Work on the redefinition of Black for many may seem to be an outdated task. It is highly unlikely that anyone engaging in such an endeavor is likely to achieve success. The problem of blackness' symbolism and the accompanying negative connotations, contrary to popular opinion, is not a question of putting forward the proper arguments, but rather decoding the metaphorical illusion that lies at the core of the construct. The assertion that the difficulty is a question of logic suggests that argument can govern behavior. While this may be true under certain circumstances, the history of racism shows argument employed in the service of racism. At the crossroads of race, logic can either support or work against racism. There logic is not the master; but the servant. Then who is master?

The metaphor is the master.

For the metaphor allows the connotations of the word and it's uses to connect with the perception employed by the users of the word. Metaphor is logic linked to human experience/perceptions; or, to state another way, feeling and logic combined. If we are mind, emotion, and spirit-metaphor manages to mix mind with emotion and ultimately spirit. The power of negative connotations being attached to Black are not simply the logical flaws, but the ways in which the flaws attach themselves to human's behavior and decisions. The common trend of standing against hate speech represents the country's attempts to regulate the promotion of this language in the larger society to better protect it's citizens. These efforts are to be commended; however, too often they pass over the more serious concern of the connotations influence on behavior. This is the public justification for the actions; but the analysis is only skin deep. We attack the hate speech as though it exists outside the fundamental metaphorical construction of the country as if it were virus. It is not virus. It is symptom. It is flowering. Racist and hate speech exist with the empire of language as pre constructed pathways that aid the empire in the work it does.

For beneath the hate speech is the idea of complete metaphorical separation from our enemies or those positioned on the opposite side of our binary. The actions taken against those who use such speech are public defamings that suggest as punishment for their stances against haints and other enemies that they be converted to haints and enemies themselves. This idea needs to be thoroughly thought through.

Negative connotations about Black are merely symptoms of a binary way of thinking that operates at the core of our society. Black, and it's negative connotations, are a trigger for those designated with the mental illness of white supremacy. In reality, the metaphorical connotations of the word black in the English langauge, serve to bridge negative emotions with those designated by such a label. The meanings of the word black subjects the language employed with and around it to viral infections consisting of it's negative connotations. White supremacy is the creation of logic on this platform to channel and direct a series of negative associations already existing within the society towards some external destination. In this way, the metaphor of blackness, as logic employed toward the empowerment of whites, has been extremely effective.

Our suggestion that the logic as compared to the metaphor is at the root of the problem fits well into the Western concept. Matters are worsened by the presence of logic and reason as the defining element of the Western approch to the world. Within the context of the binary, reason is attributed to whites, with passion and feeling being attributed to others. As we continue to study, we may very well find that those people who are portrayed as being dominated by feeling simply have a greater sense of union between logic and feeling than others. Here we must recognize how essential the separation is to colonial infrastructure. The acts of the slave ship and the masters spin on the axis of separation of feeling. Ideas are employed and feelings are repressed.

Those complex mythologies of old were simply advanced metaphorical systems. Read the I-Ching, or go study Ifa. What we find in the Western binary of good vs evil, particuarly when gazing at black people, is the supremacy of the black/white metaphor. Obviously, for whites, the system is more complex than that. However, there must be something else besides the presence of Black people to predate the distinction. The distinction of complete separation between opposing natural forces (as compared to rotation, balance, union,)is applied to the context of race, not generated there. The strength of the metaphor acts a funnel for the emotional response of the listeners.

The problem is blacks in the realm of experience are resistant to the binary metaphor of good vs evil/black vs. white. Our internal world can only be verified by our use of language for some observers. So there is debate over the linguistic use of black by blacks themselves. As with the debate over nigger, blacks are supposedly rendered powerless in their manipulation of language. The reasoning is as follows, if white people came up with the word, to use that word, is to verify their power. Subversion is not simply possible. Whites are supreme. Words within the English language are bound by their definitions-they can only be vested with their meanings and powers.

