Postmodern Blackness

Postmodern Blackness, by Hooks was interesting to me because it was written in a way that I could understand it. He is a black man that is dealing and questioning himself and our postmodern world. He is in the position that he knows that people may oppose what he is saying that that “his discourse has no ready audience, no clear listener, and that his voice may not be heard.” I found this interesting that he used the tactic of not just throwing a bunch of facts or opinions at the readers, but by stating his opinion and then stating that he may be wrong or not have ready listeners. I found it interesting that he placed himself in a lot of the stereotypes that he discusses, in particular when he says that he was the only other black man in the room. This particular example, of the “token black guy” has started to seep into our culture through media, movies in particular. Hooks explains how postmodernism has no relevance at all to African-American people, especially women. He describes how he feels as if he is an outsider when reading the conventional language that poster modernism is written it. He feels, along with other blacks, an outsider of the discourse looking in. I found it interesting how he described how poster modernism could be seen as people of elite or higher authority. This in turn, pushes minorities away and out of the picture completely. This connects with the idea that some white people, who absorb white supremacy thinking, don’t even notice black people and what they have done to be successful. The final point that I wanted to discuss was the aspect of music. It is concerning that this was one of the main aspects of the article that shed a positive light on something that African-American people have done. It is the cultural product that is most interesting and attractive to postmodern theorists.