At the end of the weirdest (or perhaps most honest) Black history month evah I just wanted to say to ytfolx, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our America, where Blackface is still a thing, where nooses are a style and little Black Sambo-esque iconography as fashion statement. Welcome to a world where thirty years ago, when some of us were Black and young and trying to make our way, young men (and women I'm sure) were using klan robes and blackface as a source of entertainment. And yes, some of the people so entertained were future lawmakers, doctors, bankers, police officers and sundry other professionals upon whom Black lives and livelihoods would depend. But hey, that's American life right? No big deal!
The Northam story broke on Feb 1, and while this was hardly first story of its kind, this was Black History Month 2019's inauspicious beginning. Here's the troubling truth though, there have been other similar stories. The Northam story is sad on its face, as it speaks to a disturbing level of toxic ignorance. Yes, the actions described are thirty years old, but Northam was grown. Full damn grown. Twenty-two. So the fact of that the actions occurred (allegedly) three decades ago?Immaterial.
But Northam ain't the only politician with an interesting past. Here's another story that highlights how close our so-called leaders are to America's ignominious past and how truly unprepared most of them are to deal with the truths of that past.
“I’m proud of the Confederacy,” Templeton has said. Um, OK. That's a conversation for another day.....or is it?
Bearing in mind that pride, what policies do we imagine Ms. Templeton might champion as Congresswoman? As a member of Gov. Nikki Haley's cabinet? Like her ancestor before her, Templeton went into public service. What's the likelihood that she went in to serve all the public equally? I'm going to take a wild guess and say that William Brawley, Ms. Templeton's great-grand-pappy, wasn't there serving anyone who looked like me. Mayhap neither was she.
In light of Ms. Templeton's story, it's definitely worth asking who were Ralphie's forbears. As a native Virginian with roots in the tiny Nassawadox, VA community, a community where in the 1600s the Onancock wharf was the site of importations of enslaved persons primarily from Barbados and the Caribbean, Mr. Northam's family history matters.
Nassawadox is a town - per the 2000 census - of 572 people and 121 families. It lies at the intersection of America's two great sins: genocide (the land is stolen native land hence the Native name) and enslavement (the town is a mere twenty miles from a port where enslaved persons made land in these United States). All of America lies at that intersection it is true, but this particular town occupies that space in an obvious way. Between its name and its proximity to a landing site for the enslaved, it's hard to escape questions about what kind of place it might once have been; what kind of place it might be today as a result.
So who are Northam's forebears? What roles did they play in the trade in the 1600s and in the society writ large, since? And perhaps most importantly, what has Ralph learned about or at the feet of those various forebears and in the bosom of that society? With whom did Ralph go to school (think a little about what desegregation might have looked like in Nassawadox)? What was he taught? By whom? Who taught the people who taught the teachers who taught Ralph? What casual racism did Ralph hear or participate in during his formative years? What noxious racism did he hear or participate in as a child and young adult?
Given these questions about Ralph's place of birth, should the 2019 discovery of his medical school year book really have been in the least bit surprising?
If you come from a family of dancers, are you not likely to be a dancer?
I come from a family of teachers, guess what my niece wants to be?
To simplify it further, you put your chicken in a seasoning environment will it not eventually have some flavor? And no, that's not shade. That's just how seasoning works. You create the environment, you get a particular result. Y'all should maybe try it sometime. That is shade.
Environments matter, they have an impact. Explain to me why that truth applies to every environment except a racist one?
The Northam story broke on Feb 1, and while this was hardly first story of its kind, this was Black History Month 2019's inauspicious beginning. Here's the troubling truth though, there have been other similar stories. The Northam story is sad on its face, as it speaks to a disturbing level of toxic ignorance. Yes, the actions described are thirty years old, but Northam was grown. Full damn grown. Twenty-two. So the fact of that the actions occurred (allegedly) three decades ago?Immaterial.
But Northam ain't the only politician with an interesting past. Here's another story that highlights how close our so-called leaders are to America's ignominious past and how truly unprepared most of them are to deal with the truths of that past.
A candidate for governor of South Carolina who once said she was “proud” of the Confederacy now claims she didn’t know her ancestors owned more than 60slaveshumans.
During a campaign speech at Bob Jones University earlier this month, Republican candidate Catherine Templeton touted her Southern heritage and her family’s involvement in the Confederacy.