But the world of metaphor is constantly in flux. Users of the language in conjunction with particular audiences possess the power to link ideas and concepts with other ideas and concepts. The requirement is simply that the audience understand what you mean. So in terms of the word nigger-it is preposterous to assert that the use of nigger by Blacks reflects the same self hatred as the spoken words of a white supremacist. Now we enter the realm of science. The connotations of a word are numerical. In the same way an engine can operate at 80% of its capacity, let's say that the use of the word nigger when someone says, "That's my nigger" reflects a sixty or seventy-five percent positive approach. Some of the negative connotations of the word remain; however, language usage is not really binary. The connotations of most words are simply too complex. Unfortunately, the West has no such numerics, I am aware of, for assessing these problems.

So it follows, words and logic represent a mathematical complexity. Each word with it's connotations represent meaning linked to meaning managed by speaker, audience, and the history of the language. The problem is we lack sufficient tools to assess these particulars. We are taught that science, detail, and the pursuit of precision, which have given us so many of our technological innovations that form the distinctions of modern society, has no equals. Yet, Aristotle in his Rhetoric states, to paraphrase "that metaphor is genius that cannot be taught" More simply put, metaphor, according to one of the most prominent Greek philosophers, is a skill so complex it cannot be taught. Precise metaphors engage this mathematical precision with complexity and accuracy. Concepts like white supremacy and other forms of hate propoganda are simply relfections of a group of people's inability to linguistically present the mathematical complexity of human beings.

Hence we come to the poet. They are the masters of metaphors, and those who have somehow managed to understand the world as being absolutely interrelated and capable of being unified via precise comparisons. Even more intriguing is the idea that many of the poets who create metaphor are anonymous. They create the language witin communities were the new and unique comparisons take root in the collective consciousness, linking words and concepts in odd ways that make sense to particular audiences. The "real" poets do the same and are texted into history; while the anonymous poets give rise to expression often without print; but in these cases the anatomy of the language is transformed by their inventions. Lakoff and Johnson in their book Metaphors We Live By make clear metaphors essential nature to the geography of the language. They assert it is so essential that we cannot have a conversation without making use of it.

So what about the Black poet and metaphor. Here at Furious Flower, I am in the company of poets and scholars who represent the best of the best when it comes to studying African American poetry and poetry in general. We are the guardians of the long train of words that represents black language and black speech in the stream of the English language and the world.

A summary of the current trends would require a more adept expert than me; but I have read a fair amount of works by black poets. The current trend represents a high level of craft, dedicated to a formalism, and a certain degree of historicism. If you want to be a black poet today, one must show themselves capable of managing the whole of the English language. Much of it operates as a gigantic competition. There are awards for the poets. Of course they do not really seek them, but there are awards nevertheless. I am sure the next year, will bring some new victories of black poets in the often lily white world of poetry awards. Yes, we are so proud. It is a phenomena that seems to mirror Obama. No doubt his ascendancy as symbol of the Black who became President, against all odds, contributes to the judging process. Our awards show we are the best in our particular discipline. There are numerous examples. We have arrived.

And though I am being half sarcastic, I know a fair amount of the poets who have received awards, and have read much of their work. Many of them are personal friends. I find much of it, exceptional, invigorating and worthy of award. One's ability to naivigate white supremacy linguistically functions as an asset when writing poetry if for no other reason than one has access to a series of linguistic tools and metaphors taught to them by their community; which are virtually invisible to the larger world. Blackness, after all, is skill. Black Poets learn something whites rarely do. The lesson is rooted in the irreconcilable nature of one of the primary metaphorical constructs of the langauge negating their humanity. In the end, no matter how long, humanity wins. Blackness gives rise to numerous metaphorical inventions that represent the natural rise of the human spirit above bullshit; and black poets are the center of the activity. The nature of the binary makes clear the higher probability of black knowing both the white and the black, and white rarely knowing anything besides itself. This is not indicative of people's propensity to intelligence; but more so a natural process built into the system of race and the idea of binary opposition and exclusivity. White supremacy with its power offers little incentive for whites to learn the black in any significant way.

Yet, what does black really mean metaphorically. The question is one that gets at the root of white supremacy and the symbolism inherent in the English language. The poets of today often have more serious missions on their radar. Their pursuit of the perfect craft, I imagine, replicates a Europe that never was. There like all societies, the great art was meant for people. The awards and much of the work of the Black poet today, I believe, is a synthesis of their brilliance, discipline, and study combined with a quest for a reconciliation between their often elite educations and knowledge of the trajectory of black usages of language.

