Reading The Great Gatsby in the U.S.: A Response to Azar Nasifi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran

Ultimately, I am the “girl” (woman), the Black, sitting beside the “two bucks,” and I identify with the Black Left!

We, Black Americans, are reeling from the Reagan Revolution, a revolution that took place just after the Iranian Revolution. In the former period (also known as the Second Reconstruction), Black gains in human rights were severely attacked. Similar to Nick Carraway, Reagan, employing fantastical images of degradation to denote Black Americans, ushered in a social, an economic, a political, and a cultural assault against Blacks. Given the collective narrative effort to erase the Black experience and the Black voice, I expect other people of color living outside the U.S. to recognize the workings of American hegemony in their own country and in other countries where the population is African, or Asian, or Muslim, or Islamic, or Latin American. The “assault” against Black Americans was narrated by the Nick Carraways – closely connected to the capitalist media and educational institutions. As professor Manning Marable writes in How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society (South End Press Classics Series), Black Americans had to confront a “mass conservative white united front, consisting primarily of middle-and upper-class whites, but also supported by a good number of confused but reactionary white working class and poor people.”

As Dr. Marable states, “only the Black freedom movement… [was] capable of constructing a democratic opposition to halt it.” And we know what happened there. There was a FBI/COINTELPRO, KKK, and Republicrat assault on the Black community, there was no empathy. There’s very little if any now – even from the Black elite. As Dr. Marable adds, “to the dismay of Black progressives, the bulk of the African-American political establishment seemed to capitulate to mass conservatism.” Forgetfulness is a dangerous space to be in because in this space we can’t connect Reagan to the imperialist presidencies that before and after him dictate what regime will remain in power elsewhere and what country or people to target for an assault next. This is a “talking point” of U.S. presidential candidates now and their fingers are pointing at Iran – again.