A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

Josephine Baker (1906–1975) was a dancer, singer, and actress. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker lived the majority of her life in Paris, France, where she moved in 1925 and quickly became a sensation for her erotic dancing. Baker was a headlining performer for the revues of the Folies Bergère, where her most famous performance was the now-iconic “Danse Sauvage.” During this satirical dance, she wore a skirt made of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, playing with stereotypes about Black women. During World War II, Baker aided the French Resistance by collecting information on her tours throughout Europe. When she toured the United States, Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences, taking a risky stand that affected her career. She also made contributions to the civil rights movement.

Abdurraqib positions Baker at the center of his examination of Black womanhood. Frustrated that “so much of the conversation around her career and existence revolves around her relationships, or her sexuality, or what her body was and wasn’t capable of” (151), Abdurraqib counters that Baker’s masterful send-up of the stereotype of a sexualized, exotic Black woman took “the absurd stereotype and [made] it so absurd that it circled around to desire” (151). Her dance in the banana skirt played to the French interest in the exotic and their unfamiliarity with actual Black people. Baker could then reclaim her sense of self by subverting and manipulating the racism she experienced to her benefit in a way that she couldn’t in America.

Abdurraqib compares Baker’s World War II service for France to Black men’s service in World War I. As Black men were trying to prove their loyalty and devotion to America by enlisting in the military, Baker instead recognized the impossibility of full acceptance and rejected America. Baker willingly “served a country that was not her own” (154), while Black American men served in the armed forces of a country that refused to accept them no matter their desire to be part of it. Despite its imperfection, France “treated [Baker] in a manner that [her] home country could never rise to” (154).

Octavia Butler (1947–2006) was an American science fiction author who received multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and became the first science fiction author to win a MacArthur Fellowship. Her most notable works include the Patternist series, Kindred, Bloodchild, the Xenogenesis trilogy, Fledgling, and the Parable series. Butler’s work is considered Afrofuturism because it combines science fiction with Black spiritualism, centering the Black experience. Butler uses this genre to explore trauma, endurance, and, most importantly, endurance: Her characters’ Blackness and their difference allow them to survive, as their “survival was inextricably linked to the things that may have gotten [them] exiled” (130).

In Abdurraqib’s collection, Butler is an example of artistic Afrofuturism, contextualizing his argument about hope, survival, and representation of Black people in science fiction, astronomy, and space flight: “Afrofuturism exists as a genre because the white American imagination rarely thought to insert Black people into futuristic settings” (124). By imagining Black people in the future, Butler demands for their inclusion and gives hope.

Dave Chappelle (1973–) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. When he first moved to New York City, he performed at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night and was booed offstage. He first won critical and popular acclaim in 1992, when he appeared on Def Comedy Jam. Chappelle is best known for Chappelle’s Show, a satirical comedy sketch show that aired from 2003–2006. The show parodied American culture, whiteness, and Black stereotypes. Chappelle unexpectedly quit in the middle of the production of the third season, citing his unhappiness with the direction of the show and extreme stress. He spent time in South Africa before returning to perform stand-up comedy in the US. Chappelle’s fifth Netflix special garnered much controversy for jokes about abuse allegations against Michael Jackson and R. Kelly, the LGBT community, and cancel culture. Despite objections, the special was popular and critically well-received. In the sixth special, he made anti-trans jokes and called himself a TERF—content that led to a Netflix employee walkout demanding that it be taken off Netflix. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings refused to remove the special, stating he does not believe it is hate speech.

In Abdurraqib’s writing, Dave Chappelle is positioned as a living embodiment of the “Magical Negro” stereotype, while also illustrating the limits and failures of this stock character. Chappelle uses each “sketch and the screen as a type of cultural funhouse mirror, stretching out ideas both of Blackness and of how whiteness impacts Blackness” (56). He attempts to act as a conduit for white change, the standard hoped-for effect of the satirist: The show tries to lead “people to a less flattering reflection of themselves, for the sake of something in between absurdity and introspection” (56). Yet unlike the stereotypical figure Abdurraqib aligns Chappelle with, Chappelle’s performances cannot transform his audiences, which “refuses to understand [itself] as a target” (56) of his satire.

Merry Clayton (1948–) is an American soul and gospel singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana. While Clayton has released her own music, she is best-known for her work as a backup singer on tracks by Tom Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, and as Mick Jagger’s duet partner on the Rolling Stones’ song “Gimme Shelter.” The 2013 documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, about backup singers and their contributions to music, prominently features Clayton.

Abdurraqib uses Merry Clayton’s part on “Gimme Shelter” in his Movement about country and provenance, in an essay that considers the difference in recognition for Black and white musicians. Even when a documentary shines light on overlooked artists like Clayton, sustained recognition and fame elude them. While Clayton’s vocal contribution to “Gimme Shelter” is substantial and universally praised, her name has been relegated to the liner notes. Clayton was selected for the duet, Abdurraqib suggests, to create an authenticity that the Rolling Stones could benefit from on their album—authenticity that relied on Clayton’s proximity to Black trauma.

