I feel very fortunate to have been invited to serve as a respondent for an eSymposium on “The Meaning and Implications of the Obama Phenomenon” over at The Zeleza Post. The Zeleza Post is the web-home for “informed news and commentary on the Pan-African world,” and the regular contributors there are among some of the very best African, African-American, and Africana scholars. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is the Head of the African-American Studies Department at the Univeristy of Illinois-Chicago, where he is also a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences. (He also, by the way, was on my dissertation committee at Penn State!)
I hope you take the time to read through the very interesting essays in the eSymposium, including my reponse to the essays by Pius Adesanmi, Wandia Njoya and Corey D.B. Walker.
I like your piece, Leigh, but am surprised that you missed the modern sense of teras in your etymological introduction. That is, teras as “monster” – see teratology or teragenic. I do not consider Barack Hussein ‘Osama’ a monster, but surely some do, and remembering the terrifying component of (at least some) signs and portents may both support and extend your analysis.
Have you seen this article on urban murder rates? Rhodes comes up. I’d love to hear your reaction: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime
umm. You attributed Invisible Man to Richard Wright. Just thought you should know.
Yikes! That’s embarrassing!
Thanks, Chet. I’ll get that corrected post haste.