Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
This being the anniversary week of the March on Washington, I figured I should say something about it. Newspapers the world over are commenting (sort of…there's this AP article making the rounds). There was a commemorative rally Saturday past:
The commemoration took place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where Rev. King appealed for racial equality in 1963. About 250,000 people heard the Baptist pastor declare, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
But you know, the story is rarely the same as the history. And there are some folks who, like I did long years ago, question (not wonder, but question) why this particular march and the particular quotes we keep hearing were selected for immortality.
In January of every year for a number of years now we celebrate "the Black holiday", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. And as part of that celebration, we are regaled with artistic slow motion video montages on television, Dr. King's voice saying "Ah have a Dream today!", sponsors saying "we live the spirit of Dr. King's dream". This makes us feel good, of course. This is what we wanted when we asked for a holiday, right?
Right.
I personally would give more credence to these cries of admiration if they would admire more than those five words. If they really admired Dr. King, they'd present "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" or even the first part of the "I Have a Dream" speech. It's obvious from looking at the man's life that Dr. King was a doer even more than a dreamer. But this is not what the mainstream wants to present as a 'role model'. . . a thinking, activist Black man challenging the strictures on his freedom. They want to present a peaceful man who works within the rules of the system to implement change. Never mind that white folks tend to work to change the rules of the system rather than working within them when they're unsatisfied with the way of things.
Dr. King is physically dead and the image the mainstream feels we should not simply accept, but emulate, is a castrated version of the man. This castrated image is The Ideal Negro to the mainstream. A man who never existed. A myth representing the best relationship to us the mainstream is willing to offer at this point.
White America has mythologized its whole history. The original "melting pot" concept involved dissolving immigrants into America, not blending them as the mythology currently claims. America grew by force and conquest like every other nation in the world, not by the reasoned power-sharing methods championed by our ambassadors as the American Way. It has mythologized the nature of Black people in ways that need no repeating here.
Now we're being offered another myth. The myth of what a reasonable negro is, and what they present to us as representatives of the myth. . . Colin Powell, Shelby Steel, Clarence Thomas. . . is not the person but the image of the person constructed for public consumption. We are supposed to see these images as the real man, use these images as role models of self-empowerment, intelligence. There's a problem with this, though (betcha just knew I'd say that, didn't you?). I call it The Lassie Syndrome.
Remember Lassie? The Super-Dog? The shows were a pisser. It was like, someone says "Go get help, Lassie!" and she's off. Finds the farmer, the sheriff, the fireman whoever is exactly the needed person and says "Woof!"
"Lassie? What is it girl?"
"Woof!"
"Timmie's in trouble?"
"Woof!"
"His foot is caught under a railroad tie?"
"Woof!"
"And the train's a'comin'? We better get over there. Lead me to him, Lassie!"
And Lassie takes the farmer to Timmie, carries the tool kit, slices the rail with an oxyacetylene torch so the farmer can pick up poor unconscious Timmie, and flags down the train so it doesn't crash on the newly broken track.
Folks said, "Now that's a dog!" Thousands, maybe millions, of people bought collie pups, fully expecting them all to grow up to be Lassie.
Black folks have been presented with a version of Lassie. We're told that, yes we admit there's still racism and you can take a person who discriminates against you to court if you can document intent…and if you can't you must be wrong. We are to be patient and long-suffering, and take each case of racism as an individual event, never mind that it happens every day. We should work hard, study, and never, NEVER, hate those that hate us…we'll lose the moral high ground if we do.
Expecting Black people to act this way is like expecting your collie to act like Lassie.
If white folks are serious about this equality thing, they have to get rid of all those myths. In fact, Black folks have to get rid of all these myths as well. The most dangerous shared myth that Black and white folks have is the bizarre belief that the each is as they should be, and the other group is capable of the nobility that would allow them to stay exactly as they are.
The critical difference between the myths we both hold isn't a matter of content, though. It's the difference caused by one group being in control of the culture. Black people hurt ourselves with myths about us and others. White folks hurt others with their myths about themselves and others. Black peoples myths are responses to the conditions created by white people working within the framework of their myths.
These myths must be dealt with one way or another. We must either convince…not just show, but convince…white folks that their myths are in error, or we must take those myths into account in our dealings with them. Because for the foreseeable future, there's no getting away from them.
Posted by P6 at August 25, 2003 01:09 PM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1425Bravo! I also wrote a commentary that makes many of the same points.
Yeah, I caught that. It was too late to do a trackback, though.