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alatarmaia's review against another edition
a LOT more academic than I anticipated, and I borrowed this from the library, so I didn't have time to get through it
lukescalone's review against another edition
4.0
This is a good piece of American cultural history. Davarian Baldwin takes, as his starting point, the concept of the "New Negro," which was commonly referred to throughout the 1910s and 1920s. According to the Chicago Whip, "New Negroes are those who have conceived a new line of thought . . . that the intrinsic standard of beauty does not rest in the white race." While similar thinking did exist prior to the early 20th century, mainstream opinion--both black and integrationist white--argued that it was necessary for black people to become more like white people. However, with the success of Jack Johnson in his boxing match against James Jeffries and black experiences in the First World War, the myth of white supremacy began to crumble.
As part of the widespread adoption of ideas about the "New Negro," many black Americans found that it was necessary to develop the "Black Metropolis" as a source for success. This meant that black life would run parallel to white life and that black people would be largely self-reliant, constructing black businesses, black spaces for leisure, black churches, and more. After all, white people would not let black people into their spaces (even in the urban North, where social racism persisted) and, even if they did, there was no sense in trying to become more "white."
Engaging with both the idea of the "New Negro" and the "Black Metropolis," Baldwin looks at a handful of forms of cultural production that, in Baldwin's view, helped to solidify the importance of the New Negro in Chicago. These cultural forms include fashion, filmmaking, gospel music, athletics, and more.
I really loved Baldwin's engagement here with the ideas of the "New Negro" and "the Black Metropolis" here. Typically, they are associated above all with Harlem, but Baldwin shows us that these attitudes and historical processes were not restricted to one city, or one neighborhood of one city, but could be found throughout the United States. While his attention is on Chicago, the argument that these intellectual frameworks existed strongly outside of New York suggests that they could also be found elsewhere. On this level, one city comes to mind: Tulsa. Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa (otherwise known as Tulsa's "Black Wall Street") seems to fit the bill really well here... Until it was effectively nuked in a white supremacist riot that led to the slaughter of thousands of black people and the wholesale destruction of black economic life in that city. I wonder to what extent white people pushed back against the "Black Metropolis" in Chicago, especially in the anni horribilii (?) 1919-1921.
As part of the widespread adoption of ideas about the "New Negro," many black Americans found that it was necessary to develop the "Black Metropolis" as a source for success. This meant that black life would run parallel to white life and that black people would be largely self-reliant, constructing black businesses, black spaces for leisure, black churches, and more. After all, white people would not let black people into their spaces (even in the urban North, where social racism persisted) and, even if they did, there was no sense in trying to become more "white."
Engaging with both the idea of the "New Negro" and the "Black Metropolis," Baldwin looks at a handful of forms of cultural production that, in Baldwin's view, helped to solidify the importance of the New Negro in Chicago. These cultural forms include fashion, filmmaking, gospel music, athletics, and more.
I really loved Baldwin's engagement here with the ideas of the "New Negro" and "the Black Metropolis" here. Typically, they are associated above all with Harlem, but Baldwin shows us that these attitudes and historical processes were not restricted to one city, or one neighborhood of one city, but could be found throughout the United States. While his attention is on Chicago, the argument that these intellectual frameworks existed strongly outside of New York suggests that they could also be found elsewhere. On this level, one city comes to mind: Tulsa. Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa (otherwise known as Tulsa's "Black Wall Street") seems to fit the bill really well here... Until it was effectively nuked in a white supremacist riot that led to the slaughter of thousands of black people and the wholesale destruction of black economic life in that city. I wonder to what extent white people pushed back against the "Black Metropolis" in Chicago, especially in the anni horribilii (?) 1919-1921.
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