Branded: Black as Means of Commodity Modern day black commodity, a derivative market of slavery… Black body; Black culture; Black branding; Fetish objects of capitalism?! Devalued laborers as fraught consumers, Filling the coffers of their oppressors. In history’s vault…as Cedric Robinson wrote in Black Marxism: “To be black was to have No civilization No culture No religion No place No humanity Worthy of consideration.” In the cacophony of this capitalist country, black men were detained in their disparate But imbricated roles, Like a run of toppled dominoes…Cast as commodified bodies, Disparaged workers and thronging consumers looking to escape their shame, By wearing labels bearing someone else’s name…Today that is their game; Yet still they use their style and swagger In protest and in search of a new maneuver, as they watch the usurpation of their culture Scattered along the margins of the society which excludes them; Their humanity and masculinity secondary to their race in a capitalist society Whose primary ideology is the working male body; but black men’s souls become darkest at the Crossroads of patriarchal privilege and racial repudiation; That is to say…a real man must work matter what! But that work is hard to come by especially when that man is black! But as commodity they can “be like Mike” like professional athletes like Michael Jordan; That is if they’re willing to see their remarkable ability commercialized… Successful blacks used as tropes To sedate and tantalize, elevate and emphasize, The promise of success for those blacks who are marginalized… But history manifested in our memory has taught us that tropes are in fact Like the black characters in a horror movie…they are usually the first to get the axe! Simply put black liberation is our collective investment But as capitalist commodity it compels our collective divestment! Blacks need not succumb to being branded as “worthy” By capitalist elites who place no “worth” on their humanity.
From:
Chain Letter to America: the One Thing You Can Do to End Racism: A Collection of Essays, Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Multiculturalism by Jacques Fleury
