The Origin of “Cool” and its role in Black History

I recently caught a news report about a new exhibit at the Smithsonian museum which attempts to encapsulate what it means to be cool. I stopped getting prepared for my work day to listen to what the curators of the exhibit had concluded who and what to be cool in our society. Entitled “American Cool”, the organizers pose the following question: “What do we mean when we say someone is “cool?” The words they use to describe cool include rebellious, self-expression, edge, charisma and mystery. The curators do acknowledge the origin of the concept of cool. Its birth was during the jazz era of the 1940s, fathered by legendary saxophonist Lester Young, who incidentally also coined the term bread to mean money. The curators state he brought this “central African American concept into the modern vernacular” and they go on to talk about how it came to represent many things to many different people.

Top image in Google images when searching “What is Cool”

My personal coolness motto

This conception made me ponder the work I perform everyday on behalf of my clients to improve their brand perception and for many of them, attempt to capture what is cool to convey that mood and tone to the consumer to build affinity. Much of that “coolness” factor is using insights gleaned from multicultural audiences to develop programs, particularly derived from the African American community and experience. For all the ills that are broadcast about the community on an hourly basis in traditional media – and minute by minute on social media – from stereotypes to untrue statistics, the fact is that much of what is excerpted from this community goes on to be cool and even reinterpreted as American Cool, similarly as this exhibit demonstrates. I can’t recall for African Americans who are rebellious, edgy and mysterious how this has translated into the same type of cool as for others who wear their anti-establishment bravado on their sleeve. The poet Gwendolyn Brooks captured this duality of young black men trying to live a rebelliously cool lifestyle in her poem featured below “We Real Cool.”

We Real Cool

The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon. 

The legendary Nina Simone

I have my own list of what is cool and I use the word in my daily vocabulary more than I realized to describe everything from overseas travel (Dubai is cool) to television programs (House of Cards is cool), to good, real music like Nina Simone or Esperanza Spalding. In this month when we celebrate Black History and for many of us, still push the power of its relevance and bigness, it is also a good time to reflect on how the beginnings of concepts such as what is cool and even the word cool in its smallness, had their start in the black community. There are certainly many, many accomplishments to highlight but I did want to acknowledge one that is so ingrained in us to be mundane yet so impactful. And also state on record that celebrating Black History is officially cool for everyone. #cool #BlackHistoryMonth

My Top Five List of What’s Cool

1. Jazz Music

2. My husband

3. Chicago’s south side and stepping

4. Knee length skirts

5. Natural Hair

Bonus: This photo series Because of Them, We Can