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i am: 40...a capricorn / moon in pisces / libra rising...an old soul with a young spirit...older than i look...contemplating my 3rd tattoo...NOT a web designer...a lesbian...working things out with the g.f....a native iowan...a graduate of cornell college and ohio state...a critical reader and thinker...really rather shy...agnostic...an ardent feminist...a bleeding-heart liberal...a pacifist...and so not your average white grrl...
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feeling generous? *grin*
Who Links Here
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September 10, 2002
step outside the boxi've been thinking about how expand upon my last post, as well as how to broach the whole "september 11th" thing (because you know you're all thinking about it, whether you're saying anything about it or not....). in a way, an amazing article from the observer that george posted recently brings the two together. Because of our history and our experience right here in America, as well as in Africa, we have an understanding of the rage and anger of America's so-called enemies....Black people know that most Arabs and Muslims are good people, that their beliefs are just as valid as Christian beliefs, that they have been at the receiving end of American so-called foreign policy for years. As a people of colour, we know how America treats other people of colour—with suspicion or disdain. —walter mosley in this interview, mosley (one of my very favorite writers of fiction) crystallizes what s and i (and a whole lot of other people) started talking about almost a year ago...how black folks in this country were all too familiar with "terrorist acts" to be very surprised by what happened on 9-11-01.
mosley continues....There are two Americas, and one is blind to the other. The way most black people live, the daily racism and the suffering, is transparent to white America. They just don't see it, or they choose not to. More importantly, they don't understand how most black people feel, how we live with rage every day, a rage against America. THIS is where my last post comes in. it was really about the inability to think—and live—outside the box...outside the neat little worlds that people tend to build around themselves because (i guess....?) it feels safe and comfortable and they can negotiate those spaces without a whole lot of thought or effort. AND the neat little boxes that (most often, these same) people try to put others in.
so...most white people don't go to theaters to see movies with predominantly black casts (and/or black directors, producers, etc.) because those movies are "not about them." on the flip side, tho, j can't find anyone to go see a foreign film with him because "black people don't like foreign films." and some people don't really know what to think about jason because he listens to madonna and is a fan of mr. bean (see their comments in response to my september 5th post). so it works both ways. it's a wonder that this country isn't more racially polarized than it is...and i haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the issue, or to address what happens for those of us who aren't simply "black" or "white".
why is it, anyway, that we are so eager to put people and things into neat little categories? why do we actually feel a need to do that? why can't we even see, let alone embrace, cultural aspects that are different from what we know, or what we're used to? i've never understood this phenomenon, yet it has long figured prominently in my life. when i came to the realization that i didn't want to be a christian, it had a lot to do with my issues with organized religion—which seems to give people the license to say, "my beliefs are more valid than yours". why can't everyone's beliefs be valid? why can't people step outside their own boxes to acknowledge that? of course, there are varying degrees of this whole pigeonholing thing, but for example: when people have condemned me to hell for being a lesbian (aka, my "lifestyle"), what stopped them from seeing me as a human being not so very different from themselves? why can't they step outside that particular box, and refrain from putting me into a different one? and when someone (black) whom s has just met discovers that i am white, why do they often assume that i'm "bad for her," and/or that she's internalized racism to such a degree that she can't have a relationship with a black woman, and has to "resort to" being with a white woman?? i could probably take this even further on another day. today is just not that day.
i have tried to find a way to think about this day, this anniversary, this "9-11" thing in some kind of positive way. NOT because i think we should all be "over it by now" and simply getting on with "business as usual"...but because i almost have to have a positive way to think about it, or i will lose my mind. mosley, in this interview, gives me that positive spin with a call to action: What I am saying is that because of our unique position [as black americans], we should be at the forefront of a new peace movement that starts the process whereby Americans start to see the world, and themselves, differently. i only hope that i can live to see—and help—it happen.
1:50 PM
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