Not too long bell hooks called Beyonce a terrorist.

I am not sure what bell hooks fans thought.

Beyonce fans probably don't know, don't care.

Both hooks and Beyonce represent successful Black brands. Not too long ago, it seemed bell hooks was in the write a book every couple of months club. Like Henry Louis Gates, Cornell West, and Michael Eric Dyson, hooks' claim to fame is as a public intellectual. While I have never been certain exactly what these public intellectuals do for the public, I do know they make a good living publishing books, working for universities, and giving "talks" for significant fees. Malcolm seemed to be more of a public intellectual for me, though I didn't live at that time. But when I read or listen to his speeches he seems to well capable of entertaining and presenting ideas at the same time. His cadence and intonation reflect Black preachers and street talkers. He sings music whose notes seem rooted in my life.

African American commercial ideas are often used as substitute for African American intellectualism; and African American intellectualism is often trying to occupy the place of African American commercial ideas. The distinction between the two camps is more verbal than anything. Cornell West had a band. I heard Michael Eric Dyson half rapping on a mix-tape a month ago. Our intellectuals are performers and our performers are intellectuals. Black skill is practiced and cultivated with or without formalism, with or without books.

It takes a lot of ideas to run a commercial operation. One can never be sure how much the "star" operates in that intellectual world of business. Often times it is the managers, producers, and members of the corporate staff who shape and mold the performer/artists into the thing we know publicly. The same can be said for many of our public intellectuals. Our capacity to publish and endorse our own intellectualism is as limited as our ability to create stars like Beyonce. Publishing companies pushed hooks into the spotlight. Like Beyonce she had her run with fame. For a while she was publishing books like Lil' Wayne pumped out mix-tapes. The difference is everyday folks weren't really reading her like that. At the bookstore, we knew here name and stocked her books; but her sales were minimal. She had lots of books in print; but few of them were moving off the shelves.

The absence and marginalization of Black Institutions is as common in the academic market as it is in the music industry. Hooks, West, Gates, and Dyson have yet to build a publishing house capable of doing for others what has been done for them. I doubt it is on their radar. Institutions outlast stars, especially when they are well capitalized. The individual success of many of our public intellectuals is significant enough to seed institutions. Haki Madhubuti did more with less and still owns the oldest African American publishing house in the country. On the other hand Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Snoop Dog, Master P and others have created brands that are more than simply personal achievements. Their brands are not simply extensions of their personal image but also operate as corporations that employ a wide variety of people and represent institutional power.

In fairness bell hooks and the public intellectuals have a more difficult job. The world of intellectualism belongs to the inner circle of the so called masters. European culture, ideas, and intellectualism is the final justification for white supremacy. White superiority is verified by the art, ideas, and philosophies cultivated in European culture. The land were hooks, Gates, and others do battle is a new adventure for African Americans in this realm of development. The luxury of being outside these programs is to not have to deal with a documented idea of you as less than human. Black speech and a look in the eyes verifies our humanity in the everyday. Within the walls of academia the obvious must be presented as argument. It's a difficult job.

At Free Black Space we present Black intellectualism as the tree that has grown from the seed of the what our ancestors brought with them on the slave ship. There in the hull was knowledge. There in the hull was black skill. There in the hull was black intellectualism. This intellectualism refined and grew in sync with our experience and is expressed in our achievements. Free Black Space is the intellectualism we all have access too that exists outside of academia.

We don't really know if a generation of African Americans educated at PWIs will greatly benefit our community. We do know folks have walked those long hallways and pledged themselves into those fraternities of knowledge. They have submitted and proved themselves worthy; but we really don't know the degree to which they have been traumatized. Many of us who would attempt to assess the situation may not have been subject to survival in the same environment. We do know they are often cast under the banners of star and intelligent negro; but it is hard to figure out what the tangibles are. In many ways, to be a Black intellectual is to be a cog in a marketing campaign. Ideas like freedom justice, and liberation must be attached to some institutional engine; they must return to those comfortable realms of humanity and justice. Entertainers and performers exercise a different form of freedom when communicating with their audience (though it is important to remember they have to answer to corporate interest). While the performers are endorsed by audience, the intellectuals are endorsed by institutions and schools of thought. It may be hooks' comments reflect a little bit of envy. Nevertheless, she is not the first or last to envy Beyonce.

hook's comments on Beyonce are simply black on black violence of the intellectual order. That is not all she said that day. Without a doubt, hooks' is brilliant, fierce, and rooted in a tradition of struggle and intellectual achievement. But the point is, to call someone a terrorist is of the same order as Uncle Tom. The term denigrates the named person to a sub-human criminal. In today's environment it puts them in a category with Bin Laden and folks who have been sent to Guantanamo Bay. hooks is smart enough to know what she is doing. By no means is this an endorsement of the content in Beyonce or a condemnation of hooks' content. I am not sure how concerned I am with either.

But I am interested in why she did it.

Then, why did she do it?

I think she just got tired of folks talking about Beyonce all the time. Her last album, folks tell me, showed an injection of some feminist and womanist ideas mixed into the stew of sex and common culture. I think hooks felt like she invaded her territory. hooks had to strike back like drug dealers in turf wars.

Black on Black violence does not simply exist on the streets. It's everywhere.

Free Black Space