Rhetorics of Blackness, Rhetorics of Belonging: The Politics of Representation in Black Canadian Expressive Culture

Abstract

My concern is with differences within minoritisation and the possibilities of articulating affiliation or solidarity on the grounds of differences that may not be 'resolved' but have to be worked through and worked with, causing structures of ambivalence and 'supplementary' moves. (Homi Bhabha 1998a, 40) This world divided into compartments, this world cut in two is inhabited by two different species. The originality of the colonial context is that economic reality, inequality, and the immense difference of ways of life never come to mask the human realities. When you examine at close quarters the colonial context, it is to begin with the fact of belonging to or not belonging to a given race, a given species. (Frantz Fanon 1963, 39-40) The consciousness of self is not the closing of a door to communication. Philosophic thought teaches us, on the contrary, that it is its guarantee. National consciousness, which is not nationalism, is the only thing that will give us an international dimension. (Frantz Fanon 1963, 247) Introduction: Black Appearances/Appearances of Blackness At the Juno awards in 1999, a Black Canadian rap group performed for the first time in the prime-time segment of the show. This breakthrough occurred, because Rascalz, the group invited to perform, refused the Juno they had won in 1998. Their refusal was premised on the insistence that the lack of urban music in the prime-time segment of the telecast was not in keeping with the enormous popularity of urban music. Rascalz, a Vancouver- based rap group, was nominated for and won best rap song in 1998 and 1999. Their song, "Northern Touches" which is a west coast/east coast collaboration, with a number of Toronto rappers appearing on the track, marks Canada as both a Black space and a space of belonging for Black "Northern Touches" criss-crosses Canada to activate an appearance of a contingent, national Black presence. It should not be surprising that musicians inaugurated this contingent, national Black intimacy, especially rappers, since they, above all, seem to have a unique and committed sense of space and place. A common trope in rap music is to cite places and spaces as a kind of mapping of position. But, if the Rascalz appearance on the Juno awards was ample evidence of a Black presence in sonic Canada, mentioning this moment of Black appearance would be useless. What is important about the moment of the Rascalz appearance is what the visual and spectacular appearances of blackness mean for Canada and Canadian-ness.