THE HELP, or Comforting Whites

I wasn’t interested in writing about The Help by Kathryn Stockett until the book became all the rage and was made into a movie. I rarely read fiction, but a friend’s book club read it and she loaned me her copy to get my opinion. I enjoyed the quick read, largely because it captured that mixture of devotion and disgust that people have when they clean up after their “betters.” I know this because I’ve been a maid—your devotion is to doing a good job, your disgust is that they actually believe they are better than you.

I assume the book is largely autobiographical, set in the past so Stockett’s Mississippi family and friends wouldn’t be offended. Besides, how could anybody actually write a book about blacks in Mississippi in the 1960s and virtually ignore the civil rights upheavals? Obviously, it was not part of her consciousness. Her brother's black maid sued her so the author has to insist it’s a work of fiction. White families usually don’t have a clue how their black maids feel about them, so it’s clear to me that Stockett listened to some maids, or a maid.

My issue is not with Kathryn Stockett. I am just tired of the same old shit. At age 74 I’ve been watching this black-people-don’t-exist-until-white-people-notice-us for a very long time. When a white person writes about black life, major media and the movie studios suddenly see us. It's Black Like Me all over again. I wrote about actually being a maid in my memoir, The Time and Place That Gave Me Life; nobody cared.

I know why The Help struck a huge responsive chord in America. The popularity of the book and its being so quickly made into a movie is a comforting reminder to Americans of the place black folk should occupy. This reminder is necessary because there's an African American family in the White House and black folks could get the big head and start thinking they are equal to whites. (After President Obama’s election, the first movie about blacks that was wildly popular was Precious. What a hit that was! SIX Academy Award nominations.)

A group of whites didn’t have to get together to decide that The Help is important because the image of faithful black servants is as American as mom, apple pie and the flag. Black folk were kept as slaves four times longer than we’ve been “free.” And for the first hundred years after slavery, most blacks had jobs serving whites; this is the most familiar and therefore most comforting image white Americans have of blacks. As blacks move forward in a quest for full citizenship, this vision of the “good old days” is periodically resurrected to soothe whites. There have been many incarnations of this comforting trope of blacks as servants including Corinna, Corinna, 1994; Driving Miss Daisy, 1989; Imitation of Life, 1959, a remake of the "immortal" 1934 version; the Beulah Show television series, 1950-53; Song of the South, 1946, and the most beloved of all, Gone With the Wind, 1939. As I said, this has been going on for a very long time.

Other than the reassurance it provides, I see no reason to rave about this book/movie once again showing blacks serving whites. Two years after The Help was published, it’s on film. As the presidential campaign revs up next year, it will be up for Academy Awards and the dominant media image will be black servants being used and abused by whites. Ah, so satisfying it almost makes up for having a black man in the White House.

INDIANAPOLIS’S RUBICON*

“The cultural trail is about positioning Indianapolis for the 21^st century…, how does the Soldiers and Sailors Monument really relate to the 21^st century?” Brian Payne, president Central Indiana Community Foundation that funds the Cultural Trail.

I want to offer my sincere thanks to Fred Wilson, the brilliant and subversive conceptual artist. Mr. Wilson, a New Yorker, born and bred, was invited to my hometown to come up with an artistic idea for the Cultural Trail. And did he ever!

After touring downtown Indianapolis and observing the number of monuments and memorials (Indianapolis is second only to the nation’s capital in its propensity to erect monuments), Mr. Wilson was struck by the fact that the only person of color in a monument was a newly freed slave in the Civil War commemoration on the Circle. Mr. Wilson, who specializes in drawing attention to racial inequities via his artistic reconfigurations and installations, decided to “free” this anonymous slave yet again. Wilson figuratively removed the slave from the Circle’s Civil War monument to give him a prominent place of his very own, atop a pedestal holding a flag. The unknown slave is still shirtless and shoeless, but his broken chains have been removed and he’s sitting up a bit. This is, after all, “a twenty-first century empowered African American.”

When Wilson presented his idea to the Curatorial Advisory Committee for the Cultural Trail, they accepted it without hesitation. And I understand that. After all, they commissioned a prominent and much-acclaimed African American artist to come up with a concept for their cultural trail; what effrontery it would have been to question his concept.

