longest blawg entry in the history of blawg entries.
okay.
so i'm about to post 3 articles here.
the first will be the response of a one Amanda Phelps to my article "My Black History Month Wish List."
the second will be Kelly Ball's response to Amanda Phelps' article.
the third will be my response to Amanda Phelps' response to my article, which is over 3 pages as of yet--i got a lil carried away. I'm gonna do some serious editing before I send it in, of course, but I want to put it here in its entierty first.
u dont gotta read if u dont wanna.
i just wanna document it all.
Granted Wishes
This article is to allow Tracy Clayton to scratch some of the points off her Black History Month wish list: I am releasing my thoughts, so that they will not be “potentially damaging notion[s];” I am not referring to her as the “voice of black America;” and I am recognizing that diversity is my concern too. I have long been an advocate of everyone being united by our existence as human beings. The notion that color defines our souls or our places in society or our levels of intelligence bewilders me. Tracy Clayton makes many good points that I have long heralded as preposterous, such as the absence of other historical ethnic celebrations (there is currently no White History Month either), or basing an entire race’s experiences on one person’s account, or treating those who maintain Transylvania’s campus as our “personal servants” (yet we are expected to submit to Tracy Clayton’s authority on race).
I have grown up combating the racism of my own family, the segregation allotted to me because of my white ancestors and the stereotypes that come with my light skin. An issue that should have been let go when that Confederate flag fell years ago continues to be beaten until it is just a color divided mass. Because I am white, I must be racist. Because my ancestors owned slaves, I must advocate slavery too. I have never judged a person by anything other than his or her person. Kindness, integrity, a will to be independent—these things provoke respect from me. There are beautiful people on this campus, in my community, in this world, who are only made more beautiful by their diverse skin. Diversity is not a matter of accommodating people of different skin with the same needs—it is a quest to unite ourselves by our humanity and respect each other’s individual needs.
I hear voices much louder when they are passionate about what they are preaching, and when their preaching includes all people, not just white people, not just black people, not just straight people. When Marvin Gaye sang “You know we’ve got to find a way to bring some lovin’ here today,” there was not one word about color or race or gender. He spoke of love, lived this love and died for this love. Bob Marley’s words, “Open up your heart, open up your heart, let love come runnin’ in,” and John Lennon’s words, “A brotherhood of man…And the world will live as one,” The Youngblood’s plea, “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now,” John Fogerty’s declaration, “It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son…fortunate one...some people are born with silver spoon in hand, Lord, don’t they help themselves”—none of these songs request a division of color or ask for a “voice of black America.” These people spoke for a united America—a country of infinite colors and ethnic backgrounds and economic situations and soulful beauty. Voices only have color when the words they form speak of it.
As for the music at ball games, if Transylvania’s pep band possessed the funding to refine their talents enough to appear and perform on the Grammy Awards, then I agree, there would be no excuse for not performing to higher standards. As it is, if a change is desired in the pep band’s repertoire, then I invite Tracy Clayton to heed her own advice: “Do more.” Those pep band folders are filled with “Fats” Domino, Eddie Murphy, Otis Redding, Richard Berry, Steven Tyler, Jimmy Buffet and Francis Scott Key. There is history in each of these artists’ songs, and that history, because of this “great cultural language,” is made universal. It is Black History Month, but my history is black too, and white, and red, and blue, and every other color that may brush against my life. It is not what color your history is but what kind of history you wish to celebrate.
--Amanda Phelps
Kelly Ball's response to Amanda Phelps:
I would like to respond to an article published last week called, “Granted Wishes” that sincerely acknowledged concern for issues of race. While I do think the article was well intended and I appreciate that its author considers diversity her concern too, I am disturbed by the way I consistently run into most white people trying to deal with the whole issue of race.
Many white folks, if not in denial or ignorance of their own white privilege, are more than ready for the race issue to go away. White people throughout this great nation are always wanting to shake hands and forget there are people different than us. It’s a hard position to argue against. In our racialized ivory tower of privilege, why would we want to be bothered with the needs and concerns of anyone not white? It is so much easier to pretend we’re all the same. The problem with this is that when we try to pretend we are all the same just because we are all humans, we ignore the fact that we all have suffered and continue to suffer very different oppressions at the hands of white supremacy. It is only once we realize both how we oppress, whether it be intentionally or unintentionally, and how we are oppressed that any wish during Black History Month may have the chance of being granted.
