After reading the introduction of Kelley' Race Rebels, I began to think of various ways that power has been and is undermined by small dissonant gestures. In the intro, Kelley discusses the anthropologist James C. Scott's study on the political culture of oppressed peoples in South Asia, that found that "oppressed groups challenge those in power by constructing a 'hidden transcript,' a dissedent political culture that manifests itself in daily conversations, folklore, jokes, songs, and other cultural practices," creating what Scott calls "infrapolitics" (8). This infrapolitics, according to Kelley, is the only way to understand the "policies, strategies, or symbolic representations of those in power" (9). In short, Kelley wants to look at the forms of African American subversion through small, defiant, symbolic gestures that occur routinely. Two things immediately sprung to my mind as potential examples of the practice of infrapolitics: loud, base-oriented music from passing vehicles and sagging pants. In fact, it made me think twice about these seemingly nonpolitical yet sometimes annoying--especially the loud music--acts. I think that the next time I hear a base thumping from a subwoofer in the back of a car, I won't grit my teeth or cover my ears but appreciate as a small but potentially effective subversive and perhaps even progressive act.
But I also found myself wondering what this revealed about those in power. That they like the quiet? That they want psychically foreclose upon the plight of huge numbers of African Americans in the U.S.? That they are secretly afraid of the power invoked by the music?
I also found myself thinking about what happens when these acts are appropriated by other groups? Is it a good thing that white teenagers perform the same acts or do they drain the acts of their viability?
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