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In the
Summer of ‘82
In the summer of '82, I
heard perplexing things. One scholar proclaimed that if God had
never spoken directly to a Black woman or man, his behavior was
racist. Where, asked the scholar, was proof in fact or
fiction. Moreover, the Black theologian refused to deal with
Black atheism.
Another brother wondered if the historical Jesus had learned his
religion from Coptic Christians. What was Christ doing in
Ethiopia during the Hidden Years, given that Ethiopia was the
playground for the Greek gods? Why has a story which centered
on a Jew with hair like lamb's wool (I suspect said genuine
Hebrew would have fought with the PLO) . . . why had this story
sent African Americans into the recesses of beyond-salvation?
Even sisters dressed to the nines with five inch high heels or
three inch long roaches exploring my laundry bag proved to be
insufficient distraction.
God was popping up all over. Especially in fiction. Alice
Walker let the spirits speak in The Color Purple, thereby
preserving her soul from eternal damnation. Alice as instrument
of spirit said: God is neither HE nor SHE but IT. And likewise
the Greeks found books in the Library at Alexandria that were
Greek to them. They invented philosophers to carry the weight.
Knowledge in books is often heavy. Among other amazing facts I
discovered that the State of Georgia suffered Washington's
revenge in 1915. As soon as Booker T. Washington died, the boll
weevil invaded.
Brother Hakim worries about the class conflict in Nigeria.
Neither in Lagos nor in Atlanta can people venture outside after
9:00 p.m. Squirrels began to fold their arms and die for no
reason on the Spelman campus. Even for the celebration of such
revenge, God was present. Horror, I am convinced, is
conversion. Jerry Ward
* * * *
*
David Walker knew very well
in 1829 that consciousness
and action are crucial if an
oppressed population is ever
to free itself from
wretchedness. We can not
depend on the American
criminal justice system for
remedies, because the recent
antics of the neo-con
Supreme Court sanction
anything and everything
behind the twin disguises of
judicial process and
national security. Like
Walker, we must present the
case of our plight in the
courts of world, simply as a
matter of record. Such a
move would create a global
environment for discussion,
but the more meaningful work
has to be done on site in
Jena, LA and everywhere else
by grassroots leaders and
community people who are
directly affected by police
attacks.
Security Guards Beat School Teen
* * * *
* I do worry that the very people who
contributed to the flavor and culture of New Orleans will truly
be too poor to afford housing in the NEW New Orleans. As
one of my friends put it, "Katrina passed judgment on
America and the country has been found wanting." Thanks, Rudy, for promoting open dialogue
about life and death issues. We can prevent rumor as
easily as we can prevent terrorism. We can succeed, however, in asking questions
about why we can not spend as much money to restore homes as we
have spent to destroy Iraq. And those questions do need to
appear in global cyberspace.
Jerry
Ward Reports on Dillard
* * * *
*
There is rancid irony in my giving loving attention to
Richard Wright’s violence-drenched work as we approach
his centennial. Men and women of all colors only
half-listened to Wright and other writers who focused on
peoplekind’s destructive potential, preferring to dance
in the twilight zone of arts, self-congratulation
regarding the achievements of technology and
science, entertainments, romantic illusions. We have
not changed much. We are still dancing in 2007. The
irony consists of my not feeling exceptionally good
about playing the role of a reverse John the
Baptist. As Wright remarked in 1944 about the
genesis of Black Boy, “to tell the truth is
the hardest thing on earth, harder than fighting in
a war, harder than taking part in a revolution.
Indeed I discovered that writing like that is a kind
of war and revolution.”
KATRINA REPORT New Orleans 2007 * * * *
*
All I can say about this piece [What's
So New About Obama?] is that Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Malcolm X were probably the last
leaders to whom large numbers of black Americans
were willing to accord genuine respect. Neither was
a politician. Now we have politicians who seem to
believe class is far more important than race. Their
minds are visually and visionally challenged. Obama
and other figures mentioned in Zafran's article
belong to a new breed of elected officials who may
indeed lead white Americans and their black friends into
or out of hell. Insofar as most
black Americans exist willingly or unwillingly
within the American body politic, they will be in
various coaches on the train.
I judge these people [ so-called black leaders] to
be persons with slight historical consciousness whom
I have not elected or selected to lead me anywhere.
They are interested in power (a vague concept),
money, and idealistic hot air. Each of us must make
an individual decision about who will indeed lead us
daily. Those who lead me are all dead ---my known
ancestors, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, W. E.
B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Margaret Walker, and
Richard Wright; they lead me to use my talents for
the benefit of my people, people who try desperately
to be good citizens of the world. Zafran's article
is laughable because it is naive.
Jerry Ward
* * * *
*
[Tom] Dent did not aim his parting shots at the philosophical
traditions which defined the role of his alma mater in
the history of African American culture. His target was the kind
of pedagogy which served to miseducate and underprepare Negro
students. Having been trained to think critically at Morehouse
by the brilliant political scientist Robert Brisbane, Dent could
discriminate nicely between the value of honoring tradition and
the negation that resulted from blind “worship” of
traditions. The work Dent would produce during the next four
decades is marked by his penchant for reason, for surgical
analysis of affairs, for being informed about the cutting edge
of history’s progress.
The Art of Tom Dent
* * * *
*
Institutional racism is the very backbone of
the industry that champions and valorizes thug culture. That
some presumably intelligent African Americans should be gears in
the machinery of institutional racism is not astonishing. They
have embraced the current version of the American Dream. After
all, they have no obligations under the laws of brute economy to
be more noble than Africans who sold other Africans to
Europeans.
If Reginald Hudlin and Tracey Edmonds and the
non-black black-oriented BET celebrate Kimberly Jones (aka Lil’
Kim) for her crimes, they are acting in ways that historical
narratives allow us to predict. Although King did not include
either thug culture or racial treason or sinister
commodification in his dream-script, these things are undeniable
components of our post-1968 America.
Ms. Tucker’s juxtaposing the memory of
King’s death with the success of trafficking in lawlessness is
sobering. It is regrettable that, on the other hand, she failed
to place the abuse of King’s sacrifice in the context of the
pervasive lawlessness that is honored at the highest level of
American government and business.
Messages on MLK
Day
* * * *
*
Yesterday, I regretted discarding
five boxes of LPs. These were choice albums I spent more
than forty years collecting. With dry eyes and a wet
heart, I consign my music to the curbside. My music is
trash. LPs, cassettes, and many CDs have become trash.
Emptiness pains like a fishbone caught in the throat.
You can have more CDs, but you are not fond of CDs.
Aretha Franklin does not sound right on a CD. She sounds
corrected. So too do Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington,
Louis Armstrong, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. "Cold Shot."
Perhaps classical music sounds very good on a CD.
Classical music is, after all, hypercorrect.
But Clifford Brown, Buddy Guy, Esther
Phillips, Lynn Gold, Cassandra Wilson, Jerry Butler, the
soundtracks of The Color Purple and For
Colored Girls . . . and Shaft, and Tommy
James and the Shantells are not hypercorrect. They, the
recorded traces of their creation, are human in the
grooves. When you want to hear Roland Kirk's Oleo,
you must hear the grooves and scratches. It took you
twenty years to begin to understand the musical
structures of Oleo, and you do not want to have
that pain and pleasure cheapened by a CD.
Making Peace
with the Loss of Things
* * * *
*
posted 4 April 2006
/ updated 9 April 2008 |
