Sitrep 8

 Notions of freedom, and layers of freedom, is something that I found most interesting in Gem of the Ocean. Sandra L. Richards lays out how freedom looks different for 3 of the characters in this play. 

"Not only is an emphasis on agency uttered repeatedly but also it is apparent that the constitution of freedom changes depending on the historical context. For the older generation, freedom at one point meant emancipation from slavery; for Solly's sister in the post-Reconstruction South, freedom would entail the absence of racial violence and exploitation; for the newly arrived Citizen, freedom means nondiscriminatory, well-paid employment and psychic equilibrium" (Richards, 159). 

This plays onto the title, being a reference to a song that is basically one step removed from being used in an Army ad. And yet Wilson's work here seems to ride a tension between a refutation of an advertainment for a national identity, while also promoting an advertainment towards a panethnic collaboration. While Solly is talking to Citizen about the nature of their names, Solly says "Your mama's trying to tell you something. She put a heavy load on you. It's hard to be a citizen. You gonna have to fight to get that. And time you get it you be surprised how heavy it is".  What we call ourselves, and what people choose to call us is in collaboration but also in contention. How do we contend with <Freedom> and <Liberation>, in which I use in turn here as a ideograph, as definitions when our usage of either is constrained to two answers.

Myra Washington, a communication scholar, presently is pushing against restraints in rhetoric, which for scholars addressing race seems to be the only resistance and resignation both which recenters the dominant system (in this case, whiteness). It leaves me with more questions with how to address race when we talk about liberation. If we claim for marginalized groups that freedom is achieved, it places us at the "end of race" where systemic issues are no longer issues. If we claim that marginalized groups aren't free, then how many layers of oppression is there that we need to break through? Or in other words, whiteness in centered as the one that caves in to demands as if whiteness was the one making the calls explicitly in what to give and take.