And Another Thing

I just finished reading Recitatif by Toni Morrison, a short story in which there are two main characters.  One is black and one is white.  Who is which is never identified, leaving the reader to figure it out.  I wrote a review of it for Good Reads and another book group I belong to but I had further thoughts about it that I wanted to pursue in my blog and journal.  This is the review I wrote:

I’ve been wanting to read a book by Toni Morrison, especially The Bluest Eye which has gone on a list of banned books in some states.  A lot of really good books are being banned, and I want to make sure I read them all.  Anyway, I saw Recitatif offered by an E-book list and, as usual, found a copy at my local very accommodating library.

I didn’t realize that Recitatif was a short story.  There was a lengthy introduction by Zadie Smith.  To be honest, I think Smith’s essay was longer than the short story itself.  I appreciated the insights into Toni Morrison, but I am a bit annoyed that the essay gave away the whole story before I got to it.  I wish she’d just left it at the information about Morrison and the fact that the reader doesn’t know which of the two main characters are black or white.  That’s all I needed to know to begin the story.

That we don’t know who is of which race challenges all of the fallacies about “others” we may have grown up with.  The story leaves the reader guessing.  Can you guess by social status or by dress or eating habits or religious beliefs?  There’s no right answer and none is given.  It’s up to the reader to decide.  I couldn’t decide; it was a fifty-fifty coin toss and I didn’t want to make a pick that way.  Smith’s essay was a big reason why I couldn’t make up my mind.

It's an awesome short story.  Please read it.  If you get a version with the introduction by Zadie Smith, take my advice and read the story first.  Then read the introduction for Smith’s analysis of it.  She provides a really clear case why a reader would decide one character was Black, the other white.  I now have The Bluest Eye requested from my trusty library.

My thoughts now:

One of the very enlightening pieces of the introduction by Zadie Smith had to do with an address Toni Morrison gave at Howard University way back in 1995.  She prefaced it by listing the 10 steps leading to oppression.  When I read the steps, it made me think of Nazi Germany and how Jewish people were demonized.  You know what, though?  It applies here, too, in the good old USA and not just with the MAGAs.

After reading those steps, think about the 1619 project and slavery.  I wrote about this in an earlier entry.  When the slave population began to outnumber whites, the slave owners began to fear an uprising. Slaves became the enemy, step 1.  Slaves were marginalized and referred to by derogatory names, step 2.  Get help from governing bodies to pass laws to control slaves, step 3.  Abolitionists were often discredited, mocked, and event attacked, Steps 4-5.  I can’t think of any example of step 6.  Slaves were thought to be dumb and animalistic and that view was spread, step 7.  Step 8 might be quarantining slaves to the owner’s property and making them live in slave quarters.  Step 9, allowing small celebrations every now and then, dancing, singing, playing musical instruments.  Step 10, silence?  Well, slavery was the south’s “peculiar institute”.  Does that count?

That’s most likely where it all began in this country.  White supremacists continued to hold these views through Reconstruction and on into the Jim Crow era.  Things began to change with Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 and the Civil Rights movement in the late 50s-mid ‘60s.

Blacks aren’t the only people demonized.  There’s been hatred, terrorism, and racism directed toward Catholics, people of the Jewish faith, women, people of color and the LGBTQIA community.  See what’s happening today with the MAGA movement:

White supremacists fear “other” groups because they see they aren’t the dominant group anymore.  All these groups become “the enemy”.  That’s step 1.

Step 2.  Name calling and verbal abuse of “others”: blacks are called the n-word; immigrants and Americans born of immigrants are told “go back to where you came from”; antisemitism; nasty names and physical attacks on members of the LGBTQIA.  TFG is especially expert at this.

3.  Fox news and other ultra-conservative white supremacist media eagerly support and spread negative misinformation about “others”. 

4.  Get rid of any dissenters.  Example: CNN’s been purging many of its correspondents and journalists who aren’t leaning right.  CNN used to disseminate balanced news but has since been bought out by an ultra-right wing conservative billionaire.

5.  Discredit dissenters.  See what happened to Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and most if not, all GOP that disagreed with TFG or voted for his impeachment.

6.  Recruit members of “others” to join them; this way they couldn’t possibly be racist

7.  Label “others” with criminal behavior.  Immigrants from the south were labelled as “rapists” and criminals.  People who support teaching critical race theory in schools and other social programs are ridiculed by conservatives as being “woke”.  Some are accused of “grooming” or otherwise warping the minds & bodies of minors.   Social media platforms dedicated to white supremacist groups run rampant and spread all kinds of lies and myths about “others” and The Big Lie

8.  TFG and other white supremacist/ultra conservatives sue the heck out of state & federal government agencies and corporations that support laws they don’t like.  As for a “special holding area”: that’s where immigrants crossing the border are placed.  And what do you suppose indigenous reservations are?

9.  Reward loyalty; persecute dissention.  How about TFG’s latest offer to pardon and support all his treasonous MAGA/white supremacist pals that stormed Congress, attacked law enforcement, and terrorized everyone?  Way to raise a well-armed militant private army.

10.  For years and years, conservatives have been plotting on taking over our democracy.  It all started during the Nixon administration with the Lewis Powell memo.  Conservatives have the patience of spiders and have created quite the intricate webs.  We’re only beginning to uncover all the plotting that’s been going on the last 50 years.

Scary, isn’t it?

One more thought to go: read this article.