Within modern countires, there faces a batte of class and culture. Among these battles lies the struggle of cultural hegemony. It is this displacement of postmodernity -- the deep and ambiviliant fascination with difference -- that cultural hegemony is displacing. While the process of hegemony never results in absolutes, in terms of victory or defeat, it is not without sides gaining dominance. The power of relations in culture is always shifting, as if maliable; constantly seeking to define and exert itself within the cultural hierarchy. One example of this process is present within the realm of black popular culture. This, like all cultures, makes the effort to make a distinct effort deconstruct what popular is and instead focus on what the term 'popular' represents.
In the paper, Hall makes the argument that, "The struggle must be, instead, to replace the 'or' with the potentiality or the possibility of an 'and.' That is the logic of coupling rather than the logic of a binary opposition. You can be black and British... The moment the signifier 'black' is torn from its historical, cultural, and political embedding and lodged in a biologically constituted racial category, we valorize, by inversion, the very ground of the racism we are trying to deconstruct" (291).
In this, I believe Hall has posed the framework for what ended up being the ultimate success of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, by which I state that President-elect Barack Obama was not selected because he was black. Obama did not become the first black president but instead became the president -- who happens to be black (and half white by the way). Previous black presidential candidates were mainly noticed as a result of the color of their skin and not necessarily their politics. Where most candidates would run for president, black candidates would run as the 'black candidate,' a token gesture bestowed upon them as if they were fulfilling some form of affirmative action by the mere acknowledgment of them.
Obama's candidacy moved beyond the race factor and instead moved the entire nation into a steam of consciousness that relayed the message loud and clear: race is not the determining factor in this election, politics are. Hall predicted that when the 'black' signifier begins to lessen than the likelihood for deconstructing racism and moving towards the postmodern society becomes much more likely. Yet despite the seeming progression of the country as a whole, it did not begin that way. Early on in Obama's presidential bid, he had trouble acquiring the black vote. In this, he had yet to endure and pass what Hall describes as the 'test of authenticity' among black voters, and ultimately, black popular culture.
On page 290, Hall makes the argument that black popular culture is formed a basis by which insiders develop their own form of diaspora aesthetic, a system that deems whether or not an item meets certain standards -- whether contradictory or not -- to be labeled as pure or impure. Hall further relates the concept of 'Good' black popular culture, which is founded by the basis of passing the test of authenticity. Hall describes this test as, "the reference to black experience and to black expressivity. Theses serve as the guarantees in the determination of which black popular culture is right on, which is ours and which is not."
In relation other forms differences, and how they are equally present in areas other than race, affect people's decisions, Hall states, "since our racial differences do not constitute all of us, we are always different, negotiating different kinds of differences -- of gender, of sexuality, of class. It is also that these antagonisms refuse to be neatly aligned; they are very simply not reducible to one another; they refuse to coalesce around a single axis of differentiation. We are always in negotiation, not with a single set of oppositions that place us always in the same relation to others, but with a series of different positionalities" (292).
In this, Hall deduces that people place value of differences among themselves and others at varying degrees. For some, being black may be a positive or a minus while the same person may regard gender as irrelevant. In this, Hall is stating that there is no way to combat the problem matter-of-factly; it is something that must be dealt with on an individual basis, with no direct method of improving the standing of a group or sect as a whole within the larger realm of society. In other words, it is highly doubtful that a white woman will be viewed on the same level as a black man; the same rules apply when compared to a white man. A recent example of this was seen throughout the presidential campaign as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fought for the Democratic Party nomination. In one instance, Obama's patriotism was questioned for not wearing a flag pin -- leading many to wonder if this would have been asked in he were white, and Clinton was
repeatedly asked if her husband would be pulling the strings if she were elected, a question nearly no man would receive.
However, the political questions did not simply pertain to questions regarding race or gender, other areas such as class and emotion were also considered major factors during the primary season. For example, Obama was painted by many as an elitist, too out of touch with the commoner to relate to their problems. Clinton on the other hand was noted for being an ice queen, too emotionless to resonate with some voters. Hall's analysis plays perfectly into these scenarios as he acknowledges something that all politicians must combat: relating to their constituency. Like all cultures, black popular culture has contradactories. And this exception is no different. Obama -- despite more humble beginnings -- was portrayed as an elitist while Clinton -- who reintroduced a rural accent early on in her presidential bid -- was portrayed as the more favored among middle class families.
As Hall states, "America has always had a series of ethnicities, and consequently, the construction of ethnic hierachies has always defined its cultural politics. And, of course, silenced and unacknowledged, the fact of American popular culture itself, which has always contained within in, whether or not, black American popular vernacular traditions." This is the defining statement of what Hall's study represents. Hall realizes the struggles of culture along with the defiant nature of the popular culture supressing the repressed culture. He understands that the black culture has been largly undefinied within the large scale of American popularisim, and that to overlook it any further is to silence a largly dominant structure of Americanism. This was the focal point of the Hall article.
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