MY DADDY WAS POST BLACK BEFORE POST BLACK
Brother Yao (Hoke S. Glover III)
When I first saw the ―Green Is the New Black‖ t-shirt, admittedly, I was a bit confused. Assuming the message was about money, I initially felt like I was watching news of America bombing the Iraqi‘s in a backwards spectacle of patriotism. My dizziness was genuine. It seemed African-Americans had lost another piece of valuable ground as a community. The teachings of Elijah Muhammad state, ―a good name is better than gold,‖1 and the Bible concurs as it points out, ―A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold.‖2 If black could be replaced by green, it suggested that blackness had lost some of its insides. The term was relegated like an English Premier team to one of the subdivisions. Yet, I could relax. Eventually, I learned it was not green, as in money, but, green, as in ecofriendly and hybrids and black, as in crude oil, or black as in the color of fashion which goes with any and everything.3 Apparently, I was living in another world thinking ―Green is the New Black‖ meant the radicalism associated with Black struggle and protest had been re-appropriated to the cause of saving the environment.4 Post-black, post-racial views contrast dramatically with those posed by some Americans in the wake of Barack Obama‘s presidency. While I am uncertain exactly what the definitions of post-black and post-racial are in this context, they must have something to do with African Americans placing demands on the country‘s agenda in relationship to African-American history. To let the post-black, post-racial folks tell it, our issues have been resolved and our demands and concerns are simply complaints. However, this is a surface analysis. Both my perspective, and that of my father‘s, hinge on the recognition of African American suffering in this country. The postracial, post black camp recognizes African-American suffering as resolved. My father recognized this same suffering and was still unresolved. Yet, his post-black thought
Muhamad, Elijah. Message to the Blackman. Newport News: United Brothers Communications Systems, 1965. Print. 2 New American Standard Bible. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1998. Print. 3 Menkes, Suzy. ―Eco-friendly: Why Green is the New Black.‖ New York Times. 31 May 2006. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. 4 Olopade, Dayo. ―Green is the New Black.‖ The Root. 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 9 Feb. 2011. 1
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