(Personal note: Got pulled away from the blog on an art
project (a painting). So much has
transpired since my last blog that it’s difficult to know where to begin. I was going to start with some anniversaries until
Matt Damon intervened:
Kudos to Matt
Damon for his remarks on diversity.
Damon interrupted Effie
Brown , a black female Hollywood film producer, to lecture her on his perspective
that diversity only counts in front
of the camera, not behind it. This is
the kind of arrogant ignorance that we usually associate with the Right. Damon went on to cement his hubris with his “apology.”
He did not apologize or what he said, but rather that some people were offended
by what he said. He further went on to
claim that his comments started a conversation on diversity! Damon’s presumption that he knew more about
diversity than this black woman, and his subsequent proof that he knew nothing,
only served as well timed reminder that racism, white privilege and arrogance
can always be found among liberals as well as conservatives! Thanks to Damon for the reminder!
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Since I’ve been on
social media, I’ve seen some disturbing and frightening trends. I’ve seen light and dark skinned African
Americans going to war over skin color (something so obviously, stupid and
compliant with white folks’ desire to divide and conquer that I’m speechless.) I’ve e been rebuked when talking about black
history by very arrogant young people who do not understand that understanding
history does not stop us from going forward, it helps us go forward intelligently! I just recently posed a question regarding
the difference (if any) between Blacks and Negroes. People who completely misunderstood the question and who have not done the
serious intellectual inquiry required to understand the context of the
question, have responded by lecturing me on putting black folks down. This is disturbing on so many levels. The trend is to blindly and reflexively condemn
and criticize. The arrogance to condemn
and assume intellectual superiority is astonishing and sad. Ignorance and arrogance are a powerful
combination and I see far too much of it today.
Finally, there is a defensiveness borne out of a psyche that cannot stand
to see any criticism, even if it is criticism that ultimately places blame on a
system that destroys our folks. This is
a really sad trend and I hope to hear from those who do understand what I’m
saying. I know I’ll hear from those who
don’t!
Some anniversaries:
Emmet
Till: August 28th marked
the sixtieth anniversary of the brutal and senseless murder of this beautiful
child. His death and the courage of his
mother to insist on returning his body to Chicago, and then display his
deformed and battered body shocked the nation and provided the spark that
kicked off the Civil Rights Movement.
His murder, for which his killers went free, is being presented as the
original case for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The tie in with today’s movement is critical for a number of
reasons, the most critical of which is that it will allow our young people to
begin to understand that the struggle in which they find themselves today is
the same struggle black folks have been in since we were kidnapped and enslaved. Now they can understand that our history is
not something out of the ancient past that has nothing to do with them. This may be the first step in the comprehension
that the history of black folks in America is not one of shame and the
powerlessness of slavery, but a history of an extraordinarily brave, courageous
and spiritual people who never stopped fighting to overcome unimaginable
cruelty and savagery.
In the Good News Bad News department, there are as many as
five films about the Till tragedy in preproduction. I’m glad this incident is finally getting the
attention it deserves. But there are so
many stories of black heroes whose stories really need to be told that it makes
no sense to compete over this one. As
a public service I am offering a tiny list (in no particular order) of folks
whose stories should be told: (1) Ida B.
Wells (2-3) Toussaint L’ouverture; Henry Christophe (Older folks may remember
back in the seventies a film was considered with Anthony Quinn as Christophe. Black folks balked and said we’d make our own
movie but never did). (4) Garret Morgan
(5) Bass Reeves (6) Robert Smalls (7) Bessie Coleman (8) Queen N’zinga (9) Paul
Robeson and (10) Frederic Douglass.
Hurricane Katrina & the 9/11 attack: Incompetent government at its worst, in both
cases. Still, Jeb Bush has the NERVE to
claim his brother George kept us safe. We were attacked during his watch and he slept
for almost a week after Katrina as people literally died right in front of us
on television. Still one
third of Louisiana Republicans blame the slow response on Obama! I have never seen people work as hard as many
of these Republicans at maintaining, developing and sharpening their ignorance! They truly are astonishing!
www.williamgriggs.net
www.williamgriggs.net
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