Don Cornelius (1936–2012) was an American television show host and producer best-known as the creator of the dance and music TV show Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971 until 1993. Soul Train was one of the first TV programs to focus on soul music, and before it, Black performers were not frequently seen on TV, especially outside of guest roles on white-centric shows. Soul Train showcased Black talent for a Black audience while also steadily growing in appeal to a white audience, featuring many Black musicians, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson. The signature Soul Train Line also gave talented dancers a chance to demonstrate their skills.

Abdurraqib uses Cornelius to introduce the different meanings of performance. Cornelius gave Black musicians and dancers a platform and elevated their styles, valuing the artistic production of Black Americans. Cornelius also illustrates the divide between the performance of an identity and reality. He “saw in Black people a promise beyond their pain, [...] he could not outrun his own” (18): As a host, he exuded cool that hid a bleaker truth; Cornelius died by suicide.

Buster Douglas (1960–) is a former American boxer who competed between 1981 to 1999. He is most famous for his shocking defeat of Mike Tyson for the undisputed world heavyweight championship in 1990, when Mike Tyson was considered one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in history, nicknamed “The Baddest Man on the Planet.” Around the time of the fight, Tyson was experiencing many personal problems: His marriage was failing, he was having contract disputes, and he fired his trainer and manager. In contrast to Tyson’s lack of focus, Douglas trained vigorously. The undefeated Tyson was so heavily favored that many casinos refused to take bets on the fight. However, Tyson took a heavy beating before being defeated in the 10th round, one of the most shocking upsets in sports history.

Douglas’s calm under pressure and his methodical approach to the seemingly unwinnable boxing match is for Abdurraqib a prime example of how outward performance of unflappability can be a way to counter fear. Fighting undisputed champion Mike Tyson is a daunting and nigh impossible task—one Abdurraqib compares to living in the hood, facing a hostile stand-up audience, or living as a Black man in America. Douglas’s skilled triumph over a stereotypically aggressive and threatening Black man also suggests multiple possible versions for Black masculinity.

Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) was an American singer and songwriter. Dubbed the “Queen of Soul,” Franklin was considered one of the greatest singers of all time. Her most well-known songs include “Respect,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “A Rose is Still a Rose,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” A 2018 concert film called Amazing Grace showed the recording of Franklin’s 1972 live album of the same name. The film was delayed due to technical difficulties, but then its 2011 and 2017 release dates were canceled due to Franklin’s legal objections. When Franklin died, her memorial service was streamed by many news agencies; many celebrities and politicians attended, including Ariana Grande, former President Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Tyler Perry. After her death, Franklin’s family approved the documentary, which was finally released to critical acclaim.

Franklin features prominently in two of the book’s essays: “On Going Home as Performance” and “An Epilogue for Aretha.” The first focuses on the large public display of grief to illustrate a distinct aspect of Black culture. In the second, Abdurraqib compares watching Amazing Grace to Franklin’s experience recording and filming it, examining music as a religious and collective experience, the importance of documentation, and Black mourning as a celebration.

Whitney Houston (1963–2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed “The Voice,” Houston began singing in church as a child before becoming a background singer in high school. Her first two albums hit number one on the Billboard 200; her best-known songs include “I Will Always Love You,” “How Will I Know?,” “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “I Have Nothing,” and “I’m Every Woman.” Houston’s tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown and her drug use lead to much tabloid coverage. Famed for her powerful vocals and range, she remains one of the bestselling musicians of all time.

Abdurraqib uses Houston as an example of the complicated relationship between Black performers, white audiences, and Black audiences. Having outlined the invisibility of other talented Black performers, he argues that Houston’s rise to prominence depended on her minimizing her Blackness and successfully code switching to be more acceptable to white audiences, as evidenced during her performances at the 1988 and 1989 Grammy Awards.

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Called the “King of Pop,” Jackson is considered one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century. He began his career in 1964 as a member of the Jackson 5, alongside his older brothers; the group was steered by their physically and emotionally abusive father. Jackson began his solo career in 1971. His music crossed into many genres, including pop, soul, R and B, funk, and rock. His most famous songs include “Beat It,” “Bad,” “Billie Jean,” “Smooth Criminal,” and “Thriller,” a song whose long-form video is credited with breaking racial barriers. Jackson’s signature dance move was the moonwalk. While he did not originate the move, he did coin its name. Starting in the late 1980s, speculation began about his obvious plastic surgeries and changing skin tone, which paled from its original brown, a transformation he attributed to attempts to hide the effects of vitiligo. Later in life, his unusual behavior, atypical lifestyle, and charges of child sex abuse led to Jackson being a troubled tabloid figure.

Despite being one of the most notable Black performers of the 20th century, Jackson takes up little space in Abdurraqib’s collection, featuring in small sections of different essays. Abdurraqib notes Jackson’s importance as the archetypal Black pop star, and positions him as a foil to Houston because Jackson was able to maintain his Blackness and acknowledge his past during his stardom, unlike Houston. This difference is critical when examining Black audiences’ reactions to these artists.

