Monday, January 16, 2006
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Happy birthday to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's real easy to think "MLK Day-- got a dream, color of skin, content of character, whatever, let's move on," regardless of your beliefs, your skin color, your anything, and you know why? It's because all we ever hear is "I have a dream," and sometimes "I may not get there with you." What's needed here is a little real education, an attempt to tell all the truth without telling it slant, so that we know a man, not a myth, and appreciate the difficult times he lived and we live in.
Let's start with religion: Man's a Baptist preacher, come from a long line of Baptist preachers. There's G-d all over all his secular speeches, just sometimes kind of down-low, but you ever looked at a sermon of his? Man's a pinko war-protesting social-justice freak, like every good Christian should be. Why don't we have a civil-rights movement active in the U.S. right now? No matter how clueless or white (hey, sometimes those are synonomous!) you are, you can't tell me it's because we've got actual justice now. Dr. King himself kind of made the wheels fall off-- not by being killed, but by living in hard conditions in Chicago to draw attention to the dirt-poverty many blacks were still unable to work their way out of, and by lobbying for an end to the Vietnam War. Justice to the Christian is a global concept. It's not just about reversing Jim Crow laws, it's about ending human suffering-- all human suffering. And there are people who say that Dr. King was shot specifically because he wasn't about to stop short of that revolution.
There's also evidence that this man, Baptist preacher son of a Baptist preacher son of a Baptist preacher, cheated on his wife with at least one other woman.
And what about his contemporaries? Do you think it was him and Rosa Parks spearheading the whole movement? Sometimes you hear about Malcolm X. He ran around yelling "Black power!" and advocating violence, right? Um, actually, no. By the end of his life, man was more a pacifist than even Dr. King.
What about the Black Panthers? If you know about them, you've already got more of an education than my brother did. How'd they get their name? They called themselves Black Panthers because they were black and would tear your throat out if they wanted? No. They were the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, founded as a political party in Alabama in 1966. All parties were required to have a representational emblem, so illiterate voters could recognize them, and the LCFO, after originally deciding on a picture of a dove (a freaking DOVE was their first choice!) decided to put a panther. Not a black one, either-- a white one, like the mascot of Clark College in Georgia. And the LCFO didn't pounce, the white media did, calling them the "Black Panthers" in an alarmist way that would be akin to referring to the Democratic Party as the "Ass Party" or the Republicans as the "Big Scary-Looking Elephant Party."
Ever heard of Ella Baker? SNCC? Diane Nash? John Lewis, who's still serving in Congress? Bob Moses, the math teacher and reluctant leader, my personal hero? Bayard Rustin, the homo who got shut out of the SCLC because of his sexual orientation and propensity for young, white boyfriends? Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Toure)? Andrew Young? Charles Sims? Bobby Seale? Fannie Lou Hamer?
Of course not. You just hear about a cardboard cutout of a man who made speeches and organized marches, who didn't sweat or take political stances or get intimate with people not his wife, and that's why this day means so little to so many of us, and why we're fooled into thinking that history is boring, made up of one-dimensional, unreal heroes. When really what you learn in school is mostly just made up, period full stop. Revisionist history got named too tentatively-- it's what-really-happened history. Start with Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen, work your way around, and see how long it takes you to agree with me.
Happy birthday to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's real easy to think "MLK Day-- got a dream, color of skin, content of character, whatever, let's move on," regardless of your beliefs, your skin color, your anything, and you know why? It's because all we ever hear is "I have a dream," and sometimes "I may not get there with you." What's needed here is a little real education, an attempt to tell all the truth without telling it slant, so that we know a man, not a myth, and appreciate the difficult times he lived and we live in.
Let's start with religion: Man's a Baptist preacher, come from a long line of Baptist preachers. There's G-d all over all his secular speeches, just sometimes kind of down-low, but you ever looked at a sermon of his? Man's a pinko war-protesting social-justice freak, like every good Christian should be. Why don't we have a civil-rights movement active in the U.S. right now? No matter how clueless or white (hey, sometimes those are synonomous!) you are, you can't tell me it's because we've got actual justice now. Dr. King himself kind of made the wheels fall off-- not by being killed, but by living in hard conditions in Chicago to draw attention to the dirt-poverty many blacks were still unable to work their way out of, and by lobbying for an end to the Vietnam War. Justice to the Christian is a global concept. It's not just about reversing Jim Crow laws, it's about ending human suffering-- all human suffering. And there are people who say that Dr. King was shot specifically because he wasn't about to stop short of that revolution.
There's also evidence that this man, Baptist preacher son of a Baptist preacher son of a Baptist preacher, cheated on his wife with at least one other woman.
And what about his contemporaries? Do you think it was him and Rosa Parks spearheading the whole movement? Sometimes you hear about Malcolm X. He ran around yelling "Black power!" and advocating violence, right? Um, actually, no. By the end of his life, man was more a pacifist than even Dr. King.
What about the Black Panthers? If you know about them, you've already got more of an education than my brother did. How'd they get their name? They called themselves Black Panthers because they were black and would tear your throat out if they wanted? No. They were the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, founded as a political party in Alabama in 1966. All parties were required to have a representational emblem, so illiterate voters could recognize them, and the LCFO, after originally deciding on a picture of a dove (a freaking DOVE was their first choice!) decided to put a panther. Not a black one, either-- a white one, like the mascot of Clark College in Georgia. And the LCFO didn't pounce, the white media did, calling them the "Black Panthers" in an alarmist way that would be akin to referring to the Democratic Party as the "Ass Party" or the Republicans as the "Big Scary-Looking Elephant Party."
