The Emerging Black Leaders held their third annual symposium, entitled "The Power and Progression of Black Identity," on Saturday in the ASEAN Auditorium.
The symposium featured speeches as well three different panels focusing on black identity: "You're Not Black Enough: Social Constructions of Blackness"; "Where is He When I Need Him: The Role of Spirituality in the 21st Century"; and "What's Up My Ni**a: The Self-Degradation of the Black Community."
"Where is He When I Need Him: The Role of Spirituality in the 21st Century" dealt with the recent decline in black religious participation and looked at possible ways for faith to play a larger role.
The panelists also discussed the interplay between religion and sexuality.
"Sexual education in our churches, not just black churches ... is very poor," Bishop Filipe Cupertino Teixeira, one of the panelists, said.
Panelist Andy Josephs drew on his own personal experiences from the Caribbean for a discussion on negative views of homosexuality. Some churches there, he said, say that homosexuality "came with colonialism ... [and they] condemn it."
The panel also took questions from the audience. One member asked the one Muslim on the panel, Dr. Sherman Jackson, about the tension that exists between Western and non-Western Muslims.
According to Jackson, who is a professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the two groups vie to determine "who has the right to define Islamic life in the U.S."
"There is a movement of young blacks going to the Muslim world ... so that they can come back and claim authority," he said.
Another panel, "What's Up My Ni**a: The Self-Degradation of the Black Community," focused on the social estrangement of blacks in America and some of its causes, most notably a large number of children who grow up without fathers.
Jonetta Rose Barras, an author and journalist, said the decline in the role of the family in America is not unique to the black community. "It's all across America," she said. "Absence [of a father] leads to negative perceptions of self," she said.
When asked about mental health, panelist John Hand, an author and activist, said that the emotional wellbeing of blacks in American was impacted negatively by racism. To defeat racism, however, people have to first make sure that they are "emotionally and mentally up to the task," he said.
Hand then turned to the taboo word in the title of the panel and the fascinating amount of power it held over people. "The word is ni--a," he said. "I'll check to see if anyone has fainted."
He discussed the theory many have that "if we use it enough, we'll be able to take away the power." This theory does not appear to be true, he said.
Panelist Kevin Mitchell, the president and CEO of Kevlar Entertainment, argued that the way people view the word is changing. It does not have the same connotations as in the 1960s or '70s, he said.
Mitchell also discussed how to create more positive images of the hip-hop industry in the media. The best way to do that, he said, is "getting the reality of the industry out there." While everyone may assume after one hit record, hip-hop stars are rich, that is not the case, he said.
In music videos, the cars, girls and jewelry are all rented, Mitchell said.
He also suggested that hip-hop idols should talk more about education. According to Mitchell, rapper Jay-Z is rich because of his smart business ventures and decisions, not because of his music.
The panel also fielded questions about how to promote positive images while maintaining success in business.
Panelist Olatunde Sobomehin made a distinction between popular culture and positive culture. What is popular is measured in four different ways, he said. "How tough or bad you are ... how much money you have ... how many women or men you're getting with ... [and] how much you don't care."
Sobomehin said that his mission is "to make popular culture positive so we can make positive culture popular."
According to Barras, the opportunities for positive change lay within family life. "If we want to change our community, and go back to a positive thing, we have to go back to the principle of family. To make sure that our communities of color are restored," she said.
Mitchell said that part of the reason the media furthers the self-degradation of the black community was purely because such material sells. Although positive forms of media exist, they are not nearly as popular, he said.
"How many of you have heard of Princess Brianna?" he asked the audience. "It's a children's book series about a black princess - a woman. [It] teaches positive values and stuff for women," he said.
The panelists also discussed hip-hop and its relation to the black community. Barras said that hip-hop is an artifice created by producers. "The things that are traditions for us we've let pass because someone else has told us that this urban street culture is all of our culture. And it is not," he said.
Hip-hop "shouldn't be allowed to identify or determine what the black community stands for," Mitchell said.
According to Mitchell, current hip-hop stars are the ones in the position to put some positive images out in the media.
The end of the panel featured a great deal of student interaction, specifically about the use of the word that defined the discussion.
"You can't stop it, but you can flip it," one student said. He went up to the blackboard and wrote "reggin" to applause and laughter, telling people that the next time somebody uses the phrase "my ni--a," the response should be, "What's up, reggin?"
Another student disagreed. "Black people want to believe they're [trying to] flip it into something positive. But it's still being used hurtful amongst ourselves," he said.
Giovanni Russonello contributed reporting to this article.
