#111

 


Full Episode: Mexico & Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet 
| Black in Latin America | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/featured/full-episode-mexico-peru/227
This episode explores the almost unknown history of two significant black populations.


Blacks on Earth

Actually, I did see this, or most of it, as I finally caught an episode of this series.  It is informative, and I did learn something new.  But H.L. Gates, God bless him, always has me on guard watching his productions, ever since that series that he did in the Motherland that so many of us felt to be such an embarrassment and misrepresentation of us.

As I pointed out in my response to his article on "Time to End the Blame Game," which was a critical look a the Reparations movement and its apparent narrow-minded focus on what White folks owe, while totally neglecting the role that Africans played (a point be did not fail to make in his series on Africa), Dr. Gates is as much showman as scholar, and one who, like most people in show business, craves and needs attention.  Nothing serves this purpose better than controversy. The Cambridge cop incident served this purpose, and then the provocative article on Reparations.

The thing is, as several observers have observed, that he has been making a living by making "race" important, which is something that serves his sponsors more than it serves our community.  The cynical view and stereotypical view, in other words, is that he speaks more to and for "mainstream" America than African America, which is a good way to make a living, and there is nothing wrong with success, but it can be seen as more of the problem than part of the solution.  What African America has craved, needed, longed for, and demanded almost since we have been here is to tell our own story with our own voice, rather than having it told by others, or, worse yet, having it told ostensibly by one of us but in terms and from a perspective that is not really ours. But that's just one point of view. 

With all of that in the background, I learned of this latest series "Black in Latin America " with a mixture of interest and trepidation.  I give him great credit for exploring a fascinating topic that, arguable, too many of us know too little about.  The fascination is genuine, not just because this is an opportunity to learn about people and cultures that we might not have known about, but because these cultures have so much to say in their own right -- in art, music, foodways, etc.-- and have had influences far beyond what is commonly recognized.  So Dr. Gates and this series are definitely to be commended for bringing so much to light that would otherwise remain unknown and undocumented.  (The value of this contribution is made clear by the many positive comments I see posted.)

Is there a downside, or nits to be picked in spite of this?  At the risk of sounding petty, I would say there are.  Perhaps it is just a show-biz rhetorical device, perhaps Dr. Gates wants to "identify" with his audience and not appear too much more intelligent than they (we), but there is something either terribly disingenuous, or terribly wrong, in a renowned Harvard professor, who happens to be African American, making the statement that he never knew there were Black folks in Peru.  Would this shock and surprise extend to Ecuador , Colombia , Uruguay , and Argentina as well?  It doesn't make "us" look good, if our most famous scholars are so...unscholarly.  That, however, is but a small point, maybe even a petty one. 

The larger point with which I would have to take issue, in this day and age, is having one of "our" spokespersons, as it were, bandying about the term "slaves," as if this wasn't something that we started correcting at least 30 or 40 years ago.  Our Ancestors were enslaved Africans, forced laborers, African captives, but, first and foremost, human beings, which a "slave," by definition, is not.  That term embodies the wishful thinking of a pathological minority dedicated to the proposition that nature can be contravened, and that, by their whim and prerogative, people can be made into non-persons.  The fundamental, inherent un-naturalness of this artificial social order is proven by the fact that it could only be enforced by a regime of unremitting physical and psychic violence. It doesn't even matter that for most of this country's history, this was made legal (while escaping from it was a crime); it is still what it is, and if there is anyone we might expect to help set that record straight, it would be a renowned African American professor with an arguably global audience. 

But, as with so much in life, we give thanks for the blessings we have, rather than lament what we lack.  "You can't have all good," as a wise African elder once reminded me.  We, whom "history has forced, obligates, challenged, and blessed to be truth knowers, truth keepers, and truth tellers," know that behind the scenes, to get such a series on television at all, with all the resources and skills that have to be marshaled into this effort, that there are compromises and sacrifices that get made.  We understand.  We are in a country that is still deeply and hysterically fearful of the true African voice, telling the whole African story.  It may be true that the truth will make is free, but there are those who fear true freedom, and much prefer the pathological state of affairs to stay unquestioned, especially if it affords them unearned wealth and privileges that give them a certain degree of control over what makes it to the public airwaves for public consumption.  That game is practically as old as America itself (and older), but we know, we understand, we are quite literate at reading between the lines while others insist that we read only the lines.  We give thanks for every bit of knowledge that comes our way, and helps others appreciate the knowledge that we have been bringing their way all along.

But we still look forward to that day when we no longer have to say, "We Wear the Mask." 

Thanks for helping to spread the word on this.

DGT

Reminiscing about injustice in the U.S.

