Janelle Monáe’s album “Dirty Computer” is a celebration of blackness in a society that sees black bodies as a problem. She evokes the injustice of her American experience through music. Her blackness, in contrast to the blatant whiteness of America, makes her an outlaw. Like Monáe, Sonny’s blackness causes him suffering. While he acknowledges that this suffering is expected, he uses his music to “keep from drowning in it” (17). For Monáe and Sonny, music is a way to claim ownership over their narratives. Monáe’s “Crazy, Classic, Life” and Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues reclaim African culture and identity and represent a life that contains many others within it. Both artists protest the structural racism of the United States while celebrating the black targets of it.
Monáe’s song “Crazy, Classic, Life” is both political and personal, as she describes her identity in relation to the political climate of the United States. The introduction of her song is Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon: “You told us we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Monáe opens with a speech from the 1960s to critique the slow progress of the United States. The Declaration of Independence and the truth it decrees is not a reality of the black story. The dark skinned citizen is still not equal, no matter how hard she tries. Like Monáe’s lyrics, Baldwin’s story represents racial inequality in the United States. As the narrator describes the youth of Harlem, he states, “Their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities” (1). The limits that institutional racism places on African Americans forces them into a vicious cycle of poverty. The boys of Harlem know they have little chance of breaking free of the cycle. Monáe further alludes to these structural disparities by describing a situation where she and her white friend are caught with drugs: “Me and you was friends, but to them, we the opposite/The same mistake, I’m in jail, you on top of shit.” She explains the gap in the sentences of people based on their race. Both of them make the same mistake, but she is subjected to a harsher sentence. She suffers the consequences and ends up in jail, while her white counterpart walks free.
Although both Monáe and Baldwin scrutinize the mistreatment of African Americans, they also present the triumphs of the black community. Monáe sings, “I’m not the American nightmare/I’m the American Dream.” She reverses the common narrative that problematizes African Americans. Rather than victimize herself, she reclaims her blackness and states that she is the American Dream. Her lyrics allude to Malcolm X’s speech “I Have a Nightmare” in which he states, “You’re not an American, you are the victim of America.” She denies this status of victimhood and passivity. She is not acted on by America, she acts on it. Sonny does not settle for inaction either, as he attempts to conquer his suffering by “trying all kinds of ways” to deal with the circumstances of life in Harlem (17). He plays his music and “leaves the shorelines and strikes out for the deep” (20). Sonny does not silently suffer, he conquers his demons through music. The blues are his way of exhausting every option in order to overcome a system that is trying to defeat him. Through the notes of his piano, he triumphs over America, and the narrator writes that “his triumph is ours” (20). His story contains the story of other African Americans. By using his instrument as a weapon to fight the system, he becomes the soldier on the frontline for many others like him.
Monáe and Baldwin use their songs and stories to make the American public listen to the African American plight. Rather than merely presenting all of the hardships they face and claiming victimhood, both authors write narratives of victory. They begin to triumph over the system and accredit this to music. At the conclusion of Sonny’s Blues, the narrator says that “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life” (21). He fills the air with his music, his story, and forces the audience to listen to him. Like the narrator of Sonny’s Blues, the American public needs to learn how to listen. The influx of contemporary music ranging from Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” to Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN” to Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” demonstrate a need for change in the United States. Music is one of the most potent ways that they make us listen and empathize with their struggle.
Hi Jumana! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I liked the song you choose, since it correlates closely with "Sonny's Blues". The connection between the two songs is to share a historical story, which shows how music can be so powerful and impactful. Songs such as this can let people see a different perspective, understand an idea, convey a message to change the way people think in a positive way. In this case, it is the struggles and oppression African American people have suffered though, as well as their victories that came out of their hardships. Overall, I thought your blog post was very well written and your argument was put together in a clean and clear way.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post. I think this song was an excellent choice in comparing it to Sonny's Blues because they both try to emulate the reality and effects the fight for equality within the United States within different time periods, although Monae's song does emulate how slow progress for this equality has been. Both songs also show the struggles of African Americans within a white and oppressive society. However, rather than drowning in this misery both use music to uplift themselves and their communities, all while making a statement that African Americans do not restrict society but rather greatly enhance it. While it is unfortunate that not enough progress has been made for equality from the time of Sonny's Blues to Monae's song, it is clear that the voice of the African American demanding equality has not wavered, and hopefully one day will public will give their undivided attention and bring equality for these people who are struggling among us
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