It's all a post Black Arts play. We know some folks got loud and was talking shit outside the back door at the spot. Then they got on stage Apollo style. We know some white people got called devils. We know that other Black folks used the black speech and talked too much about revolution, liberation, while they simply had not formulated themselves into much of a talented tenth. Their contradictions were enourmous; and contradictions within a nigger are a hard thing to reconcile. For our contradictions can be used as evidence that we may in fact be the thing that folks have suggested we are. The more educated, the more successful we are in this lily white world of poetry, the more astute we are in ensuring that we can distinguish ourselves from the mythical beast conjured up by some white man's mind. This is where and why formalism is so important. It is indeed straight out of Sun Tzu. We win the battle, because we have no opponents. Who can deny our craft?

And while some of this may seem like diatribe or off-center, it also the true naivigation of the literary industry. Street life authors, who operate under a rule similar to the Black Arts quest for a Black audience, civcumvent many of the problems by simply getting black people to buy their books. Their movements stand in contrast for other authors who interact primarily with a white audience. For if one wants to create literature that is successful in a market place with a majority of white readers, it is neccessity to understand the codes and rhythms of the white audience. Unfortunately, even with the many African American awards in writing, if one talks to black authors in private they will share stories with you of their struggles with authors, editors, and managers of the literary industry. The codes of black speech and metaphor are not common knowledge. It is possible to be craftful, successful, and intelligent without having them. They are not part of the educational system.

Though, I will not expand on it much here, too often the most powerful assumptions in the mind of the white audience are those that dehumanize us. After all the history of white supremacy is a verification of how enourmously successful a black/white binary is in terms of mobilizing whole societies against others. Metaphor as science is the answer to the riddle of white supremacy's success inspite of its dehumanizing brutality. These metaphorical concepts are powerful forces within white audiences. What seemingly could never make sense to us, made sense to them. Most humbling in these contexts are our human tendencies to recognize white humanity in spite of a capacity to ignore our own. While this is not our role within the American binary, this is a legitimate and unrepressable example of our humanity.

The navigation of racism or the Black negative connotations within the realm of language, is not truly a question of skill. If one meditates on this, they will realize why there is something beyond Free Black Space. For while blackness is skill, the skill of navigating an illusion is only practical when operating within the world of fantasy. Outside of the realm of fantasy lies a power rooted in union with what is.

The nature of a beast is the unpredictable nature of the associations that a particular mind may make with a set of connotations which can be represented via language; but are also linked to the images, contexts, senses, past traumas, past joys, that make humans so infinitely mysterious. Language is not God. Everyone has a job to do. The poets must do theirs within this world of limitation. Linguistic skill is useful in some situations; but is by no means a cure all for the human spirit. While the point is obvious, the poetic community, especially the elite, with their mission statements, and procolomations, request for donations suggest the highest ideals. Linguistically, it is so different from the this shit is like that, this shit is on the one. This shit is the bomb. You gotta get on this. The rationalization for high art is exported to the colonies under the rationalization that it reflects the highest levels of culture. Here the true justification is access to capital, and further down the road, the use of power or brutality to impose the standards-Native Americans dressed in suites having their spirit stomped on under the guise of education. Implicit in its promotion is a terratorial assumption. Simply put, it is the statement that we own the highest of ideals; and that what others do belongs to the ghetto of ideas. Unless, of course, Blackness has some service standard assigned to it, which will help people revise the flaws of an otherwise well working system.

The Black negative connotations are the core of the white supremacist model. In reality Black is a casuality. White supremacy suggest white is everything. Everybody else is out. Unfortunately, Black is the opposite of white. As opposite, black becomes almost as important as white; not because it is worth the same as white; but because it is needed as a reference to contribute to white superiority. The same abstractions apply. The white people are not really white and the Black people are not really black. This is the problem blacks have confronted. In many respects the whole of white supremacy is not about black people at all. In fact we are simply a casualty of contrast. They picked white for themselves; and we were Black. It is really all about them.

If you pay attention, when someone treats you Black, negative or positive, they are engrossed in themselves. The ability to act against you is simply an extension of the absence of knowledge as compared to the presence of it.