TED CRUZ, STACEY DASCH AND SLAVE MOVIES

A funny thing happened to me on my way to writing this blog. Two stories came out that were so unbelievably outrageous, ridiculous, and  absurd that I had to say something:  Now that  Republican Governor Rick Snyder has succeeded in poisoning the water supply for Flint MI., Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz  has come to the rescue by providing bottled water to the area.  BUT ONLY FOR ANTI ABORTION GROUPS!!!!!!!  Just to put a little cherry on top, Cruz is also comparing this Republican debacle to another Republican debacle (Hurricane Katrina under George W. Bush who stayed on vacation on his ranch as Americans died in the streets of New Orleans) and blaming both on the far left!  Slime, thy name is Cruz!   And yet there are thousands- no, millions of Americans who want this man to be their president??!!!!

In the midst of my valiant struggle to digest the indigestible story of Cruz, I learned white Chicago  police officer, Robert Rialmo, who, in response to a call from a father that his 19 year old son was wielding a baseball bat, killed the young man as well as a 55 year old black woman who opened the door to let him in (cops called it an “accident”) is now suing the estate of the kid he killed!  Apparently, killing this kid caused Rialmo such emotional distress that he is suing the kid’s estate for 10 million dollars!  (I can’t help wondering if Jeffrey Dahmer’s estate might sue the estates of the boys he ate, claiming they gave Jeffrey indigestion.)

Finally, at least until I get to my original story, Now that Stacey Dash has revealed herself as an idiot, and her name is all over social media, I have to wonder if people would be spending this much time talking about her if she had written a great novel, or discovered a new medical technique or cure that would save millions of lives.  Just wondering.  And now to my original article on slave movies:

The advent of the new film about Nat Turner, “Birth of a Nation,” has, inevitably brought with it a certain amount of backlash as Black folks are torn between wanting their history told, but tiring of seeing the debasement and degradation of their people repeated again and again in slave movies.  One argument that captures that tension beautifully is written by Kara Brown, titled, “I’m So Damn Tired of Slave Movies.”  Ms. Brown’s piece is both intelligent and thoughtful.  But there are a few salient points that are missing that I have to address.  

In her article Ms. Brown asserts that such films are intended to educate white audiences about slavery and that slavery should be taught in the schools.   The problem is that Black people do not know about slavery.  A large percentage (if not the majority) do not know who Nat Turner was.   Virtually all of the problems that beset black America (from within and from without) have their roots in slavery.  There has never been a clean break from slavery.  It morphed into plantation bondage based on debt owed the plantation owner for food and shelter, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, and the destruction of black neighborhoods and towns whenever they became too prosperous.   Unless we clearly understand the depths of the oppression that was (and continues to be) perpetrated against us, we will come to believe that the plethora of issues that confront us, from gang violence to mental illness to chronic substance abuse (the list goes on) are merely the result of the natural order of things.  I believe the single most important reason so many black folks (especially gang members) kill each other is that they simply do not know who they are. 

As for the schools teaching about slavery, The Texas textbook adoption committee has been working overtime to eliminate the word “slavery” from textbooks as well as any mention of any oppression as any time.   Moderate Presidential candidate, Jeb Bush has stated that this country “has a long history of racial tolerance.”  Every MLK day thousands. If not millions, of black kids recite the “I Have A Dream” speech, while having no clue as to what Jim Crow was.  Getting accurate black history into the schools is important, but clearly rarely achieved.  Furthermore, we learn from everything, especially movies and television. 

I completely understand Ms. Brown’s weariness with slave/oppression movies.  I often turn the channel when a film about black folks being abused is on.  I’m old enough to remember the water hoses and dogs of the sixties.  I thought “12 Years A Slave” was a great movie, but I will not watch it a second time.  Still, we can never forget that, weary though we may be of it, we are still in a war with the pro-slavery apologists of the 21^st century.  “Twelve Years A Slave” was actually criticized in a published article, as propaganda for not showing the good side of slavery!   Publishers were just forced to pull a children’s book  titled,  “A Birthday Cake For George Washington,” that is all about happy-go-luck smiling and grinning slaves baking this cake whose biggest problem was that they didn’t have enough flour!

Black folks have every right to be weary of representations of us in powerless positions, being abused and killed. But the story of slavery is not just one of degradation.  It is the story of an incredibly strong people who refused to accept their condition, particularly in the case of Nat Turner.    (Especially since we see white cops killing us every other day and getting away with it).  But I am really glad to see a film come out about one of our unsung heroes who fought back.  Weary though we may be, we have to keep fighting to tell the truth about our experience, no matter how painful, over and over and over again.  I guarantee you, the racists will never stop trying to justify slavery.   

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