China Denounces America’s Treatment of African Americans, Minorities

The People’s Republic of China demands that America stop using their cry of human rights violations against other sovereign nations in order to declare war on them to steal their resources when America flagrantly violates the human rights of Afro-descendants and other minorities within its own country.

In 1970, Joan Cartwright was arrested four times for Angela Davis in Florida. Here, Davis autographs the newspaper article about these incidents published in the Fort Lauderdale News.

 

What do you see in this photo?


WHAT AMERICA MEANS

  1. ENERGY & INTIMACY
  2. GIBSON & GLOVER
  3. MOON NAMES
  4. MELANIN
  5. VISUALIZING LIGHT
  6. BLACK THINK TANK
  7. DRIVING WHILE BLACK
  8. THE STATE OF OUR SOULS
  9. DISTRESSED BY STRESS?
  10. MONEY AND SPIRIT
  11. DIVINE CONVERSATION
  12. MANSHARING
  13. SEX AND SKIN
  14. THINK AND ACT
  15. Gullah-Geechee Culture
  16. BLACKS IN NAZI GERMANY
  17. THE GIFT OF JAZZ
  18. WOMEN AWAKEN
  19. CHILDREN AND SEX
  20. BREATHE, MY FRIEND!
  21. WOMEN & MUSIC
  22. SINGLE GRANDMOTHERS
  23. AIN'T I A WOMAN?
  24. REPARATIONS
  25. MSG KILLS
  26. MOTHERHOOD
  27. STAND IN THE LIGHT
  28. FORGIVENESS
  29. COSBY SPEAKS
  30. TREE SHAKERS
  31. CHILDREN
  32. EAGLES
  33. TERRORISM IN AMERICA
  34. BARAKA ON MILNER
  35. NAMES AFRIKAN COUNTRIES
  36. INDIAN MEANS "IN GOD"
  37. WHAT IS BEBOP?
  38. ENGLAND'S BLACK QUEEN
  39. LETTER TO DAUGHTERS
  40. MASS ASCENSION
  41. RUNOKO & SCHOOLS
  42. AFRICAN DEBT RELIEF
  43. CONSPIRACY THEORY?
  44. HOPIS ON EARTH CHANGES
  45. GOING TO THE GRAMMY'S
  46. SAILING AROUND THE WORLD
  47. KATRINA AFTER THE STORM
  48. REMEMBERING TULSA
  49. FACTS ABOUT EARTH
  50. BLACK GIRLS
  51. HUMANITY VS. CIVILIZATION
  52. MATRIOTISM
  53. MANIFESTATION
  54. HIERARCHY OF RACE
  55. TANGLED THREADS
  56. KEYS TO LIFE
  57. THE JAZZ LIFE
  58. BLACK CANADIANS
  59. AFRICANS IN CHINA
  60. THE MATRIX AUTHOR
  61. BLACKS IN FRANCE
  62. BLACK POETS
  63. PRESENT-DAY RACISM
  64. REALITY CHECK
  65. LEADERSHIP
  66. IMMIGRATION
  67. ANTI-WAR?
  68. FACT AND FICTION
  69. MORE FACT OR FICTION 2008
  70. THE PRESIDENCY OF U.S.A.
  71. SELF-HEALING
  72. REPUBLICAN FREAKS
  73. WAKE UP, AMERICA!
  74. INVISIBLE WOMEN OF COLOR
  75. I AM WOMAN!
  76. NEW WORDS TO AN OLD SONG
  77. BLACK & WHITE
  78. BLACKS BANNED IN BEIJING
  79. WAR CRIMES?
  80. WOMAN POWER
  81. ANGRY WOMEN
  82. WOMEN VOTERS
  83. BAILING OUT!
  84. TRUTH IS LIGHT
  85. OBAMA!
  86. HIGH PRICES?  
  87. THE DIVINE FEMININE
  88. HISTORY OF JAZZ
  89. CRIMINALS
  90. WHAT IS GOOD HEALTH?
  91. WHAT'S THE STIMULUS FOR?
  92. HOMELESS IN AMERICA
  93. STATE OF THE ARTS
  94. ARTISTS AT THE VATICAN
  95. HAITI'S EARTHQUAKE
  96. AMERICAN OIL
  97. LET'S GET ALONG!
  98. MUSIC BUSINESS
  99. FAILING SCHOOLS
  100. IMAGINE!
  101. GULF OIL MYSTERY?
  102. JOYS OF MUSLIM WOMEN
  103. LET THERE BE LIGHT!
  104. POOR WORDS
  105. FREEDOM VS SLAVERY
  106. FAILING SCHOOLS
  107. UNIONS AND UNITY
  108. HEADSTART
  109. 2011 AFRICANS - MALCOLM X
  110. 2012
  111. BLACKS ON EARTH

WORDS WE SPEAK

AFRICAN PRESENCE IN
CHINA AND THE WORLD