In the context of ongoing Black Lives Matter protests against systemic racism, police brutality, and the marginalization of black people in communities all over the world, social media has been inundated with quotes from prominent black figures the likes of James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, and Toni Morrison. These people wrote and spoke about the black experience, the liminality of their existence, and advocated ways to overcome their social condition.
Their words were often tinged with hope, particularly in the case of Martin Luther King, but for men like James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, the condition was unchanging until something revolutionary took place. The black aesthetic is multifaceted as people from within the black community approach their culture and politics from different angles. Amongst the voices prominent in the realm of the black aesthetic are Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, and Alice Walker.
Amiri Baraka: The Violent Aesthetic
A poet, writer, political activist, and teacher, Baraka was born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey. He is infamous for his social criticism, which was staunch and unfailing in its criticism of the racial power structures in force in society. His writings were jarring, cutting to bone with the confrontational tone which was intended to shock and alert the audience to the conditions and political point of view of Black Americans.
While he underwent many seasons in terms of his political stance, he came to identify with radical politics. His work often spoke out against oppression in a manner that came to be associated with him fostering hate. Within African-American literature, Baraka is crucial.
He is renowned for founding the Black Arts Movement following the death of Malcolm X. This lead to the development of a new aesthetic. It centered around the destruction of the ‘white’ thing and its primacy within society. Within this aesthetic, black art becomes essential to define the world in a black point of view. This reordering of the western cultural aesthetic through the creation of revolutionary ideological content is meant to create space for black voices.
His own poems did this through the centerpiece of objects and the absence of adjectives – this allows him to talk about his politics in a manner that reflects his aesthetic. In all of this, he echoes Malcolm X’s sentiments of change by any means necessary. Baraka advocates violence, but this violence is ethical from the point of view of the oppressed. Their social condition warrants this, and this violence is necessary to create their space in society.
Toni Morrison – The Language Aesthetic
Toni Morrison was a well-known Afro-American writer born in Lorain, Ohio. She was a Nobel laureate and wrote primarily about her experience as a black woman in American society. Her works comment on the conflicts of class, race, sex, touch upon the problem of identity politics and examine the impact of the western aesthetic culture on the black peoples, particularly women. Her stories are rich and vibrant, with her poetic style and depth accorded to it by her wisdom.
Her literature also examines the issues of conformity and the absence of Afro American texts from the Western Canon. One of her most notable works is an essay titled Unspeakable Things Unspoken. The essay examines the presence of Afro-American Literature in the Western canon and offers criticism as well as remedies for the state it exists in.
Morrison argues that the exclusion of Afro-American literature is on the basis of the claim that it either doesn’t exist or is inferior – or it does not meet the criterion of the white male writer. She argues that this criterion must be redefined because the African American experience is beautifully summed up via their complex literature, language is much more than meaning, it is worthy of culture.
The speakerly, performative, and creative of the African text as seen in the works of authors such as Zora Neal Hurston, capture the essence of the black experience as it taps into their culture. Words become much more, in this aesthetic. A window to understanding the plight of African Americans.
Morrison advocated for the creation of space, in this essay. Her focus in on giving black voices within American literature space to grow and expand, while being acknowledged for what they are: rich, literary texts that should canonically be part of the canon because they too stem from an important chunk of American history.
Alice Walker – Melding the Personal and Political in the aesthetic
Alice Walker was born on February 9th, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She is an American writer who focuses on African-American culture in her works. One of her most notable works is the novel, The Color Purple which delves into the idea of sisterhood and companionship within the wider framework of the oppression of African American women in a society that is racist as well as patriarchal.
Her aesthetic centered around her understanding of womanist or feminist theory. One of her key works that explore this is ‘In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens’. Like Maya Angelou, she delves into the role of the woman and her status within society. Here, the personal and political meld and she uses autobiographical elements to provide weight to her arguments.
Walker’s aesthetic does what the works of many Afro-American writers do, it brings the personal and political together. The two can not exist without one another, as they support one another. Walker’s works are an attempt to abandon metalanguage which checks the audience that does not have an understanding of the complexities of the Afro-American experience at the door and attempts to make it accessible for all.
Moreover, she emphasizes the role of women in histories. She emphasizes the value of African American women – these women have always nurtured beauty and creativity, from the time slavery till now.
Aesthetics and Today
In the context of today’s protests, it has become important to understand the literature that comes out of the black community. A key understanding of the people can explain the ire that the community experience, and perhaps justifies it.