I interrupt here to point out that it appears Indianapolis is striving to emulate places like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston—attracting tourists, hosting a Super Bowl, and more important, keeping their young educated talent in town to give the city some pizzazz and help it to grow. If this city could just stop the “brain drain,” or even slow it down, perhaps we wouldn’t be seen as such a backward place and the talented young wouldn’t flee to other places. I’ve lived all around the country, including in several major cities, so I know how we are perceived from outside. I won’t repeat the responses I get when I tell people where I’m from, but I do recall a particularly stinging remark I read in a newspaper column. The writer said, “I stepped off the plane in Indianapolis and set my watch back twenty-five years.”

Back to the Cultural Trail. I noticed that the other art works on the Trail are mostly whimsical or symbolic; certainly not in any way controversial. Mr. Wilson says he intended his art to be in that same mode, but instead his decision to reproduce a slave to “be the first public art work dedicated to the African American community in Indianapolis’s downtown public art collection,” has stirred the proverbial hornet’s nest. By the way, these are not Mr. Wilson’s words, but are taken from the Cultural Trail’s press release. Wilson had no idea his conceptual art was to be the city’s signal tribute to the African American community. Wilson’s intent was for it to be a “work of art and a catalyst for asking the question, ‘Why are there no other representations of African Americans in Indianapolis?’”(There is a sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. in a neighborhood park; however, Wilson was referring to downtown monuments.)

What an excellent question! Why are there no representations of African Americans who have contributed to Indianapolis? As a black woman who was born and reared in Indianapolis, and who considers herself knowledgeable and aware, especially regarding African American history and culture, I am ashamed to admit that I never considered that question until now. That is why I am grateful to Mr. Wilson.

I’ve never met Wilson, and only know him from what I’ve seen online, but I can’t get this imaginary scene out of my head of him in a discussion with his New York friends.

Wilson: “I actually proposed a gigantic permanent sculpture of a slave to be prominently displayed in downtown Indianapolis.”

Friends: “You’re kidding! What did they say?”

Wilson: “They went for it.”

Friends: “Are there any black people there?”

Wilson: “Oh yeah. Lots of black folks live there.”

Friends: “Well, black folk won’t stand for a sculpture of a slave in 2011!”

Wilson: “We’ll see. If the folks in charge want a slave sculpture, and the black folks allow it, then the world will know exactly where Indianapolis is coming from. I hope we have it ready for the Super Bowl.”

Wilson and friends: ROFL

Apparently, the answer to Brian Payne’s question is that in Indianapolis, African Americans will continue to be seen as slaves.

*The expression, “crossing the Rubicon” means to pass a point of no return. Indianapolis is at the Rubicon. We have yet to see whether or not the city will cross it. Or perhaps, the city is just a rube, being conned.

WANTED: A National Referendum on the U.S. Congress

This is taken and modified from one of those emails that periodically gets circulated on the Internet. Since it is a great idea, I'm sharing it. Perhaps we can get a critical mass to actually implement this.

Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits of twelve years only, in one of the options below.

• Two Six-year Senate terms

• Six Two-year House terms

• One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
  

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

Members of Congress will collect a salary while in office and receive no pay when they are out of office.

3. Members of Congress (past, present & future) will participate in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund will be moved to the Social Security system immediately. All future congressional retirement funds flow into the Social Security system, and members of Congress will participate along with their constituents, the American people.

4. Members of Congress can choose to purchase a retirement plan or not, just as all Americans do.

5. Members of Congress may no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of the Consumer Price Index or 3%.

6. Members of Congress will no longer have their current health care system, but will participate in the same health care system as their constituents, the American people.

7. Members of Congress will be equally subject to all laws they impose on the American people.

8. Effective January 1, 2011, all contracts with past and present members of Congress are voided.

The American people did not make or approve the rules by which the U.S. Congress operates; members of Congress created these rules for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators that served their term(s), then returned to home and work.

Is it Love or Fear?

I just had an exchange with a friend that may change my life.

He said as a Buddhist he learned that every action is an act of LOVE or FEAR.

I thought about this for a few minutes and I get it! He's exactly right. I am no longer bothered when a non-black person calls me "nigger" because I do not fear those people anymore. At one point bigots had government power supporting them and could hurt us with impunity. But no more.

There are currently many fear-based myths being repeated ad infinitum in the media and on the Internet. When I've encountered people who repeat these hateful myths (largely because it makes them feel better about their circumstances), I've often been annoyed, even angered. But I know now this is a waste of my energy.

