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Black as an aesthetic functions differently than Black as a wound. What I am acknowledging now more so than ever before, capitalism creates profit off of that which is trending. Race is still used as an excuse to mistreat individuals by in large. However, it is a complex age where race is also being used as a certification of cool, upward mobility, and cultural affinity. Black Americans have more to their identity than their color, there is range. Ie: class, gender etc How does Black change in face of the most powerful office being held by a Black man and how is it the same? how much of that is read with a nostalgia of our pathos and not a consideration of our healing (or our assimilation)? How do we then start to attack the essence of human struggle? I rather us not be reduced to a color anymore by black folk or any othr culture/identity. We are far more than a color and though this color is used to somehow embody or articulate the vastness of our soul and strength, it is not inherit to a color but a spirit that is built through resilience and perseverance thru struggle and oppression, something that is not unique to “black people.” There is a world out there, that the technological age has made us aware of and if in fact we are to take note, we recognize that the methods used against “black people” are universally practiced against many people. These ideas come out of a larger agenda to break the spirit of a group of people no matter the excuse used, it serves a purpose to focus on that difference. In the 60’s black empowerment served a purpose, a phase of psychological development in the consciousness of black people and yet what then, what after we have been empowered and marched and protested and all those think pieces on the treatment of blacks by whites. And what of the treatment of blacks by blacks and what of AfroAmerican Imperialism? And how much of Trayvon Martin is a class issue, is a gender issue, and how much of the argument proves financially rewarding to focus on race strategically? And how many “activists” are being hired to speak on these issues and how many publishers are funding writers to theorize on this “racial injustice” and what happens when Black/white discourse is a trend, a dangerous infatuation with suffering. (And what is the agenda of media to perpetiate this discourse?) Amiri Baraka exists for a reason, James Baldwin existed for a reason (They helped us develop as a people in our thinking at a time where their reflections were necessary for the popular culture to take note) But much of America does nt sit and theorize their suffering, can not afford the leisure, nor is rewarded to do so. Today, it is a specific kind of individual doing these sorts of talks, all I’m saying is I see the same folk at these sorts of talks (or blogs, internet circles much like snazzy cyber coffee lounges) all consigning eachothers regurgitated arguments of race and getting praised for the sass in their tone. Lovely, black aesthetic is entertaining. “Activism” is now entertainment. As I said we are functioning in a very different time…