The talk around the house has been about revolution. Not the New England MLS team nor of the A-1 spinning tops, but the movements for rights; civil, human, voting. The battles for equality.
Battles that were hard fought. Results won with the blood, sweat and tears of many valiant revolutionaries.
All those battles, all those years ago, bring us here, to where we are today. Folks, many of them Black, tossing around the N word like confetti. Black folks chiding others for 'talkin white.' Folks embracing, even celebrating and perpetuating CP (colored people) time. "Chile, I don't have no tolerance for White people," or "why you always reading books by White people?" and similar statements follow many Blacks who step outside the box. There are folks who don't want to know you if you don't eat, sleep, drink and bleed Black.
Michael is going to the opera, Salome . He mentioned it to a few cast mates and he was ridiculed and had his loyalty to 'his people' questioned. He, we are proud of our heritage. We support, attend and pursue many activities, representing a number of cultures. We do have those rights, those freedoms. No?
A life long revolutionary with no revolution to feed her passions, pain or obsession engineers events, she hopes will galvanize the community to rise up against 'the man' and the injustices that she believes still permeate the Black community. This is the basic premise of Panther Burn, Michael's current stage work.
I saw the play on Friday. He was fabulous. The play is limited in its scope, I think the playwright could have told a more intriguing story. But, he told the story he wanted to tell and the performances were fine. Michael's role called for him to be angry, very angry the entire time. He is such a cheerful, optimistic soul, it was hard-yet fascinating to see him sizzle with that much heat.
The talk around the house has been about revolution. There are battles still to be fought. There is homelessness, joblessness, lags in education and resources. Not to mention the 'darkie' mentality. There are results yet to win.
Question is, is it a battle against 'the man' or the man in the mirror?
If theres a battle to be fought, put me at the head of the que hunny, I hate this talk, I hate that we ALL cant be equal in some peoples eyes.
ReplyDeleteWe all should be proud of where we came from and proud to know that we live in a world full of many different nationalities and races. I know Im proud!
Kisses hunny bun, and once again, you have wonderful children, I know your a proud mother :-)
Kisses babe XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Always the man in the mirror first, Deborah, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteThe mind is truly the last plantation. All we, as a people need to do, is decide that we will walk out of the gate.
One of the biggest hurts in the world is the fighting between races and religions. And it all starts and stops with the man in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting, Deborah, is you will find much the same attitude among people about differences in sexual orientation.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long road.
It has to start with the individual.
I agree with what Elizabeth said about your son growing as an artist.
ReplyDeleteHe must immerse himself in all traditions of artistic expression, so that he can be inspired and/or challenged by whatever it evokes (and then form his own opinions)!
I think it is awful that people are telling him he ought to censor himself! There is nothing intelligent about self-limitation.
I have experienced a similar kind of social pressure before. When I was in university, I used to get critisized by other Jews for looking at unJewish art, listening to unJewish music, having unJewish (lesbian) relationships.....!
ReplyDeleteLife would become seriously uninteresting if you chose to walk around wearing a blindfold, earplugs and denying your own will.