![]() ![]() In her new memoir, Margo Jefferson, a former critic at The New York Times, chronicles a lifetime as a member of Chicago’s black elite, a world she celebrates and problematizes by christening it (and her book) Negroland. Why? Because believing a thing like that will make you less susceptible to everything America has concocted to turn you right back into chattel. Of course for them, the phrase would have been transmitted insularly, from one to another, as a reminder of how much was riding upon their success at not merely performing gentility but also believing in the inviolable dignity that gentility has always been thought to confer. But “Black Lives Matter” might just as easily have been the mantra of America’s black elite who, as far back as before the abolition of slavery, sought to establish themselves in communities characterized by privilege and extreme class consciousness. Stop mowing us down with your hatred, fear and disregard. It’s a way of saying, Stop discounting us. ![]() The phrase “Black Lives Matter,” which emerged as a rallying cry during a year of frequent deadly showdowns between police officers and unarmed black citizens, has almost always been pointed at whites. ![]()
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