Julius Bailey | Wittenberg University (original) (raw)
Papers by Julius Bailey
Here I argue (for a general readership) that our Post 9/11 rhetoric of fear is tinged with a reli... more Here I argue (for a general readership) that our Post 9/11 rhetoric of fear is tinged with a religious hatred and intolerance that undermines any moral stance Americans can take on Human Rights or Relations. This is a working section of a full chapter on Immigration to be found in my upcoming book on Democracy and the Obama Age.
This article discusses the pedagogical insights gained from a three-day lesson with my undergradu... more This article discusses the pedagogical insights gained from a three-day lesson with my undergraduate philosophy of hip hop course focused specifically on Kanye West's 2008 song -Pinocchio Story.‖ I recreate my students' intellectual reflection on the Black Artist as a Post-colonial subject, including an examination of how West's struggle with his own subjectivity and identity formation plays into a larger discussion of Race and Hip hop. This pedagogical approach allowed students not only to think critically about West's positioning as a post-colonial subject, but to position themselves as post-colonial subjects, and to question what that means for their own individual identities.
The Cultural Impact of Kanye West, Mar 6, 2014
Today the philosophical concern with the concatenation of the trinity of pleasure, desire, and po... more Today the philosophical concern with the concatenation of the trinity of pleasure, desire, and politics is nearly ubiquitous. This is perhaps due in large measure to the intensely misunderstood work of Michel Foucalt's History of Sexuality. It is well known that the task that Foucault set forth in Volume I of that work was set aside in the remaining volumes. Foucault tells us that "…it seemed to me that one could not very well analyze the formation and development of the experience sexuality from the eighteenth century onward, without doing a historical and critical study dealing with desire and the desiring subject." 1 So the initial project of locating "the forms of power, the channels it takes, and the discourses it permeates in order to reach the most tenuous and individual modes of behavior, the paths that give it access to the rate or scarcely perceivable forms of desire, how it penetrates and controls everyday pleasure…in short, the polymorphous techniques of power," 2 is interrupted precisely in order to uncover how it is that "individuals were led to practice, on themselves and on others, a hermeneutics of desire, a hermeneutics of which their sexual behavior was doubtless the occasion, but certainly not the exclusive domain." 3 Thus the original project of coming to understand how a modern individual could experience herself as a subject of a "sexuality," is broadened in two ways, one of which Foucault pursues more 1 {Foucault 1986: 5}. 2 {Foucault 1980: 1}. 3 {Foucault 1986: 5}. ~ 2 ~
Books by Julius Bailey
JeanPaul Sartre in his Black Orpheus wrote: "[B]ecause he is oppressed in and as a result of his ... more JeanPaul Sartre in his Black Orpheus wrote: "[B]ecause he is oppressed in and as a result of his race, it is first his race of which [the Black man] must be aware. He must compel those who for centuries, vainly tried to reduce him to a beast, because he was black to recognize him as a man." 1 Black poetry, of which Hiphop is a particularly relevant twentyfirstcentury example, has, since its birth, demanded recognition for Black artists-indeed, all Black people-as subjective identities. Just as Sartre recognized the figure of the Black poet who would "tear Blackness out of himself in order to offer it to the world," 2 so does Hiphop unashamedly offer to the world its own beautiful Blackness, carrying on the proud tradition of Black expression that was begun when the formerly colonized and the formerly enslaved began poeticizing their feelings in the language of their oppressors. Crucially, such expressions of Blackness and selfhood did not demand a place at the table next to enslavers and colonizers; rather, they established a counter discourse through which Black voices could contend not only with racism and colonialism, but also with racist underpinnings of the very language itself. Hiphop is a continuation of this practice. As James Spady says, Hiphop-Black in its poetics, its politics, its codes, and its rhythms-"mediates the corrosive discourse of the dominating society while at the same time function[ing] as a subterranean subversion." 3 It is a poetic expression of the powerful currents raging beneath the street in the underground. It is a voice for the youth-a voice informed not only by the segregation and oppression of the ghetto, but also by the historical forces of racism that affected our ancestors. Hiphop is proving itself to be the culmination of
Throughout time, historians have noted and charted rare, and surprisingly synchronized, shifts in... more Throughout time, historians have noted and charted rare, and surprisingly synchronized, shifts in culture, leadership, ideology, and politics and labeled them in one of two ways. They have been either seen as a renaissance or as a revolution. Both comprise a dramatic societal facelift and both can foster an international tsunami. Typically when reviewing eras of renaissance and revolution, we see familiar elements and telling transitions. We turn to the professionalsphilosophers, sociologists, historians, and cultural critics-to help us understand what it is we are witnessing. Precedents are cited and models from the past used to assist in interpreting these momentous events. Certain sets of conditions seem to lead to renaissance and others to revolution. When we consider the late eighteenthcentury emergence of Romanticism, we can see it as the seditious counter to the First Industrial Revolution and the precursor to the Victorian era with its unique values. How do we understand the relationship between the intellectual discourses and the politics of a given era? We look to the professionals to guide us in our understanding. However in the case of Hiphop we cannot use the model of preconditions applied by historians to other renaissances or revolutions. The rise of Hiphop is an anomaly in history.