During the speech, Templeton was vague about her slave-owning ancestors, telling the audience: “I think it’s important that my family didn’t fight because we had slaves. My family fought because the federal government was trying to tell us how to live. We didn’t need them to tell us how to live way back then and we don’t need them to tell us how to live today.”
(from a NY Post article about a SC gubernatorial candidate. See more here)
Templeton's ancestor, William Brawley inherited the family’s working plantation from his father. He managed it for two years, before serving in the South Carolina infantry during the Civil War and later being elected to Congress and then appointed as a federal judge in 1894.
“I’m proud of the Confederacy,” Templeton has said. Um, OK. That's a conversation for another day.....or is it?
Bearing in mind that pride, what policies do we imagine Ms. Templeton might champion as Congresswoman? As a member of Gov. Nikki Haley's cabinet? Like her ancestor before her, Templeton went into public service. What's the likelihood that she went in to serve all the public equally? I'm going to take a wild guess and say that William Brawley, Ms. Templeton's great-grand-pappy, wasn't there serving anyone who looked like me. Mayhap neither was she.
History matters. Family history especially matters, which brings us to the Northam family.
Nassawadox is a town - per the 2000 census - of 572 people and 121 families. It lies at the intersection of America's two great sins: genocide (the land is stolen native land hence the Native name) and enslavement (the town is a mere twenty miles from a port where enslaved persons made land in these United States). All of America lies at that intersection it is true, but this particular town occupies that space in an obvious way. Between its name and its proximity to a landing site for the enslaved, it's hard to escape questions about what kind of place it might once have been; what kind of place it might be today as a result.
So who are Northam's forebears? What roles did they play in the trade in the 1600s and in the society writ large, since? And perhaps most importantly, what has Ralph learned about or at the feet of those various forebears and in the bosom of that society? With whom did Ralph go to school (think a little about what desegregation might have looked like in Nassawadox)? What was he taught? By whom? Who taught the people who taught the teachers who taught Ralph? What casual racism did Ralph hear or participate in during his formative years? What noxious racism did he hear or participate in as a child and young adult?
Given these questions about Ralph's place of birth, should the 2019 discovery of his medical school year book really have been in the least bit surprising?
The Northam Incident (incidentS if you include his wife's profoundly stupid "Imagine you had to pick cotton all day" business) forces us to consider that perhaps we come by our racism honestly and that we might need to do a great deal of work (and over an extremely long period of time) to change our subconscious scripts. Pro tip: the answer to "how long?" is forever.
I began to have a discussion about these very issues with someone (White) recently and the immediacy of the push back was hardly surprising. The responses were variously - unsurprisingly - "You can't blame someone's family...." and "You can't assume that because someone came from a racist family that....". Um, yeah. You can. You really can.
If you come from a family of musicians, is there not a high likelihood that you too will be a musician?
If you come from a family of dancers, are you not likely to be a dancer?
I come from a family of teachers, guess what my niece wants to be?
To simplify it further, you put your chicken in a seasoning environment will it not eventually have some flavor? And no, that's not shade. That's just how seasoning works. You create the environment, you get a particular result. Y'all should maybe try it sometime. That is shade.
Environments matter, they have an impact. Explain to me why that truth applies to every environment except a racist one?
If in 1984 Ralph Northam allegedly did an ugly thing, there are only a couple of questions we need to ask: First, "Who the hell raised him?" and second, "What work has he done shaking that ugliness off?"
I don't want to hear about his Black friend. I want to hear how he has had his own personal truth and reconciliation process. And based on his poor showing at his press conference, I'm gonna say that he hasn't even begun the "truth" portion of that process, so I'm definitely a hard pass on the "reconciliation" piece. Reconciliation is impossible without acknowledgement of wrongdoing and Ralph ain't there yet.
Count me out of the Kumbaya chorus on this one. I'm not about to give Ralph (or his wife) a pat on the head and a cookie.
Thank God Black History month is over. Forget history, this BHM started and ended with some cold Black present. This BHM was exhibit 49,000,001 to prove (for those who missed the previous 49,000,000 exhibits, that racism ain't over and that the Northams are not some exception that proves the rule.
Count me out of the Kumbaya chorus on this one. I'm not about to give Ralph (or his wife) a pat on the head and a cookie.
Thank God Black History month is over. Forget history, this BHM started and ended with some cold Black present. This BHM was exhibit 49,000,001 to prove (for those who missed the previous 49,000,000 exhibits, that racism ain't over and that the Northams are not some exception that proves the rule.
.
1 comment:
May I share publicly?
Post a Comment