Ever heard of Ella Baker? SNCC? Diane Nash? John Lewis, who's still serving in Congress? Bob Moses, the math teacher and reluctant leader, my personal hero? Bayard Rustin, the homo who got shut out of the SCLC because of his sexual orientation and propensity for young, white boyfriends? Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Toure)? Andrew Young? Charles Sims? Bobby Seale? Fannie Lou Hamer?
Of course not. You just hear about a cardboard cutout of a man who made speeches and organized marches, who didn't sweat or take political stances or get intimate with people not his wife, and that's why this day means so little to so many of us, and why we're fooled into thinking that history is boring, made up of one-dimensional, unreal heroes. When really what you learn in school is mostly just made up, period full stop. Revisionist history got named too tentatively-- it's what-really-happened history. Start with Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen, work your way around, and see how long it takes you to agree with me.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Bromas para ustedes
Have I told you my favorite joke? It goes like this:
-- What did the cat say to the mouse?
-- I'm going to eat you!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
And yesterday I found my new favorite joke in the kids section of the Impacto Latino:
-- Por que las almas de los ratones no llegan al cielo?
-- Por el gato volador.
I told this joke to J, and after ascertaining that it was in fact a joke and not just my horrendous misquoting/misunderstanding of a joke in a language I don't actually speak, she observed that it is actually the sequel to my favorite joke, and not just by virtue of being something that most adults really don't think is funny. In English, it is:
-- Why don't the souls of mice go to heaven?
-- Because of the flying cat.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Have I told you my favorite joke? It goes like this:
-- What did the cat say to the mouse?
-- I'm going to eat you!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
And yesterday I found my new favorite joke in the kids section of the Impacto Latino:
-- Por que las almas de los ratones no llegan al cielo?
-- Por el gato volador.
I told this joke to J, and after ascertaining that it was in fact a joke and not just my horrendous misquoting/misunderstanding of a joke in a language I don't actually speak, she observed that it is actually the sequel to my favorite joke, and not just by virtue of being something that most adults really don't think is funny. In English, it is:
-- Why don't the souls of mice go to heaven?
-- Because of the flying cat.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Oh man.
So a few days ago the local newspaper published a picture of a note written by a trapped miner to his family. The picture was right on the front page, and you could read the note, look at the handwriting. It said something like "I'll see you all on the other side," and then off in the right margin it said "I just want to sleep," and the handwriting was all loopy and slanty and off-kilter, and I couldn't believe they'd put this on the front page, because it was straight-up a picture of a person suffocating to death. It was a highly graphic and personal picture of somebody's brain dying, cell by cell, shutting down from lack of oxygen. But people were just walking by, glancing at it, moving on. And I mean, I'm an EMT. I've been there with dead people. I've watched people die, I've taken care of people who are really dead and we're just trying for the odd miracle, I've sat in rooms with official corpses talking to them, waiting for the soul to leave the body a little more, waiting for that arrest rhythm to stop, for that heart's electricity to give up like the muscle already has, waiting for warm hands to cool and soft legs to stiffen as the last sparks go, so it's not like I'm totally unaccustomed, but damn. A picture of a person dying, right on the front page of the paper, and nobody's shocked.
So a few days ago the local newspaper published a picture of a note written by a trapped miner to his family. The picture was right on the front page, and you could read the note, look at the handwriting. It said something like "I'll see you all on the other side," and then off in the right margin it said "I just want to sleep," and the handwriting was all loopy and slanty and off-kilter, and I couldn't believe they'd put this on the front page, because it was straight-up a picture of a person suffocating to death. It was a highly graphic and personal picture of somebody's brain dying, cell by cell, shutting down from lack of oxygen. But people were just walking by, glancing at it, moving on. And I mean, I'm an EMT. I've been there with dead people. I've watched people die, I've taken care of people who are really dead and we're just trying for the odd miracle, I've sat in rooms with official corpses talking to them, waiting for the soul to leave the body a little more, waiting for that arrest rhythm to stop, for that heart's electricity to give up like the muscle already has, waiting for warm hands to cool and soft legs to stiffen as the last sparks go, so it's not like I'm totally unaccustomed, but damn. A picture of a person dying, right on the front page of the paper, and nobody's shocked.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Mmm. Book.
My favorite 25 from the past month (don't worry, 16 are kids' chapter books):
Getting Mother's Body, Suzan-Lori Parks
Invisible Life, E Lynn Harris
If This World Were Mine, E Lynn Harris
Any Way the Wind Blows, E Lynn Harris
A Love of My Own, E Lynn Harris
Not Without Laughter, Langston Hughes
Harry Sue, Sue Stauffacher
Ain't No Mountain, Sharon Ewell Foster
The Cheetah Girls, 1-16 (and children, don't listen to that Disneyfied crap about how there are only four Cheetah Girls and there's a white one and one who could pass. There are five Cheetah Girls, and every last one is black and beautiful), Deborah Gregory
My favorite 25 from the past month (don't worry, 16 are kids' chapter books):
Getting Mother's Body, Suzan-Lori Parks
Invisible Life, E Lynn Harris
If This World Were Mine, E Lynn Harris
Any Way the Wind Blows, E Lynn Harris
A Love of My Own, E Lynn Harris
Not Without Laughter, Langston Hughes
Harry Sue, Sue Stauffacher
Ain't No Mountain, Sharon Ewell Foster
The Cheetah Girls, 1-16 (and children, don't listen to that Disneyfied crap about how there are only four Cheetah Girls and there's a white one and one who could pass. There are five Cheetah Girls, and every last one is black and beautiful), Deborah Gregory
