Rahsaan Mahadeo, a professor at Georgetown University who researches the racialization of time, spoke at the most recent installment of the Black Lives Matter Speaker Series.
In his research, Mahadeo conducted a series of interviews with 26 children from Run-a-Way, a center which provides support for youth in crisis.
Through multiple interviews, Mahadeo observed the children’s perspectives on time as a concept. Mahadeo discussed the concept of Colored People’s Time (CP Time) with the children, a joking term coined by Black people referring to a stereotypical tendency to be late. It’s often met with dismay by others, who see it as irresponsible and dismissive, Mahadeo said.
Based on the writings of Ronald Walcott, CP Time has been used to counter the rigidly imposed system of punctuality put in place by an oppressive western society, Mahadeo said.
“What I observed in my experience working with youth (was) violating curfew, being late to school, truancy,” Mahadeo said. “I saw a lot of youth action being role reversals and taking staff’s time.”
This is not a new phenomenon. Mahadeo said. Historian Robin Kelly described how Black workers in the early 20th century avoided exploitation by using tactics like using company materials and time to other ends.
The issue of temporal deviance also lent itself to the conversation. Temporal deviance is Black people’s tendency to view the future in a more passive manner, rather than with the strong individualistic visions of the future often portrayed by western society.
Mahadeo brought these ideas up with the children he talked to as well.
Although most of them did not recognize the term CP Time, as it isn’t used as much now, they understood the concept based on personal experiences.
A 16-year-old named Shanté used time to give herself more power when she had been involved in drug dealing.
“You ain’t there when you supposed to be, even though you know you supposed to be,” Shanté said in an interview with Mahadeo. “I was like they ain’t going nowhere ‘cuz they need my money.”
Mahadeo saw this as her way of inverting adult to youth relations, keeping the angry adult drug dealers waiting on her instead, keeping her in a position of power over them.
“If you tell (Black people) to do something… we don’t like listening,” 14-year-old Quincy said. “We listen all our lives, how about we don’t listen anymore?”
Mahadeo said Quincy’s suggestion of not listening is a part of the healing process by refusing the power of time. The use of CP Time is not simply a way to mock authority, but to heal.
“We’re reminded of Walcott’s earlier conceptualization of time as the very condition of western civilization that oppresses so brutally,” Mahadeo said. “CP Time is then an opportunity for Black people, including Black youth, to heal from that temporal violence.”
Mahadeo said solving continual and historical issues of temporal deviance is not a simple fix. The idea of healing these divisions is complex because it makes people think about the relationship between time and money.
“What would temporal reparations look like?” Mahadeo said. “Would it mean white people who have a majority white workforce acknowledge that some of your employees have to take two buses to get to their job because you don’t pay them a livable wage?”
This article has been edited to correct formatting errors.
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq.