Pop your collar, give me some dap… and tell me what’s next in black cultural iconography.

We now have a President who has not only broadened the audience for but shown the power of black cultural tropes in a national and international context.

I asked a few friends, bloggers, and thinkers to give their take on the remix. Here’s a sample of what they had to say:
Artist Susan Smith Pinelo

“My friend told me that her husband was “Gonna buy a flag on Wednesday.”  Hm. Wow. This crunked out, beer drinking black garbage man who don’t think much about nothing felt proud. Not proud to be black—he already was—I think. Not proud to be finally free—he already was. He was proud to be American. Hm. Wow.

So I started thinking, what if just half of the Black Americans started being proud about being Americans. Maybe we start figuring things out with a new perspective—the perspective of not being victims, second class citizens who are angry with the man—the government—the police.

We stop being angry with the system and start combating with the stereotypes of our drug dealing, welfare cheat baby mommas, and cousins who don’t pay taxes and fathers who are serving time in the “university.” Maybe, just maybe, we can become captains of their own destiny. Hm. Wow.

Thank you Barack for commanding that we think that we can.”

Alyson Palmer, musician/mother/activist

“Having a Black president lifts the racial profile. However, the fact that Barack Obama is the child of a Black African, not a Black American should not be overlooked.  There is none of the downtrodden, hopeless, already beaten-by-The-Man gene in him that I’ve seen in all my relatives, even the most successful. I am praying that he becomes a new Daddy to all African-Americans, a new paradigm of personhood and fatherhood and citizenship.  If we slave-descended Americans can look at him as to a mirror and see reflected somewhere in us that ease with power, I think our inner strength can grow beyond any transitory economic concerns.

At least, that’s what I’m hoping for in myself.”

Tamika Morrison, marketing guru for The Writestylz PR Firm

“As a 30-something person who’s African American, I do believe blackness is “so over” in a sense that’s it can’t be used as an excuse for mediocre living and behavior.  We now have proven evidence as a minority, particularly, African-American, that you really can live the ultimate American Dream if we apply ourselves. Our identity is now woven in the fabric of ALL Americans—Black, White, Red, Orange and Yellow—and it’s imperative that we learn how to relate across the board or else.”

Carmen Dixon, All About Race

“I haven’t seen blackness so celebrated since the days of ‘Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud’ in the late 60’s. Even then it was black folks awakening to their beauty and power. Now you have Larry King’s son wishing he was black, and I heard an MSNBC commentator saying that her daughter wants to be Sasha or Malia! That is so powerful especially when I remember that I wanted to be Marcia Brady when I was a youngster.”

Princeton University political scientist Melissa Harris Lacewell gave some wonderful deep answers too but I had to laugh at this:

“I think light-skinned brothers are coming back into style. After an era of Michael Jordan-inspired worship of the bald, athletic brown man, I think we will see a re-ascendance of the light-skinned brothers. Al B. Sure is making a new album!”

Tags: al b. sure, black on black, carmen dixon, farai chideya, melissa harris lacewell, susan smith pinelo, tamika morrison