Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs

159 Pages·2017·2.37 MB·English

by  David Ikard

Lovable Racists,
Magical Negroes, and
White Messiahs

Lovable Racists,
Magical Negroes,
and White Messiahs
DaviD ikarD
With a Foreword by T. Denean Sharpley- Whiting
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in
the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more
information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 49246- 9 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 49263- 6 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 49277- 3 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226492773.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ikard, David, 1972– author. | Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean,
writer of foreword.
Title: Lovable racists, magical negroes, and white messiahs / David Ikard ;
with a foreword by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017003728 | ISBN 9780226492469 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226492636 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226492773
(e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: United States—Race relations. | Racism—United States. |
African Americans—Social conditions. | Slavery—United States.
Classification: LCC E185.625 .I38 2017 | DDC 305.800973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003728
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword by T. Denean Sharpley-W hiting ix
Introduction 1
1 Good Slave Masters Don’t Exist: Lovable Racists and the
Crisis of Authorship in Twelve Years a Slave 21
2 Constituting the Crime: White Innocence as an Apparatus
of Oppression 46
3 “We Have More to Fear than Racism that Announces
Itself”: Distraction as a Strategy to Oppress 69
4 “Only Tired I Was, Was Tired of Giving In”: Rosa Parks,
Magical Negroes, and the Whitewashing of Black
Struggle 91
5 Santa Claus Is White and Jesus Is Too: Era(c)ing White
Myths for the Health and Well- Being of Our Children 109
Coda 127 Notes 133 Index 143

Acknowledgments
I started writing this book right around the time that Tray-
von Martin was killed. I distinctly remember how the main-
stream media trivialized the case to such an extent that the
national conversation became about gangsta rap and black
urban dress codes. Even though I frankly didn’t expect Mar-
tin to receive justice (remember it took a major groundswell
of protest to even pressure the district attorney to charge
Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, with murder), I was still
rocked by the trial and the not-g uilty verdict. Since that mo-
ment, many hundreds more have been unjustly murdered
by the police or those acting as patrollers. Several of the
victims have reached cultural martyr status, including Mi-
chael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland (yes, I think she was
murdered), Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Laquan McDonald,
Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Corey Jones, and Korryn
Gaines. And then there was white supremacist Dylan Roof
who walked into a black church in South Carolina and
slaughtered nine innocent souls, hoping to start a race war.
Suffice it to say, as I was writing this book America felt like
it was on fire— as though the clock was being turned back
on civil rights. And in some sense our country was literally
on fire. Ferguson and Baltimore erupted in flames as rebel-
lions to police brutality and terrorism grew. The national
mood was souring and the police were doubling down on
their right to employ whatever means necessary to maintain
dominance and control. Police unions were even trying to
silence outspoken celebrities like Beyoncé Knowles and Ken-
drick Lamar by threatening to boycott their events and deny
security details.
vii
acknowleDgments
However idealistic it may sound, I feel that I have been called to a
special purpose; that for some unbeknownst reason, the universe be-
stowed this working-c lass country boy from North Carolina with gifts
of writerly expression and intellect. I write with the political conviction
that my words not only matter but have the power to transform social
realities. There were many times, however, during the writing of this
book that I lost that conviction; that I feared my efforts were in vain;
that my critique of willful white ignorance would fall on deaf ears.
Thankfully, I have a village of friends, colleagues, and family that I can
rely on to encourage me when I need encouraging, to challenge me when
I need challenging, to console me when I need consoling, and to uplift
me when I need uplifting. One of my biggest supporters in this village is
my best friend and ace boon coon, Martell Teasley. He keeps me honest
and on track. I lean heavily on his wise counsel. Much love also goes out
to Tracy Sharpley-W hiting. Beyond being a bomb-a ss intellectual of the
first order, “Trace” is one of the kindest, most giving individuals I know.
I am proud to have her as a role model and friend. To quote my home-
boy Tupac, “You are appreciated.” There are people in my village that I
don’t get to talk to on a regular basis but who are nevertheless major in-
spirations in my life. These folks include Wizdom Powell Brown, Rhea
Lathan, Hope Ealey, Wanda Costen, Calvin Hall, Lisa Thompson, Lisa
Woolfork, Rayshawn Ray, Monica Coleman, La Vinia Jennings, Donette
Francis, Georgette Spratling and her lovely daughter Brie, Jeffery McCune,
and Janice Johnson.
I also want to shout out my fantastic past and present students, in-
cluding Regina Bradley, La-T oya Scott (aka green banana), Joshua Burnett,
Nicole Carr, Jonquil Bailey, Hicham Mazouz, and Allison Nicole Harris.
Y’all make me so proud!
My family is certainly a crucial part of my village. Shout out to Joan
Ikard (aka mom) and Harold Ikard (aka pops). Shout out to my five sib-
lings: Regina, Tiffany, Crystal, Randy, and Terry. Love to my beautiful,
super- talented niece JaKayla and my dynamic, handsome nephews Ja-
mar, Christopher, Damian, and Tyrell (RIP).
It is my great fortune to be the father of two incredible human beings
in Elijah and Octavia Ikard. They fill me with unspeakable joy. Watching
them transition from childhood to young adulthood has been amazing.
They will accomplish much in this world.
The fact that I was able to push past the obstacles— emotional and
otherwise— and produce this book is a direct testament to the power of
this incredible village of support. I love you all and thank you for look-
ing out for a brotha. The grind is real but so is the love and support.
viii
ForeworD
Racial Realism Redux
There has been of late a lot said and written about whiteness.
How it dovetails, for instance, with gender in the formation
of what some have cheekily dubbed the phenomenon of
“white women’s tears” that ably obviate charges of racism
(see Mamta Motwani Accapadi’s essay “When White Women
Cry” and Robin DiAngelo’s “White Women’s Tears and the
Men Who Love Them”). This sociocultural diagnosis falls
under the general condition of “white fragility” as deftly laid
out by DiAngelo and mined to good effect in David Ikard’s
Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs.
Through the labyrinth of visual, sport, and political cul-
tures and literary studies that his wordsmithing and analy-
ses cut through with scalpel- like precision, Ikard reaches
destination “racial realism,”1 in the words of the late legal
scholar Derrick Bell. That is, that white antiblack racism
in all of its forms—murderous and benign—is not an in-
fectious carbuncle on an otherwise healthy body politic.
Rather, the contagious excrescence is a necessary, perma-
nent, and lethal— given continued racialized state violence
in the twenty-fi rst century— fixture of American society.
America’s original sin of slavery, the greatest betrayal as
totted up by Bell, created a symbiosis between racism and
that experiment in democracy called America at its found-
ing in the eighteenth century. While the primary author
of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, connived for
slavery’s abolition, he ran up against a powerful Virginia
block of Founding Fathers in the form of Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison—elite slaveholders posing as gentlemen
farmers.
ix