I agree with the author that it is always nice to see someone practicing what they preach. But I am tired and disgusted by hearing people preach “one love” and then turning around and happily partaking in the benefits of deeply rooted, systematic racism. I am dismayed by the author’s choice to include a selection of songs that focuses on brotherly love among the races. In doing this, the author ignores the overwhelming amount of music that critically deals with issues of racial oppression. It makes me wonder what the author thinks of the blues and many other musical genres that deal with issues of race explicitly. If we’re all supposed to get over the race thing, should we no longer listen to the soulful expression that comes out of years of white supremacist oppression? Maybe we shouldn’t be celebrating anything that highlights the history of black people. I realize this may be a bit extreme and not the author’s intent, but I think it is a conclusion that is implicitly stated whenever we talk about “just loving each other.” We need to not only love each other for being fellow humans, but for our differences- and to do that, we have to start really thinking about some of these issues and recognize the differences of not only our skin, but the social stigmas that ensue from that. Only then is there the potential for serious change.
The beauty of Black History Month is its potential to get people, especially white people, to start thinking about a history that is marginalized. The author is correct that we do not have a nationally recognized “White History Month.” But I would like to remind readers that every month of the year is White History Month. Everyday of every year since we invaded and took control of this land have we celebrated how great we are by rewarding ourselves with better job opportunities, better housing, better education options, better treatment by law enforcement, and better representation in the classroom to list a few. But then again, maybe we still need a nice white sheet cake to really call it an official celebration of our white history.
While I do find problems with the article, I commend the author for writing this piece- both for taking the time to address race (which is seldom done around here) and for recognizing diversity as her concern despite her whiteness. I am very aware that neither I, nor Tracy Clayton, nor any single voice can ever act as the authority on race, but we must keep pushing each other to continually confront these issues. It’s important to not end our concern after agreeing we can all hypothetically be friends- we must address these issues on a practical level. It is only through thinking critically through these issues that we will no longer be bewildered by “the notion that color defines our souls or our places in society or our levels of intelligence.” The more we think about and challenge this white supremacist culture, the more likely all voices of every color will cease to be ignored through the preaching of unity and the silencing of difference.
my response to Amanda Phelps:
I am writing this article in response to Amanda Phelps’ recent letter to the editor concerning my printed article, “My Black History Month Wish List.” First and foremost, I would like to thank Ms. Phelps for taking the time to respond. This is how dialogue begins, and with dialogue comes a higher understanding of issues such as “race” as it stands. Talking about race is something that rarely happens on this campus and beyond, and I commend Ms. Phelps for her initiative.
That being said, let me momentarily turn my attention to the initial article itself, “My Black History Month Wish List.” The article was supposed to be funny. Of all the articles I’ve ever written to the Rambler, I’d say that this last one was the most playful, even though I meant the points that were made therein. Either I suck at writing satire or I just didn’t gauge my audience as accurately as I thought I did. Either way, Ms. Phelps’ response is very telling; her defensive stance and utopian vision of a color-blind society, one in which “voices only have color when the words they form speak of it,” is proof positive that we are not receiving the education concerning race that we need to challenge the unjust practice within these walls and beyond. If that sort of educating and priming took place on this campus, perhaps the humor of my article would have went over better than it did.
Speaking of humor, I sincerely hope that the parenthetical statements in the opening paragraph of Ms. Phelps’ were meant to be humorous as well. “There is currently no White History Month either?” Are you serious? Need I even say that because of the exclusion of the histories of non-white, non-male people in “American History” courses, every month is “White History Month?” The pervasive, exclusive realm of “white history” is the exact reason why black history month, women’s history month, gay/lesbian history month, etc. had to be established in the first place. And as far as being “expected to submit to (my) authority on race,” I am only one person, remember? We’ve established that I am not “the voice of black America”—why on earth would I ask you to “submit” and treat me as such in the face of my protestation?
Let me commend Ms. Phelps for her endeavors “combating the racism of (her) own family”—I recognize that this is not an easy task and one that should not go unrecognized. I am elated to hear that she recognizes that “race” issues, theoretically, should have been done away with long ago, or as she put it “when that Confederate flag fell years ago” (I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that flag has never fallen). Here I would like to make it plain that I never intended to indict the whole of white America with being intolerant and negligent—I know that there are a few good white folks spread out here and there (that was a joke). It must be understood, though, that while not everyone is racist, racism still exists, and we must acknowledge that even as we commend those with the courage to stray from white supremacist patriarchal schools of thought.
In addition to fighting racism within the ranks of her own family, Ms. Phelps made it plain that she longs a color-blind society—a world with no “division of color,” where no one is “judged...by anything other than his or her person.” While this notion of not seeing color is beautiful and ideal in theory, it is also problematic, insensitive, and unrealistic. Not seeing color, or more appropriately, refusing to acknowledge the construction of “race,” will not make the societal problems and injustices built around it simply disappear. Choosing not to acknowledge the construct of “race” does not automatically translate into fair, equal treatment for people of all backgrounds in society. They must be routinely and collectively dismantled, and ignoring them will not even begin to accomplish the task.
