Ladies and gentlemen there is no such thing as a Plantation Negro. Denmark Vesey has failed to credibly establish this entity. Every social group has its share of quislings and collaborators. Until the successful Maoist regime, for example, the Chinese were well known for collaborationist tendencies.
The Plantation Negro is a constitutive element of our national foundation myth which posits black people as passive and gullible despite our well documented history of resistance and resourcefulness. Denmark Vesey to his credit did try to base his model in post Civil War history but when his flawed analysis was pointed out by Makheru Bradley and Michael Fisher and they confronted him with concrete historical questions he responded that he wasn't really trying to describe real actors and the actual course of black social existence.
By his own admission, then, the Plantation Negro is merely a device used to further a rhetorical imperative. Unlike Malcolm X's use of the House Negro/Field Negro dichotomy,however, there is no countervailing figure used to acknowledge the courage and capabilities of most black people - only Denmark Vesey himself and a collection of odd rappers, athletes, and marginal politicians. Denmark Vesey's analysis of Black Americans converges then with Birth of a Nation. It begins with the assumption that most black people (I think he said ninety percent) lack self-reliance and initiative. Then how does he intend to help them? In medicine you learn that you should not subject a patient to an operation if they are in such a state that they are unlikely to survive the procedure. But it is exactly from this conceptual stricture that the cyclopian Denmark Vesey intends to make his surgical approach.
18 comments:
uhm..... I didn't need DV to tell me that there were certain people who still live and think like they are plantations being rule by masters. Personally I used the term for years, recently I found DV's blog through someoneelses blog. Glad I did, DV you make laugh and think at the same time. don't always agree, but you bring up some interesting points. Glad you are here.
stayinginformed
I understand its use as a rhetorical device but the problem is that it's used as a catchphrase (much like terrorist or war on terror) to shortcircuit deeper analysis and productive debate. And from there it assumes a normative assumption about most black people. If you get a chance search the archive for where DV laid out the historical origin of the plantation negro.
Submariner. You are taking DV too seriously. DV is operating out of a mixture of fascist impulse, profound ignorance, intellectual laziness, a deeply held lack of intellectual curiosity, and, above all, marked jack-ass-ism.
His site can be entertaining, but it's wearing thin. There's nothing new here.
Submariner you see the forest of the rhetorical device but not its memetic trees.
"Plantation Negro" is the necessary anti-thesis of the Free Black Man and says nothing about "most black people".
It says something about most Plantation Negros.
"His site can be entertaining, but it's wearing thin. There's nothing new here."
LOL.
Evidenced Mike, by the fact that you are here more than me.
You got Denmark Vesey bookmarked Mike, because this is school.
But perhaps you are right.
Anyone who agrees with Mike, please meet him over at AssaultOnBlackSanity.com
rotflmbao....,
it's just on and poppin between the gum cracking middle-aged adolescents!!!
comedy gold!
The trip part is how Denmark manages to attract, maintain and inspire the most hellified mix of intelligent black commenters on any blog I've ever seen. Cat must be doing something right.
Mills...
"The trip part is how Denmark manages to attract,..."
It's the entertainment value mixed with the fact that, just as "DV", we all have pretty big egos. "DV"'s shit is ludicrous enough to provide an arena where we can "play"-fight that shit out, like the gladiators of old. That's why the shifting alliances on here. Problem is, there's not much more to argue about. "DV"s played out most of the ludicrous memes one can come up with. Another problem is the relatively new phenomenon of an uninspired gaggle of uncritical "DV fans" who've joined Dina up here recently.
A Plantation Negro is anyone who lets someone else define them as one.
uglyblackjohn said...
" A Plantation Negro is anyone who lets someone else define them as one."
Boom!
That's it UBJ.
A Plantation Negro CERTAINLY is anyone who lets someone else define them as one.
That and getting monkey virus juice squirted up your nose are the two biggest indicators that one may be a Plantation Negro.
"Another problem is the relatively new phenomenon of an uninspired gaggle of uncritical "DV fans" who've joined Dina up here recently."
Mike Fisher Denmark Vesey Conspiracy Theory 1,023 - Why people respond to DV instead of "Mike Fisher".
When are you just going to admit it Mike?
Repeat after me:
Global System of Black Supremacy.
You aint Black enough mike. Can't nobody feel you.
DV...
"Why people respond to DV instead of "Mike Fisher"."
Not "people", but certain people.
"DV", creating a pretty illusion is always more attractive to people than looking reality square in the eye and doing something about it. The attraction certain people have for you is just that: you tell them that something exists that sounds nice and folks that folks want it exists. Thus they are willing to suspend logic and ratio.
Other folks commenting here have a similar following that gelled around the theme of their blog. David Mills, for example, has a crowd of uncritical folks, that is fans, even larger than you. David projects a meme that certain black folks lap up as well, because it is a distraction from the ugly truth.
Folks don't like to hear the truth. It's too depressing for most - not a nice "feel".
David Mills, for example, has a crowd of uncritical folks, that is fans, even larger than you.
Wot-da-fuk do I blog about that's worthy of criticism, Mike?
I blog to celebrate black culture, pop culture, American culture and Internet culture. Matter fact, come around later and cop a free Henry Threadgill MP3... because I'm a giver.
@UMB
WHAT'S YOUR BLOGSPOT?
Mills...
"Wot-da-fuk do I blog about that's worthy of criticism, Mike?"
Oh, come on, David. You used to have some, to say the least, very spirited political discussions going on over there. Now, EVERYONE's stuff is worthy of criticism. Without critical exchange there is no progress. But you did have your share of folks over there who accepted whatever you said without a peep of critical analysis. Fans. You know? Though as sycophantic as certain folks over here are, they weren't.
WHAT'S YOUR BLOGSPOT?
undercoverblackman.blogspot.com
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