Full Introduction of the Book The book's website is www.racialrealitiesbook.com
Here I argue (for a general readership) that our Post 9/11 rhetoric of fear is tinged with a reli... more Here I argue (for a general readership) that our Post 9/11 rhetoric of fear is tinged with a religious hatred and intolerance that undermines any moral stance Americans can take on Human Rights or Relations. This is a working section of a full chapter on Immigration to be found in my upcoming book on Democracy and the Obama Age.
This article discusses the pedagogical insights gained from a three-day lesson with my undergradu... more This article discusses the pedagogical insights gained from a three-day lesson with my undergraduate philosophy of hip hop course focused specifically on Kanye West's 2008 song -Pinocchio Story.‖ I recreate my students' intellectual reflection on the Black Artist as a Post-colonial subject, including an examination of how West's struggle with his own subjectivity and identity formation plays into a larger discussion of Race and Hip hop. This pedagogical approach allowed students not only to think critically about West's positioning as a post-colonial subject, but to position themselves as post-colonial subjects, and to question what that means for their own individual identities.
The Cultural Impact of Kanye West, Mar 6, 2014
Today the philosophical concern with the concatenation of the trinity of pleasure, desire, and po... more Today the philosophical concern with the concatenation of the trinity of pleasure, desire, and politics is nearly ubiquitous. This is perhaps due in large measure to the intensely misunderstood work of Michel Foucalt's History of Sexuality. It is well known that the task that Foucault set forth in Volume I of that work was set aside in the remaining volumes. Foucault tells us that "…it seemed to me that one could not very well analyze the formation and development of the experience sexuality from the eighteenth century onward, without doing a historical and critical study dealing with desire and the desiring subject." 1 So the initial project of locating "the forms of power, the channels it takes, and the discourses it permeates in order to reach the most tenuous and individual modes of behavior, the paths that give it access to the rate or scarcely perceivable forms of desire, how it penetrates and controls everyday pleasure…in short, the polymorphous techniques of power," 2 is interrupted precisely in order to uncover how it is that "individuals were led to practice, on themselves and on others, a hermeneutics of desire, a hermeneutics of which their sexual behavior was doubtless the occasion, but certainly not the exclusive domain." 3 Thus the original project of coming to understand how a modern individual could experience herself as a subject of a "sexuality," is broadened in two ways, one of which Foucault pursues more 1 {Foucault 1986: 5}. 2 {Foucault 1980: 1}. 3 {Foucault 1986: 5}. ~ 2 ~
JeanPaul Sartre in his Black Orpheus wrote: "[B]ecause he is oppressed in and as a result of his ... more JeanPaul Sartre in his Black Orpheus wrote: "[B]ecause he is oppressed in and as a result of his race, it is first his race of which [the Black man] must be aware. He must compel those who for centuries, vainly tried to reduce him to a beast, because he was black to recognize him as a man." 1 Black poetry, of which Hiphop is a particularly relevant twentyfirstcentury example, has, since its birth, demanded recognition for Black artists-indeed, all Black people-as subjective identities. Just as Sartre recognized the figure of the Black poet who would "tear Blackness out of himself in order to offer it to the world," 2 so does Hiphop unashamedly offer to the world its own beautiful Blackness, carrying on the proud tradition of Black expression that was begun when the formerly colonized and the formerly enslaved began poeticizing their feelings in the language of their oppressors. Crucially, such expressions of Blackness and selfhood did not demand a place at the table next to enslavers and colonizers; rather, they established a counter discourse through which Black voices could contend not only with racism and colonialism, but also with racist underpinnings of the very language itself. Hiphop is a continuation of this practice. As James Spady says, Hiphop-Black in its poetics, its politics, its codes, and its rhythms-"mediates the corrosive discourse of the dominating society while at the same time function[ing] as a subterranean subversion." 3 It is a poetic expression of the powerful currents raging beneath the street in the underground. It is a voice for the youth-a voice informed not only by the segregation and oppression of the ghetto, but also by the historical forces of racism that affected our ancestors. Hiphop is proving itself to be the culmination of
Throughout time, historians have noted and charted rare, and surprisingly synchronized, shifts in... more Throughout time, historians have noted and charted rare, and surprisingly synchronized, shifts in culture, leadership, ideology, and politics and labeled them in one of two ways. They have been either seen as a renaissance or as a revolution. Both comprise a dramatic societal facelift and both can foster an international tsunami. Typically when reviewing eras of renaissance and revolution, we see familiar elements and telling transitions. We turn to the professionalsphilosophers, sociologists, historians, and cultural critics-to help us understand what it is we are witnessing. Precedents are cited and models from the past used to assist in interpreting these momentous events. Certain sets of conditions seem to lead to renaissance and others to revolution. When we consider the late eighteenthcentury emergence of Romanticism, we can see it as the seditious counter to the First Industrial Revolution and the precursor to the Victorian era with its unique values. How do we understand the relationship between the intellectual discourses and the politics of a given era? We look to the professionals to guide us in our understanding. However in the case of Hiphop we cannot use the model of preconditions applied by historians to other renaissances or revolutions. The rise of Hiphop is an anomaly in history.
Full Introduction of the Book The book's website is www.racialrealitiesbook.com