The shaman‐trickster's art of misdirection
The rhetoric of Farrakhan and the million men
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9237635 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Arthos (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 41-60 |
| Publication date | 2001-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00335630109384317 |
| OpenAlex | W1968165343 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
A charismatic sleight of hand characterizes many rhetorical transactions in African American culture, an adroit manipulation engendered by a history that crushed open confrontation. The skill of the double voiced utterance was appropriated into a performance art which is practiced even today. The Million Man March exemplified the art of “gittin’ ovuh,” an action that simultaneously undercuts one's enemies‐putting something over on someone‐and provides spiritual uplift‐getting over to the promised land. Such a magical performance works by exploiting the power of rhetoric to show and hide. But this is not the same as an exploitation of sophistic technique, because there is an overlapping of the magic of illusion and the magic of the sacred. For contemporary rhetoric this presents an occasion to regard the ethics of deception and the curious phenomenon of a moral sophistry. Louis Farrakhan, although often viewed (perhaps with reason) as either ambitious claimant to national black leadership, or as a skillful exploiter of prejudices, may also be viewed as a master of the art of gittin ovuh, and his call was an incantation that evoked the prodigious response of the “Million Men.” The demonstration on the Washington Mall in October of 1995 enacted a spiritual magic show that has deep cultural roots
Aesthetics · Art · Charisma · Literature · MAGIC (telescope) · Metaphor · Political science · Power (physics) · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Trickster · History · Law · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies
African religions & philosophy
From plantation to ghetto
The Fictive and the Imaginary
The Peculiar Institution
Runnin’ Down Some Lines
In the Name of Elijah Muhammad
Black and White Styles in Conflict
Black Culture and Black Consciousness
Slavery
Runnin' down Some Lines
Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro
Shamanism. The Beginnings of Art
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |