Statement of Purpose

In the new millennium, African bodies no longer contain the wealth of a nation. Still, their essence, their souls, remain a staple in the economy of ideas. Their value as symbol retains historical and cultural currency. These essays weigh that value in the American marketplace.

Sitting cross-legged like an ancient trader of Persian rugs, I attempt to balance current events and politics against dusky figures serving as points of collective reference. Currently, these conceptual weights include snipers John Muhammed and John Malvo; media maven and political huckster Oprah Winfrey.

Coming soon to a theater near you -- shadow statesmen Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice; ousted Haitian President Jean Bertrand-Aristide; and the eunuchized Wayans Brothers as cross-dressing FBI agents.

As the door closed on the 20th Century, devotees of the digital age crowed technology had rendered moot the material world. Bricks and mortar had given way to a virtual reality unfettered by rhyme or reason, proscribed rules or out-dated definitions. While this kingdom has yet to come, the analogy is a useful one.

In modern America, mind overcomes matter while style trumps substance. With a handful of exceptions, the bulk of Afro-America has similarly devolved into symbols. Names and faces change to protect the innocent yet the outcome is inevitable.

On the evening news, MTV Raps, pealing billboards or Martin Scorcese's "Blues," we are Rorschach's fashioned by psychologists, wielded by pitchmen, flashed before focus groups, carefully calibrated to maximum effect.

As in the good old days, we exercise scant control over our collective and aesthetic fates. Nature or nurture becomes, to paraphrase Duke Ellington, a question without a future. Instead, our destinies are left to others as they wage cultural war.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch aptly demonstrate what one is in America remains less important than what one is not. What better method of self-determination than to stay seated, bowed and fixed on one's shadow?