This dream of a color-blind society is dangerous because it implies that people of all races, classes, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, etc. inherently have equal opportunities in society, which I pray we all know is not the case. This belief subsequently leads to the line of thinking that blames the poor for being poor (ie – “If they would just go out and get a job, they wouldn’t be poor”—such a statement ignores the racist and classes barriers the working class must overcome to merely get by), or, as a more relevant example, blames the lack of diversity on Transy’s campus on the missing “diverse” students themselves (“It’s their fault if they don’t apply”—this sentiment ignores the impact that the lack of need-based financial aid, minority scholarships, and failure to actively recruit “minorities,” especially in the Lexington area). The call for a color-blind society is the main rallying cry for opponents of Affirmative Action, which, I believe, cannot be abolished until the circumstances that made its creation a necessity in the first place are corrected. Until the societal playing field is truly leveled, however, social color-blindness will do nothing but shroud the police brutality in sugar, sweetly silence the voices of women—black, white, and beyond—crying out for control of their own bodies, encircle the necks of the gay and lesbian community with velvet noses, and cloud the eyes and ears of the dominant majority with short-stemmed daisies and broken refrains of “Kum Bah Yah.”
In addition to all this, the call for a color-blind society is insensitive. The fact that you choose not to notice or recognize “race” as it stands does not take away from the fact that I and my posterity are destined to be reminded of it every day of our lives if conditions do not change. It discredits my personal lived experiences as a black woman and undermines the struggles I’ve had to take on to make a place for myself in a world that never expected me to fight back. White privilege makes it possible for white America to choose whether or not they consciously acknowledge race. The majority of the world does not have that luxury.
And what’s more, who says that our differences have to divide us? Ms. Phelps says herself that “there are beautiful people on this campus, in my community, in this world, who are only made all the more beautiful by their diverse skin.” Why can we not embrace those differences, learn from them, and build positively on them, rather than pretend they simply don’t exist?
Like her dream of a color-blind society, Ms. Phelps’ musical discussion was cute and idealistic. I am quite fond of each of the songs she references, songs that call for us to “love one another right now” and “let love come runnin’ in.” However, I am also painfully fond and conscious of songs that remind me of the reality of our society, songs like Mos Def’s “Mr. Nigga” (“When white boys doin’ it well, it’s success/When I start doin’ it well, it’s suspect”), Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” (“How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?”), and Kanye West’s “Self-Conscious” (“They made us hate ourself and love they wealth…/We’re tryin to buy back our 40 acres/And for that paper, look how low we’ll stoop/Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coup”). Focusing on pretty utopian song lyrics of John Lennon and Marvin Gaye does not make the ugly reality of society go away. Interesting that Ms. Phelps should leave such songs out.
Continuing on the subject of music, my commentary on the band’s songs was more comical than anything. What the band plays is the least of our worries here on campus. In the midst of Ms. Phelps’ discussion of the band, however, a comment is made that I simply must address: in the middle of the paragraph the “invite(s)” me to “heed (my) own advice.” I can honestly say that I have never ever been so offended in my life—I would have been less disrespected if someone had walked up to me and spit in my face. Be that comment made in the context of improving the band music or beyond, how dare someone have the audacity to admonish me to “do more” to improve the broken situation on this campus when I am as we speak behind in all of my classes because of the time spent with no more than 4 other students, breaking our backs to present this campus with an innovative Martin Luther King Day Program that virtually went to. No one sees the handful of people who meet and mull and ponder and plan and worry and ask vainly for help and scream into deaf ears and feel defeated and get ignored on a daily basis in the course of trying to bring about change. I don’t have to be “invited” to “do more;” I personally took that initiative the very moment I stepped on this campus and realized that there was no place for me here.
“Do more?” Short of starting a race riot, there isn’t much more that we faithful few can do without the help of others like, Ms. Phelps, who claim to understand that race is her concern as well, that her “history is black too, and white, and red, and blue, and every other color that may brush (her) life.” Here I am moved to compliment Ms. Phelps on the beauty of her prose and to challenge her to take such mastery of language and apply it to helping those of our community to do something more than proclaim your open-minded consciousness in the pages of a campus paper and become active in the badly-needed improvement of our community—within these walls and beyond.
I would again like to thank Ms. Phelps for taking the initiative to respond to my initial article and the issues held therein. That is a very courageous task, and if my memory serves me correctly, it is the first time it has happened in my 4 years here. Dr. Catherine Fosl has quoted white southern feminist and Kentucky-native Anne Braden as saying that “’it takes an explosion,’ individual and societal, to get white people to act against white supremacy.” If that article, “My Black History Month Wish List,” was the explosion it took to finally evoke some response and attention, then it was well worth the anger, annoyance, and discomfort it may have caused.
