About Talia Whyte

Posts by Talia Whyte:

When Bobby Met Jimmy

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I always wondered why there hadn’t been a book about the infamous1963 meeting with then-Attorney-general Robert F. Kennedy, writer James Baldwin and other noted black and white entertainers, writers, and activists.  I am glad Michael Eric Dyson took on the task of telling the story and putting it in perspective with current events.

A little background here: In 1963 James Baldwin had become the country’s leading black public intellectual.  While he had written many books and articles on race over the previous decade, his seminal book, The Fire Next Time, made him into a household name. Kennedy, who had briefly met Baldwin previously, wanted to strategize on improving race relations, but he didn’t want to meet with official talking heads for civil rights groups like Dr. King and Whitney Young of the Urban League.

In May 1963 Kennedy invited to his New York home to have this race discussion Baldwin, as well as other influential African Americans including Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Lorraine Hansberry, and a young Freedom Rider named Jerome Smith.

If Kennedy had hoped that these prominent blacks would partake in the politics of respectability, he was sadly mistaken.  The conversation went downhill very quickly when  Smith said he would never join the military to fight in Cuba in light of the racism blacks deal with in America.  Kennedy became indignant and called him unpatriotic.

Sounds familiar?

When I read this, it instantly reminded me of the current conversation around athletes taking the knee when the national anthem is played before a game.  Trump and others think that doing this is unpatriotic and don’t understand the full context of this protest.  The athletes are not disrespecting the flag, our country, or our military; they are protesting the racial injustices still happening in this country.  Specifically, they are protesting the shootings of unarmed black people, like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.  They are also protesting in support of Eric Garner, who was choked to death, and Kalief Browder, a young man who killed himself but was mentally killed by the criminal justice system.

Kennedy was also mixing up this sense of duty to this country and the racial realities of why black people would question these allegiances. He also hoped the other more “respectable” blacks in the room would speak up and make more sense.  But that didn’t happen.  According to Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry said, “You’ve got a great many very, very accomplished people in this room, Mr. Attorney General. But the only man who should be listened to is that man over there,” referring to Smith.

After the meeting, Kennedy was so mad at what just happened that he ordered the FBI to increase surveillance on all the meeting attendees, as well as Dr. King.  Kennedy, an Irish man who became a privileged white man, couldn’t understand why they were so angry and why they would talk to him that way.  His privilege and naivety put invisible blinders on him.  I do recall from reading in The Fire Next Time, that Kennedy said at that time that it would take 40 years for this country to elect a black president.  His white privilege couldn’t show him how offensive it was to say this.

However, It seems that over time, Kennedy did have a change of heart on race issues, but when will the other folks with white privilege take off their blinders?

 

 

Taking a Reading Vacation

beach readingI was talking to my friend Cathy the other day about her summer plans.  She said she was stressed that she wasn’t able to organize a vacation this year because of her kids and a new job, and her work is going to get even more hectic after Labor Day.  She was hoping to finish some books that have been collecting dust on her kitchen table.

“Why don’t you take a reading vacation?” I told her.

“I am only going to have three days off in August,” she replied. “How would I do that?”

I’m glad you asked! A reading vacation can be as long or short as you want and you don’t have to travel to a faraway place to do it. You can go to the park or beach for the day or be in a quiet space in your library or even in your home for a couple of hours.  As much as I advocate for printed books, sometimes a Kindle Paperwhite or the Kindle app on your phone is more convenient for reading on the go. I get through a lot of books on my phone while traveling on Amtrak, a plane, or even just on the subway or bus around town.

But if you want a tech-free reading experience, go with printed books.  I know a woman who gives a Christmas gift to herself every year and books a room at a fancy hotel overlooking a pretty beach just to read books.  Along with her books, she also brings wine and her favorite robe to lounge in.  She has food delivered to her room, and she only checks her email once a day.

I wasn’t able to get away on vacation this summer either, but I did spend my few free days sitting on my favorite bench in a park for a couple of hours catching up on some reading.

A reading vacation is ultimately not about the physical location, but rather the mental location a book takes you.  So if you are still bummed about not going anywhere this summer, books are always good and cheaper alternatives.

Re-Read Book Club: Things Fall Apart

Book: Things Fall Apart
Author: Chinua Achebe
Times Read: 3

What I found compelling about Things Fall Apart this time around was the focus on gender roles. Okonkwo, the main protagonist, has precise definitions of masculinity and femininity. He rejected his father because he viewed his irresponsible and lazy behavior as effeminate and weak. In an act to compensate for his father’s lack of masculinity, Okonkwo asserted his hyper-masculinity over his three wives by beating them regularly and threatening to kill them. When British missionaries come to the village, Okonkwo tells his sons not to get involved in this new religion being introduced called Christianity, as it will make feminine. Christianity, in Okonkwo’s view, is the opposite of the masculine Igbo traditions.

