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Beyond 9/11: On the Cultural Legacy of Computer Generated Icons
I have spent a lot of time analyzing the role of memory in American culture, so for September 11th, I took some time to think about the media history surrounding the day. Specifically, I started reading an essay by Professor Deborah Elizabeth Whaley called “Black Expressive Art, Resistant Cultural Politics, and the [Re] Performance of Patriotism.” I chose this essay because I planned to write about cultural memory and collective healing, and I was particularly interested in Whaley’s work because she looks at how hip-hop artists and Black cultural icons chose to remember 9/11.
In her essay, Whaley examines different media texts, such as Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks comic strip and Mary J. Blige’s music videos released after 9/11. In each case, Whaley discusses how Black Americans shifted between feelings of patriotism and ambivalence due to the complex racial and political history of being Black in America. Instead of just being able to mourn the loss of many Americans on 9/11, African Americans also had to face discrimination and increased surveillance that followed. When reading the essay, I felt like I was reliving the Bush presidency and the media propaganda that fueled the global war on terror.
As I continued reading the essay, I was surprisingly reminded of another part of media history I hadn’t considered. In the essay, Whaley points out that after 9/11, Black Entertainment Television (BET) decided to dedicate commemorative programming to honor the heroes 9/11 by featuring montages of Black police officers and rescue workers in their two most popular music video shows from the early 2000s. This was a common theme in many programs then, and I also recall that most major networks created similar programming.
