Well Read

WELL READ By: Grant Thomas Williamson, Esq.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

CHRONICLING STANKONIA: THE RISE OF THE HIP-HOP SOUTH

Writing live, from the center of the Earth, Well Read is diving into Regina N. Bradley’s critical discussion of what it means to be a Black Southerner through the lens of culture and music, using Atlanta, Georgia’s own hip-hop group OutKast as an exemplar of what a modern, Black Southern identity might entail. It can be difficult to welcome change – don’t everybody like the taste of apple pie? – or to think of a region and the identity that someone associates with that region, especially in the South where a sense of identity as a Southerner is engrained into its people (oftentimes for the worse), as mutable or needing of reexamination and change. It ain’t cool, it’s cool; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – or so the saying goes. But given that Southern identity oftentimes encompasses a negative view of and a negative history regarding Black Southerners, how is an outcast supposed to find their identity in the region?

Academic writing can often be dry and tedious to read, but Bradley is able to make what is essentially an academic investigation into Southern identity extremely fun and easy to read, and I know my lawyers stay down with that (especially fellow transactional lawyers who get bogged down with less than exciting documents to read every day). Bradley begins by detailing her personal experience being the new girl in Albany, Georgia, where she quickly realized that her move to the South will need to involve figuring out how to deal with her own experience of southernness as it relates to, and sometimes comes in conflict with, the experience of southernness that her ancestors had. Southern rappers like OutKast and Goodie Mob readily rappin’ and snappin’, snappin’ and trappin’ spoke to Bradley as a child and helped her begin the lifelong process of constructing her own narrative of southernness and Black Southern identity. Dungeon Family 1st Generation, the group of artists consisting of OutKast and other Atlanta artists in their orbit, became a soundtrack for Bradley in understanding her own southernness, and also for helping Bradley understand the endless possibilities for Black Southern identities that could be constructed. For Bradley, it was OutKast who helped introduce her to and ground her experience in a post-Civil Rights South when she felt that most of the people around her were struggling with figuring out how to separate the South from one of three eras: the antebellum era, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement. But don’t you dare ever get lost or get caught up in that sauce – there is more, as Bradley contends, to Black Southern identity than these three eras alone, despite the enormous roles they played and continue to play in the lives of any Black Southerner.

For Bradley, hip-hop became a way for young Black Southerners growing up in the 1980s and 1990s to express themselves and chronicle their own experiences in the world. As an art form, hip-hop also became a key medium through which Black Southerners could contribute to the era of scholarship on postCivil Rights black culture considering that most “mainstream” scholarship on the topic focused, as Bradley notes, on areas outside of the South. Perhaps most importantly, hip-hop provided an outlet where Black Southerners could situate their own narratives as outside of the dominant White Southerner narrative and acknowledge that being in a post-Civil Rights Movement era brought blessings but also significant challenges for Black Southerners. Bradley contends throughout the book, continuing to weave in her own experiences, that OutKast and similar Southern hip-hop artists speak truth to power and speak truth to the Black Southern experience (recognizing both its struggles and its triumphs), and as such has helped usher in a new era of Southern Blackness that allows for complexity of identity.

And play the sweetest melody the street ever heard – perhaps music is so sweet because it has an overwhelming capacity for change. Understanding how to conceive of her identity as a Black Southerner was almost too much for her little mind to bear, but it was the music of OutKast and other Southern hip-hop artists that first allowed Bradley to begin to figure out who she was. Look at you, unbelievably, brilliant beautiful you.

Chronicling Stankonia is a wonderful reminder that identity is complex and multifaceted, and, that while identity is hardly ever found easily, each person’s identity is uniquely beautiful because of all the histories and experiences that compose it. As always, I would recommend that you buy the book from a local bookstore if you are interested in reading it – Union Ave Books and The Bottom are my favorites. Well, I got one question to ask you: how do you define your Southern identity? Stank love.

LEGAL UPDATE, continued from page 15

Government’s appeal is pending before the Fifth Circuit.

Conclusion

For now, the Plan’s implementation is stayed until the Supreme Court issues its ruling in Nebraska. In the meantime, the Biden Administration has extended the loan repayment freeze until summer 2023.11

1 Cory Turner, Biden pledged to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt. Here’s what he’s done so far, NPr, https://www.npr.org/2021/12/07/1062070001/student-loanforgiveness-debt-president-biden-campaign-promise (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 2 Fact Sheet: President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need it Most, The whiTe hoUse, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/ statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-studentloan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/ (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 3 Annie Nova, Pelosi says Biden doesn’t have power to cancel student debt, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/28/pelosi-says-biden-doesnt-have-authority-tocancel-student-debt-.html (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 4 Caroline Downey, Biden’s Student-Loan ‘Cancellation’ Order Costs $400 Billion, CBO Calculates, NATioNAl review, https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bidens-studentloan-cancelation-order-costs-400-billion-cbo-calculates/ (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 5 20 U.S.C. § 1098aa et seq. 6 Memorandum from Lisa Brown, General Counsel, to Miguel A. Cardona, Secretary of Education (Aug. 23, 2022), https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/foia/secretaryslegal-authority-for-debt-cancellation.pdf (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 7 Memorandum from Reed D. Rubinstein, Principal Deputy General Counsel, to Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education (Jan. 12, 2021), https://static.politico.com/d6/ ce/3edf6a3946afa98eb13c210afd7d/ogcmemohealoans.pdf (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 8 Natalie Schwartz, A running list of lawsuits against Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, higher drive, https://www.highereddive.com/news/a-running-list-of-lawsuitsagainst-bidens-student-loan-forgiveness-plan/634707/ (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 9 Nebraska v. Biden, No. 4:22cv1040HEA (E.D. Mo. 2022); Brown v. U.S. Dep’t of Educ., No. 4:22-cv-0908-P (N.D. Tex. 2022). 10 Supreme Court docket for Nebraska v. Biden, sUPreme CoUrT of The UNiTed sTATes, https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/ public/22a444.html (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022). 11 Biden-Harris Administration Continues Fight for Student Debt Relief for Millions of Borrowers, Extends Student Loan Repayment Pause, U.s. dePArTmeNT of edUCATioN, https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-continuesfight-student-debt-relief-millions-borrowers-extends-student-loan-repaymentpause (last accessed Dec. 9, 2022).

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ETHICS BOWL XVI

There was fierce competition for the Ethics Bowl trophy this year! “Ethics Bowl XVI: Til Ethics Do Us Part” was presented on Friday, December 2, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. This year’s Husband & Wife Teams were: Carol Anne Long, U.T. College of Law & Jason Long, Lewis Thomason, P.C.; Avery Lovingfoss, Brock Shipe Klenk & Elijah Lovingfoss, Brock Shipe Klenk; Summer McMillian, Tennessee Supreme Court & Hon. Greg McMillian, Circuit Court, Division IV; Kacie McRee, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP & Andrew Mcree, LMU, Duncan School of Law; Katie Ogle, Tennessee Valley Authority & Nate Ogle, Justice, Noel, Burks & Ogle; and Joy Robinson, Attorney-at-Law & Richy Robinson, Richard H. Robinson, Attorney-at-Law.

In the end, the Lovingfoss team was declared the Ethics Bowl Champions! Special thanks to Hon. Kristi Davis, Hanson Tipton, and Rachel Hurt for serving as program hosts. The Ethics Panel included Judy Cornett, Chancellor John Weaver and Hon. Mary Beth Leibowitz.