I happen to have started reading the book when the new FX program Pose premiered. Sure, Things Fall Apart’s plot in pre-colonial Africa is an entirely different concept and light years away from the 1980s gay ballroom scene in New York. However, it made me think about how we view gender roles today. I saw this woman who claims to be a “gender expert” on TV the other day saying that societal gender is now a social construct. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but I understand what she is saying. I guess societal gender is different from biological gender as, according to this woman, focuses on how society views the two sexes. But she was saying in light of all the new concepts that have recently come into the lexicon, like transgender, non-binary, genderfluid.  I think I am pretty progressive on gender issues.  I remember going to a dinner party a couple of years ago with other liberal-minded folks, and an attendee said she was cisgender.  At the time, I didn’t know that meant, and apparently, everyone else in the room didn’t either.  We were all in a state of bewilderment when the attendee said cisgender was the opposite of transgender.  I seriously learn something every day!

Regardless of these new identities, there are still A LOT of rules about what masculine men can and can’t do, like eating a whole banana, lollipops, popsicles or any other phallic foods in public.  I used to date a Ghanian guy who didn’t like eating ice cream cones in public.

“Now that we have all these different genders accepted in America today, there is no longer a need for what is masculine and feminine or creating gender roles,” the TV gender expert said.

Tell that to Okonkwo.

Book Review: Barracoon

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Zora Neale Hurston’s “latest” work, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” is the most anticipated book of the year. It was one of the few books I have ever pre-purchased months ahead of time. And the book doesn’t disappoint! It should be required reading in all American high schools.

Barracoon tells the little-known story of Cudjo Lewis or Kossola, the last known survivor of the Middle Passage. What makes this book so unique is that there are not many testimonies by survivors of the African Slave Trade, which officially ended, on paper at least, in 1808. The Middle Passage is the largest forced migration of humans in world history. It is estimated that over 12 million Africans were enslaved.

Of that number, there are only a small handful of slave narratives. The most notable one is by Olaudah Equiano, whose book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, was the driving force behind the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which essentially ended the British transatlantic slave trade.

Between 1808 and 1861, there were at least 100 attempts by slave traders to bring human cargo to the Americas that were captured to suppress illegal trading.  However, slave trade patrolling was mostly unsuccessful because the United States didn’t have enough vessels to guard African coastlines and slave ships used sneaky ways to evade patrols like hoisting European flag on the boats.  Up to an estimated 50,000 enslaved Africans were illegally imported into the United States after 1808.

One of the boats that evaded patrols was the Clotida, the schooner Lewis came to Mobile, Alabama on in 1860. The Clotida is believed to be the last known slave ship to bring Africans to the United States.  Lewis came with approximately 150 other Africans from present-day Benin.  This human cargo – the Barracoon – only came to America on a wager for $100 made by the Clotida’s ship maker Timothy Meaher, who thought he could successfully smuggle enslaved Africans by undermining the law.

Hurston originally wrote this book in 1927, but it wasn’t published until 2018 because it is largely Lewis speaking in broken English.  Historically, publishers shy away from releasing work in vernacular language as it is not viewed as “standard” language.  Being an anthropologist, Hurston studied traditional folklore and language of the African Diaspora.  Her best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was also criticized for using vernacular black dialect by other black intellectuals at the time, like writer Richard Wright, who thought the book would make “white people laugh” at black people.  There was also concern by this same black Inteligencia that Barracoon would highlight an unspoken truth that Africans sold other Africans into slavery.

So what if Lewis didn’t speak proper English? Does that make his harrowing story less valid? Absolutely not! I assume English wasn’t his first language and he wasn’t ever given proper English language education when he came to America as enslaved people weren’t allowed to learn how to read and write.  Even after slavery was abolished, there were many attempts by racist whites during Reconstruction and Jim Crow to deny educational opportunities for black folks.  He was a product of his environment, and it didn’t seem fair that the black bourgeoisie of the day to judge him as a poor reflection on the whole black race solely on his dialect.

Yes, at times it is hard to read, but it is Lewis’s truth that he is speaking, and that is why the book is so important.  He gives very descriptive accounts about life in Benin, being on the slave ship, being enslaved in Alabama, his marriage and the tragedies that befell all his children.  He seemed very unhappy for most of his life for obvious reasons.  Although he was only a slave for five years, he never really adapted to life in America, and he was always yearning to go back to what he called the “Affriky soil.”  Africatown in Mobile was established after the Civil War for descendants of the Clotida to build a community for themselves after a failed attempt to raise funds to go back to Africa.  This self-contained community spoke their own language and maintained many African customs.

I guess what most struck me was Lewis died in 1935; less than a hundred years ago.  In theory, slavery is still a recent memory in the American psyche.  I hope that now Lewis can find some peace in death that his story is being told and can be used as a lesson about humanity for generations to come.

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