Rob Skogen
As the nation takes pause to mark the anniversary of the assassination of one of the founding fathers of the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, we are compelled to reflect on the legacy of the great Martin Luther King Jr. It is in this context that this week’s film was presented to us. Through the relationship of Dewey Hughes and Petey Greene, Kasi Lemmon’s Talk to Me (2007) offers a powerful, insightful look into the dynamics of African American culture both then and now.
The Gerstle reading from this week discusses the civil rights movement that Dr. King led strove to assimilate blacks into mainstream culture. Sacrifice and perseverance paid off with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Although it was a momentous step forward, the day-to-day socio-economic reality of black America did not significantly change. This incongruity triggered a paradigm shift which favored a more vocal, militant approach. The Black Power movement, built on the beliefs of Malcom X and the Black Panthers, completely rejected the American Creed and strove to assert black culture as a unique and valid alternative to mainstream American culture.
At its most basic read, it is this dialectic was played out in the text of the film. Dewey’s character represents the subset of blacks striving to assimilate into mainstream American culture and Petey’s character represents the other perspective. A deeper reading is possible, though, when considering Newman’s article on the consumer consciousness engendered by the emergence of black radio in the 50s.
It was in this medium (which provided the film’s setting) that created a public space for blacks to “gather their cultural bearings’, and turn race prejudice into race pride” (Newman 123) – it had the “power to unite” (127). The flipside of this phenomenon, however, is the commercialization that inherent in the American experience. Sometimes this can be a good thing, as Newman argues, but sometimes it can have the power to destroy. We see this come to a head in the film when Petey refuses to be a commodity and walks out on his Tonight Show performance, crushing Dewey’s insatiable dreams of mainstream success.
Exploring this inner-cultural discourse between “keeping it real” and “selling-out” is one that will be essential to our dialogue on race over the next few weeks, as it is core to the African American identity from its beginnings and is one that continues to divide the culture to this day.