang workers), feels (hard times connected to the Southern black experience) and time-space (Jim Crown South) all connected to the Mississippi Delta. Therefore, space is a significant determinant for how black culture shapes and distinguishes itself. This realization led to the birth of my specialized major and the approach I would take to researching black geographies. More importantly, I elected to examine the intersections of black spaces and culture as a conduit for resistance and agency against the social construction of space. As well, a way black identities form, unique markers that denote certain cultural forms that establish geo-subcultures, and how black geographies are place branded to reclaim space for the black body.
One of the unique ways I explored these comprehensions was to conduct as spatial analysis of the iconic rap song, “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The emergence of Hip Hop in academia has been met with resistance, so academic scholarship on the culture relies on typical ways to understand the black urban experience of post-civil rights babies. Further, it neglects to detail how Hip Hop operates as a standalone cultural system away from rap music and that its emergence is directly influenced and connected to space. Thus, in my research, I welcomed the chance to conduct a spatial analysis of the song, offering up new ways to understand how geography happened to the Hip Hop generation, but more importantly, how they articulated their spatial victimhood through music and culture.
that space happens to black bodies? I paused again, gazing at my thought-mentor, in an attempt to extract the heartiest part of her statement. Still immobile, unable to speak, she smiled with inquiring eyes and said, “Go out in the world and figure it out.”
I share this story since it is significant to understanding what led me to dedicating my life to exploring how geography happens to black people.
I was so struck by Dr. Brown’s statement, that I use it as an academic compass to examine the ways in which I study black geographies, while articulating their significance. Especially with the rise of recent academic discourse that concentrates on the intersectionality of black identity. Often, when scholars investigate the complexities of identity, the focus is directed towards race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, mental or physical illness, religion or disability. Each of these aspects of social identity, help to better understand individual experiences of oppression and dominance-hierarchy in society, over collective assumptions that structural discrimination is universal and felt in the same ways by all people of color. Although this framework is a momentous paradigm in academic contexts, it neglects to incorporate the significance of placed-based identity. Particularly, how space constructs social identity and the ways in which local dominate systems impact black individual and collective selves. When scholars attempt to understand structural racism and individual agency, “the where” can alter how we cognize environmental influences on social interaction. Further, space acts as a social construct in tandem with other social constructions that have been used against the black body. Therefore, “the where” becomes crucial to recognizing how space exists within societal hierarchies, perpetuating inequality across various
scales. Certainly, black bodies over an extended time-space, have become connected to spaces that have been pathologized, based on dominant ideological discourse that situates African-Americans as a threat to social morality and societal organization. As well, the racialization of space has kept blacks confined to erected geographies of anomie, preventing many from moving upwards on the social strata, creating a caste system for the permanent underclass. More specifically, spaces termed the ghetto, hood, inner-city or favelas, that were made for this reason, confirm why they must exist in hierarchal societies. To elaborate further, placism is described as a belief that one should purchase from people or businesses that are situated closely to where they live. However, I offer up a new way of defining placism as a form of discrimination against spaces that are racialized and built on ideologies of sociospatial pathologies connected to blackness, that were created so that they could support the need to spatially marginalize people of color. This is only brushes the surface of what Dr. Brown’s statement meant, reaffirming the importance of discerning the intricacies of black geographies. Still, this was a concrete framework to build upon as well as a starting point for me to explore the individual and collective agency of black bodies in these spaces and the ways they respond to how geography has been used against them. Most scholarship that I have engaged with detail these responses through political, economic and social resistance. Even more, information that explores how culture fits as a form of confrontation is also present. Yet, even these discourses neglect the fullness of black responses that directly antagonize spatial isolation and the how “the where” relates to black life. Therefore, I seek to uncover how these lost conversations through the ways that black people use culture to detail their experiences with space and how black culture and space are interdependent. Consequently, space forms how black culture looks, sounds, feels, tastes and smells. It influences every aspect of the production of black culture due to the ways in which space impacts individual identity and local societal systems that determine life-narratives. For example, although blues has expanded through the spatial diffusion of culture, it still denotes a specific place (Dockery Plantation), sound (harmonica and bottleneck guitar), look (poor and working class black sharecroppers and chain gang workers), feels (hard times connected to the Southern black experience) and time-space (Jim Crown South) all connected to the Mississippi Delta. Therefore, space is a significant determinant for how black culture shapes and distinguishes itself. This realization led to the birth of my specialized major and the approach I would take to researching black geographies. More importantly, I elected to examine the intersections of black spaces and culture as a conduit for resistance and agency against the social construction of space. As well, a way black identities form, unique markers that denote certain cultural forms that establish geo-subcultures, and how black geographies are place branded to reclaim space for the black body.
One of the unique ways I explored these comprehensions was to conduct as spatial analysis of the iconic rap song, “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The emergence of Hip Hop in academia has been met with resistance, so academic scholarship on the culture relies on typical ways to understand the black urban experience of post-civil rights babies. Further, it neglects to detail how Hip Hop operates as a standalone cultural system away from rap music and that its emergence is directly influenced and connected to space. Thus, in my research, I welcomed the chance to conduct a spatial analysis of the song, offering up new ways to understand how geography happened to the Hip Hop generation, but more importantly, how they articulated their spatial victimhood through music and culture.