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (1981–) is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Born in Houston, Texas, she initially rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of Destiny’s Child, an R&B girl group. In 2006, Destiny’s Child disbanded and Beyonce embarked on a solo career. Her sixth album, Lemonade, was the best-selling album of 2016 and was accompanied by a visual album that included “Formation,” an R&B song with trap and bounce influences that celebrates Black culture, identity, and Beyoncé’s success as a Black woman from the American South. Its video, set in New Orleans and recalling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, depicts Black pride and celebrates Black resilience. Beyoncé performed “Formation” live for the first time at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show. The performance caused controversy because of her use of iconography of the Black Panther Party. The song became a protest song, associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement and the Women’s March.

Abdurraqib references Beyoncé to consider how celebrities use their platform as a quiet type of activism. By focusing on the work Beyoncé does and connecting it to previous jobs he has held, Abdurraqib argues that clocking in and showing up is itself revolutionary. Beyoncé taking a stand at her job is going above and beyond the mundane fight for individuality—she is showing up in a context that did not demand it.

William Henry Lane (1825–ca 1852) was a Black dancer active beginning in the 1840s who performed under the name Master Juba. As a teenager, he worked in dance halls and minstrel shows in Manhattan; later, he likely worked for P. T. Barnum. As Master Juba, Lane was one of the first Black performers in the US to perform for white audiences, dancing in minstrel troupes, pretending to be a white man performing caricatures of Black dances in blackface. In his most famous appearances, Lane challenged the period’s best white dancers and defeated them. Most famously, he defeated John Diamond, a white dance star, multiple times. In 1842, Charles Dickens watched one of Master Juba’s performances and described it in his American Notes. After this increase in popularity, Lane toured England.

For Abdurraqib, Master Juba exemplifies both the performance and reception of Blackness. The different descriptions and depictions of Lane emphasize the audience-centered nature of performing identity. Dickens’s written description and two images depict Master Juba by exaggerating his features to evoke stereotype or to mock. A completely different third image of a well-dressed Master Juba sharply contrasts with the image of Blackness created by these white-centered depictions, though because of the passage of time and the historical invisibility of Black people, distinguishing between truth and reality of Lane’s life becomes difficult.

Bernie Mac (1957–2008) was an American comedian and actor. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, and later appeared in films such as Ocean’s Eleven and Charlie’s Angels. From 2001-2006, Mac starred in the TV sitcom Bernie Mac, based on events from his real life.

For Abdurraqib, Mac is an example of performing in the face of fear. In the essay “Fear: A Crown,” Mac faces an abstract challenger: the whims of a rowdy comedy audience. To conquer the crowd, he embodies a fearless bravado, declaring his lack of fear. His ability to overcome the unwelcoming audience’s taunts offers a contrasting vision of Black masculinity, one that doesn’t rely on physical fighting to assert dominance.

Donald Shirley (1927–2013) was an American classical and jazz pianist and composer. Born in Pensacola, Florida, to Jamaican immigrant parents, Shirley pursued a career as a musician, but became discouraged by the lack of opportunities for Black classical pianists. Abandoning music, he studied psychology at the University of Chicago and became a practicing psychologist, winning a grant to study the connection between music and juvenile crime. While the study was unsuccessful, it reinvigorated Shirley’s desire to pursue a career in music. He recorded several albums and composed many works. During the 1960s, Shirley toured widely, including through the Deep South. He hired a white bodyguard and driver to accompany him. This relationship was the basis for the heavily dramatized and fictionalized 2018 film Green Book, which centered the white driver rather than the extraordinary performer.

In Abdurraqib’s writing, Shirley functions as a foil to the “Magical Negro” trope. Unlike the flattened movie version of him, the real Shirley doesn’t effortlessly solve white problems. Instead, he has a fulfilling career and a satisfying life that has little to do with ministering to white people. Abdurraqib respects this quality, highlighting how mundane acts in search of creating an individual self can be excellent and revolutionary. The movie version becomes emblematic of America’s desire for simplified, sterilized portrayals of history in the service of whiteness.

Sun Ra (1914–1993) was an American jazz composer, band leader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet. Born Herman Poole Blount in Alabama, Sun Ra is best-known for being the leader of The Arkestra, a fluid ensemble of musicians who often performed in elaborate and futuristic costumes. Sun Ra moved to Chicago in the late 1940s and became involved in the music scene, taking on the name Le Sony’r Ra before shortening it to Sun Ra. At this time, he started denying his past and claiming to be an alien from Saturn, a persona that pioneered Afrofuturism. He was a prolific artist, but he never achieved mainstream success.

Abdurraqib suggests that Sun Ra is emblematic of the desire to escape from and exist outside of America. Sun Ra’s use of futuristic, cosmological elements echo themes expressed in Afrofuturist fiction. Sun Ra’s extreme example illustrates the allure of space and science fiction, genres where Black Americans can imagine their place in a better future.