“Record the Noise” - César “che” Rodríguez on Racial Regimes and Blues Epistemology in the Lead-up to the Oscar Grant Moment
Sep 22, 2023
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César “che” Rodríguez, faculty member of Race & Resistance Studies at San Francisco State Univeristy, discusses racial regimes, blues epistemology, and racial capitalism in the lead-up to the Oscar Grant moment. Topics include the impact of racialization on Black perception, the role of racial capitalism in perpetuating inequalities, the influence of Clyde Woods and Cedric Robinson, and challenging dominant narratives through resistance. The podcast explores the significance of the Oscar Grant moment and analyzes media coverage of the rebellions.
The podcast highlights the impact of racial capitalism and racial regimes on marginalized communities in Oakland, California during the Oscar Grant moment.
The concept of blues epistemology, popularized by Clyde Woods, emphasizes the role of music and popular culture in archiving and sharing knowledge within marginalized communities.
The Hype movement in the Bay Area and the collaboration between black and Mexican-American cultures exemplify the blending and transformation of traditions in hip hop music and cultural expressions.
Deep dives
Patterns of Racial Capitalism in Oakland
In the late 2000s, Oakland, California experienced patterns of racial capitalism that marginalized working-class communities of color. These communities were limited to low-wage service sector jobs and faced rising rent prices, eviction, and displacement due to gentrification. The social wage provided to working-class individuals was impoverished, leading to health disparities, limited access to fresh produce, and exposure to pollution. Policing also intensified in this period, with the growth of OPD and BART police, resulting in increased police violence and shootings in predominantly black neighborhoods. These antagonisms created vulnerability to premature death, with black children in working-class households facing life expectancies much lower than white children in wealthier households. These systemic issues formed the backdrop for the Oscar Grant moment, where the whole damn system was considered guilty.
The Influence of Clyde Woods and Cedric Robinson
Chase's research draws heavily from the work of Clyde Woods and Cedric Robinson, emphasizing their influence in understanding the dynamics of racial capitalism. Woods' concept of blues epistemology highlights the importance of popular culture and music in archiving and disseminating knowledge among marginalized communities. Similarly, Hyphe Hip Hop, a rebirth of the blues epistemology, serves as a contemporary medium for documenting and sharing stories of struggle, resilience, and resistance. Working-class communities, especially in the Bay Area, have utilized hip hop as a means to express their experiences and engage with the broader Black radical tradition. Through the lens of these influential scholars, the essay explores the intersections of racial capitalism, culture, community, and resistance.
The High Fee Corridor of the Oscar Grant Moment
The phrase 'high fee corridor' is a reference to the spirited writing style employed in the essay. Drawing inspiration from Clyde Woods' work on the blues and cultural expressions, the term highlights the significance of archiving and disseminating knowledge when marginalized communities face restrictions on their rights to self-expression. The high fee corridor symbolizes a space where hip hop and other forms of popular culture serve as mediums for sharing stories, preserving histories, and engaging in critical dialogue. It represents the resilience and creativity of communities using music and culture to document and confront the systemic challenges they face.
Understanding Racial Capitalism and Racial Regimes
Racial capitalism refers to the interconnected systems of capitalism and racialism that justify and reproduce power dynamics based on race. Racial regimes are historically and geographically specific constructed social systems that employ race as a means of justifying power relations. These systems are ideologically and materially perpetuated by various discourses, creating racial folk devils and leading to custodial violence against negatively racialized groups. In Oakland, racial capitalism operates through patterns of class-based racial disparity, disinvestment in working-class neighborhoods, intensified policing, and the displacement of marginalized communities due to gentrification. Understanding racial capitalism and racial regimes is essential for comprehending the structural inequalities and systematic violence that underpin the Oscar Grant moment and similar struggles against racialized oppression.
The Hype and Corrillo Connection
The podcast episode discusses the connection between the Hype movement and the Corrillo in the Bay Area. The Hype movement, which emerged in the mid to late arts, was a significant moment for hip hop in the region, specifically in Oakland. The movement brought a distinct sound and gained widespread recognition, with Mac Dre becoming a well-known figure. Alongside the music, there was also a reclamation of public space through the sideshow and scrapers, which affirmed the arrival and recognition of the movement. The Corrillo, a Mexican music group called Los Amos, played their Corrillo's at shows with a notably fast pace, attracting the attention of young individuals associated with the Hype movement. This encounter between black and Mexican-American cultures led to remixes of each lineage, exemplifying the blending and transformation of traditions.
Journalistic and Academic Narratives
This section explores the narratives imposed upon the Oscar Grant moment in both journalism and academia. Corporate media focused on criminalizing the rebellions and framing them as destructive acts performed by an unruly mob. The victims were portrayed as private businesses rather than Oscar Grant himself, while the police were depicted as both victims and heroes. Academic accounts tend to focus solely on the racist state violence of Grant's murder, erasing the agency and mobilization of the demonstrators. They often overlook the complexity and sophistication of the collective pursuit for justice, reducing it to a single instance of state violence against a passive victim. These narratives, whether from journalism or academia, effectively obscure the gains and nuances of the Oscar Grant moment, perpetuating systemic ignorance and political pessimism.
In this episode we welcome César “che” Rodríguez to the podcast.
We had a lengthy conversation about Rodríguez’s piece, “‘Oscar Did Not Die in Vain’ Revelous Citizen Journalism, Righteous/Riotous Work, and the Gains of the Oscar Grant Moment in Oakland, California,” which we will link in the show notes.
César “che” Rodríguez works as a faculty member of Race & Resistance Studies at San Francisco State Univeristy, is a rank-and-file union member of the California Faculty Association, and organized with Change SSF.
As we got into discussion with che, we had some questions about his own relationships with Clyde Woods and Cedric Robinson and his use of certain methodological concepts. These questions led to in-depth discussion which offered so many insights into Cedric Robinson’s concepts of racial capitalism and racial regimes, and Clyde Woods’ concept of the blues epistemology and academic necrophilia. We decided to release that portion of the discussion as part one of the conversation. In particular che spends a good portion of this discussion laying out how he works with Robinson’s concept of racial regimes dialectically, providing an example of how he uses tools from Cedric Robinson, Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall and others to offer a conjunctural analysis of racial capitalism in Oakland in the lead up to what he calls the Oscar Grant moment. And we get into che’s concept of the hyphy corrido ché's concept linking Woods’ blues epistemology with Robinson’s mandate that ethnic studies scholars “record the noise.”
In part two we will get into a more detailed discussion of the movement that came together and protagonized in the wake of the of state murder of Oscar Grant, including a detailed discussion of the citizen journalism, the organizing and rebellion, and some thoughts on what we should take away from the Oscar Grant moment for movements against police impunity and popular struggles more broadly.
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