To understand the striving for black liberation in the face of the subjugation and oppression that Jim Crow promised, Du Bois investigated all the psychological effects of slavery including the ‘inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate’ (SBF, 369) (a sentiment which still rings true today, sadly). The onslaught of the Black Codes in much of the United States reminded Du Bois and many other black intellectuals of the savage history of being black in the United States. This new form of enslavement was, in turn, reinforced by structural violence by the state and much of racist society. He attempted to make sense of the failures of Reconstruction and the persistence of a new kind of enslavement based on peonage and indentured servitude. In his seminal work, Du Bois initiated a contemplative and even performative look into black American consciousness just after the turn of the 20 th century. Du Bois, who initially dealt with black consciousness and double consciousness in The Souls of Black Folk In any discussion of black American artists and consciousness, one must (naturally?) turn to W. Performative consciousness does not mean simply performing a consciousness it emphasizes the dialectical process that a consciousness goes through during an artist’s performative production. Lamar’s performance underscores what I term a ‘performative consciousness’, an awareness and negotiation of social and political consciousness in performances and image-making. Lamar and his performance provide a powerful example of how quickly social media such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube transmit images and performances which radiate throughout the contemporary. The speed at which art is produced and processed throughout the Internet and social media is no longer a wonder. Recently, in Cleveland, members of the local Black Lives Matter chapter gathered to stop the arrest of a 14-year-old boy by Cleveland police, chanting the chorus of the song ‘we goin’ be alright!’ (Shepherd, 2015). Some have pointed to the image of Lamar at the BET Awards and his song as an inspiration for protest. In so doing, Lamar enacts the social change he wishes to see in America.Kendrick Lamar performing ‘Alright’ at the 2015 BET Awards, Los Angeles, 28 June 2015
Through the course of his three studio albums Lamar offers a narrative remediation of America’s discriminatory social order. A love ethic is a means through which individual bodies hurt by racism can be recognized and revalorized. I take the term love ethic from Cornel West and bell hooks. On the basis of my interpretation of the penultimate track on To Pimp a Butterfly, “i,” I propose a love ethic as a means through which the American social order can be changed.
In my analysis of Lamar’s albums, I address the history of American chattel slavery and its aftermath as a social system that privileges white over black.
The albums address the social implications of racism in the present day, throughout Lamar’s life and throughout the lives of his ancestors. This thesis explores Kendrick Lamar’s criticism of institutionalized racism in America and its damaging effects on African-American subjectivity on his albums Section.80, Good Kid M.A.A.D City and To Pimp a Butterfly.
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