Thursday, November 26, 2009

Quote from Dr. Jackson's Islam and the Blackamerican

Embracing America should not be equated with embracing the American state's or the dominant culture's false universals. To pretend that there is only one American history and social reality and thus only one normal or acceptable response to these is to reinforce the invisibility of American whiteness as a socially constructed mode of being whose "normalness" reclines fundamentally on the use (and at times abuse) of power. Especially for Blackamericans, this tendency must be resisted and opposed. Otherwise, like George Orwell's protagonist in the classic 1984, Blackamericans will be forced to continue to pretend to be served by values, customs, and institutions that betray their most deeply-felt sensibilities and bring them neither solace nor improved individual or collective lives.

[footnote 76: The crowning scene in 1984 is one where the state wants to be assured that the protagonist, Winston, sees reality only and precisely as it wills. To this end, Winston is placed in a "pain-chair," and a state-official holds up four fingers. Then Winston is asked, "How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?" When he responds, "Four," the official insists that there are five. He then tweaks up the dial on the pain-chair and asks the question again. This continues until Winston finally exclaims that he is trying to abandon his senses and see five fingers!]

-pg. 167 and 223ff of Islam and the Blackamerican

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