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A Sample Reflection Paper #1.doc

March 17, 2016

Frank Wilderson

FINAL ESSAY [This student did not write a title!]

“Barthes identifies five codes at work in the classical narrative. He defines the codes very
loosely as ‘voices’. However, these voices do not belong to the author, but rather to the
social and cultural context of the author and the text. What defines the classical narrative
is the importance that it allots in the sequencing of material, to enigma/resolution codes
and action codes… As enigmas are answered, the narrative is pushed in certain
directions, and new enigmas are generated (or important, primary enigmas are with held
until later).”
- Mike Wayne, Narrative

“Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you
become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America
doesn’t care.”
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

Without the slave humanity would not only be in a state of complete shock and

confusion but there would be no foundation for our daily interactions with one another.

For many years I have heard people discuss the differences in how race is perceived in

the United States versus other countries outside of the states. But throughout this course

you begin to get a better understanding of the prominent relationship between slave

relations and global phenomenon. That is to say that black people are viewed as having

‘no body, no city, and no state’ in relationship to white people. We begin to see that ‘Red,

White, Brown, or Yellow person[s] might be a slave somewhere are sometime, but. s/he

is not a slave everywhere all the time’ and the extreme level of violence necessary to

achieve a form of coherence between national units to reach a sense of unity. With much
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of the readings I begin to gather a more global analysis of the institution of slavery and

it’s relationship to my life.

We also begin to learn about the relationship of social death and slavery and position

of the slave (black people). In order to establish the rationality, insitutionality and

humanity establishing of the non-place and non-event of the slave is essential. We see

take precedent through three elements of slave relations: naked violence, natal alienation,

and the dishonoring of black people. Through these “three sets of constituent features

corresponding to… three sets of power”(2) you begin to see the permanency of the slave

position through the continual and unrelenting forms of violence. Within the

establishment of the non-place and non-event of the slave we that the naked violence is

method in which keeping a free man into a slave is important in keeping a non-slave

status. In the second element of the slave relation is natal alienation, within the natal

alienation there is a complete separation from the right to claim birth because the slave is

socially dead. Natal alienation created a means in which there is forfeiture of ties in birth

for past and future generations. This form of violence creates a complete separation from

familial ties and native status. Thirdly, general dishonor where the slave has no value in

society. Natal alienation and general dishonor work in tandem, in which they are both

constructed by violence.

Patterson also helps me move through my way of thinking when it comes to black

people as chattel slavery but more so its relationship not just with property but also with

all people. I begin to see that blacks are not generally recognized as people who make

claims through their relations to other people and are viewed as objects of property, and

are forced to be subjects of unwarranted violence, dishonored.

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Prior to starting this course I had my own ideas and beliefs as to why so many black

families including my own had such a high prevalence of absentee fathers and mothers.

When reading about some scholarly explanations I see statements that Single-parent

households are synonymous to black people and other times I have read that the number

of single mothers is a statement on the lack of morality within the black community.

Every time I would read something of this nature I would always end up more confused

and baffled at the explanations. When reading these articles I would always question

whether or not choosing not to marry and have a child was truly immoral or pathological.

When reading about natal alienation I begin to get a better understanding of the

mechanisms that control the lives of black people and the ways in which we see it play

out on real life.

Violence towards black people happens unjustifiably where we see a permanent

repetition in the structure of oppression. The process of social death for majority of my

time in this class was very hard to get through with me in specific. This process was

initiated through slavery, once the slaves power was taken there is a transformation fro

physical death to social death wherein you are dead physically and mentally as well.

Forms of alienation of their identities through changing the slaves’ name, dress code, or

being brutally murdered symbolized their loss of freedom, and power to be at the

complete dependency of their slave master is a physical aspect of social death. When go

over my Patterson readings I begin to understand slavery as an institution with universal

attributes with sociological, symbolic, and ideological factors within the system of

slavery. Paterson points out that slavery is relation where we think of slavery as a model

example. As he discusses slavery paradigmatically where slavery is not a constituent of

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slavery in which there is no series of practices, or not as a place in space, or not as a

series of events in the past, present, or future.

One of the biggest things I can take away from this class was the importance of

thinking critically about films and the narratives they use. As a general movie watcher

we are so use to the ways in which a film unfolds that most of the time a lot of people can

predict what is going to happen next. The way the story is shaped is a pivotal part in a

film. We are introduced to hermeneutic codes and symbolic codes in our reading about

Barthes codes. When watching a film we see hermeneutic codes play into the whole

movie experience. This code discusses the different elements to the story are not

explained thoroughly which leads the person watching the movie to question what they

have seen thus needing a response. One of the biggest genres that rely on hermeneutic

codes is detective plot line.

During our last class session every student got the opportunity to briefly talk about

things that we have taken away from the class. Some of discussed things that we still had

a hard time understanding others talked about our relationship as people who are black or

not black and our relationship of our readings and as people who live in our society. One

thing that struck me throughout that discussion with other classmates was the question

about whether someone could consciously occupy both space consciously was very

difficult to get through. Which lead to more questions on whether black people can give

each other social life as oppose to non-blacks?

A quote that stuck with me was stated in one of your lecture notes for our Patterson

readings where you stated, “A Red, White, Brown, or Yellow Person might be a slave

somewhere at sometime, but s/he is not a slave everywhere all the time.” As a black
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woman who is a part of the African Diaspora who is a first generation American born in

my family this is a very hard concept the African immigrant population does not want to

grapple with. Time and time again I have witnessed the African immigrant population

labeling themselves as other in efforts to completely disassociate themselves from

blackness. Particularly in the conversations I have with family members and friends there

are no substantially differences in differentiating you from black and Ethiopian or

Nigerian they are not mutually exclusive. When an African American and an Eritrean

American person walk into a room full of non-blacks there is no distinction between the

two people you are both viewed initially by your blackness. This can also be an example

of the permanent slave position where the regardless of your global relations the slave

position will always be a form of coherence in globalization. On February 4th, 1999 23

year-old immigrant from Guinea, Amadou Diallo was shot and killed by NYPD while he

was reaching for his wallet when asked to show some identification. Here we have a

black man who was an immigrant and the fact that he was not from America had no

precedent or relevance to the NYPD officer who shot and killed him. His blackness was

the only contributing factor that resulted in his murder. Africans have yet to come to

terms that the violent legacy of slavery in America has a direct correlation to all black

lives in America. A saying that I heard from my old high school teacher, ‘Be white but

above all don’t be black’ takes into precedent in our anti-black society. But the violence

that black people face occurs within intra-racial spaces as well. It is the same violence

that perpetuates life for the socially dead.

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Works Cited

Patterson, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP, 1982. Print.

Shakur, Assata. Assata: an Autobiography. Zed Books, 1987.

Mike Wayne. “Narrative”