Black Star: African American Activism in the International Political Economy

Notes

notes Chapter 1: A new take on an old term 1. Please note that in this study the term African American is used to refer to black populations throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. 2. The term international political economy refers to the political and economic agreements worked out among nation-states to ensure smooth resource extraction and trade relations. One of the first political studies that focused on this political attribute of the diaspora concept was Gabriel Sheffer, ed., Modern Diasporas in International Politics (New York: St. Martin’s, 1986), arguing that a diaspora has three political actors: the homeland, the host countries, and the émigrés that settle in those host countries. 3. Elliot P. Skinner, “The Dialectic between Diasporas and Homelands,” in Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, ed. Joseph Harris (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1982), 11–40. A refugee community often evolves into a diaspora when resolutions of the homeland’s problems turn out to be intractable. 4. See, for instance, Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Colonial Discourse and Post Colonial Theory: A Reader, ed. P. Williams and L. Chrisman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 392–403; James Clifford, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology 9, no. 3 (1994): 302–38; Paul Gilroy, Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993). 5. St. Clair Drake, “Diaspora Studies and Pan-Africanism,” in Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, ed. Joseph Harris (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1982), 451–514. 6. See for example, Robin Kelley, “Black History’s Global Vision: 1883–1950,”Journal of American History 86 (Dec. 1999): 1045–77. 7. See Robert Andersen, “Why Adoptees Search,” Child Welfare 67, no. 1 (1988): 15–19. Andersen is a psychiatrist and adoptee. Also look at J. Triseliotis, In Search of Origins: The Experiences of Adopted People (London: Routlege and Kegan Paul, 1973). 8. This is not to say that all African-descended people are active in diaspora activities or that they hold affinity for Africa. There are those who are appalled by African participation in slavery and disavow kinship and those who are ashamed by African genealogy. However, both of these positions suggest passion around their origins and therefore impact on their identity. 9. Sheffer, ed., Modern Diasporas. 10. My view on the institutionalist school of political economy is greatly influenced by the works of Douglass North, Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); and John Zysman, Governments, Markets, and Growth (New York: Cornell University Press, 1994). The development of the institutionalist school is attributed to Thornstein Veblen in his classic, Theory of the Leisure Class (New York: MacMillan, 1899). 11. Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (New York: Free Press, 1984). 12. One exception is the work of Sidney Tarrow. He looked at protests in Eastern Europe following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Tarrow noted how social movements developed within each state to reform government and institute democratic government. See Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 13. Ronald Walters, Pan-Africanism in the African Diaspora: An Analysis of Modern Afro-Centric Political Movements (Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1997). 14. Here the term resources refers to more than financial resources such as money and other assets. I also include education—particularly skill levels, including knowledge of the mechanics of the international economy and expertise in key fields such as finance, business, general administration, shipping, and infrastructure management —fields beyond general labor. 15. See Joseph Rothschild, Ethnopolitics: A Conceptual Framework (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). 16. I have chosen the word liminal to distinguish the more fragile, inexperienced diasporas from the classic, well-established diasporas, such as those of the Jews and Armenians. A complete discussion is in chapter 2. Chapter 2: An Exploration of the relevant literature 1. There are many well-received cultural studies on the African diaspora; these include Paul Gilroy, “It Ain’t Where You’re From, It’s Where You’re At,” in Small Acts: Thoughts on the Politics of Black Cultures (London: Serpent’s Tail, 1993), 120–45; also see Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic. Also see Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”; Clifford , “Diasporas.” 188 . notes to pages 4–13 2. See Kim Butler, “Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse,” Diaspora 10, no. 2 (2001): 189–219. 3. See J.A...