I have nothing to fear from these people or the notions they're spouting. They have no more power to stop the changes occurring in the world than I do. From now on I will consider them with love and try to imagine what has happened in their lives that drives them to interpret the world in such a fear-based way.

Thanks, Enzo.

The Ground Zero Hysteria

Very few people welcome change, and we are in the midst of a mighty upheaval here in the U.S. and throughout the world. Things will no longer be what they have been. It is these shifts in the collective consciousness that underlie the delirium over Ground Zero as well as the Tea Party nastiness.

There is a hysterical fringe element in this country who cannot abide the world's changing dynamics. These folk who have always seen power have a colorless face that matches their own, now feel immensely threatened because that period of Eurocentric hegemony is coming to an end. (For their information: the sun has been setting on the British Empire for decades now.) They see that the fastest growing economies, and therefore the ascending powers in the world, are China and India, two nations of color. In addition, the birth rate of immigrants from South America, Central America, Africa and Asia outpaces the declining birth rate of non-colored people here in the U.S.

And the most outrageous affront to this fringe is that we have a President of the United States who is of African descent! This has so unhinged their sense of what is appropriate that they disrespect him and the office in every possible way. And their fury is nourished by the attention they receive from a sympathetic media, many of whom also want to "take the country back" to the past when colorless people were unquestionably running everything.

Some of these folk are probably the same ones who were also indignant when women and blacks insisted on equal rights. Those battles were won and most of society has moved on, but still some unhappy people defiantly cling to the old ways.

In time, they will either come to terms with things as they are, or wallow in their misery as the world continues to evolve.

Racial Issues are as American as the Stars and Stripes, so FACE IT!

The Obama administration's string of legislative victories: a historic health care bill, reining in some of the egregious practices of banks, in particular removing them from the student loan process, and the recent bill to curb Wall Street excesses all may be smothered by their awkward handling of racial matters.

I fully understand that if we had a white president the Shirley Sherrod incident would never have happened. However, if it had, the white president may have been a little concerned about appearing racist if he abruptly fired a black employee without first investigating the matter thoroughly. The Obama administration, on the other hand, is so terrified of looking as if they are coddling blacks that they ignore, neglect, or as in the Sherrod case, act precipitously, and wind up alienating the people who put them in office.

President Obama's gut-level response to the ridiculous arrest of Henry Louis Gates was welcomed, but he backed down and staged a "beer summit" to allay the fears of his staff. During his campaign Axelrod and company advised him to steer clear of anything racial, but Obama, with the support of Valerie Jarrett, his only black senior advisor, gave a great speech on race in Philadelphia anyway. The world didn't fall apart and he was elected!

Barack Obama is the president of the entire country, including those who despise his very existence; however, that does not mean that his administration can assume the loyalty of one group and react like cowards to the other. That will only serve to leave them absolutely FRIENDLESS. Remember that the goal of bi-partisan support, while a worthy one, didn't work out in reality. I approve of reaching out to your enemies; however, it's dangerous to do so at the expense of your friends.

WARNING Obama advisors: check with Valerie Jarrett before you run off into the wilderness of racial issues; she's more experienced in these matters than most of you. Otherwise blacks and those idealistic people of all races who put you in office may decide not to come out and vote next time.

Unfortunately, staggering blunders like the firing of Shirley Sherrod have a more lasting resonance than our gratitude for those great legislative achievements.

I'm in love with Bill T. Jones

I know. He's gay. But I'm not in love with his genitalia. I'm in love with his intellect, creativity, artistry, eloquence, and forthrightness. Bill T. Jones owns and fully occupies his space on earth. He is mindful, self-possessed, sensual and attentive; the model of a Mac Arthur "genius" grant recipient.

A few days ago I had the privilege of seeing a new work choreographed by Bill T. Jones, "Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray." It was commissioned to commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Before seeing the work, I re-examined Jones' oeuvre in a continuing education class and watched the Bill Moyers interview.

After I saw the performance I decided to review my programs from previous Jones performances. What I discovered was that it had been sixteen years since I last saw one of his performances. But it was satisfying to know that I've witnessed several of his legendary creations, including "Last Night on Earth," "D-Man in the Waters," "Still/Here," and my favorite, "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land." And Jones himself performed in all of those. For the Lincoln commemorative, he was choreographer and director.

I am so pleased that I took money from my ever more tightly squeezed budget and treated myself to one more Bill T. Jones work. I love you, Bill.