Black Europe and the African Diaspora PDF
Preview Black Europe and the African Diaspora
BLACK EUROPE AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA THE NEW BLACK STUDIES SERIES Edited by Darlene Clark Hine and Dwight A. McBride A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. BLACK EUROPE AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA EDITED BY DARLENE CLARK HINE, TRICA DANIELLE KEATON, AND STEPHEN SMALL UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Urbana and Chicago 305.896 H58B 2009 © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America IAZASSCRZAZAaN This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hine, Darlene Clark. Black Europe and the African diaspora / edited by Darlene Clark Hine, Trica Danielle Keaton, and Stephen Small. p. cm.— (New black studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-252-03467-1 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-252-07657-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Blacks—Europe. 2. Blacks—Race identity—Europe. 3. Blacks—Europe—Social conditions. 4. Europe—Civilization— African influences. 5. Europe—Race relations. 6. African diaspora. I. Keaton, Trica Danielle. II. Small, Stephen. III. Title. D1056.2.B55H56 2009 305.896'04—dc22 2009000570 CONTENTS Foreword ix Philomena Essed Preface xvii Darlene Clark Hine Acknowledgments xxi Introduction: The Empire Strikes Back xxiil Stephen Small Section 1. Historical Dimensions of Blackness in Europe 1. The Emergence of Afro-Europe: A Preliminary Sketch 3 Allison Blakely 2. Blacks in Early Modern Europe: New Research from the Netherlands 29 Dienke Hondius 3. Now You See It, Now You Dont: Josephine Baker's Films of the 1930s and the Problem of Color 48 Eileen Julien 4. Pictures of “US”? Blackness, Diaspora, and the Afro-German Subject 63 Tina M. Campt 5. The Conundrum of Geography, Europe doutre mer, and Transcontinental Diasporic Identity 84 T. Sharpley- Whiting and Tiffany Ruby Patterson Section 2. Race and Blackness in Perspective: France, Germany, and Italy 6. “Black (American) Paris” and the French Outer-Cities: The Race Question and Questioning Solidarity 95 Trica Danielle Keaton 7. Black Italia: Contemporary Migrant Writers from Africa 119 Alessandra Di Maio 8. Talking Race in Color-Blind France: Equality Denied, “Blackness” Reclaimed 145 Fred Constant g. My Volk to Come: Peoplehood in Recent Diaspora Discourse and Afro-German Popular Music 161 Alexander G. Weheliye 10. No Green Pastures: The African Americanization of France 180 Tyler Stovall Section 3. Theorizing, (Re)presenting, and (Re)imagining Blackness in Europe u1. Black Europe and the African Diaspora: A Discourse on Location 201 Jacqueline Nassy Brown 12. Theorizing Black Europe and African Diaspora: Implications for Citizenship, Nativism, and Xenophobia 212 Kwame Nimako and Stephen Small 13. The Audacious Josephine Baker: Stardom, Cinema, Paris 238 Terri Francis 14. Pale by Comparison: Black Liberal Humanism and the Postwar Era in the African Diaspora 260 Michelle M. Wright 15. Another Dream of a Common Language: Imagining Black Europe... 277 Gloria Wekker Afterword: Black Europe's Undecidability 291 Barnor Hesse Notes on Contributors 305 Index 311 © a FOREWORD PHILOMENA ESSED Black Europe is an anthology about being black in Europe and Europe turning black. It is also about the (historical) quality of life in Europe for those identified as or identifying as “black European.” The persistence of “Othering” and the denial of racism form a red thread throughout the volume. Over the past decades, there has been ample finger wagging among European Union members about the spread of racism in Europe. But when it comes to account- ability, each and every member state looks the other way: racism might be out there, somewhere else, but never here, not in their own country. Frequently used, but misleading, arguments include the following: You do not understand “our” culture; “our” history is very special; racism is an American thing; we do not have the word “race” in our language, therefore there is no racism; we used to send immigrants to other countries, therefore we would never discriminate; “our” country is the most tolerant in Europe, therefore our traditions preclude racism; we fought against the Holocaust, therefore “we” are above sentiments such as racism. The lived reality for black Europe is different. Being European and being brown, black, and/or Muslim are perceived as mutually exclusive categories. A case in point was the assassination of the Dutch columnist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh. I wrote in my virtual notebook: The evening of the assassination the air is thick with emotion. The country is in a state of shock: a ritual murder by an Islamic fundamentalist in defense of Islam and the prophet Mohammed! Van Gogh had made no secret of his anti- Islamic feelings: he had ridiculed and humiliated Muslims, Allah and the prophet Mohammed in the name of freedom of expression. In the center of Amsterdam 40 to 50,000 people flock together in grief and rage on the Dam Square. “Keep your hands off! Freedom-of-the-word!” The crowd is overwhelmingly white, but certainly not exclusively so: young, old, men, women, scarf, no scarf, public
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